Manifesting Reality in the Context of China's Cross-Cultural Encounter with Realism
王守仁 劉洋
Abstract：Chinese realist literature is both a product of cross-cultural translations and transaction，and of continued efforts by Chinese writers to find indigenous ways to write about reality．On the one hand，China's encounter with realism and its variations，socialist realism and Magical Realism，facilitates transformations and self-rejuvenation in response to foreign stimuli．On the other hand，Chinese realist literature is historically embedded in the course of China's pursuit of modernization in the past two centuries．Literary realism in China is conceived as manifestation of certain reality which amounts to underlying pattern or inner-truth，not mere representation of life as it appears to be．
Keywords：literary realism，Magical Realism，reality，socialist realism，mythorealism，Yan Lianke
Authors：Wang Shouren is a professor at School of Foreign Studies，Nanjing University，China．His research interests are literary history and Anglo-American fiction．Liu Yang is a PhD candidate at English Department，Nanjing University．His research interest is British literature．China's encounter with literary realism is a cross-cultural event，in the sense that etymologically，the term “realism”（現(xiàn)實(shí)主義）itself originated from other languages，and literary realism is an imported idea．In fact，the word “reality”（現(xiàn)實(shí)）itself did not appear in the Chinese vocabulary until the late 19thcentury when it was first coined in the Japanese language and then travelled to China．Yet，the production，circulation and assessment of realist literature are historically embedded in the course of China's pursuit of modernization in the past two centuries．“Modern China has been the site of drastic contestations between indigenous innovations and foreign stimuli，radical provocations and conciliatory responses．”（Wang 1）Chinese realist literature is both a product of cross-cultural translations and transaction，and of continued efforts by Chinese writers to find indigenous ways to write about reality．
Chinese critics first used 寫實(shí)主義，the English equivalent of naturalism，to describe the works by Tolstoy，Balzac and Dickens．寫實(shí)主義 indicates a literal and unmediated representation of reality．In 1932，Qu Qiubai，the translator of Maxim Gorky's works and once the leader of the Communist Party of China（CPC），introduced the Russian novelist as the “greatest realist artist of the new era．”In the Foreword to Selected Essays by Maxim Gorky，Qu Qiubai observes that
Gorky shall never explain realism as “pure”objectivism．．．．He speaks no Chinese and shall therefore never understand the word literally from its Chinese translation ［寫實(shí)主義］ as the description of reality．（Qu 2）
高爾基是新時(shí)代的最偉大的現(xiàn)實(shí)主義的藝術(shù)家?！^不會(huì)把寫實(shí)主義解釋成為“純粹的”客觀主義，他不懂得中國(guó)文，他不會(huì)從現(xiàn)實(shí)主義realism的中文譯名上望文生義的了解到這是描寫現(xiàn)實(shí)的“寫實(shí)主義”。
——瞿秋白：《高爾基論文選集·寫在前面》（1932）
Qu Qiubai proposes to replace the phrase 寫實(shí)主義 with 現(xiàn)實(shí)主義．This change of one Chinese character from 寫（writing）to 現(xiàn)（manifesting）is significant．There is a fundamental difference between the two concepts：realism is seen as not being confined to portraying the world as it actually is，but always seeks to transcend the actuality of the world．Qu Qiubai distinguishes between two kinds of reality：one is “dying，decaying and stinky，”the other is “newly born，wholesome and complete，grown out of the old ‘reality’，yet，negating the old ‘reality’．”（Qu 2）Literary realism in China is conceived as manifestation of certain reality which amounts to underlying pattern or hidden truth，not mere representation of life as it appears to be．As the following part of this essay will demonstrate，the succeeding writers of realism，in their response to socialist realism and Magical Realism introduced from outside China，make indigenous innovations by way of manifesting reality in the literary texts with the change of time．
1．Socialist Realism and The Golden Road
The first half of the 20thcentury saw an influx of foreign literary works and terms from outside China．In 1928，Lu Xun wrote the following satire of “isms”in an essay，“The Tablet”［《匾》］：
The fearful thing about the Chinese literary scene is that everyone keeps introducing new terms without defining them．
And everyone interprets these terms as he pleases．To write a good deal about yourself is expressionism．To write largely about others is realism．To write poems on a girl's leg is Romanticism．To ban poems on a girl's leg is classicism．（Lu 74）
中國(guó)文藝界上可怕的現(xiàn)象，是在盡先輸入名詞，而并不紹介這名詞的涵義。
于是各自以意為之?？匆娮髌飞隙嘀v自己，便稱之為表現(xiàn)主義；多講別人，是寫實(shí)主義；見女郎小腿肚作詩(shī)，是浪漫主義；見女郎小腿肚不準(zhǔn)作詩(shī)，是古典主義。
