Excerpt of Chinese Novels 3

Author: Shu Nan, Xing'an
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: After the 1990s, the creation of Chinese fiction has been increasingly influenced by mass audio-visual media and commercial utilitarianism. Culture, in a broader sense, has become intertwined with industry and commerce, forming certain characteristics of what is termed "postmodernism": commercialization has rapidly colored every aspect of people's material and spiritual lives like a dye; a consumer-oriented society dominates and lures the creative and reception processes of culture, with people consuming pop stars and movie stars, as well as novels; the names of company chairmen or corporate CEOs are prominently displayed on the covers of literary journals, showing how industrial civilization "manages" literature; reading and reflection, regarded by as the most important form of spiritual enjoyment, are increasingly neglected by people, while audio-visual images, which are more easily accepted, can only stimulate the exhausted and numb senses of modern people with more stimulating external forms. People's thinking and behavior are filled with the logic of commodities. On the other hand, more shocking social facts are: millions of people are still living on the brink of poverty, unaware of the concept of commodities; in mountainous areas just tens of kilometers away from the capital, there are children who have to drop out of school and return home to bear the heavy burden of life, with the desire for survival sometimes being more important than the temptation of culture; in addition, there are millions of farmers who have left the land, drifting between cities in search of a foothold and striving to change their fate.