ICS Occasional Papers

The paper looks at some of the representative works of Wang Shuo to see how his works contributed to the contemporary Chinese fiction by mirroring the issues of a newly emerged ‘class’. The paper focusses on the narrative techniques that are his own style, i.e. of ‘Hooligan Literature’ and made an attempt to study how the representation of ‘class’ has changed from the earlier stance on ‘class’ from the Mao’s period. Lastly, the paper tries to explore the significance of his works, while comparing it with other authors, and whether Wang Shuo’s literary activism pushed boundaries of literary creativity.

Keywords: Wang Shuo, Hooligan literature, liumang, pizi, counterculture, humanism, literary activism