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From the late 19^th to the early 20^th century, the transition from the Late Qing Dynasty to the Early Republic of China marked a watershed moment in modern Chinese history. Long-standing imperial institutions were increasingly exposed and threatened by Western military power, political systems, and cultural values. In response, a generation of iconoclastic intellectuals emerged, many of whom were foreign-educated returnees. These figures challenged and dismantled entrenched political and cultural conservatism, reshaping China’s intellectual landscape.

Literature during this period evolved beyond its traditional role as a vehicle for personal expression or moral reflection. It became a tool for diagnosing social ills and imagining new directions for the nation and its culture. Intellectuals sought to use literature to propel China toward modernity by selectively adopting Western ideas. Among them, returnee writers were at the forefront of this transformation.

The social and literary upheavals of this era gave rise to two successive generations of modern Chinese literature. The first, often described as the “age of awakening,” focused on social critique and literary reform. The second, known as the “age of creativity,” fostered greater experimentation and self-expression across a broad range of literary genres.

The “age of awakening,” spanning the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, coincided with a painful reckoning among Chinese intellectuals as they confronted the Qing government’s rapid decline in the face of Western imperial powers. Yan Fu (严复), a returnee from Britain’s Royal Naval College, was one of the earliest and most influential thinkers of this era. Through his translations—such as Thomas H. and Julian Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics (Tianyan lun, 天演论), Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (Guofu lun, 国富论), and John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty (Qunji quanjie lun, 群己权界论)—Yan introduced Western political and social philosophies previously unfamiliar to Chinese readers.

In the second and third decades of the 20^th century, Peking University (北京大学) emerged as the epicenter of a new literary and intellectual movement later known as the New Culture Movement (新文化运动). This movement was spearheaded by foreign-educated returnees, including Cai Yuanpei (蔡元培), Chen Duxiu (陈独秀), Li Dazhao (李大钊), and Hu Shi (胡适). Ideas brought back from abroad—such as social Darwinism, anarchism, and the philosophy of Nietzsche—stimulated intense debate. At its core was a confrontation between Confucian tradition and Western intellectual imports, with science and democracy promoted as potential means of national salvation. Whereas Confucianism emphasized collective social values, the New Culture Movement introduced Western notions of individualism and liberalism to China on an unprecedented scale.

The movement is conventionally dated to the founding of New Youth magazine (Xin Qingnian, 新青年; opening image) by Chen Duxiu in 1915. Over the following decade, numerous publishing houses, journals, and literary societies flourished, providing fertile ground for literary experimentation and intellectual exchange.

Qiu Jin (秋瑾), who returned from Japan in 1906, was among the earliest advocates of women’s rights during this period. She denounced the feudal family system as an instrument of female oppression, and her poetic and political writings championed gender equality. Other New Culture leaders followed her lead in challenging women’s traditional roles. Another prominent advocate was Ding Ling (丁玲), a prolific writer who was not herself a returnee. Her 1928 work Miss Sophia’s Diary (莎菲女士的日记) portrayed a young woman’s dissatisfaction with life and her conflicted romantic and sexual emotions. As increasingly bold and rebellious voices emerged in literature, the foundations of traditional female roles began to erode.

On a stylistic level, the New Culture Movement marked a decisive turning point by promoting vernacular Chinese (白话文) in place of classical literary Chinese (文言文). Writers demanded that written Chinese more closely resemble spoken language, based on the belief that mass participation in social reform required mass literacy—and thus an accessible linguistic medium. Hu Shi, a U.S.-trained philosopher, diplomat, and essayist, was a leading advocate of this linguistic shift. In January 1918, New Youth published an entire issue in vernacular Chinese, marking a historic milestone. That same year, Lu Xun (鲁迅), a returnee from Japan, published A Madman’s Diary (狂人日记), the first work of modern Chinese fiction written entirely in vernacular language. By 1921, vernacular Chinese was officially recognized as the national written language.

