Dialogue | Wang Ailing

Which book has stayed with you, and why?

我从小就喜欢看书，可惜身体不好，早早就辍了学。很多年前，我偶然读到杨东彪的《七月诗选》，一下子就被吸引住了。他十岁开始写诗，后来换过好多份工作，却一直没有放下诗歌。读着他的诗，我才发现，那些藏在心里、说不出口的感受，原来也可以写进诗里，释放出来。我写东西从来不是为了得到谁的认可，只是单纯喜欢，写的时候心里快乐。

As a kid, I always loved reading books but was forced to leave school because of health problems. It was by chance that I read Yang Dongbiao’s Selected Poems of July many years later. Learning about his life—how he started writing at ten, worked all kinds of jobs, but always found his way back to writing—really moved me. Through his poems, I was able to release all the feelings that I had locked up inside myself. I write because I like it and that is all.