The present study explores the relationship between the reception ofwestern literary theory and the changing stance towards
modernity in China. China's warm and climactic reception of western theory in the 1980s has to do with the development of modernity in China. This is particularly notable in the keen interest in formal and aesthetic studies, an interest that is partly attributable to the reaction against long-term political criticism and partly attributable to the pursuit of universal truth. Concepts of modernity, which are peculiar to western culture, have entered China in the shape of universal truth. Treating formalism as universal truth functions to a certain extent as a remedy for the self-split state as a result of identifying with western modernity, but at the same time it has in some degree led to the identity crisis of Chinese intellectuals. In the context of globalization, there have recently emerged various forms of resistance to the
identification with western modernity, which may,however,be treated as a mere supplement to modernity.