As a teenager, Professor Jonathan Stalling of the University of Oklahoma recited ancient Chinese poems. As an adult, he translated them, and by his early twenties, he was experimenting with English-language jueju (four-line quatrains). Over the past two decades, he has developed a system to compose jueju in English. As the dean of the College of International Studies, he has shared methods for conveying the tonal patterns, parallelism, and structural elegance of Chinese jueju in his native tongue, bringing this classic form to a global audience.

"I've grown up with these (Chinese) poems," said Stalling. "Poetry is the highest form of language, in my view. I hope more people around the world will use the unique structure of classical Chinese poetry to tell their own stories. Through poetry, we become kindred spirits, deepening our understanding of Chinese culture and history."

[Video/xinmin.cn]