Another is the more global phenomenon of modernism in poetry, involving rejecting traditional poetic forms and styles in favor of experimental developments and novelties.
The nineteenth century had been one of upset to traditional Chinese ideas and institutions, as China went through a period of successive loss of sovereign control and self-determination as a nation and internal struggles for political power of an often violent military nature.
After the Second Opium War (1856 to 1860), the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), and other conflicts China had lost control of important parts of its territory to Britain, France, the United States, Japan, Russia, Portugal, Germany, and other colonial powers, which are documented in a series of unequal treaties: these areas included all of Taiwan and many of the most important eastern cities.
These nineteenth century events in China resulted in an aftermath in which tens of millions of the population had died during the various conflicts, a significant part of the cultural legacy of China having been looted or destroyed (for example the Old Summer Palace and its contents, including the burning of the library), and that the Qing government increasingly having been viewed as less and less viable as a political institution, together with the Qing experiencing a demonstrable and ongoing erosion of territorial control.
[3] Gong Zizhen was quite disturbed by the condition of the empire,[4] and Huang Zunxian traveled widely in the course of his diplomatic duties, including to Japan, the United States, London, and Singapore.
Hu Shih, Xu Zhimo, Guo Moruo and some of poets followed this path towards a more modern literature, through the use of a more colloquial writing style.
The early twentieth century was also a period in which the world's other linguistic and cultural traditions of poetry greatly influenced Chinese poets, partly as a result of colonialism.
[7] The presence of European colonies on the mainland and the islands of Hong Kong and Macau also provided sources of international influence.
Many of Mao's popular poems can be seen to chronicle moments during his rise to power, from his early "Changsha" (1925) through "Reply to Mr. Liu Yazi" (1950).
Many (with notable exceptions) of the poets of the first half of the twentieth century were already dead, imprisoned, in exile, or subject to strong political pressures to make their work conform to the expectations of their ruling governmental bodies.
The Cold War (often dated 1947–1991) was one of the factors which contributed to the pressure on poets to produce patriotic poetry, and since then there has been some influence wrought by various political campaigns and plans.
These include relationships between politics and poetry, and also completely traditional practices in folk culture such as posting New Year's couplets.
It includes 52 poets such as Liao Chi-Yu, Yang Chih-Chieh, Hsu Pei-Fen, Zhuxue Deren, Tsao Yu-Po and Lin Yu-Hsuan.