Chinese Korean Writer Jiang Zaixi's Novel Research

Jiang Zaixi,born in 1953 in Tieling county of Liaoning province,entered the literatus with his publication of the short story "Herakles".After that,he published 50 more short stories and medium-length novels.His works received wide recognition from the literary circles.He won a series of awards such as Azalea Literature Award conferred by Hei Longjian News,Yalu River Literature Award by Liaoning Korean Cultural Newspaper,Award of Literature of Shenyang enterprise association by Literature of East Liaoning,Award of Literature in Tiger and Dragon Cup,and Award of Excellence in Ethnic Literature Composition.It's noted that Mr.Jiang obtained the only Excellence Award-Award of Literature for Foreign Koreans-with his work "Termination"when South Korean first collected works from foreign Koreans in 1999.During the mid-1970s,ethnic Korean literature in the Liaoning region was in the nascent state.Like other regions of China,Liaoning's ethnic Korean literature was in the recession after undergoing ten-year turmoil of Cultural Revolution.Along with the end of the Revolution,the Korean minority literature opened a new vitas.It entered the mature period in the mid-eighties,and a number of writers began to emerge in and out of provincial journals.As a representative of ethnic Korean writers in Liaoning,Jiang Zaixi has been committed to novel creation with Liaoning as a stage to describe lives of ethnic Korean farmers and their changes and focus on the farmers' fate and ways out.Considering good aspects including spatiality,original themes and artistic approaches in his novels,he obtained an important position in the ethnic Korean literature at large,not only in Liaoning.Besides that,studies are concentrated on the old writers and writers from Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture rather than new writers and writers of Liaoning in the ethnic Korean literary circle.For the sustainable development of minority literary circle,I think it is an important subject facing us to strengthen the focus on the regional literature and the comprehensive and systematic study of works of emerging,promising,leading writers.Therefore,it's of realistic importance to study Jiang Zaixi's novels.Jiang Zaixi's "Fools' Feast" was published by Ethnic Press of Liaoning in 2003.It was Collections of Short and Medium-length Novels,including 31 pieces published between 1980 to 2000.Regarding the study into the novels of Jiang Zaixi's,there are no special study works on it yet.It still lies in the blank stage for we can find one or two research results from the current available materials and comments.Therefore,issues in the study of Jiang Zaixi's novels arise as follows:Study results of Jiang Zaixi's novels are confined in several works.Of the existing research materials,studies concern the works of 1980s,hardly none of 1990s.Furthermore,existing studies are simple comments on his works.As yet,systematic study into Jiang Zaixi's works still lie blank.Therefore,the essay is to study "Fool's Feast".I will try to improve the systematic results of his novels by adding new studies to the blank areas and making amendments to previous research results and study systematically on the theme.The essay is to analyze the works through the approach of social historic criticism and discuss in four chapters.Chapter one is Introduction on the purpose,current status and approaches of the study as well as the mainframe of the essay.Chapter Two is to focus on the subject-theme of the novels.This chapter is divided into four parts,reflections of lives of ethnic Koreans after the founding of China,review and criticism of social issues in the ethnic Korean society after the reform and open-up policy,criticism over inherent vice of ethnic Korean farmers in the market economy and awareness of unease,and review and criticism over the lives and fates of ethnic Koreans in South Korean after China established diplomatic relationship with South Korea respectively.Reflections on the lives of ethnic Koreans after the founding of China.Novels focused on the Great Cultural Revolution after the founding of China."Elder Sisters","Distant Places","A Raining Autumn Night","A Lucky Place and his other works",Jiang Zaixi set the Cultural Revolution as the background to reveal and criticize the absurdity and tragedies of life it brought about.In addition,the serial novel "That Winter" truly depicted the lives of people going through the prevalent period of leftism.Reviewing and criticism of social issues in the ethnic Korean society after China began to reform and open up to the outside world.The following works were written under the background of the reform and open-up policy.With being unfilial as the theme,"The Dim Full Moon","Termination" and other works described lower personality cultivation and degradation of ethics and moralities."A Morning" criticized bureaucracy and revealed that using violence against it only brought harms to both sides."Meeting and Farewell"and the like described the social issues brought about by family breakdown of those people working in South Korean."Autumn" expressed the grief over departure with family members to work faraway."Grandmother" portrayed deeply into the inner world of grandmother to demonstrate the bitterness and pains of people living the materialistic society.Jiang Ziaxi reflected real lives of ethnic Koreans by means of disclosing the sprawling social problems in ethnic Korean society after reform and opening up to the world as the subject.Criticism over ethnic Korean farmers in the market economy and awareness of unease.Setting countrysides in the market economy as background,works like "Drunken Village" and "The Village" criticized the degenerating lives of ethnic Korean farmers."Summer" and "Threshing" and other works were critical of such inherent vice as jealousy,ignorance,vanity,indulgent in comforts and excessive consumption.Reviewing and criticism of lives and fates of ethnic Koreans in South Korea after China established diplomatic relationships with South Korea.With South Korea as background,miserable and depraved lives of those toiling in the foreign country were reflected in a wide range of works after China established diplomatic relationships with South Korea,like "Fools' Feast","Seeking Yesterday's Seeker","A Wine-drinker's Pains","Xian Fudong's Summer in 1998","Even if this mountain and that mountain have been surmounted" and"Hibernation"Chapter Three is to study the composition mainly by the analysis of his works.Jiang Zaixi was consistently concerned with the ethnic Korean society since the 1980s.He sharply revealed the ideology of minority people and profoundly criticized the social issues sprawling in their society.Apart from those,the writer made a figure in the Liaoning ethnic Korean literary circle with his novelty in themes and appropriate angels in narration and diverse narrative means to faithfully describe the reality and fates of Korean minority,which showed intense awareness of criticism and unease.First,novel themes were shown in the works like "The Dim Full Moon"with being unfilial as the theme,"Peasants'song"criticizing the inherent awareness of the ethnic Koreans of agricultural cultivation as the theme,and"The Road" with criticizing jealousy and ignorance of ethnic Koreans as the theme.Second,strong consciousness of criticism and sense of unease Self-reflection and criticism over the real lives of ethnic Korean appeared in the majority of Jiang Zaixi's novels with strong sense of unease.Third,proper narrative perspectives."Sloping Road","Distant Places","A Raining Autumn Night" and other works described the sufferings the heroes and heroines bore during the Cultural Revolution in the first person.The choice of the perspectives truly showed the absurdity of the Cultural Revolution.The writer clearly portrayed the images and themes of the following works in the third person,"Even if this mountain and that mountain have been surmounted","Termination","Seeking Yesterday's Seeker","Fools' Feast" and "Father was away".Fourth,various narrative approaches.Jiang Zaixi meditated on the reality and fate of ethnic Koreans.The writer used realistic ways to describe their realistic approaches to vividly portrayed characters by means of satire and comparison and contrast to enrich the novels,and highlight the themes before other Ethnic Korean novels were written ideally and concluded by a happy ending.Part Four is Conclusion.Last efforts are made to sort out,summarize and conclude the viewpoints of the essay.To sum up,Jiang Zaixi's novels are characteristic of profoundness,authenticity and originality in themes.The realistic descriptions into details are real-to-life and vivid.In addition,the writer adopts appropriate perspectives of narration,diverse narrative approaches and strong awareness of criticism and unease,all of which won him a place in the Liaoning ethnic Korean literary circles,even in the whole ethnic Korean literary circles as it were.