Hu Shih's New Interpretation of "The Renaissance of Modern China"

Although Hu Shih's ideas on literary reform were affected to a certain extent by the ideas of the Western Renaissance,he,comparatively and consciously,used the ideas of Renaissance to interpret Chinese literary reform and literary revolutionary movement during the twenties,thirties and fifties of the twentieth century.As for the content,for one thing,his ideas on Renaissance were modern centered around the May Fourth new literary and new cultural movement;for another,it was renaissance which lasted for about one thousand years from the eleventh century to China.However,Hu Shih's theoretical interpretation of the May Fourth new literature had changed from the twenties to the fifties,namely,from the absolute focus on the May Fourth new literature to the Chinese literature based on the perspective of the world new literature and culture,as a result of combination between alien culture and the local meaning and local worth of Chinese culture.Then,he resorted to new cultural ideas resulting from the adaptation and consequences of the new literature and new culture.