Luo Yi 
 
A collection of poetry by a disadvantaged student in Hainan Province has won acclaim and sold out in bookstores across the country.
In Flowers bloom by the side of wounds, Luo Yi, a 23-year-old senior in Chinese language and literature at Qiongzhou University in Sanya, shares his thoughts and feelings on his hometown and family life in Guizhou Province.
 
The anthology, including 96 poems Luo wrote between 2004 to April last year, describes his attachment to Jichang township and records his family’s response to hardship.
 
Luo had a happy family, with his parents, a younger sister and two little brothers all living together. In 2006, the year he qualified for university, his father, the main breadwinner in the family, lost his sight from an eye disease and was unable to work.
 
To pay for their father’s medical treatment and to support the three boys’ schooling, Luo’s younger sister, a good student who enjoyed learning, had to drop out of junior high school to work in the factories in Guangdong Province with their mother.
 
Despite seeing different doctors in recent years, the father’s condition hasn’t improved and Luo’s sister and mother still work in Guangdong.
 
Since entering university, Luo has worked part-time jobs at the weekends to support himself and his two younger brothers, allowing every penny his sister and mother make to go towards their father’s treatment.
 
"I’ve rarely had a free weekend in my four years at university. Sometimes I feel very tired, but whenever I think of my sister and mother toiling in the factories, I tell myself to be strong," Luo said.
 
The near constant presence of adversity has never beaten Luo. He not only looks after himself, but also is a leader in the student community, winning scholarships every year. 
 
"Flowers symbolize the beautiful things in life, such as happiness and success, while wounds symbolize the misfortune and difficulties," Luo said."I gave my anthology this title because through my poetry, I want to convey a message that life is a mix of happiness and sorrow. We can only be happy after experiencing and standing up to the harshness of life."
 
Influenced by his father and uncle who both love literature, Luo first tried poetry in his primary school years, some of which won him awards in writing competitions.
 
After starting college, Luo found more time to write and eventually began to think of publishing his own anthology.
 
In December 2008, Poetry Monthly, a literature magazine founded by the Chinese Writ-ers Association in 1957, said it would sponsor anthologies to be published if the work was up to the magazine’s standard.
 
Luo mailed his compilation to the magazine and won its approval. With 15,000 yuan ($ 2,200) from the magazine, and 4,000 yuan from his university, plus some of his own savings, he was finally able to publish the collected works with the Beijing-based Public Literature & Art Press last November.
 
Luo is thrilled that 2,500 copies of the anthology have sold out.
 
"It’s not how many people buy my collection that matters, but how many readers would like to know me and share my feelings," he said.
 
Luo is now trying to convince the publisher to print another run of copies and will propose writing a novel. 
 
SOURCE: Global Times
 
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