Modern Chinese Poetry Examined by Critical Discourse Analysis
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Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies, 2019, 8 (1): 19-34 Braving Cultural Identity: Modern Chinese Poetry Examined by Critical Discourse Analysis KHEI Yok Man @ KHEI Yok Lee * Abstract Modern Chinese poetic discourse, being a genre in its own right, has since flourished under the very umbrella of practical, modernized Chinese poetry, but not entirely through the translation of modernized Western poetry. In this vein, within the scope of the selected three modern Chinese poems written by poets from Mainland China, Taiwan and Malaysia between 1980 and 2018, this paper examines the various dimensions of power, namely, reality in the representation of action, from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis. The poem from China, despite foreign influences, responds to the pursuit of a “national local colour” colloquially within the popular poetry paradigm, whereas the poems from Taiwan and Malaysia sustain a “strong connection to classical diction” and are congruent with the “form and text change” as well as “content determines form” orientation in their search for cultural identity. Key words: Critical Discourse Analysis, Modern Chinese Poetry, Taiwanese Haiku Introduction Chinese poetry dates back to the Book of Songs. Wen Xin Diao Long (henceforth Wenxin), the earliest collection of systematic literature theory and criticism in China, was produced in Qi Guo (nation state of Qi) of Nan Chao around A.D. 501-502. In the Shen Si section of Wenxin, the designation of imagery in a poetic discourse was believed to be the most prominent among all techniques in verse writing.1 It was so revered that contemporaries viewed the use of imagery in a poem as the major assessment and analytical construct in literary criticism. This strongly confirms the significance of imagery in Chinese poetic discourse since the time of Wenxin. Modern Chinese poetic discourse, as a genre in its own right, developed into a form around the 1930s in Mainland China when practical criticism or new criticism was formally introduced into the country at the institutional level, together with imported influence from Romanticism * KHEI Yok Man @ KHEI Yok Lee (祁毓里) is the English Subject Editor in the Curriculum Department of the United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong). E-mail: [email protected] 20 Khei (Eliot, 1999; Richards, 2008; and 陈越/Chen Yue, 2015). The term “modern” or “new” Chinese poetry indeed has since come into question as to whether it is to be understood as relevant to “modernism” of T. S. Eliot or modernity (modernism, realism, surrealism, postmodernism, hypertext, etc.). In view of this, Taiwanese poet and author Luo Qing (罗青, 1978) suggests the use of “vernacular poetry” to avoid ambiguity. With the advent of the May Fourth Movement in 1919, two years after Dr. Hu Shi’s manifesto in favour of the spoken language published in New Youth (1917), Europeanization was forcefully adopted in form as well as syntax. It eventually prompted the growth of Chinese literature at a later stage with characteristically “local colour” or national spirit, and the concern with the issue of cultural identity (张桃洲/Zhang Taozhou, 2013: 147). As Julian Lin noted (1973), the year 1937 saw “the most exciting and diverse experimentation in the history of modern Chinese poetry.” To most poets of the period, the experimentation was centred on the question of tradition versus modernity. But because classical poetry is inextricable from and emblematic of China, modern poetry is perceived by many Chinese readers as a challenge to the very cultural identity of China (Yeh, 2008: 16). Indeed, in many of the poems produced during the period roughly from 1920 to 2018, traces of foreign influence are evident. For example, the employment of themes and tones borrowed from Romanticism, Symbolism, Feminism as well as Modernism is always tinged with a touch of psychological approach. According to Zhang Yingjin (2016), in the English- speaking world, modern Chinese literature is a standardized term to cover the period from the late Qing dynasty to the present, after having witnessed the transition from the Republican (1920s-1940s), Socialist (1950s-1970s) and subsequent Open-door and Reform periods. Modern Chinese poetry began to break away from the shackles of traditional poetic rules that governed classical poetry with its strict adherence to meter, rhyme and tone patterns. Instead, it draws inspirations from Western styles by experimenting with irregular meter and free verses that are more readily amendable to Western ideologies. The outcome is the emergence of modern Chinese poetry characterized by a “hybrid” of Chinese and Western elements with a generous “borrowing from the West” (Yeh, 2008: 15 and 25). Moreover, there is clear evidence of Western influence on writing techniques in modern Chinese poetry. With the notion that “content determines form”, the influence on form and presentation is seen in the use of