| Yu Hua is the most representative of avant-garde fiction writers, arisen in the 1980s. First heard in the writing circle in 1983, Yu wrote, like his peers of that era, some works of sentimentality with a novel, but refined, style. The year 1986 saw Yu's transformation under the influence of Kawabata Yasunari. His Going Out at 18, published in Beijing Literature in January 1987, marks his debut as an avant-garde novelist.In the following decade, Yu's series of works led the reader into an absurd world of deception, violence, murder, and intrigue, sparing no brightness or hope. However, Yu's writing in the 1990s demonstrated ostensible changes. His 1991 novel Cry and Drizzle, a recognized literary event of the year, testifies to his breakthrough of his writing experience and theory established in the 1980s. His novels after this, especially his 1992 Surviving and 1995 Stories of Xu Sanguan's Blood Sale, fully manifest the establishment and maturity of his new style.This creative leap reveals characteristics as follow:1. Turn from narrative of violence to representation of suffering.Each of Yu's early fictions is full of unrealistic violence. For instance, in novels such as A Type of Reality, 1986, Going out at 18, April 3 Incident, Riverside Faults, and Classic Love, Yu reveals violence and bloodiness that have been covered by history of civilization through series of narratives of violent scenes.The author's 1980s commitment to inspection of evil and uncover of violence was replaced with the 1990s tendency to represent human sufferings. Suffering in his new novels takes two paths: down to the infinite tragedy of life and to the surviving predicament humans have to face. 2. Shift from representation of the evil of human nature to that of the good.Yu's early novels focus on evil human nature. With this theme, he expresses his despairs of reality, fate, and humanity. We see "hope" in the abysm of despair, however, in the subtle changes in his description of human nature in works beginning with Cry and Drizzle. Yu, upon his second creative leap, never treats human evils as the source of suffering. He adds realistic and epochal elements to human misfortune, thus in general giving birth to a thematic discourse that "there is warmth in human society where suffering is redemptive."3. Return delight to readingCorresponding to the above-mentioned thematic change is Yu Hua's beginning to stress the delight of reading. For its rebellion against tradition, Yu's writing in the 1980s gives little attention to the delights of plot and language. As a result, it sets a distance from real life, thereby upsetting the established reading habit to a large degree. Although still not explicitly catering to the popular taste, however, his fictions of the 1990s begin to give more weight to plot. Better yet, Yu assimilates to a great extend the essence of realism, especially casting more eyesight onto common people. Yu adopts detailed descriptions of psychology and instinctive acts and removes excessively distorted, illusory cutting and shifting of time and space. All these changes add considerable attraction and hence vitality. Yu admits himself that "I feel good writing this way."4. Review of writing of the 1990sThe change of Yu Hua's writing style in the 1990s remains an issue of debate among common readers and critics. In summary, there are two major stances. One insists that Yu's transformation caters to the rapidly-changing consumerist mentality of the mainland Chinese readers, indicating the compromise of his values and the tendency toward conservatism. The other contends that Yu's avant-garde sensitivity has become more profound, more reserved, and subtler. This study purports to objectively sum up his change and its causes in four aspects.First, Yu Hua believes that writers explore and better their writing in changes. In other words, his change is the result his own conscious pursuit, which enables him to make efforts to meet new social expectations fr...
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