Volume 7, No. 3

Mr. Chen Zhongyi studied Latin American literature in his early years, paying particular attention to Garcia Marquez and Borges, and thus influencing the Chinese literary world. He has authored works such as Commentary on Garcia Marquez, Borges, and Latin American Contemporary Novel Schools. May 2022 marks the 55th anniversary of the publication of A Hundred Years of Solitude. In order to pay tribute to the master in a special way, Mr. Chen Zhongyi published a realistic novel As I Hear (2022) that combines various creative techniques such as suspense, magic, absurdity, and irony. This work has been accumulated by Mr. Chen Zhongyi for more than ten years, criticizing feudal superstitions and demagogues, creating a strong artistic appeal with innovative expressions, while highlighting the author’s unique understanding and insight into contemporary society.

Mr. Chen Zhongyi has always insisted on his own academic direction and study style. Looking through his writings over the past forty years, the first thing that distinguishes him is that he has never chased after new trend. Secondly, he has always concerned about the literature of his own country. This article takes Mr. Chen’s several academic ideas as examples, and reviews his attention to some important literary issues such as literary reading, academic history research and theoretical studies from different perspectives and at different periods. These concerns reflect Mr. Chen’s state of being: integrating Chinese and foreign literatures, as well as the ancient and the modern.

Professor Chen Zhongyi has written extensively and pertinently as a central member of the study of Spanish literature in China. Over the years, he has produced an impressive body of analytical criticism on Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American literary culture, ranging from studies of the works of authors to intergenerational and general literary histories. His work is particularly noteworthy for its ability to bring new color to traditions and light to classics. This article will discuss three areas: the study of Cervantes’ academic history, the general documented account of Spanish and Spanish American literature, and the relationship between capital and literature.

So This Is What I Heard (Rushi Wowen) features Chen Zhongyi’s fruitful exploration of indigenous magical realism in China. In resonance with the tempo of the ever-changing world civilizations, Chen masterfully integrates various creative techniques such as suspense, magical realism, and absurdity. With a discerning eye, the author establishes and navigates the traffic between “literary fictionality” and “social reality,” while reflecting upon the shortcomings of indigenous cultures, criticizing the detrimental impacts of feudal superstition that mislead the masses, and addressing the current state and issues of the national education system. Besides, Chen delivers his insightful reflection on subjects like virtual space, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, cloning technology, etc. By balancing literariness, artistry, and readability, Chen’s writing not only embodies the author’s cultural concern and artistic intuition but also demonstrates his scholarly conscience and cultural consciousness. To this extent, this work ambitiously undertakes the responsibility of reviving Chinese culture and showcases incomparable ethical values.

Prof. Chen Zhongyi, a Chinese expert in the field of Spanish language and literature, who plays multiple roles as a scholar, translator, and writer, has made remarkable achievements in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary literary studies. Over decades, his academic explorations have not only demonstrated a broad vision and extensive knowledge encompassing literature from different eras and cultures, but also showcased a methodology of dialectical thinking amidst contradictory phenomena, which operates in various dimensions, such as the relationship between history and reality, sensibility and rationality, tradition and innovation, as well as national and global perspectives. His influential studies in Spanish and Latin American literature, Chinese literature, and world literatures, his theorization of the “golden rule” of literature, the constancy and variability in literary evolution, his advocacy and promotion of the projects on academic history studies in literature, his appreciation of literary classics, traditions, native language and “dualism”, as well as his critique and reflections on Western postmodernism, deconstructionism and the discourse of “globalism” influenced by transnational capitalism, are embodiments of Chen Zhongyi’s commitment to dialectical thinking.

After the “literary boom” in Latin America in the 1980s, the Chinese academia of foreign literature and cultural studies has gradually formed a cultural self-awareness through ongoing dialogues with the theories of world literature. In this context, Chen Zhongyi, a distinguished scholar, interpreter and writer recognized for his contributions to Latin American literature, embodies a scholarly approach characterized by his comprehensive transcultural perspectives, profound academic accomplishments, and evident dedication with a sense of social responsibility. He has developed original theoretical viewpoints and introduced terms like “absolute relativity”, “Variables and Constants in Literature” and “defamiliarization” criticism, and the notion of childishness thinking. Through a perceptive critique of transnational capital and its implications for globalized world literature, Chen Zhongyi has established a dialectical theoretical path for the disciplinary, academic and discourse systems in the realm of Chinese and foreign literature and cultural studies guided by values of mutual understanding among civilizations, the foundation of Chinese indigenous culture, and a return to classical ideals.

The globalization of transnational capitalism and cultural pluralism have brought forth extreme relativism. China’s advocacy of the system construction among disciplines, academia and Chinese discourse inspired the initiative by Professor Chen Zhongyi to embark upon the research of literary principles by way of “facing problems directly to reshape literary principles,” which has received a broad response in the academic circles. Its contemporary values manifest in three aspects: first, its theoretical value aims at the problems resulted from the present glocalization and cultural diversification, hopefully to further solve numerous scientific problems existing in literary creation and literary criticism in the post- era, thus displaying a distinctive character of historical materialism. The second is its value in methodology, which proposes to reflect on the principles of literature, examine the origins of academic history, elaborate the principles of literature theory, and carry on literary criticism to specific literary works, all of which can enlighten and guide the current practice of literary creation. The third is its practical significance. It uses the standpoint, perspectives and methods of Marxism to distinguish right from wrong, adheres to the correct standards of literary criticism, opposes out-and-out egoist writing, and guides the correct direction of literary creation and research through literary criticism. Chen Zhongyi commences the motion to further investigate literary principles for the refactoring of contemporary Chinese literary theory, inherits and develops Marxist view of literature and art, which will surely play a crucial part in promoting the construction of the “three major systems” in China.

Vietnam is witness to the indispensable relationship between literature and moral issues in the influential area of Chinese culture and literature. In the medieval period, “prose carries morality” (文以载道) was even one of the primary principles of literary creation and aesthetics in Vietnamese literature. However, criticism that contained ideological ethics in the revolutionary literature (1945-1975) created a specific allergy among writers and critics to criticisms based on morals after the Vietnam war. This has become a significant reason why local academia is not interested in the ethical turn of world literary criticism. Despite being introduced to Vietnam in 2016, ethical literary criticism (ELC) has not flourished as expected. Although there are some achievements, the dissemination of the method has shown some limitations. Nevertheless, given the indigenous characteristics of Vietnamese literature, the context of interdisciplinary studies, the usability and, particularly, the humanity of ELC, the method has excellent prospects to blossom in Vietnam. The development of ELC in Vietnam represents achievements of the school’s “go global” strategy and dedicates Vietnamese voices to the popularity of ELC worldwide.

The paper discusses the spread of Journey to the West and its derivative stories in Vietnam from three dimensions of literature, history and ethical literary criticism. It is believed that although Journey to the West and its stories were introduced to Vietnam in the 18th century at latest, neither of them received official ideological recognition because the last two feudal dynasties of Vietnam favored Confucianism while rejected Buddhism. However, as one of the world literary classics, Journey to the West and its stories were still adapted and constantly translated by Vietnamese people. From the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century was a peak of spread in Vietnam. The ethical choice in different historical periods plays an important role in the spread of Journey to the West and its stories in Vietnam.