NANJING, June 5 — The grand finale of "Poetry Connects the World", a global Chinese poetry gathering, was held on June 5 at the Suiyuan Campus of Nanjing Normal University, coinciding with Mangzhong (Grain in Ear), one of the 24 traditional Chinese solar terms.
The event was jointly hosted by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC) of the Ministry of Education, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing University, and the Nanjing University of the Arts. More than 400 international student representatives from across the globe gathered to celebrate the closing ceremony, using poetry and literature as a medium to foster cross-cultural friendships.
"Poetry Connects the World" was first launched in Beijing on April 20. Over the following month, diverse offline poetry events have been held sequentially in countries including Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kenya, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Russia. A global video submission campaign received over 700 creative works from 93 countries, while the "Picturesque as Poetry" social media filter challenge garnered more than 51 million views. The initiative, spanning both time and space, did more than just offer international participants a firsthand experience of the rhythmic beauty of Chinese poetry; it also left a profound mark on the broader canvas of global cultural exchange and mutual learning.
For many participants, Chinese literature has become a gateway to understanding the country. Baravik Mikita, a Belarusian poet and PhD student in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Fudan University, shared that it was his research into poetry that sparked his deep passion and interest in China—a country once unfamiliar to him. "By reading and researching poetry, I can learn and understand the Chinese language on a deeper level," he said. "It has provided me with a clear path to discovering a true and multidimensional China."
Baravik expressed his hope that while exploring the mysteries of contemporary Chinese poetry, he could also serve as a bridge between Chinese and foreign cultures, helping to promote and spread Chinese culture to the world.
