Classicism in Sinophone Literature

Since the birth of vernacular freestyle Chinese poetry in 1917, a progressive “new literature” has been enshrined as the orthodox of modern Chinese literature and is further endowed with the mission of building or saving the nation. Classicist literature, however, remained popular throughout the Republican era and continued to thrive outside of mainland China after 1949, but it was perceived as frivolous, retroactive, or outdated by the institutionalized literary mainstream. In recent years, with the hand-in-hand rise of cultural consumerism and nationalism in mainland China, this literature has reentered academic discourse as a notable cultural and pop cultural phenomenon.