Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.2, 2018

Rethinking, Reforming and Rejuvenating Traditional Culture: A Perspective from Hundred-Year Practice of the Two Cultural Heritages of the New Culture Movement

 (Abstract)

Zhang Bojiang

The New Culture Movement presented a series of revolutionary ideas on culture, such as the replacement of classical Chinese by vernacular Chinese, and getting rid of all traditional literary and artistic representations as well as that the traditional opera represented by Peking opera also became a target of attack of radical cultural evolutionist. The vernacular Chinese gained success in a short time, whereas the Peking opera that suffered public criticism also entered into a peak period 20 to 30 years later. For more than half a century, the loss and confusion of tradition in theatrical theory directly caused art to whither, whereas the modern Chinese language has developed well by integrating Chinese and Western theories and practices. The historical reality of success and failure demonstrates that those artistic forms rooted in the people and with creative inheritance of national cultural tradition will gain vitality, whereas those practices that cut up the connection with tradition and  follow the Western norms unthinkingly will inevitably harm national artistic forms.