China's novellas today are an important vehicle for commentary on Chinese society, with a clear moral purpose: so says Professor He Shaojun of Shenyang University.

Professor He led the panel of judges who selected the top Chinese novellas of 2004 for the Lu Xun Literary Award. Interestingly, all of last year's prize winners focus on those politically and economically sidelined in modern China.

Their main characters are farmers or migrants coming from rural areas to cities for work. They also include women; "In China, there are many women who, whether in their families or in other social contexts, are made victims," says Professor He.

The narratives of these novels are grim, dealing with deprivation, discrimination and violence.

Chen Jiming's Ji Xiang the Plasterer, for example, tells the tale of a young migrant labourer.

Already fighting for survival in the chaos of the city, Ji is harassed by a group of guards after a minor altercation in a post office; the guards get him drunk and throw his trousers into a ditch, leaving him to search for them naked and alone.

Narratives such as Chen Jiming's reflect the brutality and austerity of lives which are lived in China alongside the comfort and extravagance of those riding the crest of the economic miracle.

While overwhelmingly dark and gritty in character, the narratives of these novels are not necessarily pessimistic. In a landscape of distress and frustration, some authors have emphasized the inner growth and development which represents a personal victory for their main characters.

Professor He cites Wei Ran's The Vegetable Garden Club as an example. The story concerns a man on the very outskirts of his village community, so detached that his only pleasure in life comes from the loving cultivation of his vegetable garden.

His community derides and ostracises him, and ultimately also destroys his vegetable patch. It is he, however, who eventually prevails, for he finds the strength of personality to survive and search for joy in other things.

"The book is about his personal search for happiness, and in the end he finds it," He points out. "The message is not pessimistic."

One message that novellas like The Vegetable Garden Club deliver is that the most meaningful gains and achievements are to be found inside ourselves, and not in the material world.

Focussing on the universality of spiritual existence and the meaningfulness of spiritual achievements, authors both humanize the weak and make them victors.

Professor He reflects that this is a message which could not be more pertinent to Chinese society. "China today is a country going through rapid economic development, which has happened upon us very suddenly," he says. "Economics seems to have hijacked the Chinese mind. What everyone desires is material goods, and what everyone believes is that having material goods will make them happy."

He suggests that the importance of literature lies in its ability to satisfy man's spiritual needs.

"When we read literature, enter its world, we can feel our spiritual element becoming richer. Literature may not seem 'useful,' but its use lies in the spiritual sphere, and is very real indeed."

Chi Li's novel Tolstoy's Scarf offers a poignant illustration of this point. A city garbage collector wears a red scarf around his neck, in tribute to his hero Tolstoy, whose works he has read and the enjoyment of which sustains him through the grind of his reality.

Professor He explains that the attempts of modern authors to awaken society both to the plight of the marginalised and to the importance of spiritual cultivation are the legacy of the May 4th tradition, which transformed Chinese literature.

"The intellectuals of the May 4th tradition can be thought of as enlightenment thinkers," He says. "They thought that what people should be struggling for was their own happiness. But they saw that most people of the lower classes were unaware of that, and were struggling simply to survive. On this basis, they developed a new approach to their writing."

It was as part of this movement that use of the vernacular was adopted in Chinese literature, substituted for the classical language, which only the scholar elite could understand.

This sense of responsibility among authors has survived to the modern day. In He's view, authors such as Chen Jiming are fulfilling an important moral purpose. Representing the weak, he says, is the responsibility of authors and the prerogative of literature.

"Literature acts as the defence counsel of the weak," he says.

The novellas of 2004 are convincing proof that authors have not overlooked China's marginalised. But can the same be said for the rest of society?

The sad fact is that despite being strong literary works, these novellas are not getting enough attention. "This is the age of mass media," He says. "Literature is losing its audience."

Writers like Wei Ran, Chen Jiming and Chi Li have a strong sense of moral purpose, but literature today cannot solve the social problems they address in their work.

"The constitution of our whole society has to reform and develop, if we're going to address this deficiency in our spiritual existence," he says.

(China Daily July 28, 2005)