The
modernization of the Chinese
literature is a process of emergence of the modern characteristics in literature against
a background of conflict and assimilation of the Western culture and the traditional Chinese culture; as such, the Leftist
literature made its headway in the interactions of various cultural and social elements, and, during the periods of the Revolution War, the 17 years after 1949 Communist Revolution, the “Cultural Revolution”, the “New Era” and even the contemporary development, contributed considerably to the literary creation and profoundly influenced the Chinese zeitgeist. Despite its continuity, however, the Leftist literature manifested unique features during different period: those who had a truly insightful understanding of the functions of literature, LU Xun and mao Dong among them, embodied the spirit of literary
modernization while those who took literature as political instrument, as was typified by the Post-Revolution writers, distorted and even totally neglected the spirit of literature. The present paper is a contrastive analysis of these two trends.