On the evening of May 30, the “Island Imagination” Poetry Night Gala of the 8th Student Poetry Festival was held at Siyuan Auditorium, Hainan University (HNU).

“We meet as island dreamers—why measure our paths as different?” As students recited award-winning poems in turn, the event rose to its peak in a surge of collective poetic fervor.

The Poetry Night Gala transformed award-winning poems into a multisensory showcase by blending instrumental music, dance, and recitation to reinterpret classical aesthetics while showcasing contemporary youth’s cultural inheritance and innovation.

Structured into two chapters — “Carving Legacy: Coconut Inkstone and Tide’s Whisper” and “Free Trade Island: Visions of a New Era” — the event wove together Hainan’s history, culture, and natural beauty, offering a captivating feast for the senses.

In this year’s original poetry competition, the organizing committee received over 700 submissions from students across over 100 universities, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University, Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Hainan University (HNU). After panel review, 26 contestants were awarded prizes.

The Student Poetry Festival, hosted annually by HNU, stands as one of the university’s flagship cultural activities. Since its inception in 2017, the festival has been held for eight consecutive years. Its series of events—spanning from April to June each year—include a poetry writing contest, campus traditional culture practices, poetry salons featuring renowned poets and scholars, a classic poetry recitation competition, and the poetry night gala.

The festival is organized by HNU’sYefeng College.

Translated by Ye Kechen

Proofread by Feng Jun