What is worth noticing is the idea of distance that is inherent in the understanding of realism by the writers and critics in this era：realism is largely a kind of writing about “others．”The objective point of view that is required of a realist writer naturally assumes that the observer/writer should keep a considerable distance with the objects/literary subjects to be depicted．The metaphor that most loudly expresses this idea is perhaps from Stendhal's The Red and the Black：“A novel is a mirror going along a main road．Sometimes it reflects into your eyes the azure of the sky，sometimes the mud of the quagmires on the road．”（Stendhal 373）But the belief in the objective reflection of reality in literature was soon to be challenged by the recently introduced idea of socialist realism in the 1930s．In its original Soviet Union context，an official definition of “socialist realism”was given in the Constitution of the Union of Writers：
Socialist realism demands from the author a true and historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development．Moreover this true and historically concrete artistic depiction of reality must be combined with the task of educating the workers in the spirit of Communism．（James 88）
For Zhou Yang，who quickly adopted the socialist understanding of realism after his return from Japan as a student，the belief in “mirror reflection”is nothing more than a mimetic fallacy．Assuming a Lukacian stance，he insists that realistic writers inevitably belong to a social class and are conditional upon that class．（Zhou，Works 60）Zhou Yang highlights the “correct world view”which is key to grasping the “essence of reality”．（Zhou，Works 157）
Zhou Yang later became the Head of the Propaganda Department of the CPC．His belief that new realism “should be based on modern world view”（Zhou，Works 156）involves taking sides，thus eliciting a question：what is the writer's stance/place in writing about reality in literary texts？This question was rarely contemplated by writers embracing the more traditional European realism；even if it did come to their mind，the answer would undoubtedly be that the writers should not have a stance in order that the point of view is objective．With the introduction of the socialist realism theories and works，the question was gradually pushed into the foreground．In his article，“On ‘Socialist Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism’”（1933），Zhou Yang qoutes from Kirpotin to argue that reality is only represented in the works of proletarian literature，and by those writers who are turning to the working class．He affirms the “necessity for writers of being combined with working class through real social practice，and turning the worldview of working class into their own．”（Zhou，Works 105）On account of his refusal of the mirror reflection metaphor，Zhou Yang believes that reality in socialist realism dwells not in the details，but in what is “essential”and “typical．”It is，therefore，not the adding-up of facts，but a selection of the “typical”facts．（Zhou，Works 109）
The problem of stance was ultimately solved by Mao Zedong in his “Speech at the Yan'an Forum of Literature and Art”（1942）which “l(fā)aid theoretical foundations for Chinese revolutionary literature and art．”（Chen 15）In his own words，“the purpose of our meeting today is precisely to ensure that literature and art fit well into the whole revolutionary machine as a component part，that they operate as powerful weapons for uniting and educating the people，and for attacking and destroying the enemy．”（Mao 2）He addresses four problems that must be solved to achieve the objective：the problem of class stance，attitude，audience and study．Mao Zedong asserts that the stance of “our”writers should be undoubtedly “that of the proletariat and the masses．”“The audience for our literature and art consists of workers，peasants and soldiers and of their cadres”（Mao 4）．With the demands of the audience in mind，the writers should finally become one of them．He illustrates the point with his own experience of the transformation from a student（intellectual）to one of the masses of workers and peasants to argue that “the thoughts and feelings of our writers and artists should be fused with those of the masses of workers，peasants and soldiers．To achieve this fusion，they should conscientiously learn the language of the masses．”（Mao 5）Whilst he modestly said in the end，“I am merely raising these problems by way of introduction，”（Mao 7）such introduction became immediately the guiding principle of literary production and the theoretical framework of socialist realism in China．It was at this time that the principle was finally settled：to be a realist writer in China meant not only that the subjects should be the suffering peasants and workers who lived in the lowest sphere of the social hierarchy，but also that the writer him/herself should be one of them，and a member of the proletarian group．
