Research On The Bottom Narrative Of Xu Lianshun's Novels

Xu Lianshun is a famous contemporary Korean writer in China,born in the 1950s.Her creation has gone through such important historical periods as the reform and opening up and the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea.With the changes in China's social structure,the lower class has gradually attracted the attention of the whole society.Since the 21st century,many writers have begun to describe the life of the lower class,and "literature of the lower class" has also begun to appear in the literary world,discussing "lower class narration".In her creation,Xu Lianshun focuses on describing the lower-class characters.After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea,a great number of Korean people in China have been going to work in South Korea.She began to write about the cross-border experiences of the Koreans,focusing on depicting their physical and mental suffering.Xu Lianshun has written a total of five novels so far.Among them,the protagonists in the three novels Rootless Flowers,Who Has Ever Seen a Butterfly s Nest and A Chinese Daughter-in-law are all Korean ethnics.She describes what happened in their cross-border experiences and focuses on their state of mind.Therefore,these three works are known as "a trilogy of separation".The Cuckoo's Sound and Dancing Puppet are novels written after those three novels.In these two novels,the protagonists are left-behind children or orphans.The writer mainly depicts the inner world of these children,especially the psychological problems caused by the absence of parents,and how they look for their true selves in misfortune.Starting from these two novels,Xu Lianshun's creative consciousness has undergone significant changes.Up to now,studies related to Xu Lianshun mainly focus on "separation","cultural identity","feminism",etc.,and relatively few research studies are conducted from the perspective of artistic techniques and narratology.However,Xu Lianshun's works are characterized by their distinct narrative features,namely narrative structure and narrative language.Therefore,based on previous studies,this thesis aims to study the lower-class-narration features of Xu Lianshun's novels.The research method of this thesis,namely the lower-class narration,is a literary tendency hidden in Chinese literature.Since The Book of Songs,literature has begun to pay attention to the life of the lower class.Of course,in many modern works,such as Lu Xun's and Lao she's works,they all pay attention to the miserable fate of the oppressed.The core meaning of the lower class literature lies in the "lower class".The definition of "lower class" is slightly different for each scholar.However,according to various viewpoints,the "lower class" can be defined as "the group with less resources and poor life at the economic,social and cultural levels".The lower class narration is to describe the life of such group of people.What needs to be emphasized here is that lower class narration is a concept borrowed from sociology.Therefore,when analyzing minority works,it is not about nationality,but about"sociality".This thesis is divided into four chapters.Chapter one is an introduction to the study,which mainly explains the research purpose,research significance,research status,research object and research method.It is worth noting that in the first chapter,the author clarifies the meaning of "lower class" and demonstrated the validity of studying Xu Lianshun's novels from the perspective of lower-class narration theory.Xu Lianshun's novels are composed of lower-class characters and lower-class spaces.Although some scholars mentioned this narrative feature in some articles,there has not been any related research studies.In chapter two,the author analyzes the lower-class characters in the novels.First of all,the characters in Xu Lianshun's novels are suffering from physical and spiritual pain.On the physical side,they went to South Korea to work because of their poor life and were doing the lowest jobs in South Korea.Eight characters in Who Has Ever Seen a Butterfly's Nest,in order to pursue a better life,risked their lives and set foot on the smuggling ship.On the spiritual side,their pain mainly comes from their families.For example,characters such as Hong Zhihe,Zhao Dan,Shi Ji and "Puppet" grew up in incomplete families,which affected their characters and worldviews.They want to get rid of the past environment and the class they belong to,but the affection between men and women,jealousy and deprivation among the same ethnic groups make their misfortune continue.Although the characters in Xu Lianshun's novels are all the lower-class ones,the writer gives them dignity along the narration.Facing the disdain and contempt of others,they never lost their self-esteem.In particular,Hong Zhihe in Rootless Flowers still maintains his dignity despite various contradictions and has a very generous character.In order to let Cui Renkui accompany his daughter with leukemia,he covered up the fact that Cui Renkui stole and went to jail for him.On his first night in South Korea,Hong Zhihe was lured to a hotel.After learning about Xu Enmei,a prostitutes' story,he generously gave her all his valuables.Zhao Dan,Shi Ji and other characters still maintain their self-esteem despite suffering from the past family environment and the cross-border experiences.Moreover,the images of Meizhu,Yanji,"puppet" and other children also stick to their inner dignity and wishes during their unfortunate