Chinese Contemporary Poetry

China's Battler Poetry: Migrant Labor and the Politics of Culture

Maghiel van Crevel - Nicky Aerts - Zheng Xiaoqiong - Silvia Marijnissen

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In China, since the 1980s, about three hundred million people have moved from the countryside to the cities to escape poverty and unemployment. Their precarious labor -on construction sites, at the assembly line, and so on– has fueled China’s rise, but the story of the labor migrants themselves is often one of hardship, exploitation, and fundamental socio-economic insecurity. And they write poetry. What do they write? Is this really poetry? Why do they write? Is this something typically Chinese? What happens when this poetry travels elsewhere? Why should we read it?

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20:00  Zheng Xiaoqiong 郑小琼 & Silvia Marijnissen film: poetry & reflection

20:30  Maghiel van Crevel on Chinese Contemporary Poetry: China's Battler Poetry

            Interview by Nicky Aerts, followed by Q&A with the audience. 

22:00  Reception & Presentation Poetry Anthology of Zheng Xiaoqiong in Dutch translation

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In collaboration with Poëziecentrum Gent

 

Tickets  - € 6