Elderly Changsha woman invents new poem style for the good times

Woman who is over 70 composes matching couplets to eulogize the flourishing age

An elderly woman from Changsha, despite her bad eyesight, enjoys writing. Over the years, she has written songs and composed poems when new policies are issued by the government and also on great holidays and festivals. She makes a lot of publicity of the new policies and regulations and created a new form of poem-matching couplets.

Li Chunqing can sing and play a variety of musical instruments

Retired woman enjoys composing poems

Li Chunqing, now 75 years old, was born into a family of doctors. She was versatile when she was younger, and now after retirement, she often takes part in art activities and is a talented singer and good at playing instruments. On the evening of January 25, our reporter met this lady in the dormitory area of the Changsha Ship Factory. She was vigorous and had a smile on her face, and looked younger than she was. She showed a lot of her works to our reporter. The manuscript of Song to Retired Workers was wrapped tightly in old newspapers. According to Li, this song earned her a best creation award during the performance for all the workers in the factory at the Changsha Workers' Culture Palace.

"After I retired, I now have plenty of time and I’m fully devoted to my creations. During the ice damage, the Sichuan Earthquake and the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, I made a total of 39 matching couplets," she said as she showed them to our reporter. "This is not acrostic poem, it blends the characteristics of couplets, five character poems, poems with eight lines, libretto and talk show, I am great indebted to the rich culture of my motherland for my creation of this form of poetry, which has garnered praise from experts."

She is a volunteer publicity agent for CPC

It has been learned that during the decades after her retirement, Li Chunqing created numerous works, most of which were lost accidently by her daughter, leaving only a little more than a hundred lyrics and matching couplets. Besides, she mentions that it is not easy to come up with a matching couplet, "I have to figure out the theme first, write the first word of every line before expanding them into full lines." She has poor eyesight these days too, and has to write the characters by feeling the way. "Every time the government issues news policies or there is a great holiday or festival, I write songs and poems to publicize the laws, regulations and national policies. Some people view me as a volunteer publicity agent for the CPC," she said happily.

While working diligently on her own creations, she takes part in various art and public welfare activities. Elated by the talk, she began to sing with a lyrics sheet in one hand and tapped out the rhythm with the other hand, and the song went like,"…the city takes on a new form and become magnificent. The landscapes along the Yangtze River are beautiful, and the sand beach has already been converted into fertile land." (the theme of the poem is the city of Changsha)

Translated by LOTO