Shredded Old Dreams (Introduction to Modern Chinese Nostalgic Prose)

Author: Xu Zhiying, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-02-01
Features: Nostalgia, which is both a human nature and a human right. Moreover, as society becomes more modernized, an emotion and mindset characterized by "looking backward" may intensify and become a fashionable trend. Indeed, things from the past may not necessarily be better than those of the present, but they are often what Lu Xun described in the preface to Evening Chrysanthemums as "the intoxication of nostalgia." This "homeland" is no longer the geographical sense of "hometown," but rather the overused "spiritual home" that humanity has lost. It can be said that as long as there are humans, there will be nostalgia, and thus there will be nostalgic essays. Conducting a systematic review of nostalgic essays in the history of modern Chinese literature may itself be a journey similar to "nostalgia."