The City Writing And City Imagination In Novels Since 1990s

The human being is the product of the sign and a kind of animal using the language to express ideas. In some sense, it is a cultural phenomenon. Since the literature came into being, the city is always the objects to be imagined and spoken of.Thus we can say that the writing of the city is a literature practice of the city imagination. In the literature work, the political center Beijing and the most prosperous city Shanghai have both been the most perfect modern cities for the Chinese people. Especially after the nineties of last century, on the one hand, the"modernization", as a concrete social organization, has been fully developed, on the other hand, the"globalization", as a pattern of the capitalism's expanding, has also become a fact of life in China after the reform and open policy. Under such backgrounds,the discussion and comparison of the two cities—Beijing and Shanghai are of greater significance. Beijing is a city with long history of rural culture while Shanghai is the earliest modern city in the real sense. They are both characterized by obvious and specific features under the impact of the globalization and modernization.This thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is the comparison of the similarities and the differences of the writing for the two cities. It mainly compares the two cities from the scenery of the city, the gender differences and the attitudes towards people from other provinces. On the scenery of the city, the writing of Beijing is the explicit map-charting while the writing of Shanghai is the implicit city space with the scenery as the media of the local customs. On the depiction of the city female, in the work describing Beijing, a series of"bad women"in the traditional sense can be found. Following the rules of the female in the city is equal to the lost of the morality. Yet in the work describing Shanghai, the"bad women"emphasizes the destiny of the women which refers to the modern city full of desires and differences. Thus it emphasizes the recognition of the female/city. Many youngsters from other provinces are mostly depicted as those characters"striving"in Beijing with beautiful dreams, thus it depicts one lacking period of modern history of Beijing. The description of Shanghai from the angle of the people coming from other provinces expresses their recognition for the traditional culture of Shanghai and exposes the heritage of the citizens in the consuming culture. After the nineties of last century, imaginary or half imaginary works with the old acquaintances have cropped up. It mainly expresses the re-recognition for the lures, the cherishing of the ever middle capitalist class and the seeking for the essence of the traditional cities.The descriptions of the cities in the nineties of last century are not separate from others; rather they are originated from their separate traditions. On the whole, the description of Beijing has somewhat betrayed the tradition while the description of Shanghai on the whole continues to keep the tradition although it is more diversified. On the whole, the novels with Beijing flavor continue the traditional writing style, but it adds some regret and reflection for the losing cultural memory. Yet in the depiction of the characters, the new characters in the city appear. The new attitudes towards the city also enrich the topic for the description of Beijing. The description of Shanghai during the whole 20's century, the complete traditional writing style has been basically preserved, that is the"modern"Shanghai writing style,"left wing"ideological Shanghai writing style and the"legend"Shanghai writing style. Except the"left wing"ideological Shanghai writing style which has disappeared in the nineties, the other two has been preserved and continued.The second part: the differences of the city imagination in Beijing and Shanghai. It mainly from the background of the globalization and modernization analyzes the different choices of the two cities, thus analyzes the reasons for the different writing features. Beijing-a city with rich memories of the countries, and Shanghai-a city which has been called the"east Paris"are both characterized with the new city imagination in the nineties city writing. Beijing has changed from the"capital city"of the nation to the"global capital"and it has become the historical sign of the"new century culture". Since the nineties of last century, the old Shanghai has been surprising given the imagination of the modern developed and globalizing city. It has been a national cultural fashion to explicate the globalization of Shanghai from every angle. The new and old shanghai, in the particular historical moment, has formed a particular interaction. In the modern society, Beijing is portrayed as the splitting of the tradition and modernization while Shanghai accomplishes its expectation through the cherishment of the past. The image of Beijing is split by two obstacles which are incompatible. One is the unknown national city which lacks the cultural recognition and the other is the imperialism city with rich cultural memory. They both existed in the images of Beijing in the novels from the nineties century and formed the internal force of the Beijing writing. In the cherishing trend of shanghai, the objects of the cherishment is the prosperous shanghai in the thirties of last century. In a certain degree, this reflects people's longing and proud of the ever called"east Paris"and the best capital in Asia. Also it reflects the dissatisfaction of the people for the current condition and the desire for the perfect modernization. In retrospect, this thesis, taking Beijing and Shanghai as examples, discusses and explicates the description and imagination of the city in the novels from the nineties of last century. It mainly compares the idea of the city, the memory of the city in the cherishment and their relationship with the tradition in the two cities's writing, emphasizes the city imagination from the globalization and modernization, and thus analyzes the reasons for the two separate writings. Therefore it can offer rich thinking space for China during the process of the Third World's modernization.