Beginner level

Author: Chen Qiwen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: "A Primary Stage," not a concept of social non-existence, but more of a psychological period. The author attempts to reveal various forms of human existence in real life by observing the spiritual circumstances of people in this era. This is a significant long work by the young generation's important writer Chen Qiwen, describing contemporary life. It depicts the inexplicable doubts of Fang Shichu, a youth born in the 1970s, about the world. Fang Shichu's doubts begin with his mother's mysterious death and lead him to prematurely interrupt his studies in Australia, entering his father's company as a youth who doubts everything. Centered around the construction of a bridge in Yunmeng City, he becomes entangled in complex emotional entanglements with his father, his father's beautiful secretary, and the mayor's daughter, ultimately leading to the bankruptcy of a company with billions in assets. Through another storyline, we also see the open and hidden struggles between Mayor Xue Cun and Deputy Mayor Gao Youmin. These two storylines intertwine, driving the plot of the short story to be full of twists and turns, highlighting the modern person's inability to integrate with reality, as well as the anxieties and inevitable painful consequences of searching for a true self. The author describes the state of contemporary life, focusing on the profound experience of life, using highly personalized subjective feelings to creatively present an inner, latent, and another reality. Reality itself is surreal, the world is always beyond human understanding, leading to doubt, which in turn gives rise to human's cautious quest and exploration, and ultimately, they suddenly realize that we all live in the absurd illusion of reality.