Mao Zedong's “Speech”advocates a kind of literature and art that are intended for the people，the masses of workers，peasants and soldiers who are engaged in the struggle for liberation．The speech gave rise to “revolutionary realism，”a variation of socialist realism．In fact，Mao's speech ushered in “revolutionary realism which became the mainstream direction of Chinese literature．”（Chen 15-16）Works such as The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River（1948）by Ding Ling，The Storm（1948）by Zhou Libo，and The Song of Youth（1958）by Yang Mo embody the qualities of revolutionary realism．The Song of Youth provides a good example in this regard．Set in the 1930s，this female bildungsroman recounts the heroine's transformation from melancholic intellectual to devoted revolutionary．Upon reading Marxist theory，she embraces socialism：“From these books，she saw the future of the development of human society．From these books she saw the brilliant rays of truth and the road that she as an individual should take．”As realism of manifestation，these literary works successfully perform the task of educating the people by revealing the truth behind the historical process and illuminating the road to socialism．
The decade after the birth of the People's Republic of China（PRC）also saw Chinese socialist realist writers' influence reaching out to the entire Socialist Bloc．The People's Daily reported on March 18，1952 that Ding Ling and Zhou Libo，two influential Chinese writers，were awarded the Stalin Prize，the equivalent of the Nobel Prize amongst the socialist countries．The affirmation of Ding Ling and Zhou Libo's outstanding socialist realist works（the above-mentioned The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River and The Storm）to some extent marked China's success in assimilating the literary model that was introduced from the Soviet Union into the local context．When Ding Ling was in Moscow for the prize，she learned that her book had sold 500，000 copies there，much more than it had in China．On the other hand，China at this time had also a large readership of Russian novels．Statistically，during the years from 1949 to 1958，3526 Russian books were translated into Chinese，and over 82 million copies were printed．How the Steel Was Tempered（1932），a typical socialist realist novel by Nikolai Ostrovsky，was popular in the 1950s and 1960s．One version of its Chinese translation had 25 prints within 17 years，and its sales totaled one million copies．（Shen and Wang 15-16）The acceptance of Russian literature in China，and in return the recognition of Chinese socialist realist writers in the Soviet Union is evidence that socialist realism became a transnational enterprise．
Although socialist realism was officially accepted as the “highest standard of literary and artistic production and criticism”at the second Congress of Literature and Art in 1953，Chinese critics and writers were making attempts at its accommodation．In 1958 at a meeting in Chengdu，Mao Zedong proposed that China's new poetry should be in the form of the folklore，and its content the dialectic unity of realism and Romanticism．The idea was then developed in an essay by Zhou Yang who observed that “Mao Zedong proposed that our literature should be the combination of revolutionary realism and revolutionary Romanticism．This marks a scientific summarization of the entirety of the historical experience of literature，a correct proposition based on the features and demands of the present era，and therefore should be the goal that all the artistic and literary workers strive to achieve．”（Zhou，“New Folk Songs”33-38）
It is not surprising that Chinese theorists of socialist realism will eventually integrate Romanticism into socialist realism，which，as required of “praising the masses of the people，their toil and their struggle，their army and their Party，”and in the service of the socialist practice，is inevitably blended with a touch of heroic or epic Romanticism．To many critics，the definition of realism as the “objective representation of contemporary social reality”excludes “the fantastic，the fairy-tale like，the allegorical and the symbolic，the highly stylized，the purely abstract and decorative”，and functions as “a polemical weapon against Romanticism．”（Wellek 10）The objective nature of realism intrinsically results in a “distrust of subjectivism，of the Romantic exaltation of the ego．”Zhou Yang speaks to the long-held idea of the contradiction between realism and Romanticism，and calls for a theoretical justification of their combination．The purpose is again to “better reflect the reality of our era，serve the working people and the great socialist and communist cause．”At the Third Congress of Literature and Art in 1960，socialist realism was finally replaced by “the combination，”the latter being the best method of literary creation．The replacement was a political decision against the backdrop of China's split with the Soviet Union in the 1960s．More significantly，it serves as an indicator that contemporary Chinese realist literature was pursuing its own road independently from the Soviet model．
