The Literary Expressions of Chinese Experience

Name: The Literary Expressions of Chinese Experience
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Author: Mao Nie
ISBN: 978-1-4331-7706-4

Nie, Mao

The Literary Expressions of Chinese Experience

by Mao Nie (Author)

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Summary

The book consists of a comprehensive in-depth analysis of the Chinese post-1970s writers group, especially the literary xiangjun five young writers and their representative works. It includes a multi-dimensional interpretation of the writing characteristics, narrative law, and artistic construction of the "generation in the seam," fully displaying this transformation period of Chinese traditional values. Specifically, in terms of the book’s content and structure, there is (1) a broad vision with the ideological premise of modernity, (2), a high degree of "local" and "globalization," and (3), a demonstration of the importance of China’s excellent cultural resources.

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Contents
1 World Literature and the Chinese Literary Expressions: Chinese Writers of the Post 70s
1.1 Inter-generational Narrative: The Mirror and Lamp of the Post 70s Writers
1.2 The Awakening of the Spiritual Wanderers
1.3 “The Paving Stone” and “the Ballast Stone” of the Post 70s Writers
1.4 Literary Confidence and the “Covert Writing” of Post 70s Writers
1.5 The Rise of Great Powers and the New Prospect of World Literature
2 Coming to the Stage: The Five Leading Young Writers of Post 70s from Hunan Province
1.1 The Post 70s Writers in the Context of Humanism
2.2 The Writing Features and Poetic Inheritance of the Post 70s Writers
2.3 People Awake in the Gap of the Age
2.4 Society in Transformation and the Heterogeneity of Chinese Experience
2.5 Alienated Grand Discourse and the Growth of the Individual Spirit
2.6 Setting Out as a Group: The Five Young Writers from Hunan Province
2.7 Cultural Nostalgia and Spiritual Predicament of the Post 70s Writers
3 Focus: Chinese Experience and the Five Young Writers from Hunan Province
3.1 The Flight and Tenderness of Tian Er
3.1.1 The Flight of the Spirit
3.1.2 Tenderness from the Depth of Solitude
3.2 The Pursuit and Reflection of Ma Xiaoquan
3.2.1 The Origin of Meaning: The Pursuit of National Spirit
3.2.2 Narrative Focus: The Pain Caused by the Clashes of History
3.2.3 The Aesthetic Foundation: The Melancholic Tragic Consciousness
3.2.4. Turning Point: A Breakthrough in Literary Style
3.3 The Representation of Yu Huai’an’s Mao Zhuang Village
3.3.1 Mao Zhuang Village Complex: A Rural Perspective
3.3.2 Cultural Representation of Mao Zhuang Village
3.3.3 The Value of Writing about the Life in Mao Zhuang Village
3.4 Shen Nian’s Endurance and Concern
3.4.1 Portrait of Female Characters and the Analysis of Their Tragedies
3.4.2 The Significance of Life for the Tragic Female Characters
3.5 Xie Zongyu: Tranquility from Afar
3.5.1 Getting Back to the Soil: The Broad Mind and Composure
3.5.2 The Responsibilities of a Prose Writer
4 Horizon: The Literary World of the Representative Writers of the Post 70s
4.1 The Texture and Orientations of the Academic Research of Feng Tang’s Works
4.1.1 Textual Analysis
4.1.2 Comparison with Similar Writers
4.1.3 Comparison between Feng Tang and His Contemporary Writers
4.2 The Spirit of Everything Grows
4.3 The Features of Language in Feng Tang’s Novels
4.3.1 Vagueness and Indirect Portrait of Characters
4.3.2 The Highlighting of Lyricism and Weakening of Narration
4.3.3 Interesting Language Full of Philosophical Ideas
4.3.4 The Novels Fragmented and Incomplete
4.4. Goddess No. One: Exploration and Transcendence
4.5 The Allegorical Writing of Xu Zechen’s Fiction
4.5.1 The Narrative-scape of Allegorical Writing
4.5.2 The Narrative Form of Allegorical Writing
4.5.3 The Literary Significance of Allegorical Writing
4.6 The Narrative Strategy in Jerusalem
4.6.1 Textual Analysis of Jerusalem
4.6.2 The Content and Narrative Strategies
4.6.3. Methodology and Perspective: Avant-gardism in Jerusalem
4.7 Jerusalem: The History of Growth for the Post 70s
4.7.1 Coming of Age: For the Individual and for the Collective
4.7.2 Quest in Escape
