{"id":3371,"date":"2016-01-15T09:30:34","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T01:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3371"},"modified":"2016-01-07T09:55:44","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T01:55:44","slug":"goodmans-xu-lizhi-in-china-labour-bulletin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3371","title":{"rendered":"Goodman’s Xu Lizhi in China Labour Bulletin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Eleanor Goodman’s new translations of the work of Xu Lizhi \u8bb8\u7acb\u5fd7 have now been\u00a0published on<\/span> China Labour Bulletin<\/a>. She writes:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

As I translated the poetry … I was immediately attracted to Xu\u2019s straightforwardness, honesty, and darkness. Although his life was clearly unhappy–indeed, he committed suicide a little over a year ago at the age of 24 by jumping from the 17th floor of a building in Shenzhen not far from the Foxconn factory where he worked–there is very little self-pity evident in his poetry. Rather, he casts a cold eye on the larger society, on the conditions in which he worked, and on himself … He keeps the reader (and translator) on her toes, and given his rhetorical skill and highly topical subjects, he has become an important voice in Chinese poetry, one that was silenced much too soon.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here’s an excerpt of the poetry.<\/p>\n

\n

I Swallowed an Iron Moon<\/strong><\/p>\n

I swallowed an iron moon
\nthey called it a screw<\/p>\n

I swallowed industrial wastewater and unemployment forms
\nbent over machines, our youth died young<\/p>\n

I swallowed labor, I swallowed poverty
\nswallowed pedestrian bridges, swallowed this rusted-out life<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t swallow any more
\neverything I\u2019ve swallowed roils up in my throat<\/p>\n

I spread across my country
\na poem of shame<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click the image above for more. For my translations on China Labour Bulletin from November, 2014, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eleanor Goodman’s new translations of the work of Xu Lizhi \u8bb8\u7acb\u5fd7 have now been\u00a0published on China Labour Bulletin. She writes: As I translated the poetry … I was immediately attracted to Xu\u2019s straightforwardness, honesty, and darkness. Although his life was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[388,462,1485],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-Sn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2976,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2976","url_meta":{"origin":3371,"position":0},"title":"Xu Lizhi","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"February 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"China Labour Bulletin reports on a forthcoming collection of poems by Xu Lizhi \u8bb8\u7acb\u5fd7, the migrant laborer who committed suicide on September 30, 2014: A New Day is now the title of a forthcoming anthology of Xu\u2019s work that contains nearly 200 poems dating back to 2010. Most of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2875,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2875","url_meta":{"origin":3371,"position":1},"title":"I Speak of Blood: The poetry of Foxconn worker Xu Lizhi","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The China Labour Bulletin has posted my translations of some poems of Xu Lizhi \u8bb8\u7acb\u5fd7, a twenty-four year-old worker at Foxconn who committed suicide on September 30, 2014. As CLB reports, \"In his brief two-year tenure as a production line worker at Foxconn, Xu published more than 30 articles in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3215,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3215","url_meta":{"origin":3371,"position":2},"title":"TIME on the Poet who Died for your Phone","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"June 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Time Magazine has a feature on Xu Lizhi \u8bb8\u7acb\u5fd7, the former poet and Foxconn employee who committed suicide last September, whom they call \"The Poet who Died for your Phone.\" In his 3\u00bd years in Shenzhen, Xu captured life there in brutal, beautiful detail. In the city, the country kid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3874,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3874","url_meta":{"origin":3371,"position":3},"title":"Goodman on Wang’s New Literary History of Modern China","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The new \"China Channel\" of the LA Review of Books has published Eleanor Goodman's review of A New Literary History of Modern China, edited by David Der-Wei Wang \u738b\u5fb7\u5a01. An enthusiastic review, Goodman writes: one theme of the book is the importance of inclusivity, exchange, and communication to understanding trends\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chinachannel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/lithist.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3724,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3724","url_meta":{"origin":3371,"position":4},"title":"Matt Turner on Qin & Goodman’s Iron Moon Anthology","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In a piece titled \"A Poem of Shame: In the Words of China\u2019s Workers\" published at Hyperallergic, Matt Turner gives his take on Iron Moon: An Anthology of Chinese Worker Poetry, edited by Qin Xiaoyu\u00a0\u79e6\u6653\u5b87 and translated by Eleanor Goodman. He explains, In 1923, not long after returning from working\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthologies"","block_context":{"text":"Anthologies","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ironmoonmovie.com\/upload\/18\/3516187fd3f7a29444e3a8d1d9917c90.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3644,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3644","url_meta":{"origin":3371,"position":5},"title":"van Crevel on Chinese Migrant Worker Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"February 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"At Modern Chinese Literature & Culture Maghiel van Crevel reviews Iron Moon the film (directed by Qin Xiaoyu \u79e6\u6653\u5b87 and Wu Feiyue \u5434\u98de\u8dc3) and the anthology (edited by Qin Xiaoyu, translated by Eleanor Goodman). The review begins: Poetry is the most ubiquitous of literary genres. It is written and recited\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/u.osu.edu\/mclc\/files\/2017\/02\/51FjYtBrYfL._SX334_BO1204203200_-1olpc4c-202x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3371"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3376,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371\/revisions\/3376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}