The political intervention reached its extreme during the Cultural Revolution period．The term “socialist realism”was erased from the official vocabulary，and replaced by “the combination of the two isms”instead．Literature succumbed to the demands of the political and ideological correctness，and became the illustration of the abstraction of “class struggle”and Mao Zedong Thought．The example par excellence was The Golden Road（1972-1974）by Hao Ran，a vivid account of how the poor and lower-middle peasants，under the guidance of the correct Party line，realize in their struggle with the capitalist forces and the enemy of the people that only socialism can save China．The setting of the novel was nothing unheard of—the story of a villages' process of collectivization was already fictionalized in the Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov's Virgin Soil Upturned and Zhou Libo's The Storm．The protagonist，Gao Daquan，phonetically equivalent to “Lofty，Huge and Perfect，”having survived the hardship of the great famine and the oppression of the landlords in the 1930s and 40s，leads the village unto the path of collectivization despite the siren's call of wealth，and the evil plot of people's enemy．The editor of The Golden Road at People's Literature Publishing House recalled in her memoir that in 1973 her task was to “edit a book that fulfills the leadership's demands．”（Wei 163-164）
The Golden Road is indeed filled with all of the socialist realist tropes and allusions．When Gao Daquan returns to Greenfield（芳草地）in Hebei province where he used to work for a landlord on the exact day when the PRC was founded，he travels on a train that is romantically named “people's train，”which “ran on the vast and merry land of the mother country，moving forward and forward．”Readers familiar with socialist realist novels will immediately recognize that “the train”is a constantly used symbol for the industrial development and expansion of socialist economy and modernization．Chinese readers would not forget that the model figure of Pavel Korchagin，the protagonist in the time-honored Russian novel How the Steel Was Tempered，starts off as a worker in the locomotive factory．Laboring in the train-related industry is also the first step of one's socialist moral training，and a way of learning from the working class who are thought to be models for village farmers in their awareness of making contributions to the socialist construction．Thus，when Gao Daquan is offered an opportunity to work for the building of a train station in Beijing，he immediately accepts the job．By working together with workers in Beijing，he and his fellow villagers not only help with the construction，but also learn a lesson from the working class．In the encouraging words of Luo Xuguang（羅旭光），a member of the work team that comes to the village to conduct land reform，
A glorious and totally unprecedented struggle is about to unfold throughout the country！I hope you will become a true vanguard fighter of the proletariat！
If you want to change the world，you also have to change yourself：persevere in overcoming your peasant mentality and strengthen your Party spirits．Devote your life to struggle for communism．（Hao，Days 104）
一場(chǎng)在我們國(guó)家從來(lái)沒有發(fā)生過(guò)的偉大艱巨、光輝燦爛的新戰(zhàn)斗即將開始了！希望你成為一個(gè)真正的無(wú)產(chǎn)階級(jí)先鋒戰(zhàn)士！
在改造客觀世界同時(shí)，也要改造自己的主觀世界：不斷地克服農(nóng)民意識(shí)，不斷地增強(qiáng)黨性，為共產(chǎn)主義奮斗終生。
And the best way to “overcome the peasant mentality”is to become one of the working class，working in collaboration towards the goal of socialism．He finally discovers that the difference between the villagers and the workers is that the former strive for their own benefit，whilst the latter always labor for the welfare of the whole nation．
The Golden Road is the literary embodiment of Mao Zedong's idea of “class struggle”and socialist vision．In Hao Ran's novel，the key issue comes down to one question：to be wealthy，or not to be wealthy．In an argument between Gao Daquan and the potential enemy of the people，Zhang Jinfa the village head，the legitimacy of the “getting rich competition”（發(fā)家競(jìng)賽）policy is fiercely debated．For Zhang Jinfa，the competition comes from the order of the higher official and therefore must be obeyed；in Gao Daquan's opinion，however，the official does not make it legitimate as long as it is sabotaging the road to socialism．In the preparation of a New Year's cultural performance，a script is written to please the officials in the audience．Its title，The Young Couple Striving to Get Rich，immediately arouses opposition among the actresses who have come to hear the reading of the play．Zhou Liping（周麗平），the chief actress refuses to play a part，and comments：
