Features of Chinese “neorealism” in Wang Anyi’s fiction

Abstract

This article investigates the problematics of Chinese “neorealism” (xin xieshizhuyi) through a case study of Wang Anyi’s novels and short stories. Wang Anyi’s fiction is both representative of neorealism and symptomatic of its problematics. Though her work is not limited by neorealist discourse, it demonstrates, to a certain extent, all basic features of neorealist literary aesthetics, such as depicting decidedly unheroic urbane mundane life, lowering the emphasize on historical influence and social controversy, and accentuating instead human existence ‘as it is’, openly discussing the topics of human biology and body, and using specific literary techniques to transmit individual feelings and perception of life.