A Selection of Fine Chinese Novels from the 1990s. 3

Author: Shu Nan / Xing'an (Editor-in-Chief)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-01
Features: Since the 1990s, the creation of Chinese fiction has been increasingly influenced by mass audio-visual media and commercial utilitarianism. In a broader sense, culture has become intertwined with industry and commerce, giving rise to certain characteristics of what is termed "neo-modernism": commercialization has rapidly permeated every aspect of people's material and spiritual lives like a dye; a consumer-centric society dominates and lures the creative and reception processes of culture, with people consuming celebrities in music and film as well as novels; the names of company chairmen or corporate CEOs are prominently displayed on the covers of literary journals, revealing how industrial civilization "manages" literature; reading and reflection, a form of enjoyment regarded by generations of sages as the most important aspect of spiritual life, is increasingly neglected by people, while audio-visual images, which are more easily accepted, can only stimulate the exhausted and numb senses of modern people in more stimulating external forms. The logic of commodities fills people's thinking and behavior. On the other hand, more alarming social facts remain: millions of people still live on the brink of poverty, unaware of the concept of commodities; in mountainous areas just dozens of kilometers from the capital, there are children forced to drop out of school and return home to bear the heavy burden of life with their tender shoulders, with the desire for survival sometimes outweighing the temptation of culture; additionally, there are hundreds of thousands of landless farmers who drift between cities in search of a foothold, striving to change their fate.