A Poet in Shandong is Accused of Plagiarism, Magazine States: Will Never Publish His Works Again

Poetry Circle Hit by Plagiarism Scandal.
On November 19, the editorial department of Qingdao Literature released a “Solemn Statement” through its official WeChat account: On November 18, 2024, the “Read a Good Poem” WeChat account reported that the work “Drinking with the Autumn Wind,” published in the “40 Years of Chunni Poetry Society” section of the 10th issue of our magazine in 2024, was suspected of plagiarism. The editorial department of our magazine attached great importance to this matter, immediately contacted the author for verification, and conducted investigations from various sources. It was confirmed that the poem was similar to “Farewell to the Evening Breeze” (published on platforms such as Zhongshi Bao and Zuoanfeng Wenxue, authored by Xiaojun Yisheng Heqiu), constituting plagiarism. After an emergency meeting of the editorial board on the morning of November 19, our magazine decided to withhold the royalties for the poem “Drinking with the Autumn Wind” and never publish any works by Jia Yongming in the future.
In the statement, the editorial department of Qingdao Literature expressed that Qingdao Literature has always had zero tolerance for plagiarism. Regarding the negligence in the manuscript review process, our magazine sincerely apologizes to the original author Sun Guangxi (Xiaojun Yisheng Heqiu) and all readers. In the future, our magazine will conduct stricter reviews of incoming manuscripts to prevent similar incidents from occurring. We also ask all readers to supervise us. Our magazine once again solemnly declares: 1. We will always uphold the principle of originality in literary journals. 2. Authors who commit plagiarism, once verified, will be publicly condemned by our magazine and we will refuse to publish any of their works. We thank all readers for their criticism and supervision of our magazine.
Public information shows that Qingdao Literature is a literary journal (formerly known as the monthly literary journal “Seagull”) supervised by the Qingdao Federation of Literary and Art Circles and hosted by the Qingdao Institute of Literary Creation.
Additionally, according to the introduction on the “Qingdao Writers Association” WeChat account, Jia Yongming, who was accused of plagiarism, is from Qingdao West Coast New Area. He is a member of the China Poetry Society, the Shandong Poetry Society, the Qingdao Writers Association, and the Qingdao West Coast New Area Federation of Literary and Art Circles Writers Association. His works have been published in various paper publications and online platforms such as “Teenagers’ Literature,” “Star,” “China Poetry News,” “Qilu Literature,” “Yangtze Poetry,” “Fengtian Poetry Journal,” “Shandong Poetry,” and “Qingdao Evening News.”
On the afternoon of November 20, relevant staff from the editorial department of Qingdao Literature confirmed in a telephone interview with The Paper’s reporter that the aforementioned “Solemn Statement” was indeed issued by the magazine’s editorial department. The editorial department of Qingdao Literature had conducted plagiarism checks but failed to find the original plagiarized poem online, so the issue was not discovered in a timely manner.
On the same afternoon, relevant staff from the China Poetry Society stated in a telephone interview with The Paper’s reporter that they were not yet aware of this plagiarism incident; the Qingdao Writers Association stated that they were already aware of the matter and were in the process of dealing with the plagiarist, but had not yet made any announcements.