Gli spazi della poesia nella Cina odierna: versi in voce tra i ciliegi di Shanghai

This paper portrays a poetry event held in Shanghai in 2024, which I personally attended, to explore the symbolic and actual spaces poetry occupies in mainland China. During the reading I describe, poets voiced their works while walking along Yonghe East Road, together with the audience, media, and passers-by, embedding poetry into the concrete and social cityscape. After a very brief historical overview, I frame the performance drawing on John Crespi’s analysis of huodong 活动 (activity/event) as used in the context of poetry, and Heather Inwood’s glossary of face-to-face poetry events. Introducing my level of observant participation, I interpret the reading through Michel Foucault’s notion of performance as “counter-site”, via Zoë Skoulding, and Deirdre Osborne’s “landmark poetics”, for poems were hung on trees or printed on posters, enriching the city’s linguistic landscape. In doing so, I hope to reveal the vibrancy of Chinese poetry and its value as a community-building practice.