The Year 1993: The Transition And Saltation Of Literature

Coming into the 1990s, the Chinese literature appeared a new look widelydifferent from that of 1980s. During the period of transition, the year 1993 became awatershed of the literature between 1980s and 1990s. The political disturbance in1989 and the consequent commercial tide changed Chinese people's politicalmentality, which also fundamentally changed literature and culture. Literature notonly began to emerge new pattern, new aesthetic form and new look but also cameinto a period of diversified development without the sensational effect with the brightmain stream. The year 1993 seemed a historical coordinate and many significantliterary incidents happened in 1993: the discussion of"Humanism", Shuo Wang invogue, the Eastern Aggress of the Shan Group, the controversy of The DesolateCapital, the commercial writing, the mass culture vigorous growth, the transition ofthe vanguard literature, the death of the poets, etc.The starting point of the paper is the research of how the literature in the 1980scame to an end and how the literature in the 1990s began through the study of theliterary and cultural phenomena before and after the year 1993. During the period oftransition, the year 1993 became the watershed of literature. From the year 1992, theChinese market economy developed rapidly and the zeal of people focused more oncommodity economy instead of social politics. During the period of the transition,the mentality of the intellects changed a lot: they became the marginal men of thesociety instead of the spokesmen of the enlightenment utterance. The wholeintellectual circles were full of the spiritual disillusionment. From 1989 to 1992,TheChinese educational circles are basically in the state of the cultural vacuum. Afavorable turn of the phenomenon appeared until the year 1993. The significantliterary and cultural incidents before and after the year 1993 made it possible for theliterary transition and saltation, which influenced and established the literary patternin the end of the 20^thcentury, even the 21thcentury. The paper covers seven parts including the introduction and the main bodyconsists of six chapters.The introduction falls into three aspects and introduces the significance of thepaper, the general situation of the literature in 1993 and the study methods.Chapter one is the big background and the small context that mainly introducesthe social background of the transition of literature in 1993. Xiaopoing Deng made theSouth Cruises in spring of 1992 and the Reform and Open was in full operation thatsoon changed people's ideology and values. Under the background of the socialchanges of the age, literature began to change. The Chinese intellects came back tothe study from the square after the political disturbance in 1989 and devotedthemselves to the academic research of the Chinese intellectual history and culturalhistory. This is the collective transition of the educational circles at the end of the 20thcentury. This chapter is to expound the influence of the social and politicalenvironment on the literature through the process of the initial and ultimatepublication of the folk publication IntellectsChapter two is the ideological fission in the intellectual circles. Based on chapterone, the development of the Chinese literature and culture in the early 1990s is furtherdiscussed. Under the big background of the change of the social times, the upheavaland fission of the intellectual circles began to emerge with the characteristics of thealarm and discomfort, even the spiritual panic. The big discussion of the human spiritwas one of the influential activities. From 1993 to 1995, the Chinese intellectualcircles took part in the discussion in succession. And a batch of cultural newspapers,such as Guangming Daily, Shanghai Literature, Theory and Creation, etc. became theimportant platform and carrier of the discussion. There appeared the splendidutterance banquet from the central cities such as Shanghai, Beijing to the culturallyimportant cities such Nanjing, Changchun, Jinan, etc.. At the same time, it's also thelast collective large-scale symphony of the Chinese one-hundred-year literarydevelopment. The discussion and the different voices in the discussion showed theintrospection spirit, the critical spirit, the sense of social responsibility and mission ofthe Chinese intellects. Chapter three is the vigorous growth of the mass culture. Based on the previoustwo chapters, the development of the mass culture is discussed. The mass culture isthe cultural phenomenon arising from the industrial or post-industrial society. It's theinevitable product of the economic times. When China came into the age of theeconomic growth, the appearance and the popularity of the mass culture becameunavoidable. With the coming of the Chinese new-round commodity economy, themass culture developed greatly with the aesthetic allure. The mass culture came intopeople's vision when the pure literature is constantly marginalized. The literarydevelopment came into the period of vacuum.Chapters four to six expound the literary phenomena and its historicalsignificance of the literature in 1993: the appearance of the Eastern Aggress of theShan Group divided strongly the Chinese literary map that had already beendisordered, filled the vacancy of the pure literature creation since 1989 andsymbolized the powerful vitality of the realistic literature in the commercial times.The creation of Heng Liu and Zhenyun Liu opened up another form of the historicalwriting. The intellects'enlightenment strength began to weaken and history becameridiculous under their pens. Behind the historical writing, there hid the obviousrealistic appeal: the humble strength of the intellects during the social transition andthe irrationality of the historical politics. The collective mutiny happened to theVanguard Writers during the year of 1992 to 1993. The vanguard literature oncedevoted itself to breaking the literary tradition and order opened up the aesthetic valueof literature. But the excessive pursuit for form and the language experiment made thevanguard literature lose the realistic soil for survival. The vanguard writers changedtheir creative style, which confirmed the constraint of the literary context on thecreative subject. The novelettes created by Anyi Wang made contribution to the newunban literature. She had the fine and smooth feeling towards unban life and thespecial grasp of the characters. She provided the city outsiders'imagination of themodern unban life. Shuo Wang was in vogue in around 1993. His worksdeconstructed and overturned the elite culture, set up a banter form of"playing withliterature"and provided a parameter for serious literature. Cheng Gu's murdering hiswife in New Zealand on October, 1993 ended the dream of the poet and his unreasonable behavior was not only the problem of personality defect, but also anincident of cultural declining probably.The year of 1993 is of great value and significance for the history of literaturebefore and after it. It defused the quiet of the literature context which was caused bypolitics in the late 1980s. At the same time, it also helped to bring about themulti-literature times at the end of the century. It's a watershed and broke theliterature between 1980s and 1990s.