| Chapter : | Introduction |
In contrast to the negative idea of popular culture which only acknowledges the manipulative and deceptive sides of the cultural industry,15 Xiaofei Tian’s essay argues that “fictional China,” a historical cultural space that Jin Yong has produced in his novels, becomes the spiritual home for modern Chinese. In terms of the rhetoric of “the fantastic,” which is the inner structure of martial art novels, Jin Yong has built up a utopian society in fictional China, a society in which the old morality has been preserved and heroism poeticized. Although Jin Yong’s novels include multiple voices, they eventually submit to a larger metanarrative by means of the dissolution of irony. This metanarrative voice constitutes a solid, complete, classical, and moral space that has significantly supplemented what has been lacking in real modern society.
Xiaofei Tian’s essay reminds us of William Tay’s interrogation of the martial arts genre: Does the popularization of martial arts novels indistinctly reflect conscious and unconscious collective empathy? Is there an inner connection between the long-term bitterness of modern China and martial arts novels which provide a temporary escape from real time and space? Do these novels reflect the pursuit of a Utopia? Do the traditional values and righteousness in the world of “rivers and lakes,” which are often seen in martial arts novels, refer to a sense of nostalgia for old moral principles and the old social order? Is this utopian, nostalgic search meant to ease the anxiety and pressure brought about by modern industry?16 The answers that Xiaofei Tian provides in her essay suggest a positive evaluation of the relationship between the cultural industry and mass audiences.
Weijie Song’s second essay in this book tackles the same issue of the utopian cultural space created by Jin Yong’s novels, yet he situates his examination at the intersection of Western and Chinese concepts of utopia. He first sees fictionalized jianghu and wulin as “a combination of utopia and anti-utopia,” then reveals the binary pair of utopian motifs in jianghu – seclusion and rescue.