Zheng Xiaoqiong
(China, 1980) is a poet. In 2001 she moved to Dongguan, one of southern China's major industrial centres, hoping for a better life. There, she worked in several factories and started writing poems about the experience. Through her penetrating work, Zheng grew into an icon: she has published about ten poetry collections, is one of China's most renowned poets, wins many prizes, and has been translated into many languages. With their strong contrasts, personifications and broken phrases, Zheng's poems show industrialization turns humans into part of the machinery. She counters this dehumanization with human uncertainty, fragmentation, dislocation and vulnerability. Her poetry collections published in English include Huangma Mountains, Collected Poems of Zheng Xiaoqiong, Pedestrian Bridge, and Poems Falling on Machines.
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Garbage In, Garbage Out: Poetry event
Is the lyrical voice a chatbot confidently making statements based on an outdated dataset?
Maarten van der Graaff, who curated Garbage In, Garbage Out, asked these poets to listen carefully to chatbots skimming the Internet to answer our questions. What does the tone of chatbots forging all that information into sentences mean for poetry?
What is the role of the body in writing, reading and listening to poetry? Who or what do you actually hear when listening to a poem: an intimate voice, or a cacophony? Can the poem be a garbage collector?
Garbage In, Garbage Out is an event featuring both formerly published poetry as well as work newly written for the occasion by and with Ronelda Kamfer, Simone Atangana Bekono, Astrid Lampe, Dewi de Nijs Bik and (via a previously recorded video presentation) Zheng Xiaoqiong.