Leiden University Libraries Digital Collections

Unofficial Poetry Journals from China

Publishing outside the System in Post-Mao China

SINOL UNPO 2 3 1979

Unofficial Poetry Journals from China

Unofficial or “underground” poetry publications—especially journals, but also one-off multiple-author anthologies and individual collections—play an important role in contemporary Chinese culture. They are comparable to Soviet-Russian samizdat publications, and to the “little magazines” often associated with early modernism in the West.

The Leiden University collection is internationally unique. It was built by Maghiel van Crevel, who donated it to the library in 2006 and has continued to add new acquisitions. Some of the titles contain other genres in addition to poetry. The help of Chinese poets and scholars has been invaluable throughout.

The journals are hugely influential but difficult to access. In order to address this paradox and to advance research, teaching, and use by the general reader, Leiden University Libraries is working to digitize the collection, in collaboration with the Fudan University Library. This project is non-commercial and not for profit. A first set of key items was digitized with the generous support of Freerk Heule.

For some quick tips on using the collection, watch this video. For a list of all titles that are available online, click here and sort by title.

The year of publication for each item should be accurate in most cases, but publication dates at the level of month and day are approximations at best, made in order to satisfy the system’s input requirements.

The material in this collection is in copyright. If you hold the rights to materials in our digitized collections that are unattributed, please let us know. Click on this link for our Notice and Takedown Policy.