Breathing in spring deeply

☆ Recommended by Jia Zhangke and Dan Bao, a special report by CCTV's "Reading" program, and a selection of poems from the Picun Literary Group that has garnered the attention of millions of netizens.
☆ Miners, domestic workers, bricklayers, nannies, mechanics, second-hand clothing store clerks... The ultimate swan song of ordinary people, written with sweat, misfortune, resilience, and an unswallowed breath in their hearts, depicting the common people and their fates.
☆ Heartwarming, comforting, and affordable lines of poetry, with the joys and sorrows of life all tumbling within, and every living day possessing a profoundly moving power.
☆ These are the most sincere and ardent voices of distinct individuals striving for the meaning of existence, writing the "New Yuefu" of our times.
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Picun Village, Jinzhan Township, Chaoyang District, Beijing, is located outside the Fifth Ring Road. Many migrant workers live here, and a considerable number of them are fellow workers who enjoy literature. Most of them live in or near Picun, work in the city, and engage in writing in their spare time. Since 2014, Zhang Huiyu, a young teacher at Peking University, has been voluntarily teaching literature to workers in Picun who enjoy it, attracting a group of intellectuals to join the volunteer team. This has led to the emergence of a group of grassroots authors represented by Fan Yusu. Since 2019, the Picun Literary Group has published the electronic bimonthly journal "New Worker Literature" and annually hosts the "Workers' Literature Cup" essay competition.
Following "The Stars of Laborers," this book selects nearly 150 works by 15 poets from Picun. The authors include not only active workers in Beijing but also writers from other regions who have published poems in "New Worker Literature" or won the "Workers' Literature Award." Their identities are miners, domestic workers, bricklayers, nannies, mechanics... Their poems reveal the unknown details of various industries and poetic moments that only firsthand observers can capture. From fields and assembly lines to streets and alleys, and vast cities, these lines of poetry, condensed with dense survival experiences, not only express profound and intense emotions for their hometowns and life but also contain reflections on the value of labor and human dignity. Moreover, they are the most sincere and ardent voices of distinct individuals striving for the meaning of existence.
These poems have a rough and vibrant style, opening up a unique aesthetic beyond the intellectual community, and can be considered the "New Yuefu" of our era.
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The writing of the Picun Literary Group is like labor itself, after much refinement, it condenses life's experiences and immense energy, containing both the great joys and sorrows of life, as well as the peace and maturity gained after enduring the trials of fate.
——Li Jingze, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Writers Association
The words of the Picun Literary Group are enough to touch the softest part of our hearts, making us happy, sad, joyful, troubled, bitter, and pained. This kind of emotional resonance is something we may not necessarily get when reading so-called "real literature," which, although often beautifully written and meticulously structured, can sometimes lack this depth of feeling.
——Pan Kaixiong, Literary Critic
The authors of this collection of poems are ordinary laborers from various industries. They create in their spare time from arduous work, becoming dual producers of both physical labor and literary writing. These works bear the strong imprint of labor production and individual lives, with concise and powerful language full of imagination. They can be called the "New Yuefu" of our era.
——Zhang Huiyu, Researcher at the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University
For the members of the Picun Literary Group, the moment they pick up a pen, the sonorous quality of their writing is destined. They use the most unadorned language to record a snapshot of an era and engrave the spiritual radiance of a group of people.
——Huang Deng, Scholar and Writer

2025-05-01

上海人民出版社

Century Wenjing

326

9787208194137