Describe The City Affectionately

Guang Ling Chao is the famous novel of Li Hanqiu, who lived in the late of Qing Dynasty and the early of Republic of China. Stories of the novel mainly happen in Yangzhou, and sometimes in Wuhan and Shanghai. It reflects the historical change from the Opium War to the May 4th Movement. It presents the landscape, convention and people’s life in Yangzhou as well. The thesis will be based on Guang Ling Chao, Qing Xiangge’s Poetry, My views of novel and other novels of Li Hanqiu written before and during Guang Ling Chao. Through the text analysis of Guang Ling Chao, the thesis will study in Li Hanqiu’s nostalgia complex facing the declined city and changeable life and his effort of making the society better.In the first part, Guang Ling Chao will be put after Yangzhou Hua Fang Lu, Ya Guan Lou and Feng Yue Meng which are all about Yangzhou. The thesis will analysis the decline of Yangzhou in the transition period, which shows in the decline of folk belief and literary pursuits. People in Yangzhou focused on siphoning off money rather than cultural activities. In the second part, the thesis will analysis Li Hanqiu’s nostalgia complex through the relation between Yangzhou and Shanghai as well as Yangzhou and Wuhan. Though Yangzhou was no longer prosperous, Li Hanqiu missed homeland frequently when he lived in other cities. In the third part, the thesis will discuss the writing of funny people, sentient female and folk hero in Yangzhou in Guang Ling Chao. Through the writing, we can grasp the feature of the novel, which manifests as odd, sentiment and heroism, and the connotation of social criticism. In the forth part, the thesis will analysis how Yangzhou Pingshu, Tanci and Buddhist thought make influences on Li Hanqiu, so as to discuss how the cultural heritage of Yangzhou impact on Li Hanqiu and Guang Ling Chao.