When Xu Lizhi committed suicide on September 30, 2014, he left a substantial body of work for his brief 24 years. In his poetry, he displayed an awareness that haunted him and now haunts us. He was a factory worker for the infamous Foxconn who produces most of the world’s iPhones.

The bleak reality and gray landscape that Xu Lizhi inhabited in his work feels other-worldly and rare. But he is not an anomaly. The sad truth is that his poems could have been written by many different workers spread out over many nations.

As well as setting his social media to post of “A New Day” after his passing, he leaves us with these final thoughts:

I want to take another look at the ocean, behold the vastness of tears from half a lifetime

I want to climb another mountain, try to call back the soul that I’ve lost

I want to touch the sky, feel that blueness so light

But I can’t do any of this, so I’m leaving this world

We have entered a time of global awareness and it is coming through in our art. The movement, once again towards Social Realism, is art’s way of having us pay attention to something entering our collective consciousness.

In a virtual roundtable, myself, Mark Nowak, Shengqing Wu, and Rodrigo Toscano come together to discuss Xu Lizhi’s poetry, craft, and the life he drew from. We also talk about the state of labor poetry and from where the next surge of poets may be emerging.

The terrible question is, if Xi Lizhi had not killed himself, would we even know that this poet and these poems existed? Would they call out so loudly if not from the darkness?

Pertinent Links:

https://libcom.org/blog/xulizhi-foxconn-suicide-poetry

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/11/12/the-haunting-poetry-of-a-chinese-factory-worker-who-committed-suicide/

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2014/11/xu-lizhi-1990-2014-poet-and-foxconn-worker/

http://www.businessinsider.com/foxconn-factory-workers-suicide-poems-2014-11

Accidental Death of a Poet

Xu Lizhi’s “Sina” (Chinese Equivalent to Twitter)

http://www.weibo.com/u/1766211094?sudaref=www.google.com.hk

Another Chinese Poet to look out for:

Sunset by Zheng Xiaoqiong translated by Jonathan Stalling and Xian Liqiang

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