The Square

In a small town on the western outskirts of Beijing,
Gather accents from all over, southern lilts and northern tones.
The inner city is being remodeled—international business hubs, office towers,
Drawing in top talent, showcasing the ancient East’s charm to the world.
Urban villages, shantytowns, demolished on a large scale,
Replaced by flowers and grass, turned into green spaces and gardens.
Migrants with families in tow move from the Second Ring Road to the Third, then the Fourth,
Setting up camp again between the Fifth and Sixth Ring Roads.
They continue working in hair salons, Sichuan restaurants,
donkey-meat sandwiches, Yunnan rice noodles,
Convenience stores, hardware and general merchandise, teahouses and mahjong parlors.
We dwell in narrow alleys, keeping to ourselves, cautious and reserved—
We are all marginal people who can’t enter the city’s heart,
Whether old Beijing drifters or new youth.
Though Beijing is tolerant of low-income migrants’ jobs and ventures,
There are many restrictive policies—
Children’s schooling, household registration, buying a home, purchasing a car.
In the end, we all return to where we came from,
Destined not to grow old in Beijing.

​

Zhang Hua, a native of Pingchang County, Sichuan, spent thirty years as a Beijing drifter and now resides in Chengdu. As an independent writer, his works have appeared in domestic and international publications such as Prose Poetry, Star Prose Poetry, Prose Poetry World, Youth Literati, Foshan Literature & Art, Dawan, and Indonesia’s Chinese Writers Journal, as well as Sichuan Rural Daily. His award-winning works have been included in anthologies like Sunstone, Three Gorges Tide, Star Poetry Journal • Star Poet Archives 2015, Beijing Drifter Poetry, Annual Selection of Chinese Prose Poetry, and Forty Years of Chinese Migrant Worker Poetry (1981–2021). He has published a collection of poetry and prose, Grass of the World’s Edge, and is currently compiling a prose poetry collection, Songs of the Journey.