The great social changes since China’s reform and opening up have facilitated the revival and development of reportage. Life in the New Era has provided infinitely rich and valuable themes and materials for the creation of reportage. Among them, the theme of targeted poverty reduction and poverty alleviation has become the focus of reportage writing in recent years. The “Poverty Alleviation Trilogy”: In Leaf and Bloom, Listening to the Voices of the Blooming Flowers (Huafan Yemao, Qingting Huakai de Shengyin), The Sunshine of the Blissful Spring (Baode Sanchunhui), and A New Lease of Life: The Story of Wanshan (Kan Wanshan Hongbian), written by famous writer Ouyang Qiansen, is not only a self-evident breakthrough of Guizhou-themed reportage and its status within national literary circles, but is also strong evidence of the reflection on major themes and the spirit of the times through reportage, which, in this sense, is of irreplaceable significance.
Ouyang Qiansen is a writer from Guizhou who is quite influential in the Chinese literary circles of the new century. He has worked hard to rejuvenate the Chinese nation’s literary tradition with modern thinking. This is reflected in the fact that he includes modern geological expertise in his novels, portraying geographical scenery with poetic language, thereby forming a unique narrative style based on modern knowledge and renewing the “natural science” narrative tradition of China’s ancient novels. Moreover, he pays special attention to myriad unusual events and people throughout Guizhou’s history and in reality, and creates typical literary Guizhou characters of all types whereby he revives the “legend” narrative tradition based on historical records or biographies and is typical of ancient Chinese novels. Both the geography-based “natural science” narrative and the people-based “legend” narrative are merged into Ouyang’s local chroniclestyled novel pedigree of Guizhou. By creatively transforming the narrative tradition of local chronicles and local chronicle-style novels of ancient China, in his literary creations, Ouyang manages to revive and reconstruct the Guizhou spirit, which serves as the local expertise and culture.
I came to know the works of Ouyang Qiansen for the first time through the TV series Madame Shexiang (Shexiang Furen) and Unbreakable Pass (Xiongguan Mandao), and his screenwriting skills immediately struck me. Later, I read many of his full-length and medium-length novels as well as his short stories. The short stories of his works certainly display the most devotion and exemplify his highest achievement. There is no doubt that the short story is a very difficult literary form. As Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, Wang Zengqi, Sun Li, Su Tong and many other great writers have made remarkable artistic achievements, the art of the short story has been pushed to the extreme, thus making it even more challenging to achieve success in the genre. Ouyang Qiansen, however, has done it by immersing himself in the art of the short story. This paper explores the artistic achievements within Ouyang Qiansen’s short stories, providing some reference for enriching the artistic landscape of the short story.
Poverty alleviation is a critical battlefield of this era and this historic event has been timely and powerfully reflected and expressed in literary creations. In recent years, many influential literary works with the theme of poverty alleviation have emerged, which focus on telling the story of China’s system, shaping new characters in the New Era, and depicting a realistic view of rural transformation, so as to inject fresh content into contemporary literature and form a beautiful landscape of current Chinese literature.