An Analysis Of Anti-war Writings Of Zhang Henshui From The Perspective Of Mass Culture

Zhang henshui, a master of popular novel in the history of Chinese contemporary literature, has won high reputation at home and abroad, due to the large quantity of his works and readers. Having intense times consciousness, Zhang henshui is always concerned about the prospect of China and the well-being of Chinese people. When the Anti-Japanese War broke out, in order to propagandize and promote the anti-Japanese spirit, Zhang henshui devoted full-heartedly to writing. Out of his thirty million words written throughout life, more than eight million are anti-Japanese works, among which there are approximately forty novels and novelettes, nearly thirty of which were written during the eight anti-war years.The anti-war novel of Zhang henshui is related directly or indirectly to the promotion of Anti-Japanese War. His novels obtained popularity in various social classes and were highly reputed. Then what is it that makes the novels of Zhang henshui so successful both in terms of social influence and economic benefit? The author believes that the success of Zhang henshui's anti-war novels lies in his consciousness of mass culture involved in writing and market operation. Zhang henshui consciously seeks to become a writer for the masses, pursuing and fulfilling the individuation of art, and is a representative of intellects integrating with the mass culture. This thesis tries to illustrate the author's ideas according to the following aspects:Firstly, the popularized writing technique of Zhang henshui is decoded by content, style, description ploy, and language use. Zhang henshui has a constant target group—the ordinary people. To produce works that are accessible to the masses, Zhang henshui inherits the spirit of Chinese culture and tradition, dismisses the stereotype of chapter novels and adopts original writing techniques on the basis of traditional writing technique, furnishing his works with new contents. He is always able to make his novels pleasing to the masses when they appear in the market, which explains why they have won wide popularity. The analysis above demonstrates that the writing intention of Zhang henshui is characterized by the attempt to integrate with the masses.Secondly, the analysis of Zhang henshui's anti-war novels is carried out with the awareness of the characteristics of commercialization of mass culture, which aims to illustrate the reason for the formation of market consciousness of his novels and their success in the guidance of such consciousness. Above all, family burden and the establishment of contribution fee system as two external factors are the impetus to the marketization of his writings. Secondly, with the consciousness to serve for the people, Zhang henshui's novels meet the demand of readers and well adapt to the market. Lastly, being a writer familiar with newspapering, Zhang henshui is well aware of the immense effect exerted upon the propagation of novels by mass media, which is characterized by speediness and considerable width. Thus his novels have quickly occupied the market. The reason for the marketization of Zhang henshui's anti-war novels and their popularity is clarified by the three aspects analyzed above.Thirdly, the mass cultural value of Zhang henshui's anti-war novels would be analyzed and summarized. On the one hand, Zhang henshui's anti-war novel series is an essential and unavoidable part in the research of Chinese anti-Japanese literature. His anti-war novels have magnificent position both in the history of Chinese anti-Japanese literature and Chinese contemporary literature. In order to adapt to the particular era, better propagandize and promote the anti-Japanese spirit, Zhang henshui modifies the traditional chapter novels, which accelerates the modernization progress of popular novels and brings vitality to traditional chapter novels. On the other hand, the inspiration brought by Zhang henshui's anti-war novels is analyzed from three aspects: appropriate market positioning, emphasis on social influence and economic benefits, diversity of market operation methods. From the analysis above, the literary historical value of Zhang henshui's anti-war novels is clarified. And the market operating experience of his novels could bring inspiration and reference value to the contemporary literary world.As a writer with strong consciousness of readers and the market, Zhang henshui writes anti-war novels that prominently demonstrate the integration of literature with mass culture. Zhang henshui's writing intention to integrate with the masses and the successful combination of his works and mass media make his anti-war novels bestsellers, contributing a lot in popularizing the anti-war spirit effectively.