• CHINESE LITERATURE
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• v.97
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• pp.173-200
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• 2018

The cultural salons in Beiping were very unique phenomenon in the 1930's Chines culturalhistory. These salons were created in the Beiping's urban environment with generosity toscholarship and art. The typical examples of these were the 'Lin Huiyin's salon' by Lin Huiyinand 'Poetry reading salon' by Zhu Gunagqian. 'Lin Huiyin's salon' became the representative salonin Beiping before the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937. In 'Lin Huiyin's salon' they heldmeeting in an impromptu, free and somewhat distracted atmosphere without any specific theme. Onthe other hand, Zhu Guangqian's 'Poetry reading salon', which included scholars, critics, poets andtheoreticians centered on Peking University and Tsinghua University, tendered to be academicbecause its main purpose was to test the "successful readability of new poetry". These two culturalsalons have received a positive evaluation in terms of promoting the 'Beiping school' andactivating the literary world, but the members who attended these salons were satirized as bluffersand hypocrites in the novels "The living room of our wife"(1933) and "The cat"(1946) which werewritten by Bingxin and Qian Zhougshu, respectively. In this article, I examined the positiveinfluences on cultural topography at the time and showed how they were reflected to the intelligentintellectuals who did not participate in the salons. Based on these contemplations, I also had achance to look at the 1930's salons correctly through ambivalent viewpoint.