Assembly Line Sculpture

Xu Lizhi author Eleanor Goodman editor Qin Xiaoyu editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Zephyr Press

Publishing:22nd Oct '26

£13.99

This title is due to be published on 22nd October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Assembly Line Sculpture cover

After reading these poems, you may never look at your cell phone in quite the same way again.
Xu Lizhi was a young poet working on an assembly line at a Foxconn factory in China, one of the largest manufacturers of Apple and other electronic devices. Unable to afford university and after multiple unsuccessful attempts to get a job elsewhere, he took his life at the age of 24. His haunting poems describe the suffering, dehumanization, and harsh conditions at such factories, conditions that our sleek shiny devices obscure. After his death, Xu Lizhi's story was picked up by major media around the world, including the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Die Zeit, and Time. Most of Xu Lizhi's poems have not been available in English — until now. This book is a searing indictment of globalization, capitalism, labor relations, and the dark underside of technology development and manufacturing.

Translating Wang Xiaoni's work is no easy task, given Wang's unusual, complex imagery and introspective language, and yet Eleanor Goodman has rendered it beautifully in the newly-launched book Something Crosses My Mind. By opting for a pared-down, faithful translation that respects the nature of Chinese language and poetic metaphors, this bilingual collection captures Wang's poetic imagination and inventiveness as a poet as well as facilitates appreciation of the stylistics of contemporary Chinese poetry.--Jennifer Wong, Asian Review of Books August 2014

From one of China's most important poets after 1980, this is a stunning book of poetry, a poetry that is characterized by electric honesty and acute observation. The translator Eleanor Goodman, herself a wonderful poet, should be congratulated for her brilliant translation. -- Kang-i Sun Chang, Project Muse

  • Winner of Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize 2015 (United States)
  • Winner of Patrick D. Hanan Translation Prize 2020 (United States)
  • Short-listed for Griffin International Poetry Prize 2015 (Canada)

ISBN: 9781938890390

Dimensions: 203mm x 152mm x 12mm

Weight: unknown

120 pages

Bilingual edition