Page 89 - AC-2-1

Arts & Communication Esthetics in wényán and modern báihuà poetry

remedy in symbolism. Between classical Chinese poetry and sociopolitical commitment, while trying to find a
15
– represented by works written in the mode of late Tang distinctive voice for experience, imagination, and artistic
poets Li Shangyin (李商隐, c. 813 – 858) and Wen Tingyun aspiration. 9
(温庭筠, 812 – 870) – and Western poetry composed Considered by many as a marker for good literature,
using the symbolist methods of Paul Verlaine, symbolist the diminutive format of poetry, while facilitates the
poets led by Li Jinfa (李金发, 1900 – 1976) saw strong distilment of essences and inspires unanticipated instances
affinities including thought, spirit, vision, and content, and of brilliance, is conducive for empirical examinations,
sought to “have Western poetry and Chinese ancient poetry which often require the presentation of many experimental
communicate and come to an accord.” 15 stimuli one after another, each followed by a series of
The development of Chinese modern poetry was then experimental tasks. To what extent are laypeople capable
halted by the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937 – 1945), of appreciating the literary esthetics embedded in the
the Chinese Civil War (1945 – 1949), and the economic Chinese written languages – wényán and modern báihuà
and political instabilities in mainland China before the – in which classical and contemporary Chinese poetry was
economic reform (also known as Reform and Opening-up, composed? How do laypeople make sense of the poetic
改革开放), commencing in 1978. Regaining literary differences between classical Chinese poems and those
freedom from the strict socialist realism of the Maoist composed in more recent times? Taking a closer look at
era, in the five or so years following the Chinese economic the appreciation experience of classical and contemporary
reform, Chinese writers once again developed renewed Chinese poems, we present an empirical investigation of
interest in modernist styles from the West. Obscure the classical and modern Chinese esthetics as mediated by
16
poetry (朦胧诗), as one of the key poetic styles of this the written languages: wényán and modern báihuà.
time, aroused nationwide controversy with its seemingly
“unfamiliar, strange, and incomprehensible” style and 2. Data and methods
17
was criticized by skeptics as bourgeois for its unrestrained 2.1. Participants
expression of narrow private feelings. However, a closer Participants were recruited through the Experimental
9
examination of the “I”-speaker of these poems reveals a Participation System (SONA) at University of Toronto
19
self-expression that is consistent with traditional Chinese Scarborough Campus (UTSC) in 2017. Researchers
poetics, where, like the revered patriotic and tragic-heroic posted the study information on the SONA platform, and
poet Qu Yuan (屈原, 339 – 278 BC), the “I”-persona was interested students who were enrolled in Introductory
a voice of the collective “we” who were suffering from Psychology: Part II signed up for available timeslots to
and protesting against political and ideological coercion, participate. Participants were granted one course credit for
serving as “an instrumental tool for political aspirations as their participation. Half a course credit was taken off from
well as a fundamental outlet for emotions”. 9
the SONA account of those who did not show up and had
Following the introduction of the postmodern discourse no reasonable excuses, per regulation of SONA. Forty-eight
in Chinese literature – beginning with a series of lectures students (34 females and 14 males) whose mother tongue
by Fredric Jameson in Beijing in the mid-1980s – in the was Mandarin enrolled in the study through the SONA
final decades of the 20 century and into the 21 century, platform, many of whom were members of the Green
st
th
Chinese poetry saw a continuation of modernist Path program, the purpose of which was facilitating
20
strategies alongside postmodern challenges, giving way Chinese international students completing undergraduate
16
to contemporary Chinese poetry, where “hybrid voices, education at the University of Toronto in their adjustment
styles, and poetics coexist and collide.” While postmodern to lives in North America. Students who came to Canada
9
Chinese poetry, exemplified by “Nay Nay-ism (非非主 through this program have completed 12 years of formal
义)” and the compositions of Han Dong (韩栋, 1961–), education in mainland China, have lived in mainland
“exhibited the trend of moving toward the text itself, and China for the most part during those years, were able to
away from “external” concepts such as society, nation, or read, write and speak Mandarin and Simplified Chinese
individual personality,” it also possesses an “in-between- fluently, and have some basic knowledge about classical
18
ness” of paradigm, where the poetics hovers between a and modern Chinese literature obtained as part the
deconstructed and meaningless existence and a concrete requirements for their formal education.
connection with the society, culture, and history. Despite
9
the postmodernist efforts to liberate from its “umbilical 2.2. Materials
culture,” contemporary Chinese poetry continues to For an empirical investigation of the differential
concern itself with immediate reality, historical memories, characteristics of wényán and modern báihuà, the whole

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1825