I was outraged when I read it．What kind of play is this？It just features two selfish money-grubbers who work away on their abacus，totally fixated on getting rich．They don't show the slightest trace of poor peasant character．What's the point of putting on this trash，much less having anybody watch it？（Hao，Days 198）
從頭到尾地一看，差點(diǎn)把我氣瘋。這是什么劇本，滿篇就是兩個(gè)自私鬼，財(cái)迷精，在那兒打小算盤，不顧死活的鬧發(fā)家，沒有一點(diǎn)貧雇農(nóng)的味兒。我們演它，群眾看它，有什么意思呀！
The idea of getting rich on the individual basis is rejected by Gao Daquan who wants to implement collectivization．
Mao's “Speech”must have been in the mind of Hao Ran as he created the novel，for the speech is even mentioned by Zhou Liping，as the guiding principle of artistic creation．To Hao Ran，writing the story of a village's golden road to collectivization and socialism was not a process of recounting the narrative of the “others”—it was of vital importance that it was the story of “us．”In 1957，when visiting the party secretary of a village in the county of Shunyi，he witnessed with his own eyes the incidents of the local villagers acting against the policy of collectivization．Ironically，however，although bearing in mind the Speech's teachings of learning from the actuality of the lives of the proletariats，Hao Ran finally retreated to the abstraction of “class struggle”as the axis upon which to build up his narratives．But again，this may well be the “reality”that he and other socialist realist writers are seeking to manifest after all．
2．Mythorealism and The Explosion Chronicles
In the post-Cultural Revolution era（1978 onwards），Chinese literature underwent a shakeup．The totalizing and once predominating socialist realism quickly faded into “an emblem of a remote age．”（Zhang 292）Critics and writers of the 1980s launched a campaign of accusation of socialist realism's alleged crimes—its dogmatism that violates literature's own mechanism and laws，its subordination to politics，and its persecution of other possibilities of literary realism etc．（Yang 4-16）In Yan Lianke's words，“realism is the prime culprit in the murder of literature，”or at least，“the kind of realism that we advocated for decades is the prime culprit in the murder of literature．”（Yan，Lenin 207）
Indeed，his 2013 novel The Explosion Chronicles is quite the reverse to the socialist realist story of The Golden Road．It starts out as a deconstruction of the process of collectivization that was understood as the “golden road”to the socialist ideal in Hao Ran's novel．Unlike the villagers in Greenfield who were simultaneously encouraged by and intimidated toward the policy of “becoming wealthy，”residents in the Explosion village were falling over themselves to make money．
The most important thing was that the government issued a statement saying that it wanted to establish and cultivate a group of “ten-thousand-yuan households．”In other words，it wanted to let a minority “get rich first．”Everyone went crazy．Pig farmers，goatherds，cow and horse breeders，weavers，furniture sellers，and house builders—all aspired to be among the small minority who would get rich first，and to be the first to get a no-interest loan from the government，which would allow them to brag and let them live a dream life．（Yan，Explosions 21）
最為要緊的，是政府下了文，要培養(yǎng)和樹立“萬(wàn)元戶”。要讓一小部分人先富起來(lái)。
人們就都發(fā)瘋了。喂豬牧羊、養(yǎng)牛飼馬、作編制、伐木材、買家具、蓋新房，都企望自家率先富起來(lái)，拿到政府的無(wú)息款，讓臉面風(fēng)光。
A sharp contrast was given here between the praising of the commitment to devote oneself to the socialist cause，as represented by Gao Daquan，and a perhaps more realistic and humanistic portrait of the pursuit of wealth and individual happiness．Even the common image of socialist realism，the train，was appropriated here for quite the opposite purpose：in the eyes of the Explosion villagers，it is no longer a symbol and motivation of the socialist industrial development，but a shortcut to become a “ten-thousand-yuan household．”
Kong Mingliang led the entire village to the mountain ridge to unload goods from the trains，and as a result cash came pouring in like rain．From summer till winter，from the rainy season till the snowy season，the villagers worked day in and day out，rain or shine，so that there would always be someone waiting on the ridge overlooking the train tracks．（Yan，Explosions 28）
孔明亮帶著全村人到后山梁上扒火車，卸貨物，錢來(lái)的如雨水朝著每家人的院里落。從夏天到冬天；從雨天到雪天，人們風(fēng)雨無(wú)阻，勤勤懇懇，無(wú)論是白天或晚上，雨天或晴天，都有人守在后山正上坡的鐵道旁。
The verb “unload”is merely a euphemism for “steal，”which the village chief forbid anyone to use．
