A study on the canonization issues of Jintian (Today) = "Jin tian" de jing dian hua wen ti yan jiu

Abstract

The late 1970s witnesses the evolution of Chinese contemporary poetry. This trend, known as the “newpoetry tide” (xinshichao), can be dated back to the underground literature of educated youth during the Cultural Revolution. Jintian (Today),an unofficial poetry journal launched in 1978 and suspended in 1980, played an important role in the transformation of China’s modern poetry. It not only provided a publication platform for youth poets such as Bei Dao, Shu Ting, Gu Cheng and Mang Ke, but also triggered controversy over poetry aesthetics in China during the 1980s. Its canonization process, from an underground journal to an officially recognized voice, is therefore worth studying.

This thesis employs a genealogical approach to examine the steps of Jintian’s canonization. It consists of four chapters. Chapter 1 offers an introduction of Jintian, and defines the scope of research(the total 9 issues of the journal from 1978 to 1980). It also explains the three core canonization indicators. They are: 1) popularity among readers, 2) a lasting span of popularity, and 3) being recognized by authoritative organizations (either official or non-official ones). Chapter 2 analyze show Jintian became eligible for China’s literary canon. On the basis of the three aforementioned indicators, it elucidates Jintian’s canonization from three aspects –its popularity among readers in the 1980s and after 2000, using various references about Jintian and the statistical data from book.douban.com; its appraisals in a number of books on contemporary China’s literary history; and Jintian’s status in current poetry collections and major Chinese textbooks of primary and secondary education. Chapter 3 probes into the reasons behind Jintian’s canonization. It posits that Jintian’s success can be attributed to both the internal and external forces. Theinternal forces include the rhetoric of the poems published in Jintian that was close to the tastes of the general reader, and Jintian’s highly effective editorial team. Meanwhile, Jintian coincidentally resonated with China’s overall desire for modernization in the 1980s. This, together with the early 1980s’ vigorous debate on “misty poetry”(menglongshi), also helped promote the canonization of Jintian. Chapter 4 scrutinizes the literary historiography surrounding Jintian. It argues that Jintian’s canonization is paradigmic, and its paradigm can be considered a paradigm of modernization. It then looks at the internal unequal hierarchy of poets related to Jintian, the relationship between the “Baiyangdian Poetry Group” and the Jintian group in literary historiography, as well as the relative marginalization(except Shu Ting) of Jintian’s women poets. The concluding chapter points out the canonization of Jintian can serve as an epitome of the rise and decline of private poetry journals and contemporary Chinese literature in general. In addition, it argues that the study of Jintian’s canonization is simultaneously a deconstruction of its position in contemporary Chinese literature, and as such, a better understanding of contemporary China’s literary historiography andhistory of thoughts of the 1980s can be reached.