Reviving the power of poetry

Wang Xiaoyu's favorite bedtime routine now is to reach for her smartphone and play a poem. Every night at 10 pm, the 32-year-old sales executive in Shanghai logs on to a poetry-sharing group on the social network WeChat and listens to or reads a poem.

It has become a regular pastime ever since she discovered the group, whose Chinese name literally translates to "Read a poem before you sleep".

"At first I felt the poetry helped me relax and made me calm, but I gradually discovered that joining the group also let me connect with people who share the same passion," Wang says.