Abstract: This paper approaches the modern construction of Chinese "new poetry" from the perspective of translingual practice, and argues that the production of the new poetry is a combined result of the pursuit of cultural transformation and the influence from the Western modernity while translation functions as the medium. Chinese literary modernity presents itself first in the Europeanized baihua (vernacular mandarin). The vernacular mandarin baihua was not originated in as late as the late Qing dynasty or the early Republic of China, as commonly believed, but as early as the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, for its close relation with the translations of those Western missionaries. During those times, the missionaries had managed to use modern Baihua to translate Christian texts, with the assistance of Chinese collaborators. The modernity thus ushered in the Chinese literature, however, has long been repressed and concealed. The May Fourth Movement saw the literary pioneers such as Hu Shi, Xu Zhimo, Wen Yiduo, etc. creatively transform and localize the Western modernity, and establish a new tradition of Chinese modern poetics. In this sense, the modernity of Chinese new poetry can be argued to be translated modernity.

Key words: new poetry, translated modernity, Europeanized vernacular mandarin (Baihua), missionaries