Chinese Creative Writing Studies: Theory, Pedagogy and Practice 9819909309, 9789819909308

Table of contents :
Advisors and Editorial Board
Foreword
Acknowledgement of TKPCCC
Introduction: An Overview of the Development of Creative Writing from China to the World
Contents
Creative Writing Theories and Research in Chinese Context
Therapeutic Writing: As the Opposite of Creative Writing
1 Quietism or Existentialism?
2 Constructing “No Self” or Rediscovering “True Self”?
3 Catharsis and Reconstruction: Writing as Therapy
References
2020 Annual Report of China’s Creative Writing Studies
1 Active Construction of Chinese Creative Writing in the New Liberal Arts Context
1.1 Creative Writing Studies in the New Liberal Arts Contexts as a New Trend
1.2 New Consensus Highlighted by Creative Writing as General Education
1.3 New Progress in Exploration of Branches of Creative Writing Studies
1.4 Creative Writing Thinking and Creativity Promoting Research and Triggering New Topics
1.5 Research on Disciplinary History of Creative Writing Expanding New Horizons
2 Telling the “Chinese Story” with Efforts in Creative Writing Education and Teaching
2.1 Continuous Exploration on the Pedagogy and Mechanism of Writer Workshops
2.2 The “Sinicization” of Creative Writing’s Curriculum Design and Teaching Concepts
2.3 A Preliminary Summary of Creative Writing Teaching Practical Experience in Chinese Higher Education Institutions
2.4 Telling Chinese Stories of Creative Writing to the World
3 Exploring “New Scope” for Creative Writing Research
3.1 An Increasing Number of Research on Creative Writing for Cultural Industry
3.2 Gradual Clarification of the Relationship Between Creative Writing and Creative Industries
3.3 Creative Writing in the Era of Digital Technology as an Emerging Research Sub-Field
3.4 A New Upsurge of Research on Creative Writing in Primary and Secondary Schools
4 The Further Exploration, Problems, and Expectations of the Research on Chinese Creative Writing
4.1 The Research on Creative Writing Continues to Deepen and Echo Each Other
4.2 Bottlenecks with Urgent Signals in Chinese Creative Writing Studies
4.3 Continuous Development of the New Consensus and the New Ecology in Creative Writing Studies
5 Conclusion
References
Teaching Creative Writing in the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong
Radio Drama Creation and the Development and Training of Related Industries
1 Introduction: The Development of Radio Drama Creation and Its Related Industries in Recent Years
2 Development of Radio Drama and Audiobook Creation in mainland and Taiwan
3 The Course “Radio Drama Creation” in the Curriculum of the Program Creative Writing and Film Art Curriculum at Hong Kong Metropolitan University
4 Conclusion
Appendix 1
References
A Discussion on the Teaching of Creative Writing in the Writing Classes of Colleges in China
1 Preface
2 Old Warriors Never Die: The Prominence of Creative Writing
3 The Seeds Sown by the IWP
4 Sensory Literature: Senses of Sight, Hearing, Taste, Feeling and the Mind
5 Conclusion
References
Basic Teaching of Creative Writing as a “Pool of Inspiration”: A Discussion Starting from the Undergraduate Teaching of Drama and Film Arts in the Creative Writing Programme
1 Professional Direction of “Pool of Inspiration”
2 The Logic of Implementation for the “Pool of Inspiration”
2.1 Pre-participation of Reading and Appreciation
2.2 Main Participation by Mind and Body
3 The Interactive Effect of the “Pool of Inspiration”
References
Creative Writing and Cross-Media Practices from the Sinophone Perspective
Reading for Writing: A Case Study of Multi-Media Presentations of Reading Achievements
1 Introduction: Limitations of Written Report in Reading Presentations
2 Disconnection Between Reading and Writing Inside and Outside the Classroom
3 The Reading Habit of the Post-Digital Generation
4 The Case Study of Presentation of Literary Reading Achievements
5 A Case of Presentation Through Multi-Media Reading Achievements
6 Teaching Outcomes, the Assessment, and Its Limitations
Appendix 1· Reading Work Examples of Students’ In-Depth Reading Achievement Demonstration
Appendix 2 Reading Achievement Demonstration Cases of Multi-Media Literature
Appendix 3: Students’ Poem for Response: The Hourglass of Time 時間的沙漏
Appendix 4: Rubrics of multi-Media Reading Achievements Presentation
References
Creative Writing in the Narratives of Interactive Games—The Cases of Grand Theft Auto 5 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
1 Introduction: Multistranded Narratives in Different Media
2 The Narrative from Multiple Perspectives in Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA5)
3 The Consequences of Real Choices: The Witcher 3
4 Conclusion
References
A Preliminary Study of Transmedia Storytelling: The Case Study of a Special Exhibition of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum
1 Introduction
2 Methodology
3 Museum Exhibitions
4 Symbolic Meaning of Exhibits
5 Communication Between Visitors and Signs
6 Transmedia Narratives in Museum Exhibition
7 “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life” Special Exhibition
8 Research Findings
9 Conclusion
References
Creative Writing and New Interpretations of Chinese Classical Culture
A Discussion on “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” and Its TV Series Adaptation from the Perspectives of “Chinese Tragic Consciousness” and “Intertextuality”
1 Introduction
2 The Differences in “Chinese Tragic Consciousness” and Themes Between the Original Ballad “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” and Its TV Series Adaptation
3 Analysing the TV Adaptation of the Original Poem from the Perspective of “Intertextuality”
4 Conclusion
References
Resources for Creativity from Chinese Classical Culture: A Discussion on the Creative Thinking and Creation Pattern of “Old Tales Retold” and Revelations on the Development of Creative Writing
1 Introduction
2 The Origin, Concept, and Creative Thinking of “Old Tales Retold”
3 Revelation of “Old Stories Retold” on the Development of Creative Writing as an Academic Discipline
4 Conclusion
References
The “First Generation” of Creative Cyber Literature and Its “Genre-Bending Writing”: Thoughts on Using Jun Tian as a Method
1 “First Generation” of Writers in Creation of Cyber Literature
2 “Genre Bending” of Martial Arts, Suspense, Fantasies Writings of the East and West
3 Further Discourse: Reflection and Reverie on Contemporary Information Explosion and Diverse Creative Resources for Genre Fiction of the New Age
References
Implications of Global Contexts for Creative Writing
Creative Writing Research: What, How and Why
1 What is Creative Writing Research?
2 Choices
3 Structuring Projects
4 Methods/Methodology of Creative Writing Research
5 The Research Environment
6 Results/Outcomes
Reference
In Praise of Doggedness: On Going Local & Becoming Global as a Transpacific Poet-Scholar in Hawai’i, the Pacific Rim, and Coastal California
References
Toward a Unified Field: Lore and the Complications of Global Context
References

Citation preview

Rebecca Leung Mo-Ling   Editor

Chinese Creative Writing Studies

Chinese Creative Writing Studies

Rebecca Leung Mo-Ling Editor

Chinese Creative Writing Studies

Editor Rebecca Leung Mo-Ling School of Arts and Social Sciences Hong Kong Metropolitan University Hong Kong, China

ISBN 978-981-99-0930-8 ISBN 978-981-99-0931-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Advisors and Editorial Board

Advisors Adam Strickson, Dai Fan, Diao Ke-Li, Fang Chang-An, Huang Jing-Chun, Huang Ping, Li Er, Liang Hong, Mark McGurl, Sun Jian-Rong, Shao Yan-Jun, Song Geng, Song Shi-Lei, Dianne Donnelly, Wang Hong-Tu, Wen Gui-Liang, Yang Jian-Long, Ceng Jun, Zhang Sheng, Zhang Yong-An, Zhu Shou-Tong

Editorial Board

Editorial Advisor Ge Hong-Bing General Editor Rebecca Leung Mo-Ling Editors Xu Dao-Jun Yi Yong-Yi Associate Editors Ye Wei (Liu Ye-Wei) Zhang Yong-Lu Editorial Team Gao Er-Ya, Feng Xian-Dong, Zhou Yu ( Liu Wei-Dong), Li Guang-Xu , Zhang JingJing, Shao Dong, Yu Wen-Han, Gao Xiang, Lei Yong , Guo Yao, Lu Yong-Lin, Tan Xu-Dong, Wang Lei-Lei, Wang Yu-Meng, Xu Feng, Xie Shang-Fa v

Foreword

Chinese Creative Writing Studies journal 中國創意寫作研究 and the Global Conference of Chinese Creative Writing 世界華⽂創意寫作⼤會, both launched in 2015, first presented the Proceedings of the Annual Global Conference of Chinese Creative Writing 世界華⽂創意寫作⼤會年會論⽂集. With the subsequent support of Shanghai University, it transformed into an annual academic journal. Between late spring and early summer of 2021, Shanghai University, Hong Kong Metropolitan University and Wenzhou University convened a meeting at Wenzhou University, during which consensus was reached on a tripartite collaboration to elevate the 6-year-old academic journal Chinese Creative Writing Studies to a new form of an international academic publication with three issues annually to be published bilingually in both Chinese and English. The meeting among the three universities was held at Wenzhou University between late spring and early summer of 2021, during which the official opening of the editorial committee of Chinese Creative Writing Studies at Wenzhou University was officially established, marking the formal elevation of Chinese Creative Writing Studies. At the meeting, Prof. Sun Lianghao set a blueprint for the endeavor. “The project Chinese Creative Writing Studies launched by the three universities in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Wenzhou has not only built an academic platform in the academia but also actualized the synergy and collaboration among the regions. laying a solid foundation for the development of Chinese studies, which will be a significant mark in the history of Chinese creative writing”, he said. “This occasion bears long-term significance and signals the start of a new era for Chinese creative writing.” Shanghai University, Hong Kong Metropolitan University and Wenzhou University are at the forefront of building Chinese creative writing as an academic discipline. The joint effort to develop and enhance the Chinese Creative Writing Studies by the three universities holds important significance. With the contribution of the Tin Ka Ping Centre of Chinese Culture of Hong Kong Metropolitan University, which is led by Dr. Rebecca Leung Mo-Ling, the Book has gained an international perspective, and its English version has been launched, opening a worldwide window for the Chinese creative writing studies as an academic discipline. May we extend our gratitude to the Tin Ka Ping Centre of Chinese Culture of Hong Kong Metropolitan vii

viii

Foreword

University. Integrated with cinematic arts, visual art and new media technologies, the Master of Arts in Creative Writing at Hong Kong Metropolitan University has developed its unique characteristics and modes and is well received both in Hong Kong and in the Mainland. Furthermore, the University’s Newsletter of Tin Ka Ping Centre of Chinese Culture has always been a prominent journal for cultural and academic exchanges in Chinese academia, particularly in the areas of visual & performing arts, literary arts, visual & media arts, etc. The Newsletter often presents important outcomes of innovative ideas and research directions in academia, which has developed a solid foundation for publishing the English edition of Chinese Creative Writing Studies. Chinese Creative Writing Studies (English edition), led by the editorial team of the Tin Ka Ping Centre of Chinese Culture of the Hong Kong Metropolitan University under the leadership of Dr. Rebecca Leung Mo-Ling, materializes the artistic integration, cross-over of academic disciplines and amalgamation of multi-media, showcasing the latest development and the pioneering directions in creative writing as an academic discipline in contemporary China, which is refreshing for the academic world in China. Led by Dr. Rebecca Leung Mo-Ling, Chinese Creative Writing Studies manifests the following characteristics: firstly, an enhancement of interdisciplinary studies; secondly, a focus on the research on the integration of multiple artistic types; thirdly, the Book not only contains an exploration experience of academics and academic institutions in China’s Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Mainland but also the contributions from frontline academics of other countries and regions around the world as well as their exploration experience. Following the expansion of the team of authors and the horizon of investigation, Chinese Creative Writing Studies is indeed moving toward the grand stage of “globalization”. I’d like to express my special thanks to Dr. Shawn Shao Dong, Dr. Yu Wen-Han Marvin and the team of Tin Ka Ping Centre of Chinese Culture of Hong Kong Metropolitan University for their selfless dedication. We sincerely look forward to your kind support for Chinese Creative Writing Studies by submitting your works to the Book, and offering recommendations and advice to the editorial department. The steadfast support and recommendations from readers shall be the strongest impetus for the development of Chinese Creative Writing Studies. Ge Hong-Bing Editorial Advisor College of Liberal Arts Shanghai University Shanghai, China

Acknowledgement of TKPCCC

As part of the collaboration among the Chinese Creative Writing Centre at Shanghai University, the School of Humanities at Wenzhou University and the Tin Ka Ping Centre of Chinese Culture (TKPCCC) at Hong Kong Metropolitan University, this volume brings scholars of creative writing and humanities in the Sinophone world and beyond to delve into the field of Chinese creative writing studies. I would like to acknowledge the help and contribution of all individuals and institutions that took part in this publication. This volume would not have been possible without any of them. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Tin Ka Ping Foundation for providing the generous funds for promoting Chinese culture, which allow TKPCCC to produce different publications in the field of Chinese studies, including this volume, the Newsletter of Tin Ka Ping Centre of Chinese Culture and other scholarly works in addition to various academic events. I am indebted to Prof. Charles Kwong Che-Leung for his great support to TKPCCC and valuable advice on this volume. His guidance made the progress of the preparation of this volume much more efficient. I wish to thank each of the fourteen contributors for their valuable research papers. My gratitude also goes to the advisers and members of the editorial board, peerreviewers, and the editors of Springer Nature. Last but not least, I would like to extend my thanks to the faculty members and administrative staff of the School of Arts and Social Sciences at Hong Kong Metropolitan University for their assistance in the publication. Rebecca Leung Mo-Ling Volume editor

ix

Introduction: An Overview of the Development of Creative Writing from China to the World

This book is the first volume of the English edition of the Chinese-language periodical Chinese Creative Writing Studies 中國創意寫作研究. It focuses on aspects in the field of Chinese creative writing studies that range from the development of the studies as an academic discipline, pedagogies, cross-media practices, interdisciplinary development, application of cultural industry and new interpretations of classical culture. It discusses the latest contributions of different Sinophone scholars in facilitating the development of Chinese creative writing studies and explores new directions for the development of the studies as an academic discipline as well as the innovative program designs and practices, showcasing the vitality of Chinese creative writing in the era of media. This book illustrates that, in the aspects of the cross-media program designs and implementation of creative writing studies, interdisciplinary thinking and community-based workshops carry significant meaning to the development of creative writing studies as an academic discipline. Furthermore, a number of contributors to this volume affirm the common understanding that creating writing programs can help students observe, make associations and imagine; this facilitates their capacity to learn in an interdisciplinary context. These fundamental practices are important to students who will soon work in the creative industry. Classical Chinese cultures have already been substantial resources for the development of Chinese creative writing. They do not only serve as teaching materials but also as inspirations for contemporary writers. Moreover, this volume addresses the issues that Chinese creative writing has encountered during its development, such as students’ lack of interest in the subject and creativity, the disadvantages of teaching frameworks, the low efficiency in monitoring students’ writing progress and the shortages of exchange platforms for Chinese-language authors abroad, etc. In addition, in the aspect of pedagogies, the contributors of this volume discover that interviews, autobiographies, memoirs and online multi-media platforms can facilitate the current teaching of creative writing programs and enrich its teaching content. As contemporary visual culture continues to develop and significantly influences the interpretations of literary artworks, the thinking logic and methodology of creating literary works have been constantly changing, too. The creativity, techniques and xi

xii

Introduction: An Overview of the Development of Creative Writing …

practices of creative writing have been shaping the construction of the field’s crossmedia content; the development of creative writing can be facilitated through active promotions of the self-expansion of creative writing. This volume, with an eclectic approach, investigates the latest trends in Chinese creative writing in different aspects through five main parts: theories and research trends, pedagogies, cross-media practices, classical culture and creative writing in the global context. Part “Creative Writing Theories and Research in Chinese Context” consists of two chapters. In Chapter “Therapeutic Writing: As the Opposite of Creative Writing”, Ge Hong-Bing uses Western philosophical theories and Chinese classics to ascertain the therapeutic effects of creative writing under the lens of quietism and existentialism. Ge argues that engaging in creative writing with an author-based approach—which is atypical in the field of creative writing— allows writers to enter a sanctuary where they can escape from reality and rediscover self-identity. This provides them with a channel to express traumatic emotions and improves their mental health. In Chapter “2020 Annual Report of China’s Creative Writing Studies”, Liu Wei-Dong and Zhang Yong-Lu evaluate the development of Chinese creative writing in 2020 under the trend of new liberal arts. Their research illustrates that China saw rapid growth in the expansion of creative writing studies and other related areas, including training for writers, cultural industries, digital technology and even primary and secondary education. Their research also deduces that, while 2020 was a tremendous year for the development of the field, further expansions in research on teaching creative writing and other areas would be necessary for meeting the demands of China’s market and education. Part “Teaching Creative Writing in the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong” comprises three chapters that discuss the teaching of creative writing in different regions. In Chapter “Radio Drama Creation and the Development and Training of Related Industries”, Rebecca Leung Mo-Ling illustrates the phenomenon that China’s radio drama and Taiwan’s audiobook industry continue to thrive while Hong Kong experiences a sharp decrease in the production of radio drama due to the rise of online entertainment. In an effort to address this issue, Leung uses the “Radio Drama Creation” course at Hong Kong Metropolitan University as an example to discuss how creative writing education and other related industries in Hong Kong can be reformed in order to resurge under the current circumstances. In Chapter “A Discussion on the Teaching of Creative Writing in the Writing Classes of Colleges in China”, Wang Wei-Zhou argues that the teaching of creative writing studies in China is still unfledged compared to its counterpart in the West. Wang proposes that, while many advanced concepts from the West have been introduced to China, Chinese creative writing studies need to put more emphasis on the development of a pedagogical framework in order to facilitate the development of creative writing as an academic discipline in China. In Chapter “Basic Teaching of Creative Writing as a “Pool of Inspiration”: A Discussion Starting from the Undergraduate Teaching of Drama and Film Arts in the Creative Writing Programme”, Sun Hui-Xin describes that a writing methodology that applies creative writing as a fundamental course to undergraduate programs in drama and film has been developed after years of practice in teaching. With the aim to advance the development of this methodology, she

Introduction: An Overview of the Development of Creative Writing …

xiii

discusses how the application of creative writing as the “pool of inspiration” helps undergraduate students of drama and film develop writing expertise by scrutinizing the writing methodology in the aspects of the causes and aims, methods and logic, and interaction and effects. Part “Creative Writing and Cross-Media Practices from the Sinophone Perspective” explores the conversation between Chinese creative writing and the practices of different forms of media. This part includes three chapters, and each of them deals with the relationships between Chinese creative writing and a distinct form(s) of media. In Chapter “Reading for Writing: A Case Study of Multi-Media Presentations of Reading Achievements”, Ng Mei-Kwan proposes that multi-media tools should be introduced to students as a form to present their reading achievements through a case study of an innovative course that requires students to present their reading achievements with multi-media. By analyzing the teaching outcomes, assessments and limitations of the course, Ng suggests that having students use multi-media tools to present their reading achievements can overcome some limitations in traditional literary education and enhances students’ learning efficiency, particularly for those in the post-digital generation. In Chapter “Creative Writing in the Narratives of Interactive Games—The Cases of Grand Theft Auto 5 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt”, Shawn Shao Dong, explores the interactive narration of creative writing in electronic games through the case studies on Grand Theft Auto 5 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Shao argues that the interactive nature of narratives in electronic games makes this genre stand out from any other forms of creative writing in literary and cinematic worlds. By scrutinizing the dialogs and plots of these two games, this chapter explores the characteristics of multi-threaded literary narratives. Shao also extrapolates that creative writing for electronic games has great potential to become a major aspect of the field and deserves much attention from academia. In Chapter “A Preliminary Study of Transmedia Storytelling: The Case Study of a Special Exhibition of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum”, Janet Lau Man-Ying explores the dialogs between creative writing and exhibition studies. Lau argues that, while academia has paid much attention to the narratives of literary works, little attention has been given to how museums apply such techniques to exhibitions. Using the methodology for research in literary works to analyze the narratives on museum exhibitions, Lau discusses how museums utilize transmedia storytelling in exhibitions and the effects of such application on visitors through a case study on a special exhibition presented by Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Part “Creative Writing and New Interpretations of Chinese Classical Culture”, which consists of three chapters, examines Chinese classics from the perspective of creative writing, expanding our understanding of classical texts in China. In Chapter “A Discussion on “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” and Its TV Series Adaptation from the Perspectives of “Chinese Tragic Consciousness” and “Intertextuality””, Leung Tak-Wah compares some of the most significant scenes in the long narrative poem “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” 孔雀東南⾶ to its TV series adaptation under the lens of “Chinese tragic consciousness” and “intertextuality”. Leung discusses whether the adaptation has preserved the essence of those scenes in the original work, and how it changes the way audiences view the ballad in terms of themes. In

xiv

Introduction: An Overview of the Development of Creative Writing …

Chapter “Resources for Creativity from Chinese Classical Culture: A Discussion on the Creative Thinking and Creation Pattern of “Old Tales Retold” and Revelations on the Development of Creative Writing”, Benson Tong Tsz-Ben discusses how the Chinese classic “Old Tales Retold” 故事新編 sheds light on creative writing, and thus the teaching of the studies. Tong proposes that the writing style and traditional stories in “Old Tales Retold” can help students realize the value of classical Chinese texts in their studies of creative writing as they examine this literary work. Tong’s research shows that studying this classical work can enhance students’ ability to enrich the content of their stories and find new approaches to their own creative works. Tong also argues that teaching students to interpret Chinese classics from a new perspective would be vital to the development of the teaching of Chinese creative writing as an academic discipline. In Chapter “The “First Generation” of Creative Cyber Literature and Its “Genre-Bending Writing”: Thoughts on Using Jun Tian as a Method”, Zhan Yu-Bing conducts a study on the genres of Chinese cyber literature, ascertaining how this form of literature evolves from traditional Chinese popular literature. Zhang uses cyber fiction author Jun Tian’s 君天 works as an example to discuss the genre-bending characteristics of cyber literature and extrapolates the trends of this form of literature in China. Part “Implications of Global Contexts for Creative Writing” consists of 3 chapters written by scholars of creative writing from different places beyond the Sinophone world. It aims to keep the studies of Chinese creative writing abreast with the global trend of creative writing by bringing international perspectives to the field. In Chapter “Creative Writing Research: What, How and Why”, Graeme Harper discusses the scope and definition of creative writing research. Harper argues that creative writing studies are still a comparatively new field; unlike other typical fields in academia, professional choices in such research can be largely individual, and researchers do have the opportunity to establish the field. Haper also discusses the distinct research methods and outcomes of the field. In Chapter “In Praise of Doggedness: On Going Local & Becoming Global as a Transpacific Poet-Scholar in Hawai’i, the Pacific Rim, and Coastal California”, Rob Sean Wilson utilizes his career as an academic and poet, in which he interweaves theories and poetry, to discuss how the characteristic “doggedness” can be a strategy that helps scholarly poets expand their writing network and survive in the academic and publishing world where, paradoxically, going local has become an emerging global trend. In Chapter “Toward a Unified Field: Lore and the Complications of Global Context”, Stephanie Vanderslice unravels the complexity of the lore in composition studies and its relationship with creative writing studies. Vanderslice argues that lore, if misused, would remain a global threat to the development of literary arts. She also proposes that creative writing studies can learn from the struggles and achievements of composition studies, and develop toward a globally unified field. The eclectic range of topics and in-depth studies covered in these fourteen chapters prove the immense vibrancy and potential of creative writing studies and shed light on the research and teaching of creative writing. As a pioneering work in bringing Chinese creative writing studies to the global stage, this volume starts the conversations between scholars of creative writing in the Sinophone world and beyond and

Introduction: An Overview of the Development of Creative Writing …

xv

serves as a bridge between creative writing, multi-media studies and other disciplines in humanities. In an effort to make continuous contributions to the development of the field of Chinese creative writing, the editorial board has begun working on the second volume of Chinese Creative Writing Studies as a sequel to this book. The upcoming volumes intend to keep the conversations going and continue to expand the research in the field both in breadth and depth.

