Xu Lizhi (poet)

Xu Lizhi (Chinese: 许立志, 1990 – 30 September 2014) was a Chinese poet and factory worker. Xu worked for Foxconn and attracted media attention after his suicide, after which his friends published his collection of poems.[1][2][3]

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Xu.

Xu Lizhi
Born	18 July 1990  Jieyang
Died	30 September 2014  (aged 24) Shenzhen
Occupation	Poet, assembly line worker
Employer	Foxconn
Style	proletarian poetry

His poetry is featured in Chuang 1 ("Dead Generations"), a collection of essays published by the AK Press and authored by Chinese Communists who have become disillusioned in or disappointed with the results produced by the Chinese Communist Party.

Famous Works

I Swallowed a Moon Made of Iron[4] (我咽下一枚铁做的月亮)

I swallowed a moon made of iron / They call it Screw

I swallowed the industrial effluent, orders of unemployment / The youths lower than machines have untimely died young

I swallowed the toil, swallowed the displacement, / Swallowed the overpasses, swallowed the life full of limescale

I can't swallow any more / All I’ve swallowed down are surging out of my throat,

Spreading out across the territory of my country and becoming a / Poem of shame

(19 December 2013)

References and notes

1. "The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (1990–2014)". libcom.org. 29 October 2014.
2. "The haunting poetry of a Chinese factory worker who committed suicide". The Washington Post. 12 November 2014.
3. "Read The Heartbreaking Poems of a Man Who Committed Suicide After Working in a Foxconn Factory". Business Insider. 6 November 2014.
4. "I Swallowed a Moon Made of Iron | by Xu Lizhi". 知乎专栏 (in Chinese). Retrieved 14 November 2018.

See also

• Foxconn suicides