A panel of judges, consisting of artists, poets, translators and educators, selected 500 poems to be carved onto the seaside rocks. The entire carving process is arduous, requiring significant time and effort from numerous workers who must transport machinery to the shorelines and continue carving day and night. Approximately 400 poems have been completed since the beginning of this year.
In China, engraving poems on rocks has long been a cultural tradition known as cliff inscriptions, typically the domain of cultural luminaries. This project, however, gives the honor to children, who are "natural poets" in Qiu's eye. For children, poetry is a native language, a spontaneous expression of their encounters with the world. They use simple and imaginative words to describe the world.
Qiu often bursts into laughter and is sometimes moved by the children's poetry submissions. He recalls a poem written by a young girl whose father was a migrant worker: "Dad rose from the bamboo mat. His skin adorned with woven art. In time, the patterns slipped away. Back to the mat, they chose to stay, for they did not want to wander far, like stars."
"Children's poetry is the least controversial and the most universal. You see, they write about nature, animals, parents, the sun, the moon, and white clouds. It is best suited to build a platform for global and cross-cultural communication," explains Qiu on why he chose children instead of adults.
The youngest participants of the project are only 3 years old, and their poetic words were recorded by their parents. Children's poetry from both China and abroad generally shares similar themes, such as a mother's love and the inspiration drawn from nature. However, foreign children tend to write more about sports, like soccer, and puppy love, while Chinese children write less about these topics, says Lan Lan, a renowned poet who is a member of the judge panel.
Last June, Lan Lan began helping to collect children's poetry internationally, mainly with assistance from her circle of international poets and some literature teachers. The most impressive thing was that she received a brilliant poem from a child in Chile. However, when she tried to contact the young writer, she was unable to do so because the child's family were refugees, displaced from their homes.
