Chinese Literature - Li-hua Ying 2010

MODERNISTS (XIANDAI PAI)
The Dictionary

MODERNISTS (XIANDAI PAI). In 1931, the publisher Xiandai shuju (Modern Books) put out Xiandai yuekan (Modern Monthly) and shortly 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 Department 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.