Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
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Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#2Hey, look, no offense China.. but you ain't that crazy.
Also... this has been going on in the US for decades.. and if you think China is ultra-unreal, AVOID Japan.
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#3Interesting: the links at the bottom of the article doesn't work.
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#4i don't know about a new genre, but modern china on it's current trajectory would be perfect material for an epic dystopian novel
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#5I think the "crazy" aspect coming into play is an iteration of the world-shattering view that occurs when a child realizes his or her parents are just people, not infallible perfect protectors. This fundamentally changes the view of the world for a person because a fundamental truth is no longer true. This change can be viewed as "crazy" and reality becomes more chaotic in the new world view.
I believe the same thing is happening right now in modern China. Simply substitute constituents and the oligarchy instead for the child and parent. When the citizens realize the infallible groupthink propaganda touted by the ruling class is in fact being touted by people inflicted with the human condition, they also experience a change in world view. Again, this change is "crazy" and more chaotic: A fundamental truth in their world view is no longer true.
Remember, China favored building a society on Confucianism where society had a set order. There is no room for the chaos in a Confucian society. However, the less-promoted Dao De Jing was written in an attempt to perfectly capture the chaos, contradictions, and hypocrisies of reality. And in a way, applying its teachings to itself indicates it both succeeds and fails in doing so.
The "ultra-unrealism" that the author keeps espousing seems to me a reaction for coming to grips to the mind-expanding change that comes when realizing a truth previously fundamental is no longer true. I am not trying to dismiss their feelings but am appreciating the personal growth. I hope others do too.
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#6The author's examples of so-called ultra-unreal are not so new. Like there were no corrupt courtesans in olden days?
Re: The Internet: It doesn't necessitate a new genre anymore than the invention of the telephone did. Good literature incorporates technology just where it's needed to move the plot along and it's all just window dressing over the basic proverbs and parables at the core.
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#7So, some corrupt officials, a polygamist, a wanted official seeking asylum in a foreign consulate, and restaurants reusing cooking oil too much is an example of "unreality"?
Where exactly did the author grew up in? Cushioned upper class life, or Disneyland?
And those examples in a country with over a billion people? You can find all those examples in Africa, Asia, South America, etc.
A lot of those are hardly uncommon in the West either, just in more "white collar" versions. Restaurants re-using cooking-oil? Tons of restaurant are closed every year for just that and worse hygienic offenses. Or we have some company like VW falsifying emissions data (and lately, it comes out that several other companies did), impacting the environment in a huge scale.
Corrupt politicians? We have Presidents and PMs, senators and MPs openly retiring and joining the boards of companies they helped during their political career.
Heck, in Mexico the mob abducted 140+ students, executed them all together, and for the country it was business as usual for the country.
And those are examples or unreality? LOL.
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#8I think the "crazy" aspect coming into play is an iteration of the world-shattering view that occurs when a child realizes his or her parents are just people, not infallible perfect protectors. This fundamentally changes the view of the world for a person because a fundamental truth is no longer true. This change can be viewed as "crazy" and reality becomes more chaotic in the new world view. I believe the same thing…
>I believe the same thing is happening right now in modern China. Simply substitute constituents and the oligarchy instead for the child and parent.
Only ordinary Chinese citizens are not childlike and easily led at all (that's an early colonial misunderstanding) -- they are just as smart and street-wise as we are, and understand all the gritty details -- they always did.
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#9Does anyone have a link to the original Chinese source of this article?
Re: Modern China Is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre
#10i don't know about a new genre, but modern china on it's current trajectory would be perfect material for an epic dystopian novel
You subscribe to the thesis that China's future is grim compared to it's present state? Or that it is a dystopia of epic proportions right now? If you care to elaborate, I am interested in your perspective.