poetry in the world

last night, the center book city (中心书城) hosted the first “poetry in the world” poetry reading. the event was produced by the shenzhen newspaper conglomerate (深圳报业集团) and the shenzhen publishing conglomerate (深圳出版发行企业).　the managing producers were jingbao and shenzhen center book city. fat bird was one of the assistant producers, along with shenzhen newsnet and feiyang 971 music radio. i mention all this because poemlife did not participate. instead, the powers that be in shenzhen’s cultural ministries turned to 诗刊 for literary endorsement. now, from the point of view of cultural functionaries, the move from poemlife to “poetry” is understandable. unlike poemlife, “poetry” is a well-established cultural institution with good party credentials. in contrast, poemlife hovers at the edges of party control in virtual space. lamentably these politics meant that lai’er editor of poemlife and one of the original visionaries behind “poetry in the world” did not participate in last night’s reading.

we missed lai’er because last night was something of a triumph for poetry in otherwise unpoetic shenzhen. “poetry in the world” brought together poets from diverse generations and spaces, who might otherwise not share the same stage. thus, elder poets luo fu (洛夫) and duo duo (多多) read, as did a younger generation of poets lei pingyang (雷平阳), wang xiaoni (王小妮), yang jian (杨键), duo yu (朵渔), and yu jian (于坚).

in retrospect, what strikes me is the contradiction of the shenzhen art scene. there is money to bring in china’s leading poets for one evening and then a discussion the following day, but not the money or interest to nuture more longterm events like monthly readings or open mikes. my doubts have been reinforced by rumors that poetry in the world might not continue; it seems that for some, once was enough.

once edited, i will upload fat bird’s readings.