4.7.3 Conversion of the Spirit and Redemption of the Soul
4.8 Voice Change: The Trope of Living toward Death
4.8.1 The Change of Voice: The Physical Growth
4.8.2. Confusion in the Change: The Fallen Soul
4.8.3 The Desolation of the Change: Death and New Life
4.8.4 The Voice Change: An Extended Metaphor
4.9 The Literary Realm of Sheng Keyi
4.9.1 Sturdy Narrative and Lucid Expressions
4.9.2 Spiritual Betrayal and Detachment
4.9.3 The Theme: Deconstruction and Nihilism
4.9.4 Time Girl, the Wound and Pain
4.9.4.1 The Metaphor of the Sweet Swine Milk
4.9.4.2 The Shudder of the Green Apple
4.9.4.3 The Confusion and Frustration Brought by Liquor
4.10 The View of Life and Death in Elysion
4.10.1 The Evil Side of Life
4.10.2 Happiness about Death
5 Interpretations: The Textual Space of the Five Leading Writers from Hunan Province
5.1 Tian Er’s Philosophical Thinking
5.1.1 The Themes of Celestial Bodies in Suspension
5.1.2 “The Gray Quality” in Celestial Bodies in Suspension
5.1.2.1 “The Gray Quality” of the Textual Space
5.1.2.2 “The Gray Quality” in Instinctive Desires
5.1.2.3 “The Gray Quality” in Reality
5.2 The Spiritual Return of Xie Zongyu
5.2.1 The Mysteriousness of the Wizard Atmosphere
5.2.2 Self-Mutilation and the Revenge Mentality
5.2.3 The Portrait of the Spiritual Primitiveness and Ignorance
5.2.4 Folk Narrative from the Perspective of Wizard Culture
5.2.5 Sharp Criticism of the Natural Environment Mimicried
5.3 The Modern Dimension of Yu Huai’an
5.3.1 The Self Expectation in “Speaking for the People”
5.3.2 The Inherited Value of Conveying the Truth with Writing
5.4 The Semiotics of Shen Nian
5.4.1 The Symbol of “Winter”
5.4.2 The Semiosis of “Winter”
5.4.3 Different Layers of Cultural Significance in the Code of “Winter”
5.4.4 The Hazy Beauty of Literary Signs
5.4.5 Interpreting the Implication of “Winter” as a Sign
5.5 The Cultural Tension of Ma Xiaoquan
5.5.1 The Quest for Original Life
5.5.2 The Reconstruction of Moral Rationality
5.5.3 The Inner Strength of Traditional Culture
6 Illumination: Tian Er and Ma Xiaoquan’s Mirror Image of Life
6.1 The Absurdity and Authenticity of Tian Er
6.1.1 The Absurd Narrative and Rational Criticism
6.1.2 Zero Degree Emotion and Defamiliarized Narration
6.1.2.1 Novelty of Plot
6.1.2.2 The Exaggerated and Distorted Language
6.1.2.3 The Well Portrayed Images with Special Implications
6.1.3 Comic Tragedies of Self-Deconstruction
6.1.4 The Narrative Metaphor of the Textual Structure
6.1.4.1 The Shell of a Detective Story: Suspense, Overlapped Conflicts and Unexpected Ending Brought by the Double-Lined Narrative
6.1.4.2 The Paradoxical Structure: The Irreversibility of the Characters’ Fate
6.1.5 The Metaphor of “Light” and “Darkness” in the Fate of Characters
6.1.5.1 “Light” and “Darkness” Symbolizing the Emotions of Characters
6.1.5.2 The Change between “Light” and “Darkness” Corresponding to the Development of the Story
6.1.6 The Metaphoric Meanings of the Character’s Names
6.1.6.1 The Insignificant Characters on the Margin of the Society: Gang Zha
6.1.6.2 An Ordinary Police Officer in the Real World: “The Green Rubber Shoes, Lao Huang”
6.2 Ma Xiaoquan: Breaking Away from Traditional Culture and the Inheritance of It
6.2.1 The Cultural Fracture since the Late 1970s
6.2.2 Double Perspectives: Traditional Culture and Wizard Culture in Hubei Province
6.2.3 Modern Civilization and the Concern of Intellectuals
6.2.4 Pseudo Time and True Language
6.2.5 Identity across Centuries
6.2.6 The Poetic Representation of Critical Realism
7 Turning on Brightness of Spirit: Xie Zongyu, Shen Nian, and Yu Huai’an
7.1 The Spiritual Landscape of Xie Zongyu
7.1.1 The Fragrance of Herbal Medicine with the Smell of the Soil
7.1.2 Investigating the Mystery of Life
7.1.3 The Secret Pain of the Family and the Sense of Sorrow
7.2 Shen Nian’s Labyrinth World
7.2.1 Stones in Time
7.2.2 The Loss of Cultural Homeland
7.3 Yu Huai’an’s History Written in Small Letters
7.3.1 The Pure Land of the Heart
7.3.2 The Outsider or the Change of Double Identities
7.3.3 Innovation of Aesthetic Taste
7.3.4 The Impact of Modern Civilization
Conclusion: The Global Perspective and the Literary World of the Post 70s Writers
Index

