Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.1, 2018

The Consciousness of Cultural Tradition and Artistic Imagination in Fan Xiaoqing’s Tea Trees in Yougang Graveyard

(Abstract)

Zeng Jun

Fan Xiaoqing depicts the circumstances and sentiments between city and country, and captures the implications and textures of cultural tradition in her plain and simple narration. In Tea Trees in Yougang Graveyard, the inheritance of the culture of Yuluo tea from Zhou Xiaojin to his student Erxiu reveals the consciousness of traditional culture in modern Chinese people in the new century. The volunteer teacher Zhou constructs a discourse on the traditional culture of Yuluo tea through introducing it, and his accidental death enlightens Erxiu. Erxiu continues her seeking for cultural roots from spontaneous to conscious, from material to spiritual, and from presence to tradition through looking for Zhou’s grave, discovering the manufacturing process of tea in Ziying village, and finding the best Yuluo tea in Yougang graveyard. However, Fan did not delve into the reflection of traditional culture, which causes for some limits.