A more theoretical criticism of the Chinese socialist realism can be found in Yan Lianke's non-fiction work，Discovering Fiction，published in 2010．The “Controlled Realism”（控構(gòu)現(xiàn)實(shí)主義）（Yan，F(xiàn)iction 7）is the phrase he coined to describe socialist realism that prevailed in the past．Yan Lianke's understanding of reality that is represented in literature is neither an objective mirror reflection of the real world，nor something that is inevitably under the impact of the class of the writers．An epistemological shift happened at this moment，as the new generation of writers initiated a pursuit of reality “that is covered up by reality．”The reason behind this shift of perception is that China，as well as the world，has gone through some dramatic changes at the dawn of the new century．“We know that the old secure values have gone，that a radical change is occurring which man must undergo or perish，yet we somehow go on as if，ensconced still in relics of 19thcentury ideologies，in a way which other times in parallel situations apparently did not．”The local situation of China in the global context is that reality in China has become more complicated，more extensive and more absurd than any previous generations have witnessed．（Yan，“Mythorealist Writing”18）The result of the worlds' such disturbing transformations was a remoulding of styles in literary realism．“Never before have the meaning-making means at our disposal appeared so inadequate，not only to cope with the enormity of the problems we continue to create，but simply to explain the world．”（Brooke-Rose 6）
Brook-Rose also observed that “there are many realisms unavoidable to the representative nature of language．”Indeed，when Chinese writers of the post-Cultural Revolution era started looking for new models to follow，they did not return to the realism of the 19thcentury，or the naturalism that was once prevalent during the May 4thMovement．Instead，they found much resonance with Magical Realism，whereby “the supernatural is not a simple or obvious matter，but it is an ordinary matter and everyday occurrence—admitted，accepted，and integrated into the rationality and materiality of literary realism”（Lois and Faris 5）that travelled from Latin America to China．Following Mrquez's winning of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982，his works were subsequently translated into Chinese．In 1982，a translation of six chapters of One Hundred Years of Solitude was published in World Literature．The translations of the entire book appeared later in 1984．
Mo Yan，the Chinese Nobel Laureate who is believed to be considerably influenced by Mrquez and his works，admitted that he came across One Hundred Years of Solitude in the spring of 1985．
The translation of Mrquez and other Latin American magical realist writers' works（Miguel ngel Asturias，Juan Rulfo，Jorge Luis Borges，Alejo Carpentier）led to an imitation of their literary styles among Chinese writers．In an article published in World Literature in 1986，the young Chinese writer Lei Duo made a summary of One Hundred Years of Solitude's “unique and sophisticated artistic”features：its use of the magical elements and absurd narrative plots，its religious and mythological subject matters，its symbolisms，and its unique narrative structure and language．Lei observed that Mrquez's novel，although full of magical fantasies，is by essence based on the Latin American reality．（Lei 299-301）In another article published on the same issue of the journal，Mo Yan also recognized Mrquez's enormous impact on his own literary creations．To Mo，the literary artifice of One Hundred Years of Solitudeis “superficial”compared to Mrquez's philosophical thinking and perception of the world and the humanity．Mrquez is，in Mo Yan's words，one of the two “burning blast furnaces，”the other being William Faulkner，who，with his profound insights in historical thinking in Sound and Fury，has provoked Mo Yan to realize that the petty literary techni-ques should not be in the way of understanding Faulkner's heart and soul．（Mo，“Furnace”299）
The appeal to magical element in literature seems at odds with China's strive for a modern nation，as the path to modernity is inevitably a process in disenchantment．As Max Weber claims，“There are no mysterious incalculable forces that come into play．．．one can，in principle，master all things by calculation．This means that the world is disenchanted．One need no longer have recourse to magical means in order to master or implore the spirits，as did the savage，for whom such mysterious powers existed．Technical means and calculations perform the service．”（Weber 139）But the post-Cultural Revolutionary era has also seen China's search for a national identity different from its Western or Soviet model．Latin American magical realist writers' pursuit of the local identity and the narrative preference of the local myths over the cold Western rationality coincided with the 1980s-writers' seeking of their “roots．”In a seminal work or manifesto of the “Roots-Seeking Literature，”Han Shaogong noticed that magical realism is necessarily relative to the mythologies，parables，legends and superstitions of Latin America．Chinese literature，comparably，should not be isolated from its roots where all the vernacular languages，unofficial historical records，legends，jests，folk songs，and the stories of the spirits and monsters dwell．（Han 2-5）Indeed China has a “zhiguai”（志怪）tradition—narratives of the occult and supernatural—from Sou Shen Ji（《搜神記》）in the 4thcentury even to Gu Shi Xin Bian（《故事新編》）written by Lu Xun in the height of the May 4thMovement．Magical realism's adaptation and defiance of its Western influence therefore encouraged the root-seeking Chinese writers to find new ways of articulation，and to rediscover the value of the folk culture which was once believed to be “feudalistic superstitions”that must be eliminated from the socialist culture during the Cultural Revolution period．
