The Influence Of Journalists'living On Zhang Henshui And His Creative

In the whole Chinese modern literature Zhang Henshui is indisputably one of the writers deserving the greatest academic attention. The reasons are as follows: First, Zhang is a most prolific writer. In the prime time of his creation (in the 20s-30s of 20th century) his production averages about 3000 characters per day. He left totally over 30 million characters of works, of which the number of novels claims more than 100. As to the volume of works and the scope of representing life, no other modern writer could be his rival. Second, Zhang is a most influencing writer. The response of his readers to his work was almost instantaneous. In the 20s, when Chun Ming Wai Shi was serialized on Beijing's World Evening Paper, each afternoon when the paper was turned out, readers were queuing in front of the office for purchase; and no sooner was Jin Fen Shi Jia published on Beiping's World Daily than people were busy "indexing"who were the persons that the book alludes; and similar instance took place with Ti Xiao Yin Yuan, which, when first shown on Shanghai's News Report, stirred up the excitement of readers so much it lasted to a decade. Thirdly, Zhang is a writer reclaimed by the literati. Zhang's name was once either closely guarded as a taboo, or arbitrarily fixed as the follower of "Group of Mandarin ducks and butterflies". However, when that phase of hard times ended, his name emerged out of the ruins of history, and in recent years, he began to hold a limelight in the mass media. By the end of last century more than a dozen of Zhang's novels and prose collections were published. Moreover, the beginning of the new millennium saw Jin Fen Shi Jia, Ti Xiao Yin Yuan, and Man Jiang Hong all adapted and put on TV screen. Obviously, as an extraordinary literary and cultural phenomenon, Zhang Henshui deserves our substantial academic attention. As a matter of fact, the research on him since 80s last century has been in progress indeed: his name begins to appear in various books about literature history; and the number of research essays on him grows. Yet taken as a whole, the research on Zhang is not satisfactory. There are reasons for this: the list of Zhang's works is too long, which almost baffles the close reading and the theme classification, and his dairies and letters which can render some help on the research have long been out of reach. This situation accounts for the present status of the Zhang Henshui studies: we see more of research on his single books but less of comprehensive study; there are many research essays but few books; and most research is aimed at the familiar topics, like whether Zhang belongs to "Group of Mandarin ducks and butterflies"or not, but rare research takes on new academic approaches. Therefore it is not only necessary but also obligatory to further the research on Zhang Henshui from new perspectives. Luckily, the relevant accomplishments of all these years have laid a sound basis for our projected research: the publication of Zhang's numerous works, particularly the publication of The Collected Edition of Zhang Henshui's Works, makes the job of systematic text reading convenient, thus exempted the drudgery of hunting out the needed texts; aside from the precious Memoir of My Writing Life by Zhang himself, some biographies and memoirs lately published, like Yuan Jin's Talented Novelist Zhang Henshui, Zhang Wu's My Father Zhang Henshui, etc. give some clues for comprehending Zhang and his works; some new works on literary history, like The History of Popular Literature of Modern China edited by Fan Boqun, break new grounds for the study of the popular literary writers; and the opening to the public of the old newspapers and magazines in the major libraries of the country (including the reprinting of some original editions),makes us have access to the splendor of the old papers and the opportunity of viewing the original state of Zhang's works. This thesis tries to study Zhang Henshui and his novels by a new angle: the affects of the profession of a newspaperman on the life and creation of the writer. To choose such a research angle, the author has several reasons: 1. From 1919 when he entered Wuhu's Wanjiang Daily to 1948 when he left Beiping's New People, Zhang Henshui worked in journalist circles for 30 years. He was literarily an "all round newspaperman": he acted as reporter, editor, editor-in-chief, general editor successively, he edited news as well as supplements, and he not only worked for others but also invested on his own newspaper business. 2. 20s through 40s last century was the golden time of Zhang Henshui's newspaper business, and it was also the prime time of his literary creation. The concurrence of the two deserves consideration. 3. Around 80 per cent of Zhang's novels were first published on newspaper by way of serialization, and in the 30s last century he undertook the whole novel serialization on News Report, Shen Report, and World Daily which had the greatest circulation of all China's newspapers. This means that his works cater to the interests of both the media and his contemporary readers. In this we see how his novel creation is closely related to his profession as a newspaperman. Here lies the key to interpret Zhang Henshui and his novel texts: if the conditions of his newspaperman profession are clear, his life is understood, hence the reasons why his text is this but not the other way. This thesis divides itself into two parts: the first part mainly deals with Zhang's life, how the writer Zhang Henshui became a newspaperman, and how his life and thoughts were thus affected by his new profession. In the second part, from seven respects including matter, content, image, language, narration, sub-genres, supplement-texts, and limitations, the author gives an inspection ofhis novel texts, showing how Zhang's newspaperman life and mass media have worked together for a decisive influence in his literary creation. Chapter 1 