Modern Chinese poetry, including New poetry (), refers to post Qing dynasty (1644 to 1912) Chinese poetry, including the modern vernacular (baihua) style of poetry increasingly common with the New Culture and 4 May 1919 movements, with the development of experimental styles such as "free verse" (as opposed to the traditional Chinese poetry written in Classical Chinese language); but, also including twentieth and twenty-first century continuations or revivals of Classical Chinese poetry forms. Some modern Chinese poetry represents major new and modern developments in the poetry of one of the world's larger areas, as well as other important areas sharing this linguistic affinity. One of the first poets and theorist in the modern Chinese poetry mode was Hu Shih (1891–1962).
Background
The historical and linguistic background to modern Chinese poetry involves a long Classical Chinese poetry tradition, written or chanted in specialized, literary forms versus modern changes both in vernacular varieties of Chinese as well as the development of and exposure to various other poetic traditions from modern Europe and the United States, both directly and indirectly through Japanese literary sources. Thus, one important change in the history of Chinese poetry involves the revaluation of the use of Classical Chinese literary language and the traditions of Classical Chinese poetry. Another is the more global phenomenon of modernism in poetry, involving rejecting traditional poetic forms and styles in favor of experimental developments and novelties.
Varieties of Chinese
Modern Chinese poetry has been written and spoken in different varieties of the Chinese language. Traditionally, much poetry was written in Classical or Literary Chinese. Some modern poetry is still so written. Also used in Chinese poetry are other varieties of Chinese, such as Standard Chinese and other types of Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Min Nan, Hakka, and Shanghainese.
Socio-political change
Modern Chinese poetry developed within a context of major socio-political changes, and some of the poets were directly involved with these as members or leaders of some of the parties involved in consciously influencing the course of historical developments. The nineteenth century had been one of upset to traditional Chinese ideas and institutions, as China went through a period of successive loss of sovereign control and self-determination as a nation and internal struggles for political power of an often violent military nature. The First Opium War (1839–42) fought between Great Britain and China resulted in the Treaty of Nanking (1842), which ceded Chinese control of five treaty ports and all of Hong Kong Island to the British. After the Second Opium War (1856 to 1860), the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), and other conflicts China had lost control of important parts of its territory to Britain, France, the United States, Japan, Russia, Portugal, Germany, and other colonial powers, which are documented in a series of unequal treaties: these areas included all of Taiwan and many of the most important eastern cities. In the meantime, various rebellions (or civil war) arose, included among other rebellions in the Qing dynasty were the Taiping Rebellion (1850 to 1864) and the Boxer Rebellion (1898–1901), and although the latter of which was largely directed against foreign powers and influence, both showed the weakness of the Qing court. These nineteenth century events in China resulted in an aftermath in which tens of millions of the population had died during the various conflicts, a significant part of the cultural legacy of China having been looted or destroyed (for example the Old Summer Palace and its contents, including the burning of the library), and that the Qing government increasingly having been viewed as less and less viable as a political institution, together with the Qing experiencing a demonstrable and ongoing erosion of territorial control.
During the final years of the Qing dynasty poets, such as Gong Zizhen (1792–1841) continued work in the traditional Classical Chinese poetry modes, as did Huang Zunxian (1848–1905), though some changes as a reaction to events including poetic evaluation of foreign places, cultures, and ideas can be seen in Huang's works. Gong Zizhen was quite disturbed by the condition of the empire, and Huang Zunxian traveled widely in the course of his diplomatic duties, including to Japan, the United States, London, and Singapore. Such experiences and the associated poetry would prove to be harbingers of the development of modern Chinese poetry in the twentieth century, and into the first part of the twenty-first century.