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Dance-Floor Romance
By Chris Tse
Auckland University Press
Reviewed by Hamesh Wyatt
Poetry is obsessed with lots of things: love, death, God, sound, silence.
It travels across times and cultures.
Freedom, belonging and identity form a big part of Chris Tse’s new collection Dance-Floor Romance.
More than 20 years ago, Chris Tse finished his poem Chinese Colours.
It took another six years to be a “new poet” in AUP New Poets 4.
Since then, Tse has been the 13th New Zealand Poet Laureate.
No gold watch award for this young man.
Along the way he felt he was getting very tired of just being the nice Chinese writer.
Here is someone who promotes and advocates poetry for those who are not really interested at all.
Tse ups the tempo with this latest collection.
This will be unfolding in the strobe-lit clubs like Meow in Wellington and another night out in Auckland.
Sad-bangers and straight-up bangers from Tse will get the party started with his Dance-Floor Romance.
Tse is cool, candid and sometimes angry.
His voice has simply got stronger over the years as he expresses the needs of Chinese-New Zealand poets and queer writers.
Race and sexual identity through the lens of personal experience and pop culture make his poems exciting.
This man has been writing and reciting poems; some have been commissioned.
Tse has held residencies in Amsterdam and Washington DC.
He attended a poetry symposium with poet laureates from around the world.
Tse has come a long way from just sharing poems at lunchtime with his friends at school.
This latest book is beautiful.
It feels smooth in the hand and is striking in its layout.
Dance-Floor Romance contains titles like I was busy thinking ‘bout boys, All the world’s a stage, & all the poets have main character energy and Forbidden.
Inspiration comes from Kylie Minogue, the Pet Shop Boys, Charli xcx, Tori Amos and Madonna.
Tse has attended lots of festivals and events and seen some show ponies performing as pop stars.
This little book, just over 100 pages, is never stuffy.
The poems are bouncing and alive.
Tse uses rhythm and imagery to get his point across.
Dance-Floor Romance fizzes and bounces along at a quick rate.
But it all comes together with an acoustic sundown in The last poem selected by Cilla McQueen for the 2025 issue of online anthology Ōrongohau: Best New Zealand Poems.
Joy and resilience deserve to be celebrated.
I am really looking forward to seeing what Tse does next.
Hamesh Wyatt lives in Bluff. He reads and writes poetry.