Wandering And Watching: A Comparison Of Mu Shiying And Zhang Ailing’s Shanghai-style Urban Writing

The Shanghai style urban writing in the 1930 s and 1940 s implied the entanglement of wandering and watching.Wandering is the spiritual temperament of Shanghai-style urban writers,and watching is the soul of Shanghai-style urban writers.Among the many Shanghai style urban writers,Mu Shiying and Zhang Ailing are the best.Mu Shiying adheres to the unique artistic pursuit of modernity,and exhibits a series of noisy,flashy and bizarre urban scenes.The city in Zhang Ailing’s works combines classic and modern,gorgeous and desolate,simple and warm.In terms of time,Mu and Zhang one in the front and the other in the back,followed by the Shanghai school of literature,each achieved outstanding achievements.A careful reading of the two men’s texts can be seen that the writer temperament,urban writing content,and urban writing meaning of the two are different but connected.Mu Shiying ’ s urban writing comes from the perspective of a wandering single male urban patrol,while Zhang Ailing ’ s urban writing comes from the family life perspective of settled female citizens,These two perspectives are the two sides of the Shanghai style urban writing that complement each other.Taking a closer look,Mu Shiying’s wandering patrol has far-reaching nostalgia,and Zhang Ailing’s dedication to watch is a deeper level of fragmentation,and the continuation of the urban writing meaning from variation suggests the core of "wandering" and the meaning of "watching" in Shanghai-style urban writing.