Contents

Creative Writing Theories and Research in Chinese Context Therapeutic Writing: As the Opposite of Creative Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . Ge Hong-Bing

3

2020 Annual Report of China’s Creative Writing Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Liu Wei-Dong and Zhang Yong-Lu

13

Teaching Creative Writing in the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong Radio Drama Creation and the Development and Training of Related Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rebecca Leung Mo-Ling

33

A Discussion on the Teaching of Creative Writing in the Writing Classes of Colleges in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wang Wei-Zhou

43

Basic Teaching of Creative Writing as a “Pool of Inspiration”: A Discussion Starting from the Undergraduate Teaching of Drama and Film Arts in the Creative Writing Programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sun Hui-Xin

53

Creative Writing and Cross-Media Practices from the Sinophone Perspective Reading for Writing: A Case Study of Multi-Media Presentations of Reading Achievements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ng Mei-Kwan

67

Creative Writing in the Narratives of Interactive Games—The Cases of Grand Theft Auto 5 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . Shawn Shao Dong

85

xvii

xviii

Contents

A Preliminary Study of Transmedia Storytelling: The Case Study of a Special Exhibition of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum . . . . . . . . . . . Janet Lau Man-Ying

93

Creative Writing and New Interpretations of Chinese Classical Culture A Discussion on “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” and Its TV Series Adaptation from the Perspectives of “Chinese Tragic Consciousness” and “Intertextuality” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Leung Tak-Wah Resources for Creativity from Chinese Classical Culture: A Discussion on the Creative Thinking and Creation Pattern of “Old Tales Retold” and Revelations on the Development of Creative Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Benson Tong Tsz-Ben The “First Generation” of Creative Cyber Literature and Its “Genre-Bending Writing”: Thoughts on Using Jun Tian as a Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Zhan Yu-Bing Implications of Global Contexts for Creative Writing Creative Writing Research: What, How and Why . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Graeme Harper In Praise of Doggedness: On Going Local & Becoming Global as a Transpacific Poet-Scholar in Hawai’i, the Pacific Rim, and Coastal California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Rob Sean Wilson Toward a Unified Field: Lore and the Complications of Global Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Stephanie Vanderslice

Creative Writing Theories and Research in Chinese Context

Therapeutic Writing: As the Opposite of Creative Writing Ge Hong-Bing

Abstract “The studies of Therapeutic Writing” is an approach to treat writing and is considered writing as a thorough self-diagnosis and treatment. The studies suggest that writing, not as we imagined in the past, does not contribute to positive thoughts, moral minds, and life experiences; rather, its value lies more in easing the bewilderment at the pandemonium in the world and the anxiety about chaos. Therapeutic Writing constructs a passive yet soothing “illustrated world” where the people experience the world in a psychological order in which anxiety is no longer simulated. With fictional narration and lyricism, the befuddled experience of the world is resolved. A “fictional soothing connection” is built upon which logical reasoning and practical argument are no longer prerequisites. “Wrong” and “right”; “good” and “bad”; “useful” and “useless” are suspended. Therapeutic Writing aims to end emotional confusions of humans and help them restore emotional peace (From this point, we can compare therapeutic writing with philosophical Quietism. The former tries to free humans from emotional confusion, while the latter attempts to liberate humans from rational confusions, and “hopes to end human confusion as well as to restore a state of peace”. Keywords Therapeutic writing · Creative writing · Fictional narration · Emotional confusion

1 Quietism or Existentialism? In the introduction of the contributed volume The Future for Philosophy which was published in 2004, Brian Leiter divides the philosophy in the English-speaking world into two orientations: quietism and naturalism. Quietists believe that philosophy, unlike other disciplines, cannot practically solve problems; instead, philosophy serves as an intellectual therapy. It addresses philosophical issues rather than solving H. B. Ge (B) College of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_1

3

4

H. B. Ge

them (Leiter 2004, 2). All so-called problems are superficial and specious pseudoproblems. Philosophy is a “philosophical prescription” that provides intellectual treatment for such pseudo-problems that trouble humans deeply; on the other hand, Naturalism proposes that the problems that plague philosophers (thought, knowledge, action, reality, moral nature, etc.) do actually exist in reality, and Naturalists seek to explore certain substantive solutions. Coincidentally, Philip Noel Pettit argues that philosophy plays a role between the spectrum of Quietism and Existentialism. Quietism believes that philosophy should exist in a peaceful, inert form and that it is not supposed to try—and impossible—to affect the practices. On the other hand, Existentialism proposes that philosophy plays a tremendously practical guiding role in real human life, suggesting that “it ought to be capable of being lived out in practice” (Pettit 2004, 304) or even the belief that only under the guidance of philosophy could humans become self-aware of their practices (Chen 2019, 44–51).1 Confucius 孔⼦ thinks that “The Odes serve to stimulate the mind. They may be used for purposes of self-contemplation. They teach the art of sociability. They show how to regulate feelings of resentment. From them, you learn the more immediate duty of serving one’s father, and the remoter one of serving one’s prince. From them, we become largely acquainted with the names of birds, beasts, and plants (詩可以興, 可以觀, 可以群, 可以怨; 邇之事⽗, 遠之事君, 多識於⿃獸草⽊之 名。).” (“Yng Huo” in The Analects 論語·陽貨). In the Wei-Jin period, Cao Pi 曹丕 defined literature as “a vital work of running a country that has immortal greatness (經國之⼤業, 不朽之盛事)” (Cao Pi’s Lunwen in Dianlun 曹丕: 典論· 論⽂; in the contemporary age, Liang Qichao 梁啓超 founded the New Fiction 新 ⼩説 to advocate “saving the country with fiction” (“On the Relationship between Fiction and the Government of the People” 論⼩説與群治關係, 1902). Liang Qichao thinks that fiction plays an important role in practices: “To transform a nation’s citizens, one must first revolutionize her fiction. (欲新⼀國之民, 不可不先新⼀國 之⼩說)”; fiction can reform morals, religions, politics, customs, skills, minds, and personalities. He also believes that fiction “has an incredible power to dominate humanity.” The above viewpoint can be regarded as Naturalism or Existentialism in literature. Meanwhile, another point of view has also appeared in the same historical period, giving us another perspective. In other words, Quietism does exist in literature as well. People have divergent views towards the functions of literature as they do in the above-mentioned field of philosophy. From the historical perspective, there has always been a kind of Quietism in Chinese literature and intellectual history, which started off with Lao Zhuang ⽼莊’s philosophy. Such ideology emphasizes “the great use of uselessness”, characterizing itself by the use of “uselessness”. It comprises two main major orientations: using “uselessness” to avoid external interference and harm; and employing “no desire” to seek liberation of each individual’s soul. Most of Zhuangzi’s 莊⼦ expressions are intrinsically literary, and he has a sense of literary consciousness. Zhuangzi thinks that language has its limits. It is inadequate for expunging the concept of Tao 道, which 1

The discussion in this paragraph draws on the views of Chen, Changshen. See Chen, Changshen (2019).

Therapeutic Writing: As the Opposite of Creative Writing

5

is completely ineffable. In this sense, Zhuangzi only endorsed a kind of “negative discourse”: “It is better to remove those elements that are not Tao little by little than racking your brain to explain what that means” (Qing 2018). While Liang Qichao and other scholars overemphasized the functions of literature, contemporary scholar Wang Guowei 王國維 put forward the opinion of “the use of uselessness”. This view originates from Lao Zhuang’s thought, which directly uses “uselessness” to avoid the harm of politics and ethics (and even aesthetic utilitarianism) to literature and employs “the use of uselessness” to adhere to a kind of aestheticism, namely “nonaesthetic utilitarianism” (Bao 2009, 139–140). This idea of Wang Guowei was later directly inherited by Zhou Zuoren 周作⼈, Liang Shiqiu 梁實秋, Shen Congwen 沈 從⽂, etc., and even the contemporary writer Mo Yan 莫⾔, in his speech at the Nobel Banquet, said “compared with science, literature is useless, but such uselessness is exactly where its greatness lies” (Mo 2013). From this, we can learn that the concepts of “usefulness”, “uselessness”, “the use of uselessness” (Tang 2018), “the greatness of uselessness” (Gao 2014) and others are entangled in the field of literature. Such discussion is not meaningless; in fact, it concerns our fundamental understanding of how we comprehend the meaning of writing. Is literature useful? To whom is literature useful, and in what sense? These are the questions that need to be addressed. The responses to these questions from Quietism and Naturalism (Existentialism) are entirely different, or even fundamentally opposing. From the view of “Quietism”, literature is anti-rational (it might not be a rational creative-thinking process). Literature cannot provide systematic politics, abstract ethical principles, nor retrieval approaches. Instead, it is attached to life—a sentimental, personal way of life with unprocessed abstract thoughts, keeping itself from being swayed by abstract theories and principles. The quietists even perceive it as an objection against politics and ethics’ fixation on right and wrong, and good and bad. Therefore, literature does not lead to a positive opinion and, thus, nor a positive practice or pragmatic use. On the contrary, it only aims at helping authors (and partly readers) eradicate their addiction to the so-called truthfulness of the objective world and the efficiency of practice—it uses an obvious “fictional” method, a way to re-examine and address questions through re-describing problems in life instead of actually addressing problems or solving practical problems. Can literature “bridge” the gap between spirit and life? Quietists suggest that the gap between the practice of literary reading and writing practice, and practical life is insurmountable and does not need to be bridged. Literature does not have such power or the obligation to provide this kind of effort. Literature is supposed to be quiet and inert in the spiritual realm, and it does not seek to directly wield influence in life, such as changing people’s personalities, or reshaping people’s perceptions and behaviour towards the world. It motivates life practice, encouraging people to implement the formation or reconstruction of life experience, personal traits, and value appeal. From the perspective of Quietists, literature avoids substantive issues rather than confronts them; for example, the image of “Grotesque” 畸⼈ in Zhuangzi 莊⼦ seeks spiritual transcendence and eschews practical issues through “the use of uselessness”, rather than confronting and addressing difficulties in reality. Zhuangzi’s philosophy—“let nature takes its course”, “avoid calamity”, “life and death are equivalent”, and “great

6

H. B. Ge

virtues help one become oblivion”—shows a passive rather than initiative “philosophy” and a “method” to avoid the society of the world. It also encourages avoiding survival dilemmas, forgetting real situations, avoiding secular problems, and forgetting about social issues; this image of “Grotesque” also appears in a series of literary works such as A Dream in Red Mansions, and it even serves as a dominant literary figure. In Chinese literature, they can form a complete sequence with almost no missing pieces. Quietists propose that literature has no appeal to universal principles and substantive theories, using words without presupposition and substantive meaning (including avoiding nouns and adjectives) to “describe” or “depict” humans’ interaction. There are no clear viewpoints; everything is placed on the level of life itself and still has not been reflected, where description, expression, and creation remain in the state of “recollection”, creating an overall appearance of literature.

2 Constructing “No Self” or Rediscovering “True Self”? Dr. Li Jiaying 李佳穎 from Zhejiang University, with her thesis on T.S. Eliot, has proved the therapeutic value of literature. She suggests that Eliot “acquired a sense of ‘embodied consciousness’, of integration of emotion and thought, from his personal experience of illness.” He even “captured the cutting-edge content of consciousness and cognition, and enhanced the accuracy of poetry’s interpretation of mental symptoms.” She further addresses that “by imitating neurophysiological structure, breaking the threshold of perception, and generating symbolic mandalas, the barriers among different domains are shattered, which allows the fragments to connect and match, as well as to generate ‘aggregate of non-self’ 無我之蘊, which dismantles the opposition of the inner and outer self and achieves the unity of such” (Li 2017). Dr. Li Jiaying attempts to integrate neuroscience, cognitive science, psychiatry, and psychology, etc., into the context of therapeutic literature. Still, careful readers might notice that “‘aggregate of non-self’ with the unity of the inner and outer self” (內外 ⼀如的 ‘無我之蘊’) is a Buddhist term. Why is Buddhism used as its approach in this article? In 2006, American psychologists Wallace and Shapiro (2006) wrote: “Clinical psychology has focused primarily on the diagnosis and treatment of mental disease, and only recently has scientific attention turned to understanding and cultivating positive mental health. The Buddhist tradition, on the other hand, has focused for over 2,500 years on cultivating exceptional states of mental well-being as well as identifying and treating psychological problems.” “The doctrine of Buddhism is a form of psychology, rather than religion or philosophy. The essence of Buddhism, as described from the perspective of psychology, is generally related to western psychology, including cognitive science, behaviour modification, psychoanalysis, and transpersonal psychology. Combining Buddhism with psychology can make the field of the study more comprehensive and develop more effective treatments” (Mikulas 2007, 4–49).

Therapeutic Writing: As the Opposite of Creative Writing

7

The encounter between psychology and Buddhism was not accidental but essentially inevitable. The “self” defined in psychology is not an entity in the sense of physical embodiment but a virtual embodiment in psychology. Therefore, the usual “self” and the abnormal “self” in a psychological sense are not a practical entity, but in the sense of virtual embodiment where healing takes place as oneself enters the “normal” mind from the “abnormal” one in the virtual sense. Such a healing process is “involuted quietness” or “inert liberation” in Quietism in the spiritual realm. The “self” in psychology is similar to the heart in Buddhism. Buddhism asserts that the world is not reality, and “self” is not real either; everything (including self) is conjured by the heart. All paths of life can be attributed to “convincing one’s heart” rather than searching from the outside. When Kui Ji 窺基 explained that “all the three realms are works of heart” in his Commentary on Heart Sutra ⼼經讚”. He pointed out that “The imaginary nature of things would only render things false knowledge; the reliant nature only makes them the knowledge of the conventional truth; and the consummate nature of things is only the knowledge of the ultimate truth. That is why all phenomena are attached to the heart (Kui Ji, n.d.). Jing Jue’s 淨覺 Commentary on the Heart Sutra 注般若波羅密多⼼經 explains that “to transcend illusions (遠離 顛倒夢想), one must meditate to compose oneself; letting the mind remain tranquil is the answer to quench one’s desire after all (Jing Jue, n.d.)”. He believes that the world is simply our upside-down illusion, and the fundamental way to shatter it is to “focus on the heart and seek for the pure (觀⼼看淨)”. From this point of view, scholars in China who set up a contrast between psychology and Buddhism are wrong. For example, some scholars believe that “psychotherapists help their patients achieve the state of self-aware’ while Zen practitioners hope to achieve a ‘non-self’ state. Psychotherapists aspire to help patients develop a well-functioning and well-structured self, which allows them to better cope with id’s impulses and superego’s self-imposed confinement or, in other words, to retrieve their ‘true selves’. On the contrary, Zen master hopes that the practitioners let go of their self-attachment—that is, ‘notions of self, persons, sentient beings, and life span (無我相, 無⼈相, 無眾⽣相, 無壽者相)’—and experience the meaning of the idea that “all conditioned things are impermanent, and all dharmas do not have self (諸⾏無常、諸法無我)”. Buddhism does not face nor solve specific psychological problems but guides Zen practitioners to perceive that self , which raises all the issues, is not fixed; in fact, it does not exist at all (Li and Xu 2020, 49–51). This argument is weaker than Dr. Li Jiaying’s view “‘aggregate of non-self’, which dismantles the opposition of the inner and outer self and achieves the unity of such”. The former viewpoint only manages to descry the external self but fails to discern the concepts of internal self in both psychology and Buddhism are intrinsically compatible. We cannot change incidents in the past or even what is happening now, but we can change our perception of these incidents. From the perspective of Quietism, “self” is not a physical practitioner but a “cognition” of virtual practice. “Events” are just “reversal illusions”. “Self” is not based on those so-called “objective events” but is essentially based on the “perception” of those events—that is, a recognition and wariness of “reversal illusions”. The ideas that “the five aggregates are empty” (五蘊 皆空) and that eliminating negative energy and constructing positive energy through

8

H. B. Ge

recognition is the right mindset. Psychological evidence also supports this argument. The so-called “harms” and “benefits”, in the psychological sense, are not the objective attributes of “events”. “According to psychologists’ research findings, deleterious experience does not necessarily cause trauma. Among veterans, victims of sexual assault and the bereaved, more than 80% of them would not have permanent mental disorders. They would gradually recover over time. Whether an event would bring trauma or not depends on that person’s attitude towards the incident. If emotion stays in the situation where the injury took place and lingers, causing one to experience the same feeling repeatedly, it eventually develops into a trauma” (Sun 2020, 65–71). In daily life, we inadvertently create a world in consciousness through the perception of eyes, ears, nose, mouth, body, and other senses. However, the perceived picture is always incomplete because it relies on fragmented experiences, piecemeal feelings, and unprocessed instincts. The mirror image of the world we build in our minds lacks the reflection of the stare of self and, thus, a “reversal illusion”. Therapeutic writing provides this self-reflexive stare. Here, in the sense of the studies of therapeutic writing, perhaps we have completely different views on writing: any kinds of writing have the possibility to be self-narrative. Apart from this, unique techniques possibly do not exist; writing is not entirely a rational “creative thinking” process but an individual’s “catharsis”, “self-reconstruction”, and an individual’s “self-identification” (Chen and Ge 2018, 10–16).

3 Catharsis and Reconstruction: Writing as Therapy Li Jing 李靜, an internal medicine specialist at the Health Care Centre at Capital Medical University, conducted the study “The Application of Expressive Writing2 in Newly Diagnosed Patients with Primary Liver Cancer” in which she compared the Self-Perceived Burden Scale of Cancer Patient (SPBS-CP) and the Personal Meaning Index (PMI) of two groups of patients before nursing intervention and four weeks after. The research found that the group intervened with the practice of expressive writing received a lower rating on the SPBS-CP overall, and the scores of four aspects, including the self-perceived burdens of care, of finance to their family, of emotion, 2

The Author considers expressive writing (Expressive writing (EW) is a common psychological intervention that aims to improve the mental health of traumatized individuals) as a type of Therapeutic Writing. Since Pennebaker pioneered experimental research paradigm for writing, (expressive writing is writing that expresses personal emotions and ideas according to a specific theme), researchers in the medical field have been studying the effectiveness of expressive writing healing over the past 20 years, targeting different patient groups such as various cancer patients, pregnant women, and various postoperative rehabilitation patients. The research related to writing effectiveness is endless. Although some control groups only designed “non-writing” control groups, there were no “free writing” control groups and most samples are within 100 cases. Most data support that “expressive writing” is helpful for alleviating mental stress and reducing anxiety. There are also a large number of researches on the therapeutic effect of expressive writing for veterans, victims of domestic violence, and autistic patients in the field of social sciences and literature. Their results are similar to the above-mentioned medical realm.

Therapeutic Writing: As the Opposite of Creative Writing

9

and of treatment, were lower than the ratings before the intervention as well as the control group. After the intervention of the practice of expressive writing, the PMI scores of that group increased, making it higher than those of the control group. The study confirmed that “expressive writing can improve the self-perceived burden of newly diagnosed patients with primary liver cancer and enhance their personal meaning index to a certain extent. This has certain clinical significance” (Li, Zhao and Ma 2020). Which types of writing have therapeutic effects? How do they work? That is, the writing that allows writers to fulfil their wishes that they cannot be fulfilled in reality and, thus, achieved catharsis. For example, most of the boudoir lament poems in ancient China have this nature of emotional catharsis and spiritual compensation. Also, authors of contemporary romance novels and wuxia novels 武俠⼩說 often put themselves into their protagonists’ shoes, conveying their emotions through the characters. For instance, some writers would portray the protagonist as a Romeo who is so effulgent that he receives much attention from numerous women; or depict the character as a chivalrous hero well-versed in martial arts who enforces justice on behalf of Heaven. These protagonists replace the authors in real life and achieve their “life goals” in the imaginary world for them, which achieves the effect of emotional catharsis and spiritual compensation. Reconstructing a traumatic event that happened in the past through writing does induce an equivalent therapeutic effect, too. Such writing lets the authors develop a positive perspective on the incident which the authors reorganise through writing. For example, in most of the laments, the loss of relatives is traumatic, especially when young people lose their parents, older people lose their children and middle-aged people lose a spouse, etc. Most people are psychologically unprepared when they experience similar incidents. These can easily develop into some kind of “psychological trauma” unconsciously, which accumulates at the bottom of the unconscious mind continuously and affects people’s anxiety, perceived self-efficacy, and scores on the Benefit Finding Scale. As people suffer from grief, writing genre of such feelings (such as elegy and others) can often help them construe the death of their relatives in a “holistic” explanation that is integrated with religious and philosophical thoughts on the meaning of life, and the law and responsibility inherited from the family line. By reorganizing, restructuring and integrating the biographies of the relatives and their final moments, the bereaved can transform and transcend their perspectives of loss, transmuting the sense of loss and grief into a positive sense of responsibility towards their life, country, relatives, etc. Changing attitudes towards an event allows people to bid a meaningful farewell to the incident(s). This helps them eliminate negative emotions and direct themselves to a positive side. Traumatic events have such impacts on people because they often bring the subject a sense of guilt. The main symptoms of this kind of trauma are self-hatred and loss of self-identity. The movie Life of Pi, based on Yann Martel’s novel and directed by Lee Ang, serves as an example. The movie’s leading actor Irrfan Khan said in an interview: “This movie looks like a teenager’s adventure story on the surface, but there are many hidden metaphors and parallel universes. It is a movie with multiple layers of meaning.” How do we interpret this layer? Why did the middle-aged Pi

10

H. B. Ge

make up a tiger version of a drifting story for himself? Comparing the tiger version of the drifting story with the shipwreck tragedy that involves cannibalism, which one is more authentic? What was his purpose for doing this? The answer is, salvation. Pi felt guilty for having survived the tragedy of shipwreck cannibalism, so much so that he could not accept his survival. In the film, Pi’s guilt can first be seen starting from the scene in which he painfully cried out “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” as he crawled to a lifeboat (he didn’t close the hatch door as he saw the storm approached, which may be one of the factors that led to the shipwreck) until the end of drifting (during which a tragedy of cannibalism occurred). After that, he was lucky enough to survive and go ashore. However, his soul has never landed with his body; it has been inveterately immersed in guilt. He needs a story that allows him to regain self-acceptance. From this, we can understand the line in the film: “The whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.” This story is the actual ritual where Pi’s soul says goodbye to drifting. From another perspective, in my opinion, the tiger version of the story is not an “explanatory” story that Pi fabricated for the incident of cannibalism (of which Pi’s mother was one of the victims) after the rafting, but a story that he created during the event. It gives Pi faith, courage, and motivation and is full of illusions and unreasonable relationships between people and animals. However, it helps Pi distract himself, ease pain, and avoid despair. The isolated Pi gains courage and faith with the accompanying of the story. At the end of the story, he was rescued. The survival manual on the lifeboat says: “Telling a story is highly recommended.” One of the methods to survive a shipwreck is to tell a story. Isn’t it strange? Not so, stories can indeed save people who are in isolation and despair. In the movie, two Japanese insurance agents who interviewed Pi didn’t believe his story initially, thinking that the story was deceptive. However, as Pi shifted to another way to tell the story about cannibalism (a story without animals, cannibal islands, and other illusions), they no longer asked questions and chose to believe the fantasy story with a tiger. Thought Co, a U.S.-based website dedicated to providing answers to questions founded by Dotdash (formerly called About.com), once interviewed 20 professional writers on the question “What is writing?” and received 20 different answers. Short story writer Toni Cade Bambara said: “Writing has been for a long time my major tool for self-instruction and self-development.” Novelist J. P. Donleavy said: “Writing is turning one’s worst moments into money.” Novelist E. L. Doctorow said: “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” Biographer Catherine Drinker Bowen said: “Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind” (Qi 2019, 28).3 The five authors above who directly answered the questions from the perspective of the therapeutic effects of writing already account for a quarter of all answers, not to mention those answers that indirectly involve the healing effect of writing: “writing is a struggle against silence”; “writing is utter solitude.”, “I think writing is really a process of communication” 3

The 20 answers regarding the definitions of writing mentioned above are quoted from Qi Xiaorong’s 祁⼩榮 doctoral dissertation (2019).

Therapeutic Writing: As the Opposite of Creative Writing

11

and so on. Overall, nearly half of professional writers’ answers concerning “what is writing” are related to the therapeutic value of writing. “Writers access the self-healing power of writing by expressing traumatic emotion through literature, and writing has been widely used as an ancillary treatment in traditional psychotherapy… Experimental research on therapeutic effects of writing, however, only appears in the recent two decades” (Zhang 2009). Scholar Zhang Xinyong 張信勇, in his research “Expressive Writing’s Impact on Post-traumatic Stress Response and Its Mechanisms” (2009) empirically proved that “writing about traumatic experiences can significantly reduce individuals’ symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression”, and “writing about positive experiences is better than about traumatic or important experiences in terms of the reduction of individual depression and anxiety symptoms.” Meanwhile, he thinks that “emotional expression in writing is a necessary condition for post-traumatic stress responses, and cognitive processing based on emotional expression is more important.” In conclusion, we can deduce a research methodology for therapeutic writing based on Quietism, which does not focus on what writing means to readers (which is opposed to creative writing studies’ concern with the writings’ market value and socio-cultural value). Instead, it focuses on the meaning of writing to authors. To be precise, this methodology concerns the therapeutic value of the author’s mental state. (And it does not focus on the acquisition and teaching of writing techniques, and even proposes that there is only one writing technique— “self-writing”. From this viewpoint, therapeutic writing is opposed to creative writing as well). It investigates “how authors express traumatic emotions and, therefore, achieve self-healing.” Hence, it is still within the broad scope of the studies of writing. (Psychology tends to consider this as a psychotherapy technique).

References Bao, Liqiu 包莉秋. 2009. Wuyong zhi yong: Wang Guowei de wenxue gongyong guan ‘無⽤之 ⽤’: 王國維的⽂學功⽤觀 [Useless value’: Wang Guowei’s view of literary function]”. Writer 作家 22: 139–140 Cao, Pi 曹丕. Dianlun 典論 [Literary Criticism]. Reprinted in Sturgeon, Donald, ed. 中國哲學書 電⼦化計劃 Chinese Text Project. https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&chapter=689641 Chen, Xiaobi 陳⼩碧 and Ge, Biaoming 葛飈明. 2018. Xiezuo liaoyu lilun ji yingyong: yi canxue de duanpian xiaoshuo chuangzuo weili 寫作療癒理論及應⽤——以殘雪的短篇⼩說創作為 例 [The theory and application of therapeutic writing: Taking Can Xue’s short story creation as an example]. Journal of Guangxi Science and Technology Normal University 廣西科技師範學 院學報 33: 10–16 Chen, Changshen 陳常燊. 2019. Weitegensitan shi jijing zhuyi: jiedu yu pipan 維特根斯坦式寂 靜主義: 解讀與批判 [Wittgenstein’s quietism: Interpretation and criticism]. Journal of Shanxi University (Philosophy and Social Science Edition) 山西⼤學學報(哲學社會科學版) 42: 44–51 Confucius 孔⼦. 2011. Lunyu 論語 [The Analects]. Translated by Legge, James. Reprinted in Sturgeon, Donald, ed. 中國哲學書電⼦化計劃 Chinese Text Project https://ctext.org/analects/ yang-huo#n1545 Gao, Hongyan ⾼鴻雁. 2014. Bu qiran er ran wuyong zhi dayong: cong Moyan nuojiang ganyan 不期然⽽然 無⽤之⼤⽤——從莫⾔諾獎感⾔談⽂學的社會功能 [Discussion on the social

12

H. B. Ge

functions of literature from Mo Yan’s Nobel Banquet speech]. Journal of Chifeng University (Philosophy and Social Science Chinese Edition) ⾚峰學院學報(漢⽂哲學社會科學版) 35: 159–160 Jing, Jue 淨覺. Zhu Bore boluomi duoxin jing 注《般若波羅密多⼼經》 [Commentary on Heart Sutra]. Taisho ⼤正藏 26: 800 Kui, Ji 窺基. Xinjing zan (shangjuan) ⼼經贊(上卷) [Commentary on Heart Sutra (Volume I)]. Taisho ⼤正藏 33: 527 Leiter, Brian. 2004. The future for philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press Li, Jing 李靜, Zhao, Qing 趙清, and Ma, Xinxin ⾺欣欣. 2020. Biaoda xing xiezuo zai chuzhen yuanfa xing ganai huazhe zhong de yingyong 表達性寫作在初診原發性肝癌患者中的應⽤ [The application of expressive writing in newly diagnosed patients with primary liver cancer]. Chinese Journal of Modern Nursing 中華現代護理雜誌 26: 3799–3803 Li, Jiaying 李佳穎. 2017. Wuwo zhi yun ailuete shige liaoyu gongneng ya jiu “無我之蘊” : 艾 略特詩歌療癒功能研究 [The feeling of Anatman: Research on the healing function of Eliot’s poems]. PhD diss.: Zhejiang University 浙江⼤學 Li, Weiguang 李微光 and Xu, Guangxing 徐光興. 2020. Xinli zixun shi chanxiu xianxiang fansi ⼼理諮詢師禪修現象反思 [Reflection on the meditation of psychotherapists]. Medicine & Philosophy 醫學與哲學 41: 49–51 Liang, Qichao 梁啓超. 1902. Lun xiaoshuo yuqunzhi guanxi 論⼩説與群治關係 [On the relationship between fiction and the government of the people]. New Fiction 新⼩說 1: 11 Mikulas, W.L. 2007. Buddhism & western psychology: Fundamentals of integration. Journal of Consciousness Studies 14: 4–49 Mo, yan 莫⾔. 2013. Mo Yan de nuojiang daxie ci 莫⾔的諾獎答謝詞 [Mo Yan’s Nobel Banquet speech]. Sinology 國學 1: 37 Pettit, Philip. 2004. Existentialism, quietism, and the role of philosophy. In The future for philosophy, ed. Brian Leiter, 304. Oxford: Oxford University Press Qi, Xiaorong 祁⼩榮. 2019. Ershi shiji Meiguo xiezuo jiaoxue de huayu bianqian 20世紀美國寫 作教學的話語變遷 [Discourse changes in American writing teaching in the 20th century] Ph.D diss., Zhejiang University 浙江⼤學 Qing, Fangjie 卿芳傑. 2018. Zhuang zidebiao dakun jingyuwen xuezi jue 莊⼦的表達困境與⽂學 ⾃覺 [Zhuangzi’s predicament and literary consciousness]. Master’s Thesis, Nanchang University 南昌⼤學 Sun, Guoling 孫國玲. 2020. Biaoda xing xiezuo liaoyu xiaoyong yuanli tanxi 表達性寫作療癒 效⽤原理探析 [A probe into principle of healing effect of expressive writing]. Writing 寫作 5: 65–71 Tang Zhihui 湯志輝. 2018. “Xin faxian Shen Congwen yiwen Wenxue wuyong lun 新發現沈從 ⽂佚⽂《⽂學無⽤論》 [New discovery of Shen Congwen’s the theory of the uselessness of literature]. Historical Studies of Modern Literature 新⽂學史料 4: 142–148 Wallace, B.A., and S.L. Shapiro. 2006. Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between buddhism and western psychology. American Psychologist 61: 690–701 Zhang, Xinyong 張信勇. 2009. Xiezuo liaoshang: biaoda xing xiezuo dui chuangshang hou yingji fanying de yingxiang ji qi jizhi 寫作療傷 ——表達性寫作對創傷後應激反應的影響及其機 制 [Writing for healing: expressive writing’s impact on post-traumatic stress response and its mechanisms].” Ph. D diss., East China Normal University 華東師範⼤學

2020 Annual Report of China’s Creative Writing Studies Liu Wei-Dong and Zhang Yong-Lu

Abstract As of 2020, Chinese creative writing studies have more than ten years of development. The research trend in 2020 focuses on the development of creative writing studies under the context of new liberal arts; the exploration and categorisation of regional practices of the teaching of creative writing studies; and the amalgamation of creative writing studies and the cultural industry, digital technology, and the secondary and primary education. The studies of creative writing have been continuously expanding in these three aspects. In general, Chinese creative writing studies, with the opportunities brought by the development of New Liberal Arts, have been simultaneously developing in different areas that revolve around creative writing studies, including liberal education, writer training, cultural industry, digital technology and secondary and primary education. Keywords Creative writing · New liberal arts · General education · Writer training · Cultural industry 2020 is an extraordinary year for the development of world politics, economy and cultures. Chinese creative writing, as an explorer of globalization of creative writing, enters a critical second decade. Against the background where academic exchanges of creative writing continued to thrive and scholars inspired each other in the field both within and beyond the nation, Chinese creative writing studies in 2020 highlights the discipline construction of “Chinese Creative Writing” in the ‘New Liberal Arts’ context, sharing of “China’s stories” in educational and teaching practices of creative writing, continuous development of the “new horizons” in the field of creative writing studies, creative writing’s educational and teaching practices in primary and secondary schools and so on. This study reviews the state of the art and main achievements of Chinese creative writing studies in 2020 based on nearly 350 papers searched W. D. Liu (B) College of Humanities, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China e-mail: [email protected] Y. L. Zhang College of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_2

13

14

W. D. Liu and Y. L. Zhang

and referenced from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), conferences run by the Global Association of Chinese Creative Writing, and the 40th Annual Conference of Chinese Writing Association. In general, driven by the construction of New Liberal Arts, research topics of Chinese creative writing in that year are more in depth, and the research interests and research topics are more diversified. Much evidence shows that creative writing with Chinese characteristics seeking its own legitimacy has made new progress in the dual contexts of sinicization and internationalization. Chinese creative writing studies have gradually stepped out of the situation of fighting alone, and further integrated into the mechanism and mapping produced by Chinese contemporary literature and culture.

