On Popularization Of Modern Chinese Literature Under The Circumstances Of Globalization

In the recent decade or so, the study of globalization has become a hot issue in the field of humanities and aroused the interest of many prominent scholars active in the circles of politics, economics, social theory and culture study. The existence and development of globalization have been commonly recognized although there isn't a satisfactory definition up to now. People on one hand attempt to interpret it theoretically, on the other hand, try to reflect on and criticize it from different angles. "Globalization" has become a key word in describing the world today, and many words, such as "globality", "modernization", "anti-globalization" and "localization" are derived from it. According to British scholar Jan·Aart·Scholte, although definition doesn't mean everything, everything is included in definition. The understanding of globalization in fact is the understanding of the world. Therefore, every attempt to study globalization should include a careful and critical thinking of the term. In addition, the defining and description of the term can benefit the further understanding and discussion.A term related to globalization is "mass culture." The popularization of literature has been an undeniable fact due to the economic globalization and transformation to market economy in Chinese society. The changes in literary concept, literary forms and producing mode resulted from industrialization of literature has promoted the development of popular culture and popular literature. At the same time, consumerism and media ideology have become the prominent driving force in the development and prosperity of contemporary literature. It is argued in the dissertation that there is a certain kind of continuity in china in terms of "mass culture" and "popular literature". To some extent, the modernization of Chinese literature is a process of popularization. In different historical periods, "mass culture" and "popular literature" exhibit distinguishing characteristics of the time. In literary history, the issues of "mass culture" and "popular literature" were sometimes covered intentionally or unintentionally, but mass culture in today's world has occupied a dominant position, and should not be ignored in academic study. Any research without practical point would be a theoretical game without any purpose. In this dissertation, the Chinese literature in the new century is studied and criticized in the context of globalization. Western Marxists and some left-wing intellectuals have examined globalization from the aspect of culture. Based on a Marxism standpoint, they interpreted the current reality in capitalist society. Jameson's viewpoint is particularly thought provoking. He proposes that different social and cultural phenomena such as identity and social relationship should be observed in a given historical context and the examination of culture globalization should not ignore the flow of information and mass media, which are the important tokens of culture globalization.Another concern is that globalization is not proceeding without hindrance. During the process, there arises a problem of localization—the resistance of local power, such as all kinds of racial and nationalist sentiments, which are recognized as cultural nationalism and cultural conservatism. Consequently, in literary study, we should on one hand pay attention to literary globalization resulted from exchange, mutual influence and infiltration of different cultures, on the other hand not ignore the problems arising from literary modernization and popularization. These problems, the problem of language, identity, popularization and localization, to name just a few, are unavoidable in studying contemporary literature.In this paper the author first analyses the background of popular culture based on the definition discrimination of popular culture and popular literature. The author argues that the occurrence and development of Chinese popular literature is closely related to the transformation of Chinese society, development of market economy, prosperity of modern cities and popularization of mass media. The paper also explores some problems arising from the popularization of Chinese literature. There are: the time and space nature of Chinese literature in current China, the crisis resulting from the development of visual culture, the plight of elite literature under the circumstances of commercialized society, the fashion characteristics in literature in the new century, especially the phenomenon of 1980s writings. The last part of the paper reflexes the problems by using the theory of modernity and then points out the prospects of popular literature.