After the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, original poetry in China entered a new era. In particular, the 'menglong' ("misty", "obscure") poetry style used a great deal of symbolism and metaphor to reflect on pursuits within society and of human nature. Poetic visions in menglong poetry are ambiguous, and the subjects vague. This had a profound influence in Chinese poetry circles of its time. Representatives of this movement include Bei Dao and Gu Cheng. The literary magazine "Today (Jintian)", founded in 1978, was a gathering place for menglong poetry; as a result, the menglong movement also came to be referred to as the "Jintian" movement.

In 1985, the poet Lao Mu edited the "Collection of New Wave Poetry", which included many poems by avant-garde poets. Wu Renhua, a participant in the 1989 pro-democracy movement and an older alumnus of Peking University's Chinese Department, which Lao Mu had attended, once described the book thus: "That collection of poems brought together poems by almost all the famous menglong writers from the early 1980s, including Gu Cheng, Bei Dao and others, so that book of poems was very influential in its time; almost every college student in Beijing had a copy."

In 1989, the 1989 democracy movement broke out in Beijing, and Lao Mu was an active participant in it. After the June 4th crackdown, he lived in exile in France for 26 years.

References: [自由亞洲電台("Radio Free Asia")(Chinese)] (https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/wy-12162020113420.html); [維基百科("Wikipedia")(Chinese)] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/朦胧诗)