Peking University, Beijing, Oct.19, 2009: Thirty three famous poets and nine renowned experts from across the mainland as well as Hongkong, Taiwan, Japan, Mongolia, Korea, India and Turkey came together at the Peking University Hall in the evening of Oct.15th. “The Night of Beida” poetry readingunveiled the Asian Poetry Festival 2009. On the next following days, the festival is going to be held in Beijing, Tongcheng,Yixian and other cities and the participants will have in-depth exchanges of their ideas on the relationship of geographical experience and poetry writing, the return to the eastern culture and mother tongue.

This Festival is jointly organised by the Chinese Association of Poetry, the Zhongkun Poetry Development Foundation, the “Poem Publishing” Society, Peking University Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University Institute of New Poetry, the Sino-Japanese Poetry Exchange Foundation and the Japanese Trend Society’s “Modern Poetry Post” Journal.

At the poetry reading in Oct.15th, Peking University Professor and Director of the Institute of China’s New Poetry, Mr. Xie Mian said in his addressthat the best ways for people to expresswonderful feelingswere through flowers and poetry. Flowers, however, tend to wither easily whereas poems are eternal. He thanked the poets from all the different countries for bringing the beauty of poetry to Peking University.

Edited by: Xiang Yunke
Translated by: Zhuang Tianyuan
Source: Beijing Youth Daily