Poetry occupies the subways in Wuhan, China

There were 100 poems from 46 local poets such as Zhang Zhihao, Xiu Yuan, Tian He, A Mao, Li Yiliang and others, and 17 poems from five British poets, Robin Robertson, Aoife Mannix, Francesca Beard, Pascale Petit and Wendy Cope. The project was called “Poetry in Public Space”. And the idea came from Ms. Fang Fang, head of the provincial Writers’ Association, who saw poetry in the UK subways and tried it out in her own city. 

      

Although the project was run by the “official” Writers’ Association, most Chinese poets were pretty happy about it as it’s no long the age of opposition. Ms. Fang Fang, a novelist, has been quite supportive of independent literature. She has her own way and is brave enough to talk about sensitive issues on her facebook and even to mention Liao Yiwu, the dissident poet who has exiled to Berlin.

      

Wuhan is in the central part of China, capital of Hubei province. It’s the 4th biggest city in the country after Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but remains unknown internationally even though it played an important role in the modern history. The first railroad in China was built between Beijing and Wuhan in 1895, and the second between Guangzhou and Wuhan in 1896 and the two were finally connected in 1937. W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood went there in 1938 and wrote Journey to a War and Sonnets from China.

      

Yangtze River runs through the city, and the first bridge on this longest river in China was built in Wuhan in 1957. Many military bases and national factories were moved to Hubei province when Mao was prepared for the World War III. Since the cold war period was over, people in Wuhan have done many things to ‘catch up with the world’. Will poetry help? 
      

But as poets, you need to learn about Hubei anyway – the first known poet in ancient China, Qu Yuan, was born in Hubei around 340 BCE. Contemporary Hubei poets are well connected throughout the country but have never been the strongest. Will the subway action help? Even if not, the three months project “has brought poetry closer to general readers and the common mass”. The question is, does poetry need more readers? Are we writing terrific stuff that we desperately need to approach the general mass?

      

The selection process of the 100 poems was interesting. The 46 poets were chosen first according to certain standard, and then their non-political poems were selected, according to the news reports. The result: mostly simple writing. But I noticed a poem by a military veteran poet, completely unknown to me previously, about a small number of quiet doves guarding their pride in silence.