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Chinese new literature with the "May 4th" Movement as the beginning
is usually divided into the two stage of the modern era and the contemporary era. Modern literature began with the "literary revolution" that occurred around 1917 and ended with the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949; contemporary literature refers to literature since 1949. Though modern literature has a history of only about 30 years, it is a huge and fundamental turning point in the development course of Chinese literature with the historical quality of a connecting link between the preceding and the following like no other period of Chinese literature history. Contemporary literature underwent a complicated and changeful course of development. It is becoming closer and closer to social life and opening to the outside world like never before.
The first decade (1917-1927) is the stage of expansion and foundation of modern literature. A number of founders of modern literature such as Lu Xun and Guo Moruo, their foundation works and a number of important literary groups and schools such as the Literary Research Society and the Creation Society all emerged in this stage. At the beginning of 1917, Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu published Some Modest Proposals for the Reform of Literature and On Literary Revolution in New Youth, marking the beginning of the Literary Revolution Movement. Later a lot of literary publications and new literary societies emerged. Important ones among them included the Literary Research Society, the Creation Society, the Yusi Society and the Crescent Society. The Literary Research Society's pursuit of realism and the Creation Society's praise of romanticism formed two stylistic schools with unique characteristics and exerted profound influence on the development of new literature. New literary writers in this period also translated a lot of foreign literary works, and expanded the link between Chinese literature and world literature.
The second decade (1928-1937) is the stage of development and maturation of modern literature. The Proletarian Revolutionary Literature Movement further enhanced the relationship between literature and society. Leftist literary groups such as the "League of Leftist Writers1' established in early 1930s pushed this movement to the climax. The ideological and social contents in the literary works created in this period were enhanced significantly, and writers reflected and exposed imperialist countries' military, economic and cultural invasion of China from various aspects and criticized the grotesque, variegated, extravagant and decadent life in the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Many writers not only manifested the miserable experiences of people at the bottom of the society and focused on describing their awakening and resistance, demonstrating the new ideological depth reached by new literary creations.
The third decade (1938-1949) is the stage of deepening and transformation of modern literature. The outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan and the ongoing War of Liberation made national and class struggles the main contents of literature in this period, which is divided into two stages with 1942 as the dividing point. The first stage is literature of the early period of the War of Resistance against Japan, and resisting Japan and saving the nation from extinction is the overriding literary theme. A lot of popular, lively, short and concise literary works such as street poems and one-act plays emerged. Meanwhile, a series of historical dramas also emerged, and writers all manifested the daunting reality and expressed people's righteous calls through historical stories. Among them, Qu Yuan, Tiger-shaped Tally, etc. by Guo Moruo were most influential. Literature of the second stage can be classified into literature of the liberated region and literature of the Kuomintang-ruled region. In the liberated region, Mao Zedong proposed the direction of serving workers, peasants and soldiers with literature and art and emphasized the Chinese styles and national characteristics of literature in Talks at the Yan 'an Forum on Literature and Art. In the Kuomintang-ruled region, the themes of literary creations were opposing oppression and striving for democracy, and a lot of satirical and revelatory works emerged, such as Corrosion by Mao Dun, Cold Night by Ba Jin, Folk Song of Ma Fantuo by Yuan Shuipai, The Picture of Promotion in Officialdom by Chen Baichen and Fortress Besieged by Qian Zhongshu. Writers exposed and criticized the dark reality in the Kuomintang-ruled region from different aspects by using different styles.
The literature of 17 years (1949-1965) is the first stage of literature after the founding of the People's Republic of China, It inherited the new literary traditions since the "May 4th" Movement, and advocated socialist realistic creation methods. Its basic features were: literature entered a new historical stage, and all writers very passionately eulogized the new society, depicted the new era when the people were the masters of the country, showed the great social changes, and manifested the socialist spirit of the times.
Literature of the "Cultural Revolution" period (1966-1976) is literature of this specific historical period. Great social turbulences and damages brought unprecedented disasters to literature. During the "Cultural Revolution," though some literary works were created, political ideas and intentions were more directly transformed into literary works, and a specific political meaning was attributed to the acceptance of works. Literature was thoroughly distorted in this period.
Literature of the new period (1977-1995): Literature revived and prospered with the ideological emancipation and social development from the end of the "Cultural Revolution" to the beginning of reform and opening up and 1992 when China began to implement the socialist market economy. Literary and artistic thoughts and literary creation were both very active in this period, and literary themes, forms and styles were diversified. Apart from the realistic trend, the literary thoughts, schools and creation methods of various countries in the world such as symbolism, the stream of consciousness, surrealism, hallucinatory realism, the absurdist school and black humor were almost all reflected by writers, manifesting the bold, exploratory and innovative spirit of writers of the new period.
