ChangYao’s poetry writing began to change after the mid-to-late 1980s. The image of the ‘deportator’ who followed ChangYao disappeared, and the dryness of ‘daily life’ eroded ChangYao’s poetry writing. Later, ChangYao’s poetry turned to a persistent search for the meaninglessness and futility of life. In the process of this transformation, ChangYao limited the lyrical elements of poetry and strengthened the narrative elements. Since the 1990s, this change has accelerated further, and prose poetry writing has been a concrete form. ChangYao’s prose strategy has something to do with changes in Chinese society since the 1990s, the collapse of past values, and the emergence of unfamiliar and embarrassing living conditions. Instead of writing poetry in an isolated situation in an exile, ChangYao acquires the language of poetry from the vivid life around him. Cities, streets, and bustling markets have transformed the historical space of ChangYao into the everyday world. In an era when everything was commercialized, the sublime and beautiful life and the ideal of poetry that ChangYao dreamed of could not be realized. In the face of an unknown reality, ChangYao felt ‘unnervous’. ChangYao’s ‘creepiness’ was something that could not be solved by rational thinking or logic. ChangYao tried to express illogical and surreal thinking through prose, not the familiar form of poetry. The only possibility a poet who had lost his ‘ideal’ of poetry could choose was a conflict with reality.

1980년대 중반까지 창야오는 자신의 과거 경험을 배경으로 한 장시(长诗)를 중심 으로 독자적인 시 세계를 구축했다. 그러나 1980년대 중후반 이후 창야오의 내면과 시 쓰기에는 근본적인 변화가 시작되었고, 현실의 거대한 변화는 그가 추구했던 시 적 이상과 창작 지향에 심각한 부조화를 가져왔다. 이로부터 창야오의 시는 삶의 무 의미와 허무에 대한 탐색으로 돌아서게 되고, 시의 서정적 요소가 제한되고 서사적 성분이 강화되었다. ‘행을 나누지 않은 시(不分行诗)’ 또는 ‘산문시’는 창야오 시의 변 화를 보여주는 구체적인 형식이었다. 창야오 후기 시의 ‘산문화’ 경향은 자신의 창작 방식에 대한 불안과 회의(怀疑)에서 기인한 것으로, 전통적인 서사나 서정 방법으로 는 독자를 감동시키기 힘들다고 생각한 창야오는 ‘산문화’에서 돌파구를 찾았다.