Xiao Hai is a Shangqiu- born, Beijing-based poet. His works have appeared in World Literature Today and Chinese Literature Today. His debut anthology, Sisyphus on the Wenyu River, is forthcoming in 2025.
‘Finally! I thought. Now I get to work in a big factory. I was fifteen and a half years old. I was a child laborer.’Xiao Hai on coming of age in the factories of Shenzhen, translated by Tony Hao.