UnionPay partners with Kulangsu Poetry Festival, funding China child charity with point-of-sale poetry

UnionPay has partnered with the Kulangsu Poetry Festival to provide poetry to commuters while raising money for kids' educations.

Inside a modern artistic structure at the  Piano Ferry Terminal in Kulangsu, Xiamen, ten point-of-sale machines will be on display from 15 October to 28 October. For just one yuan, the tens of thousands of visitors that pass through the site each day will be able to pay at any these machines with their smartphones for a collection of poems written by children living in rural areas. The donations raised will then be used to provide art and literature lessons for these kids.

To launch this campaign, support was gathered from nearly 100 poets from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan who visited the event site. Taiwanese poet Zhicheng Luo said, "Aesthetic experience like reading and writing from childhood will have a great impact on personal growth. It’s as if you plant a seed of poetry in your soul, and it will sprout and grow at its own tempo."

Jointly sponsored by China UnionPay, the China Charities Aid Foundation for Children, and the Children's Hope Foundation in Henan Province, the campaign is building on the success of a version held in Shanghai earlier in July of this year. That iteration quickly went viral after Shanghainers shared pictures on Wechat and was extensively reported by many Chinese renowned media. And its success brought poetry lessons to children who would then create work to exhibit in the eventual campaign in Xiamen. If successful, the campaign is hoped to have further launches in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Beijing, helping to further develop the talents of children in rural areas.

In addition to the UnionPay Mobile Quick Pass, UnionPay APP, and UnionPay payment tools, QR codes being used for the campaign have been upgraded for this edition to ensure that participants can transfer their cash and goodwill in a safer fashion. There are currently more than 1.4 million UnionPay App users in Xiamen.