China’s Statistics Poetry

“Life
Some mock me for doing statistics
Some loathe me and statistics
Some don’t understand what statistics are
Why is it that statistics
Put a calm smile on my face?
Because of statistics
I can solve the deepest mysteries”

A section from “Love the Homeland, Love Statistics,”  one of the poems highlighted in The Wall Street Journal‘s recent post about how China’s National Bureau of Statistics is embracing its literary side to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC.

“Letting its hair down a bit” the NCS is turning to words, not numbers, to show its love of the People’s Republic with a campaign called “Statistical Feelings: Together We Go – Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of New China.”

Best title mentioned? It has to be “I Am Proud to Be a Brick in the Statistics Building of the PRC,” which apparently “reads like a prose poem.”

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Isaac Fitzgerald has been a firefighter, worked on a boat, and was once given a sword by a king, thereby accomplishing three out of five of his childhood goals. Formerly of The Rumpus and McSweeney’s and most recently the founding editor of BuzzFeed Books, Isaac is now the co-host of BuzzFeed News’ Twitter Morning Show, #AMtoDM. He also appears frequently on The Today Show to talk books, and is co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos (with Recipes) (winner of an IACP award), and the author of a YA novel and picture book forthcoming from Bloomsbury. He uses Twitter.

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