civilization. He celebrates the unbridled natural forces within man; he considers the libido the essential drive for survival. His search for a primitive self in the memories of his native Gaomi is thought to be a metaphorical search for the Chinese national spirit. Termed an “explo- sion of life’s energies,” Mo Yan’s works resonate with the prevalent view held in China that the ancient Chinese race has degenerated, suffocated by layers of restrictions, its blood flow clogged and its life force exhausted. What the Chinese badly need, Mo Yan suggests, is the strong pulses of life, the awakened primordial forces, the “red sor- ghum,” the “big breasts and wide hips,” in order to rejuvenate itself. Mo Yan’s most recent book, Shengsi pilao (Fatigue of Life and Death), an examination of the relationship between the peasant and the land, departs from his previous works in that it contains much less vio- lence and is more contemplative. Considered by many as his best work, the story is narrated by a former landlord executed during land reform in 1950. Unwilling to admit that he committed any crime other than being rich, he is reincarnated into various domestic animals who observe up close the changes in his home village during the subsequent 50 years. See also ROOT-SEEKING LITERATURE. MODERN POETRY MOVEMENT IN TAIWAN. In the decade from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, Taiwan saw the emergence of four major poetry societies that played significant roles at different junctures of the modern poetry movement: the Modernists, the Blue Stars led by Tan Zihao, Yu Guangzhong, and others; the Creationists, represented by Zhang Mo, Luo Fu, and Ya Xian; and the Regionalists, also called Li (Bamboo Hats). The modernist movement was spearheaded by Ji Xian, who founded Xiandai shi (Modern Poetry) in 1953. Three years later, the Modernist Society (Xiandai pai) was formally established, drawing a membership of more than a hundred poets. In their mission statement, the Modernists proclaimed their avant-garde position, em- phasizing “horizontal transplantation” (learning directly from Western literature) rather than vertical transmission (inheriting from Chinese traditions), and the discovery of new content, form, tools and methods. They advocated wholesale Westernization and looked for inspiration in Western poetry since Charles Baudelaire. The modernist move- ment could be regarded as a continuation of the cause pursued by Dai Wangshu and his colleagues, including Ji Xian, two decades earlier in Shanghai. The radical departure from Chinese tradition, along with the 142 • MODERN POETRY MOVEMENT IN TAIWAN exclusive emphasis on intellect rather than emotions, made the Modern- ists easy targets for criticism. In 1959, Ji Xian left the Modernist Society and the journal he founded, Xiandai shi, was closed down in 1964, end- ing a decade of its influence in Taiwan’s poetry movement. Another group, the Blue Stars Society, was founded in 1954 and dis- banded in 1964. In the course of 10 years, it attracted many promising poets and published several dozen poetry collections. Less radical than the Modernists, the Blue Stars were apposed to indiscriminate adop- tion of Western traditions, choosing instead to emphasize the creation of “pure poetry” based on personal perceptions of life. While the Blue Stars also adopted Western modernist techniques, they perceived poetry as the expression of the individual self in concert with national spirit and cultural heritage. The third influential poetry society was the Creationists, most of its members coming from the military in southern Taiwan. The society was established in 1954 and its journal, Chuang shiji (Creationists), was founded in October of the same year. Intended as a correction to the Modernists, the Creationists rejected absolute “intellectualism” or absolute “emotionalism” in favor of imageries and symbols. In the late 1950s, when the influence of the other two societies began to wane, the Creationists abandoned their earlier positions and opted for “surrealism” in an attempt to move poetry from relying on reason and rationality to a focus on aesthetics. In 1969, financial difficulties forced them to close down Chuang shiji, which would be revived in 1972 with a renewed emphasis on tradition and reality. While the above three societies were more or less drawn to the idea of pure poetry, the few regionalist groups, most prominently Li, the Bamboo Hats, tried to call attention to the social realities of Taiwan. The emergence of the Bamboo Hats marked the rising of a unique Tai- wanese consciousness and identity. Its bimonthly, Li, from which the name for the group was derived, was one of the most influential poetry publications in Taiwan during the time. With its emphasis on Taiwan’s history, geography, and reality, the journal published poems that con- tained social messages, regional flavor, and colloquial language. Other prominent members include Lin Hengtai, Fei Ma, Du Guoqing, Huang Hesheng, and Zheng Chouyu. MODERNISTS (XIANDAI PAI). In 1931, the publisher Xiandai shuju (Modern Books) put out Xiandai yuekan (Modern Monthly) and shortly MODERNISTS • 143 after Dai Wangshu founded Xin