Crescent Society Study

As one of the most important literary organizations and celebrated liberalistic intellectuals group from 1920s to 1930s, the Crescent Society (later abbreviated as CS) has exerted far-reaching influence upon Chinese modern literature and thoughts. Though a lot has been discussed in the past decades, yet there is still much room for further study. Focusing on its personnel and activities, this dissertation attempts to present a clear and comprehensive picture of the CS. This dissertation consists of five chapters.Chapter one mainly clarifies some fundamental information about the CS, such as its time and backgrounds of the formation, its members of the construction and daily activities which has the characteristic of Chinese traditional scholars etc. Besides, this paper analyzes related historical materials about the CS receiving actively the well-known Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore.Centering on the Morning Newspaper Supplement edited by Xu Zhimo, Chapter two deals with how the Crescent intellectuals take advantage of this media to propagandize their political and literary viewpoints. In some extent, several significant polemics during this period embody their steadfast liberalistic standpoints. On the other hand, Both the Poem Weekly and the Drama Weekly demonstrate the Crescent artists devote themselves to their beloved poetry and drama. However, the two periodicals are dissolved lasting only about several months due to the divergence among the colleagues and other reasons.In Chapter three, the Crescent Bookstore becomes the core of the whole story. Firstly, this dissertation discusses the reason why the old and new members of the CS set up one bookstore in Shanghai, then reveals the history of the bookstore as well as its achievements from the beginning to the end. The author holds that there are five managers in charge of the bookstore and emphasizes particularly Shao Xunmei makes great efforts for the existence of the bookstore. Lastly, thisdissertation argues the reasons why the CS fails in publishing circles.Focusing on the Crescent Monthly, Chapter four mainly explores the coordination and divergences among the CS colleagues who each has unique value orientation. From the perspective of the editors being changed repeatedly, this dissertation presents that some of the members who foster lots of younger writers are inclined to the literature and others who fight for their pursuit of the liberalism which fails in China for its reformed scheme but not revolution concern the current politics. While confronting the left-wing literature circles, the CS members take the consistent stand and Liang Shiqiu plays the protagonist of the whole debate.Chapter five mainly centers on the Poem Quarterly and the Crescent Poem Anthology to deal with how the younger generation of the Crescent poets inherits from the older as well as makes some breakthroughs in theory and writing. Nevertheless, this dissertation also points out the unique position of the Crescent poets in 1930s: their opinion of the rule and form of the poem is despised by the Modern School poets while their works are criticized by the left-wing poets who regard them inactive and far away from the popular people. In the end, this dissertation traces the main members of the CS. The author holds that the activities of the CS as a whole end up the stop publication of Xuewen Monthly. In short, the personnel flow centering on the above-mentioned "public spaces" in some extent mirrors the vicissitude of this literary organization and liberalistic intellectuals group.