1 Active Construction of Chinese Creative Writing in the New Liberal Arts Context In 2020, the construction of New Liberal Arts forms a driving force in Chinese creative writing studies, and the construction of China’s “creative writing” based on the new liberal arts context becomes an important phenomenon of the year. Macrolevel research studies such as discipline system, discipline boundaries, and paths of discipline construction have become more comprehensive, which mainly manifest in five aspects: the preliminary pattern of creative writing theory, creative writing based on general education, exploration of knowledge resources and theoretical support for creative writing studies, creative thinking research of creative writing, and discipline history of creative writing.

1.1 Creative Writing Studies in the New Liberal Arts Contexts as a New Trend On the basis of the “Creativity-based New Liberal Arts” proposed at the beginning of 2020, Ge 葛紅兵 (2020a) explores its possibility, and asserts that “the discipline of creative writing will play a leading and central role.” In this direction, taking theoretical construction and concept boundaries of “creative writing” as a representative, Chinese creative writing has made new progress in sorting out its own discipline scope, research interests and so on. The publication of “Creative Writing Theory” responds to this conception. Ge (2020b, 9) devotes himself to Chinese creative writing construction, taking “creativity’s cultivation and realization pattern of human beings using language as media under the current conditions of productivity and cultural development” as logical origin of creative writing studies. He proposes that “writing is an aesthetic practical activity on the basis of human being’s ontological practice”. This is a new development of the earlier argument that “creative writing is a form of logic, industry, and career”. He reconsiders writing practice’s essence at the creative

2020 Annual Report of China’s Creative Writing Studies

15

ontological level, and creative writing is considered a creative practice of embodying people’s essential power. His “Ontological Creative Writing” (Ge and Wang, 2020) has become an important support to “Chinese Creative Writing”. Jin ⾦永兵 (2020) suggests a forward-looking point of view that takes the perspective of the construction of New Liberal Arts to point out that “creative writing is an important subject in the construction of New Liberal Arts. Its goal is to train innovators and creators with a complex knowledge system contributing to the overall development of cultural undertakings.” Xu 許道軍 (2020a) considers the construction of New Liberal Arts as the rectification of name for creative writing, and he believes that the birth of “New Liberal Arts and the call for New Liberal Arts in the new era provide opportunities to achieve a proper understanding of creative writing as an academic discipline.” Zhang Yonglu 張永祿 emphasizes the new opportunities of creative writing as the paradigm of new liberal arts education, and he thinks that both creative writing and creative writing as a discipline in the New Liberal Arts rely on creativity, and this exactly matches the notion and pedagogy of talent training. These studies clarify and corroborate the relationship between New Liberal Arts’ basic concepts and creative writing’s disciplinary purpose and practice path, laying the foundation for further construction of creative writing’s discipline system, and affirming creative writing development in the New Liberal Arts contexts.

1.2 New Consensus Highlighted by Creative Writing as General Education Given that creative writing is closely related to the construction of New Liberal Arts, Chinese scholars propose general-studies-based creative writing, which is a form of creative writing studies particularly designed for general studies. Fang ⽅長安 (2020), president of the Chinese Writing Association, thinks that creative writing has the traits of general education. “Creative writing aims at stimulating personal potentials, and cultivating individual’s creative thinking, modern values and writing skills”. Fang Changan’s assurance of the value of creative writing as general education, and creative writing and the cultivation of individual creative thinking inspires the in-depth development of creative writing in China. General education is an important path for creative writing to land in China; on the other hand, general education forms an important trend for the further sinicization of creative writing in the context of the New Liberal Arts construction. Xie Xiwen 謝錫⽂, on the other hand, focuses on the construction of creative writing courses in the context of the construction of creative writing courses and highlights “reading with writing, learning with practice”, expanding innovative practice path of general education. Zhu 朱志剛 (2020b) embraces the concept “New Liberal Arts, new Chinese, new skills”. Combining creative writing studies with fieldwork methodology, he designs a new curriculum for creative writing’ cross-disciplinary practice, which integrates New Liberal Arts and creative writing through theories and practices. “Creative writing

16

W. D. Liu and Y. L. Zhang

serves as a skill enhancement, and it becomes a unique professional skill for new Chinese talents.“ Besides, the University’s Creative Writing edited by Feng 馮汝常 (2020, 1) directly proposes that “to turn creative writing into a school-wide basic course or general course.” In the English world, John Tassoni (2020) has discussed creative writing and general education since Wendy Bishop and other scholars raised the issues of creative writing and general education in the 1990s. Nowadays, it has become an important pathway for Chinese creative writing in the context of new liberal arts construction, which is a consensus among many scholars. How to consolidate theoretical research on creative writing and general education has therefore become a top priority.

1.3 New Progress in Exploration of Branches of Creative Writing Studies As creative writing studies become new courses and degrees in different faculties and institutions in China, the research of creative writing, their legitimacy as an academic discipline, the issues of research boundary, and the spectrum of creative writing as an academic subject become the new focuses. The representative research by Zhang Yonglu’s “Visions for Creative Writing Studies and its Branches and Methodology” attempts to discuss the legitimacy of creative writing as an academic subject, and explore new theoretical evidence based on Dianne Donnelly, Janelle Adsit and other scholars’ studies. Zhang (2020c) suggests that “the knowledge layer of creative writing research takes literature and writing knowledge as an inner circle of the field, creativity and pedagogy as the middle circle, and cultural industry and related art disciplines as an outer circle.“ Given overseas research, they form a concentric circle model of creative writing studies’ knowledge resources. This actually involves the relationship between creative writing and other disciplines, and how creative writing studies further establishes its own legitimacy, as well as the relationships cleaning among different fields such as creative writing and film and television writing, creative writing and cultural industry, creative writing and history and so on. Zhang research (2020c) questions are the same as Alexandria Peary’s creative writing (2015, 194) across the curriculum. They discuss research questions from the perspective of writing as an application of creative practice in different departments and majors. The forward-looking nature of these studies will be further reflected, since creative writing takes general education in China and enters English writing classes, embedding in advertising writing, news writing and so on.

2020 Annual Report of China’s Creative Writing Studies

17

1.4 Creative Writing Thinking and Creativity Promoting Research and Triggering New Topics As research on the ontology of creative writing develops in greater depth, research on creative writing and creative thinking, and creative reading pattern bears fruits in 2020. Ding 丁伯慧 (2020) proposes that “creative writing is not only a method, but also a thinking mode”, “and it should also take responsibility in a wider field of writing.” Writing is regarded as a basic expression ability of modern people, a kind of thinking training, and at the same time a creative medium for self-development. Lei Yong’s 雷勇 research (2020a) on Zen and its inspiration for creative writing potential proposes the idea of “introducing Zen to applied creative writing studies”. Zen’s theory and practical methods provide research and practical materials for Chinese creative writing. These studies are in contrast to the exploration of Mindful Writing developed by English scholars, the relationship between Zen and creative writing developed by Natalie Goldberg. On the one hand, they explore creative patterns in creative writing studies. On the other hand, they are an attempt to integrate Zen and modern creativity based on local cultural resources by Chinese scholars, and a new exploration after “Chinese classical literature of creative writing serves as resources” proposed by Yang 楊劍龍 (2015). In these studies, writing, as a creative practice, uses literary and cultural resources to cultivate individual imagination, and has the function of communicating literary and media literacy. Scholars such as Dai Fan 戴 凡 noticed early that contemporary English education is full of these concepts. At present, it is necessary to further trace its origin and sort out its context, so that it can better support each other with the ontological research of creative writing.

1.5 Research on Disciplinary History of Creative Writing Expanding New Horizons As basic theory development of creative writing is closely related to disciplinary history of creative writing, disciplinary history of creative writing re-emerges as an important topic in 2020, which is represented by An Xiaodong’s 安曉東 research. An “A Brief Introduction to the Creative Writing Development in English-speaking Countries” (2020b) reveals the diverse and complex forms formed during the development of creative writing, and points out that “the rise and development of creative writing are related to the era. To understand creative writing, people need to investigate it from multi-dimensional perspectives of education renovation, literature innovation and cultural industrial development.” Besides, returning to the disciplinary history of creative writing and reorganising various forms of creative writing form an important trend. “Four core research questions, namely literature and commerce,

18

W. D. Liu and Y. L. Zhang

culture and practice, freedom and mechanism, social practice and art practice, continuously evolve” (Liu 2020c), and they are recently an attempt at multiple morphological interpretation for creative writing. Due to a lack of chronicle and representation of creative writing’s disciplinary history for more than 100 years, current academic research and education discussion on creative writing mainly focuses on creative writing as literary education. However, creative writing embedded in the cultural industry, public culture, and digital inter-discipline and cross-media is rarely discussed, which leads to a blind spot in the research scope and is prone to equate creative writing with writing training, and research questions of creative writing are limited to “whether writing can be taught”, “writing skills” and so on. Domestic scholars mainly discuss drama, television and film writing, and new media writing. However, in many cases, discussions of creative writing primarily concentrate on writing training. In general, the research on disciplinary history of creative writing needs to be further developed, stepping out of the disciplinary history’s narrative framework developed by D. G. Myers. In the contexts of internationalization and localization of creative writing, we need to take a critical perspective to scrutinize the disciplinary history of creative writing in English-speaking countries, and study cases through first-hand sources, and further investigate the pedagogy of creative writing and institutional history of the writer’s workshop.

2 Telling the “Chinese Story” with Efforts in Creative Writing Education and Teaching Corresponding to the research on basic theoretical issues of creative writing, education and teaching research also presents a diversified scene this year, which is mainly reflected on the in-depth studies of workshop pedagogy and mechanism, sinicised curriculum design and teaching ideas, experience summary of creative writing pedagogy in various schools, and Chinese creative writing studies contacting with the outside world. For example, Chinese scholars took part in the Australasian Association of Writing Programs’ 25th Annual Conference, and the 5th Annual Creative Writing Studies Conference run by American Creative Writing Studies Organization. They strived to tell the “China’s story” of creative writing both in China and abroad.

2.1 Continuous Exploration on the Pedagogy and Mechanism of Writer Workshops Research on the workshop on creative writing pedagogy has entered a new stage. It begins to move out of the early simple introduction mode, and enters a diachronic and specialized research stage. Gao research ⾼翔 (2020) focuses on the teaching experience and pathways and workshop practices. He sorts out and combs through

2020 Annual Report of China’s Creative Writing Studies

19

creative writing’s workshop system in the Western, and asserts that the research on creative writing workshops overseas mainly is divided into three categories: “supervisors, participants, and content”. He proposes that “we need to initiate an inter-disciplinary and cross-media innovative experiment, and develop a pattern facing various audiences of ‘socialized creative writing system’.” Xu 許道軍 “‘How Writers are Trained’: A Discussion on Creative Writing Workshops as a Teaching Approach” (2020b) is an article that systematically sorts out the methods, mechanisms and common problems of the teaching of workshops in recent years. It discusses the “content elements and operational mechanisms” of writer workshops, and reflects on its flaws in practices. This shows that scholars begin to analyse workshops as creative writing’s core pedagogy from a rational perspective. They systematically study the workshop pedagogy, and reflect on it in both theoretical and practical aspects. However, compared with Western research on workshop pedagogy, inter-disciplinary workshop teaching, systematic analysis of workshop teaching, and in-depth case studies still need to be developed urgently.

2.2 The “Sinicization” of Creative Writing’s Curriculum Design and Teaching Concepts Creative writing courses, teaching design, and concepts are further integrated with the reality of China’s education, focusing more on localization. As the representative scholar of this research aspect, Liu 劉海濤 (2020a) explores the integration of basic concepts and methods of curriculum design, clarified the concepts and methods for MOOC’s (Massive Open Online Course) development and design of creative writing, and proposes that “MOOC textbooks revolve around four core competencies to compile teaching content and design training program”: language construction and its use, thinking development and enhancement, aesthetic appreciation and creation, cultural inheritance and understanding. Liu Haitao joins the exploration of the creative writing’s MOOC and its textbook development and design and the Chinese higher education in reality shows that the concept of curriculum construction has become more developed. Zhang 張定浩 (2020a) emphasizes that the training for creative writing talents needs to pay attention to the issue that “the natures of professionals and amateurs are interchanging”. He also believes that “a good academy of creative writing is unlikely to be a place of writing teaching; however, it is definitely a place where reading, criticism, and theory are taught, which diminishes amateur writers’ prejudices against criticism and theory.” Ye 葉⼦ (2020b) directly points out the potential problems and bottlenecks existing in current creative writing education. She uses American creative writing training as an example to propose that “its core values and main issues still need to be repeatedly scrutinized and tested”, and questions the effectiveness and meanings of the teaching of creative writing. Furthermore, Zhu Jing 朱婧 starts from a “complete observation of creative writing process”, and concentrates on the writer’s experiences of the transformation and

20

W. D. Liu and Y. L. Zhang

settlement in creative writing courses” (2020a). She pays more attention to the study of the relationship between creative writing as an attendant of literary education and holistic literary production. All of such studies analyse the sticking points of creative writing’s teaching and research based on Chinese creative writing’s holistic development and reality, and they highlight acute sensibility of Chinese scholars on creative writing studies.

2.3 A Preliminary Summary of Creative Writing Teaching Practical Experience in Chinese Higher Education Institutions In early 2020, “2020: Creative Writing in China”, a large-scale promotion activity of public-service education, was held on WeChat and other new media platforms, with the support of Higher Education Press, China Renmin University Press, Shanghai University Press, Global Association of Chinese Creative Writing, and other organisations, and the promotion of Zhang Yonglu 張永祿, Xu Daojun 許道軍, Li Yanwai 李艷葳, Fan Tianyu 範天⽟ and so on. More than 20 higher education institutions that first conducted creative writing education and teaching in China were invited to the event for sharing their respective practical experiences. This activity has become an annual event since then, and the number of audiences reached more than 3,000 people every year. This activity has become an important impetus for creative writing education in higher education institutions. Fudan University, Northwest University, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, and Guangdong University of Finance and Economics as representatives continuously summarize their respective experiences, and concepts, which have laid the foundation for the next stage of development. Wang 王宏圖 “Creative Writing in China: Fudan University Model” (2020a) combs through the developed experience of creative writing at Fudan University for over ten tears, and points out that “we could effectively make up for the structural deficiency of cultural ecology in China by training practical talents of creative writing.” Chen 陳曉輝 (2020) identifies the problems with the construction of the system for training talents, and believes that “creative writing could expand educational space of literary subjects through function of emotional mutual aid”. Both of them pay high attention to the direction, pathways, and ideas of creative writing’s talent training. Zhang 張怡微 (2020b) ascertains that there are two remaining problems with the “current disciplinary construction’s research findings of ‘creative writing’: theoretical deficiency and cross-border diaphragm”, which indicate that academics have the vision and ability to consciously examine the discipline and the research of creative writing. Rebecca Leung Mo-Ling 梁慕靈 (2020) summarizes that the teaching experience of Hong Kong Metropolitan University (formerly The Open University of Hong Kong) by “classroom observation, assignment analysis, performance before and after class, students’ creative feelings and reflections, evaluation scales, and teaching effectiveness evaluation”.

2020 Annual Report of China’s Creative Writing Studies

21

Shen Wenhui 沈⽂慧 and Yu Quanheng 禹權恒 summarizes the teaching experiences of creative writing at Xinyang Normal University. Dong Yingchun 董迎春 and Tan Cai 譚才 studied literary writing, Creative writing’s introduction and integration from the perspective of local writing education. It is particularly noteworthy that Ye 葉煒 (2020a) studies the literary new talents’ training mechanism of Lu Xun Institute of Literature at literary institution’s level, and proposes that the “new literary talents’ training at Lu Xun Institute of Literature can draw reference from the development approach of creative writing to establish a set of creative writing system, like how the University of Iowa created their own one through the establishment of disciplinary programmes(conferral of degree), institutionalisation (writer workshops), and systemisation (creative writing system) pathway for training new literary talents.” Meanwhile, Huang Jianyun ⿈健雲, Zhu Zhigang 朱志剛, Xu Feng 許峰, Wang Leiguang 王磊光, Wei Wei 魏維, She Fei 佘⾶, and Wang Ziwei 汪⼦瑋also summarize and study the creative writing education and teaching experience from various schools. These studies highlight the self-positioning consciousness of the discipline, and show that the ideas of disciplinary construction have been maturing gradually.

2.4 Telling Chinese Stories of Creative Writing to the World The academic communities of creative writing studies in both China and the Western are growing together, and the dialogue between the two has been effectively developed in 2020. Chinese creative writing studies in 2020 focused more on international exchanges. Liu 劉衛東 chose “The Rising Tides: Creative Writing Research in China 2009–2019” (2020d) as the topic for his presentation at the Australasian Association of Writing Programs’ 25th Annual Conference, in which he introduced the nearly ten years of development history, main representatives, achievements, and future trend of Chinese creative writing research. Moreover, he delivered a presentation on “A Brief History of Chinese Creative Writing 2009–2019” at the 5th Annual Creative Writing Studies Conference. He reviewed and summarised the development history of Chinese creative writing over the past ten years, and demonstrated Chinese creative writing’s status quo (Liu 2021). These conference papers classified the research and the development process of Chinese creative writing, and exchanged ideas with foreign scholars in the field of creative writing in terms of core concepts such as “creative writers, creative standard, and creative community”, which are a meaningful thing to excavate consensus on creative writing research in China and beyond, and promote academic dialogues.

22

W. D. Liu and Y. L. Zhang

3 Exploring “New Scope” for Creative Writing Research The relationship between creative writing and the cultural industry was the focus of the research in 2020 again. The key direction is to discuss creative writing and talents training in the cultural industry, disciplinary relationships, and the relationship between creative writing and digital technology such as artificial intelligence, and media, which mainly highlight four aspects: an increasing number of researches on creative writing for cultural industry, further exploration for the research on the relationship between creative writing and cultural industries, the teaching and research of creative writing attracting attention in the digital age, and creative writing in primary and secondary schools.

3.1 An Increasing Number of Research on Creative Writing for Cultural Industry Corresponding to China’s rapid development of cultural industry, the research on creative writing for cultural industry has been burgeoning. Wang Leilei’s 王雷雷 “Creative Talents Training for Cultural Industry of the Guangdong-Hong KongMacao Greater Bay Area: Taking Creative Writing as a Pathway” (2020b), based on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay’s cultural industry studies, proposes that we could use creative writing to train cultural creative talents in the GuangdongHong Kong-Macao Greater Bay. Given the rapid development of cultural industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay and numerous demands for creative talents, creative writing education forms an important training mechanism for creative talents. Wang 王宇闊 and Zhu 朱國華 (2020) investigate the intrinsic nature of creative writing in the notions of the production of new media and arts from the perspectives of cultural industry and media technology. Their research, based on the current situation of new media, explores the fundamental theoretical issues in creative writing studies. Meanwhile, scholars in China began to focus on the localization of creative writing and explore new pathways. For instance, Xu 許峰 research (2020c) concentrates on the disciplinary practices. He aspires to optimise the existing traditions and systems, and emphasizes deriving wisdom from traditional writing in addition to the studies of creative writing in different parts of the world. He also discusses the conversion of traditional writing resources into contemporary resources, exploring Chinese creative writing’s own pathways. These studies focus on specific issues of local talent training, local resource exploration, and local cultural production practice, showing a clear sensibility.

2020 Annual Report of China’s Creative Writing Studies

23

3.2 Gradual Clarification of the Relationship Between Creative Writing and Creative Industries Cultural industry establishes a vital context for the contemporary development of Chinese creative writing. It offers opportunities for diversification of creative writing and interdisciplinary practices, promoting the rapid development of creative writing. Liu 劉賽 research (2020b) focuses on the importance of creative writing’s educational system to Nanjing, the city of literature, in terms of creativity and the development of the cultural industry. An 安曉東 essay (2020a) ascertains the affinity between cultural industry and creative writing. Lei 雷勇 (2020b) believes that “creative writing provides support for content, values, and aesthetics”. It is found that scholars in China have clarified the relationship between creative writing and the cultural industry and achieved a basic consensus in the aspects of the research on industrial talents and academic studies. In addition, the teaching of creative writing for undergraduate publishing programmes and the design of interdisciplinary degrees in creative writing and publishing have entered the research scopes of scholars in China. They noticed that “some courses such as creative writing, non-fiction prose writing, and advanced creative writing do not provide knowledge in the field of publishing; they only provide students with basic knowledge of literature and writing, which accentuates the characteristics of such specialisation and equips students who will devote themselves to publishing work with knowledge in humanities” (Zhang et al. 2020). These studies come through the relationship between cultural industry and creative writing, and lay a foundation for sincisation of the cultural industry.

3.3 Creative Writing in the Era of Digital Technology as an Emerging Research Sub-Field With the process of digital development, the relationships between creative writing, new media, and media technology have been in the spotlight. Research on creative writing and new media has gradually increased, especially since the East China Normal University offered a degree in media and creative writing. He 賀軍 (2020) takes Changsha, the city of media arts, as an example to discuss the local pathways of creative writing education. He proposes that “the development of cultural creative industry and creative writing education need to focus on media, and explore a field of new media arts”. Zhang 張悅然 (2020d) believes that “with the economic society developing and cultural industry arising, creative writing has received wider attention. The popularity of new media has made writing a necessary literary for contemporary people.” She also points out that the impetus from the cultural industry arises in creative writing and new media. It is the combination of technology and media factors that enables the socialization and industrialization of creative writing to become a self-contained entity, and enters a broad creative practice based on the current literary creativity. In general, as the practice of industrialization continues to use new media,

24

W. D. Liu and Y. L. Zhang

digitization and virtualization, the research on creative writing in the digital age has become a natural extension of the topic. This also makes the research on theories and practices of creative writing and contemporary Chinese cyber-literature, and new media interlaced, opening up the horizon for subsequent cross-studies.

3.4 A New Upsurge of Research on Creative Writing in Primary and Secondary Schools The research on creative writing education in primary and secondary schools has become a new upsurge in 2020. Such research is represented by Shanghai University’s Tan Xudong, Southwest University’s Rong Weidong, Communication University of Zhejiang’s Ye Wei, Yuwen Bao Press’s Ren Yanjun, The Affiliated High School of Peking University’s Li Ren, and Guo Xueping, a special grade Chinese teacher of Jiangsu Province. Little Luka’s Creative Writing Course for Literary Olympiad 《⼩魯卡的奧⽂創意寫作課》” written by Ge Hongbing, and “Creative Writing in Primary Schools series 「⼩學創意寫作」系列 written by Ren Yanjun 任彥 均 indicates that the research on the development of Chinese creative writing in primary and secondary school and its textbook has made a breakthrough. Ge (2020c) proposes that “creative writing as a teaching approach” needs to focus on three parts: self-excavation, mutual awareness and stereotype awareness. Tan 譚旭東 research (2020) focuses on the relationship between creative writing and China’s primary and secondary school education, and it concentrates on the relationship and integration of creative writing and creative composition, creative writing and composition education reform. He points out the improving effect of creative writing’ on the current language education’s “teaching materials, teaching approaches, exams, and composition teaching”, and developed an approach to implement creative writing, emphasising the design of creative writing’s poetry workshop and story workshop. Rong 榮維東 analysis (2020) is based on various modes of China’s composition education, and he proposes the idea that “using creative writing skills to improve teaching ability in writing.” In addition, Ye Wei 葉煒 and Zhang Haitao 張海濤 took the lead in designing creative writing teaching approaches for rural centres. Guo 郭學萍 research (2020) on “multiple dynamic evaluations” of primary school creative writing is a further advancement after the proposal of “the development of creative writing curriculum for primary and secondary schools.” As a whole, the research on creative writing education in primary and secondary schools is the result of the continuous deepening of creative writing sinicisation, and it shows that creative writing’s abilities of participation and integration have been continuously improved in the context of a more complex environment of Chinese writing education.