shi (New Poetry). These two journals became the main venues for modernist writings. Authors whose works were published in these two journals became known as belonging to the modernists (xiandai pai). Poetry was by far the dominant genre in modernist literature and characterized by symbolism, graceful language, and romantic sentiments. Among its representative poets were Dai Wangshu, Li Jinfa, Ai Qing, He Qifang, and Li Guangtian. The term also refers to the literary movement in Taiwan some 30 years later, when a group of faculty and students at the Foreign Languages De- partment of the National Taiwan University launched Xiandai wenxue (Modern Literature), a magazine that systematically introduced Western modernist writings and published works by Taiwan’s own modernist writers. Bai Xianyong and Wang Wenxing are among the founders of the movement. See also CHEN RUOXI; OUYANG ZI. MU DAN, PEN NAME OF ZHA LIANGZHENG (1919–1977). Poet. Born in Tianjin, Mu Dan studied Western literature at Qinghua Uni- versity. When Japan invaded China, he followed his university to the southwestern city of Kunming to continue his studies. After receiving his bachelor’s from the National Southwestern Associated University in 1940, he joined the Chinese Expedition Force to Burma to aid the British troops fighting against the Japanese Imperial Army, a traumatic experience that nearly cost him his life. In 1949, he enrolled in the University of Chicago and three years later he was awarded a master’s degree in English literature. A year after that, he returned to Tianjin to teach at the Foreign Languages Department of Nankai University. Dur- ing the Anti-Rightist Campaign in the late 1950s, Mu Dan was stripped of his teaching responsibilities and assigned to work as a librarian, a post he held until a heart attack took his life in 1977. Mu Dan’s literary reputation rests solely on three poetry collections published in the 1940s: Tanxianzhe (The Explorer), Mu Dan shi ji 1939–1945 (Collected Poems by Mu Dan 1939–1945), and Qi (Flags). Influenced by T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, and William Butler Yeats, Mu Dan’s poetic voice is meditative, philosophical, ironic, and at times abstract, questioning the meaning of life and dealing with issues con- cerning the self, the soul, and the spiritual. Although he did write some patriotic poems such as “Zan mei” (A Song of Praise), he was much more adept at treating existential subjects such as alienation and tragic human existence. Mu’s poetic persona is often portrayed as lost, alien- 144 • MU DAN, PEN NAME OF ZHA LIANGZHENG ated, and fractured, as shown in “Cong xuwu dao chongshi” (From Ni- hilism to Substantiation). “Fangkong dong de shuqing shi” (Lyrics of an Air-raid Shelter), a poem written during the Sino-Japanese War, while expressing compassion, patriotism, and hope, does not echo the heroic, indignant sentimentalism of much of the Chinese poetry produced at the time. Mu Dan understood the anxiety Chinese intellectuals felt as their country transitioned from the established order in which they were firmly anchored to the new, unpredictable world. While the sense of alienation expressed in his poems is firmly grounded in Chinese reality, he saw the Chinese experience as part of a human dilemma. In “She de youhuo” (The Seduction of the Snake), a parody of the Biblical story, Mu Dan readily embraces the Christian notion of original sin to convey both the Chinese intellectual’s spiritual crisis and the universal human condition. As a poet experimenting with a new form and a new lan- guage, Mu Dan did not attempt to bridge the old and the new. Indeed, his poems, whether in form or content, show little influence from the Chinese poetic tradition. Like Shen Congwen, Feng Zhi, and many others who gave up creative writing after 1949 and turned instead to the politically safer academic writing or translation work, Mu Dan wrote only a few poems after he returned to China from the United States. He devoted his en- ergy to translating Russian and English literature. Among the authors he translated are Alexander Pushkin, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats. His translation of Byron’s Don Juan, which he finished in the 1970s, is widely considered a masterpiece in its own right. Mu Dan’s literary accomplishment was largely ignored in the People’s Re- public of China until the 1980s, when the rediscovered poet was hailed as the most innovative modernist poet in 20th-century China. MU SHIYING (1912–1940). Fiction writer. Born in Zhejiang, Mu Shiy- ing spent his childhood in Shanghai with his banker father. While a student at Guanghua University majoring in Chinese language and literature, Mu was deeply engrossed in modern Western literature as well as works by Japanese New Sensibility school writers, especially those by Yokomitsu Riichi, which informed much of his work. He published his first story “Zanmen de shijie” (Our World) in 1930. Another story, “Gong mu” (Public Cemetery), made the pages of the first issue of Xiandai (Modernity), a literary journal that advocated for MU SHIYING • 145 Chinese modernism, establishing Mu as one of the prominent writers in the Chinese modernist