Special Edition: Shanzhai Lyric Runway Reading
Collaborators of Shanzhai Lyric read and wear poetry inspired by counterfeit T-shirts made in China, shaking up what we think about language and power.
Endless Garment is a new poetry book composed by roving poetic research unit Shanzhai Lyric from text found on T-shirts, arranging these poems around recurrent themes such as landscape, gender, freedom and property.
For this event, collaborators and co-conspirators model T-shirts from the Shanzhai Lyric archive of over 400 poetry-garments as local poets read corresponding excerpts from the book – part runway show, part poetry reading.
Shanzhai Lyric (est. 2015) takes inspiration from the experimental English of ‘shanzhai’ (counterfeit) T-shirts made in China to examine how the language of counterfeit uses mimicry, hybridity and permutation to both revel in and reveal the artifice of global hierarchies.
Through publication, installation and an ever-growing archive of poetry-garments, Shanzhai Lyric explores the potential of mistranslation and nonsense as utopian world-making (breaking).
Need to know
Times & tickets
Dates, times and prices
Dates & times
07 Oct 2026, 8pm
Run time
1 hour and 15 minutes (approx)
All timings are approximate and subject to change
Standard entry
from £13
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For your visit
This event is held at the National Poetry Library Southbank Centre
The National Poetry Library is open six days a week.
Tuesday, 12 noon – 6pm
Wednesday – Sunday, 12 noon – 8pm
Monday, closed.
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The library is London’s only space dedicated to poetry study. Visitors studying another subject or looking for a place to work are kindly asked to find an alternative space in the Royal Festival Hall.