2020 Annual Report of China’s Creative Writing Studies

25

4 The Further Exploration, Problems, and Expectations of the Research on Chinese Creative Writing The research on basic theories of Chinese creative writing is steadily advancing in 2020, with a new atmosphere and a batch of new results. The “innovation” is mainly reflected in the deepening of existing research questions, the systematization of curriculum design, the diversification of discipline practice, exploiting a research sub-field, and actively expanding to primary and secondary schools. The reform of creative writing education has been fully implemented in higher education institutions, and responds to liberal arts education’s ideas and actions, becoming a leader of it. The interdisciplinary nature of creative writing has also been reflected in practice. Numerous literary scholars and contemporary literary scholars, including Sun Ganlu 孫⽢露, Zhang Qinghua 張清華, He Ping 何平, Wu Changqing 吳長青, Xiang Jing 項靜 and so on, began to devote themselves to creative writing education, and proposed vital arguments. Writing 寫作, Zhongshan 鐘山, Chinese Creative Writing Studies 中國創意寫作研究, and the Journal of Xiangtan University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 湘潭⼤學學報 (哲學社會科學版) have successively launched exhibitions and columns on creative writing education and research. Some scholars proposed constructive views on creative writing development at the 40th Annual Conference of the Chinese Writing Association. Many well-known contemporary literary scholars and experts in literary theory began to think about the relationship between creative writing and contemporary literature, literary theory, and cyberliterature. This is closely related to the internal integration of creative writing in literary discipline. However, creative practical integration of creative writing and new media, artificial intelligence is in the ascendant, which requires further responses from the creative writing research.

4.1 The Research on Creative Writing Continues to Deepen and Echo Each Other The research on creative writing continues to deepen, and many research interests have new achievements, echoing each other in 2020. Dai Fan’s 戴凡 exploration of the framework of English creative writing teaching methods received attention in English creative writing research that year. The research findings on “creative writing” and “creative ontology” are applied in vocational education, interdisciplinary writing, and basic education. Against the background of comparison of creative writing at home and abroad, Kang Chunhua 康春華 proposed the question “how to train creative masters?”, which is related to the development of creative practice research. Song Shilei 宋時磊 mentioned that creative writing emphasizes practices but lacks research, which is closely related to the rise of creative writing studies. Zhang Yonglu’s 張永祿 investigation into the disciplinary boundaries of creative writing and the multifaceted aspects of creative writing knowledge compliments

26

W. D. Liu and Y. L. Zhang

each other. Zhang Yueran 張悦然 discusses “the basis of concentrating on social reality” which is related to critical creative writing. These studies reflect the vitality of Chinese creative writing studies. They also show that the research scope of the field has been expanded, and research questions are further explored; the research scopes in China have kept abreast of their counterparts in other parts of the world.

4.2 Bottlenecks with Urgent Signals in Chinese Creative Writing Studies Many problems existing in Chinese creative writing studies hit the bottlenecks in the research scope and its own legitimacy construction. For example, how to avoid falling into the gap between academic research and creative practice (Wang and Zhan 2020), and how to break through in a new development process. With the development of creative writing sinicisation and New Liberal Arts construction, Chinese creative writing studies have become a main part of current literature education, literature institutions, and literature ecology. A scholar pointed out that “creative writing will inevitably become the most important part of Chinese contemporary literary ecology in the future” (Ye 2020b). On the other hand, the following issues still need theoretical breakthroughs: how to tackle the relationship between contemporary literature and contemporary writing based on the concept of New Liberal Arts construction; how to hone the design of the curricula of creating writing with the integration of the studies cyber-literature and new media with Chinese classical writing’s resources based on the development of digital humanities. Furthermore, how to cultivate talents with outstanding creativity and capability of critical thinking remains one of the top-priority problems to be solved.

4.3 Continuous Development of the New Consensus and the New Ecology in Creative Writing Studies In the process of sinicization of creative writing, the internationalisation of creative writing has taken an important step. In terms of sinicization, taking the research scopes of Xu Daojun 許道軍, Ye Wei 葉煒, Ding Bohui 丁伯慧, Ye Zi 葉⼦ as examples, creative writing and contemporary literary ecological issues have received attention. In terms of creative writing and general education, Fang Changan ⽅長 安, Xie Xiwen 謝錫⽂, and Feng Ruchang 馮汝常 have similar ideas. In terms of internationalization, scholars who are in the community of Chinese creative writing studies have introduced the developing progress of Chinese creative writing studies strategically and gradually through international platforms in 2020. China Renmin University Press introduced Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing to their creative writing book series; Shanghai University’s creative writing book series is

2020 Annual Report of China’s Creative Writing Studies

27

constantly introducing new achievements in the field. Chinese creative writing studies and a practical ecological atmosphere have gradually improved and laid an important foundation for subsequent development.

5 Conclusion In 2020, Chinese creative writing studies continually deepen in the areas of the development of New Liberal Arts, and the research teams in the field continued to expand. They have reached consensus in various aspects; higher education institutions, social education organizations, cultural non-profit units, and organizations in the cultural industry echoed each other and initially formed a joint force. However, creative writing is not yet to form an independent discipline in China. The talent training mechanism lags behind the market and education needs, and the overall scale of the research team is small; the researchers lack the research results display and exchange platform. The international exchanges and promotion of the field have just started. The digital writing areas under the studies of creative writing such as artificial intelligence writing have been combined with other professional courses. The dialogues among the studies of Chinese classical writing, and the traditions and experiences of contemporary writing education need to be further explored. The current research questions on Chinese creative writing that need to be further explored are how to handle the two-way relationship between Chinese and international creative writing, and how to use the new opportunities brought by the construction of New Liberal Arts to promote the basic theoretical research of creative writing, and facilitate disciplinary development by integrating Chinese literature and cultural ecology into Chinese creative writing studies.

References An, Xiaodong 安曉東. 2020a. Mianxiang wenhua chanye: chuangyi xiezuo hewei ⾯向⽂化產業, 創意寫作何為? [What does creative writing for cultural industry do?] China Yishubao 中國藝 術報, July 29 An, Xiaodong 安曉東. 2020b. Yingyu guojia chuangyi xiezuo fazhan shulue 英語國家創意寫 作發展述略 [A brief introduction to the development of creative writing in english-speaking countries]. Journal of Xi’an University of Architecture & Technology (Social Science Edition) 西 安建築科技⼤學學報(社會科學版) 3: 94–100 Chen, Xiaohui 陳曉輝. 2020. Chuangyi xiezuo yu wenxue rencai peiyang tixi jianshe 創意寫作 與⽂學⼈才培養體系建設 [Creative writing and system construction of literary talent training]. Chinese Social Sciences Today 中國社會科學報, June 22 Ding, Bohui 丁伯慧. 2020. Chuantong yu pohuai: chuangyi xiezuo ruhe shixian diceng tupo 傳 統與破壞: 創意寫作如何實現底層突破 [Tradition and destruction: How does creative writing achieve ground-breaking]. In Proceedings of the 6th Conference of Global Association of Chinese Creative Writing 第六屆世界華⽂創意寫作⼤會會議論⽂集, Shandong University, Shanghai University and Higher Education Press, November 14

28

W. D. Liu and Y. L. Zhang

Fang, Chang’an ⽅長安. 2020. Chuangyi xiezuo shi yi zhong tongshi jiaoyu 創意寫作是⼀種通 識教育 [Creative writing is a general education]. Conference presentation, the 6th Conference of Global Association of Chinese Creative Writing 第六屆世界華⽂創意寫作⼤會 from Shandong University, Shanghai University and Higher Education Press, November 14 Feng, Ruchang 馮汝常. 2020. Daxue chuangyi xiezuo ⼤學創意寫作 [College creative writing]. Beijing: Higher Education Press Gao, Xiang ⾼翔. 2020. Xifang chuangyi xiezuo gongzuo fang yanjiu redian shuli 西⽅創意寫作 ⼯作坊研究熱點梳理——兼談中國化創意寫作體系建構 [Research hotpots comb of western creative writing workshops]. Journal of Shandong Youth University of Political Science 山東青 年政治學院學報 1: 21–29 Ge, Hongbing 葛紅兵 and Wang, Bingyun 王冰雲. 2020. Chuangyi xiezuo xue benti lun lungang: jiyu geti de ganxing de shenti benwei de chuangyi shijian lun xiezuoxue yanjiu 創意寫作學本體 論論綱——基於個體的感性的身體本位的創意實踐論寫作學研究 [The ontology of creative writing—A study of creative practice writing based on individual sensibility and body standard]. Journal of Xiangtan University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 湘潭⼤學學報(哲學社會科學 版) 2: 131–137 Ge, Hongbing 葛紅兵. 2020a. Chuangyi benwei de xin wenke jiqi keneng xing 創意本位的新⽂科 及其可能性 [Creativity-based new liberal arts and the possibilities], Exploration and Free Views 探索與爭鳴 1: 14–16 Ge, Hongbing 葛紅兵. 2020b. Chuangyi xiezuo xue lilun 創意寫作學理論 [Creative writing theory]. Beijing: Higher Education Press Ge, Hongbing 葛紅兵. 2020c. Chuangyi xiezuo: zuowei yi zhong jiaoxue fangfa 創意寫作: 作 為⼀種教學⽅法 [Creative writing: As a teaching method]. Language Planning 語⽂建設 11: 9–14 Guo, Xueping 郭學萍. 2020. Xiaoxue chuangyi xiezuo duoyuan dongtai pingjia de shijian yanjiu ⼩ 學創意寫作“多元動態評價”的實踐研究 [Research on ‘multiple dynamic evaluation of primary school creative writing]. Xiaoxue jiaoxue sheji (yuwen) ⼩學教學設計 (語⽂) 11: 31–47 He, Jun 賀軍. 2020. Lun meiti yishu zhi du gaoxiao chuangyi xiezuo jiaoyu de ben tu hua zhi lu: jiyu wenhua chuangyi chanye fazhan de shijiao 論“媒體藝術之都”⾼校創意寫作教育的本 ⼟化之路——基於⽂化創意產業發展的視角 [Discussion on the pathway of higher education institutions’ creative writing education localization of ‘a city of media arts’: Based on a perspective of cultural creative industry]. Journal of Guangxi Science & Technology Normal University 廣 西科技師範學院學報 5: 6–13 Jin, Yongbing ⾦永兵. 2020. Xin renwen yu chuangyi xiezuo rencai peiyang 新⼈⽂與創意寫作 ⼈才培養 [The new humanities and creative writing talent training]. Conference presentation, the 6th Conference of Global Association of Chinese Creative Writing 第六屆世界華⽂創意寫 作⼤會 from Shandong University, Shanghai University and Higher Education Press, November 14 Lei, Yong 雷勇. 2020a. Chanxue yu chuangyi xiezuo de zhongguo hua yanjiu 禪學與創意寫作的 中國化研究 [Research on Zen and creative writing sinicization]. Journal of Xiangtan University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 湘潭⼤學學報(哲學社會科學版) 2: 138–143 Lei, Yong 雷勇. 2020b. Neirong jiazhi guan yu shenmei: lun chuangyi xiezuo xueke dui wenhua chanye de zhichi 內容、價值觀與審美——論創意寫作學科對⽂化產業的⽀持 [Content, value and aesthetics: Discussion on creative writing’s support for cultural industry]. Writing 寫作 4: 66–71 Leung, Mo-ling Rebecca 梁慕靈. 2020. Daxue sheng chuangyi xiezuo nengli de peixun: Yi xianggang gongkai daxue chuangyi xiezuo kecheng weili ⼤學⽣創意寫作能⼒的培訓——以⾹港公 開⼤學創意寫作課程為例 [Creative writing ability training for college students: Taking creative writing course at the Open University of Hong Kong as an example]. Writing 寫作 1: 48–58 Liu, Haitao 劉海濤. 2020a. Xin shidai de muke yu jiaocai: wenxue chuangyi xiezuo de bianzhuan linian yu fangfa 新時代的慕課與教材——的編撰理念與⽅法 [MOOCs and textbooks in the new era: The compilation idea and method of literary creative writing]. China University Teaching 中國⼤學教學 7: 93–96

2020 Annual Report of China’s Creative Writing Studies

29

Liu, Sai 劉賽. 2020b. “創意”能⼒提升與城市⽂化品格塑造——南京“⽂學之都”建設問題研 究 Chuangyi nengli tisheng yu chengshi wenhua pinge suzao: Nanjing wenxue zhi du jianshe wenti yanjiu [Enhancing creative ability and shaping urban cultural character: Research on the construction of Nanjing as a “city of literature”]. Journal of Nanjing University of Science and Technology (Social Sciences Edition) 南京理⼯⼤學學報 (社會科學版) 5: 9–13 Liu, Weidong 劉衛東. 2020c. Chuangyi xiezuo de si zhong xingtai yuanyuan yu Shijian 創意寫 作的四種形態: 淵源與實踐 [The four forms of creative writing: Origin and practice] Journal of Xiangtan University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 湘潭⼤學學報(哲學社會科學版) 2: 150–156 Liu, Weidong. 2020d. The rising tides: creative writing research in China 2009–2019. In Proceedings of the 25th Australasian Association of Writing Programs Conference, 23 Liu, Weidong. 2021. A brief history of the development of Chinese creative writing (2009-2020): Paths and issues. Journal of Creative Writing Studies 6 (1): 21 Peary, Alexandria. 2015. The pedagogy of creative writing across the curriculum. In Creative writing for the twenty-first century, ed. Peary, Alexandria and Tom C. Hunley. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press Rong, Weidong 榮維東. 2020. Yunyong chuangyi xiezuo jishu tigao xiezuo jiaoxue nengli 運⽤ 創意寫作技術, 提⾼寫作教學能⼒ [Using creative writing skills to improve writing teaching ability]. New Writing (zhongxue zuowen jiaoxue yanjiu) 新作⽂(中學作⽂教學研究) 3: 54–55 Tan, Xudong 譚旭東. 2020. Ruhe lijie bing shishi chuangyi zuowen jiaoxue 如何理解並實施創 意作⽂教學 [How to understand and implement creative writing teaching]. Language Planning 語⽂建設 5: 21–24 Tassoni, John. 2020. Mainstreaming creativity: Creative writing enters general education’s advanced writing requirement. Journal of Creative Writing Studies 1: 1 Wang, Hongtu 王宏圖, and Zhan, Yubing 戰⽟冰. 2020. Xueshu yu chuangzuo jian de chanrao: Wang Hongtu jiaoshou fangtan 學術與創作間的纏繞——王宏圖教授訪談 [The entanglement between scholarship and creation: Interview with Prof. Wang Hongtu]. Academic Monthly 學術 ⽉刊 10: 179–184 Wang, Yukuo 王宇闊, and Guohua Zhu 朱國華. 2020. Xin meijie yujing xia chuangyi xiezuo de wenyi shengchan li 新媒介語境下創意寫作的⽂藝⽣產⼒ [Literary productivity of creative writing in the context of new media]. Writing 寫作 2: 39–45 Wang, Hongtu 王宏圖. 2020a. Chuangyi xiezuo zai zhongguo: Fudan daxue moshi 創意寫作在中 國: 復旦⼤學模式 [Creative writing in China: Fudan University model]. Writing 寫作 3: 14–19 Wang, Leilei 王雷雷. 2020b. Mianxiang yue gang ao dawan qu wenhua chuangyi chanye de chuangyi rencai peiyang: yi chuangyi xiezuo wei tujing ⾯向粵港澳⼤灣區⽂化創意產業的 創意⼈才培養——以創意寫作為途徑 [Creative talents training for cultural industry of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area: Taking creative writing as a pathway]. Journal of Shandong Youth University of Political Science 山東青年政治學院學報 3: 1–6 Xu, Daojun 許道軍. 2020a. Xin wenke wei chuangyi xiezuo zhengming 新⽂科為創意寫作正 名 [New liberal arts vindicates creative writing]. Conference presentation, the 6th Conference of Global Association of Chinese Creative Writing 第六屆世界華⽂創意寫作⼤會 from Shandong University, Shanghai University and Higher Education Press, November 14 Xu, Daojun 許道軍. 2020b. Zuojia ruhe bei peiyang: zuowe ijiaoxue fa de chuangyi xiezuo “作 家如何被培養” ——作為教學法的創意寫作⼯作坊探討 [How can writers be developed”- A discuss on creative writing workshops as pedagogies]. Journal of East China Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 華東師範⼤學學報(哲學社會科學版) 2: 105–112 Xu, Feng 許峰. 2020c. Chuantong xiezuo ziyuan de xiandai zhuanhuan: yi gushi xinbian zai chuangyi xiezuo ketang shang de yunyong weili 傳統寫作資源的現代轉換——以“故事新編” 在創意寫作課堂上的運⽤為例 [Modern conversion of traditional writing resources: Taking the application of “Old Tales Retold” in creative writing courses. Writing 寫作 2: 115–120 Yang, Jianlong 楊劍龍. 2015. Chuangyi xiezuo de gudian wenlun ziyuan 創意寫作的古典⽂論 資源 [Classical literary resources of creative writing]. Gansu Social Sciences ⽢肅社會科學 6: 40–44

30

W. D. Liu and Y. L. Zhang

Ye, Wei 葉煒. 2020a. Lu Xun wenxue yuan yu xin zhongguo wenxue xinren peiyang yanjiu lungang 魯迅⽂學院與新中國⽂學新⼈培養研究論綱 [Literary new talents’ training mechanism of Lu Xun institute of literature]. Southern Cultural Forum 南⽅⽂壇 4: 137–144 Ye, Zi 葉⼦. 2020b. Weiguan guanli zhe de yishu jia xiaoxiang: chuangyi xiezuo peixun yu niuyue ke zazhi 微觀管理者的藝術家肖像——創意寫作培訓與雜誌 [An artist’s portrait of a micromanager: Creative writing training and the New Yorker Magazine]. Contention in Literature and Art ⽂藝爭鳴 11: 175–180 Zhang, Zhiqiang 張志強, Qiao, Xiaopeng 喬曉鵬, and Dai, Manlun 代曼倫. 2020. Guowaichuban zhuanye benke jiaoyu de xianzhuang ji qishi 國外出版專業本科教育的現狀及啟⽰ [The present situation and enlightenment of undergraduate education of publishing major in foreign countries]. Publishing Research 出版發⾏研究 5: 14–23 Zhang, Dinghao 張定浩. 2020a. Wenxue de zhiye yu yeyu: jian lun chuangyi xiezuo ⽂學的職業與 業餘——兼論創意寫作 [Profession and amateur in literature: Discussion on creative writing]. Contention in Literature and Art ⽂藝爭鳴 3: 134–136 Zhang, Yiwei 張怡微. 2020b. Chuangyi xiezuo xueke de lilun jiaohu yu shijian chuangxin: yi fudan jingyan weili “創意寫作”學科的理論交互與實踐創新—以復旦經驗為例 [Theoretical interaction and practical innovation of creative writing discipline: Taking Fudan’s experience as an example]. Writing 寫作 6: 42–47 Zhang, Yonglu 張永祿. 2020c. Chuangyi xiezuo yanjiu de xueke yuanjing zhishi puxi yu yanjiu fangfa 創意寫作研究的學科願景、知識譜系與研究⽅法 [The disciplinary vision knowledge pedigree and research methods of creative writing studies]. Writing 寫作 5: 46–55 Zhang, Yueran 張悦然. 2020d. Zhongshi xiezuo nengli jifa chuangzuo huoli 重視寫作能⼒ 激發 創作活⼒ [Emphasizing writing ability, motivating creative energy]. People’s Daily ⼈民⽇報, November 24 Zhu, Jing 朱婧. 2020a. Jingyan de zhuanhuan he anzhi: jiyu chuangyi xiezuo shijian de guocheng xing guancha 經驗的轉換和安置——基於創意寫作實踐的過程性觀察 [Experience’s transformation and settlement: Based on process observation of creative writing practice]. Writing 寫 作 4: 72–79 Zhu, Zhigang 朱志剛. 2020b. Xin wenke xinz hongwen xi njineng: yi ‘ tianye diaocha fangfa yu xiezuo kecheng’ weili 新⽂科·新中⽂·新技能——以為例 [New liberal arts · new Chinese · new skills: Taking ‘fieldwork methods and writing courses’ as an example]. In Proceedings of the 6th conference of global association of Chinese creative writing 第六屆世界華⽂創意寫作⼤會會議論⽂集, November 14, Shandong University, Shanghai University and Higher Education Press

Teaching Creative Writing in the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong

Radio Drama Creation and the Development and Training of Related Industries Rebecca Leung Mo-Ling

Abstract Hong Kong once experienced the burgeoning era of radio drama that lasted for decades; in the mainland of China, as radio drama can be easily produced, it became a vital channel of dissemination for the young country after its establishment in 1949 and has had long-lasting influences since then. However, the number of radio dramas produced in Hong Kong has dropped significantly in recent years due to the rise of Internet entertainment and a popular tendency to opt for online leisure activities. Audiobooks and audio creation have developed rapidly in recent years in the mainland and Taiwan. To illustrate the huge development potential of the radio drama industry, this article will analyse the radio drama industry of the mainland and Taiwan, particularly the expeditious development of audiobooks and audio creation. In addition, the “Radio Drama Creation” course in the curriculum of the program Creative Writing and Film Art at Hong Kong Metropolitan University (formerly The Open University of Hong Kong) will serve as an example to illustrate how creative writing education can be reformed in line with the development trend of cultural and creative industries and how it can cultivate talents of the next generation who devote themselves into this promising writing industry. Keywords Radio drama · Audiobook · Hong Kong Metropolitan University · Audio · Creative writing

1 Introduction: The Development of Radio Drama Creation and Its Related Industries in Recent Years Hong Kong once witnessed the burgeoning era of radio drama that lasted for decades. It started off with the establishment of the wired radio station Radio Rediffusion 麗的呼聲 in 1949, and then Hong Kong experienced the golden age in which three major radio stations were in intense rivalry in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s, Radio Television Hong Kong established a drama team which broadcasted M. L. Rebecca Leung (B) School of Arts and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_3

33

34

M. L. Rebecca Leung

52.5 hours of radio dramas every week. In the 1990s, idol voice acting in radio dramas went viral, and a number of important radio drama scriptwriters became well-known. However, the number of newly produced radio dramas in Hong Kong fell sharply in recent years after it had reached its peak which lasted for years. For instance, since the late 1950s, the appearance of television stations has gradually impacted radio stations in Hong Kong. Apart from the longest-running radio drama 18/F Block C ⼗ 八樓C座, the total number of newly produced radio dramas is gradually decreasing. In recent years, due to the rise of Internet entertainment and a popular tendency to opt for online leisure activities, the development of radio drama has been further impaired. Over the past two decades, Hong Kong’s radio dramas have relied more on having celebrities or well-known producers as voice actors to attract audiences. Take Commercial Radio Hong Kong as an example, its large-scale radio dramas produced from 2012 to 2019 have used these methods to increase listenership (See Appendix 1). This approach is significantly different from that of the mainland of China where hosts and talk show producers mainly play as voice actors. In the mainland, amidst the rapid development of drama before 1949, radio drama producers were mostly drama scriptwriters, such as Hong Shen’s 洪深 Beating the Gong of Ship 開船鑼 (1936) and Xia Yan’s 夏衍 The Day of July 28th 「七‧⼆八」 那⼀天 (1937). After 1949, the China National Radio broadcasted a number of radio dramas provided by the Central Broadcasting Art Troupe 廣播⽂⼯團, bringing radio drama production into a new stage of development. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, radio dramas became a vital channel of dissemination because of the intrinsic nature that they could be easily and inexpensively produced, and they have had long-lasting influences since then. Due to a diversity of reasons, the development of children’s radio dramas is the most exceptional and has huge development potential. On the mainland, there are approximately 700 million parents, who would listen to radio dramas together with their children, making the target market for children’s radio dramas enormous. The audiobook industry in Taiwan has also been developing quickly, where audiobook sales increased significantly in 2020. That year also became an epoch-making year for audiobooks in Taiwan. The number of audiobooks on sale has increased by 486%, and the total sales amount has reached a growth rate of 850%. Among the 400 categories of audiobooks, “teenagers and children”, “literary novels” and “business and finance” took the top three positions. The total listening time of 2,500 audiobook listeners was 700,000 min. This development trend leads to industrial innovation in digital reading devices and the training of voice actors (Yeung 2020). Therefore, this article will analyse the rapid development trends in the abovementioned regions in the radio drama industry, particularly the expeditious growth of audiobooks and audio works, and illustrate the huge development potential in this area. In addition, the “Radio Drama Creation” course in the curriculum of the program Creative Writing and Film Art at Hong Kong Metropolitan University will serve as an example to illustrate how creative writing education can be reformed in line with the development trend of cultural and creative industries and how it can cultivate talents of the next generation who devote themselves into this promising writing industry.

Radio Drama Creation and the Development and Training of Related…

35

2 Development of Radio Drama and Audiobook Creation in mainland and Taiwan With the increasing competition in the traditional publishing industry, readership has gradually become saturated; the physical book publisher’s industry needs to be reformed in response to these changes. At the same time, the advent of the digital age has changed people’s radio drama listening habits and brought a revolution in reading habits, reinforcing the creation and development of radio dramas. As mentioned above, the production of radio dramas relied heavily on radio broadcasts in the past. For example, Shanghai’s famous long-form radio drama Interpol 803 刑警 803 received massive production support from Shanghai Radio. In the 1990s, its production was implemented with radio marketing, marketing planning, and cocreating with listeners (Lei 2009). While the listenership of radio stations has been declining nowadays, the rapid development of the Internet has led to the skyrocketing growth of audio platforms in the mainland of China. In fact, the listening habits of the audience have not changed significantly. For instance, audiences still listen to radio dramas during their commute or leisure time. However, educational audio programs have become the main content that more and more people hope to obtain over a short period of time. Therefore, with the audiobook and audio platforms developing vigorously, radio drama has regained a new momentum of development. Take Dragonfly FM (蜻蜓 FM), the first online radio platform in the mainland, which was established in 2011, as an example. Unlike traditional radio broadcast, it uses the Internet as its operating platform as an advantage, making its total number of users exceeds 450 million, among whom over 100 million were monthly active users and 25 million daily, according to the data from 2019 (Zero2IPO Research 清 科研究中⼼ 2019). Dragonfly FM has a wide variety of radio channels for different categories, including storytelling, cross-talks, talk shows, children and radio dramas1 ; its radio dramas have various styles, such as romance, fantasy, thriller, amusement, youth, military affairs, ghost stories, etc. The number of listeners who listen to radio dramas through this platform is very large. For example, a radio drama album called New Ghost Talk FM 新鬼話調頻 has more than 26 million listeners (Dragonfly FM, n.d.). Apart from this, Dragonfly FM also has invited more than 12,000 celebrities or well-known hosts such as Gao Xiaosong ⾼曉松 (creative artist, talk show host), Ye Wen 葉⽂ (host, recipient of the Golden Microphone Award ⾦話筒獎), Liang Hongda 梁宏達 (host), etc. Dragonfly FM has adopted many approaches to expand its market audience share. For instance, it cooperated with car brands such as Ford, Volvo, BMW, Audi AG, etc., to provide content connectivity and signal reception in its vehicles (Xiao 2017). There are some studies on the audiences of Dragonfly FM via surveys, and they found that the listenership of online platforms surpassed traditional radio broadcasts in 2015, and most of those who listen to audio programs through Dragonfly FM was at a young age. Audiobooks and other non-live-stream audio programs in Dragonfly 1

For more information with regard to the detailed classifications of the Dragonfly FM website, please visit: https://www.qingting.fm/.

