Chen Ran
Encyclopedia
Chen Ran is a Chinese
avant-garde writer. Most of her works appeared in the 1990s and often deal with Chinese feminism
.
Chen Ran studied Chinese language and literature in Beijing Normal University
from 1982 to 1986 and graduated when she was 23. She remained with the university as a teacher after graduation for the next four and a half years. She also lectured as an exchange scholar at various foreign universities including Melbourne University in Australia, the University of Berlin in Germany, and London, Oxford, and Edinburgh
universities in the UK. Between 1987 and 1989, she published a series of surrealistic
short stories with strong philosophical undertones.
She now lives and writes in Beijing. She has published several short story collections and is a member of the Chinese Writers Association. She has won number of prizes, such as the first Contemporary China Female Writer's Award.
, and the mother-daughter relationship.
The publication of her first novel, Private Life, in 1996 caused heated debate in Chinese literary circles. As a result of her writing style, which is very personal and open, some critics have found her writing to be too exploitative of the new mass consumer
market.
The film Yesterday's Wine, based on her short story of the same name, was chosen for showing at the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995.
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
avant-garde writer. Most of her works appeared in the 1990s and often deal with Chinese feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
.
Biography
Chen Ran was born in Beijing in April, 1962. Her parents divorced when she was in high school and she since then lived with her mother. As a child she studied music, but when she was 18 her interests turned to literature.Chen Ran studied Chinese language and literature in Beijing Normal University
Beijing Normal University
Beijing Normal University , colloqiually known as 北师大 or Beishida, is a public research university located in Beijing with strong emphasis on basic disciplines of humanities and sciences...
from 1982 to 1986 and graduated when she was 23. She remained with the university as a teacher after graduation for the next four and a half years. She also lectured as an exchange scholar at various foreign universities including Melbourne University in Australia, the University of Berlin in Germany, and London, Oxford, and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
universities in the UK. Between 1987 and 1989, she published a series of surrealistic
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
short stories with strong philosophical undertones.
She now lives and writes in Beijing. She has published several short story collections and is a member of the Chinese Writers Association. She has won number of prizes, such as the first Contemporary China Female Writer's Award.
Work
Chen Ran's stories received great attention from feminine critics as well as general publishers in the cultural market during the 1990s. Chinese feminist critics praise the gender consciousness of her work and the introduction into literature of the private female experience, including lesbian love (or affection, as Ran prefers to call it), the Electra complexElectra complex
In Neo-Freudian psychology, the Electra complex, as proposed by Carl Gustav Jung, is a girl’s psychosexual competition with mother for possession of father. In the course of her psychosexual development, the complex is the girl’s phallic stage formation of a discrete sexual identity; a boy’s...
, and the mother-daughter relationship.
The publication of her first novel, Private Life, in 1996 caused heated debate in Chinese literary circles. As a result of her writing style, which is very personal and open, some critics have found her writing to be too exploitative of the new mass consumer
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...
market.
The film Yesterday's Wine, based on her short story of the same name, was chosen for showing at the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995.
Controversy
Chen Ran is the most-discussed figure in the recent critical debate in China over "female writing" and "individual writing". Even though the government has never banned her books, a thinly veiled moralism pervades the literary critical approach to her work. Critics writing in academic journals have accused her of zilian (narcissism) and zibi (solipism). For example, some critics write off her book, Private Life, as mere exhibitionism (i.e., the willing exposure of privacy) because Chen openly admits to writing from experience.Publications
- Let's Pay the Piper for the Past (yu wangshi ganbei)
- Potential Anecdote (qianxing yishi)
- Standing up, Alone, Facing the Air Current (zhan zai wu ren de fengkou)
- The Witch and the Door of her Dreams (wu nü yu ta de meng zhong zhi men)
- Troglodyte House (kongdong zhi tuo)
- Nine Months without Going out for the Bald Woman (tutou nü zou bu chu lai de jiu yue)
- Birth of an Empty Man (kong xin ren de dansheng)
- Private Life (si ren shenghuo), 1996