A school administrator is not all about boring daily routines like cleaning up classrooms or locking doors.

60-year-old Wei Maozhou, who works on campus at Shandong Normal University in Jinan, found himself interested in poetry and started writing poems three years ago, and now the self-taught writer penned around 100 original poems. 

When speaking of the very first poem he ever did, Wei still remembers how it was for his son’s wedding back in 2014.

Wei developed a passion for poetry since then and explored the world in poetry in his own way, despite only having a junior high school education, meaning he was not so familiar with rhyme or the levels of patterns and oblique tones at the very beginning.

“I basically draw my inspiration from daily life,” said Wei. “Things like visiting home during the holidays, going for a hike on weekends or even a winter snow…I write about them all.”

Many students and teachers give Wei their books on traditional Chinese literature after realizing that he’s been learning to write poems, and they even lend him students cards so that he can also borrow books from the library, all of which has been a great help for him in writing poems, in Wei’s own words.

In his room, which is less than 10-square-meters, Wei doesn’t really have a book shelf, but he carefully keeps these books under his bed.

With time, he has gradually improved his literary and artistic skills, and now Wei is even starting to contribute to the school newspaper and successfully got one of his poems published last year.

Not only does he love poems, Wei has also earned his own reputation by returning lost money, mobile phones, and electronic devices since he started working on campus.

“The most appealing thing to me is the rich cultural atmosphere here on campus and I’ll keep reading and writing poems,” said Wei.