In late 2021, the Chinese cosmetics group, PROYA, organized a new year’s poetry exhibition in Shenzhen, inviting 27 Chinese modern poets to write their first poems of the new year. The exhibition is located at the underground station named Fanshen (翻身in Chinese), which directly translates to “turnaround”, but younger people usually interpret it as a wish for good luck. This location was chosen specifically as a punchline with its Weibo hashtag – Good Luck with Your Next Turnaround in 2022 (#2022祝你下一站翻身#), which has attracted more than a half-million views.
PROYA has showcased social harmony in this campaign by cooperating with poets from multiple industries, varying from high school students to engineers. At the same time, PROYA invited the public to share their resolutions for the new year and co-write a long poem called “What is New Year” (新年是什么in Chinese). Poetry is our common language especially during the new year, with shared emotions and new hope.
PROYA has the reputation of combining branding strategy with humanism, and this campaign is not an exception. Among these poets, Yu Xiuhua (余秀华), a farmer who represents hope as she perseveres life disregard of her disability. PROYA invites people like Yu Xiuhua to encourage everyone to “turnaround” in the new year, pursue their goals in life, and achieve self-growth, disregarding people’s age and identity. As a result, the exhibition has attracted netizens to feel compassion.
This time, PROYA challenged traditional exhibitions forms, enhancing visitors to get involved to “write” their poems in the exhibition using magnetic stickers with keywords written on them. The interaction with audients has gained huge traction offline and attracted many audiences to attend and write their poems, take photos, and post on their social media, allowing the poetry to reach netizens around the country.
