Abstract: When looking back nearly two decades later, Liu Yazi (1887–1958), a late convert to the May Fourth vernacular movement, wrote about what he experienced in the late 1910s and early 1920s: When the New Cultural Movement first happened, the debate between classical Chinese and the vernacular was at its height. Initially, I assumed the traditional literary view and opposed the vernacular vehemently. Then I decided to stay away from it and let it be. Finally, I noticed that I shared more similar views with those people who promoted the vernacular, and on the other hand, there was a world of difference between me and those who promoted classical Chinese and attacked the vernacular. Therefore, I gradually shifted toward the camp of the vernacular. In the meantime, I also realized the difficulties in introducing the New Thoughts in classical Chinese, and came to terms with the necessity of adopting a new literary instrument. After that I became totally on the side of the New Cultural Movement.1 KeywordsCentripetal ForceGeneral ArticleVernacular LanguageCultural MovementHebrew LanguageThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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