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1

World Literature and the Chinese Literary Expressions: Chinese Writers of the Post 70s

Thinking about the Chinese writers in the history of contemporary Chinese literature, several groups of them would come to our mind. The epitomizers among them would be the ones born in the 1950s (the post 50s generation), including writers such as Mo Yan and Jia Pingwa. Writers with the most unique spiritual characteristics are from the post 60s, writers such as Yu Hua, who seeks to write about the alternative reality of China, and Su Tong, who is keen on the reflection of history. The most rebellious writers among these age groups are from the post 80s. Guo Jingming, among others, is particularly interested in writing about the life of the younger generation, and Han Han is characterized with a style uniquely his own that no other writer can imitate. The generation of Chinese writers with the strongest personal traits is obviously from the post 90s.

But upon careful observation, one may find that only one age group of writers is missing—the post 70s. The social background of this generation of writers is very special in Chinese history. What they experienced is politically the upheaval of the period from 1966 to 1976, and literarily the “Red Writing” (Revolutionary Writing) of that particular period. The post 70s writers are the ones who either kept to themselves, or protested at the top of their voices, or sought alternative expressions, or “risked their lives” in such an extremely dark age. But meanwhile, it is the external repression that helped them sustain an active spiritual vigor and ←1 | 2→a romantic passion toward life. After experiencing the turmoil of the period from 1966 to 1976, this group of writers were pushed all of a sudden to the complicated society dominated by market economy, even without having the time to share their repressed ideas and survival stories with others. They were thrown to the economic construction before even having time to ponder upon the pain, recovering from the fear, and dealing with their own problems. Zhang Ning, a critic, once said, “(this generation of writers) has never enjoyed the spiritual rich life of the post 80s, nor the material wealth of the post 90s. They are an in-between generation, with one foot in the study, meditating about what happened in the past, the other foot in the hectic present society, heavily involved in market economy.”

Because of these reasons, writers of the post 70s are more distinct as a generation. They were collectively lost in the rapid economic development of the society, blocked by the bottleneck in their writing and wandered aimlessly in their life. Even though they had a hard time searching for a way to connect themselves to reality, fortunately they never stopped their explorations in experimenting with new narrative perspectives and discovering the self and the world. They put themselves to a deadly end in order to seek ways to survive and regain their confidence in literature. One way of doing this is to use a literary form called “covert form.” We have enough confidence in believing that their perseverance in and construction of literature will make a significant contribution to contemporary Chinese literature.