movement, now often mentioned in the com- pany of Shi Zhecun and Liu Na’ou as a prominent New Sensibility (Xin Ganjue pai) writer. The stories in his first collection of fiction, entitled Nan bei ji (The North and South Poles), explore the rough world of pirates, salt merchants, gang members, cabbies, beggars, and other such figures who talk dirty and act tough. In his second collec- tion, Gong mu (The Public Cemetery), he turns to the subtle feelings and emotions of urban bourgeois life, a central subject for all New Sensibility writers. He put great emphasis on the exploration of the individual psyche and the perception of reality through the senses and thus won critical acclaim. His stories feature Freudian psychoanalysis, focusing on love, marriage, and sexuality as a medium through which to explore the theme of alienation in modern city life. His stories collected in Baijin de nüti suxiang (The Platinum Female Statue), Yezonghui li de wuge ren (The Five People in the Night Club), and Shanghai de hubuwu (Shanghai’s Fox Trot) represent some of the best New Sensibility writings. Many of Mu’s stories feature the femme fatale who represents the lethal eros of the modern city that abandons middle-class men after it has seduced them, leaving them in a state of confusion and despondence. In the aftermath of the Japanese invasion, Mu went to Hong Kong but soon returned to Shanghai in 1939 to work for a newspaper run by the puppet government of Wang Jingwei, who collaborated with the Japanese. The following year, Mu was assassinated, allegedly by Chi- ang Kai-shek’s secret service. His name was not cleared until the 1970s, when new evidence surfaced that he had been sent by the Nationalist government to infiltrate the puppet administration. – N – NATIVISTS (XIANGTU PAI). Wang Luyan (1901–1944) is widely considered the first of the Chinese nativist writers to explore the unique culture of his native land and to write about the effects of industrial forces that threatened the survival of rural communities in prerevolutionary China. After the 1920s, Chinese nativist literature evolved into several different forms. In sharp contrast to Lu Xun, who portrayed the countryside as the bastion of traditional values 146 • NATIVISTS that inflicted serious damage to the Chinese national spirit, Shen Congwen depicted rural western Hunan as a pastoral refuge against modernization and Westernization. Meanwhile, the Communists pro- moted peasant literature, resulting in a number of writers whose works are characterized by their unique regional flavors. Zhao Shuli and his Shanxi Potato school and Sun Li and his Hebei Lotus Lake school were two of the most influential regional literary groups. In Taiwan after 1949, there was a group of writers emerging from the country- side who stood up against the influential trend of Westernization in Taiwanese literature by writing about traditional rural communities pushed to the fringes by Taiwan’s modernization process. Their work met with strong resistance, and in some cases ridicule, from the elitist camp, which was dominated by pro-Western and modernist writers. The 1977 debates on nativist literature carried out between Peng Ge, Zhu Xining, and Yu Guangzhong on one side and Ye Shitao, Chen Yingzhen, and Wang Tuo on the other highlighted the differences in the two groups’ aesthetic and political views. In the years that fol- lowed the debates, the nativists gradually gained a strong foothold in Taiwan, producing among the group such prominent names as Huang Chunming, Wang Zhenhe, and Chen Yingzhen. The nativist movement in its various forms and manifestations has influenced the root-seeking literature on the mainland since the 1980s. NEW CULTURE MOVEMENT (XIN WENHUA YUNDONG). As- sociated with the May Fourth Movement and motivated by an urgent sense of cultural endangerment, the New Culture Movement was born in 1915 when Chen Duxiu founded Qingnian zazhi (Youth Magazine), renamed Xin qingnian (New Youth) a year later. In its first issue, Chen urged the nation’s youths to throw away the “feudalist” shackles that had restricted the Chinese mind for more than a thousand years and to adopt Western concepts of democracy and science. He challenged them to be “independent instead of slavish,” “progressive instead of conservative,” “outgoing instead of withdrawn,” “down-to-earth instead of pretentious,” “scientific instead of imaginary,” and “open instead of unreceptive to the rest of the world.” When Chen accepted the offer of Cai Yuanpei, president of Beijing University, the center of the New Cul- ture Movement shifted from Shanghai to Beijing. Cai, a liberal-minded administrator, recruited some of the nation’s best minds for his uni- versity, including Hu Shi, Li Dazhao, Qian Xuantong, Liu Bannong, NEW CULTURE MOVEMENT • 147 Zhou Zuoren, and Lu Xun. These and other prominent intellectuals helped make Beijing University a breeding ground for the New Culture Movement. In addition to the campaign for social reforms based on “Mr. Democ- racy” and “Mr. Science,” which included educational reforms and the emancipation of women, the New Culture advocates waged a literary campaign to promote a new literature written