To some critics，however，the overarching influence of Mrquez on Chinese writers have grown so strong that the dream of being the Chinese Mrquez became an obsession．In Mo Yan's metaphor of the furnace，he sees himself as a piece of ice standing in front of the two burning furnaces—staying away from them is the only way of saving himself from melting down into oblivion．He later interpreted this mixed feelings towards the magical realist and modernist models as “the anxiety of influence．”（Mo，“Anxiety”8-10）The concern for his generation of writers，according to Mo Yan，is the homogeneity of cultures in the context of globalization，and，as a result，the loss of originality and the local identity．Chinese literature in the 1980s was not favored by some critics，precisely for the reason of such loss．But Mo adopted an open mind in the end，arguing for the equal importance of learning from foreign literature，and being informed with the local folk culture．
It is inevitable that Chinese writers and critics will finally seek to break with Magical Realism and come up with a realist style of their own，for it would otherwise look self-contradictory if the effort of magical realism to turn to the Latin American literary resources ended up leading its Chinese followers to the renouncing of their local identity．Yan Lianke and the critical term of “mythorealism”that he invented represent the recognition as well as permutation of magical realism in China．In his own words，mythorealism means
seeking to abandon the superficial logical relations of the real life，pursing a reality that is “non-existent，”not visible to the eyes，and covered up by reality．（Yan，F(xiàn)iction 181）
神實(shí)主義，大約應(yīng)該有個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的說(shuō)法。即：在創(chuàng)作中摒棄固有真實(shí)生活的表面邏輯關(guān)系，去探求一種“不存在”的真實(shí)，看不見的真實(shí)，被真實(shí)掩蓋的真實(shí)。
Mythorealism is distant from traditional realism in that it is not based on the logic of causality，but rather the souls and spirits of the writer．Its path to reality is through imaginations，allegories，mythologies，legends，dreams，visions，transformations and transplants．Reality is not “reflected”in a mythorealist piece of work，but “created”by the writer．
As is mentioned above，mythorealism is deeply embedded in the dramatic change of reality in China towards complication and absurdity．Mythorealism，although also treating magical and supernatural happenings as part of reality，is different from Magical Realism in various aspects．The logic of reality that Mrquez showed in One Hundred Years of Solitude is “half-causality，”as opposed to the “full-causality”of the traditional realism represented by Tolstoy and the “zero-causality”demonstrated by Kafka．The grotesque story of a man transforming into a giant bug in Metamorphosis is “zero-causality，”according to Yan Lianke，because it is a total violation of the law of nature or society in the real world；in other words，it follows no law of causality．The traditional realism，on the contrary，endeavors to give explanations to every single one of its protagonists，events，and plots so that everything happens with a good cause，mostly rooted in the social milieu in which the characters are immersed．Mrquez's narrative is something in between，and therefore “half-causal”in the sense that the events are not explicable following the everyday logic，but not as incredible as a man suddenly transformed into a bug．In Yan Lianke's diagram，“non-causality”and “full-causality”sit at the two ends of the scale，and “half-causality”is forever flowing in-between，occupying the space of “probability”and “l(fā)ikeliness．”（Yan，F(xiàn)iction 117-118）
But Yan Lianke is after something else—to him，the “inner-causality”or the “inner-truth”is the new principle of fiction writing evolved from the whole of the literary experience of the 20thcentury．Writers are encouraged to perform the task of uncovering this inner-truth，thus manifesting true reality．Yan Lianke's own writings may shed light on the inner-truth and inner-causality．In one of the three epilogues of The Odes of Songs（《風(fēng)雅頌》），titled “The Non-Existent Existence，”Yan Lianke recalls that on a posthumous marriage ceremony in a freezing winter，he saw hundreds of red and yellow butterflies sitting on the coffins of his nephew and his bride．The event of the butterflies appearing out of the blue in a winter day is both “true and strange”（真實(shí)和奇異）（Yan，Odes 352-353），and testifies to certain magical reality in the world．
