The Baihua Movement and Ideological Revolution

Abstract

This chapter continues the discussion of the significance of the emergence of modern baihua as the powerhouse for the May Fourth New Literature Movement and the larger New Culture Movement, which snowballed into a fundamental ideological revolution. The author argues that there is a mutually beneficial relationship between modern baihua and its literature, which normalizes baihua usage; and that the use of baihua as an effective and necessary literary medium helps to create a new literature, which is concerned with and for the writing of the common people. The preeminent literary and cultural figures of the time are discussed for their contributions to the complex relationship in theory and/or in creative writing among the quartet of baihua, New Literature, New Culture Movements, and the intellectual revolution.