Modernization of Chinese Literature in the Early 20th Century: Perspectives of Leo Ou-fan Lee, C.T.Hsia, and David Der-wei Wang

Abstract

This article analyzes the modernization of Chinese literature in the early 20th century, particularly the literary transformations that occurred in the context of the New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Movement of the 1910s–1920s. The study highlights several key features of this period: the introduction of a new literary language based on baihua instead of wenyan, genre and stylistic innovations in poetry and prose, the emergence of the “literary self” (the active individual “I”), and the search for a new national literary identity formed through Western–Eastern cultural hybridity. The research focuses on the perspectives of three prominent scholars–Leo Ou-fan Lee, C.T.Hsia, and David Der-wei Wang. Lee interprets modernity as an “unfinished/in-progress” state and as a hybrid poetic experiment; Hsia argues that “total commitment to China” (an excessive prioritization of national trauma) may restrict artistic innovation; while Wang explains modernity as a multi-staged process and questions the absolutization of the May Fourth period as a historical “zero point.” The study concludes that although the May Fourth literary renewal represents a crucial turning point, it should be viewed as one phase within a much longer trajectory of Chinese literary modernization.