Zhang Lian was born and brought up on a small rural farm in Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Tired of farming, he left his village to start a new career writing poems, first in hand written books and then later in printed volumes. To sustain his creative lifestyle he peddles his books around the local county towns, going door to door selling his poems.

Video: D J Clark

Translation: Jia Fan & Peng Yining

Producer: Flora Yue

Related story: Farmers harvest a crop of poetry

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About D J Clark

D J Clark has worked worldwide as a multimedia journalist for more than 20 years. As well as working for China Daily he runs an MA course in Multimedia journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University and is the Director of Visual Journalism at the Asia Center for Journalism in Manila, Philippines.