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Introduction฀ This book concentrates o n th e new historical fiction(0?Sj£!/J N t£) (hereinafte r abbreviated a s NHF), a term used loosely to label a corpus of narrative works emerging i n mainlan d Chin a sinc e th e mid-1980s, 1 whic h recit e historie s i n various new ways, marking epistemologica l an d ontologica l difference s fro m previous models of the historical fiction i n China. Being a constituent part of Chinese avant-gardism , th e NHF , like other Chines e avant-gard e fictions o f the sam e perio d o f time , ha d manifeste d bot h influence s fro m foreig n literature an d th e anxietie s ove r Chines e reality . In thi s book, I attempt t o explore the significance o f the rise of the NHF in the context of China's drastic social, cultural an d politica l change s in the last two decades o f the twentiet h century. Zhang Qinghu a (36?jflpl), 2 i n hi s A Study of Contemporary Chinese Avantgarde Literature {^M^\X9u^X^MM^m), depict s th e Chines e NH F a s a return t o the traditiona l historica l narrative. "The 'newest, ' " he writes, "may well be th e 'oldest ' " (1997 : 205; all translations from Chines e t o English i n this book are mine unless indicated otherwise) . Zhang premises his judgment on tw o common characteristic s which, h e believes , both th e traditiona l an d the ne w historical fictions share , i.e. the conceptualizatio n o f history from a minjian (KfHJ, roughly "local" and "unofficial") poin t of view and the tendenc y of fictionalizing history . Having made out these "startling similarities" between the ol d an d th e ne w historica l fictions , h e draw s th e conclusio n tha t "contemporary ne w historicism is only a small step away from th e tradition o f historiography" (ibid. , 206) .3 However, in what sense and to what extent doe s this literar y wav e mar k a retur n t o tradition ? Unfortunately , h e ha s no t elaborated o n thi s view, which wants yet further clarificatio n an d verification ; nevertheless, i t will serve a s the poin t o f departure fo r m y present stud y o f the topic . Zhang further divide s fictions which have been lumbere d int o th e rubric of the NHF into tw o categories: "the new historical fiction" (if f J&fe/h !£), "a title for numerous contemporary historical fictions which take a minjian 2฀Brushing ฀History ฀Against ฀the ฀Grain฀ vision (o f history)," and "th e new historicist fiction" (§ffillifeiJi / JN i&), "work s which ar e directl y or indirectl y inspired b y Western theories : existentialism , structuralism, postmodernism , an d deconstruction. " Thes e ne w historicis t fictions "reflec t th e historical view of new historicism" (ibid. , 190) . This classification i s problematic. It creates for hi m th e double burden o f verifying, o n th e one hand, the minjian status of Chinese traditional historica l fiction, an d it s resemblance t o the aforementioned Wester n theories , on th e other. However , Zhan g simpl y take s thes e tw o prerequisite s fo r granted , without bothering to prove them. In addition, the label "new historicist fiction" is misleading, becaus e thes e works, as Zhang himself believes, were inspire d by very different, eve n mutuall y incompatibl e Wester n theorie s (e.g . Zhan g mentions existentialism , structuralism , postmodernis m an d deconstruction) . In making his hasty conclusion, Zhang simply ignores the complexities involved in hi s argument . First, since the term minjian, as is used by Zhang, is antithetical to "official," 4 the question arises as to whether the storyteller's ( t ^ ^ A ) mora l commentarie s in th e for m o f authoria l intrusion s (whic h wa s common i n th e traditiona l vernacular fiction) are made by the official Confucia n standar d or by the minjian standard. This seems to be a question unsolvable by any black and white answer; the answer could be "neither" or "both." I do not intend to argue that traditional historical fiction did not take any minjian perspective of...

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