lines, stanza, visual employment of words, punctuations, including run-on-line, meters and tone pattern (纪弦/Ji Xian, 1970). The May Fourth Movement of 1919 was a defining event in the modern history of China in more than one way. One of its consequences was to unleash the Westernization of the Chinese language. Chinese author Zhang Taozhou (张桃洲/Zhang Taozhou, 2013) concludes that, in modern Chinese literature, this process resulted in the change of form and syntax (use of punctuations, segmentation, and related aspects of writing) as well as in the introduction of new terms and expressions directly from foreign languages. Modern Chinese Poetry and Critical Discourse Analysis 21 Yet it is noteworthy that after the founding of the Republic of China in 1949, Chinese poems were turned into folksongs, in the form of popular tunes in spoken style (Taiwan Today, 1968). At the same time, the language flourished without much intervention in Taiwan where the Kuomintang government had established itself. The folksongs were transformed from the 1980s when China began its Reform and Opening up policy. This led to an outburst of pent-up creativity leading to new forms of literary works and free verses inspired by the narratives of the recent past when artistic creations had to be politically correct. “Underground” poetry schools and camps including Han Haiku mushroomed almost overnight. These camps were led by, among others, poets such as Mang Ke and Duo Duo, who lived in the Baiyangdian region of Hebei province, and Ai Qiang, Xing Di and Shu Ting who were poets returning from overseas (新华社/Xinhuanet, 2008). Their creations became known as “Misty poetry” (poems marked by obscure manner in presentation and thematically challenged the Maoist artistic ideology of social realism) and its appearance ushered in a time when the intellectual poets, largely within the government system and elitist, and the minjian (grass-roots) poets at the other end of the power spectrum, parted ways in poetic discourse (Li, 2008: 185-200). The difference between the two categories of poets is further clarified by Wang Jiaxin (王家新, 2002): …. Minjian poets have stopped accepting influences passively and have begun to self-consciously, effectively, and creatively construct an inter-textual relation with the West. According to Day (2008: 201), there were at least 300 poetry websites operating online in China, and thus approximately there would be an enormous volume of new poems produced annually in China back in 2008. These amateur avant-garde poets, taking advantage of the development of the Internet in China after 1999, have reached out on a larger scale by blogging and posting e-poetry (Day, 2008: 203-204). Among these poetry websites, the outstanding ones include Water and Wood Qinghua, Poem Life, Object-ism, and Secular World being Here-ism. Low Poetry Movement is an example of popular poetry of the grassroots as opposed to the mainstream poetry that is considered “intellectual” and enjoys direct access to publication and avant-garde status without censorship through the Internet. The website Poem Life is considered to be weighted towards “intellectual” poetry or poetry in the received “Western” metaphysical tradition (张嘉谚/Zhang Jiayan, 2004). In contrast, the Low Poetry Movement is seen as an effort to purify Chinese poetic language and bring it closer to the lives and the language of the people (Day, 2008: 206). Moreover, updated by Lingenfelter (2008: 105-122), female poets with an unprecedented feminine stance writing frankly about all aspects of their lives also emerged in the 1970s, a prominent name being Zhai Yonming. In Taiwan, which emerged after the war of resistance against Japan in 1945 from 50 years of Japanese colonization and its education policy (1895-1945) and subsequent political reform, dominant modern poetic discourse (a subgenre of modern Chinese poetry) has advanced to 22 Khei include the infusion of Taiwanese Haiku. Lin Heng Tai was one of the modernist poets who composed both Taiwanese Haiku and poetry (吴昭新/Wu Zhaoxin, 2014). The Haiku is a three-lined poem acclaimed as the national poetic creation of Japan. Unlike the diversity of themes among the many Haiku schools in Japan, in Taiwan these themes are restricted to those celebrating the beauty of the seasons, including the flora and fauna. Taiwanese Haiku, though similar in form and structure, two-lined, limited to ten words sometimes, is not exactly Haiku in the strictest sense (吴昭新/Wu Zhaoxin, 2014). The Kuomintang government adopted a policy of attracting overseas Chinese students from Southeast Asia and Hong Kong to further their studies in Taiwan. Among these students were those who became poets and whose creations dealt with the Taiwan experience and native home from different perspectives and contexts. Some, such as Wen Rui An, Fang Er Zhen, Wang Run Hua, Lin Lü, Zhang Cuo and others, reminisced or glorified their forefathers’ motherland. Joining their rank in the 1970s were female poets such as Xia Yu and Xi Mu Rong who injected the feminine perspective to the new poetry.