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Arts & Communication Esthetics in wényán and modern báihuà poetry

poem is preferred compared to individual lines, as the this pair were presented to the participants side by side,
poet, having deliberately chosen and arranged the most and participants were instructed to compare them, one
appropriate language for their semantic, emotional, and classical and the other contemporary, and pick one poem
esthetic purposes, intended for the whole poem to be they preferred and explain the reasons for their choice with
appreciated as a single unit. The extraction of individual reference to specific examples from the poems.
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lines removes necessary semantic, imagistic, melodic, A pre-test was carried out with five pilot participants
and rhythmic contexts, which are closely relevant to the to improve the study procedures, and minor adjustments
examination of the esthetic characteristics of wényán and were made. Each participant read all four pairs of poems,
modern báihuà. Looking for classical and contemporary completed the same seven poem appreciation scales for
Chinese poems, researchers consulted two online a total of eight times, and compared the classical and
Chinese poetry databases: 古诗文网 (Ancient Poetry: contemporary poems in each pair for a choice of preference.
www.gushiwen.cn) and 中国诗歌库 (Chinese Poetry The study took approximately 1 h to complete. At the end
Database: www.shigeku.org). One classical poem and one of the study, the researcher debriefed participants and
contemporary poem of the same topic and containing answered any questions they might have. This study was
similar imageries made up one pair of poems. Twelve approved by the Office of Research Ethics at the University
classical poems and 12 contemporary poems were selected of Toronto.
from the two websites, making up 12 pairs of poems.
Contemporary Chinese poems are typically much longer 3. Results
than classical Chinese poems, while classical Chinese
poems followed a stricter format and structure. To control The effect of poem type (classical vs. contemporary),
for the effect of difference in poem length, researchers poem topic, and their interaction on participants’ ratings
eliminated five pairs of poems due to substantial length of the poems’ familiarity and difficulty, as well as the
difference between the two poems in a pair, where the seven aspects of the poem-reading experience (beauty
contemporary poems were always disproportionately of language, imaginativeness, precision of language,
long compared to their classical counterparts. Seven pairs complexity of imagery, profundity in meaning, emotion,
of poems were retained to be tested with a pilot sample and resonance) were examined using repeated measure
of five for ease of comprehension and familiarity (on mixed ANOVA.
7-point Likert scales). Four pairs of poems, on the topics Poem type main effects were significant on all poem
of “Autumn,” “breakup,” “farewell,” and “homesickness” appreciation measures. Compared to contemporary
(see Appendix), were kept, rated by pilot participants as poems, classical poems were perceived as significantly
relatively unfamiliar but easy to understand. more beautiful in their language, more imaginative, more
precise, more complex in their imagery, more profound in
2.3. Procedure
their meanings, more effective in eliciting emotions and
Pairs of poems on the same topic were presented to the resonance, more familiar, and more difficult to understand.
participants in a randomized order. In each pair, one Despite our efforts in poem selection, participants’
poem, classical or contemporary, was presented first. The appreciation experience differed significantly by topic,
participants, given ample time to read the poem, were asked over the beauty of language, imaginativeness, complexity
to identify the keywords and explain the central meaning of imagery, resonance, familiarity, and difficulty. Results
of the poem presented, which were questions designed to are shown in Figure 1 and Table 1.
ensure participants study the poems carefully. Afterward,
participants were asked to rate the poems on a series of 3.1. Preference
7-point self-report Likert scales measuring seven aspects Overall, classical poems were more popular than
of their poem-reading experience, including (i) language contemporary poems (Figure 2). To investigate the
esthetics (“言辞优美”), (ii) imaginativeness (“有想象力”), consistency of an individual participant’s choice of
(iii) precision of language (“精辟”), (iv) complexity of preference across the four pairs of poems, the Wilcoxon
imageries (“意象复杂”), (v) profundity of meaning signed-ranks test was performed, where poem preference
(“意义深远”), and intensity of (vi) emotions (“情感”), was transformed into the likelihood of preference (e.g.,
and (vii) resonance (“共鸣”) elicited, where higher scores preferring 4 out of 4 classical poems would result in a
indicated greater extent. likelihood of 100%, and 1 out of 4 would be 25%). Results
Following the completion of these scales, the other suggested that poem type has a significant effect on the
poem in the same pair was presented and participants were likelihood of preference, Z = 3.734 (P < 0.001). Twenty-six
led through the same procedures. Finally, both poems of participants (54.17%) had higher likelihood of preferring

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 5 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1825