Chinese Biographical Literature In Research

The New Era is a golden age in the development of Chinese biographical literature. In this time, biographical literature broke with the artistic traditions that had been in place since the 1949 liberation. The system of stereotyped, generalised and 'perfect' hero figures was dismembered. Biographical subjects were drawn not only from the political and military leadership but also from other areas including ordinary people, and even "negative" historical figures, which achieved objective, fair and dynamic descriptions. Biographical literature has changed from the simplistic to the multidimensional; subjects and genres have become varied, many kinds of authors have emerged, themes have broadened, and the field has become rich and plentiful. Biographical critical theory has begun to connect with the international cutting edge, leading to an improved fusion of the two approaches. Biographical literature has come to focus more on the personal. Individual values have been emphasised and promoted, anecdotes and the fine details of subjects' daily lives have been highlighted in order to bring out the special characteristics of subjects. The literature has become commercialised and popularised. Authors have paid more attention to readability and evoking interest. At the same time, the development of popular culture and the market economy have pushed biography onto center stage where it has become the dominant literary genre. Standards of biographical writing are being raised through frequent contacts between authors, conferences and seminars. Authors strive to use the latest approaches in their writing and research. To conclude, New Era biography has made great progress and development in both theory and practice.This thesis attempts to theoretically and systematically elaborate the special features, the changes and development, spiritual insights and future tendencies of Chinese New Era Biographical Literature. The author has surveyed all types of biographies, their changes and developments, summarised the achievements of biographical theory and research, reflected upon the problems existing in Chinese biography and analysed the developmental tendencies against the background of popular culture. The focus of the thesis is to explore how the principles of international biographical theory can be creatively applied without sacrificing the veracity of biography.This thesis uses a comparative research method, comparing ancient with modern, Chinese and western, and comprehensively analyses the reasons why the New Era biographical literature has prospered, assesses its achievements, and reviews and refects on current problems and issues. It tries to discover the ingredients of successful biography, especially its spiritual influence or educative function, while also bringing out the new heroism and the return to the pursuit of the sublime. At the same time, this thesis predicts the future direction of Chinese biography will be the re-establishment of humanism. This thesis systematically follows the path of the development of New Era Biography, its theoretical variations and advances the opinion that since ancient times Chinese biography has focussed on the combination of history and biography, while western biography has kept them separate. The reasons for the difference are analysed and the advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches are evaluated in depth.This thesis also argues that biography will have a new heroism that will mark a return to a new sublime poetics and aesthetics.It points out that biography needs popular culture to enlighten people and through an analysis of biographical subjects, attempts to point out directions for the emergence of excellent biographical writing in the future.