The Sad Life Melody Of The Urban Strangers

In the 1990s, China began a historic transitional period fromtraditional agriculture civilization to modern industrial civilization. Withthe establishment of the market economy, the reform of the householdregistration system, the adjustment of the countryside industrial structure,peasants began to extricate themselves from the bondage of their land andrushed into cities in a large amount. With the swift development of"labormigration", many writers paid close attention to their living condition. Inrecent years, novels with "migrant workers" theme appeared in the greatliterature periodicals and formed a creation trend, which was like bambooshoots after a spring rain. Therefore, it is quite realistically significant todo research in this topic. Through the detailed analysis of some texts andbased on the life of the "urban strangers", this paper is concerned with, inthe transforming period, the migrant workers' mental anxiety in the urbanmaterial predicament and cultural conflict, and reflect on the collision ofpluralistic culture, the extrication from their cultural psychology, and thedifficult process of rural modernization. With this special angle, the papergives a dual reflection and criticism for the rural and urban civilization.There are more than 38,000 words in the paper, and four chapters inthe main part as well as the introduction part and the conclusion part.The introduction part briefly talks about the background of the timesin which novels with "migrant workers" theme came into being, confinesthe conception of "migrant workers", and comments on the presentresearch state succinctly. From the perspective of culture and with aliterature-culture criticism approach, the paper observes and studies thecultural implication and academic value of the novels of this type since1990s.Chapter One mainly talks about the change of the peasants' thoughtsand concepts caused by the country modernization transformation and theattack of the commercial civilization to the countryside. The changesinclude: their weakening concepts of the land and the difficult changing process of their life style, value concepts and thinking modes. Meanwhile,the paper also mentions that the peasants are longing for the city life and"to pursue a better life in the city" becomes the peasants' willing choice.Based on a certain text, Chapter Two talks about the hardship of thepeasant incomer's life. The difficulties include the external materialpredicament and the mental anxiety in the cultural conflicts. Due to therestriction of the present system, the migrant workers are destined to be inthe lowest social position. The migrant workers endure the great mentalanxiety and torment. They go out from the country, but cannot get into thecity, so they suffer from the dual affliction both materially and spiritually.Chapter Three mainly talks about the migrant workers' differentattitudes towards difficulties. Facing the material and spiritual dualpredicament, the migrant workers have different attitude: most of themchoose obedience and self-surrender; some survive the predicament andreveal the tenacity of the Chinese peasant; the others, compelled by theurban civilization, get into a hopeless situation, which caused their humannature's distortion and dissimilation as well as the monstrous rebellion inthe hopeless situation.Chapter Four reveals the paradoxical life condition of their leavingand returning into their hometown. To pursue a better life, they leave theirhometown and work hard in the unacquainted city; they are eager to getinto the city life but only to find the unmerciful refusal. When they comeback with an injured and tired body, they find their hometown has sunk inthe process of urbanization.The conclusion further explains the creation significance of thenovels with "migrant workers" theme and analyzes its merits anddemerits rationally.