New Period of Chinese Literature -Trends of Poetry

Poems created in the new period directly face life, reflect on history, change the reality and reveal the truth of life. Poets, especially young poets, under the dual influence of Western modernism and Eastern classical poetry, reflected and manifested the world with their special aesthetic feelings, aesthetic evaluations and pursuit of ideals. The rise of poets of the obscure school including Shu Ting, Gu Cheng and Bei Dao among them was especially prominent. At the turn of the century, pioneering and exploratory poetry received a lot of attention. Representative poets such as Hai Zi, Ouyang Jianghe, Xi Chuan, Wang Jiaxin, Yi Sha and Zhai Yongming came either from among the people or from schools, but their persistent exploration of poetry forms injected new vitality into Chinese new poetry's continuous development.

The Rise of ＂Obscure Poetry＂

The rise of "obscure poetry" was one of the most important events in the poetry movement of the new period. At the end of the 1970s, China ended the turmoil of the "Cultural Revolution" and began to implement the policy of reform and opening up. Social opening up also brought about freedom of literary creation. Following the emerging trend of freedom, Bei Dao and Mang Ke founded and published the private magazine Today in 1978. Many young poets began to publish poems with special images, abundant meanings and obscure connotations in Today, breaking with the unified artistic criteria since the 1950s and extensively absorbing nutrition from Western modern poetry. These poems also manifest anti-authority and political consciousness and embody serious reflection on and criticism of the social disaster, consciously shouldering the historical task of rebuilding poets' egos, returning to human nature in poetry and reshaping artistic aesthetics. The development of these poems aroused extensive attention from researchers at that time. In 1980, these poems were called "obscure poetry" for the first time. Read more

Bei Dao: A Rational Poet

Bei Dao was a representative of "obscure poets," and the leading figure and spiritual leader of the "obscure poetry" movement. He opened the path of "obscure poetry" creation, and was one of the most prominent poets in the "obscure poetry" movement. Bei Dao began to create poems in the mid and late 1970s, and still creates poems today. Read more

Gu Cheng: A Fairy Tale Poet

Gu Cheng born in an intellectual family was under good cultural influence in his childhood and had inherent refined emotions. He created the poem Poplar at the age of eight as a precocious poet. In his youth, sufferings in the Cultural Revolution cast inerasable shadows on his soul, and exerted huge influence on his later poetry creation. At the age of 12, Gu Cheng left the city and was sent to Shandong's countryside with his father. Blue skies, quiet clouds, flying girds, blooming flowers... Gu Cheng experienced joy and happiness in nature. In 1977, Gu Cheng began to write a lot of poems and became one of the representative poets in the "obscure poetry" movement. Read more

Hai Zi: The Catcher in the Rye

Hai Zi was one of the most important poets in the late stage of the "obscure poetry" movement. He passed the entrance examination of the Law Department of Peking University in 1979 at the age of 15, and began to create poems in his university years. On March 26, 1989, Hai Zi laidhimself on railway tracks near Shanhaiguan to commit suicide at the young age of 25. Read more