CHINESE REALISM REIMAGINED: A FUSION OF IMPRESSIONISM AND EXPRESSIONISM

Post Tiananmen narrative enters a larger post-colonial, post-modern discourse where time is up to come to terms with history. Chinese postmodernism in the 90s moves away from the political influences that had spoiled the narrative in recent decades, towards an incontrovertible spiritual exploration, very much realist when it’s twisted with history and rather expressionist when it’s a process of self-discovery. This paper focuses on the attempt to distinguish the past two decades of Chinese literary production into two patterns, one impressed by reality and one expressed by the abyss of one own self.