1.1 Inter-generational Narrative: The Mirror and Lamp of the Post 70s Writers

In his significant book of modern literary history The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition, the leading scholar of modern literary theory from Cornell University M. H. Abrams put forward two common and antithetic metaphors of the mind, one comparing the mind to the reflector of external objects, the other to a radiant projector, which makes contribution to the objects it perceives.¹ This is a literary view involving four types of theories, the mirror antithetical with the mimetic theory, and the lamp, expressionism. Because there is the traditional concept of the mirror image in the West, and the lamp image in Taoist philosophy in the East (there must be a lamp in the man with Tao in his heart), the intention of using both of the metaphors is to illustrate the function of literature. The reason to borrow these images in this part of the ←2 | 3→book is to show that the post 70s Chinese writers have their own pursuit and ways of thinking along with the four important elements of literature—the author, the universe, the reader, and the work—advocated by H. M. Abrams. These writers neither blindly follow Western literary theories, nor refuse to borrow useful ideas of Western theorists, because they know that there are four important elements in any piece of art: the first being the art work itself, the second, the producer of the work, namely the writer or artist. The third one is the theme of the text, or what we call the universe, the literary world, which is related with, expresses or corresponds to the objective world. The fourth one is the recipient of the work, the listener, the audience, or the reader. In one word, the writer’s view of the world, fictional or factual, is nothing but the reflection of the objective reality or real life, be it a mirror, or a lamp.

Of course, the ways the mirror and lamp work is different with each generation of writers because of their life experience and ideology marked by their own age. They are all strictly framed by the ethical and moral standards of each particular time period in writing about history and life of the individual. The rapid changes of the society brought by the advent of information and globalization gather people with different life styles and cultural concepts together into the same space, conflicting and interacting with each other. As a result, the concept of “generations of writers”—the post 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s—came to be more and more commonly accepted among scholars, who focused on the common features and values of writings in terms of the generation division. The time that the post 70s writers began to write was a period when science and technology compressed time and space to a certain extent and the generational division conflicts resulting from it became more distinct. What is more, the degree to which each generation of writers inherit their national culture also differs greatly. So, the marks on the post 70s writers put them into a very embarrassing state, compared with writers of the post 50s, 60s, 80s, and 90s. Some critics say that “writers of the post 60s enjoy their social status, qualification, and achievements, writers of the post 80s their readers and their market value, but so far, writers of the post 70s still stay in the lowest position among all groups of writers, even in their market value.”²

Taken as a whole, the post 70s group is a generation exiled by their age. They share the benefit their time and society has brought to them, and they also undertake their responsibilities. The fact that they were pushed to the margin of the society urged them to question many things, including themselves and their age. They even began to question about literature. Xu Zechen, one of the representative writers of the post 70s, once put it, “the post 70s generation is an ←3 | 4→ignored group. When the attention from critics and the media was focused on the post 60s generation of writers, the post 80s group became a rising cultural star, a shining star, and a phenomenon in the publishing industry, attracting the critics and the media at the same time. As for the post 70s group, nobody even cast their eyes on them.” It’s not hard to sense the loneliness and helplessness in these words. The post 70s generation cannot find a proper way to connect themselves with the dazzling present society, nor a channel to make their voices heard, not even a position to inherit the traditional culture. But fortunately, even though they were put into an embarrassed situation, even though they denied themselves from time to time, and even though they had a hard time in their struggle, they still persisted in writing, uttering their voices, and demonstrating their cultural conscience. Looking at the whole picture of contemporary Chinese literary history, the post 70s generation of writers is an indispensable group. The marks put on them enabled them to manifest their individual characteristics, establish their own aesthetic expressions, and take a breakthrough from the traditional artistic expressions. In their writings they enriched the narrative techniques, enforced the rhetorical devices, so that their thinking behind the words would make a remarkable contribution to contemporary Chinese literature.

