A Study Of Hawthorn Tree Forever From The Multidimensional Cultural Perspective

Hawthorn Tree Forever is a notable contemporary fiction, and thephenomenon of Hawthorn Tree is an important cultural phenomenonwhich is worth studying. Through analyzing the Hawthorn phenomenon,the present study is intended to interpret the cultural phenomenon showedin the reproducing, publishing, and adapting process of the novel anddiscuss the survival and development of contemporary Chinese literaturein the realistic context. The present study mainly applies the methods ofliterature research to studying the phenomenon of Hawthorn Tree fromthe multidimensional cultural perspective, basing on the researches ofLiterature Historiography, Receptive Aesthetics, Film Aesthetics,Communication Studies, Popular Culture, Editing and Publishing Science,Industry Economics and so on.Hawthorn Tree forever tells about a love story which happened in1970s. It focuses on the theme of pure love, which is different from thework of the Scar Literature and the Educated Youth Literature in thehistory of contemporary Chinese literature. It tells about a pure, aestheticand tragic love story, in which the love between Laosan (Sun Jian-xin)and Jingqiu is considered the purest one so far. It not only reflects thematerialistic concept of love in the contemporary society but also caters to the contemporary readers’ psychological needs for yearning for loveand happy life. Most importantly, it not only contains the mental kernel ofthe traditional narrative model of Cinderella, but also discusses the topicsof youth, love and death which different ages of readers are concernedabout and moved by.Hawthorn Tree forever sparked a singular cultural phenomenon, thephenomenon of the Hawthorn tree. It was serialized in the networkinitially and was discussed by many bloggers, post bar and forums in afew months. The unique dissemination approach of network culture madethe novel and its author become famous overnight and attracted thespecial attention of the publishing houses, which immediately published itin time. The productive planning means and celebrity made it become oneof the best-selling novels, which were sold as many as1,500,000volumesaltogether. The famous director Zhang Yimou adapted the novel formovie, which became an artistic work with Zhang’s artistic style andearned80million Yuan for the box office. In a word, the developmentalprocess of Hawthorn Tree Forever from the network novel to thebest-selling novel and then to the art film was an industrialization processof the contemporary Chinese literature. This typical cultural case couldbring a lot of thought and enlightenment for the development ofcontemporary literature.Basing on the study of Hawthorn Tree forever and the phenomenonof the hawthorn tree, we can draw a preliminary conclusion: the success of the Hawthorn Tree Forever is the result of various cultural forces ofthe entire era in the realistic context of the highly developed marketeconomy and media culture. The phenomenon of the Hawthorn Tree is acultural production chain derived from contemporary literature in themarket economy context, which is a model of industrialization for thecombination of literary art and commercial strategy. From this point ofview, the industrialization has become an inevitable trend for thedevelopment of contemporary Chinese literature in the realistic context ofhighly developed market economy and increasingly diverse socio-culture.For the humanistic intellectuals, it is a realistic proposition for them topay attention to and consider that how to create an art work close to lifeand reality and how to make their works achieve both artistic value andcommercial value perfectly.