The Generation Of Sanmao’s “Legend”

This paper, aiming at studying on the phenomena of “Sanmao-hot” in the mid-1980 s mainland China,by the horizon and methods of cultural studies,not only studies the interaction and "misunderstanding" between the author, text and reader, but also places the phenomena of “Sanmao-hot” under the social and cultural context in the1980 s mainland China,then respectively studies the generation of Sanmao’s “legend”from the text configuration of Sanmao’s literature, the difference between self-figuring and readers’ acceptance about Sanmao’s image and the history context of the phenomena of “Sanmao-hot”.Firstly, this paper analyzes the legendary trait of Sanmao’s literature from the text which attracts readers by the writing and expressing of "free wandering", "exotic atmosphere" and "romantic love". Wandering is the soul and the source of Sanmao’s creation, which on the one hand pursuits spiritual and bodily freedom, and on the other hand resists and "escape" practical difficulties, and many readers are eager to wander like Sanmao’s wandering which is a dream in readers heart in the 1980 s. Wander brings the imagination about "distance" by the exotic atmosphere which includes natural scenery, exotic custom and amaze stories of miraculous people and provides the imagination of spiritual wandering. The love story about Sanmao and Jose, with its reality and romance, attracts many readers, which is a kind of personal and daily love and differences from the love in the time of revolution and early 1980 s in mainland China.Meanwhile, Sanmao’s view of love,conveyed by the love story of Sanmao and Jose, provided the possibilities of re-forming readers’ view of love in the 1980 s mainland China. Above all, “free wandering”, “exotic atmosphere” and “romantic love”consist in Sanmao’s whole text writing, and accord with the readers’ reading psychology on some level.Secondly, about Sanmao’s image, this paper analyzes how San Mao and her readers figure the image of “Sanmao”and the difference between Sanmao’s self-figuring and readers’ figuring. Although the figuring of Sanmao’s image is based on the text and the image itself is a kind of generalized text, for many readers, compared with the text itself, the image of Sanmao generates more enduring and strong attraction. Sanmao’s special “trinity-narrative”(in Sanmao’s text writing, the writer, the narrator and the protagonist, respectively, are “Sanmao”) results in the difference between Sanmao’sself-image figured by Sanmao’s text writing and Sanmao’s image figured by readers’ text reading. Readers often believe the image of Sanmao figured by them is Sanmao herself in real life and they are more willing to accept the optimistic side of the image of Sanmao, which further aggravated the split of Sanmao’s self-image.Finally, this paper explores social accepting psychology and cultural meaning of the phenomena of “Sanmao-hot” from social and cultural context and analyzes the innermost relation and cultural meanings behind it.The reason for the popularity of“Sanmao” in the 1980 s mainland China is the generation of special isomorphic relationship between “Sanmao” and zeitgeist.This special isomorphic relationship is that the consciousness and aspiration about “individualism", conveyed by Sanmao’s “self”writing and the image of Sanmao, is accepted by the young generation called “Pan Xiao”and provides them with fresh personal imagination.