THE JOURNAL OF 21st Century Chinese Poetry 《廿一世纪中国诗歌》is an independent journal committed to showcasing the best of contemporary Chinese poetry. We exist to discover and celebrate poetry and the Chinese poets who write them with the largest possible Anglophone audience.

In the early twentieth century, The May Fourth Movement (1917-1921) opened the door for vernacular Chinese to be accepted as a legitimate poetic voice. This was followed by an outpouring of verse written in 'plain speech' by people from all walks of life in contrast to the classical, elitist poetic forms of imperial China.

A century has now passed since these 'new' poetic voices emerged. Vernacular poetry has continued to blossom in poetry journals and in cyberspace.

21st Century Chinese Poetry aims to carry that tradition further: translating poets from across China for readers who would otherwise never encounter them.

Please send all enquiries, suggestions and corrections regarding 21st Century Chinese Poetry to Meifu Wang at:

editor@modernchinesepoetry.com

Founder and Editor
Meifu Wang



A TASTE OF CONTEMPORARY CHINESE POETRY

From 2012 to 2015, our team worked with a group of Chinese poets in China to introduce contemporary Chinese poetry to the wider world. We translated the works of 66 contemporary Chinese poets into English and broadcast them on this website and in print (ISSN 2166-3688).

From 2018 to 2022, we further collaborated with China's Poetry Journal (诗刊) to bring a selection of their monthly publication to world-wide readers. Poetry Journal (Beijing, China）was founded in 1957, with an emphasis on the publication of contemporary Chinese poetry as well as classical poetry by living poets. It is the widest-circulated poetry journal in China.

Circulating more than sixty years, the journal has brought together and introduced a great number of poets, reflecting many of the sweeping changes that the country has witnessed over that period.

WHERE THINGS STAND NOW

For a decade, this website has been a labour of love of the editor, out of devotion to poetry and poets, to bring contemporary Chinese poetry to English-speaking readers.

Since summer of 2023, Meifu has turned her attention to her own poetry and to poetry from other parts of the world. Please continue to explore the poems translated here over the years. Meifu is also gradually updating the earlier issues of 21st Century Chinese Poetry (No.1 - No. 15) and adding them to Poems "from Other Journals". Meifu also continues to meet with Chinese poets periodically, in China and overseas, to explore ways to add new poems to this website.

You can read some of Meifu's poems here: Go to Meifu's Poems

POEM OF THE DAY     一天一首诗

MOSQUITO

• by Gu Gang


• Over my abysmal corner of the room, the setting sun
• flits by like a mosquito,
• its slender legs splayed — until a slap
• pins its limbs to the netting,
• leaving a pattern of tiny cracks
• on the white tile.
• Palm size, heat on the ice.
• By the rectangular window, past the air vent,
• the mosquito does what it does best, without a sound:
• a blood transfusion.
• Drilling a well into the skin, it carries
• different blood types,
• flaunting its fishy smell to the world.
• Waving a bamboo fan, a draft sways left to right, right to left.
• I wear a homespun tunic, sleeves rolled up in summer heat,
• bare elbows showing,
• dry and cracked with old age.
• No longer able to swing hard,
• mosquitoes cling to our glassy eyes
• as if waiting for salvation.


• Translated by Meifu Wang & Michael Soper

• This poem was originally written in Chinese and published in Poetry Journal (Beijing, China); its English translation first appeared on this website and simultaneously in China via WeChat (微信).

  We encourage you to read this poem as an exercise of slow reading.

  
  

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  Gu Gang 古 冈

  b. 1963
  
  Gu Gang is the author of several collections of poems, including Selected Short Poems of Gu Gang, The Burden of the Mortals - Poems by Gu Gang, 1987 to 2011. He has published poems across China and abroad, and currently works as the literary editor at Eastern China Normal University Press.
  
  古冈，华东师范大学出版社六点分社文学编辑，北京文艺网国际诗歌奖评委。著有诗集《古冈短诗选》（香港银河出版社）、《尘世的重负——1987—2011诗选》（美国Red Hen出版社）。在国内外及香港、台湾诗刊发表诗作，在《书城》等报刊杂志发表随笔文论。曾获美国DJS艺术基金会诗集奖（2012），首届上海国际诗歌节诗歌创作大赛奖（2016），北京文艺网国际华文诗歌奖（2016）。
  
  Read Gu Gang's poem: Mosquito.