Li Siwei, a WHU graduate from the School of Chinese Classics in 2014, has been crowned the champion in the “Chinese Poetry Conference” on CCTV 1. He gained the award in a very competitive field. Before this accolade, , he was already famous for taking the crown in another talent show, “Chinese Poetry”, while his schoolmate Wang Yuedi finished second in the competition.
The 26-year-old Li Siwei has devoted himself to the old-style poetry creation for over a decade. Mastering tens of thousands of poems has empowered him with a poets’ temperament. After graduation, he set his mind to do great things. Yet media work alone could not satisfy him, so he started his own business in the service of mobile e-commerce. In the meantime, he also signed contracts with several companies and publishing houses to write novels, poetry and popular science books. More importantly, he continued composing poems and working on creative writing.
In his spare time, he also co-founded an old-style poetry community of college students entitled “Chang’an Poetry Association” together with Peking University Poetry Association, Lingnan Poetry Study Club of Zhongshan University, Association of Ancient Chinese Poetry of Fudan University, Chunying Poetry Association of Wuhan University. Most of the group members are university students from different majors and grades including exchange students from Japan with the same interest in promoting old-style poetry and traditional Chinese culture.
Li was deeply in love with everything related to traditional Chinese culture. Since childhood, he learned to play Chinese flute and Xiao, an ancient Chinese musical instrument. Also, he is skilled at Yun, an ancient egg-shaped, holed instrument, pan flute, gourd flute and other traditional music instruments. When asked about the origin of his interest, he said “It is a coincidence I guess. I used to read a lot of books when I was young so I gradually developed a deep interest in it.” For him, it is not a clash between the appreciations of traditional Chinese culture and the admiration of Western civilization. He is also a fan of western classical music, crazy about western history, literature and philosophy.
His poetry anthology “Solitary Howl” recorded in detail his personal feelings and life , winning the appreciation of many fans. Some left a poetic remark like “When I read the poems of Li Siwei, it seemed to me that the great poet Li Bai is standing in front of me.” In the anthology, the poem titled “Rouged Lips: climbing the Yueyang Tower with Wang Yuedi” presented his daily life spent together with his friend Wang Yuedi.
Wang Yuedi and Li Siwei were classmates in the Traditional Chinese Culture Class of Hongyi Academy in the second grade. Before being admitted to this class by taking a test, Wang studied at the Educational Base Class of Humanites from the School of Chinese Language and Literature, while Li was from the Educational Base Class of Philosophy, School of Philosophy. Wang recalled “At the beginning, I only heard about that a great poet was in our class. It was not until I read his work occasionally that I came to find him interesting and discussed about poetry creation with him.”
According to their information, the Traditional Chinese Culture Class of Hongyi Academy, where they both studied, has made great breakthroughs in lifting the boundaries of literature, history and philosophy. It had replaced the need to attend theoretical courses with the requirement of reading large amount of original Chinese classics including “Imperial Collection of Four Books”, etc.
Mr. Gong Wende, the Deputy Party Secretary from the School of Philosophy introduced the original idea of founding the Traditional Chinese Culture Class, and commented “The heritance and promotion of national culture, without doubt, needs the involvement of the mass. But the development and nourishment of an excellent Chinese culture can not be achieved without intellectual elites’ persistence.” Yu Ting, the Deputy Dean of the School of Chinese Classics commented, “Through communications with sages and the wise, the students can hone their minds and seek for immanent transcendence, who are being challenged to a certain degree.”
Wang Yuedi commented “The master said, ‘the accomplished scholar is not a utensil’. To my understanding, thoughts, feelings and field of vision are more vital than skills, which are the most valuable treasure the class has left us with…., In addition, the school has provided us with great opportunities to pursue freedom and personal development.”
According to Mr. Sun Jinsong, the Deputy Dean of the School of Chinese Classics, “We not only attach great emphasis on personality cultivation and academic training of the students, we also respect their academic interests and individualized training as well, encouraging them to broaden their horizon and delve into the research that they are interested in.”
“There will be a time when we walk with a cane as an elderly man, coming across old friends wearing a straw hat.” Li Siwei chanted his rhymed improvisations under the spring rains. We do hope that he can live an unrestrained life like great poet Li Bai as compared by one of his fans.
Li Siwei (on the right) and Wang Yuedi (on the left)
（Photos by Li Siwei, rewritten by Wang Mengtian, edited by Mark & Sijia Hu)