36

M. L. Rebecca Leung

FM have soundly outstripped traditional broadcasting that focuses on everyday information in 2015 (Jin 2017). From these data, one can prognosticate that pre-recorded radio dramas would gradually rely more on online platforms rather than traditional radio broadcasting as the main form of dissemination. This will inevitably initiate reforms in the writing, thinking, aesthetics and production of scripts. Taking the above-mentioned New Ghost Talk FM radio drama album as an example, based on data of the existing 137 episodes from Dragonfly FM, most of them are short audios that last less than 10 min. In comparison, thriller radio dramas on Hong Kong Radio 20 or 30 years ago usually last 30–45 min per episode and have a serial structure. From such comparisons, it is found that the way in which radio dramas are produced has changed significantly (Radio Television Hong Kong 2021). In addition, significant changes in style are also obvious. Take the above two kinds of ghost-story radio dramas into account. The four-episode Fantasy File: Murder Hunt with the Sixth Sense 奇幻檔案之靈感追兇 directed by Yang Lixian 楊麗仙 of Radio Television Hong Kong in 1998 is an example. Its plot revolves around the investigation of terrorist murders, which is different from the strange-storytelling radio dramas of the same kind created in the 1970s in terms of style; however, the above-mentioned Dragonfly FM’s radio drama New Ghost Talk FM is popular for amusing ghost stories, and “funny ghosts” 逗逼鬼 are created specifically for this theme. This radio drama was advertised as “a thrilling story with an amusing ending” that even the faint of heart can enjoy. This style not only shows a new direction for creation but also the changes in radio drama production between the two places and different eras. Among the many types of radio dramas and audio channels, there is a huge demand for children’s dramas and related content. One of the innovation and entrepreneurship projects at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, The Deer Mother ⼩鹿 萌媽, is an example. It won the National Gold Award in the 6th Internet + Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in 2020 第六屆互聯網 + 創新創業⼤賽 全國⾦奬 in China. This is the only winner that was categorised as a language and cultural project among the gold award recipients. This radio drama uses the Internet to transmit information that integrated sinology. Through the efforts of teachers and students at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, audiobooks and physical books were created for children aged 3–12. The content features stories related to traditional Chinese culture and spirituality. The Deer Mother shows various directions for radio drama production. It was recommended by the Guang Dong Broadcasting and Television Network Company Limited in 2020, and its Chinese audiobooks were launched on the official platform of the Central Propaganda Department, Xuexi Qiangguo 學 習強國, and it was awarded “Lingnan Cultural Ambassador” by Guang Dong Broadcasting and Television Network Company Limited’s app YueTing 粵聽 (Guangwai chuangyi xiezuo zhongxin 廣外創意寫作中⼼ 2020). For instance, The Deer Mother Tells 100 Stories of Princesses series ⼩鹿萌媽講 100 個公主故事 consists of 100 stories about princesses in China and beyond across centuries such as “The Sensible Beauty-Diao Chan” 貂蟬, “Mu Lan” 花⽊蘭, “Rose Princess” 薔薇公主 of Japan, and “Princess with blond hair” of Eastern Europe, etc. All of these stories are recorded in Putonghua and are mainly told from a single-person perspective. However, the most special thing is that some stories are told in Cantonese, such as “The Princess Who

Radio Drama Creation and the Development and Training of Related…

37

Likes to Listen to Lies” 鍾意聽⼈講⼤話的公主, “The Silent Princess” 唔講話的 公主. This shows that audio creation in dialects is strongly supported in the mainland (Yueting 粵聽 2021). On 4 November 2019, “Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Youth Audiovisual Content Entrepreneurship Incubation Base” 粵港澳青年視聽內 容創業孵化基地 was officially launched in Guangzhou which aims at promoting the development of audio and video projects in universities, young enterprises, and new media studios in the three regions. In total 20 innovation and entrepreneurship projects are undertaken by Hong Kong and Macau youths by January 2021 (Kong 2021). The audio industry has enormous developmental potential in the future. The development of audiobooks in Taiwan has been accelerating in recent years. For example, Rakuten Kobo, eReader produced by Rakuten Incorporated that supports traditional Chinese ebooks, was on sale in Taiwan in 2016, and in 2018 its audiobooks became available in the market. So far, readers of Kobo audiobooks mainly aim at foreign language reading and learning, and there are more male users than females. Regarding the types of audiobooks, unlike in North America, the highest-selling audiobooks in Taiwan are non-fiction, followed by romance, horror, thriller, autobiography, fantasy, personal development, and children’s. Scientific fiction was expected to be a popular one, but it turns out to be one of the least popular genres. In terms of audiobook usage, the most common times to listen to audiobooks were during holidays, followed by leisure time, doing housework, commuting, and time in bed. According to the data from Taiwan’s Kobo Chief of the Information Department, Hu Huijun 胡惠君, Taiwan’s publishing industry primarily focuses on physical books and then on e-books and audiobooks. In comparison, the mainland is more flexible in this aspect. For example, some editors would consider their books as second-tier in the physical book market but first-tier in electronic and audio markets, and such differences suggest differing positioning of the same product across markets (Open Book 閱讀誌 2021). With the advent of audiobooks, changes take place in voice recording work. Unlike dub voice actors, audiobook reading and radio drama production need voice actors and voice directors. Unlike dubbing anime and movies, sound production for audiobooks (and broadcasting) requires voice actors to make appropriate adjustments. For instance, some minor modifications of difficult words would be needed in order to save the listeners the trouble of looking up the dictionary while listening to the audiobook. Regarding voice performance for audiobooks, voice personnel can be the authors themselves, celebrities, or voice actors, depending on the nature of the work. It is suggested that in the radio drama and audiobook industry, the importance of the training for voice actors would gradually increase in the future (Taiwan Creative Content Agency ⽂化內容策進院 2021). The rapid development of audiobooks has also directly affected various aspects of the training for radio drama, including voice performance, script creation and production technology. Traditional processes of radio drama production, from scriptwriting of radio drama to audio content editing, marketing, and reader/audience attraction, will inevitably be changed in response to the rise of the IP film and television industry. In the past, it was necessary to combine the three elements of editing, directing and acting after the script was completed for radio drama production. The “e-theatre”

38

M. L. Rebecca Leung

is different from the traditional; the former cannot be adjusted through lighting and scenery and can invoke audience’s imagination through sound only. Therefore, vocal expressions in radio dramas are very important. In addition to basic sound elements such as music and sound effects, actors need to highlight their emotions in the voice and express them through recording or live broadcast. Radio drama directors need to guide the audience to visualize the characters, time and space, scenes, emotions and other elements that make up the plot. However, audiobooks are often guided by one single voice actor. Since audiobooks are similar to storytelling, audiobook performance bears resemblance to the “one-person radio drama”, which appeared in the early history of radio dramas in Hong Kong. For example, the Sky Novels 天空⼩說 created around the 1950s was performed by the famous radio actor Li Ngaw 李我 who worked both as the director and voice actor, captivating audiences from Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao. All radio dramas produced by Li Ngaw are entirely improvised without a page of script written. He sometimes even played eight different roles on the same show. Other Hong Kong radio drama actors of this period include Tang Kee-chan 鄧寄塵 and Chung Wai-ming 鍾偉明, who were deft at creating and performing one-person radio dramas (Fung 2013, 82–83). This kind of one-man radio drama faded away gradually in traditional broadcasting because of the change in audiences’ needs; however, in recent years, it has re-emerged together with the rise of audiobooks. Take the audiobook of the novel The Stranger (L’ Étranger) by Albert Camus, produced by Taiwan’s Rye Field Publishing Company as an example. The actor performed as the narrator as well as the main characters, stepping back in the tradition of the performance of one-person radio drama (Rye Field Publications ⿆⽥出版 2020). Regarding children’s radio dramas, the development of audiobooks is even more vigorous. Taking the Little Bear Books of Book Republic 讀書共和 國出版集團 as an example, its audiobook Dodo’s Birthday ⼩鱷⿂家族: 多多的 ⽣⽇is performed through storytelling. The voice actress performed as the narrator, mother and child while the voice actor performed as the father. Overall, the way the audiobook is performed resembles a one-person radio drama (Little Bear Books ⼩ 熊出版 2017).

3 The Course “Radio Drama Creation” in the Curriculum of the Program Creative Writing and Film Art Curriculum at Hong Kong Metropolitan University Based on the above-mentioned development trends of radio dramas and performance, the Creative Writing and Film Art course in the Department of Creative Arts at Hong Kong Metropolitan University has been offering “Radio Drama Creation” since 2008. The course addresses the history, development and transformation of local radio dramas, allowing students to learn the historical background and operational processes of radio media. Students not only learn how to write radio scripts but also gain an understanding of different elements of radio drama such as pronunciation,

Radio Drama Creation and the Development and Training of Related…

39

music and sound effects for story-telling. Over the 13-week course, instructors deliver lessons on different topics. For example, Moon Reflected on the Second Spring ⼆泉 映⽉, by E Yunwen 鄂允⽂, Liu Baoyi 劉保毅 and Rong Lei 榮磊, is taught in the course to illustrate the structure and creative characteristics of single radio dramas. For long-running series, The Deer and the Cauldron 鹿鼎記, which is the radio drama adaptation of Jin Yong’s ⾦庸 novel by Tsang Yuet-ngor 曾⽉娥 produced by Radio Television Hong Kong, is taught in class as an example of such genre of radio drama. For the creation of long-form dramas the course focuses on the study of Interpol 803: Online Fishing 刑警 803: 網上捕⿂, a popular radio drama from the mainland, and 18/F Block C, Hong Kong’s longest-running broadcasting series, to are taught to demonstrate the methods to create broadcasting programs. Regarding radio drama adaptation and creation, instructors use two radio dramas produced by Radio Hong Kong as examples. One of them is the romantic drama Rouge of The North 怨女 adapted from Eileen Chang’s 張愛玲 novel, and another one is the science-fiction drama The Wesley’s Mysterious File 藍⾎⼈, which is adapted from Ni Kuang’s 倪匡 novel of the same name. Besides, the course also teaches the creation of radio dramas for children, using Xi Peilan 奚佩蘭 and Li Ronggui’s 李 榮歸 The Second Half of Edison’s Life 愛迪⽣的後半⽣ and Li Man’s 李曼 The Distress of the Ancient Tomb 古墓遇險 as teaching materials. Other topics include mini-radio dramas, experimental dramas, and Chinese opera radio dramas. At the beginning of the stage of the course that covers children’s radio drama, the instructors first introduce students to the fact that children of different ages have different needs as radio drama audiences; therefore, there are huge differences in the needs of radio dramas among preschoolers, primary school students and secondary school students. Radio dramas for preschoolers should feature a slow, repetitive speech with appropriate explanations so that they can imitate repetitively. Primary school students can understand faster-paced stories, so producers may include suitable educational content in radio dramas. However, imposing ideas on secondary school students is not appropriate; instead, inspirational allegories can be introduced to them. The needs of preschoolers for radio dramas receive the least attention among the three cohorts. This is because most adults think that it is too unchallenging for them to produce radio dramas for children of this age; as a result, the repetitiveness and playfulness of the productions are often neglected. According to Zhang Mini’s 張美妮 research, preschoolers need to experience society through happiness and learn about social norms to achieve socialization. Therefore, radio dramas created for children of this age group are supposed to prioritise entertainment over education (Zhang 2001). Useful methods include using action-oriented plots and rich sound effects; with these methods, preschoolers tend to be more willing to play the roles in the stories. In addition, there is a close relationship between voice actors, the production of radio dramas, and audiobooks. This course features lessons devoted to radio speaking and skills training. Given the fact that Hong Kong students rarely receive specialized training in Cantonese pronunciation, these lessons cover the most common mispronunciations among Hong Kong students, correcting the pronunciations that occur often in productions of radio dramas and voice performances. In addition,

40

M. L. Rebecca Leung

instructors also teach the volume of voice, speech pace, articulation and other voice performing skills. These lessons are popular among students, and many graduates have joined the radio or broadcasting industry after graduation. In the future, this course will be reformed, and more teaching content related to audiobooks and audio production will be added to the course in order to better prepare students for the ever-changing society.

4 Conclusion In summary, radio dramas and related industries have tremendous potential. In terms of forms, radio dramas have gradually become independent from traditional broadcasting platforms as they can now be transmitted through audiobooks or internet radio stations; in terms of genres, children’s radio dramas receive priority attention. In the future, Hong Kong Metropolitan University will adjust and update its teaching direction and content in a timely manner based on this development trend and devote itself to the education of this industry and its technology by investing more resources in the education of voice actors and instructors.

Appendix 1 Examples of Commercial Radio Hong Kong’s ⾹港商業電台 Radio Drama. 2019: The Accumulation of Loneliness 寂寞的總和 (Edmond Tong 湯駿業, Fiona Sit 薛凱琪). 2016: Hot Kitchen 熱廚房 (Jan Lamb 林海峰, Pun Siu Tou 潘⼩濤, Ken Yuen 阮⼦健). 2015: Spring Breeze 銀河歲⽉ (Alan Tam Wing Lun 譚詠倫). 2014: Tales of Walled Village ⼤城⼩故事 (Miriam Yeung Chin-wah 楊千嬅). 2012: Love in Time 等‧我愛你 (Sammy Leung Chi Ki 森美, Kitty Yuen Siu Yee ⼩儀, Bosco Wong ⿈宗澤). 2012: Prince in the Forest 公⼦森林 (Sammy Leung Chi Ki 森美, Kitty Yuen Siu Yee ⼩儀, Leila Kong Lai Na 唐寧). 2012: Vani in Love at the Theater: Goodbye to my lovers 雲妮鍾情劇場: 告別 我的戀⼈們 (Leo Ku Kui-kei 古巨基, Charlie Young 楊采妮, Mak Ling Ling ⿆玲 玲). 2012: Ex-Girlfriend 前女友 (Jim Yan Chi Hong 占).

Radio Drama Creation and the Development and Training of Related…

41

References Dragonfly FM 蜻蜓FM. n.d. Xin guihua tiaopin 新鬼話調頻 [New Ghost Talk FM]. https://www. qingting.fm/channels/117030. Accessed 18 Apr 2021 Fung, Chi Fung 馮志豐. 2013. Shiba lou C zuo weimin houshe xishi nian ⼗八樓C座為民喉⾆卌 年 [18/F Block C has been a spokesperson of people for 40 years]. Hong Kong: Enlighten & Fish Limited 亮光⽂化有限公司 Guangwai chuangyi xiezuo zhongxin 廣外創意寫作中⼼. 2020. Lihai le, wo de zhongwen! Guangwai shou huo “Wangji lujia” guosai Jinjiang! Yibai sishi qi wan ge xiangmu Zhong wei yi de yuyan wenhua leij injiang 厲害了, 我的中⽂!廣外⾸獲“網際網路+”國賽⾦獎!147萬個項 ⽬中唯⼀的語⾔⽂化類⾦獎! [Centre of creative writing at Guangdong University of foreign studies, great, my Chinese! GDUFS won the “Internet+” National Gold Award for the first time! The only language and cultural gold award recipient among 1.47 million projects]. https://mp. weixin.qq.com/s/ENj-YVXFHVZnc9gpJIDwxQ. Accessed 9 Mar 2021 Jin, Liang ⾦亮. 2017. Wangluo diantai yu chuantong guangbo de youshi bijiao: yi Qingting FM weili 網絡電台與傳統廣播的優勢比較——以蜻蜓FM為例 [Comparison of the advantages of online radio and traditional broadcasting: Take dragonfly FM as an example]. Journal of News Research 新聞研究導刊 8: 156–157 Kong, Qingling 孔慶玲ed. 2021. Yue Gang Ao Dawan Qu Shuang chuang fuhua jidi zhaomu gangao qingchuang xiangmu 粵港澳⼤灣區雙創孵化基地招募港澳青創項⽬ [GuangdongHong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area double entrepreneurship incubation base recruits 20 Hong Kong-Macao youth innovation projects]. China News 中國新聞網, January 5. https://www.chi nanews.com/ga/2021/01-05/9379334.shtml Lei, Guofen 雷國芬. 2009. Cong Xingjing ba ling san de de yu shi kan guangbo ju de shichang zhi lu 從《刑警803》的得與失看廣播劇的市場之路 [Marketing road of radio dramas: Perspectives from gain and lost of “Interpol 803”]. China Broadcasts 中國廣播 5: 13–16 Little Bear Books ⼩熊出版社. 2017. Zhongwen yousheng shu shi ting: Xiao e’yu jiazu Duoduo de Shengri 中⽂有聲書試聽:⼩鱷⿂家族多多的⽣⽇ [Dodo’s birthday]. 19 September. Educational video, 2:47. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOXAqv_i-Xc Open book 閱讀誌. 2021. Quanqiu yousheng shu fazhan xiankuang yu jingying shuju: fang Kobo neirong buzhang Hu huijun 全球有聲書發展現況與經營數據: 訪Kobo內容部長胡惠 君 [Global audiobook development status and operating data: Interview with Hu Huijun, director of Kobo content]. https://www.openbook.org.tw/article/p-64563. Accessed 23 Mar 2021 Radio Television Hong Kong. n.d. Xuanyi linghuan guangbo ju 懸疑靈幻廣播劇 [Suspense magic radio play, radio dramas of Radio Television Hong Kong]. http://rthk9.rthk.hk/radiodrama/3te rror/index.ht2m. Accessed 18 Apr 2021 Rye Field Publications ⿆⽥出版. 2020. Yixiang Ren zhongwen ban yousheng shu shangshi shi ting pianduan 異鄉⼈中⽂版有聲書上市試聽⽚段 [Albert Camus’s L’Étranger audio drama]. 3 September. Educational video, 0:25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OsAilG_wbM Taiwan Creative Content Agency ⽂化內容策進院. 2021. Cong peiyin dao shengyin daoyan: Sun Ruoyu X Guo Lin tan shengyin biaoyan de yishu 從配⾳到聲⾳導演: 孫若瑜X郭霖談聲⾳表演 的藝術 [From dubbing to voice director: Sun Ruoyu and Guo Lin on the art of voice performance]. https://taicca.tw/article/45dcbdc3. Accessed 22 Mar 2021 Yeung, On-Ki 楊安琪. 2020. Dianzi shu shichang nishi chengzhang, youshusheng jueqi, Readmoo erling erling nian yingshou tupo er dian wu yi 電⼦書市場逆勢成長、有書聲崛起, Readmoo 2020營收突破2.5億元 [The e-book market grows against the trend and the audiobooks sales rise, Readmoo 2020 revenue exceeds 250 million RMB]. Tech News 科技新報, December 16. https://technews.tw/2020/12/16/readmoo-2020-annual-reading-report/ Xiao, Yupei 肖裕佩. 2017. Qingting FM wangluo guangbo diantai de yonghu tiyan he yingli moshi tan jiu 蜻蜓FM網絡廣播電台的⽤⼾體驗和盈利模式探究 [Research on the user experience and profit model of Dragonfly FM network radio station]. Journal of News Research 新聞研究 導刊 1: 143

42

M. L. Rebecca Leung

Yueting 粵聽. n.d. Xiaolu mengma jiang yi bai ge gongzhu gushi ⼩鹿萌媽講100個公主故事 [The deer mother tells 100 stories about princess]. https://m.yuetingapp.com/audio-album/966? shareId=KmPiERtA. Accessed 25 Apr 2021 Zhang, Meini 張美妮. 2001. Diaocha hou de sisuo: you’er wenxue chuangzuo suibi 調查後的思 索: 幼兒⽂學創作隨筆 [Some thoughts from investigation: informal essay on children’s literature creation]. Zhang mei ni ertong wenxue lun ji 張美妮兒童⽂學論集, 32–33. Chongqing: Chongqing Publishing House 重慶出版社 Zero2IPO Research 清科研究中⼼. 2019. Qingting FM yue huoyue yonghu po yi yi, fabu erling yijiu quanchang jing shengtai zhanlue 蜻蜓FM⽉活躍⽤⼾破⼀億, 發布2019全場景⽣態戰略 [The number of Dragonfly FM’s monthly active users exceeds 100 millions, and it releases 2019 full-scene ecological strategy]. https://baike.baidu.com/reference/410525/94df40FNTVg8qSC TVCy7aUVot0L5PEym2DNT-8oIo6v-2RpOtVteVnr7jzF7jfCERylat5igzGmNJy7gGFyhN-4y0 gYB4BOIXJmn2WMojPSzoeFh-DIvgUBSAYPrRsqEROoEB1bQhAdQBz6M. Accessed 18 Apr 2021

A Discussion on the Teaching of Creative Writing in the Writing Classes of Colleges in China Wang Wei-Zhou

Abstract Creative writing has been developed for over seventy years in Western developed countries. It has gradually become a mature academic subject with a complete system for nurturing talents, which serves as a crucial channel to nurture writers, as well as experienced writing teachers. Regardless, there are various disputes over the mode of training in creative writing within the industry. Some believe that writing is unteachable; some suggest that there are still many problems with the existing pedagogy, which, for example, lacks flexibility]. The education of writing in high education in China has a long history too, but there are deviations in the notion of central idea between the teaching of such and creative writing. Since the twentyfirst century, numerous Chinese colleges have become eager to learn the advanced concepts in creative writing from the West, and they have employed teachers and started developing their creative writing programmes. Through four aspects of the discussion, viz. the relationship between teaching and writing, the historical origins of creative writing, the development of creative writing in China, and the pedagogy of creative writing, this chapter explores how educators of literary writing can pursue creative writing pedagogy against the framework of university writing classes in order to promote the development of creative writing as an academic discipline in China. Keywords Creative writing · Writing courses in higher education · Pedagogy

1 Preface The 25th Taipei International Book Exhibition (25屆臺北國際書展) took place on 10 February 2017. Chinese-American writer Ha Jin 哈⾦ came to the Exhibition This paper is supported by the Key Project of Humanity and Social Science Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission (Grant No. 22SKGH332). W. Z. Wang (B) Department of Foreign Languages, University of Putra Malaysia, Seri Kembangan, Malaysia School of Arts, Chongqing Three Gorges University, Chongqing, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_4

43

44

W. Z. Wang

with his new work The Boat Rocker 折騰到底 and delivered a speech. Later in the hotel, he had a dialogue with writer Wu Mingyi 吳明益. Ha Jin rose to fame when he clinched the American National Book Award with his novel Waiting 等 待. He is currently teaching at Boston University, USA, and heads creative writing projects there. Wu Mingyi is a professor of the Department of Sinophone Literatures at Dong Hwa University, Taiwan; his works include Fu Yan Ren 複眼⼈ (The Man with the Compound Eyes) and so on. Since they are writers and teachers at universities, this dialogue is particularly unique and significant. As such, the association is established between the two independent fields: writing and teaching. Writing is a profoundly unpredictable artistic creation. Can this be taught? Writing is unlike piano. Piano can be taught at a very young age. Piano skills can be introduced to children when they have yet to develop any receptivity; they can improve their skills through daily practice. As for writing, in addition to continuous practices and the guidance one receives, it is evident that one’s inborn talent is at play, which cannot be taught. Professor Chen Pingyuan 陳平原 of Peking University pointed out that, “Luo Changpei 羅常培, Dean of Chinese of the Southwestern Associated University in China during the Anti-Japanese War; and Yang Hui 楊晦, Dean of Chinese of Peking University during the 50 s and 60 s have both openly claimed that: the faculty of Chinese does not nurture writers” (Luo and Zhou 2014).Anyone who has studied in faculties of Chinese would understand that faculties of Chinese cultivate future academics who conduct research on literary works and literary writings, not writers. This type of concept has now gradually become a norm. Nowadays, not too many young people would study in the faculties of Chinese with the aspiration to become a writer. Writers would have already entered the workforce at an earlier stage of life. However, another party of people holds the view that not only can writing be taught, but also writers can be nurtured through education. Similar to intensively specialized professionals such as lawyers and architects, who attain their degrees through specialized programmes in universities, writing can be a type of specialized profession that deserves recognition, too. In the U.S., most writers hold a master’s degree in creative writing, and they usually return to universities to teach creative writing. This has formed an interesting cycle, such that more and more writers with creative writing degrees are produced and that the faculties of creative writing in universities continue to expand, gradually leading to an unprecedented development trend. According to MFA vs. NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction edited by writer Chad Harbach (2014) from the United States, there are two camps in the world of novels in the U.S. today. One is the “Creative Writing Department”, prevalent in various universities; the other one is the “New York camp”, rooted in the Manhattan publishing industry. In other words, one is “academicism” while the other one is freelance writers. The two major camps are mutually confrontational, while their writings also head in different directions. There is a free and glamourous market on the one hand, and a simplistic ivory tower on the other hand. It is certain that in terms of quantity, academician writers across the nation have gained the upper hand. So, why are there so many writers entered campus and started teaching? The root of it is the “money” issue. Ha Jin wrote in the appendix of his work, The Writer as Migrant 在他鄉寫作, “Literary writers should have a stable income so

A Discussion on the Teaching of Creative Writing in the Writing Classes…

45

that they can survive failures in the market.” While in the dialogue with Wu Mingyi, he also pointed out, “In the U.S., the environment for survival is not quite the same. No matter how successful he is, it is quite possible that he fails to produce any work after three or five years and loses the title of writer. Sometimes, even when you have published an excellent book, the publisher is crestfallen when the sales fall short of the ideal. If you do not have a formal job, the publisher would not be too willing to publish your work. I believe this is the actual case. After considering the various situations, it should be better to have a formal job, whatever sort of a job it is” (Cui 2017) Coincidentally, a dialogue between Donald Hall and Ezra Pound has been recorded in the book MFA vs. NYC, which precisely pointed out the relationship between literary writing and teaching at university: Hall: At present, American poets are primarily teachers. As you see it, what is the relationship between teaching in university and writing poetry? Pound: The cause is economic. One has to afford to pay the rent. (Harbach 2014, 5)

Of course, those who do not teach in university have become freelance writers in the “New York Camp” or have gained recognition in the market for a long time and have made some fortunes; or they may have specialized in a particular genre and are fully confident entering the market. They need not worry about paying the rent. With such a close association with “money”, how did the teaching of creative writing in America gain such prestige worldwide? And how do they train up cohort after cohort of outstanding writers who eventually return to campus? In China, writers not only have difficulties earning a living; writers rarely take the initiative to teach in colleges. From my point of view, creative writing specialisation and the writing classes prevalent in colleges in China are in the early stages of exploration. In the current prevailing trend of developing applied undergraduate programmes, as college teachers and writers, we need to seriously consider how to link up the industry writing, and how to conduct innovative teaching of writing.

