Where Did the Souls Go?: Revisiting the Chinese Art from the Xinhai Revolution to the May Fourth Movement

Abstract

Abstract: It is necessary to link the May Fourth literature with the Xinhai literature and to expand them into the May Fourth art for analysis. With the fundamental change of the political system from traditional monarchy to modern republic, modern Chinese art began its own modern transformation. For example, Xu Zhenya's pain of soul breaking, Su Manshu's mourning of soullessness, Wu Changshuo's endless growth of strong spirit, Lu Xun's madness of wounded soul, and Hu Shi's vernacular Utopia, have successively become the spotlights of Chinese art from the Xinhai Revolution to the May Fourth Movement. They shared the common objective to seek and construct new souls for modern Chinese art in the era when people lost souls and spirits, although where the souls went remained an intractable problem to be solved.

Key words: May Fourth art, where did the souls go, pain of soul breaking, mourning of soullessness, endless growth of strong spirit, madness of wounded soul, vernacular Utopia

CLC Number:

Wang Yichuan. Where Did the Souls Go?: Revisiting the Chinese Art from the Xinhai Revolution to the May Fourth Movement[J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art.

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