Shao Xunmei

Shao Xunmei (; Shanghainese: Zau Sinmay; 1906–1968) was a Chinese poet and publisher. He was a contributing writer for T'ien Hsia Monthly, and also was the owner of Modern Sketch. He originated from Shanghai. Jonathan Hutt wrote in Monstre Sacré: The Decadent World of Sinmay Zau that "For many, Shao was not simply inspired by the Occident but rather was of it" and that his lack of awareness of "the Chinese literary scene" distinguished him from his colleagues.

Life He was born Shao Yunlong in 1906 into a wealthy Shanghainese family with its ancestral hometown in Yuyao, Zhejiang. Shao lived in the wealthiest part of Shanghai, Bubbling Well Road. His grandfather was a high-ranking official who served as governor of Taiwan and as a diplomat to Russia. His father Shao Heng married Sheng Xihui , a daughter of the tycoon Sheng Xuanhuai; Xunmei was the oldest of their six children.

Shao had been tailed by tabloids since his childhood and had various girlfriends including the actress White Lotus (白蓮 Báilián) and a woman with the English name Prudence; Shao was briefly jailed after a man who was infatuated with Prudence was murdered but Shao was found to have been not guilty and released. While in Europe he had relationships with women there. she referred to Shao as "Pan Heh-ven," He also had a daughter, Shao Xiaohong.

Legacy Hutt stated that Shao continued to be perceived as "a caricature" by the 1990s even though his image had been somewhat rehabilitated in that decade.

Jicheng Sun and Hal Swindall, authors of "A Chinese Swinburne: Shao Xunmei's Life and Art," wrote circa 2015 that few people were aware of him "except for a handful of scholars of modern Chinese literature"; they stated that there were not many scholarly articles about Shao and that reference books published in China "give him a few lines as a minor poet with decadent tendencies".

Selected works Flower-like Evil (花一般的罪惡 Huā yībān de zuì'è). Jinwu shudian (Shanghai), 1918. Paradise and May (poetry collection), 1927. Heaven and May (天堂與五月 Tiāntáng yǔ wǔ yuè). Guanghua shuju (Shanghai), 1927. Fire and Flesh (火與肉 Huǒ yǔ ròu). Jinwu shudian (Shanghai), 1928. "Jinwu Tanhua" (金屋談話; Talk at Maison d'or). Jinwu Yuekan (金屋月刊 ; La Maison d'Or Monthly), January 1929, Volume 1, Issue 1, p. 157. Translated into English by Reverend Moule and Paul Pelliot, within Marco Polo: The Description of the World (Routledge and Sons, London, 1938). As Hao, Wen: Review of The Escaped Cock by D.H. Lawrence. In: "Shubao Chunqiu" (書報春秋; Books and Newspapers Annals), Xinyue , 1932, 1–4. A One-Way Conversation (一個人的談話 Yīgèrén de tánhuà). Diyi Chubanshe (Shanghai), 1935. Twenty-five Poems (詩二十五首 Shīèr shíwǔ shǒu), 1936.

Heaven and May and Twenty-five Poems have been translated into English by Jicheng Sun and Hal Swindall in The Verse of Shao Xunmei (Paramus: Homa & Sekey Books, 2016)