The New Literature of the People: A Perspective on the Contemporary Chinese Literary Experience

Abstract

Can Chinese literature become a global literature without losing its unique identity? An exploration of the new movement of “common literature”—or literature by or about the working class—may reveal one way it has become both: This literature offers an unwavering look at the gaping divide between China's urban elite (through the urban narrative of upward mobility) and rural poverty (with its own stock of narratives), yet it is precisely this willingness to examine the unchecked ramifications of globalization for average people that may enable Chinese literature to speak directly to the world in its most global sense.