Urban Experience And Cultural Transmutation:the Modern Transformation Of The City Theme Poetry

The modern transformation of the city theme poetry began in the Westernization Movement after 1860,basically completed of the publication of Guo Moruo's poetry"goddess" in 1921.It could be divided into four stages:the Opium War(1840-1860),the Westernization Movement(1860-1895),the Poetic Revolution(1895-1917)and the vernacular poetry(1917-1921).Urbanization was the main force of the modern transformation of the city theme poetry.And it was intertwined with the political changes,jointly promoting the modern transformation of the city theme poetry.With the city theme poetry developing to modern times,the creation became complicated.The new poetry content was mixed with the old poetic content.The city theme poetry had multiple experiences on the city.There was a traditional experience because of classical city experience,a primary experience because of the new experience of modern city,a development experience because of the literati travelling to the western city,and a deep experience because of the beautiful and ugly city.In modern times,the city theme poetry encountered the dilemma of poetry form.To solve it,the city theme poetry began to use foreign vocabulary with various things of western modern city into poetry,so the language was gradually westernized.At the same time,the city theme poetry also began to use dialect and oral vocabulary,so the language gradually became colloquial and popular.In addition,the city theme poetry began to use group poems and song poetry,so the form became relatively free.What's more,the city theme poetry often put two spaces together to compare the content,so poetry had a sense of space.In the modern transformation of the city theme poetry,people's cultural mentality had undergone three subtle and tortuous changes,changing from the self-contentment in the conservative attitude,to the refusal and escape in the situation of Chinese and western collision,to the reference and reflection in the need of learning from the West.After the transformation,the city theme poetry had many changes.First,the poetic object became from the traditional agriculture-based city in which there was commercial consumption but not industrial production,to the modern industry-based city in which there were both commercial consumption and industrial production.And the selection of city expanded from own country to other countries.Second,before the transformation,the content of the poetry was mainly on the depiction of urban architecture and natural landscape,the show of the traditional festivals of the city,the criticism of the luxury life of the feudal nobility,the sympathy of the poor people at the bottom of the city,and the sigh of the rise and fall of the city.After the transformation,the content of the poetry was mainly on the depiction of modern urban architecture,the show of the custom in modern city,the criticism of the urban bourgeoisie,the sympathy of the working people,and the reflections on urban reality.Third,before the transformation,the cultural mentality was conservative.At that time,people thought that own country was the center of the world,the most powerful country,and other countries are barbarians.After the transformation,the cultural mentality was open.People had a concept about the world,and understood the fact that China was an ordinary one of many countries in the world,which would be bullied if not self-development.Finally,the form of poetry mainly changed from classical Chinese poetry to a relatively free vernacular poem.