A SOULLESS CAMERA: THE PERCEPTION OF ITALIAN FUTURISM IN EARLY CHINESE MODERNIST POETRY

Considering the fact that there are certain similarities between the cultural endeavours of the early Chinese modernists and Italian futurists, at first glance, it seems strange that futurist ideas mostly failed to take root in Chinese literary modernism. From the outset, Chinese literary modernism was a heterogeneous movement, but the common denominator in these different movements in post-dynastic China was a radical antitraditionalism that bears similarities to the goals of Italian futurism that was often called the down-with-the-past movement (antipassatismo). Contemporary literary studies usually recognize three distinct waves of Chinese modernism: the first wave refers to the new literary scene in China's Republican era (1911-1949), but due to the eclecticism of early Chinese modernists who were deriving inspiration and ideas from a broad and diverse range of sources, this initial stage of Chinese modernism includes the authors whose work was inspired by the pre-modern Western movements such as romanticism, symbolism etc. The second wave of Chinese modernism emerged on Taiwan in the 1950s, and the final wave brought modernism back to mainland China at the end of the 1970s. This paper attempts to examine the reception of Italian futurism in early Chinese modernist literature, therefore our research is chronologically focused on the first wave of Chinese modernism. Due to the important role of poetry in the social mechanism, and the life of an individual in dynastic China, it can be argued that the revolutionary spirit of Chinese modernists is epitomized in new poetry models created in the first wave of Chinese modernism. During this formative period, Chinese modern poetry was revolutionized - the new poets replaced the classical Chinese with the vernacular language, and they adopted a distinctly anti-traditional stance, thus initiating a series of daring experiments with new poetic forms. The new Chinese poets were true iconoclasts, and their literary work was closely related to the introduction of new social ideas, democracy, science and freedoms promoted by the prominent intellectuals of the epoch. Therefore, in an attempt to shed a light on the perception of futurism in early Chinese modernism, this paper will use illustrative examples found in the work of Chinese modernist poets. In the Chinese modernist context, the transnational character of modernism was emphasized by the fact that most of the Chinese authors were educated abroad (Japan, USA, Europe), which not only explains their interest in foreign literary traditions that often served as a paradigm for establishing their own expression of modernity, but also determines their choice of foreign poetics and literary models applied in their work. Very often, the Chinese writers who returned to China after studying in other countries, took upon themselves the task of translating and interpreting the segments of the culture and literature they had encountered abroad. Naturally, they were also exposed to the complex political climate of their homeland that often forced them to rethink and reassess the cultural and artistic influences they brought back with them to China. Historically speaking, the turning points in the development of Chinese modernist literature were the student protests of May 4, 1919 in Beijing, that soon gave rise to a nationwide anti-imperialist, cultural, and political Fourth May Movement ((sic)), and the May Thirtieth Movement ((sic)) - an upsurge in the mass anti-imperialist struggle that was provoked by the events that had taken place in the International Settlement in Shanghai, on May 30, 1925, when British police opened fire on Chinese protesters, killing thirteen and wounding over fifty people. In many ways, these historical events define the attitude of Chinese early modernists towards Western literary tradition and modernist ideas, including futurism. On the other hand, from 1924, it was becoming evident that futurism in Italy had established strong links with the fascist movement. This historical landscape, with rising anti-imperialist sentiment in China on one side, and ideological links between futurism and fascism in Italy on the other, prevented the further promotion of futurist ideas in the Chinese literary scene. For many Chinese authors, futurism became a synonym for the Western imperial tendencies, at the time when the May Thirtieth Movement forced Chinese writers to re-examine their views on the interaction between literature and national identity, and to re-evaluate the suitability of different Western movements and poetics in their search for the political and cultural renewal. This paper aims to identify reasons for the cautionary attitude displayed by Chinese authors toward futurist ideas, and attempts to answer the following questions: was the perception of Italian futurism in early Chinese modernist context determined solely by the specific historical background, in both China and the West, or is it a consequence of differences in literary and aesthetic approach between Chinese and Western modernists? In the context of the development of Chinese modern poetry, did futurism leave any lasting legacy? Apart from the historical and political circumstances that hindered the spread of futurist ideas in Chinese literary circles, the ephemeral presence of futurism in the first wave of Chinese modernism was also rooted in certain culturally conditioned differences in approach to literature and poetry in China, and the West. By introducing vernacular poetry, thus breaking away from the centuries of classical poetic tradition, Chinese new poets were far more revolutionary than their counterparts in the West, since all the anti-traditional poetic movements in Western modernism could still be interpreted as another step in the development of Western poetry. On the other hand, despite the revolutionary linguistical and formal changes characteristic of Chinese modern poetry, Western modernist poets were far more radical in their struggle against traditional aesthetic principles. Numerous movements and authors in the West tend to question the whole system of values inherited from the past - in that aspect, the futurists represent one of the most extreme examples - whereas most of the Chinese modernist poets are still devoted to the traditional