Literature at the turn of the century (1996-now): With economic globalization and IT application in people's life, the development of literature also entered the new stage of diversification and coexistence of cultural forms and cultural views. Many writers stick to integrating individual styles and national spirit, actively exploring forms of artistic expression and constantly tapping ideological depths. The Nobel Prize in Literature won by Mo Yan marks a new height of Chinese contemporary literature. Meanwhile, the emergence of writers born in 1980s and 1990s and the rapid development of Internet literature also herald new prospects and challenges facing Chinese contemporary literature.
As a link between the preceding and the following, modern literature has salient essential characteristics: Conflict between new and old literature and inheritance.
Modern literature emerged under the new historical conditions during the "May 4th" Movement, reflecting the brand new modern society, modern life's spiritual outlook and brand new modes of literary expression, but it was also the inevitable result of Chinese traditional literature's development and evolvement in thousands of years. For example, Chinese novels have a long history and numerous vernacular novels emerged in the Ming and Qing dynasties, but modern novels written after the "May 4th" Movement opened a brand new chapter in the history of Chinese novels' development with brand new ideological connotations and unprecedented forms of expression, showing modern people's behavioral modes and thinking modes. However, the ideological essence and artistic techniques of Chinese traditional novels were still inherited by modern novels invisibly but in depth. The same goes for poetry. New poetry was established in a revolt against and complete break from traditional old poetry, but traditional poetry's aesthetic conceptions and classical poets' aesthetic accomplishments, especially Chinese classical poetry's traditional spirit of experiencing the times, worrying about the people and detesting the ways of the world exerted great influence on modern poets at a deep level.
Blending of Chinese and foreign literature.
Modern literature developed on the basis of fully absorbing various foreign countries' culture and literature, and many new cultural writers' works even emerged under the directly influence of foreign literature. This characteristic of "May 4th" new literature made it fundamentally different from Chinese traditional literature of the previous thousands of years. The formation of Chinese new literature was closely associated with the impact of the world's literary trend. Modern new poetry emerged under the collision with and stimulation of foreign cultural thoughts to a large extent. Those foreign critical realistic and romantic writers' works and those free and open ideological pursuits and artistic forms just complied with the historical tasks of "May 4th" new literature and brought about the emergence of Chinese modern new poetry.
Always having a sense of mission and a sense of responsibility.
Though modern literature did not have a long history, but numerous masters, famous works and schools of creation with unique styles emerged. In 30 years, a number of highly accomplished writers such as Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Lao She, Cao Yu, Ai Qing, Ding Ling, Zhao Shuli, Ye Shengtao, Xu Dishan, Zhu Ziqing, Zhou Zuoren, Hu Shi, Bing Xin, Wen Yiduo, Xu Zhimo, Dai Wangshu, Mu Dan, Xiao Hong, Shen Congwen, Qian Zhongshu and Zhang Ailing emerged. This can only be called a special gift of the times and history for modern literature. Modern literature generally formed its fundamental characteristic, i.e. a sense of responsibility, a sense of mission and constant pursuit of the artistic state. This characteristic led to Chinese modern literature's attainment of a very high ideological level and artistic level.
After many ups and downs, contemporary literature kept developing forward and formed its important characteristics in this course.
Literature and the times were closely associated.
Contemporary literature inherited the essence of "May 4th" new literature, and the times attributed to it a salient socialist quality, which determines that contemporary literature is always influenced by the times and society in the course of its development. Reflecting the themes of the times, showing social progress and manifesting people's spiritual outlook are the basic appeals of modern literature.
The singular literary pattern was diversified.
With the continuous development of the times and society, contemporary literature also evolved from the singular pattern to diversification. From literature of workers, peasants and soldiers to realism, modernism and postmodernism, etc., contemporary literature gradually eliminated the restrictive thought that literature should serve politics, and brought about evolution of literary concepts and values. Reference and exploration occurred repeatedly, and different styles and schools contended, and the literary circles showed an increasingly open pattern.
Exploration and bewilderment coexisted.
In today's era of globalization and IT application, various cultural differences and cultural conflicts also gradually emerged. After 1990s, the conflict between literary creation and commercial operation was increasingly intense. Under the market system, pure literature and popular literature could not be separated from publication and choice of the cultural consumption market. Writers' and intellectuals' roles and positions in the whole society were increasingly "marginalized," so in the contents expressed by modern literature, optimism was weakened to a large extent, hesitation, bewilderment, criticism and self-reflection were highlighted, and the characteristic of coexistence of exploration and bewilderment was formed.