Even if having experienced a hard time, the post 70s writers made a brave breakthrough, joining the mainstream with all their efforts by integrating their different life experience into a similar aesthetic pursuit. Among the post 70s writers, three groups are the most distinguished.³ The first group is from the grassroot level; so many of them came from the countryside. They went through the poverty-stricken age and climbed to the upper level of the social ladder through their own efforts. What they did was reflect upon the past and write about their coming of age in a melancholic and poetic manner, establishing a spiritual Utopia in the no man’s land of reality. Examples of this include Zhang Xuedong’s Stories from the Northwest and Fang Wei’s The Age of the Hero. The second group is young women writers from big cities. Based in the well-developed metropolitan cities, they are heavily affected by the commercial atmosphere. So they are sensitive in following the fashion and depicting the state of young people in the cities. Wei Hui’s Shanghai Baby and Mian Mian’s Candy are both examples of novels about young people’s coming of age in big cities. The third group is writers who developed their writing careers in getting published in literary magazines. This group of writers hold a critical attitude toward life, writing honestly about man’s spiritual world. Xu Zechen’s novel Us and Fu Xiuying’s The Old Courtyard both represent life and choice of the new generation of people. Generally speaking, the post 70s writers seem to be writing individually and silently, yet when ←4 | 5→contextualized on the contemporary literary map, they are a group of rising literary stars. Silenced and marginalized collectively by their age, they demonstrated their independent thinking in their writings.

Furthermore, after working hard to prove their value to the society for a period of time, the post 70s writers are well recognized by the public and the book market. The publishers also took good opportunity of it and promoted the books of quite a few influential writers. For instance, in June 2014, Shandong Publishing House of Literature and Art published a book series “The Community with Shared Identity: The Book Series of Post 70s Writers,” which includes novels of Ensemble by Shi Yifeng, Miss Elephant by Zhang Chu, Idle Blossoms Falling by Li Xiuwen, Big Sister by Wei Wei, Love Poems by Jin Renshun, The Wind Came by Dai Lai, Fading Away by Na Yu, The Old Man and Wine by Li Shijiang, Schneider’s Three Meals in a Day by Zhe Gui, Preserved Fruit in Peking by Wa Dang, Shuai Dan (a female role in Yu Ju Opera from Henan Province) by Ji Wenjun, Wei Wei the Young Master by Huang Yongmei, Exile at Home by Lu Min, The Chronicle of Dong Ou by Dong Jun, Splendor by Fu Xiuying, and Staring at Marina by Zhu Wenying: 16 writers appeared in this series, which is quite a big group.

1.2 The Awakening of the Spiritual Wanderers

The Chinese people have a passion for root-seeking, and this is especially true in the literary history. The campaign of “Cultural Root-Seeking” launched by Han Shaogong once aroused the passion of a whole generation of writers of post 60s. They claimed that “literature has its root in the national culture. Although based in reality, literature should transcend reality to reveal some myths of the development of the nation and human existence.” This generation of writers endeavored to seek a cultural mark that solely belonged to themselves. Following this principle, they made use of their life experience in the countryside, intending to find the traditional cultural value lost in the country life. It is just because of their similar life experience with the post 70s writers that the post 60s writers found a collective voice in literature. However, the post 70s writers, coming right after their predecessors, were quite different in that they didn’t find a collective force among themselves. In these writers, one can hardly find the unity shared by the post 60s writers. In other words, it is pretty hard to find essential similarities among the post 70s writers, for they are not willing to represent others, nor willing to be represented.

←5 | 6→

As early as in 1968, Michel Foucault was critical of people who represented the mass, the intellectuals who regarded themselves as the “spokesmen” or “leaders.” In his view, this was the antidemocratic abuse of power. Therefore, in the so-called “structure of representation,” power turned “the known” into scientific objects, or tools to discipline, in order to expand their domain of governance. This kind of representation activated the ideology of various types of privileged subjects. Foucault pointed out that in the democratic age, people who represented knowledge should not be taken as the sign of authority. He wanted the counter-image of “special intellectuals” to replace their positions, for the fact that they always had to combat with power in parts to weaken others’ power and gain more power for themselves whenever possible. Just like Jameson’s “National Allegory,” Foucault’s prediction also deeply influenced the Chinese writers.

In such a context, even if there were quite a few outstanding writers among the post 70s generation, they were unwilling to represent others, nor did they wish to be represented. They even collectively resisted taking the role to “represent” others. So, the result is that the post 70s writers were not a collective group. They all worked as individuals and wandered lonely in spirit by themselves. They kept asking themselves who they were, where they were from, and where they were heading for. The three philosophical questions that perplexed people throughout history were all quests about the destiny of the spirit and the cultural identity that they were seeking.

