Chinese Poet Hu Xudong passes away at age 47

On Thursday, four days after the Chinese poet Hu Xudong died due to illness at the age of 47, a farewell ceremony for him was held in Beijing. People from all walks of life mourned his passing.

Hu was acknowledged in China as a representative poet of those born in the 1970s and named among the Top Ten New Poets of China. He was the recipient of the Liu Li'an Poetry Award (1998) and Rougang Poetry Award (2003).

Based in Beijing, Hu published a series of books of poetry in Chinese, including From Water's Edge, The Strength of the Calendar, The Eternal Inside Man, Travel/Poems, and Poems of Diapers. He also published books of prose in Chinese, such as Random Words of A Random Life, Go to Brazil, and Eat/Think. Hu's work has been translated into English, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Japanese.

In 2008, Hu took part in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He also took part in the Poetry International Festival Rotterdam and international poetry festival Cosmopoética in Córdoba, Spain.

Besides being a talented poet and essayist, Hu was also an associate professor at the School of Foreign Languages, Peking University. He made fruitful achievements in comparative literature and world literature, 20th century European and American poetry studies, Chinese new poetry studies and Latin American literature, especially Brazilian literature.

Hu devoted himself to teaching during his lifetime and focused on guiding students to independently think about literature, art, and social phenomena. He trained a number of talents in the fields of world literature and comparative literature.

Hu was also a translator and a columnist for newspapers and magazines.