Since the 1990s, China's reform and opening up has been around for a while. Writing was supposed to be a male-led thing and women began to hold up half the sky. Tie Ning, Chi Li, Fang Fang, Chi Zijian, Chen Yan, Lin Bai, Xu Kun, Si Yu, Hai Nan, Zhai Yongming, Wei Hui, Baby Annie and so on.
Many of these women writers have a detailed introduction in the orthodox literary history, that is, they have been remembered by history, they have been left in the long river of history forever, and they will not be forgotten because of the disappearance of their flesh. Of course, not everyone can occupy the history of contemporary Chinese literature in the same space, for example: Wei Hui, Mian Mian, Baby Annie, these "new generation" female writers, they also have extraordinary talents, but because of their writing content and tendencies, they can only introduce or complete the evaluation of their works in a very small space or in one sentence.
The 1990s and the early years of the new century can be regarded as the last feast of orthodox literature, and I always feel that literature in the middle and late period of the new era began to be more and more marginalized by the impact of other media. The new era has a new atmosphere, so the writing of female writers also presents an unparalleled "rebellion and agitation". Female writers led by Zhai Yongming and Wei Hui began to write in a more bold posture, and when I read these articles or poems, I really felt that a new era had arrived at that time, when I should have only been about ten years old, but I did not catch up with that era.
The development of the economy can be seen from the rise of Shenzhen and the transformation of Shanghai into an international metropolis, and the developed economy has of course also bred a developed culture, and the power of culture makes people feel shocked and happy. It's like Wei Hui, such a rebellious female writer, such an obsessive female writer.
Wei Hui
Wei Hui, born in 1973, is known as the "late generation" and "new new human" female writer, the 22-year-old Wei Hui published her debut novel "Dream Without Trace". Worked as a journalist, editor, radio host, coffee shop waitress, crappy drummer, unsuccessful advertising copywriter, self-written and self-directed plays. His works include "Crazy Like Wei Hui", "The Virgin in the Water", "My Zen" and so on.
Wei Hui's semi-autobiographical novel "Shanghai Baby" has triggered a huge controversy in the Chinese literary circles, swept the Chinese young generation, and attracted international media coverage. China's Liberation Daily reported that the book was judged to be "decadent and corrupt and poisoned by Western culture."
The author knows that the problem of this work is still very likely that the writing tendency and some concepts are works that are very different from the mainstream values, and the author believes that these basic bottom-line problems cannot be shaken, but the literary value of these works cannot be completely denied. The author does not want to discuss these issues, what I really want to say is why Wei Hui was able to structure the whole text with such "body writing", and what makes her so bold?
Why should Wei Hui use "body writing"?
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > 1 "rebel factor" in Wei Hui's personality</h1>
Wei Hui is definitely a maverick writer in the author's opinion. We can see from her profession how rebellious this woman was back then. As a high-achieving student who graduated from Fudan University, she can work as a waitress in a coffee shop. Of course, we can say that Wei Hui is embodying life, and indeed the café scene often appears in her works. Wei Hui longs for freedom and was once a rebellious girl who ran away from home. After graduating in 1995, Wei Hui had the experience of moving home 16 times a year, on average, less than once a month. With Wei Hui's academic qualifications when he was a high-achieving student in Fudan, it is certainly possible to find a stable job and live a stable and decent life.
