Gains and Losses: Realism in the New Poetry Before the Cultural Revolution
功与过:文革前十七年新诗中的现实主义

During the 17 years before the Cultural Revolution, realism in the New Poetry followed the theoretical principle of "must-be-this-way". This ideological guideline prescribed to literary realism promoted realistic poetry writing to an unprecedented level. The extreme leftist ideology, however, directed this genre of artistic creation to the point of becoming an effective discourse for the political authority. This fall of poetic impersonalization into utilitarian conceptualization degraded realism to a mere non-creative formula.