Shen Haobo


Shen Haobo is a Chinese poet and publisher, born in 1976 in Taixing, Jiangsu province. He graduated from the Chinese department of Beijing Normal University in 1999.
Shen Haobo began publishing and writing poetry in 1996 and had his first official publication in 1998 with "Who was joking on 1990s" He is identified with the Lower Body Poets and the Post 70s Generation.
Shen Haobo founded publishing company Xiron in 2001, which became one of the largest private-owned publishing companies in China. It buys the rights to books from established publishing houses and republishes for a discounted price in great quantities. Xiron published Chun Sue's "Beijing Doll".

Debate on modern poems

While the iconic figures of 'Post 80s Generation' are 'Guo Jingming' and 'Han Han', both are commercial popular writers and both became Forbes multi-millionaires and have millions of fans in Chinese youth, in 2006, there was a famous debate between the 'Post 70s Generation' iconic figure, the minor group 'Lower Body' poet Shen Haobo and Han Han, the latter who claimed that 'both modern poets and poems are no longer in need of existence, and the genre of modern poetry is meaningless'. This raised anger from Lower body poets. Shen Haobo wrote in his blog: 'The genuine novelists can never sell more than Han Han's rubbish work. This is the best writers and poets' own choice, and nothing to complain. However, Han Hans would still hate these all.' so there is nothing to talk about. Then he fought back with an impromptu writing poem: 'A Donkey/ is a donkey/ is very donkey donkey/ and if you ask/ why he is so donkey/ it's because/ he is a/ donkey for show/...and it's because/ he is a/ donkey with fans.'
This story may tell the difference between those two generations.