Infatuation with Skeletons: Yu Dafu’s Accidental Loyalism and Classical-Style Poetry

Abstract

Modern Chinese writer Yu Dafu continued composing classicalstyle poems for his whole life, claiming himself to be “a man infatuated with skeletons.” This article interprets Yu’s lyricism as a stylistic manifestation of his personal and national anxieties that were stimulated by the transition of Chinese culture into modernity during the first half of the twentieth century. By examining Yu’s status as a displaced loyalist both in his verses as well as in real life, I argue that Yu’s loyalist rhetoric represents the identity crisis of a Chinese writer in confronting the menacing power struggles of the modern world.

Key words： Yu Dafu; classical-style poetry; modernity; loyalist (yimin)