growth.In addition,several characters in Xu Lianshun's novels,such as Cui Renkui,Chi Huijing,Xu Enmei and the mother of "puppet" chose to earn money immorally,but their sacrifice for their families gave them dignity.In terms of narrative language,the writer uses philosophical language to enrich the spiritual world and image of the lower-class characters.After several setbacks,these lower-class characters began to look for themselves.As a matter of fact,their troubles are partly caused by the absence of their parents.It is true that the protagonists in Xu Lianshun's novels are mostly images lacking parental care.Meizhu in The Cuckoo s Sound began to think about her identity and refused to immigrate to South Korea with her mother because her mother had to change her surname after another marriage."Puppet" in Dancing Puppet grew up in an orphanage,but she kept the puppet which her mother gave her all the time because she believed that her mother would come to her one day.This kind of hope for her mother is actually a process of recognizing herself.In chapter three,the author analyzes the characteristics of the lower-class space of the novels.In Xu Lianshun's novels,the lower-class space has distinctive features and important structural functions.First of all,the lower-class space in Xu Lianshun's novels is shabby and backward.The writer not only describes these characteristics,but also describes the lower-class space they live in from the very beginning of the novels,which lays a certain tone for each story.The hotel and construction site in Rootless Flowers,the smuggling ship in Who Has Ever Seen a Butterfly's Nest,the hidden coffee shop,the "underground coffee shop",the prison and the tomb in A Chinese Daughter-in-law,and the remote village and the orphanage located in Jiangsu Province in Dancing Puppet are all the lower-class spaces depicted by Xu Lianshun.Specifically,these spaces are characterized by remote location and shabby environment.The novels begin with spatial narration,which can not only arouse readers'interest,but also reflect the firm and persistent characteristics of the lower class.These lower-class spaces left the characters with unhappy childhood and miserable experiences.For example,the most prominent lower-class space in Who Has Ever Seen a Butterfly s Nest is the smuggling ship,which is narrow and full of stench.Actually,the characters'choice is related to their experiences,and the terrible environment also implies their tragic fate.The remote countryside in Dancing Puppet reflects the helpless choice of the mother of "puppet",and also indicates that it is difficult for her to escape from the clutches of four brothers in Chen family.The orphanage where "puppet" stayed can be seen as the follow-up space of the former remote rural space,which also implies that "puppet" continues her mother's tragic fate.The above characteristics are more prominent in A Chinese Daughter-in-law.In order to forget her past,Zhao Dan chose to go to South Korea.However,in her marriage life there,she suffered setbacks and criticism from others.In this process,she can often see her mother's shadow in herself.She thought she could have a life track different from her mother's,but she still continued her mother's fate.In chapter four,the author analyzes Xu Lianshun's lower-class narrative strategies.First of all,Xu Lianshun has actually written about the living conditions of the middle and lower classes of Chinese Korean ethnic groups living in South Korea,which is closely related to the writer's cross-border experiences and her careful observation of life.Rootless Flowers,Who Has Ever Seen a Butterfly's Nest and A Chinese Daughter-in-law all represent the Korean ethnics' cross-border experiences.Engaging in low-level labor in South Korea,smuggling to South Korea at the risk of their lives,and marrying South Koreans are all real social phenomena among Korean people.Secondly,the writer depicts the characters'desire for money.The greatest feature of the "lower class"is lack of material resources.Xu Lianshun grasps this core feature and links the choices made by these characters with the most essential desire for money.Cui Renkui,Chi Huijing and Xu Enmei in Rootless Flowers have all done illegal things for money.The eight characters in Who Has Ever Seen a Butterfly's Nest all risked their lives to sneak into South Korea because of financial difficulties.Although Zhao Dan in A Chinese Daughter-in-law did not want to marry a South Korean because of money,the Korean compatriots Hua Yan she met while working in a Korean hotel and the Korean ethnics who smuggled into South Korea in her cell were all forced by life and had to take some illegal measures.In order to satisfy her child's material life,Meizhu's mother in The Cuckoos Sound also remarried and finally immigrated to South Korea with Meizhu.In Dancing Puppet,the mother of the "puppet" married the fourth child of Chen family in a rural area of Jiangsu Province in order to cure her mother's illness.When describing the desire for money,the writer also depicts some greedy South Korean characters.In contrast,the writer portrays the immoral and greedy side of South Koreans.In addition,Xu Lianshun beautified the tragic fate of the characters in the lower-class narration.These characters have suffered physical and spiritual troubles,but the writer has given them dignity and rich inner world.Although these characters have different tragic experiences,their mutual dependence and support make the tragic stories still tender.