"On July 26, 1916, I announced to all my friends in America that from now on I resolved to write no more poems in the classical language, and to begin my experiments in writing poetry in the so-called vulgar tongue of the people"

The quote by Hu Shih, a Chinese author and philosopher, states his decision to desert writing poems in classical Chinese language and rather, experiment with writing poetry in the spoken or vernacular language of the masses. This was a significant departure from the literary norms of his time that revered the classical language as a mark of literary sophistication and cultural improvement. Hu Shih's decision was a bold relocation towards equalizing literature and making it more accessible to ordinary individuals.