Zheng Xiaoqiong

Zheng Xiaoqiong (Chinese: 郑小琼') is a Chinese poet. She was born in Nanchong, Sichuan on June 18, 1980.[1] [2]

Early life

Zheng learned at nursing school. Then she worked in a hospital. In 2001, she quit that work because she was not happy with the working conditions. She moved to Dongguan. In that city, she began working in factories as an assembly-line worker.[2]

Life as a poet

Zheng began writing poetry about the conditions of factory workers. Some time around 2005, she began to become famous. In 2007, she won the Liqun Literature Award, which made her more famous.[3] Zheng has published many books of her poetry. She has received many awards for literature. Her poetry has been translated into other languages.

Poetry

"Characterized by stark oppositions, personifications, and broken phrases, her work is razor-sharp in its observations. Iron is perhaps the element most strongly associated with Zheng Xiaoqiong's poetry. . . . Her poems reveal how pervasive industrialization ensures that humans become part of the machine: nameless, a number on an assembly line, without rights.[2]

Awards

The first literary award Zheng won was the Liqun Literature Award from Peoples’ Literature in 2007. "The impact was strong – not simply because few had heard of her, but because she lives and works as a migrant worker and writes poetry so startlingly beautiful, vulnerable, and powerful, that nearly each poem stops one’s breath mid-line."[2] She has also won the Zhuang Chongwen Prize, a youth literature award.

References

  1. "周阳春 ( Zheng Xiaoqiong)". www.lyrikline.org. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Stalling, Jonathan (May 19, 2019). "Zheng Xiaoqiong Poet) - China- Poetry International". Poetry International. Archived from the original on October 2, 2021. Retrieved April 30, 2021.
  3. Shieh, Simon (2019-04-22). "Zheng Xiaoqiong, the migrant poet | Poetry". SupChina. Archived from the original on 2021-04-30. Retrieved 2021-04-30.

Further reading

Selected publications by the poet

  •   Pedestrian Overpass. Taiwan, Taibei: Tanshang Publications, Inc., 2009.
  • .   Poems Scattered on the Machine. Beijing: China Society Publishing House, 2009.