In 2021, China's Evergrande Group, the world's most indebted property developer, faced a liquidity crisis that threatened to trigger a systemic financial collapse in China. The company's failure to meet its debt obligations led to panic in global markets, as investors feared a Chinese version of the 2008 Lehman Brothers collapse. The crisis exposed the fragility of China's property sector and the dangers of excessive leverage, prompting government intervention to stabilize the market.

The Evergrande crisis was a major theme in contemporary Chinese poetry and literature, with writers exploring the social and psychological impact of the property bubble on the Chinese middle class. The crisis inspired a number of Chinese poets to critique the speculative economy and the disconnect between financial wealth and social well-being, themes that resonated with a younger generation of writers.