But is cultural identity something as important as they think? Edward Said once described it in such a way, “the man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land.” According to Said’s classification, most of the Chinese writers and intellectuals are still “beginners” in life. They are indulged in their own imagination and passion for high theories. What they are concerned with is not the inner desires of man, but the spiritual other that needs to be rescued and enlightened in their aesthetic works. Their understanding of love is not based on reestablishing ideals, but on the integration of pragmatism and ethic perfection in traditional culture. Because of these principles, the writers and artists are obsessed with being the “spokesmen for the mass” and “suffering for the mass” in their quest for the Chinese cultural identity and modernity.

For the post 70s writers as a group, in the age of individualism, to be “the spokesmen for the mass” and suffer for them is not an easy thing anymore. The only thing left for them to do is to speak for themselves. So, deep down in these writers, they all share a sense of homelessness and rootlessness more or less in ←6 | 7→their spiritual wandering. They don’t have the strong collective consciousness of the post 60s writers, nor do they have the youth and vitality of the post 80s. In their life-long pursuit, they lack the passion for the place that they are from, and an expectation for the future. They even don’t care too much about literature itself. They want to inherit the depth of history from their predecessors and the blood-boiling passion from the late comers. Yet, what they finally obtained is only fragmented life. They departed from everyday life, individual’s desires, and the turmoil of their time. In their narrative they expressed the aimlessness and helplessness they felt in their youthful days, and the anxiety and confusion in their middle age. Perplexity and questing, corruption and salvation, abandoning and sustaining, all these became themes in their writings.

The traditional understanding of literature is that writings about daily life are trivial, meaningless, and thus unpresentable in comparison with the grand narrative that most writers value. Despite that, writers of the post 70s kept exploring in their writings about the most ordinary life, such as eating, dressing, and sleeping. These things are like sunlight filtered by the leaves, a dog dozing by the doorstep, or the odor one smells from the kitchen. These are the most ordinary scenes in life. What they intend to do is to start from the most ordinary and proceed further to the deep philosophical quest of the being or human existence. The fact is that writing about such trivial subject matters in a time when the society wanted writers to deal with grand topics, like history or their own age, the post 70s writers must have felt heavily pressed, and even criticized in their avant-garde style of experimentation. The pressure or criticism may be from readers, critics, or from themselves. In fact, this kind of dilemma is not only faced by Chinese writers, but writers across the world. Many people compare Tolstoy with Kafka. Tolstoy established his position as a great writer in the world with his novel Anna Karenina. Kafka, even though he is the forerunner of modernist literature, the initiator of a new style of writing in the 20^th century, and a writer about all aspects of life, he is still questioned if he should be listed among “great writers.” The fact is that it is the requirement and the fashion of the age that decides who is a great writer, not individual talent. So, for the post 70s writers, the personal experience, the fragment of life, and their consciousness of the routine life reinforced their writings, and thus they explored a different approach for contemporary Chinese literature.

Bearing this in mind, how can we understand the writings of the post 70s writers? Can they reveal their spiritual orientation in their writings about the self? Some scholars in their research of different generations of writers have noticed that the post 50s writers write about the outside world, the post 60s, the world ←7 | 8→in their eyes, and the post 70s, the world of their own. Generally speaking, what the post 70s writers wish to construct is “a literary museum that solely belongs to themselves.”⁴ Because they started from the self and returned to the self again at the end, what they face is a prison-like dead end and a multifaceted world that is open to infinite possibilities. They value the integrity of individual human beings and the rationality of the world, trying to explore the boundary of their spirit. Among these writers, Xu Zechen constantly quests about the essence of the world, Li Hao is keen on challenging the boundary of literature, Yi Zhou concentrates on basic philosophical questions. Zhang Chu vividly depicts the gray life in small towns, Lu Nei continues to strengthen himself with the narrative of youth, A Yi is both stubborn and melancholic, and Gui Jin is obsessed with the narrative of the soul. Zhu Shanpo is a writer who is tainted with the humidity and gloomy atmosphere of the South; Li Junhu has a full understanding of life and has an intimate relationship with nature. Liu Yudong returned to traditional culture in folklore. Lu Min is mild, Qiao Ye is sharp, Teng Xiaolan is familiar with life of local people in Shanghai, and Wang Xiumei is highly imaginative in contriving stories. There is also Li Yanrong, who flies freely in her own spiritual realm. This list can still go on. The writers’ fictional world is full of inquiries about their age, life, and philosophy. But what they are concerned even more with is people’s mental dilemma and the destiny of their soul, apart from their existence in reality.