aesthetic postulates. The constant tension between teleology and (traditional) introspection in Chinese early poetic modernism also greatly influenced the Chinese perception of futurism. However, in order to prove that certain futurist ideas eventually managed to exert an important influence on the development of Chinese modern poetry, thus introducing new models of poetic expression, the paper will offer analysis of the futurist poetical elements in the work of Chinese modernist poets like Guo Moruo ((sic), 1892-1978) and Ouwai Ou ((sic), 1911-1995). As previously detailed, there are several reasons why the perception of futurism in Chinese early modernism will be illustrated by the selected examples found in the work of Chinese modernist poets. Namely, apart from the fact that the revolutionary modernist reforms in Chinese literature reached its climax in the new models of poetry, this paper will attempt to prove that poetry is the form of Chinese modernist literature on which futurism left a lasting impact. All the above-mentioned historical, political, and poetical factors that shaped the reception of futurism in China are very much evident in the work of the prominent modernist poet Guo Moruo. As a Chinese student in Japan, where futurist ideas had been introduced very early, Guo was well-acquainted with futurism, and upon his return to his homeland, he served as an important intermediary who presented futurist poetics to the Chinese public. Initially, it seemed that he adopted certain elements and strategies of futurism into his own poetry, but on closer inspection, it becomes clear that his true inspiration lies in European romanticism, and that he is actually using futurist techniques to express his criticism of the futurist obsession with the urban environment, material progress and technology. His early poem "Looking Afar from Fudetate Peak" ((sic), 1920) serves as an illustrative example of his ambivalent attitude to the futurist poetic concepts, and is therefore included in the paper. In the following years, Guo will publish several theoretical articles that fully revealed his disapproval of the goals and the poetic approach of Italian futurists. In Guo's view, which reflects his devotion to traditional aesthetic principles in poetry, futurism is, by its nature, opposed to the lyricism of true poetry, and it fails to offer an individual poetic voice. Therefore, Guo Moruo's perception of futurism represents a paradigmatic example of Chinese views on radical Western movements at the outset of their own modernity. A typical manifestation of these views is a double perspective on the Western modernist tendencies and achievements - occasionally, Chinese modernist writers pragmatically use new Western poetics as a mean to achieve their own goals and agendas, but at the same time, Western modernism is often their nemesis. In his theoretical texts dedicated to futurism, another famous Chinese modernist writer, Mao Dun (.., 1896-1981), expresses a certain admiration for the fearlessness and dynamism of Italian futurists, as well as caution over the destructive spirit of the Italian movement. His interpretations of futurism seem to clarify the difference between the antitraditional stance of Chinese modernists and antipassatismo of Italian futurists, since, in Mao Dun's opinion, futurism is just a temporary and superficial reaction to the glorification of the past, excessively focused on the advantages of mechanization and industrialization. Unlike Guo Moruo, who, in the context of our research, serves as a representative example of the eclectic approach in adopting Western literary poetics and influences displayed by early Chinese modernist writers, Ouwai Ou is a somewhat atypical poetic figure. He is a less known Chinese poet who applied certain elements of futurist poetics to his poetry, thus enabling the development of new poetic genres and models. Following in the footsteps of futurists who insisted on the idea of words in freedom (parole in liberta), both Guo Moruo and Ouwai Ou, as well as many other Chinese modernist poets, often use the Western alphabet and foreign (mostly English) words within the Chinese text. Although these poetic experiments are somewhat resemblant of the practice employed by some Western authors like Ezra Pound (1885-1972) or Paul Claudel (1868-1955) who used Chinese characters to either produce distancing effect or to emphasize the pictographic or ideographic value of the Chinese script, for Chinese poets, the foreign words are the synonyms for modernity. Inspired by the futurist typographic experiments, and Marinetti's (Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, 1876-1944) paroliberismo as a new means of poetic expression, Ouwai Ou starts to employ typographic manipulations in his poetry, thus creating new visual effects. By combining iconic and textual elements in his poems, Ouwai Ou established himself as one of the modernist pioneers of Chinese concrete poetry. As a typical example of his poetic experiments inspired by futurism, his poem "The Second Obituary for the World" (, 1937) is included in the paper. His work had long been forgotten, but in the contemporary critical revaluation of the poetic achievements of early Chinese modernism, many critics have finally recognized his significant contribution to the development of new poetic forms and concrete poetry in China. Due to the turbulent historical circumstances - the Japanese aggression and the following civil war, the first wave of Chinese modernism soon came to an abrupt end. Mao Zedong's (1893-1976) Talks at the Yan'an Conference on Literature and Art (, 1942) will dictate cultural and literary politics in mainland China for decades, but modernism will resurrect in Taiwan in the middle of the twentieth century, and eventually find its way back to China at the end of the 1970s. However, the echoes of the futurist ideas will haunt the Chinese social scene even during the time of the Cultural revolution. Although the futurist impulses in the first wave of Chinese literary modernism were rather short-lived, certain segments of futurist poetics are fragmentarily present in the work of some Chinese authors. Furthermore, it can be argued that there are some elements of futurist poetics that played a key role in the creation of new poetic forms in China, and served as a catalyst that helped transform poetic means of expression.