As a witness of and participant in the tides of Misty Poetry and Third-Generation poetry, the author takes a comparative perspective on the development of poetics in contemporary China. This book presents a comprehensive, systematic, and in-depth investigation of the two forms of avant-garde poetry in contemporary China, namely Misty Poetry (Menglong shi) and Third-Generation Poetry (Di Sandai shi). It describes the origin and evolution of Misty Poetry and the Third-Generation poetry in relation to the bigger picture of the new poetry tide, literary creation, poetics, and ideological features in contemporary China. This book is composed of three parts. Part I, “Context and Process”, outlines the major events and poets in the development of new poetry with reference to the special political, social, and historical context of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in China. Part II, “Misty Poetry”, elaborates on such issues as the rhetorical and ideological features, writing patterns and modernity regarding Misty Poetry. Part III, “Third-Generation Poetics”, analyzes such aspects of the Third-Generation poems as their overall characteristics, subjective awareness, and the post-modern turn.