Poetry Movements in Taiwan from the 1950s to the late 1970s: Breaks and Continuities

• Published in: China perspectives 2006-11 (68), p.56-65
• Main Authors: LEROUX, ALAIN, Hall, Jonathan, Mason, Caroline
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chinese culture; Classical poetry; Literary criticism; Literature; Modern literature; Modernist poetry; Poetic forms; Poetic meter; Poetic movements; Poetry; Surrealist poetry
• ISSN: 2070-3449; 1996-4617

The period between 1950 and the late 1970s saw the birth of modern poetry in Taiwan and its emergence from a "rebellion" that took place both within and against the overarching influence of classical poetry, which it finally replaced. During this period it created its own language and cultural space, and finally found its rightful place among the general cultural activities of the time. At a time when "poets could not avoid forming alliances", as Yü Kwang-chung (余光中) has observed(1), the journals and the movements for which they provided a voice and a rallying point, played an essential part in encouraging reflection on the nature and role of contemporary poetry, and in developing its language. In addition to the poems they published, the authors they introduced, and the translations of foreign works they made known, each of these journals expressed clearly defined theoretical choices, and made their own contribution to what came to be known in Taiwan as the modern poem (現代詩, xiandaishi).