Xu Lizhi

Xu Lizhi (* 1990 in a village in Dongliao County (near Jieyang ), Guangdong Province , People's Republic of China ; † September 30, 2014 in Shenzhen , China) was a Chinese migrant worker , blogger , film critic and poet, whose fate in his verses is representative of there are many millions of people who have to hire themselves out as migrant workers in China. Posthumously his verses have gained some importance in China.

Live and act

Xu Lizhi's childhood is described as relatively happy despite his rural origins. Failed at school and kept his head above water with small jobs, he decided in 2010, when he was around twenty, to move from the village to the big city. He went to Shenzhen, where he did the hardest work until his death as a simple worker at Foxconn and, like millions of migrant workers, was exploited and had to live in almost slave-like conditions. Despite these conditions and his cramped apartment, he managed to read a lot, to familiarize himself with Chinese and also with European and non-Chinese authors, such as Li Bai , Du Fu , Shakespeare , Baudelaire , Faulkner , Rabindranath Tagore , Rilke , Adonis . He was very well read and loved books, loved a very large bookstore in Shenzhen, and wanted to become a Foxconn librarian on several occasions. The poet was considered shy and very sensitive. He quit his job to live in Jiangsu for a few months , but came back to join Foxconn again. In total, he worked for the company for around three years.

death

On September 30, 2014, at the age of 24, he committed suicide out of desperation over the situation in the factories. The day before, he had written a very dark poem that anticipated his suicide. He climbed the roof of a shopping mall and jumped to his death from the 17th floor. His ashes were scattered at his request in the sea, which he loved very much.

Work and aftermath

Lizhi's lyrics are very melancholy and dark. In his verses he speaks of the worries, doubts, needs and fears of migrant workers, whom he sees as a class that is oppressed in China. The verses show his own style, which at times also shows the forms of industrial production in connection with the human body. Lishi has worked as an essayist , poet, film critic and blogger. He had his own blog, on which many of his works appeared. In addition, poems and film reviews were published in Foxconn's company newspapers and local newspapers in Shenzhen.

In June 2015, the Süddeutsche Zeitung published a large documentary about the poet's life and work, making him known to a German audience. Verses by Lizhi in German appeared in the article for the first time.

"They call it a screw.
I swallowed the factory sewage.
The unemployment papers. The
youth, bent over the machines.
Dies before their time.
I swallowed the toil
I swallowed the rusty life.
Now I can't get anything down.
Everything I swallowed
Pours out of my throat.
" About the land of my ancestors
In a shameful poem "

Iron, blood and death are the main themes in his poems. He has exactly one verse left for love: “Had. Experienced. Missed. ”“ How I would love to sing about the wind, the flowers, the snow and the moon, ”writes the poet. "But I'm talking about blood because I can't help it."

The poet Qin Xiaoyu wanted to hire him as a guest for a documentary about migrant workers and edited a book with the young poet's verses.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (1990-2014)
2. ^ Washington Post, The haunting poetry of a Chinese factory worker who committed suicide
3. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung, Saturday / Sunday edition 20/21. June 2015, book two, by Kai Strittmatter, pages 11/12/13