2 Old Warriors Never Die: The Prominence of Creative Writing In recent years, war veterans have often attracted extensive attention from American society because of the Gulf War. The world may speculate that they have undergone such horrors on battlefields. How would these war veterans face their mental world? They have returned from the battlefields, and many of them have great difficulty integrating into society. They may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), so they can only join the Veterans Mutual Aid Association. However, quite a number of war veterans have trodden alternative paths and chosen to write about their psychological burdens. Kevin Powers and Phil Klay are some of the representatives. They have both performed military service in Iraq for one year and have witnessed the cruelty of war in person. Kevin Powers published the novel The Yellow Birds in 2012

46

W. Z. Wang

and narrated his personal experience in the War of Iraq. Once published, the book triggered wide discussions and was shortlisted as a finalist in the American National Book Award. Phil Klay published his collection of short stories Redeployment in 2012. All twelve short stories, with no exceptions, focus on the state of existence of American soldiers on battlefields. The collection of short stories won the American National Book Award in 2014. With All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen Nichts Neues) as a start, it seems that all portrayals of the depression from war and the descriptions of war are similar. War has such strange yet similar powers that influence one’s course of life. After discharge, Kevin Powers returned to campus and attained a master’s degree in creative writing at the University of Texas, Austin. As for Phil Klay, he enrolled in the Master’s Degree in Creative Writing at the Hunter College of the City University of New York after his return from Iraq. At present, they are active in the literary world in America in their capacity as war veterans. In fact, it has long become a tradition for war veterans to return to the campus to pursue creative writing degrees; this is a good opportunity for them to reintegrate into society. To trace back to the origin, war may have implicit significance to the flourishing creative writing field in the U.S. After the Second World War, there was an unprecedented development in tertiary education in the U.S. The number of tertiary institutions soared; correspondingly, the number of degree-granting academic disciplines also increased, giving rise to writing classes. Furthermore, in 1944 the U.S. Congress enacted the “The G.I. Bill of Rights” to ensure the proper placement of war veterans after the war. The Bill involved offering the veterans with education subsidy that aims at helping service members whose education has been interrupted by their military service to continue their studies on campus. The Bill has changed several millions of war veterans’ post-war lives and triggered a wave of veterans returning to college. Due to the interruption of war, many veterans have missed the best time for learning professional knowledge, so they have no choice but to choose some academic disciplines with lower professional requirements and, thus, creative writing programmes. Under the guidance of their teachers, these veterans trace back their memories to face their darkest nightmares. They were guided to express the sights and scenes they experienced during the war in literary forms, thus giving rise to some of the finest war literature. It is evident that the prominence of creative writing came from its origin. With regard to this, the University of Iowa, which is crucial to the literary world in the U.S., cannot be neglected. During the Great Depression, the University of Iowa, famous for academic freedom and imagination, nurtured numerous artists in painting, music composition, and writing to offer some gaiety to those depressing times. The creative writing project of the University of Iowa began to develop on the right track under such cultural and artistic enrichment. In 1931, Mary Hoover Roberts’ collection of poems, “Paisley Shawl”, was the first master’s degree dissertation in creative writing that gained recognition from the University. Roberts was then followed by writer Wallace Stegner and poet Paul Engle. Engle’s master’s degree dissertation was a collection of poems entitled Worn Earth, which garnered The Yale Younger Poets Prize in 1932. It was the University of Iowa’s first formally published master’s

A Discussion on the Teaching of Creative Writing in the Writing Classes…

47

dissertation in the category of poetry. In the 1930s, the Dean of Arts, Norman Forester, promoted the development of the creative writing programme. In 1937, when Paul Engle joined the teaching staff in the School at the University, he endeavoured to found the Iowa Writer Workshop. In 1943 he became the head of the department (Earnshaw 2017, 12). In the two following decades, under the management of Engle, the Iowa Writer Workshop gradually reached its climax and attracted many famous writers to teach there. Most of the students of the programme became professional writers, and they went to various universities to lead creative writing programmes. As such, creative writing as an academic discipline began to grow in the U.S. At present, the originator of the Iowa Writer Workshop still ranks number one on the chart of professional creative writing programmes throughout the U.S. In retrospection, it can be said that Paul Engle has laid the foundation for creative writing in the U.S. and the development of creative writing throughout the world.

3 The Seeds Sown by the IWP Paul Engle had a close connection with China. He was the husband of renowned Chinese writer Nieh Hualing 聶華苓. He often travelled in China with his wife and had exchanges with many Chinese writers. He wrote a collection of poems entitled Images of China. During his 25-year tenure as head of the Department, the number of students of the Iowa Writer Workshop reached a new milestone and began to expand internationally. In 1967, Engle and Nieh Hualing jointly organised the International Writing Program (IWP), in which writers from different countries are invited to write, attend lectures, and teach on campus every year. Amongst these excellent writers from all over the world, Chinese writers are the least negligible group. Among the most significant writers in the contemporary Chinese literary world, almost all of them have participated in the IWP of the University of Iowa. Since 1979, more than 90 Chinese writers have been to Iowa. Some of their names are familiar to us: Mo Yan 莫 ⾔, Wang Anyi 王安憶, Yu Hua 余華, Ge Fei 格非, Su Tong 蘇童, Bei Dao 北島, Can Xue 殘雪, Bai Xianyong ⽩先勇, Dung Kai-Cheung 董啟章……their novels, poems and drama involve various creative fields with varying backgrounds of daily living. However, these have not obstructed their immersion in literary thoughts on the lush green campus of Iowa. No doubt, the experience of participation in the International Writing Program has widened the literary perspective of Chinese writers. Quite a number of writers started making intentional changes in their literary creations after their return to China. At that time, we would not have thought that the names mentioned above would have become the pillars in the Chinese literary world three decades later. In the early twenty-first century, they have become vital members of academia at the rise of the creative writing profession in China. Colleges in China do have a tradition of teaching writing. In fact, almost every university has its writing classes. The idea that “faculties of Chinese do not nurture

48

W. Z. Wang

writers” was fully reckoned with since the Anti-Japanese War. Then, how did teaching come into practice in the relevant writing classes? From the 80 s of the last century, literary writing was only a type of genre theory dependent upon “the fundamentals of writing”. It had not reached the practical stage where students could engage in writing yet. In reality, teachers would give a brief introduction of different genres such as poetry, novels, prose, drama, etc., in class, and there were no sessions for writing practices nor discussions. However, since the 80 s, the status of writing has been elevated. The universities made writing classes independent from the “Fundamentals of Writing”, or offered as electives in which specialised teaching materials were taught. Along with these changes, some teaching materials became available on the market, including Wenxue Xiezuo ⽂學 寫作 (Literary Writing) edited by Zhang Wentian 張⽂⽥ (Peking University Press, 1986), Wenxue Xiezuo Xue ⽂學寫作學 (Literary Writing as an Academic Discipline) edited by Peng Kaiqi 彭愷奇 et al. (Central South University, 1995 edition), Wenti Xiezuo ⽂體寫作 (Genre of Writing)” edited by Chen Jiamin 陳佳民 (Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 1999 edition) (Liu 2005) and so on. Despite the change of view toward writing classes in colleges, some deviations still exist, which can be reflected from three perspectives: the managers, teachers, and students. To the managers, they adhere to one concept: instead of facing the unknown, it would be better to take a more practical approach. As an educational institution for nurturing talents, colleges would eventually need to fulfil the market’s demands for human resources. Given this, the managers would be pleased to nurture professionals with compatible writing skills. However, this notion of “writing skills” is not the same as that in the literary context. Instead, they have to master the writing skills of various practical writings such that they can complete various jobs assigned by their employers. In this situation, literary writing is useless. Therefore, the managers would place a greater emphasis on practical writing in education instead of the seemingly meaningless education in literary writing. To teachers, literary writing is somewhat unfamiliar. While teachers in college mostly have received rigorous academic training and immersed themselves in writing meticulous scholarly papers in their specialized field for years, they may have insufficient experience in creating literary works. Practice is the most important part of the teaching of creative writing; therefore, it requires teachers to utilize their own experience in creating literary works to teach students writing knowledge. From this perspective, the teachers of writing courses should not only be teachers, but also professional writers. Due to the change of view toward university writing courses, teachers may have insufficient means and experiences in teaching; the students would be affected subconsciously. If the managers take an imbalanced approach, students might be discouraged to pursue their dreams of creating literary works and put their best effort into practical writing for employment instead; teachers would be disinterested in teaching while the students would not pay much attention to the teachers or the teaching materials in class. The three of them co-exist, and they are interrelated. They influence one another to generate the butterfly effect. This situation is indeed the reality that occurs in most of the writing courses at universities in China.

A Discussion on the Teaching of Creative Writing in the Writing Classes…

49

Due to the various issues of the traditional writing classes, the intellectuals start to resort to the studies of creative writing in the West. In recent years, there has been a trend for colleges to employ writers to serve as professors and allow the writers to participate in the teaching and research of literary writing. For example, Bi Feiyu 畢⾶宇 is invited by Nanjing University, Jia Ping’ao 賈平凹 by Northwest University, Wang Anyi by Fudan University, and Yan Lianke 閻連科 by the Renmin University of China, etc. Unlike past arrangements in which writers were invited to give talks or to act as writer-in-residence, those writers are employed as faculty members of the universities, and they enjoy the social network on campus. Having the foundation of qualified teachers established, creative writing begins to flourish in China. In 2009, Ge Hongbing 葛紅兵, Professor of Chinese at Shanghai University, organised the Creative Writing Centre of Shanghai University with the vision to offer undergraduate creative writing programmes. In 2010, the master’s degree in creative writing at Fudan University, headed by writer Wang Anyi admitted its first cohort of 12 students. The Faculty of Chinese of the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies began to admit undergraduate students in Chinese Language and Literature (Creative Writing) in 2012, which is the first undergraduate programme specialising in creative writing in China. In 2014, Peking University also launched a master’s degree in creative writing with the aim to nurture talents in practical writing. Meanwhile, in the same year, the Faculty of Arts of the Renmin University of China started to admit students of creative writing. Different from other universities’ creative writing programmes, the creative writing programmes at the Renmin University of China only admit young writers who have already achieved certain accomplishments in creative writing; therefore, their expected teaching outcomes are different from other colleges. Subsequently, a number of colleges in China successively launched creative writing programmes, or even founded a school of creative writing. It is worth mentioning that this phenomenon does not only happen to prestigious universities in China. This is happening in many regional undergraduate intuitions, too. For example, Chongqing College of Mobile Communication established a programme in creative writing with a focus on practical and applied creative writing, which is different to other intuitions. It is believed that, along with the gradual development of literary pedagogy and higher education, more colleges in China will launch creative writing programmes; there will be more writer-turned-educators returning to campus where they guide people through the paths they took.

4 Sensory Literature: Senses of Sight, Hearing, Taste, Feeling and the Mind During the development of creative writing in China in the past decade, educators in literary writing have gradually understood “what it is” (the concept and origins of creative writing), “what to teach” (the course set-up and course standard of creative

50

W. Z. Wang

writing); but the question of “how to teach” (teaching methods for creative writing) remains unclear. How to effectively teach writing without compromising writing traditions in China? First of all, the strengths of teaching creative writing in the West can be widely adopted. In the West, creative writing is mainly taught through two modes: Workshop and Seminar. The two modes have different sizes of audiences and are mutually complementary in terms of content. Unlike common university lectures, 10 to 20 students would sit in a circle in the centre of the classroom in a workshop. As the organiser, the teacher would stand in front of the students or sit in the middle of the circle, which resembles the ancient storytelling tradition around a bonfire, and the class begins in form of a discussion. Ha Jin mentioned in an interview, “At the postgraduate level, there is no need for textbooks. Textbooks are for undergraduates. There are similar teaching materials within China. The perspective of narration, dialogues and so on. But poets and novelists usually do not read these; their teachings will base entirely upon their own experiences. They will require you to read many works that they select for you” (Zhu 2017). No teaching materials, no fixed teaching steps; there will only be a certain theme or a specific book. The teacher will guide students to develop an association of ideas and discuss a theme or book to stimulate their thoughts and, thus, the arguments. Workshops place greater emphasis on the mutual cooperation and discussion between the teachers and students while seminars focus on the speaker, who mainly shares his or her experience and answers questions. Compared to workshops, the scale of seminars seems larger, with usually no less than 20 persons and as many as 200 persons. The speaker(s) would usually be a non-faculty expert(s) or writer(s). There may be one or more speakers delivering talks on a specific theme. After delivering the speech, there shall be an exchange session or a question-and-answer session. This mode undoubtedly increases the students’ chances to have in-depth conversations with magnates of the industry or experienced writers. Students can ask for advice directly from the writers, which is helpful for students to solve various issues that they may encounter in their practical writing process. However, the teaching mode of writing classes in colleges in China is still based primarily on the teachers and, secondarily, the students. The students would only listen, and they rarely have the chance to exchange and discuss. Nevertheless, it would be impracticable to “replicate” the Western creative writing pedagogy. Firstly, the teaching facilities and environment in colleges in China have yet to be up to par with the objective requirements for organising workshops and seminars. Secondly, the manpower of teachers and writers clearly cannot cover all tertiary institutions; writing classes will eventually become a contest amongst the prestigious institutions only. In my opinion, under the current environment of writing classes in tertiary institutions, the approach of “sensory teaching” can be adopted. Understanding the essence of literature is crucial for developing its own features. But what is the essence of literature? It has been well said by scholar Hu Xiaozhen 胡曉真, “Literature is the expression of feelings and of mind. It is the integration of imagination, fabrication, application and reality. It is a way to face life. It is an interlocking joint among persons to persons, persons to objects, and persons to

A Discussion on the Teaching of Creative Writing in the Writing Classes…

51

history. It is also the art of rhetoric. The interpretation of literature is the in-depth study of the conveyance of sentiments, sounds, scenes, and even smells carried out by the details of texts; the exploration of humanities and the entangled minds” (Hu 2017, 7). Hu Xiaozhen took the perspective of a literary researcher to explain the subtleties of literature. Nevertheless, he has unveiled some parts of the truth: literature is an expression of the senses of sight, hearing, taste, feelings, and mind. In the world of literature, it is applicable to any means of expression, whether literary creation or literary research. Literary writing often requires the use of sensory systems of the whole body or the mastery of one or several. For example, Perfume (Das Parfüm) of Patrick Süskind is about the sense of smell, and My Name is Red (Benim Adım Kırmızı) of Ferit Orhan Pamuk portrays colours and concerns the sense of sight. Therefore, during the course of teaching, teachers can use their senses as the gateway to put themselves into their students’ shoes. With the integration of related theoretical knowledge into the practices, they can achieve unexpected results. Take the creative writing pedagogy of the Department of Chinese and History of the City University of Hong Kong as an example. Despite that the university does not offer any creative writing programmes, there is a core course “Chinese Creative Writing” in the curriculum of the Master of Arts in Chinese programme. The course is taught by Hong Kong writer Ma Ka Fai. According to the course outline, the course is delivered in four forms: lecture, tutorial, discussion presentation and final presentation. The lectures are delivered by the instructor, and in the tutorials, students are to raise questions, interact, and conduct group discussions, followed by a 500word discussion report written by each student which summarises and describes the main points and the details of the discussions. By the end of the semester, each student is to submit 5,000-word creative prose or novel under a theme. Same as a seminar, there is a theme for each class. these different themes are all related to the senses. After attending the last class, the course unfolds itself as a unified symphony of sensory that happens once a semester. The main sections would be observation of all directions; the eyes: the mysterious colours; the ears: the trivial sounds; the nose: the subtle smells; the tongue: the allure of the taste buds; the body: the weight of the universe; the mind: the waves in minds; gender: the actual differences between men and women; identity: the power of status. The theme sets a framework for the topics to be discussed. A fixed selection of books is used for lectures, discussion, and writing practices. Compared to the boundless exploration of workshops, this is easier to enhance the sense of presence for students and anchor their attention so that the teaching will become more efficient.

5 Conclusion In Europe and the U.S., creative writing has a history of seventy years. Under the influence of the literary explosion and the World War, it has become a mature academic discipline with a comprehensive system to nurture talents. From undergraduate to postgraduate students, from bachelor’s degree to doctoral degree, from the choice

52

W. Z. Wang

of genres (poetry, novel, prose, drama and so on) for dissertation to other decisions, creative writing can fulfil the learner’s needs in different aspects and suffices to be respected as other traditional academic disciplines. Perhaps from the viewpoint of conventional academic disciplines, creative writing is still a new discipline. The foundation of creative writing is not firm yet, and it has been overly marketized. This implies premature demise. The English creative writing programme launched by the Department of English of the City University of Hong Kong was discontinued in 2015. This caused uproar in the industry. Madeleine Thien, a Canadian novelist who wrote the book Do Not Say We Have Nothing was a faculty member of that programme. She frankly said that the discontinuation of the master’s degree programme in creative writing at the City University was caused by internal and external complicated politics. It is undeniable that creative writing is obstructed throughout the world by such issues as limited revenues, lack of funding, disdain by the management etc. Particularly in tertiary institutions in China, creative writing is a young academic subject. When the central government has yet to give full recognition (in tertiary institutions where creative writing programmes are launched, the conferment of degree has to rely on a mature specialism in Chinese language and literature), strides forward cannot be exceedingly big. Educators need to consider how to teach creative writing in a unique way under the framework of college writing classes, so as to promote creative writing studies and to grow this sapling of creative writing into a big tree.

References Cui, Shunhua 崔舜華. 2017. Ha Jin duitan Wu Mingyi 哈⾦對談吳明益 [A conversation between Ha Jin and Wu Mingyi]. Jiemian News 界⾯新聞, 23 February. http://www.jiemian.com/article/ 1130599.html Earnshaw, Steven. 2017. The handbook of creative writing. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Harbach, Chad. 2014. MFA vs NYC: The two cultures of American fiction. Farrar: Straus and Giroux Hu, Xiaozhen 胡曉真. 2017. Mingqing wenxue zhong de xinan xushi 明清⽂學中的西南敘事 [Sinophone literary writings in Southwestern China during the Ming and Qing dynasties]. Taipei: National Taiwan University Press 國⽴臺灣⼤學出版中⼼ Liu, Haitao 劉海濤. 2005. Zouxiang xin shiji de wenxue xiezuo jiaocai ⾛向新世紀的⽂學寫作 教材 [Toward a new generation of teaching materials for literary writing]. Blog. http://zjliuht. bokee.com/2321010.html Luo, Wenhua 羅⽂華 and Zhou, Huaizong 周懷宗. 2014. Gaoxiao zhongwen xi weishen me buneng peiyang zuojia ⾼校中⽂系為什麼不能培養作家 [Why departments of Chinese in tertiary institutions cannot nurture writers]. People Digest ⼈民⽂摘 4: 35 Zhu, Youke 朱又可. 2017. Ha Jin: Wo zai Meiguo daxue li jiao xiezuo 哈⾦: 我在美國⼤學裡教 寫作 [Ha Jin: My teaching of writing in american universities]. Southern Weekly 南⽅周末, 8 June

Basic Teaching of Creative Writing as a “Pool of Inspiration”: A Discussion Starting from the Undergraduate Teaching of Drama and Film Arts in the Creative Writing Programme Sun Hui-Xin Abstract The study of the definition of “creative writing” and the nurturing of talents can be pursued on two levels: first, it can be studied as a newly independent academic discipline, and, second, as a specialized required subject or as an elective in other relevant disciplines. As a new independent discipline, creative writing programmes have gradually been set up in some tertiary institutions, mainly focusing on education and teaching at the master’s degree level; while as a foundation course of relevant disciplines, the role which creative writing courses play at the undergraduate level cannot be neglected. On one hand, it is fundamental and directional, reflecting common knowledge and basic principles which allow students to have understanding and choice in the relevant aspects in their subsequent work or studies. On the other hand, it reflects its function as a “pool of inspiration” for creative writing in the broader sense of writing, which stimulates more abundant writing outcomes in the broader sense. Therefore, creative writing programmes and relevant training have been generally set up and used under drama and film subjects. In long-term pedagogical practice, drama and film subjects have formed more complete pedagogical experience in creative writing, which forms the “pool of inspiration” for the pedagogical methodology for creative writing at the undergraduate level. This paper shall comb through undergraduate pedagogy in drama and film in creative writing programmes as a “pool of inspiration” from the three aspects of causes and aims, methods and logic, interaction and effects, and shall summarize the methods formed and the directional outlook. Keywords Creative writing · Pool of inspiration · Drama · Film studies There is an intricate relationship between creative writing and writing for drama and film. Take Mainland China as an example, Fudan University’s creative writing came under the auspices of the drama (creative writing direction) specialization of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, leading to the award of a Master of Fine Arts degree. Nanjing University’s creative writing course was under the H. X. Sun (B) Artistic Theory Specialism, The Central Academy of Drama, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_5

53

54

H. X. Sun

drama (creative writing) specialism of the School of Arts, leading to the award of a Master of Fine Arts degree. Peking University’s creative writing specialism was first launched jointly by the Department of Chinese and the School of Journalism and Broadcasting, which led to the award of a Master of Arts degree; while change was made in 2017 for it to be jointly offered by the Department of Chinese and School of Fine Arts, leading to the award of the Master of Fine Arts degree. Drama and film were upgraded in 2011 as a first-level academic discipline in fine arts. Before then, it has been classified under literature as a second-level discipline in drama and film literature, and graduates were awarded a degree in arts. Whether it is considered to be creative writing classified under literary writing in fine arts, or artistic screenwriting to be classified under the literary subject, it demonstrates the complicated, intertwining and inseparable relationship between the two. More professional disciplinary studies tend to delineate their similarities and differences, but it is undeniable and not negligible that creative writing and screenwriting are a set of twins. In fact, it is possible for creative writing and screenwriting to be mutually inclusive. For creative writing to possibly cover screenwriting, as pointed out by Zhang Yiwei, broader connective relations should be established and borders of disciplinary theories of contemporary literature should be broadened; but at present, “the exchange between ‘creative writing’ and drama subjects is delayed” (Zhang 2020a, b, c), this not only “betrays the original intention for nurturing artistic talents for the discipline of the fine arts”, but also let “graduates in ‘creative writing’” lost “broader platform for professional practice”, which breaks the “dynamic balance” of the “pedagogical aims, employment direction and market needs” (Zhang 2020a, b, c). There is a richer and more diverse possibility for screenwriting to cover creative writing. From the start of screenwriting to becoming a professional subject in tertiary education, training in creative writing has been included in the subject, 3 to stimulate creative potential and imagination. In the current research, creative writing and screenwriting are often separated from each other. This paper shall return to their starting points and shall set a foothold on the influence and functions of creative writing courses on screenwriting to analyze their existence as a “pool of inspiration”.

1 Professional Direction of “Pool of Inspiration” Before making an in-depth investigation, first of all, we must clarify the meaning of a “pool of inspiration”. What are the aims of creative writing courses or the relevant training in the specialism in screenwriting? What ideal effects are to be achieved? In other words, what is the professional direction? In the Stan Lai on Creativity, Stan Lai summarized a model of a “creativity pyramid” by consolidating his years of creative and teaching experience. He quoted the definition of “creativity” by Robert J. Sternberg and Todd I. Lubart, psychology professors in the USA, that, “Creativity is the ability to produce works. These works are new (that is, original and unpredictable) and appropriate (that is, suiting some

Basic Teaching of Creative Writing as a “Pool of Inspiration”: …

55

purpose), which suits the limitations set by their targets” (Lai 2011, 22). Stan Lai merged “new” and “appropriate” and called them “the two mysterious parts of creativity”; they can also be called “desire” and “expression”, “conception” and “execution”, “imagination” and “integration ability”, “perceptual work” and “rational work”, “inspiration” and “production”. In short, it is the “creative” and “ability” in “creativity”. The two parts are used by Stan Lai as the two major parts in his “creativity pyramid”, viz. fields for training “wisdom” and “living” and fields for training “method” and “art”. Not a single one can be omitted, but Stan Lai pointed out that, the current educational system often separated the two, “Education all over the world attaches importance to the right side of the postcard, i.e., ‘method’, or even teach only ‘skills’ on the right side”; while “wisdom” and “living”, which are more important, have been forgotten. The aforementioned sufficiently demonstrates the existing issues today. In increasingly professionalized disciplinary training, screenwriting mainly stresses training on “methods”, “skills”, and “standards”, which teaches a type of professionalized and standardized writing method, such as “substance”, “inspiring event”, “plot layout”, “principles on the portrayal of villains” (McKee 2014, 1) mentioned in screenwriting for television and film; while5 drama writing talks about “conflict”, “contradiction”, “event” etc. The basis and source of all such skills are observations and feelings about living, which is the left half of the diagram above: living, wisdom and inspiration from the content. Without such “content”, all the professional “forms” on the right side would have nothing to attach to and to come into play. This is what it means for creative writing programmes, and its relevant training serves as a “pool of inspiration” for screenwriting for drama, film and television, as they carry the roles on the right half of Stan Lai’s “creativity pyramid”. It demonstrates that through writing, students encounter life, record the details, express their feelings, and preliminarily absorb objective existence as internal knowledge to pursue original, raw and intuitive creative works; with this as a basis, their deeper inspiration, conception and creative desire will be ignited. In concrete terms, there are three professional directions for the “pool of inspiration”. Firstly, students have to be assisted to turn from writing to fulfill examination requirements to artistic writing. University freshmen are mostly deep-rooted with the ideas of writing to fulfill examination requirements, i.e., they have to rely on flowery syntax, literary set phrases, historical allusions, and habitually conclude the “key idea”, making effort to give a “theme” to all the words written; however, this is not the focus of problems. The problem is, there is a void behind these elegantly written pieces. As a “pool of inspiration”, creative writing programmes and the relevant training would firstly need to accomplish this hugely difficult task, i.e., to free students from the lock and key of writing to fulfill examination requirements, and to allow students to actually enter into artistic writing or professional writing. In the actual writing, there is no “format” that must be adopted and no essential “theme” whatsoever, while existing methods and standards can be surpassed; the only objective is to portray and reveal the human soul as far as possible with sincere, rigorous and substantial speech.

