Author(s)

Hongyong Zhang, Rongxing Li

Corresponding Author

Rongxing Li

Abstract

The article takes the post-80s female writer Zhou Zixiang and her works as the analysis objects, and discusses the unique narrative and self-identification of the post-80s writers. Novel creation is an “underclass writing” of typical realism, and at the same time has a new type of overseas working theme in “Migrant novels”. As a self-identification, Zhou Zixiang has three identities, first, she is a minority, namely the Manchu; second, she is a female writer of the post-80s; and the third, she is from Shaanxi province. Zhou Zixiang has a Manchu identity, but she cannot yet present “Manchu” in her writings. Her Manchu identity is reflected in this “identity” itself, which enriches the kind of subjects that ethnic minority writers can choose to write. However, her writing is very different from that of the post-80s that we generally understand. She has the will to dig into a larger theme, which is different from the “youth writing” by post-80s, or a purely private writing, called “whisperer”. She pays attention to society and narrates macro history actively. And her Shaanxi identity is the essence of Chinese traditional “local novels”.

Keywords

Underclass; Identity; Post-80s; Warmth narrative