Anna ChenLitmus Woman and sui generis pioneer who writes, performs and broadcasts.Skip to contentHomeAbout: British Chinese poet, writer and broadcasterAnna May WongAnna May Wong Must Die: datesAnna May Wong Must Die! by Anna ChenAnna May Wong: A Celestial Star in PiccadillyArts ReviewsArts Reviews, page 1GalleryArchive pictures: Anna onstageTalksTheatreAnna May Wong Must Die: New Diorama photosSuzy Wrong Human CannonThe Steampunk Opium WarsAfterview of The Steampunk Opium WarsCAST: PORTRAITS & POEMSPHOTOS: The Steampunk Opium Wars premiére gallerySPOW The CompanyVIDEO: Anna Chen sings The Camellia & the PoppyVIDEO: Britannia sings “Money”VIDEO: Lin Zexu Just Says No!VIDEO: Lord Palmerston’s Apology for the First Opium WarVIDEO: Sir Jardine Matheson and The Case for Free TradeVIDEO: The Hackney Tea Ceremony with Gary LamminWhat they saidYellow Peril OrientalismFoot and Mouth CampaignPrint Room protest: In the Depths of Dead Love chronologyRSC The Orphan of Zhao chronologyPoetryBurger: poetry videoChi Chi’s Glorious Swansong: poetry videoCredit Crunch Suicide: poetry videoI Am Rich and You Are Poor: poetry videoMargaret Thatcher Died at the Ritz: poetry videoPoe: poetry videoPoetry videosThe Chen LexiconYellowface: pop-up poetry videoReaching for my Gnu poetry bookWritingShort storiesAll Greased Up and Nowhere to GoThe Next Wave Home: short story by Anna ChenTube LoveJournalismGeorge Orwell: a literary revolutionary?GuardianNew Internationalist magazineSergei Eisenstein: review of the revolution trilogySouth China Morning PostOn the RadioChinese In Britain on BBC Radio 4: repeated October 2014 on R4 ExtraRare sighting of Chinese in Britain as BBC launches series presented by Anna ChenPressContactLive Dates← Older postsTinderbox plc: a poem for Grenfell TowerPosted on July 14, 2017 by AnnaA poem for Grenfell Tower marking a month since the fireToday marks a whole month since the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, yet the conflagration that killed at least 80 people seems ever present, still fresh in the mind and the heart. This is more than an accident, a natural tragedy — call it gross negligence, call it murder, someone had to make a buck. Only £2 per panel of cladding separated the chances of survival from inevitable death. Then there were the absent sprinklers, the single stairwell, the lack of adequate firefighting equipment, the destruction of regulations designed to keep us safe, and all the other corrupt, mendacious, money-grabbing decisions taken that led us to this point.While the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea took £55 million a year in rent from the remnants of its social housing, only £38 million made it back to the property that yielded so much loot that the borough was able to amass £274 million to spend on council tax rebates for the better off and flashy opera events in Holland Park. The poorest paid for the amusement of the wealthy. Fu