Xinhua launches ‘praise the motherland’ poetry contest, Twitter users try their luck

Do you miss the motherland? Do you want to chant for her? Well, this is just the contest for you!

China’s official Xinhua news agency has launched a special competition inviting Chinese who “miss the motherland” and “want to chant for her,” to submit a poem “in praise of the motherland.”

If that sounds like your kind of thing, you can check out the details of the contest in the poster below. Make sure to get your submissions in before March 12th for the chance of winning 10,000 yuan, and presumably going down in Chinese literary history.

Already, the contest has received some very strong submissions from the China expert Twitterverse:

Though no matter what harmonious lines come out of this contest, it will likely pale in comparison to a poem written by a Xinhua deputy editor in 2016 in praise of Chinese President Xi Jinping called “General Secretary, My Eyes Follow in Your Wake.”

Here’s how David Bandurski of the China Media Project translated the first few lines of that masterpiece:

On this occasion, the thunderous applause

Drowns out the traffic along Xuanwumen.

Today, the distance is finally closed,

We listen to Big Brother’s earnest words and wishes.

You smile and cup your hands in greeting: “I wish you all

A happy New Year, and felicitations for the Year of the Monkey!”

General Secretary, my eyes follow in your wake

And in these eyes, my verse takes shape.

My mobile grows hot as my fingers write.

But for so long this poem has been brewing.