The World of Chinese Literature
My mom grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, an island right next to Mainland China. She knows a lot about Chinese culture from living so close by, and I know from hearing her childhood stories over and over how strict many of the Asian governments are. I know that the Chinese and Taiwanese newspapers have been censored, but I never thought about how people might learn of the “real” news. Eileen Chow tells about the Unofficial History, which was in the literary supplements of the newspapers. This Unofficial History would, “speak for the ordinary people,” and although fiction, would sometimes give insight into the true political situation of the country. This search for the “real news” created a serial following. The Chinese people would read the supposed daily or weekly literary fiction for any info of the nonfiction world. Another Chinese characteristic I learned of from my mom is that the Chinese strive (many to an extreme!) to succeed in the workplace. The article Working Titles tells of the extent to which the Chinese want to get ahead. They want it so bad that one of their most popular categories of novels is the work novel. These novels are very different from Western ones. They blatantly strive to be guidebooks, giving rules like, “If your boss makes a pass at you, smile and flirt back. Hire subordinates who are barely adequate or they’ll make you look bad.” They also choose to leave out romance when they can. That is not what the publishers think the people are looking for! The culture of the Chinese is one that encourages people to be as successful as they can, and not always in honest ways. But, this difference in culture (from Western culture) has created a following for different types of series. There are serial followings all over the world, but what I’ve failed to realize before was how much the literary or visual works differ in other countries. They aren’t always going to be similar to my Western TV shows and novels! They are affected by history and culture. Reading about Chinese serial followings of the Unofficial History and the popularity of the work novel opened my eyes to the possibility of all the other kinds of literary works I’ve yet to encounter!