The Flowering of Modern Chinese Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from the Republican Period

The May Fourth Movement launched an era of turmoil and transformation in China, as Western ideas and education encroached on the Confucian traditions at the root of Chinese society. The Republican period (1919-49) witnessed an outpouring of poetry in a form and style new to China, written in the common people’s language, baihua ("plain speech"). The New Poetry broke with the centuries-old tradition of classical poetry and its intricate forms, and the rise of China’s modern poetry reflects t...