Wang Shuo

Abstract

Wang Shuo (1958–) is known as the “bad guy” in the contemporary Chinese literature. Most of his novels (he wrote over 20) are set in Beijing and portray the life and mentality of a young generation of Beijing residents in the 1980s and 1990s, a period marked by China’s transformation from planned economy to market economy. Wang Shuo’s works have received mixed receptions; some praise him for his iconoclasm, while others accuse him of poisoning the social atmosphere. He is held in high esteem for his depiction of a unique type of characters, the “riffraff (pizi)” or “masters of play and mischief (wanzhu)” who, left to float or sink in the currents of radical social, cultural, and economic changes in the last two decades of the twentieth century, brace themselves up for the loss of their former prestigious status. He is also acclaimed for his use of a new Beijing dialect which skillfully weaves together the modern and old styles of speech in Beijing. He relies chiefly on dialogues to portray the life and mindset of these “riffraff” urban dwellers who spend most of their time hanging out, cracking jokes, playing mahjong, and flirting. But deep down, they are a group of cynics who, fed up with the conventional values and orthodox political ideology, attempt to display their nihilistic individualism and pursuit of freedom. Wang Shuo’s literary success derives from his astute perceptiveness of people’s changing mode of thinking and mindset in this transitional moment in China’s history. His unprecedented “hooligan style” of writing, his use of parody, black humor, and Beijing dialect have greatly enriched contemporary Chinese literature. He is hailed as the representative writer of the third generation of “Beijing-flavor Literature.”