A City: The Edge Of The Revolution And The Vulgar And Cultural Resistance

A Cheng is an extremely unusual writer in contemporary literature history. The political change on his father in A Cheng’s childhood made him revolutionary marginalized, and thus had a different structure of knowledge and culture from the educated youth writers. His publication "King of Chess" made him shoot to fame. However, he chose to live overseas after he became famous. A Cheng is not a representative of the mainstream literature throughout. His works is less but is no lack of high-quality ones. The existence of traditional culture in his "three kings" series makes most critics classify him as "root-seeking school" and interpret his works from the perspective of "root-seeking". However, A Cheng himself does not agree with that. The series of works he published in the 90s show that secular is his consistent focus. Though grew up in the "cultural revolution" period, A Cheng’s literary style profoundly differs from the mainstream of revolutionary discourse. There is rarely direct description of revolution in A Cheng’s works, but it is undeniable that revolution and A Cheng’s creation are inextricably linked.This paper will try to probe into A Cheng, which is a unique case in the 80s from three aspects:the historical background of the revolution, the secular ideas and cultural stance taken by A Cheng. Therefore, this paper is divided into three chapters.The first chapter expounds the impact on A Cheng after he was revolutionary marginalized. The experience of being marginalized due to the class struggle laid a deep imprint on A Cheng. It also affected his self identity in subconscious. His life is a process from being forced to be marginalized to taking the initiative to choose to be marginalized. The marginalized experience let A Cheng obtain a multicultural structure which differs from that era’s education, also let him have the independent thinking of the times from the perspective of the margin. A Cheng realizes the "power consciousness" hidden under the mask of the discourse authority, and reveals his critical attitude in his works.The second chapter first queries and rethinks the rationality of classifying A Cheng as the "root-seeking school" in most literary history, and then analyzes the secularism in his works by centering on A Cheng’s understanding of secular culture. From the perspective of the three cultures of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, A Cheng thinks that the traditional Chinese culture is a secular culture. Approving with secular culture and secular spirit, A Cheng, describing "secular" as the core of his novels, tried to restore the novel’s secular appearance and thus dispel the revolutionary discourse which pursues the grand narrative style.The last chapter mainly discusses A Cheng’s low-key cultural resistance stance, analyzes A Cheng is how to face the life and creation with an optimistic attitude and how to observe the people and things in the era from the visual angle of marginal station, and reveals the purpose and reason why A Cheng choose a Zen type narrative strategy. This chapter also makes a specific exploration about the resolute sprit expressing by the characters in the "three kings" series to reflect A Cheng’s social conscience as an intellectual. The rebellious spirit which deviates from the revolution, the attention to the secular people, the use of short sentences which differs from the mainstream discourse are all A Cheng’s low-key cultural resistance while wandering around the marginal area.