Chen Yingzhen is a representative figure of critical realism in Taiwan, and his representative works include "Washington Building", "General Clan", and "Zhao Nandong".
"The General Clan" established Chen Yingzhen's position in the literary world in Taiwan. It is mainly about the love tragedy of a veteran from the mainland who went to Taiwan and a girl from Taiwan Province. The precarious and miserable life situation of the little people makes the whole novel filled with strong melancholy sentimentality and bitterness.
Triangle Face is a veteran of the Kuomintang who has drifted from the mainland to Taiwan, who gambles wildly, indulges in promiscuity, and loves to boast, and although he is nearly forty years old, he does not feel old. The little skinny girl is a Taiwanese girl who was trafficked by her family and fled, and the two of them were mixing in the Kang band at the same time. Triangle face blows small trumpets, living a single life of wild prostitution and gambling; little skinny girls dance and play clowns.
A casual moonlit night gossip made the two homesick people become close, and the triangle face even produced a fatherly warmth for the little skinny girl. In the next-door conversation that follows, Triangle Face learns that the little skinny boy wants to return to the fire to pay off his family's debts, so he tucks all the retirement money into his pillow and leaves without quitting.
However, the little thin girl did not get out of the sea of suffering, she still fell into prostitution and was blinded in her left eye. But the belief of reuniting with the triangle face supported her to endure humiliation and steal life. Five years later, they met at a funeral performance. In order to be able to unite in purity, the two gave up their humiliated lives and committed suicide in the field.
Washington Mansion is a short and medium-length series of stories that includes Night Truck, A Day at work, Clouds, and The Emperor of Ten Thousand Merchants. These four works only say one theme, in the face of money, people are completely alienated.
Under the huge shadow of the Washington building, the humility, weakness, and alienation of human nature are fully exposed. In the Washington Building, where multinational corporations are clustered, there are two types of Chinese working for foreign capital:
One is the alienation of human nature, under the influence of a material civilization full of copper and blood, or in depravity, or madness, or in exile, losing their personality and betraying their humanity. The alienated people of human nature can be divided into two categories: one is the so-called "successful people" who are in cahoots with the international bourgeoisie; the other is the "losers" who dream of flying in the sky and giving their allegiance to their lives but are not appreciated by their masters.
The so-called "successful people" have only sought a temporary stable position and income in the management of the building. In order to consolidate, or to continue to climb up, they must curry favor with their masters.
For example, Lin Rongping, the financial manager in "Night Truck", in order to maintain his position, when he saw the foreign boss flirting with Liu Xiaoling, he could not reason with the foreign boss like a man, and he was full of slaves.
The so-called "loser" refers to a person who serves the foreign master and is willing to be a loyal servant but cannot get it. For example, Lin Dewang in "The Emperor of Ten Thousand Merchants". Lin Dewang tried desperately to find a seat for the manager, but he finally did not give up his wish, lived on the street, and eventually went crazy.
One is the guardian of human nature, through resistance, to win the dignity of the human person, the dignity of the nation, it can be said that they are the model of moral perfection, the model of human nature maintenance.
Like South Korea, Taiwan's economy took off in 1960. In 1960, Taiwan began industrialization, urbanization, and modernization, and by 2000, after forty years of development, Taiwan had made tremendous economic achievements, the number of middle classes was growing, and a large number of newly wealthy bourgeoisie were rising, which was called a "miracle". For the people of Taiwan, these forty years have been their prosperous world, and everyone's face is full of pride and self-confidence, a prosperous world in which the people live a prosperous life and live and work in peace and contentment.
Between 1952 and 1987, Taiwan's gross national product increased 57-fold. Per capita income increased 23-fold. In 2000, Taiwan's per capita GDP was $14,519.
From 1960 to 2000, Taiwan successfully realized the transformation from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization, agricultural economy to industrial economy, agricultural society to industrial society, and rural pastoral lifestyle to urban lifestyle. Step into a modern society.
Of course, taiwan has also experienced the dilemma of modernity in the process of industrialization, urbanization, and modernization: the widening gap between the rich and the poor, the rich are getting richer and richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the society is polarized. Bourgeois utilitarianism, pragmatism, "survival of the fittest" and other ideologies prevailed, and there were trends of thought such as money worship, money supremacy, overnight wealth, and mercenary intentions, and people were completely alienated.
Weak economic growth has exacerbated the polarization of society, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, the middle class is losing competitiveness, the number is decreasing, the number is sinking, and it has entered the "M" type society. "M-type" refers to the collapse of the middle class, the original middle class either sinks into the new poor, or rises to become the new rich, the poor and rich at both ends of society are increasing, only the middle income is decreasing, forming an "M" shape of the middle depression.
Wage growth stagnates while prices continue to rise, especially rapidly, middle-class income growth slows, income instability rises, household expenditures and social burdens increase, and relative poverty rises. Oil prices, prices, house prices, but wages do not rise, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer.
The continued economic downturn has brought Taiwan's overall salary level to a standstill with little growth. The salary level of those with high education was even lower than that of the rapid economic development period at that time. Wages for skilled workers are slowly rising.
Moreover, the employment environment has deteriorated. The overall unemployed population is growing, and many people lack stable jobs, mostly based on flexible employment, engaged in unstable jobs. Even old employees who have been working for many years cannot be firmly guaranteed.
In the process of rapid economic growth, in addition to the continuous growth of the new rich bourgeoisie, the working class is also growing, and the working class mainly relies on wage income. Although these people are not engaged in manual labor in the traditional sense and do not deal with machines and parts, some people's work has also begun to produce mechanical, fragmentary and repetitive characteristics. They support their lives by the wages of wage labor, and gradually show the characteristics of "workerization".
These office workers are nothing more than the most humble screws, doing jobs that anyone can do, with a meager income, living in a dark room in the corner of the city, and some even rely on the financial support of their parents to survive, and they have no way to rise in a vicious competitive corporate environment. The comfort of the working environment and the advancement of the enterprise management system cannot hide the miserable living conditions of the low-level employees.
At the same time, mass production, large-scale consumption, the people's desire for goods is growing, momentism replaces the pursuit of eternal values in the past, and indulgence replaces abstinence.
They wandered all day in the women's beds, immersed in the enjoyment of carnal desires. Under the guidance of consumerism and materialism, people unconsciously fall into consumerism, are materialized, can only be driven by consumption, and indulge in the carnival of materialism. Losing the ability to criticize, resist, disagree, and think originally, he has become a "one-dimensional person" who cannot create, be autonomous, and think.