56

H. X. Sun

Secondly, students have to be guided to build sensibility toward living. Observing daily living is a form of frequent training for writing; not every type of observation could induce feelings that would ignite inspiration for writing. The endpoint for training to observe daily living is not just to “be able to see”, but to “be able to sense” things in the sensory organs, and to “be able to understand” them in the mind, such that it will be an all-rounded sensory experience in the body and mind. Therefore, in the “Preparation for Script/Screenplay Creation” in the “Elementary Course for Writing of Script/Screenplay” of the Central Academy of Drama, students’ narration and writing of a piece of prose is not purely a record of an event, it is about the feelings brought about by recording the event: “About fear and sense of security” concerns “the sense of touch, smell and hallucination” (Yang and Zhang 2013, 1) etc. Therefore, there is significance in guiding students to pay attention to and record their feelings about living. This will not only open up their perspective but will also build up an early archive of writing materials. At the same time, students’ basic writing ability has to be trained. As sayings go, “I write my heart”, the “heart” is certainly important, but how to “write” with my hand to deliver such feelings is an indispensable ability. However, it is worth noting that, the standard of elegant syntax does not apply in this instance, instead the standard should be the degree of living that is reflected through syntax. Similarly, the standard for judging the actual effects of drama as pointed out by the American playwright Arthur Miller, “Any form of drama is a kind of technique, which is to turn subjective feelings through a public symbol into a kind of way to understand things … basing on the original imagination and feelings, we can judge how much has been lost or distorted during the change.” (Martin 1987, 151). In summary of the above, for creative writing programmes and relevant training to serve as a “pool of inspiration”, it is an inevitable step to move toward professionalized writing.

2 The Logic of Implementation for the “Pool of Inspiration” After clarifying the meaning and professional direction of creative writing programmes and relevant training as a “pool of inspiration”, integration shall be made with experience in pedagogical practice to discuss the logic of its implementation. The foundation for the implementation logic of the “pool of inspiration” is the creative system by groups in workshops. Workshop has currently become a phenomenon of scale in the studies and practice of creative writing in China. As pointed out in the ‘2019 Annual Observation on Chinese Creative Writing Studies’, “the continued in-depth studies of workshop experience and theoretical studies in China and overseas, the main line of creative writing practice and studies for the year shall be constituted”, also, “upon the basis of workshop studies, studies on workshop teaching experiment consciously focus on the development and implementation

Basic Teaching of Creative Writing as a “Pool of Inspiration”: …

57

of concrete courses and activities in creative writing pedagogy in China” (Liu and Zhang 2020, 65); at the same time, it is the best method for teaching creative writing, as pointed out by Xu Daojun 許道軍 in Fifteen Lessons in Creative Writing, “Creative writing workshop is a landmark in the teaching method for creative writing. Creative writing workshop is directed by creative writing or creative writing education, discussions or related works as such, they are organised in group activities with a certain number of participants”. Compared to the teaching of traditional writing, it has such advantages as “multiple feedback/brainstorming”, “professional feedback”, “timely feedback/simultaneous trial-and-error and error correction”, “would not explain unless one is interested”, “switching of objective”, “switching of themes” (Xu and Feng 2019, 280). In the practice of teaching drama, film and television, the group-based creative system in workshops usually materializes in the form of small group teaching, roundtable discussion, steered by works, etc. Based on the principle above, the logic for implementing creative writing programmes as a “pool of inspiration” can be divided into three stages, viz. “Preparticipation of reading and appreciation”, “Main participation by mind and body”, “Ultimate participation in writing and critique”.

2.1 Pre-participation of Reading and Appreciation Accumulation by reading is an essential pre-requisite for creativity, while effective appreciation is a pre-requisite for it to take effect. On how to pursue “reading and appreciation”, the answer given by Xu Daojun is “to read like a writer”. Creative reading should not stop at external analysis, instead, we should come out of the mode of reading traditional literature, and instead make writing the main subject to achieve the generation of artistic practice by nature in creative writing. In the portrayal of characters, we delve deep into the character’s feelings and relationships etc. Meanwhile, Xu Daojun pointed out, “In the realm of reading, the focus is on literature; however, it should not be limited to the only corner of literature; the scope should be widened to cover multimedia, the mix of types, and mix of genre.” (Xu 2019). If we continue to see this according to the principles of Stan Lai’s “creativity pyramid”, on the one hand, one can accumulate the learning and borrowing of artistic forms through reading and observing widely, on the other hand, one can form feelings and understanding on the contents of living. Therefore, on a macroscopic view of reading appreciation, whether it is fiction, script, biography, documentary literature, society news, feature articles, drama, film & television, or any format of online writings, new media webisodes, etc., so long as the content truly reflects and shows a living, it can be a source of material for the “pool of inspiration”. Take the fiction Laoshi Haomei ⽼師好美 as an example. the author, Yan Geling 嚴歌苓 adapted her novel based on the 2007 murderous news of a love affair between a student and a teacher in No. 6 Middle School. The film Mystery 浮城謎事 was adapted from a lengthy post on Tianya Community 天涯社區 in 2009 entitled This Is How I Punish a Cheating Man And His Mistress 看我如何收拾賤男和⼩三. The drama One Fine

58

H. X. Sun

Day 美好的⼀天, presented the narratives about the daily life of 19 ordinary persons; the ideal of the director, Li Jianjun 李建軍, was to create a “commoners’ theatre” to explore theatrical aesthetics through daily living. The above outcomes demonstrate the importance of reading and appreciating widely.

2.2 Main Participation by Mind and Body The main process for implementing the “pool of inspiration” can be divided into two aspects, i.e., the mind and the body. Participation of the mind attaches importance to expression and exchange by way of writing or dialogue while participation of the body attaches importance to physical performance and presentation of scenes. The two should be an organic combination in the delivery of workshop participants’ highly efficient and all-rounded participation.

2.2.1

Participation of the Mind in Expression and Exchange

According to the successive process, participation of the mind can be classified into three stages, viz. “self-introductory writing with the introduction of a third person as the starting point”, “writing from recollection through the route of sensory experience”, and “writing of scenes with an aim to inspire imagination”.

Self-introductory Writing with the Introduction of a Third Person as the Starting Point Self-introduction is a basic training at the elementary level that has been mentioned both in the “Elementary Course for Script Writing”, which is the teaching material for the literary screenwriting specialism of the Central Academy of Drama, and the “Basic Course of Literary Writing”, which is the teaching material of the literary screenwriting specialism of the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts. However, this is not an ordinary self-introduction of one’s name, but a self-introduction using the introduction of a third person as a starting point. Self-introduction is a commonly used method in writing classes to enhance understanding between teacher and students and amongst the students. It can effectively break the ice during the first class; it helps participants to feel relaxed and is helpful for cultivating a relaxed atmosphere in class which is conducive to mutual trust. But a simple self-introduction lacks fun, while a monologue of self-narration and pouring out about oneself is not helpful for the training in writing. Therefore, self-introduction using the introduction of a third person as a starting point can be adopted in a writing class to bring self-introduction from a point to a plane, and to allow the expansion of the perspective of concern from the self to “my living self”, so that observations, feelings and narration about one’s life can be penetrated into the details. If one introduces

Basic Teaching of Creative Writing as a “Pool of Inspiration”: …

59

oneself using third-person narration, one can observe oneself from the perspective of a bystander. Or one can introduce a relevant person adjacent to oneself by telling an event that took place between the two of them. These can effectively complete a self-introduction process through relatively objective writing.

Writing from Recollection Through the Route of Sensory Experience Sensory writing is extremely strong literary and artistic writing. As Wang Zengqi 汪 曾祺 wrote on the sense of taste, “The characteristics of salted duck’s egg of Gaoyou ⾼郵 are the fine texture, soft egg white (unlike such eggs from other places which are dry, powdery and feels like chewing lime preserve in the mouth) the oily yoke is outstanding which eggs from other places cannot compare”; Bi Feiyu 畢⾶宇 wrote on the sense of touch, “The intensity of pressure in Tui’na 推拿 depends on the depth of feeling, the pressure is rather intense, pressing downwards, vigorous, firm and certainly thorough, which can penetrate deep into the muscles”; German writer, Patrick Suskind, wrote on the sense of smell in Perfume; playwright Wang Huiling 王蕙玲 wrote about food in the film “Eat Drink Man Woman” 飲食男女, etc., sensory writing is an excellent form of presentation. Food and colours appeal to our senses; the impressions penetrate directly into our hearts, feelings and our mental world. Similarly, sensory writing is also an excellent training method, using the sensory experience as a way to write from recollection can guide students to draw from their feelings from past experiences and train their ability to finely express these feelings in writing. Lopsided sensory writing is a means and not an end. Eventually, integrated training which combines the dispersed fragments would be needed, i.e., sensory experience is used as a route for writing from recollection. For instance, when Stan Lai taught a class in 1984 in Taipei Cardinal Tien Cultural College 耕莘⽂教院, “Please express in any way an important experience in your life” was an assignment topic he gave his students. Eventually, the assignment turned out to be the drama, We grew up this way 我們都是這樣長⼤的 directed by Stan Lai with a performance delivered by the School of Theatre Arts of the Taipei National University of the Arts. These recollections shall be preserved in the form of inspiration. Stan Lai’s creative experience in A Dream Like a Dream 如夢之夢 explains the importance of accumulation of inspiration, “… I certainly feel that I am “full of inspirations” when I write, but I would not call it “inspiration” itself, instead it is a high degree of focus of attention. The linkage prior is the most important; the integration of the events that took place the previous night. On the next day, I would only need to focus my attention, and I could ‘output’ everything in my mind onto paper, and combine everything inside into a legitimate form.” The consciousness of previous life experiences is the most important. Therefore, he pointed out, “In order for that kind of inspiration to happen, two events need to take place: (1) many events experienced in my life must already be stored somewhere; (2) a kind of mechanism must be started with an awareness of where to find such events, and which event could be linked up with other events.” “When ‘inspiration’ dawned on me from externally, it would be a spark, a catalyst, instead of an archive. External stories or events can become

60

H. X. Sun

some catalysts, stimulating our internal operation system, but such external stories or events cannot replace the operating system. We can rely only on our own well to obtain water. The volume of water in one’s own well depends on one’s accumulation over the years.” This is the importance of writing to relive our recollections.

Writing of Scenes with an Aim to Inspire Imagination After the end of the training on writing “objectively”, an attempt can be made on the creation of fabricated scenes by motivating imagination to write “subjectively”. Here, the issue of the relation between artistic work and the real world must be clarified. According to semiotics expert, Susanne K. Langer, “Art was the creation of a symbolic form of human feelings”: “The mission of artists is to offer and maintain this fundamental illusion, and to apparently break it away from the real world, and to clearly express its form until it can be accurately and unmistakably consistent with feelings and life” (Langer 1986, 80). Creative work breaks away from the real world but at the same time complies with human feelings, therefore training in the writing of scenes that aims to inspire imagination is required. As to ways to connect the real world with artistic works in the practice of writing, Prof. Zhong Ming 鍾鳴 has offered an excellent method in Elementary Course in Literary Writing ⽂學寫作基礎教程. In the book, an experiment carried out by Elizabeth Loftus, psychologist of Washington State University, was mentioned. She prepared a handbook for each of the 24 participants in the experiment; four of their childhood incidents were recorded in the handbook, three of which were real incidents offered by their family members, and the fourth event was fabricated by Roftus about losing one’s way in a shopping centre. The participants read the handbook and were asked to write the relevant details from memory; in case one could not recall the incident, one would only need to write “I cannot remember this”. A surprising outcome of the experiment is that not only one-fourth of the participants could “recall” themselves losing their way in a shopping centre, but they could also vividly describe many details that had been given. According to Roftus, “The human mind habitually mixes facts and imagination, remade recollections would be taken as actual happenings. This demonstrates the human mind detests emptiness and cannot face the emptiness, therefore, we try to fill everything up” (Zhong 2015). Based on this psychological experiment, Prof. Zhong Ming formulated an interactive lesson, i.e., on the condition of no discussion and exchange, each student recalled and made the best effort to give fine details of three day-to-day incidents, two of which were real scenes in the common experience of the teacher and the students, the third one was the fabrication of a scene in the common experience of the teacher and the students. The effect of this interaction was that, when reviving the incident from memory, students would usually employ imagination to supplement details and to complete the fabricated scene. This process exactly reflected that writing requires imagination, the power to feel, the ability to portray the set details, and the ability to relive the scene. As mentioned by Prof. Zhong Ming, “Human beings have a considerably

Basic Teaching of Creative Writing as a “Pool of Inspiration”: …

61

strong tendency to fabricate things, and the influence is wide”, it is rooted in our mind and instinct and would be ignited with the slightest stimulation.

2.2.2

Performance and Demonstration of Bodily Participation

“Pool of inspiration” not only requires the participation of the mind but also relies on the joining in of the body. As pointed out in the article ‘Ontological outline of creative writing – studies on the practice of writing based on the individual sensory body’, “From the perspective of creative writing, creativity is a fundamental practice for self-actualization by humans. Only when humans accept themselves as practitioners of creativity, they could actually accept the true nature of their own life, and with such a basic principle, they would strive for self-realization. Writing is thus understood to be an acceptance and an act of acceptance of the true nature of creativity by the main body.” (Ge and Wang 2020). According to Russian theatre theorist, Stanislavski, in his acting theory of “psychology – physique”, the mind and the body are at interplay in organic unity. Actors should create the character from the logic of action, to stimulate and find as reflex action the corresponding logic of feelings as well as subconscious psychological state. The reality of the mind is inevitably linked to the reality of the body, while the participation of the mind also needs the participation of the body.

Ultimate Participation in Writing and Critique The above training would eventually require the output of an intrinsic piece of work as an outcome, that is, a piece of narrative prose. In A Course on Prose, Zhang Yiwei combed through the definition of “prose” as a literary form, and spoke highly of it, “A lyrical poem directly portrays the true nature of the quiescence of life, drama concerns conflicts in life, only narrative prose demonstrates the true nature of continuity in the flow of experience.” “What is prose? It is the touchstone of feelings.” “Contemporary prose is the style of writing which expresses the complicated feelings in the heart with modern vernacular.” In the end, she quoted the “three-point principle” which defines prose from Yang Mu’s 楊牧 book, Prose, “There is a definite theme with all aspects covered within a certain length. There is consistent syntax, tidy tone of colour and distinct image. There is a consistent structure with an impeccable plot of twists and turns.” It was also pointed out that Yang Mu opined that “Prose does not preclude such genres of experimental novels, poetry or drama, and invades the territories of other literary types” (Zhang 2020a, b, c, 197). It shows that not only essays portraying characters or recording incidents can be classified as prose, but biographical sketches and outlines of ideas can also be considered as prose. The advantages are the elegant and free characteristics and the tradition of truthful feelings. To be the “pool of inspiration” as the outcome of creative writing of prose, such duties have to be fulfilled. Meanwhile, not only the “writing” is important, the “commentary” process is equally indispensable. “Multiple commentaries on a piece of work” allows the writer to be able to receive more thoughts during the process.

62

H. X. Sun

3 The Interactive Effect of the “Pool of Inspiration” While collecting students’ thoughts and opinions after the creative writing course, the author can sum up three relatively clear tendencies. Firstly, there is a tendency toward expression, exchange and creativity. Students are expected to discuss specific works or topics in class, exchange ideas, and pursue brainstorming; meanwhile, they expect more chances to create their own work. There is a traditional impression that for students who grew up in an examination-based education system, their minds and desire to express themselves would be worn away or suppressed, but in fact, after some “reheating” and given sufficient room for exchange, students would show a strong desire to express in creative works. The author is of the view that in the initial stage of the fundamental teaching of creative writing course, the teacher should offer students sufficient encouragement and recognition, and create and formulate with scientific methods adequate opportunities for students to express and pursue creative work; give directional guidance while students should be left to take initiative, so they can express like water that flows along the way until it reaches the boundless ocean. However, from another perspective, such a tendency would bring along certain inadequacy, i.e., when students’ own foundation is rather shallow, there may not be too much substance available for exchange, therefore, the exchange sessions would mostly become mediocre discussions or even debates; even if there was strong creative desire, it would often turn out to be some twisted venting of one’s own life, or even an indulgence in narcissistic expression, without giving effort to actually revise one’s work and to broaden one’s mind. To avoid the probable issues above, the teacher would need to take proper control of the contents of the lessons. Secondly, there was a tendency toward interaction, participation and games. Compared to the traditional model of lessons where there is a “blackboard behind the lectern and notetaking in front of the lectern”, students are extremely interested in interactive lessons. Games in class that require students to move their bodies would usually have stronger participation of the mind. A student would expect the shadow of some certain “practical experience” in class, or that they might be able to fulfill more solid aims, for instance, on the direction of work, the learning, and discussion in class might eventually take shape to become a piece of work after class; for the direction of practice, the classroom activities might be simulation and rehearsal of some certain practice in society; on ceremonial direction, the classroom activities themselves might form independent meaning, etc. Overall speaking, students expect to quickly see the “meaning” of the lesson. On the one hand, this is a type of teaching practice “with immediate results”; on the other hand, this does not fulfill the principle of delayed satisfaction in education, as short-term learning cannot actually gain in-depth knowledge. In this process, ensuring the achievement of teaching outcomes within the teaching cycle without reducing the interactive games to games for sheer fun would still require the teacher to maintain proper control and balance. Lastly, the tendency to expect commenting on assignments and analysis of set samples. Regarding their own work, students would expect to hear solid comments for

Basic Teaching of Creative Writing as a “Pool of Inspiration”: …

63

improvement; on the overall content of teaching, students would expect to see solid set examples of works. The author considers that this tendency would have to be treated seriously, i.e., this is a type of solidified thinking to expect “set examples” and “model answers” which is a habit from examination-based education. There are no “set examples” or “model answers” in writing; a real piece of work cannot be produced to fulfill some certain “rules”. So, to replace this type of “single-and-exclusive” method for comments and analysis, there can be an introduction to classical works, reading comprehension and discussion, to allow students to discover the issues at a distance from the classical works. It can also be an appreciation of the varying styles and schools, to widen the students’ perspective of appreciation; or it can be a group appraisal of a certain piece of work to widen the scope of variation in appraisal and to allow the generation of some noise in the appraisal, which shall be passed on to the writer for reference comparison and assessment. All in all, caution must be taken when giving out a “model answer” which kills imagination and possibilities. The conclusion above is only faceted, microscopic, or even individual and private experience sharing. Writing is an endless adventure that is risky, curious and alluring; it is hard to offer definition, and harder to determine the ways around; we need to continuously accept new thinking, new matters, and new routes on both the part of the student and the teacher. During course planning for medium and high-level writing courses in drama and screenplay, the writing duties shall be directed at script writing for films, script writing for television drama, writing of a one-act play, writing of theatrical drama, writing of adaptations, etc. The basis of all these would be creative writing courses and the relevant training which will serve as a “pool of inspiration”. Laying a good foundation for the “pool of inspiration” is an important issue that requires continuous exploration in building the infrastructure for writing courses for drama and screenplay.

References Ge, Hongbing 葛紅兵, and Wang, Bingyun, 王冰雲. 2020. Chuangyi xiezuo xue benti lun lungang: jiyu geti de ganxing de shenti benwei de chuangyi Shijian lun xiezuo xue yanjiu. 創意寫作學本 體論論綱——基於個體的感性的身體本位的創意實踐論寫作學研究 [Ontological outline of creative writing: Studies on the practice of writing based on the individual sensory body]. Journal of Xiangtan University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 湘潭⼤學學報(哲學社會科學版) 44 (2): 131 Lai, Stan 賴聲川. 2011. Lai shengchuan de chuangyi xue 賴聲川的創意學 [Creativity of Stan Lai]. Guangxi: Guangxi Normal University Press 廣西師範⼤學出版社 Langer, Susanne K. 1986. Feelings and form [Qinggan yu xingshi 情感與⾏式]. Trans. Liu, Daji 劉 ⼤基, Fu, Zhiqiang 付志強, and Zhou, Faxiang 周發祥. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Press 中國社會科學出版社 Liu, Weidong 劉衛東, and Yonglu Zhang 張永祿. 2020. 2019 nian Zhongguo chuangyi xiezuo yanjiu niandu guancha 2019年中國創意寫作研究年度觀察 [2019 annual observation on Chinese creative writing studies]. China Book Review 中國圖書評論 3: 65

64

H. X. Sun

Martin, R.A. 1987. Arthur Miller on prose [Ase Milei lun ju sanwen 阿瑟·⽶勒論劇散⽂]. Trans. Chen, Ruilan 陳瑞蘭 and Yang, Huaisheng 楊淮⽣. Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company ⽣ 活·讀書·新知三聯書店 McKee, Robert. 2014. STORY: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting [Gushi de jiepou 故事的解剖]. Translated by Dai, Luofen 戴洛棻, Huang, Zhengyuan ⿈政淵 and Xiao, Shaozi 蕭少嵫. Tianjin: Tianjin People Publishing House 天津⼈民出版社 Xu, Daojun 許道軍. 2019. Xiang zuojia yiyang dushu: cong xin piping dao chuangyi yuedu yanjiu 「像作家⼀樣讀書」: 從新批評到創意閱讀——創意寫作活動中的閱讀研究 [‘Reading like a writer’: From new criticism to creative reading– Studies on reading in creative writing activities]. Modern Literary Magazine 當代⽂壇 1: 110 Xu, Daojun 許道軍, and Xiandong Feng 馮現東. 2019. Chuangyi xiezuo shiwu tangke 創意寫作 ⼗五堂課 [Fifteen lessons in creative writing]. Shanghai: Shanghai University Press 上海⼤學 出版社 Yang, Jian 楊健, and Xian Zhang 張先. 2013. Ju benxie zuochu jijiao cheng 劇本寫作初級教程 [Elementary course for script writing]. Beijing: Culture Art Publishing House ⽂化藝術出版社 Zhang, Yiwei 張怡微. 2020a. Gemo yu chuangxin: jianping mawen kaersen xiju 隔膜與創新—— 兼評⾺⽂·卡爾森《戲劇》 [Estrangement and innovation: Commentary on Marvin Carlson’s drama]. General Education Review Issue 通識教育評論 7: 243 Zhang, Yiwei 張怡微. 2020b. Chuangyi xiezuo xueke de lilun jiaohu yu shijian chuangxin: yi Fudan jingyan weili 「創意寫作」學科的理論交互與實踐創新——以復旦經驗為例 [Theoretical exchange and innovative practice of the creative writing subject: The Fudan experience as an example]. Writing 寫作 6: 43 Zhang, Yiwei 張怡微. 2020c. Sanwen ke 散⽂課 [A course on prose]. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press 華東師範⼤學出版社 Zhong, Ming 鍾鳴. 2015. Wenxue xiezuo jichu jiaocheng ⽂學寫作基礎教程 [Elementary course in literary writing]. Beijing: Culture Art Publishing House ⽂化藝術出版社

Creative Writing and Cross-Media Practices from the Sinophone Perspective

Reading for Writing: A Case Study of Multi-Media Presentations of Reading Achievements Ng Mei-Kwan

Abstract With the case study of the teaching of literature reading and writing for a general education course and reference to differentiated instruction and independent exploration, this chapter illustrates how to assist non-Chinese-major students in developing their interests in literature reading by requiring students to use multimedia tools to present their reading achievements. The emphasis on the subjectivity of interactive learning mode helps students develop their interests in reading literature and motivation in learning creative writing. This chapter also explores how this teaching module goes beyond the limits of the conventional literary pedagogy that the form of literary report is confined to texts, and how it helps the post-digital generations, who are accustomed to multi-textualization both in and out of classrooms, to develop multi-intelligences and become lifelong learners who are good at re-construction of meanings of words through images and characters. Keywords Multi-Media · Reading reports · Interactive learning mode · Differentiated instruction · Independent exploration

1 Introduction: Limitations of Written Report in Reading Presentations As it is always known, reading can stimulate learners’ interest in writing and enhance their writing skills. They develop independent thinking as they read and write (Zou 2017). Writing requires skills rather than knowledge, and its process is related to the development of cognitive skills. Thus, activities such as story reading, comprehension, and reasoning can enhance writing efficiency (Celik 2016). Nowadays, the written reading report in the conventional sense, as an approach to present the reading achievements through transmuting reading to writing, not only confines the forms of presentation to printed media, but also the learning, mainly, to the individual level. Such kind of reports also restricts learners to solely using language M. K. Ng (B) Hong Kong Literary Criticism Society, Hong Kong, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_6

67

68

M. K. Ng

(verbal or written) to present their reading achievements directly. Another common reading pedagogy in Chinese-language societies is reading comprehension, which is also the most popular reading method. The classic book concerning methodology for reading How to Read a Book defines this kind of comprehension “activity” as the level of inspectional reading, which teaches students to read through, or even pre-read a text quickly within a certain time limit. Skimming systematically is a usual reading practice (Adler and Van Doren 2014), yet this kind of reading strategy has constraints. Long-termed practices of speed reading, skimming, and pre-reading would diminish the practices of literary-related reading strategies, such as intensive reading and continuous reading, that are beneficial to transmuting reading to writing ability. The biggest problem is the gap between the reading habits of the new digital generations in the twenty-first century and the pedagogy for reading and writing in classrooms (Andrews and Smith 2011). Richard E. Meyer (2021), an expert on multi-media learning, has conducted a number of experiments and research on the effectiveness of multi-media learning which provided a vital reference in the past decade. He applied the theory of educational psychology to prove that the representations of words and images through organisation and integration can facilitate meaningful and cognitive learning. However, many examples he used are related to engineering and sciences, such as learning how an air pump for vehicle tires works or lighting is formed (2003). Few examples related to humanities or liberal studies are mentioned. For the post-digital generations who adapt to multi-textualization, the education for literary reading and writing has to go beyond the constraint of conventional way of literary education through written reading reports and allow them to facilitate writing ability through reading. I have been the Course Coordinator of the subject “Reading and Writing” at the HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education. I set up the learning expectation for the students of the course that they should apply multimedia tools to present their reading achievements. This study will take a first-hand case of multi-media presentation for reading achievements as an example to explore how the interactive learning mode helps non-Chinese-major students to develop their interests in reading and writing in literature and cultivate their learning motivations in creative writing. The case will be analysed in three aspects: 1. How to develop a form of interactive reading reports, which surpasses those in the traditional literary education mode, in order to suit the generation of digital reading’s multi-textualized reading habit. According to the course design, students’ presentation of reading achievements no longer relies on written reports solely. 2. How to consider the demands and advantages of differentiated instruction and independent exploration through literary education. When teachers instruct students to use images and words to construct meanings, their interests in literary reading are enhanced, meanwhile develop to become lifelong learners. 3. How the reading-for-writing approach benefits the course in terms of course effectiveness. Connecting and integrating different visual media and literary readings can promote the application of various perspectives to review literary works by

Reading for Writing: A Case Study of Multi-Media Presentations…

69

then induce the intention of writing, as well as arouse the continuous learning motivation of writing as writers instead of organising words just for emotional expressions.

