Xu Lizhi (poet)

Xu Lizhi was born in a farmer's family on 18 July 1990 in Jieyang. He was the youngest of the three sons. Xu's mother was a Christian who used to relate biblical stories to Xu.[4] Xu Lizhi showed great interest in reading books in his childhood, especially literature, though he did not have a lot of access to books.[5][6]

While Xu was in high school, he wanted to enter a university, but his scores on the national entrance exam were not good enough to allow it. This failure saddened Xu tremendously. According to Xu's father, Xu "became introverted" since then. Xu's father tried to convince Xu to make a living by learning to repair computers, while Xu Lizhi's brother, Xu Hongzhi, encouraged Xu Lizhi to use another way to change his life – to find opportunities in cities.[5]

In July 2010 Xu went to Shenzhen,[6] a place that was experiencing rapid industrialization.[5] In 21 October 2010, Xu had appendix surgery and posted his first recorded poem on his blog. He signed a three-year employment contract with Foxconn in 2011. Xu's working conditions were poor and caused loss of sleep, coughing and headaches.[4] Soon after Xu started working for Foxconn, his poems started to be more and more related to his working and living conditions.[5]

Xu's collection of books while he was in Shenzhen included Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo and Adunis's My Loneliness is a Garden.[6]

Xu wrote for a local newspaper in Shenzhen and for his company's journal The Foxconn People.[4] Since 2012, Xu Lizhi had published over 30 works,[6] including poems and reviews. On his days off, he often met with other writers in his factory's library. Meanwhile he continuously published his work online and on magazines and met other working-class poets in person or online.

Xu tried several times to give up his job and work as a librarian. Thus he applied for jobs in Shenzhen's municipal library and in Foxconn's factory library. However, neither of them offered Xu Lizhi a job.[2]

Xu left Foxconn a few days before the 2014 Spring Festival and went to Suzhou to meet his girlfriend. He lost contact with his friends until he returned to Shenzhen in late September 2014, when he signed a new employment contract with Foxconn.[5] On 30 September 2014, Xu killed himself by jumping off a building.[7] Ten hours after his death, on 1 October 2014, China's National Day, Xu's Weibo account released a new blog that was written in advance.[6]

Media including The Washington Post,[1] Bloomberg News[8] and Time[9] reported Xu's death. On September 30, 2018, four years after Xu's death, the journal "Worker Poets" opened up a special that published selected poems by 26 different poets that mourn Xu Lizhi.[10]

Xu never let his family know about his poems, so it was only after his death that his brother knew of his poems. According to Xu's brother, "Now every time I try to read his poems, I am not able to read them, because my heart aches so much".[4] Xu's father said: "He should be sorry for his parents for his thoughts became so pessimistic. That nobody offered to solve his pain inside – there was no way out. About whether his poems are good or bad, we are not good enough to know".[6]

Xu Lizhi's employer made this statement in response to Xu's suicide: "We are saddened by the loss of a young man who was both an employee and a talented poet ... No matter how hard we try, nobody can eliminate this kind of tragic incidents”.[11]

Xu Lizhi's fellow worker Zhou Qizao mourned Xu Lizhi with the poem Upon Hearing the News of Xu Lizhi's Suicide.[12]