A Must-Read List of Chinese Literary Classics值得一读的中文文学经典书单

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Context

This reading list presents a specific narrative tradition in contemporary Chinese literature: one focused on the fate of ordinary people during periods of social transformation. Most of these works were created in the 1980s-90s, reflecting the transformative pains of Chinese society before and after the reform and opening-up. They collectively explore a central tension: the collision between individual ideals and the tide of the times—a tension that has formed a unique “scars-reflection-root-seeking” narrative spectrum in Chinese literature. Revisiting these works in today’s context of “involution” and value reconstruction may provide a historical depth of reference.

Key Insights

The Continuation of Rural Realism — The Ordinary World (Lu Yao, 1986-1988) and The Horse Herder demonstrate Chinese literature’s sustained attention to the themes of “land-labor-dignity,” a tradition traceable to Zhao Shuli and Liu Qing. Such works counter the singularity of urbanization narratives, proposing “the ordinary” itself as a possible existential philosophy—forming an Eastern dialogue with the “persistence amid absurdity” found in Western existentialist literature.

Literary Memory of Historical Trauma — Furong Town (Gu Hua, 1981) practices a form of “microhistorical writing” through a dual perspective of “political movement-daily life.” This resonates with the recent “turn toward everyday life” in historical sociology: how do grand narratives permeate and distort individual experience? The Distant Savior, though a commercial novel, attempts to graft Buddhist philosophical contemplation onto contemporary market logic, forming a kind of “worldly transcendence”—a contradictory tension itself worthy of critical interpretation.

The Absence of Gender Perspective — Notably, this reading list is dominated by male authors and male protagonists. Compared to works by Zhang Jie (The Heavy Wings), Wang Anyi, and Tie Ning from the same period, one can discover different dimensions of gendered experience in narratives of social change—how women are simultaneously historical objects yet attempt to become subjects.

Open Questions

How can contemporary readers avoid simplifying these works into “nostalgic texts” or an “aesthetics of suffering”? Do their insights into present dilemmas transcend the particularity of their historical contexts?

In a reading ecosystem dominated by algorithmic recommendation and short videos, what kind of renewed life can these “weighty narratives” demanding sustained immersion still achieve?