in the vernacular instead of classical Chinese, which had a stranglehold on Chinese political, intellectual, and literary discourses. This linguistic reform, advocated by Hu and others, went far beyond the restructuring of the language; it had profound ramifications for the Chinese society as a whole. With classical Chinese taken down from its lofty pedestal, the authority of the classics and their intellectual and moral hold on the Chinese conscious- ness were loosened. The modernization of the country, the New Culture proponents argued, demanded a new written language and a new lit- erature that was accessible to the broad masses not just the intellectual elite. In the 1917 February issue, Chen published “Wenxue geming lun” (On Literary Revolution), in which he defined the new literature as be- ing “unassuming and expressive,” “fresh and honest,” and “plain and popular,” a people’s literature that was realistic and socially engaged. Xin qingnian was the chief venue for publishing new literary works. Pioneering writings such as Hu’s vernacular poems and Lu Xun’s short stories made their first appearances in Xin qingnian. These and other progressive writings offered critical examinations of age-old Chinese traditions, especially Confucianism, and advocated learning from the West, some going so far as to call for total Westernization. Extremely popular among the educated youths, Xin qingnian inspired many reform-minded political activists such as Mao Zedong, who was introduced to Marxism by the magazine, as well as literary youths such as Ba Jin, who came into contact with it in the remote southwestern city of Chengdu. Largely confined to the intellectual elite, the New Culture Movement nevertheless brought widespread changes to Chinese society. In the beginning, the movement focused on attacking traditional thoughts and practices and bringing in new ideas and concepts from abroad. As some of the leaders became increasingly radicalized and opted for political action, as exemplified by Chen and Li, who went on to become founders of the Chinese Communist Party, the movement branched off in two separate directions: with Hu, Zhou, and others in- 148 • NEW CULTURE MOVEMENT terested in gradual and intellectual enlightenment and Chen, Li, Lu Xun, and others pushing for political radicalism. NEW GENERATION WRITERS (XIN SHENG DAI ZUOJIA). A term used for young writers who were born in the 1970s or 1980s, the latter also called “the post-1980s generation” (bashi niandai hou zuojia). Many among the group became famous at a young age, often while still in high school. In many ways, this is the generation of the Internet, which launched many careers by publishing works online and attracting a siz- able following among Web surfers. It is also the generation of market economy, with youth magazines such as Mengya (Sprouts) promoting and marketing literary stars. The works by this new generation of writ- ers are known for explicit, sometimes sensationalist, sexual content, distinctly unabashed exhibition of materialism, and self-absorption. Ini- tially rejected by the mainstream literary establishment, the best among them have gradually gained recognition from critics for their increasingly sophisticated treatment of youth culture in contemporary society. The best known and most commercially successful among this generation of writers are Wei Hui and Han Han. See also HU JIAN; LI SHASHA; SU DE; XIAO FAN; YAN GE; ZHANG YUERAN. NEW SENSIBILITY SCHOOL (XIN GANGJUE PAI). Active in the 1930s and 1940s, the New Sensibility writers, most prominently Shi Zhecun, Mu Shiying, and Liu Na’ou, wrote about the lives of the young and flamboyant generation in the bustling metropolis of Shang- hai, exploring the workings of the individual psyche and the perception of reality through the senses. Their focus on sensual experiences and the musicality of language set them apart from other modernist writers who shared their obsession with modern urban life with its dance halls, cafés, and movie theaters. NI KUANG, A.K.A. NI YIMING, NI CONG, WEI SILI, AND SHA WENG (1935– ). A prolific writer of science fiction, fantastic tales, martial arts novels, and popular romances, Ni Kuang was born in Shanghai and moved to Hong Kong in 1957. Since 1992, he has been living in San Francisco. In the early 1960s, encouraged by Jin Yong, he began writing science fiction, becoming arguably the best-known sci- ence fiction writer in the Chinese-speaking world. His Weisili Xilie (The Wellesley Series) and Shentan Gaosi xilie (Goss the Great Detective) have won him a large following among Chinese readers. As movies NI KUANG, A.K.A. NI YIMING, NI CONG, WEI SILI, AND SHA WENG • 149 turned into a major entertainment venue in Hong Kong, Ni embarked on a successful career writing for the film industry. He has written more than 300 film scripts. Known also for his anti-Communist stance, Ni is believed to have said, “To be patriotic, one must be opposed to Com- munism and to be opposed to Communism is patriotic.” NIE GANNU (1903–1986). Essayist, poet, and short story writer. Known for his wit and extraordinary talent, Nie Gannu spent his youth in the 1920s working as a secretary in the