This study will examine the nature of the differences between contemporary Chinese writers and Chinese writers associated with the earlier May Fourth literary group. The argument of the study will be that although the notions of literary creation of both groups are similar, there are indeed major differences between the two, and these differences are due to the times and circumstances of their lives and by the genres in which they write or wrote. Specifically, as with all literary movements, each group was or is marked by their desire to break from some important features or attitudes of the approach of earlier writers. The May Fourth group was intent on breaking away from the earlier, more traditional approach, while contemporary writers were and are trying to break from the approach of the May Fourth writers.
As Edward Morin writes in his Introduction to The Red Azalea: Chinese Poetry Since the Cultural Revolution, the May Fourth movement had its origins in the Literary Revolution of 1917:
The most obvious feature of this May Fourth legacy is a preoccupation with China's multitude of pressing political, economic, and cultural problems---concerns reflected not only in the subject matter by modern Chinese writers but also in how and why they wrote.
. . . These writers saw the main function of imaginative writing to be the truthful depiction of the social reality of the times. They wanted to hasten the destruction of the ancient and decrepit social order so that from its ashes a new China could be created (Morin xv-xvi).
This May Fourth movement was given further, and increasingly ideological, encouragement and direction by Mao, who "transformed [it] . . . into the combination of 'revolutionary realism' and 'revolutionary romanticism'"( Morin xvi).
Examples of this May Fourth movement are Lu Xun and Yu Dafu, whose works will be explored in detail in this study.
On the other hand, the movement of "contemporary...