Spiritual Trend of New Period Literature - Wangyue Collection

Author: Pang Shouying / Country:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: Society is a big stage, with various roles—sheng, dan, jing, mu, chou—performing. Realist writers, with a strong sense of responsibility, have powerfully exposed and criticized corrupt officials and privileged classes appearing on the current social stage. The play If I Were Really Someone by Sha Ye Xin is a brilliant social satire. Through the story of Li Xiaozhang, a farm youth who impersonates the son of a high-ranking official to return to the city, and the eventual exposure of his deception, the play mercilessly analyzes and mockingly satirizes the privilege phenomenon within the leadership. Li Xiaozhang, posing as Zhang Xiaoli, the son of Comrade Zhang from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, engages in fraud and is detained by the police. However, behind this illegal act lies a series of "reasonable, lawful, and just" privileged behaviors—such as Li Xiaozhang being denied a policy-based transfer back to the city, only to be replaced by the son of another official; after assuming the name Zhang Xiaoli, he faces no obstacles—Zhao Captain offers advice, Qian Division Head provides official documents, Sun Director secures access, and Zheng Chief issues permits—each official revolves around the magic wand of power. After his deception is exposed, Li Xiaozhang admits to his crimes but only acknowledges, "My mistake lies in being a fake. If I were really someone’s son, like Comrade Zhang or another leader, everything I did would have been perfectly legal." This satirical revelation through hypothetical form is vivid and incisive. Xing Yixun’s play Power and Law directly raises the question of whether power should prevail over the dignity of the law. Cao Da, the second secretary of the Municipal Committee, uses disaster relief funds allocated by the central government to build luxurious buildings and purchase new cars. To cover up the truth, he coerces subordinates to falsely report the funds as "used for educational and scientific research expenses." When the matter is exposed, he orders the police to arrest an innocent whistleblower. Once power overrides the law, it becomes a tool for personal gain, reducing the law to a plaything for the privileged. The exposure of Cao Da’s vile behavior highlights the importance of a sound democracy and legal system, emphasizing the themes of limiting privilege and equality before the law.
In poetry, Ye Wenfu’s The General Should Not Do This sparked strong. With a poignant tone, the poem boldly criticizes a battle-hardened general who, after demobilization, demolishes a kindergarten and spends millions of foreign currency to build a villa for himself. The poet keenly links the general’s privileged mindset and hedonism to the history of the Chinese Revolution: "Can the flames of Jinggang Mountains, which the Dahu River cannot drown,／be extinguished in your／bowl of Maotai wine?／Can the red boat that sailed through the storms of Nanhu Lake,／be stranded,／docked on your／comfortable chair?" The poem expresses a strong sense of urgency. Out of concern for the fate of the motherland, the poet passionately cries out, "The General,／Cannot／Do This!" Xiong Zhaozheng’s Raise Your Hands Like a Forest and Stop confronts reality, vividly depicting the life of hunger and poverty endured by the people in the old Soviet areas of Hubei after the revolution. It indicts those in power who "wore the cloak of revolution" for their long-standing "one-sided focus on the left," leading to the ruin of the people. The poem is cynical yet righteous, expressing the poet’s deep sympathy for the people of the old Soviet areas, his fierce anger toward the bureaucratic officials, and his urgent desire to change the situation. Due to its sharp critique of the dark side of society, the poem sparked discussions in local newspapers after its publication, and the poet even made a self-criticism at a provincial meeting. However, in the end, it received recognition and praise and won the National Outstanding Poetry Award for Middle-aged and Young Writers.
The New Period literature, which emerged from scar literature, developed into the mid-1980s with a generally high spirit of realist critique. Although some works sparked controversy or criticism, these were largely due to external literary factors. Overall, the creative works of this period, whether negating the "Cultural Revolution" or reflecting on the after the founding of the People’s Republic; whether calling for social change or denouncing corruption, all demonstrated a strong critical spirit. However, this critical perspective remained singular, examining reality and history solely from a political angle. This is a crucial or indispensable perspective, as the dark side of life, the suffering and misfortune of the people, are often intertwined with politics. The corruption people detest is frequently intertwined with political power. But this does not mean that critical awareness is unnecessary beyond the political perspective. Rather, the perspective was still confined to the realm of politics, unable to break free.
In the mid-1980s, the literary world was swept by the "cultural root-seeking fever." Root-seeking, as a literary phenomenon, is essentially an extension of reflective literature. Reflective literature reflects on the politics of a specific historical stage, while root-seeking literature, following the spirit of reflective literature, turns its gaze to ancient Chinese culture, moving from close-range reflection to profound reflection, from political reflection to cultural reflection. P34-35