Shanghai Culture And Modernistic Literature

Modern metropolis is the cradle of modernistic literature. In the beginning of the 20th century, Shanghai provided cultural context for modernistic literature. Researchers used to pay more attention to the foreign background and less to the native sources, more to the texts and less to the cultural level. In the view of culture, the paper explored the relationship of Chinese modern urban culture to her modernistic literature during the period from 1920s to 1940s.Shanghai Culture, as a form of modern urban culture, comes into being in the course of the communication and clash between eastern and western cultures. Thereafter, modern urban cultural context of Shanghai takes its form with the economic development, the improvement of civil system as well as the population growth. Shanghai Culture is characterized by its urban material space and entertainment, and the prosperity of the press and the assembly of writers build Shanghai into a new center of culture.The modernistic literature in China comes into being after the introduction and absorption of foreign modernistic literature. Shanghai Culture provides an important premise and foundation for the translation of foreign modernistic literature. In the 1930s, Shi Zhecun, Liu Naou, Du Heng and Dai Wangshu edited and published some magazines, including Yingluo, Trackless Train, New Literature, Modern Times and New Poetry. As a result, comparatively mature Chinese modernistic literary schools appeared: New Sense School and Modern Poetry. The above modernistic magazines, full of world cultural perspectives and pioneering spirit, present the Shanghai Culture spirit of plurality and innovation.From the perspective of cultural identity, representatives of Chinese modernistic literary schools are keen on urban life and are in pursuit of artistic creation and innovation. They embody the characteristics of Shanghai Culture—urbanity, pioneering and commercialism. In the face of the clash of eastern and western cultures, they not only show their imagination of western culture but present the strong influence of traditional Chinese culture. Before the fierce political battle and major social changes, they worried about their cultural identities and consequently the literary schools scattered. In the 1930s, the newly appeared Left Wing movement injected political connotation and positive vigor into Shanghai Culture, and the political cultural context deeply influenced the literary choice of modernistic writers. Under the influence of Left Wing culture, some symbolistic poets, such as Mu Mutian, Feng Naichao and Wang Duqing, turns from art creation to revolution, other modernistic writers, including Du Heng, Shi Zhecun and Dai Wangshu, once become members of the Left Wing. With the in-depth of the Left-wing cultural movement, they successively went out of Marxism and to the neo-liberalism, but such kind of influence hides in their life long creation.In Shanghai cultural context, the modernistic writers have different imaginations of the urban life. Some New Sense writers "seek prismy beauty in the crimes of Shanghai", the Modern Poets present "new mechanic civilization" and modern urban aesthetics, while the Jiu Ye (Nine Leaves) poets depict the situation of Shanghai after the war. Xu Yu makes an exploration of love and life in the social changes and battle. Zhang Ailing presents us "the smooth side of life" in the background of war. To conclude, the plural Shanghai Culture not only absorbs the modernistic connotation of western culture but also inherits the traditional eastern culture, therefore, the modernistic Chinese literature presents different "modernity" and "traditionalism" from western modernistic literature.