Emergency Room in Lower Manhattan by Shi Yu

Iron Road by Zhang Ling

Inmate Lu Yanshi by Yan Geling

When we mention New Migrant Chinese Literature, many people fail to figure out what the conception is. But when we speak of oversea writers, such as Yan Gelin, Zhang Ling, many literary fans can have their works at their fingertips. In early December, the First Cross-Strait Literary Festival & International New Migrant Chinese Writers Forum was held in Fuzhou. 60-odd writers such as Luo Fu, Lin Mei, Chen Haoquan, Chen He, Shao Jun, Wang Xingchu, Song Lin, Chen Ruilin, Zhang Ping and Rong Rong, etc., Chinese writers from Europe, America and Australia, Pan Yuqi, Jiao Tong, Lin Jingzhu and Xu Rui etc., poets from Taiwan and Yang Kuanghan, Yang Kuangman, Liu Denghan, Chen Gongzhong, Du Yuanming and Gu Yuanqing, novelists and critics, took part in the forum and jointly discussed the achievements of the creation of international new migrant Chinese literature and its characteristics of times.   

Looking toward the Heaven by Lin Mei

Wandering is a process of trials and tribulation, while migration is a special landscape. Some do just as Romans do when in Rome; some fail to accustom themselves to the new environment. Some follow the customs and become alienated from their original ones; some have transformed the understanding of existence into new ideas that transcend ideologies. “You can imagine that experiences will exert influences on the angles, width and height of my perception of the world to some degree. However, because I can’t adjust myself to this reality completely and do as the common people do, I always feel disappointed or even agonized. Unable to change the status, I cannot but separate reality from ideals, thinking from literature, while seeking my own sense of belonging in the spiritual kingdom. Whenever I pass by the bustling streets and crowds, I can’t help thinking the three pleasures, viz. the pleasures of books, nature and being alone that I have sensed and understood in the study by the lake. I treat them as the paradise.” 

Auntie Duohe by Yan Geling

Blind Spot under the Knife Edge by Shi Yu

During the creation process of early new migrant novel, many works are those that are focused on the novelty-hunting descriptions on the basis of personal experiences of “the western dazzling world”. Later, there are some autographical literary works with the themes of tenacious struggles and pioneering efforts of clever and diligent Chinese in the foreign countries. What authors are eager to express is all the varieties of life trials they have gone through, among which there are death-or-life struggles, sadness and happiness of separation and reunion, the spiritual traumas, vicissitudes of life, etc. But early new migrant literature mostly featured autobiography, personal experiences. After the hard journey of more than 20 years, the creation of new migrant literature goes through the process of the expectation and curiosity towards western worlds to the personal experiences and disillusion, from the reconsideration of western culture to the pursuit of the self again.