Debra Li

SOME 90 years ago, Hu Shi (1891-1962) published eight modern Chinese poems in the magazine, New Youth, and started a campaign to promote the modern Chinese language. The event also marked the birth of modern poetry in China.

On Saturday night, more than 500 literary afficionados gathered at Shenzhen Book City to listen to contemporary poets read their works and honor that tradition.

“We are here to celebrate the return of poetry to our town which had been a center for modern Chinese poetry 20 years ago,” said Chen Yin, editor of local Chinese-language newspaper the Daily Sunshine, coorganizer of the recitation night.

A string quartette opened the evening playing a Mozart serenade. There were 17 contemporary poets and critics in the audience, among them Taiwan poet Luo Fu, low-profile Wang Xiaoni, critic Xu Jingya and novice Mo Xiaoye.

The audience enthusiastically cheered Luo Fu, 79, when he recited a poem he wrote for his wife 20 years ago. “Find quickly that sweater of mine from the suitcase, comb quickly your black and soft hair, and light a lamp with a whole life’s love,” the white-haired poet recited.

Duo Duo, a Beijing poet who has had his work published in English and German, recited “The Courtyard,” a representation of his profound thoughts of his hometown and its history.

Xu, a critic and professor with Hainan University, said poetry could free us from this commercial world where the worship of money had alienated our souls.

“Poetry has never strayed far. It shines upon this world like the sun. But people have been hiding in the corners. It’s an occasion to celebrate, for we are returning to the sunshine of poetry,” he said.

Xu called poetry the essence of literature and the purest relationship between humanity and the outside world. “We need to be freed and elevated above the daily chores and this is offered by poetry. It’s the eighth year of your reading month, and finally you have rediscovered poetry.”

Shen Qi, a Xi’an critic, compared humans to stone and jade. “Jade is a stone with life and spirit. Some of us are jade, because we have beliefs, love and poetry. Poetry is the blue sky above our heads. If you never turn your eyes away from the sky, people may call you an idiot; but if you never look at the sky, you are humble like the earth,” he said.

Ren Hongyuan, retired professor with Beijing Normal University, said poetry demonstrated to the extreme the charms of our language.

“I was once confronted with a question at a lecture in Qinghua University. A science major challenged: ‘What’s the relationship between poetry and physics?’ I then asked him the origin of the physics term ‘quark.’ None of the science majors attending the lecture knew that ‘quark’ was a word from James Joyce’s novel ‘Finnegan’s Wake.’ Poetry, like other forms of literature, offers the most beautiful language that people can use to name their theories and confide in their loved ones.”

Poets Lin Mang, Yang Jian, Wang Xiaoni and others also read their works.

Members of a local poetry society, the “Plump Bird Troupe,” recited several poems and performed a short poetic play.

Some 20 Shenzhen University students then recited “I Love This Land” by late Chinese poet Ai Qing to conclude the night.

Many in the audience did not leave when the organizers announced the close of the recitation at 10 p.m.

Lin Wenhai, 76, brought his grandson to the recitation.

“I didn’t want to come, as I have a lot of homework to do. But grandpa insisted. I didn’t expect to see so many people here. The beauty of poetry impressed me and I’ve come to like poetry after this event,” the teenager said.

The poets, who found themselves surrounded by fans asking for a signature, were apparently overwhelmed by the warmth of the local audience.

The organizers have pledged to make poetry recitations a regular event so as to draw more Shenzheners close to poetry.

People in this young bustling city are under too much pressure in their quest for bigger apartments, new cars, and more money, said Chen Yin. But one day they will find there is more — or less — to crave for, as American poet Robert Penn Warren had written:

“Years pass, all places and faces fade, some people have died,

And I stand in a far land, the evening still, and am at last sure

That I miss more that stillness at bird-call than some things that were to fail later.”