language—a language used by the masses in everyday life as opposed
to a language that was allegedly overly Westernized and elitist (Van
Crevel 2007).
Why is there this recurrent anxiety about the lack of Chineseness in
Modern Chinese Poetry? Why does the linguistic register alone—that
is, the fact that the poetry is written in Chinese—fail to convince critics
of its Chineseness? To offer an answer, we must understand the histor-
ical positioning and the new orientation of Modern Poetry—in short,
the “modernity” of Modern Chinese Poetry.
Central to the modernity of Modern Chinese Poetry is a paradox
resulting from specific historical circumstances. In advocating the use
of the modern vernacular as the poetic medium, Modern Poetry was
part of China’s nation-building project that had begun in the late
Qing, which sought to raise the level of literacy and train new “citi-
zens” by promoting the vernacular. With Mandarin institutionalized
as the National Language by the early 1920s and effectively integrated
into the modern educational system, Modern Poetry gained legitimacy
in a relatively short period of time. Although poetry written in tradi-
tional forms has continued to be written, at least until recently it is
predominantly Modern Poetry that is the requisite form for poetry
prizes and appears in most newspapers, literary journals, and poetry
anthologies.
If Modern Poetry is legitimized in institutional terms, its validity
and value in the cultural sphere has been questioned since its inception
in 1916–17. Elsewhere, I have discussed the marginalization of poetry
in the twentieth century (Yeh 1994). When Modern Poetry arose to
challenge Classical Poetry, it was not unlike David taking on Goliath.
Beginning with Confucius and through later institutionalization of
Confucianism, poetry had always enjoyed a special place in traditional
China. First of the “three sister arts” (along with calligraphy and
painting), poetry was highly esteemed as the most elegant art and one
of the most prestigious forms of writing. To this day, Chinese people
take pride in their glorious heritage of Classical Poetry and refer
to China as a “nation of poetry” 的. Moreover, poetry was
important not only for its cultural form but also for its moral,
educational, and sociopolitical role in traditional China. Although
quantitatively speaking, Classical Poetry was primarily written by and
for members of the literati, it occupied a central position in culture and
society.
Into the twentieth century, the role of poetry underwent dramatic
transformation due to the adoption of a Western-styled education
system, the compartmentalization of modern learning, the abolition ofModern Chinese Poetry 139781403976079ts03.qxp:Layout 1 11/9/07 11:08 AM Page 13