Poetic profits revive in China

Poems Selected for Children Compiled by: Bei Dao Publisher: China CITIC Press Year Published: 2014 Pages: 248 Price: 30 yuan ($4.88)

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"Poems were considered a curse in the market," Gao explains.

"But that book's popularity showed there is a market for great poetry. As long as publishers pick the right poems, readers will buy their collections."

In January 2013, Chongqing University Press published New Continent Translated Poetry, a collection of established foreign poets who are not well known in China, such as R.S. Thomas, a leading modern Welsh poet.

And in June 2013, Shanghai People's Publishing House came out with Silent Classics, a series of works by famous foreign writers and poets, such as Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak.

Yilin Press, based in Jiangsu province's capital Nanjing, in 2009 published My Loneliness is a Garden, a collection of poetry written from the 1950s to 2008 by Syrian-born poet and perennial Nobel Prize nominee Adonis. Last year, it also published a selection from celebrated American poet Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

These collections have sold well. Some, such as My Loneliness is a Garden, have been reprinted several times.

The company plans to issue collections of foreign and domestic poets whose works haven't been widely published in China.

Another reason for poetry's resurgence is that publishers have identified a mature and faithful readership, deputy director of Yilin Press' foreign literature branch Yao Yan explains.

While this base is smaller than in the 1980s and '90s, it is dependable. Gao says this audience ensures that even when poetry books aren't immediate hits, they sustain long shelf lives with steady sales over longer periods.

The country's poetry fans turn to such literary websites as douban.com to comment on poems they've recently read and to recommend readings to others. Published poetry collections can quickly accumulate thousands of comments.

"One Poem before Going to Bed", a public account on the WeChat social media platform that sends followers a poem with comments and recommendations at 10 every night, has gained 400,000 followers since it was created in early 2013.

Gao points out there are also more poetry events, such as festivals. But while poetry is undergoing a revival, he says it isn't exactly a resounding one—at least not yet.