Nationalist army, teaching school in Malaysia, editing newspapers in Burma, training as a cadet in the Huangpu Military Academy in Guangzhou, and studying at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow. In the 1930s, he joined the Left-wing Associa- tion of Chinese Writers and the Communist Party and spent several months in prison in Japan for his anti-Japanese activities. In the 1930s and 1940s, while editing progressive newspapers and journals, he wrote political essays, satirizing the Nationalist government and its attacks on the Communists. He also wrote about social injustice and the plight of women. For his sharp and biting language, Nie is widely considered the number two essayist, after Lu Xun, in modern Chinese literature, writing in the genre of satirical essay. After 1949, Nie worked as editor for the Wenhui Daily in Hong Kong and the People’s Literature Press in Beijing. A proud and independent man, he was considered by the authorities as “unruly” and “liberal” and suffered a great deal during the various political campaigns of the People’s Republic of China, despite being a veteran party member and having a long-standing friendship with many of the top leaders. In his later years, Nie wrote many poems in the classical style. Because of his personal integrity and the acute political insights he expressed in his writings, his work has attracted renewed interest in recent years. Other than his essays, Nie also wrote short stories and critical essays on classical Chinese novels. NIE HUALING (1925– ). Fiction and prose writer. Born in Hubei Prov- ince, Nie Hualing graduated from Central University with a degree in English. She moved to Taiwan in 1949 to work as a literary editor for Ziyou Zhongguo (Free China), a bimonthly journal that promoted liberal ideals, and soon after began to publish stories. In 1964, Nie went to the United States to participate in the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. In 1967, Nie and her future husband, Paul Engle, established the International Writing Program, which attracted many writers from all over the world. During the 21 years the couple ran the program, 150 • NIE GANNU hundreds of writers were invited to Iowa City, including more than 80 from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the mainland. For their tireless effort to promote exchange among writers of different cultures and countries, Nie and Engle received numerous awards, including the Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts from the Governors Association. Nie retired from the University of Iowa in 1988. Nie’s best-known work is a fictional piece entitled Sangqing yu Tao- hong (Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China) about a woman’s transformation from innocent youth to hardened middle age. Mulberry and Peach, two different aspects of the same person, represent self- alienation of the individual, calling into question the meaning of self- identity. Told in the form of journal entries and letters, the story centers on the theme of exile, underscoring the attempt to flee from various kinds of predicament, both external and internal. Another work, San sheng san shi (Three Lives in Three Worlds), is an autobiographical ac- count of the author’s life in China, Taiwan, and the United States. For her portrayals of strong female characters, Nie is regarded as one of the forerunners of Taiwan’s feminist movement. – O – OUYANG JIANGHE (1956– ). Poet and poetry critic. Like many of the Generation III poets, Ouyang Jianghe grew up in Sichuan. He is from a military family and served for nine years in the army. Ouyang is deeply indebted to classical Chinese poetry, having committed to memory hundreds of poems. Prior to “Xuan guan” (Cliff Burials), published in 1985 and which he regards as the watershed in his career, his early poetry pays homage to his cultural heritage, with an emphasis on the dichotomy between Sichuan’s ancient shamanist heritage and centralized imperial power, as well as the interplay between modern and classical Chinese. The change after “Xuan guan” to contemporary themes without the weight of history opened for the poet an outlet to explore the relationship between word and object. “Shouqiang” (The Handgun), which brings into focus the temporal and conceptual quality of the physical entity, is representative of these later poems. Ouyang’s view of poetics is articulated in Zhan zai xugou zhe bian (On the Side of Fabrication), a collection of essays on contemporary Chinese poetry, including critiques of Bei Dao and fellow Sichuanese OUYANG JIANGHE • 151 . pages of the first issue of Xiandai (Modernity), a literary journal that advocated for MU SHIYING • 145 Chinese modernism, establishing Mu as one of the prominent writers in the Chinese modernist. instead of withdrawn,” “down-to-earth instead of pretentious,” “scientific instead of imaginary,” and “open instead of unreceptive to the rest of the world.” When Chen accepted the offer of Cai. Academy in Guangzhou, and studying at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow. In the 1930s, he joined the Left-wing Associa- tion of Chinese Writers and the Communist Party and spent several months