But Wei Hui did not choose and execute in this way. She aspired to be a writer in college, and the writer she wanted to be was not a writer in the traditional sense, and she said that the book she wanted to write must be a work that contained elements of "vendetta, love, "body narrative", horror, grotesqueness, strangeness, etc." Therefore, most of the works we see Wei Hui are like that of Ye Lingfeng in the creative community of the Republic of China period and Xu Xi, Anonymous, and even the Mandarin Duck Butterfly Sect in the 1940s. Wei Hui's works are written about the city, showing the state of survival of urban men and women, these people are somewhat marginal, definitely not our traditional and mainstream kind of protagonists. It is filled with a slightly decadent atmosphere of the times, but this atmosphere has been with it since the development of the city, but few writers have expressed it so bluntly. The Shanghai we see in Wei Hui's pen is full of that kind of material, psychedelic color, just the original atmosphere of a city. Wei Hui magnifies them infinitely and then spreads them out in front of us, even with physical narration to enhance the stimulation of the senses. This is how certain morbidities of living in the city unfold, and we have to admit that of course these things exist.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > 2 The rise of feminism</h1>
Elena Sissou is one of the most influential contemporary French novelists, dramatists and literary theorists. In countries such as France and the United Kingdom and the United States, she is known for her experimental creations and avant-garde theories. This is the famous modern and contemporary feminist writer that must be mentioned in the history of literature. When the economic tide comes, when the door to the outside world is getting deeper and deeper, when we are more and more connected with the world, our values have changed. Our women have also begun to further integrate with the times and the world. Whether it is from the aspect of eating and wearing, or from the aspect of spiritual life, it is gradually in line with the trend of the world. Their lives become colorful, and with it comes the thinking and rebellion of their own identity. They are no longer the kind of "dependent" women. In all walks of life, a wave of ideas for women's liberation began, and the writers' community was no exception.
Most of the female writers listed above: Fang Fang, Chi Li, Chen Yan, Lin Bai, Zhai Yongming, etc., began to accept Elena's ideas and bloomed in literary works. Wei Hui, as a so-called "late-born writer", is at the same time such a pioneer and rebellious woman, of course, can not be left behind. In her works, most women are independent and strong, while Chinese men are weak and vulnerable. They can't give them a sense of physical and psychological security like a real man. That's why some surprising episodes come up. The heroines in most works will make a reasonable expression of their own physiological and psychological demands, even an "excessive expression". Female writers represented by Wei Hui believe that it is reasonable and normal to shape new women or imperfect women in this way. Because many of the women who survive in this city are like this, they just express it in the so-called artistic way.
Writing about "Wei Hui" is a normal call for women in the new era, although there are many deliberate "body narratives" for the sake of sales. The ultimate goal is still to express a feminist consciousness.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > anxiety and confusion in the 3rd era</h1>
When the economic tide came, many people panicked and many people were confused. Entering the space of a new era and entering a completely new system of thought. The import of foreign cultures has completely changed the thinking and living habits. People feel anxious, afraid and afraid in the face of the economic tide, because the market economy system has been established, and a series of problems such as unemployment and layoffs will be placed in front of people. People's confusion about their personal future began to gradually appear, and people began to numb themselves in some special ways. The confusion and anxiety of this era affects everyone, including the various characters in Wei Hui's book.
After the First World War, Europe generally set off a kind of "wasteland consciousness", which made people feel decadent, and Eliot's "Wasteland" mainly reflected the general pessimistic and disappointing mood and spiritual poverty in the West after the First World War, as well as the weakening of religious beliefs that led to the decline of Western civilization. The poet's "wasteland" is desolate: the land is cracked, the stones are red, the trees are withered, and the wasteland people are in a trance and lifeless. God lost the love bond between man and man. They are separated from each other and have difficulty exchanging thoughts and feelings, although there is no lack of animal-style sex. They are in a desolate state of the outer world and an empty inner world. The wilderness of the "wasteland" is a water shortage, but only listening to the sound of thunder and not seeing the rain coming down, it adds to people's inner anxiety. Rain became the first need of the wasteland, and the poet implied through thunder that only spiritual nectar (conversion to religion, belief in God) could save the wastelanders. After World War II, young Americans were known as the "lost generation", who indulged in alcohol and revelry and could not find salvation.
Wei Hui is also, she herself can not be redeemed, and her characters can not be redeemed, which is a kind of "pain of the times". The heroes and heroines of the book are eager to be redeemed and have a spiritual conversion, but they have no way to start, no way to find, and finally they can only immerse themselves in revelry. This feeling of emptiness, this phenomenon of not being able to find it, still exists in the city today, it is that material civilization has developed, but people's spirits are so empty, how to manifest this kind of suffering has become a problem. Wei Hui expresses it in this way, expressing a kind of pain and a special complex, a kind of era pain under the influence of Western culture in the new era.