Abstract: Conflicts between academism and anti-academism in contemporary Chinese poems actually also originate in the U. S. A. The difference is that in the U. S. A. academism appeared first, and then came anti-academism, but in China, there came anti-academism first, and then academism fictitiously derived from anti-academism. In a sense, some academic spirits satisfy the needs of contemporary Chinese poems. I take it for granted that the spirits involve serious attitude towards the poetry, respect for the formality and art, and the continuous and intentional efforts to a certain classics. Of course, the spirits have nothing to do with academic identification and academism, which is not only the needs for the academism, but indispensable for the anti-academism.

Key words: contemporary poetry, academism, “academic spirits”, pioneer poets, experimentalism