The inner-truth can also be historical，revealing something about the nature of history，and the essence of the development of a nation，or in The Explosion Chronicles，a village．“The Explosion”is a village surrounded by the Balou Mountain（耙耬山脈），and the Yi River（伊河），established by immigrants fleeing from the volcano．In the post-Cultural Revolution era，the village quickly expanded into a cosmopolitan with the wealth generated from theft and prostitution，under the leadership of the family of Kong，and the rival family of Zhu（a probable reference to Confucius and Zhuxi）．The story starts with one night，when the father in the Kong family tells his four sons，
You should all leave，and each of you should proceed in one of the four directions of the compass．You should continue forward without looking back，and when you find something you should pick it up—and whatever it is，it will determine your future life-course．（Yan，Explosions 13）
你們現(xiàn)在都出去，朝著東西南北走——?jiǎng)e回頭，一直走，碰到啥兒彎腰撿起來(lái)，那東西就是你們這輩子的命道日子了。
The prophecy is later proved to be true：Kong Mingliang meets Zhu Ying，the daughter of the rival family，and marries her，and he then picks up a square seal（symbol of power）and later becomes mayor of the Explosion City．The opening chapters of The Explosion Chronicles is written with an air of predestination and a revelation of the truth in history：that the village is destined to grow up into a megacity．
The magic also resides in the details．For example，when the Kong Mingliang's wife had successfully given birth to a boy，
the ballpoint pen on the governor's desk bursts into bloom，and a variety of colorful plants and flowers suddenly appeared on his papers．Even the wooden armrest and back of the couch in front of him started budding with new growth．There was a fresh aroma of spring plants，which slowly circulated through the space of his office．Looking at the plants and flowers，Kong Mingliang broke into a broad smile．（Yan，Explosions 200）
縣長(zhǎng)面前桌上的鋼筆從筆尖開了一朵花。他面前的文件白紙上，也有了春天各色物樣的樹木和花草，連他對(duì)面的黃梨木沙發(fā)的扶手和背框上，都長(zhǎng)滿了春天的綠芽和枝葉。有一股完全是林地春天的植物的清香和鮮嫩，在他辦公室的開闊里，漫天漫地地流蕩與飛散。望著那些花草和香味，孔明亮臉上漾蕩著很舒心的笑。
And the following action of Kong indicates that the flowers are not metaphors intended by the novel，but solid realities：“Looking at the plants and flowers，Kong Mingliang broke into a broad smile．”
But as Yan Lianke says in an interview，the mythical part of mythorealism is only a bridge through which the writer could reach the other shore of reality．The transformation of an unconspicuous village into a super-scale city is not without its roots in reality．Shenzheng provides a real story of evolving from a tiny fishing village into a vast metropolis，a high-tech hub in China．The puzzle and confusion are felt by a generation of Chinese people who have witnessed the country's galloping growth in the past four decades．The Explosion Chronicles，filled with incredible and inexplicable plots，is Yan Lianke's attempt of making sense of such growth and the problems that come with it．It is also a Chinese writer's effort of learning from the magical realist model and then breaking with it，only to tell the local story of China to the world．
Chinese literature in the 20thcentury witnessed the arrival of realism and its variations such as socialist realism and Magical Realism from outside China．The “foreign stimuli”definitely facilitate the intercultural encounters and interactions．Realism's chief appeal for Chinese intellectuals are its power to reveal and manifest，its call for the transformation of the society，and its potential to lead China onto the road of a modern nation．To a literary community evolving from a different tradition than mimesis—in James J．Y．Liu's words，the traditional Chinese literary theories were “metaphysical”as opposed to “mimetic”（Liu 48）—Chinese writers and critics，while appropriating the idea of objectively representing the social reality，continue to speak to that tradition，and innovate ways of writing about reality as seen in revolutionary realism，the combination of revolutionary realism and revolutionary Romanticism，and mythorealism．What these undertakings share in common is a realism of manifestation，by which they seek not only representation of reality，but also making visible the inner-truth that underlies the constantly changing reality．
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- Seven more translations were made in the 1990s until 1992 when China entered UNESCO's Universal Copyright Convention and called a halt to the unauthorized translating of Cienaos de soledad．
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