The Experience Of Anxiety In Chang Yao's Later Works

Chang Yao is a unique poet in modern Chinese poetry. He has a very long productive period and attains a high level of achievement. Based on the analyses of his works and his personality, we discovered the presence of certain anxiety in his later works, which has a deep root in psychology, culture and sociology.Starting from the mid-1980', China entered into a profound social transformation period. This has affected people's mental behaviors in many ways. During this same period of time, the spirits and mentality of Chang Yao began to experience a downhill slide from the peak. During this time, anxiety was the basic mood of his works. Anxiety and the resistance to it became the primary theme of Chang Yao's works.The introduction part of this thesis summarized the current status of research of Chang Yao and his works. In Chapter one, we gave the definition of anxiety from the perspectives of daily life, psychology and culture. Then, we analyzed four different ways to express anxiety in his works, including identity anxiety (at the cultural level), existence anxiety (at the material level), and time and death anxiety. In Chapter two, we rationalized the main reasons for the anxiety in his works based on emotional expressions, including the traditional intellectual anxiety, the conflicts between reality and ideality, and loneliness. In Chapter three, we further discussed three methods Chang Yao employed in his works to conquer anxiety, i.e., fatalism, exile and holy writing. Finally, the conclusion part attempted to explain the implications of anxiety in Chang Yao's works and possible ways to avoid it.