With an examination of Zhang Henshui's time, his family and his personalities, helped by the comparison of him with his famous countrymen Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi, the author explains the inevitability of his becoming a newspaperman: his personalities would not allow him to be a politician like Chen; the lack of overseas experience prevented him from becoming a cultural elite like Hu; his father's early death and his position as the eldest son in his family urged him to get to work and get rid of poverty as early as possible; and the rapid development of the press of the time offered him great opportunities. The life of a newspaperman changed his state of living, and set him on the road for a famous writer. Chapter 2 This chapter mainly discusses how the double-role (modern newspaperman as well as traditional literary man) affects Zhang's psyche and creative consciousness and how they interact with each other. Zhang's soul of a traditional literary man is manifested in two modes: in aesthetics, he likes traditional literature including classical language and ancient style poems; in his life, he practices the traditional way of living a secluded life enjoying mountains and waters. However, his role as a modern newspaperman made him positive in his life and in writing concepts as well, and he held literature as a way of taking part in, even intervening social life. Generally speaking, before 1924, he was affected more by his self-consciousness as a literary writer than as a newspaperman; from 1924 to 1935, the two consciousnesses counterbalanced; after 1935, particularly after the anti-Japanese war, his consciousness as a newspaperman grew while his ties with the identity as a literary man waned. Chapter 3 Starting with the close inspection of the texts of his works, this chapter tries to construct the relationship between the figures and plots in his novels and the figures and stories in his real life, by which way Zhang'smethod of "assimilating news into novel while framing novel into news"is exposed. Assimilating news into novel is not an innovation by Zhang Henshui, nevertheless he contributes some extraordinary merits to this "borrowing": unlike the limited borrowing of news by Western writers as an introduction to the expression of social ideas, or the earnest borrowing of news by late Qing satirist novelists as an explicit political attack, Zhang aims the borrowing at the society before him, and what he borrows are of a large scope, with much more sophistication. Chapter 4 In this chapter the characteristics of the content of Zhang Henshui's novels are analyzed. Zhang grew up in the countryside, but his novels focus on the city, particularly the city's public life. He observes the world critically, and pictures the abnormalities of the society and the roughness of life with a satirical pen. This is decided by the situation of the media, and it achieves the best communication effects. Chapter 5 This chapter deals with the characters in Zhang's novels. As a general rule Zhang's novels have many characters, however most characters only function as the carriers of news and anecdotes, and they come and go at the whimsical will of the narrator. Yet Zhang Henshui still creates some special characters: the pure ones. They are a mirror to the dirty world, and a strand of sunshine to the gloomy earth. The writer often lets them end up in tragedies. This is the outcome of his critical consciousness, and it shows his profound comprehension of the affects of tragedy. Chapter 6 In this chapter the language of Zhang's novels is discussed. Language is the formidable obstruction for the 5.4 New Literatures to reach the mass. Zhang could grasp the attention of his readers because his language is pure and powerful. Two factors make the way into the formation of his language style: the ancient vernacular fiction and the newspaper language. They are united and harmonized in Zhang's novel language. The virtue of hislanguage is manifested in many phrases, verbs and popular idioms. Chapter 7 This chapter discusses the function of news elements in the narration of Zhang's novels. Zhang often employs two narrative structures in his novels: the "tree structure"and the "bead structure", particularly the latter. The reason why the writer likes such structures is because they could accommodate many pieces of news and anecdotes into his novel. Meanwhile he thoughtfully assimilates the news elements into his novel so as to increase the freedom of his narration: first, he organizes his novels by applying the perspective of characters as reporters or quasi-reporters; second, he deploys many passages of news style in narration, which apparently bespeaks his intention of putting news elements to use in his novels. Chapter 8 This chapter examines the function of the "sub-genres"and the "supplement-texts"in Zhang's novels. The "sub-genres"refer to the poems, letters, news, announcements etc. that are inscribed in his novels. The "sub-genres"that appear much often in his novels have a dozen of types, which could be classified into three kinds: lyrical, narrative as well as lyrical, and declarative. In the context these "sub-genres"keep their original qualifications but achieve new functions. The functions of the lyrical "sub-genres"are: modulating the rhythm of the narration, hinting at the personalities of the characters, changing the form of the type of writing. The narrative as well as lyrical "sub-genres"are typically private discourse and have much more personal psychological information, so they function as the voice of those latent secrets in stories. In comparison the declarative "sub-genres"are typically authoritative discourse, they have the function of: announcing declarative information so as to regulate the direction of the plots'development; supplementing the narration of the progress and the outcome of the stories; constructing the objects for irony. Originally "supplement-texts"refer to the title, preface, postscript, covers,...