BEIJING -- Wang Jiaowei collects rural economic data for the local statistics station in Maidian, a town on China's eastern seaboard famed for its giant cabbages and black pigs. Lately he has been trying his hand at poetry.

On Oct. 1, the Chinese government will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. The occasion has inspired all sorts of unlikely tributes -- including poetic offerings from workers at the National Bureau of Statistics.

Mr....