On Zhang Ai - Ling's Novel Human Nature Writing

During 1940's, Shanghai's Eileen Chan and her works broke out from the world of Chinese literary. Her tragic experience enhanced her viewpoint of human nature to an unusual high level. Her understanding of human nature got away from the restrictions of times and class and casted aside the limitation of politics and ethics. She unfolded to readers the real human nature that she faced. This article analyzes Eileen Chan's unique point of view of human nature and her special mercy for it in four respects: the cultural background, the characters in her novels, her connotation of human nature and her methods of expressions.The luxurious old Shanghai City was the cultural background for Eileen Chan, and both of them were unique. You can say that she was the most appropriate mouthpiece of the city. She experienced the loss of parents's love, lover's love and her nation's love. But she gained wisdom from the tragedies and established her special viewpoint on human nature.Human nature in her novel melted into a variety of characters. She bravely unveiled those so-called mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and fathers and husbands, in order to expose the awkward phenomenons and explain to the audience the truth of human nature.She insisted that life was plain and suppressing, instead of being romantic and heroic. She focused on common people's common life. In her eyes, human beings should be living without the bondage of social, economic, historical, classical, and revolutionary or ethic factors. She was not strict with weak points of human nature, instead, she would love to describe the tolerance and uneasiness of life with an attitude of mercy.Her writing techniques were full of tension. Wether ancient or modern, home or abroad, the techniques worked together harmoniously under her pen. Her psychological descriptions lead us to the souls of the characters. Her imago descriptions were widely used and afforded for thought. Her special language style suited both refined and popular tastes. The techniques helped a lot in supporting Eileen Chan's topic of life.Nowdays, with the development of economy and culture, people come to suspect about human life and wonder about the truth of human nature. Eileen Chan reminded us: to understand and to have mercy. Her delivery of the truth of human nature would be provoking and would be identified by modern world. It would be of important status in contemporary history of literature.