Irving Babbitt, who taught at Harvard University from 1912 to 1933, due to his respect to Oriental cultures and values, was well-regarded among the Chinese students.
[8] Invited by Mei Guangdi, Wu Mi returned from the United States and began teaching comparative literature at National Southeastern University in Nanjing, China in the fall of 1921.
[8] However, with the death of Liu Boming in November 1923, the Department of Western Literature was closed by the university in April 1924, leading to separation of the group.
In 1933, Liu Yizheng, Zhang Qiyun and Miao Fenglin at Southeastern decided to abandon The Critical Review and founded a new journal named Guofeng.
Journal of Historical geography run by Liu Yizheng and his students at Southeastern, and Thoughts and Times founded by Zhang Qiyun at Zhejiang University were also considered to be associated with the group.