Writing Outside of the Poetry——An Overview of Research on Contemporary Chinese Poetry Abroad

The language applied in contemporary Chinese poetry is the product of the Vernacular Movement. Contemporary Chinese poetry cannot break away from the classical poetic tradition; on the other hand, Western poetry also has exerted great influence upon it. So it is the hybrid of both localization and Western influence. It undertook the task of literary revolution and national independence from its beginning. Consequently, poets applied special discourse for a long time.Thus, the research on contemporary Chinese poetry abroad has been conducted from the aspects mentioned above. Stephen Owen's criticism on contemporary Chinese poetry is very influential, he pointed out that we cannot find enchantment in contemporary Chinese poetry because many poets have adopted discourse under the influence of Western languages for the purpose of catering to readers abroad and these poems are translated versions of Western poetry without originality. Michelle Yeh, Rey Chow and other poets have responded to Stephen Owen's criticism on the fact that it's hard to distinguish the influence exerted upon contemporary Chinese poetry by Chinese classical and foreign poetry. Political themes are also the focus of academic research in Western countries, which can be indicated from the research conducted by Wolfgang Kubin and Bonnie S. McDougall. In the 1990s, poetry had been marginalized and some scholars have examined the fate of contemporary Chinse poetry from the perspective of the literary field. Heather Inwood analyzed struggle and conflict among different "fields":mass media and the internet have produced many poets of popular culture; therefore, poetry can be composed by anyone who wants to do so while other poets try their best to maintain the elegance of good taste in poetry with expectations of the definition of poetry from the traditional view and readers' reasonable understanding of poetry.