Builders of a New Life (Chuangyeshi) is a novel that takes a deep dive into the essence of historical materialism and dialectical materialism. The novel creates a literary form of political metanarrative and presents the literary narrative of the rural cooperative movement in China within the framework of socialist revolution, through a plot with the connotation of documentary political economy. At the literary narrative level, Builders of a New Life develops the narrative through the subjective perspectives of numerous characters, which pushes the development of the plot forward and bridges the text world with external reality. The result is the creation of a world of general literature unifying thought, emotion and action, along with the development of a distinctive epic narrative form.
Among the series of characters created in Seventeen-Year Literature (1949-66), Liang Shengbao is a unique figure particularly worth studying. In Builders of a New Life (Chuangyeshi), Liu Qing attempts to presents his understanding of the realization of the agricultural cooperative movement through the narration of Liang Shengbao's traits and personality. As a consequence, the creation of Liang Shengbao, an ideal character,has both historical and literary meanings. Based on the analysis of Liu Qing's "writing method," this paper reveal is the historical and literary creation mechanism of Liang Shengbao by comparing and interpreting the relationship, the writing method, and the differences between Liang Shengbao and other characters close to him, thus unfolding the research significance of this ideal character.
Though Lu Yao's Ordinary World (Pingfan de Shijie) has enjoyed considerable sales volume and reading quantity similar to his other novel Life (Rensheng), it is not accepted by the literary circle as Life and failed to spark the kind of nationwide discussion once created by Life. One explanation for this is the sweeping desire for innovation that was present in literary circles in the 1980s, but the creation method of the Ordinary World was too conservative to stimulate the interpretive impulse of the new critics; another reason is that the incredible length and sheer complexity of Ordinary World prevented scholars from recognizing how difficult it was conceived and what innovation it made. This paper embarks on an intensive reading of Ordinary World in terms of its characterization, the character groups of urban and rural youths, senior cadres, and rural grassroots cadres, and a re-elucidation of its "overlapping areas," in an attempt to extensively analyze the content of the panoramic chronicle of Chinese society at the beginning of reform and opening up, and the writer's profound thinking and artistic innovation in his description, trying to clarify the many vague understandings of this masterpiece in the literary circle.
The birth of an outstanding literature is closely related to a writer's creation motive, thought and expression. Lu Yao's masterpiece Ordinary World (Pingfan de Shijie) spans a period of ten years and reflects panoramically the myriad of social formations, lifestyles and patterns of thought during China's social transformations between 1975 and 1985. Via an analysis of first-hand materials such as the memoirs and correspondences of Lu Yao, his relatives and editors, this essay systematically unravels the writer's main motive for composing the novel Ordinary World, in a renewed effort to unravel the mystery behind the creation of this literary classic.