From June 8th to June 14th, 2025, under the invitation of the Haus für Poesie (House of Poetry) in Germany, the Chinese cultural non-profit organisation Archway curated the China section of the 26th Berlin Poetry Festival. Participants included Misty poet Yang Lian, young poets Dai Weina, Li Jing, Yin Zixu, Xu Yi, Zhou You’an, and Yu Zhe, as well as scholar Ma Ke and Zhao Tai, lead vocalist of rock music band Mercader.
Notably, Archway has established a Sino-German Poetry Translation Workshop dedicated to facilitating mutual translation between Chinese and German poets and nurturing a new generation of young translators. The workshop has already achieved remarkable results, which were presented at the Berlin Poetry Festival.
On June 8th, Li Jing, Yin Zixu, and Xu Yi participated in the Reading on Green event held at Berlin’s Silent Green, organised by the Haus für Poesie. On June 9th, Yin Zixu engaged in a poetry dialogue and mutual translation session with German poet Michel Decar. On June 10th, Archway hosted a translator roundtable on Sino-German poetry translation, featuring Ye Juntao, Jiang Yufeng, Jin Xiaowan, Zou Yousheng, and Sool Park. On June 12th, Archway organised a bilingual poetry reading session. The Chinese readings were presented by Yang Lian, Dai Weina, Ma Ke, Li Jing, Yin Zixu, Xu Yi, Ye Juntao, Zhang Xuemeng, Zhou You’an, and Yu Zhe; the German readings were performed by Ann Cotten, Janin Wölke, Lara Rüter, Mátyás Dunajcsik, and Michel Decar.
On June 14th, Archway hosted a Chinese poetry forum at the Akademie der Künste. The discussion featured Zhao Tai, Li Jing, Yin Zixu, Xu Yi, Zhou You’an, and Yu Zhe, with Dai Weina and Yang Lian delivering an introductory and concluding speech. The event highlighted the independence and complexity of contemporary Chinese poetry, articulating its rich potential for multidimensional development. It also offered a concentrated glimpse into China’s current poetic ecosystem – where creative practice transcends boundaries of knowledge, profession, age, and social background. People from all walks of life, in every state of being, are passionately pursuing their own poetry.
The Chinese program of the 26th Berlin Poetry Festival marked the first collective appearance of Chinese post-1990s poets on the international literary stage. It enabled the world to gain a deeper understanding of Chinese poetry, presented an important aspect of the literary ecology in China’s new era, and demonstrated the value and role of Chinese poetry in global cultural exchanges.
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