China News Service, Changsha, October 1st. Title: "Broom Poet" Huang Xinsheng: Brooms sweep the streets, and poems write about the world.
Author Zhang Xueying Li Ying
During the National Day holiday, the streets of Changsha were packed with people. Huang Xinsheng, a sanitation worker in Xiangjiang New District, Hunan Province, still sticks to his post and carefully sweeps fallen leaves into piles. After finishing her work, she returned to her residence, turned on the desk lamp, and prepared to start a new creation. "The morning light, fallen leaves, and pedestrians I see when sweeping the streets all flow into my poems." Huang Xinsheng said in an interview with China News Service.
In May 2026, Huang Xinsheng's first collection of works "The World I Sweep" was published by Hunan People's Publishing House. The first batch of 5,000 copies was basically sold out within 100 days. A poem written by a grassroots worker has entered the eyes of thousands of readers. Therefore, she is affectionately called the "broom poet" by readers at home and abroad.
Huang Xinsheng’s literary dream was planted as early as his youth. She grew up in rural Lianyuan, Hunan, and was a "campus poet" in middle school. In 1990, she failed the college entrance examination. Forced by her family's financial situation, she gave up studying again. In the following decades, she traveled to many places in Hunan and Guangdong to make a living, working as a wedding dress factory worker, a construction worker, and a nanny.
On September 30, Huang Xinsheng was composing poetry in his residence. Photo by Li Ying
In a factory in Guangdong, Huang Xinsheng met his boss for the first time who encouraged his workers to write poetry. The factory set up a blackboard newspaper and a reading corner. If she successfully submitted a poem, she would be given five yuan. Although the money was not much, it gave her an outlet. "There are a lot of indescribable sorrows in my heart, so I just used poetry to write them out." Huang Xinsheng said. Since then, writing has become her "private place". No matter how difficult life was, she never put down the pen.
In 2011, her husband died in an accident at a construction site, leaving behind a 16-year-old eldest son and a youngest son who had just turned 3. The burden of life rested entirely on her shoulders. To take care of his children, Huang Xinsheng returned to Changsha and became a sanitation worker. After settling in, she applied for a library card at the Hunan Library. Reading and writing became her spiritual outlet to fight against the pressure of life.
Huang Xinsheng's writing is always closely connected with life. Regarding the day-to-day work, she wrote, "The hand holding the broom can also draw the stars and the moon; the bucket pulling the garbage can push the morning light away." Facing the sudden heavy rain, she said, "The winter wind will blow and the spring rain will pay off, and the heaven and earth will unite to refine the world." Looking at her chapped palms, she said, "Friend, I can only do this - let you walk cleanly every day"...
In June 2025, Huang Xinsheng passed the 13-course examination and received a diploma in Chinese language and literature from Hunan Normal University, making up for the regrets of her youth; in September 2026, she was admitted as a student of the "One Academy, Three Places" Special Training Class for New Popular Literature and Art Writers of Lu Xun Institute of Literature. During countless days and months, she was firmly moving closer to her dream.
On September 28, Hunan’s first reading club for sanitation workers, the “Orange Light” reading club, launched its activities. Photo by Zhang Xueying
What Huang Xinsheng cherishes even more is that the seeds of words have sprouted in more people's hearts. On World Book Day in 2025, she took the lead in establishing the "Orange Light" Reading Club, the first reading club for sanitation workers in Hunan. 11 workers took time to share each other's poems every week. Many co-workers who were once shy, introverted, and uncommunicative gradually opened up their hearts and healed each other through the exchange of books.
48-year-old Zhang Haixiu is one of them. She recalled that she had been a housewife for more than ten years after being laid off, and the anxiety of being out of touch with society made her breathless. Nowadays, she insists on reading for one hour every day, and also learned experience in running a family and raising children at reading meetings. "The more I read, the more relaxed I become. The streets I swept before become brighter and more beautiful," Zhang Haixiu said.
From Shan Xiaohua, the "peasant writer" who took home the "Dongli Cup" Sun Li Prose Award, to Lu Yuxia, the "field poet", and Wang Jibing, the "takeaway poet", more and more ordinary workers are becoming writers and expressors. In Huang Xinsheng's view, in the past, professional writers wrote about working people, but now many grassroots workers write their own stories. This is where the vitality of new popular literature and art lies.
"No matter how small the position, it can shine." Huang Xinsheng said that he will continue to write and record the streets swept by the broom and the joys and sorrows of the workers, so that more people can see the dreams and passion of grassroots workers. I hope that more and more people will pick up the pen, so that literature will no longer be a matter for a few people on the bookshelf, but a part of the lives of millions of ordinary people. (over)
