A number of respected figures from the literary world were in Qingyuan over the weekend for the Mayland Poetry & Culture Festival, Chinanews reports.

Wang Guozhen, whose poems were hugely popular in the 1990s, was probably the biggest name there. Other poets such as Yang Lin, Zhong Dao as well as blogger and social commentator Ye Kuangzheng also attended.

Wang Guozhen is the one holding the microphone, image courtesy of Chinanews

A speech given by Wang suggested that poets should aim for more social engagement with their work and promote the progress of Chinese civilisation, which would go against the inward-looking trend that is currently prevalent in China.

Whereas in the 1980s, poets such as Shu Ting, Hai Zi and Gu Cheng became national celebrities, many of today’s poets have day jobs and do poetry on the side, according to Yang Ke, vice-president of Guangdong Writers Association.

Many of those have extremely successful careers doing other things, such as Huang Nubo, the property developer Forbes named as a billionaire and proposed to buy 300 square kilometres of Iceland in 2011.

Guangdong itself has a strong poetic heritage, and it is widely believed that ancient Chinese poetry sounds better in Cantonese than in Mandarin.

One of the most accomplished Cantonese poets of the past century was the Western-educated Liang Zongdai (1903-1983). The Guangdong University of Foreign Studies unveiled a statue of Liang on Saturday (Nov. 2), which would have been Liang’s 110th birthday and invited his daughter to attend, according to Chinanews.

Liang Zongdai towards the end of his life, image courtesy of Google Images

Liang’s daughter says she was in middle-age before she discovered the poetry of her father, who was also a highly accomplished educator and translator. She pledged to donate her parents’ correspondences to the university.