Wang Anyi, a writer of the post 50s generation, once said to a group of young writers at a conference that “some of the writers of my generation have passed away, but we still haven’t established a system. So, never tell me ‘I grew up reading your books’. Our books are not sufficient to sustain your growth. In two or three decades, if we look back, your and my generation will be the same generation. The time in literature and that in real life is not the same. It is measured according to the density of thought, and the density of thought depends on the degree of dramatic historic changes. All in all, it flows in a natural way, but it also depends on our values. As a generation, we haven’t acquired from time the value and nourishment to be inherited by your generation, so, we have to work hard together. We will have to make sure that in 20 or 30 years, the young people will be a generation who grow up with our books.”

Wang Anyi’s somberness is something we can’t help but to marvel at. She rearranged the time that is transformed in literature to its original length in real life. In her opinion, we should not only depend on one generation of writers to grasp the essence of literature. The essence of literature lies in every moment, in every experience, and in the value that can transcend time and space. Perhaps ←8 | 9→these remarks could well explain the tenets of the post 70s generation in their writings of daily life.

1.3 “The Paving Stone” and “the Ballast Stone” of the Post 70s Writers

Since the American scholar Fredric Jameson put forward the concept “National Allegory” in his study of Lu Xun’s novels, the Chinese literary circle seems to have experienced an epiphany: it became extremely active afterwards. In the context of globalization, many “national allegories” have been demystified, and many Chinese writers joined the choir of the interpretation of cultural identity and the pursuit of modernity. When all kinds of discourses converged, the writings of these writers became more private, intimate, and closer to art itself, although commercialization eroded literary texts in all possible ways.

Meanwhile, just as John Cramer pointed out, in the age of globalization, the texts are eroded. What people are worried about is not the helplessness and betrayal of intellectuals facing new political and economic control, but intellectuals’ abandoning of their social responsibilities. Knowledge in specific areas is becoming more and more the skills of professionals, not that of “great thinkers.” In the old days, intellectuals used to be the source of public opinions (at least they themselves preferred to think that way). But with the ending of ideology (at least for Francis Fukuyama and the right-winged intellectuals), philosophers, and theorists turned out to be unnecessary. In a sense, this can be seen as the sign of modernity, which has a long tradition in the West.

Details

Pages: X, 344
Year: 2022
ISBN (PDF): 9781433177040
ISBN (ePUB): 9781433177057
ISBN (MOBI): 9781433177064
ISBN (Hardcover): 9781433177071
DOI: 10.3726/b16491
Language: English
Publication date: 2021 (December)
Published: New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Oxford, Wein, 2022. X, 344 pp.

Biographical notes

Mao Nie (Author)

Nie Mao, formerly known as Chen Qingyun, is a professor and doctoral tutor at the College of Literature and Journalism of Central South University and a distinguished professor of TongGuan University of Technology. He has attended Lu Xun College of Arts, Fudan University, and Xiangtan University. He studied abroad in 1999 and after returning in July 2004 was introduced by the Central South University as an overseas high-level talent. He has published more than 130 papers of literary reviews in People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, Southern Cultural Forum, Novel Review, and so on. He has also published more than 40 works and has won numerous awards, including the Hunan Youth Literature Award, "People’s Literature" excellent prose award, and China Wenlian Literary Review second prize.

The Literary Expressions of Chinese Experience

Summary

Excerpt

Table Of Contents

1

World Literature and the Chinese Literary Expressions: Chinese Writers of the Post 70s

1.1 Inter-generational Narrative: The Mirror and Lamp of the Post 70s Writers

1.2 The Awakening of the Spiritual Wanderers

1.3 “The Paving Stone” and “the Ballast Stone” of the Post 70s Writers

Details

Biographical notes

Key Subject Areas