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) launched an era where vernacular Chinese was for the first time 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.

The editor and translators at 21st Century Chinese Poetry are committed to translating poets from across China who would otherwise remain virtually unknown to Western audiences.

This website is maintained and funded entirely by the editor as a labour of love. 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.

A REPOSE

Since summer of 2023, Meifu has turned her focus to her own poetry and to poetry from other parts of the world. Please continue to visit this website and read the poems we translated over the years. Meifu is also in the process of updating the old numbers of 21st Century Chinese Poetry (No.1 - No. 15) and add them to "POEMS 2000-2015" on 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

ON A STREET CORNER, A MAN IMPERSONATES MICHAEL JACKSON

• by Liu Nian


• Black dressy hat, black suit,
• moon walk, mechanical hands,
• a dead man is resurrected to life in Sanlitun.
• One hand protecting his private parts,
• one hand insistently points to a distant place.
• A man murdered by a man,
• but he chose to point out the starry sky.
• Concerning the ways of the world,
• the cicada on the pagoda tree and I share similar views, except
• I wouldn’t dare such heart-and-lung-rending screams.


• Translated by Meifu Wang & Michael Soper

This poem was originally written in Chinese; its English translation first appeared on this website and in 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 12 《廿一世纪中国诗歌》第十二辑 .    (Books are currently out of print, but their contents are being gradually added to this website.)

  

                 

Liu Nian 刘年

b. 1974

Liu Nian, poet and essayist, comes from Hunan Province. He worked as a machine technician in a cement company in Guangdong Province before becoming a full-time writer. After attending two creative writing programs in Beijing that focused on poetry, Liu Nian has gone onto winning national poetry awards. He had published an anthology of poems titled Faraway (远). He lives and teaches in a school in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province.

刘年，原名刘代福，1974年出生于湘西永顺，《诗刊》编辑。著有诗集《远》，2013年获人民文学诗歌奖、华文青年诗人奖等奖项。2014年获红高粱诗歌奖。

Read Liu Nian's poems: The Ruin , The Moon Over Hongs’ Tenement, At Jokhang Monastery, Old Flower Shop, On a Street Corner, a Man Impersonates Michael Jackson, and The Yak Herder.