This book explores Chinese novelists' distinctive contributions to the China debate in terms of the key issues of Chinese language, power dynamics and Confucian tradition. As China is rising, Chinese scholars and policymakers are debating heatedly over China's past, present and future. Who are the major debaters? How do they analyze China's problems and figure out solutions? What are the main achievements and weaknesses of the Chinese intellectual debate and discourse? Chinese novelists also get involved in the China debate. However, their voices are rarely heard. This book argues that, by dramatizing the diversities of ordinary social actors' everyday languages, active discursive practices and enchanted local traditions, Chinese novelists do not merely illustrate the dominant liberal, the New Left and the New Confucian ideologies, but enrich the China debate and provide a "novel" approach to our understanding of modern China.

Dieses Buch untersucht die besonderen Beiträge chinesischer Romanautoren zur China-Debatte im Hinblick auf die Schlüsselthemen chinesische Sprache, Machtdynamik und konfuzianische Tradition. Während China auf dem Vormarsch ist, debattieren chinesische Wissenschaftler und politische Entscheidungsträger heftig über Chinas Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft. Wer sind die Hauptdiskutanten? Wie analysieren sie die Probleme Chinas und wie finden sie Lösungen? Was sind die wichtigsten Errungenschaften und Schwächen der intellektuellen Debatte und des Diskurses in China? Auch chinesische Romanautoren beteiligen sich an der China-Debatte. Ihre Stimmen sind jedoch selten zu hören. In diesem Buch wird die These vertreten, dass chinesische Romanciers durch die Dramatisierung der Vielfalt der Alltagssprachen, der aktiven diskursiven Praktiken und der bezaubernden lokalen Traditionen nicht nur die vorherrschenden liberalen,neulinken und neokonfuzianischen Ideologien illustrieren, sondern die China-Debatte bereichern und einen "neuartigen" Ansatz für unser Verständnis des modernen China bieten.

This book explores Chinese novelists' distinctive contributions to the China debate in terms of the key issues of Chinese language, power dynamics and Confucian tradition. As China is rising, Chinese scholars and policymakers are debating heatedly over China's past, present and future. Who are the major debaters? How do they analyze China's problems and figure out solutions? What are the main achievements and weaknesses of the Chinese intellectual debate and discourse? Chinese novelists also get involved in the China debate. However, their voices are rarely heard. This book argues that, by dramatizing the diversities of ordinary social actors' everyday languages, active discursive practices and enchanted local traditions, Chinese novelists do not merely illustrate the dominant liberal, the New Left and the New Confucian ideologies, but enrich the China debate and provide a "novel" approach to our understanding of modern China.