Following the Allied victory in World War I in 1918, Chinese students and intellectuals expected the restoration of territories previously ceded to foreign powers—particularly Shandong Province (山东省), formerly controlled by Germany. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Gu Weijun (顾维钧), a United States-educated Chinese diplomat, led efforts to prevent Japan from inheriting Germany’s rights in Shandong. When the Treaty of Versailles instead awarded Shandong to Japan, nationwide protests erupted on May 4, 1919. These demonstrations, later known as the May Fourth Movement (五四运动), extended beyond opposition to the treaty and galvanized a broader search for new ideas and paths toward national rejuvenation.

The New Culture Movement produced an extraordinary body of literary work. Among the most influential returnee writers were Chen Duxiu and Lu Xun, both of whom studied in Japan. Chen’s 1917 essay On Literary Revolution (论文学革命) called for a radical transformation of Chinese literature, urging China to emulate Europe’s revolutionary tradition of discarding the old and embracing the new—not only in politics and science, but in culture as well. He argued that traditional literature prevented Chinese readers from engaging with global intellectual currents and historical change.

The late 1920s and 1930s marked the “age of creativity,” a period of flourishing literature written entirely in vernacular Chinese. While continuing the social concerns of the “age of awakening,” writers also reached new heights in artistic experimentation and personal expression in poetry, fiction, drama, essays, diaries, and letters. Leading returnee-writers of this generation included Mao Dun (茅盾), who studied in Japan; Bing Xin (冰心), educated in the United States; Lao She (老舍) and Xu Zhimo (徐志摩), both educated in the United Kingdom; and Ba Jin (巴金), who studied in France.

Mao Dun was an essayist, journalist, novelist, and playwright whose leftist political beliefs were often explicit in his work. His most acclaimed novel, Midnight (子夜, 1933), is set in Shanghai during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It exposes a city steeped in foreign colonial influence and capitalist excess, while sharply contrasting the opulent lives of the wealthy with the grim conditions of exploited factory workers.

Lao She, a native of Beijing and a master storyteller, frequently used the city as the backdrop for his works, including The Philosophy of Lao Zhang (老张的哲学, 1926), Rickshaw Boy (骆驼祥子, 1936), and later the play Teahouse (茶馆, 1957). All three works have been translated into English, and Rickshaw Boy became a bestseller in the United States in 1945. Lao She’s writing probed the enduring tragedies and social realities of China’s lower classes, offering incisive cultural commentary on early 20^th-century Chinese society.

Ba Jin was another prolific and highly influential writer of his generation. His landmark Torrent Trilogy (激流三部曲)—The Family, Spring, and Autumn (家, 春, 秋)—depicts the struggles of young people against the oppressive Confucian family system between 1919 and 1924, under the shadow of the May Fourth Movement. Completed in 1940, the trilogy offers a retrospective reflection on the movement and its lasting impact.

Xu Zhimo, the most prominent Chinese poet of his generation, was celebrated for introducing Western poetic forms and techniques to Chinese readers, and his work gained recognition abroad. His 1928 poem Second Farewell to Cambridge (再别康桥), written after his third visit to the city, became his most enduring legacy. Infused with nostalgia and personal emotion, the poem remains a standard text for generations of Chinese students.

While China’s literary transformation during the Early Republic was undeniably shaped by Western influence, it was ultimately a movement rooted in Chinese society. It spoke the vernacular language of the people, addressed pressing social realities, and expressed a collective yearning for national renewal—culturally, politically, and socially. Literary reform thus became part of a broader intellectual awakening, challenging millennia of Confucian orthodoxy and fostering new forms of liberal consciousness across Chinese society.

Finally, the prominence of returnee writers should not diminish the contributions of indigenous intellectuals. Returnees worked closely with writers such as Ding Ling (丁玲), Fu Sinian (傅斯年), Luo Jialun (罗家伦), and Cao Yu (曹禺) to advance literary reform. Although these writers lacked foreign education, their perspectives were no less attuned to the spirit of the age, nor were they any less committed to challenging tradition and embracing change.

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