Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.1, 2024

Urban Experience and Narrative Transformation of Youth Writing—An Analysis of Literary Works Written by the Post-1990s Generation

(Abstract)

Tang Shiren

Contemporary urban literature in China is often dismissed as imagination about cities in the sense of local experience, but this argument is no longer applicable to the urban creation of the writers born in the 1990s. Most writers of this generation, no matter from rural or urban areas, take urban life as their fundamental experience to imagine the world and reflect on reality. The transformation of experiential foundation often implies a change in the urban perception. This article investigates the urban perception and literary spirit of post-1990s writers, attempts to understand the unique charm and limitations of the individualistic and self-amplifying urban writing by the writers of new generation, and touch the narrative transformation and genre exploration that contemporary Chinese urban literature is undergoing.