Born in rural Nanchong, Sichuan Province, Zheng Xiaoqiong went to work in factories in Guangdong, where she became a migrant worker for seven years. She has published twelve books of poetry, and her work has won numerous awards. Her poems have been translated into many languages, including German, French, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
Photo by Ervins Strauhmanis / Flickr
1
We maintain antiquity and elegance on paper;
inside we are full of shame. We
present heaven and hell on paper;
our self-disgust resul...