2 Disconnection Between Reading and Writing Inside and Outside the Classroom The post-digital generation has stultified genre-based language acquisition. In real life, digitalized texts are ubiquitous. The word processing of computers, laptops, and tablets has completely changed the conventional reading and writing mode, which only requires pens and papers as the media. Portable reading devices enable books to become mobile tools for information or entertainment purposes. In fact, electronic mobile tools connected to the Internet around the clock, collaborating with crosstext reading or collaborative reading modes, expand the conventional paper-based reading. The post-digital era does not sentence printed publications to death. On the contrary, the increasingly complex digital reading habits have rescued the fading consumer market of conventional reading (Cardoso, Ganito, and Ferreira 2012). The biggest problem is that the gap between post-digital generations’ reading habits in the twenty-first century and the teaching of reading and writing in the classroom has emerged. Students’ writing is mostly irrelevant to life, so it is understandable why they ask, “What is the point of my undertaking five-paragraph-essay training, or writing to this particular formula, when such kinds of writing do not exist outside the classroom?” (Andrews and Smith 2011, 18). Scholars from England, America, and Australia have realised that writing education needs to be transformed from solely text-based reading mode to multi-media modes. Text digitization and multimodality1 both bring challenges to the pedagogy of reading and teaching. To adapt the reading habits of the digital generation, increasing multi-media interactions to the course requirements for presenting achievements, which surpasses the conventional idea of only using words to present their accomplishments in reading, can help to enhance the confidence and interest in literary reading of the students of the digital generation. “Reading is the activity of seeing, perceiving, comprehending and making sense of all words, sentences or writing with all its elements.” In other words, “Reading is an activity of deriving meaning from written symbols through the collaboration of cognitive behaviours and psychomotor skills” (Celik 2016, 209). Thus signals include not only text, but also images or videos etc. Richard Andrews’s research on writing education development for fostering writers mentioned several major challenges in language education of the post-digital generation: (1) Tiredness of the text-based genre approach, such as simplifying genres with formats, or over-emphasising the form and structure such as worksheets: In the 1

Multimodality refers to diversity of communicative symbols in oral or written communication. Images, sound, characters, colours, spaces, actions, and other multimodal elements appear simultaneously, meanings are constructed by different multimodal, presenting and expressing in common communicative process (Shu 2013).

70

M. K. Ng

past, teaching relied too much on formats and structures, and overlooked purposes and motivations of writing, connection with readers, thought formation and other elements are often more important during the writing process. (2) Exhaustion of targets and product-oriented assessment systems: It overemphasises the use of the assessment systems for business production. This leads to the phenomenon where writing is solely for grading purposes and diminishes the writing atmosphere in the classroom. (3) Disconnection between writing in the classroom and writing outside classroom in reality: Students do not have many opportunities to write once they have completed the writing exercises in classroom. The real life outside the classroom provides works with readers, so they would become more eager to write accurately and connect to reality. (4) Multimodality and its challenges to conventional writing pedagogies: Andrew believes that constructing ideas in writing cannot be generated without the understanding of multimodality. Vision, image, and sound are all simultaneously connected to writing. (5) Since the upcoming era of digitization of text, digital text is no more just an extension of printed text. The way of word processing on computers, laptops, and mobile phones has completely changed the reading and writing mode. People can process information from different interfaces simultaneously. (6) Dearth of creativity across the range of writing genres: Not only do conventional writing of prose, novels, and poems emphasize creativity, but non-fictional and fictional writing also need creativity (Andrews and Smith 2011, 17–28). Based on studies of writing, Andrew’s arguments on these five challenges demonstrate the multimodal characteristic of the post-digital generation.

3 The Reading Habit of the Post-Digital Generation Writing education has over-emphasized grammatical paradigms and limited writing to rhetoric and genre cognition since the 1950s. Later, it began to emphasise personal expression as the foundation of imagination and creative writing. In terms of the usage of language, more focus has been put on real-time practice in the classroom. The possibility of benefiting one’s writing skills through reading in the literary education for Chinese-language writing has not yet been fully explored. The conventional reading report focuses on individual one-way learning; that is, presenting students’ reading achievements without getting feedback. Meanwhile, reading comprehension tends to train students to take inspectional reading as a major reading strategy, that only allows readers to comprehend the assigned texts in a short amount of time, lacking the training of intensive and close literary reading. Students are often required to present their reading achievements through written reports, lacking relevant training on related literature knowledge and usage of literary terminology. Since educators may not be able to address each student’s needs due to their differences in writing and literary knowledge, the gap among the students’ knowledge further widens, but students are still having many difficulties in improving their writing abilities even though they did a lot of reading comprehension. On the other hand,

Reading for Writing: A Case Study of Multi-Media Presentations…

71

since the 1980s, educators of literature have realised the importance of psycholinguistic and discourse patterns as well as the obligation to nurture writers of the next generations. Thus, drafting, editing, group learning, and interacting became more important (2011, 3–5). Entering the twenty-first century, it is imperative to rethink literary education, and to address how to match the inter-textualization characteristics of young people from the digital age to the post-digital age.

4 The Case Study of Presentation of Literary Reading Achievements This case study is based on the course titled “Reading and Writing”, which is a 3credit course for one semester. The objective of the course is to focus on intensive training in literary reading and writing through the interactive learning of “reading” and “writing”. “This course covers masterpieces of different genres, writers, and styles, and it aims to synergise ‘reading’ and ‘writing’. In this course, students are to start off their studies with extensive reading, cultivating students’ reading interests and enhancing their capacity to self-teach. This process also allows them to learn the writing skills for different genres.”2 This course was originally a compulsory course for an associate degree programme in arts. It was also a compulsory course in the curriculum of the Chinese (Honours) programme, which was designed for the HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education when I served as the course coordinator of that programme between 2008–2015. This course is level four in Hong Kong’s educational qualifications framework, equivalent to the literary education in the first-year general courses in universities, so it is connected to the second-year university study. Students do not need to have rich experiences in reading modern literature, but they are required to read literary works on four levels. According to the course outline, there are several learning outcomes. After completing this course, students will be able to: 1. Employ different reading strategies such as intensive reading, continuous reading, repetitive reading, extensive reading, and imaginative reading to analyse how modern and contemporary literary works become masterpieces through the combination of theme, content, intelligence, historical background, language, style, and creativity. 2. Complete high-level reading through text studying, deconstructing, interpreting, and criticising. 3. Equip with the ability to complete the writing process, which starts from conceiving ideas, planning, writing, titling, modifying, and reviewing. They should also be able to use creative thinking and imagination when writing. 4. Write different genres of literary works (e.g., essays or novels). 2

It quotes from the Chinese descriptions on the course information of “Qualifications Framework Level and Credit Assignment Form” for the course titled “Reading and Writing in Chinese” in 2008–2015.

72

M. K. Ng

5. Improve students’ language literacy through reading and writing literature independently. This course transforms written reading reports into the form of a multi-media workshop in groups, and requires students to read thoroughly with reference to the four reading levels3 according to How to Read a Book (Adler and Van Doren 2014). The students are instructed to apply reading strategies such as intensive reading, continuous reading, repetitive reading, extensive reading, and imaginative reading to observe, perceive, understand, analyse, imagine, appreciate, organise, compare and criticise. After that, they presented their reading achievements to their fellow students in form of a workshop. This course helped the students improve their reading ability and expand their reading spectrum. Students would discuss contemporary literary works (see Appendix 1) interactively. The teaching plan designed for the workshop would implement the above-mentioned learning outcomes (1, 2, and 5) from three perspectives: 1. A 30-min presentation in workshop: Each group has five to six students, and they are required to select one novel for presentation in the workshop. Students could use visual instruments or multi-media equipment to demonstrate or adapt a work, or to employ creative ideas for derivative creation based on the multimedia interactive mode. This course has been delivered for over seven years. Students not only used images as media, but they also employed interaction of sound, image, drama, video, mixed media theatre, film, slide show, shadow play, radio drama, recitation, singing, dance, games, magic and so on. Some students composed songs and, even choreography and played magic tricks to present their perceptions and interpretation of the works. Given that students could choose the forms of presentations according to their advantages, some students who were not good at writing could also express their deeper understanding of the literary works. They learned more about literature through creation. 2. The advantage of group presentation is that “students could digest the reading works, and combine it with their personal experiences so as to transform it into self-accepted knowledge; and further deliver self-knowledge to other persons” (Zheng and Huang 2014). Discussion, argument, and negotiation are included in the multimedia information process, which would spark ideas and help students solve problems (Mayer 2003). Through this learning process, students not only would be able to focus on their comprehension of the work, but also learn how emotion and materials transmute into writing through narrative, and how writers think. 3. Students could use appropriate multiple reading strategies to complete high-level literary reading. They are required to start with content and context, and freely select appropriate and unique perspectives to interpret: Any subjects, such as cultural studies, sociology, psychology, philosophy, history, religious studies, and

3

The four levels of reading mentioned in How to Read a Book (2014) are: studying, deconstructing, interpreting, and criticising.

Reading for Writing: A Case Study of Multi-Media Presentations…

73

gender studies, can be employed. Students are free to choose forms of presentation and auxiliary media, and demonstrate reading achievement by speech, dialogues, PowerPoints and other interactive exchanges as the forms of verbal presentation.

5 A Case of Presentation Through Multi-Media Reading Achievements Wong Leung Wo’s 王良和 “Crab” 螃蟹, for example, was selected for the presentation workshop. This novel adopts magical realism and anachronism. The narrator enters his inner memories and consciousness to create an exotic space for dialogues. What makes his work outstanding from the other novels is that it looks directly into the disappearance of the body (death), in addition to explore the problem of manipulation and anti-manipulation through a kind of body discourse. One of the interpretations of the carb carried around by the main character is a symbol of manipulation (Ng 2008),4 which is not easy to understand. Many students choose to present the message of this literary work with microfilm. This chapter takes the “crab group” (see appendix 2) as a case study. All group members were non-Chinese-major students, and they demonstrated the reading process, from studying to interpreting, in their multi-media presentation. This group produced a shadow play to re-organise the timeline of the story from the displacement of the narration in both time and space. They also fabricated an awards ceremony, in which the work won the Hong Kong Film Awards, and the prizes of best actor, the best supporting actor, and the setting were all used to explain the character’s metaphors and symbolic meaning of key images. These group members wrote a modern poem after completion of the workshop because they became so interested in the work (see Appendix 3). The poem was a response to their interpretation of the tension of manipulation and resistance between the father and son in the novel. The poem was not a designated assignment of the course. It was simply because those students were so inspired by the work that they decided to write the poem on a similar theme. This demonstrates that it is more common in groups with better performance that presentation triggers autonomous writing. Other groups produced short films, dramas, and instrumental compositions for reading achievement presentations, demonstrating the endless possibilities of imagination that literature can inspire. From comprehension to reconstruction, literary works can be analysed in three notions: “implications beyond lines” ⾔外之意, “images beyond images” 象外之 象, and “scenes beyond scenes” 境外之境. Chan Ping Leung 陳炳良proposes that such a process involves five levels. 1. The literal level: Decoding word for word 4

The symbolic meaning of the “crab” in the fiction is not limited. There are more possible interpretations, such as it symbolizes the linkage between the reality and memory of the father & son.

74

M. K. Ng

2. The grammatical and word order level: Understanding the literary work through syntax 3. The rhetorical level: Understanding the images and metaphors 4. The thematic level: Studying the literary work under the lens of intertextualization and comparison (starting up the phrase of reflective interpretation) 5. The dialogue level: Reconstructing meanings (Chan 2012). When students enter the dialogue level from the level of word order and grammar, they would enter the inter-text reading state. By then, instructors require students to use words, images, and multimedia text to explore meanings of more detailed context in the classroom and extend the reflection of mutual reference. The workshop creates an interactive, intellectual and challenging multimedia environment. Students are required to learn the use of multiple media from images and texts that they encounter in daily life. From the perspective of the undergraduate students, they would prefer literature courses that allow them to engage with audio, video, and non-language facilities, which would benefit the students who immerse themselves in a multimedia environment both inside and outside the classroom (Piro 2001). This would enhance students to think in both images and language simultaneously. Tapscott, D believes that a multimedia reading classroom can affirm the learning environment of multiple media (Speaker 2004, 241), including: 1. High independence: Students can choose the media that group members are good at to present their reading achievements, which emphasizes students’ independence, initiative, cooperation and a sense of identity. 2. Enhanced inclusiveness: Students would be able to examine issues from a local or national point of view to a global perspective through virtual and online communities. Students can also have access to other information when they present reading achievements, and use other software or carriers simultaneously. Students regard the assigned works as cultural texts, and their theme of demonstration may involve sociology, history, philosophy, culture and so on. 3. Accessibility: Students would have access to much information, and their rights to be heard are respected. 4. Experimentality and verifiability: Students could explore ideas to understand their genesis, and investigate various possibilities of technologies. In Hong Kong, such a demonstration approach to reading extended to all industries such as the “Literature & Film Short Video Competition” run by Hong Kong Public Libraries, and “Literature Streaming” launched by me, when I was the Chairlady of the Literary Arts Committee of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 2013–2016. It has promoted interactive dialogues and creative performances of local literature and other media, and that is why related concepts have been explored more in higher education afterwards. 5. Immediacy: It is expected to have instant access and exchange of information, providing a richer experience in a short amount of time than off-line does. Students in the workshop are required to demonstrate in-depth reading and design interactive media and images texts within 30 min in class for their presentation.

Reading for Writing: A Case Study of Multi-Media Presentations…

75

This requires skills to process large amounts of text and multi-media in a short amount of time.

6 Teaching Outcomes, the Assessment, and Its Limitations This multi-media presentation of reading achievement, compared with the conventionally written reading report, is not only more effective in evoking students’ learning motivation, but also more successful in demonstrating the teaching outcomes and facilitating creative writing. In comparison with simply written reading reports, the multi-media presentation of reading achievement requires students to read independently, and employ diversified thinking methods, improving their ability of observation, organisation, fluency, imagination, criticism, connection, comparison and other abilities of creative thinking. Besides, as students learn independently, they can freely choose the works, and conduct a group reading by themselves. They can discuss the possibilities of different levels of reading at the dialogue level, through the phrase of reflective interpretation, which is more suitable for the post-digital generations. As reading is networked and digitised, texts have acquired a new kind of malleability. Electronic corpus and network data provide massive literary records. The traditional literary reading method, which only involves printed texts, cannot satisfy this generation’s needs for fierce social competition and cultural change (Abblitt 2019). Excellent literary works can attract readers to study the texts intensively. But they can do more than that. The assessment of the course (see Appendix 4) shows that it no longer focuses on whether students can understand and interpret texts; instead, it focuses on whether students can construct and verify text interpretation. It relies more on how students use various strategies to construct text interpretation for enhancing their understanding and inferring the author’s writing purposes. Students take several perspectives to connect the text to social and historical context, and to generalize and apply the themes through the strategy of cultural dialogue. This reading assessment encourages students to be open to literary texts. Literary works tend to be ambiguous, and have dynamic implications. Students are required to demonstrate reading achievements in a process of interpretive reasoning. Interpretive reasoning is not an easy skill to master, nor can it be easily learned on its own. People usually learn how to interpret texts by participating in groups that care about the meaning of specific texts, which is akin to participation in other discourse in the communities (Deane 2020). This is the advantage of studying in groups. Another benefit of such is that it solves the problem of learner differences and fulfils their need for self-exploration. Literature reading serves as a general skill training, or as a literature basic course for freshmen. It is inevitable that students have individual differences. However, there is little research on literary reading education for junior college students. A Preliminary Research on the Teaching of Reading for Learner Differences and SelfExploration 分層教學、⾃主探究語⽂閱讀教學初探 (Dong, Kong, and Liu 2004)

76

M. K. Ng

is a book focusing on reading education for primary and secondary schools. It analyses the “teaching of reading for learner differences and self-exploration” in detail. Its operation procedure is similar to the above-mentioned teaching plan, and it aims to instruct the interpretation of literary texts. It transforms reaching purposes into students’ internal needs: 1. Self-exploration: With students’ intentions-based, they can choose chapters and call for group members independently. They make associations through existing experience and collect information to support each other. 2. Discussion: Students think, exchange, negotiate, and argue together at the workshop. They need to discuss a theme that they decided on. Different groups need to demonstrate and develop different themes by using different media in order to enrich their understanding of the texts. 3. Learning before teaching: The instructor teaches writing after students’ presentations. Students will have a good understanding of genres after participating in the workshop on literary reading. They would understand how an author develops a work when it is their turn to write. Fewer errors in genres are found and students would find it is easier to transform emotions into works then. The biggest limitation of this teaching plan is the teacher’s knowledge of multimedia. In many cases, college students are better at digital media skills than the instructors (Speaker 2004), which makes the assessment more difficult. It is also limited by the basic knowledge of group members. Since reading is a complex cognitive psychological process, it is still worthwhile to develop the pedagogy of the multi-media presentation of reading achievements by students.

Appendix 1· Reading Work Examples of Students’ In-Depth Reading Achievement Demonstration 1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6.

Lu, Xun 魯迅. Gudu zhe 孤獨者. In Panghuang 彷徨; and Lu Xun Quanji 魯 迅全集 Lu, Xun 魯迅. Shang shi: Juan sheng de shou ji 傷逝 涓⽣的⼿記. In Panghuang彷徨; and Lu Xun Quanji魯迅全集 Yu Hua 余華. 1990. Wo wei shenme yao jiehun 我為甚麼要結婚. In Huanghun li de nanhai ⿈昏裏的男孩. Taipei: Rye Field Publishing Co. 臺北⿆⽥出版 Yu Hua 余華. 2009. Xianxue meihua 鮮⾎梅花. In Xifeng huxiao de zhongwu 西風呼嘯的中午. Hong Kong: Ming Pao Monthly Publication ⾹港明報⽉刊 出版社 Yang Jiang 楊絳. 2003. Women sa shisan le 我們仨失散了. In Wo men sa 我 們仨. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press ⾹港⽜津⼤學出版社 Shi Tiesheng 史鐵⽣. 2004. Nainai de xingxing 奶奶的星星. In Ming ruo qinxian命若琴弦. Taipei: Ecus Publishing House臺北⽊⾺⽂化

Reading for Writing: A Case Study of Multi-Media Presentations…

7.

8.

9. 10. 11.

12.

13.

14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

19. 20. 21. 22.

23.

77

Shi Tiesheng 史鐵⽣.1988. Duyao” 毒藥. In Zhongguo xiaoshuo yijiu baliu 中 國⼩說⼀九八六. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Joint Publishing Co. Ltd. ⾹港三 聯書店 Mo Yan 莫⾔. 1989. Touming de hong luobo 透明的紅蘿蔔. In Touming de hong luobo 透明的紅蘿蔔. Beijing: Zuojia chuban she 北京作家出版社; and Taipei: Linbai chuban she 林⽩出版社 Mo Yan 莫⾔. 1989. Touming de hong luobo 透明的紅蘿蔔. In Touming de hong luobo 透明的紅蘿蔔. Taipei: Linbai chuban she 林⽩出版社 Su Tong 蘇童. 2011. Xiangcao ying ⾹草營. In Xiangcao ying ⾹草營. Beijing: Haitun chuban she 海豚出版社 Wang Pu 王璞. 1998. Yi ci mudi buming de luxing⼀次⽬的不明的旅⾏. In Zhigeng niao 知更⿃. Hong Kong: Chinese Christian Literature Council Ltd ⾹港⽂藝出版社 Ng Suk-yin Virginia 伍淑賢. 2006. Fuqin ⽗親. In Xianggang duanpian xiaoshuo bai nian jinghua ⾹港短篇⼩說百年精華. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Joint Publishing Co. Ltd. ⾹港三聯書店 Pun K. L. Lawrence 潘國靈. 2006. Moming qimiao de Shiming de gushi 莫明 其妙的失明的故事. In Xianggang duanpian xiaoshuo bai nian jinghua ⾹港 短篇⼩說百年精華. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Joint Publishing Co. Ltd. ⾹港 三聯書店 Wang Pu 王璞. 1998. Luxing huati 旅⾏話題. In Zhigeng niao 知更⿃. Hong Kong: Chinese Christian Literature Council Ltd. ⾹港⽂藝出版社 Dung Kai-cheung 董啟章. 1997. Kuqi de zhezhi 哭泣的摺紙. In Mingzi de meigui 名字的玫瑰. Hong Kong: Pop Workshop ⾹港普普⼯作坊 Yesi 也斯. 1987. Shi toufa bianhei de tang 使頭髮變⿊的湯. In Dao he dalu 島和⼤陸. Hong Kong: Wah Hon Publishing 華漢⽂化事業 Yesi 也斯. 1987. Jiao de gu shi 腳的故事. In Chengshi biji 城市筆記. Taipei: dongda tushu 臺北東⼤圖書 Huang Fan ⿈凡. 1987. Fangdi chan xiaoshou shi 房地產銷售史. In Manna wudao jiaoshi 曼娜舞蹈教室. Taipei: Unitas Publishing Co. 臺北聯合⽂學出 版社 Zhu Tianwen 朱天⽂. 1989. Zui xiangnian de jijie 最想念的季節. In Zui xiangnian de jijie 最想念的季節. Taipei: Sansan shufang 三三書坊 Zhang Xiguo 張系國. 2000. Lan tianshi 藍天使, In Boli shijie 玻璃世界. Taipei: Hung-fan Bookstore 臺北洪範書店 Wong Leung-wo 王良和. 2002. Pangxie 螃蟹. In Yuzhou ⿂咒. Hong Kong: Youth Literary Press青⽂書屋 Gao Xingjian ⾼⾏健. 2000. Chehuo ⾞禍. In Erqian nian wenku: Dangdai zhongguo wenku jingdu: Gao Xingjian 2000 年⽂庫 當代中國⽂庫精讀: ⾼ ⾏健. Hong Kong: Ming Pao Publication ⾹港明報出版社 Gao Xingjian ⾼⾏健. 2008. Xiejiang he ta de nu’er ⾼⾏健鞋匠和他的女 兒. In Gao Xingjian duanpian xiaoshuo ji ⾼⾏健短篇⼩說集. Taipei: Unitas Publishing Co. 聯合⽂學出版社

78

M. K. Ng

24. Huang Fan ⿈凡. 1988. Ruhe celiang shuigou de kuandu 如何測量⽔溝的寬 度. In Dushe shenghuo 都市⽣活. Taipei: Sitak Publishing Co. 臺北希代書版 有限公司 25. Xiao Sa 蕭颯. 1984. Xiaoye ⼩葉. In Si le yi ge guozhong nusheng zhihou 死 了⼀個國中女⽣之後. Taipei: Hung-fan Bookstore 臺北洪範書店

Appendix 2 Reading Achievement Demonstration Cases of Multi-Media Literature Workshop Proposal Reading work

“Crab” 螃蟹 written by WONG Leung Wo王良和

Performance form Awards Ceremony (Shadow Show, Recitation, Drama, Interactive games, Speech) Teammate

Zhang Shu yi 張淑怡 (leader), Xu Xueli 許雪麗, Liu Yusheng 劉裕⽣, Luo Yijun 羅宜峻, Liang Weiyan 梁葦妍

Form

Purpose

Review of events

Plot rearrangement (chronological)

Shadow show

Fictional plots

Best actor

Characters and their relationships

Recitation

Character analysis

Best video editing

Key sentences and structure analysis

Drama

Key sentences deconstruction

Best props

Symbolic meanings by deconstruction

Drama

Images and symbols

Awards ceremony flow

Best actors

Thematic Interpretation

Vote by audiences

Theme analysis

Finale performance

Respond to the theme by presenting a poem newly created poet

Percussion and recitation

Re-sponce

Curtain call & others

“Crab” and other works Speech written by WONG Leung Wo

Further reading

Appendix 3: Students’ Poem for Response: The Hourglass of Time 時間的沙漏 It is written by a group of second-year students (Associate Degree) in 2008–2009 at the HKU SPACE Community College.

Reading for Writing: A Case Study of Multi-Media Presentations…

I stand in the shadow of the tree, 我站在樹蔭下, Slowly look up at the kaleidoscope of sky 緩緩抬頭看望天空的萬花筒 Refracted a picture after another through the leaves 從樹葉間折射出⼀格又⼀格的畫⾯ I can’t open my eyes, but I want to take a closer look, and look again 我睜不開眼, 卻又想細看, 再細看 As soon as I step into the door, I surmise the mystery of the vest bag ⼀踏進⾨, 我猜度著那個背⼼袋的玄機 Is it a candy? An ice cream? Or a toy? 是糖果?是雪糕?還是玩具? All my favourites 都是我的最愛 The door bangs loudly 房⾨砰⼀聲巨響 I am trembling under the dining table, almost choking, 我在餐桌下顫抖, 快要窒息, Breathing the anger, 呼吸著那團怒⽕, My teeth tremble and close involuntarily 我的牙不由⾃主的開合 Is it a ruler? A rattan? Or a hanger? 是間尺?是騰條?還是衣架? How can it be in love? 怎會帶著愛的緣故? That merry-go-round keeps spinning 那隻不斷旋轉的⾺, Those footloose fish 那些悠悠⾃在的⿂兒 That hot stove with sausages, 那烘著⾹腸熱乎乎的⽕爐, That badminton flying over my forehead, 那個從額頭擦過的⽻⽑球, That urging voice… 那催促的聲⾳… "Quick! Have breakfast and go to school!" "Okay" 「快吃早餐上學去!」「嗯」。 “Quick! Do your homework!” “Okay“ 「快做功課去!」「嗯」。 “Quick! Go to bed now!” “Okay“ 「快睡覺去!」「嗯」。 The sonorous fragments echoed my childhood, 擲地鏗鏘的⽚段迴盪著我的童年, Hope to keep those forgotten moments

79

80

M. K. Ng

希望挽留那些被遺忘的時間 But they slipped away unknowingly between fingers, 但它在⼿指縫間不知不覺地溜⾛, Try to block the hourglass of time, 竭⼒堵塞著時間的沙漏, Capture every moment of being together… 捕捉每⼀刻相處的時光…

Appendix 4: Rubrics of multi-Media Reading Achievements Presentation Criteria

Excellent

Good

Fair

Poor

Score

Interpret related concepts and ideas

Ideas are ingenious; in-depth expression; Dialectical interpretation; ideas are transformed sophisticatedly, appropriately, and creatively; Using demonstration skills proficiently; rhythm and speed are well controlled

Ideas are good; demonstration with insights; ideas are transformed is appropriately and creatively; using relevant demonstration strategies; good skills; rhythm and speed control can be improved

Sufficient understanding of the work; clear ideas; little creativity; skills need to be improved

Unreasonable idea; failed to express through demonstration; poor skills

40%

31–40

21–30

11–20

0–10 (continued)

Reading for Writing: A Case Study of Multi-Media Presentations…

81

(continued) Criteria

Excellent

Understanding In-depth interpretation of work of the work, involving themes, presentation techniques, unique styles; showing how the work combine different elements; use appropriate and diverse reading strategies proficiently; select thematic focus to enter dialogue reading, reflecting high literary knowledge

Good

Fair

Poor

Good understanding of the work’s theme, techniques of expression, and style; present partial literature elements; using appropriate reading strategies; thematic focus selection shows having read in depth

Correctly understand most parts of the work; using reading strategies to try to read deeper

Generally improper, or incorrect understanding; failed to properly use literary reading strategies; lack of focus

Score

30%

21–30

11–20

10

0–9

Report & Speech

Fully explain the relationship between the purposes of the work and perform form; smoothly connect with each part; speech is clear and excellent

Generally and accurately express the relationship between the work and perform form; less unsuccessful cohesion; good speech

The relationship between idea expression and the work is generally demonstrated with some misunderstanding; speech is acceptable

Idea expression is unclear and significantly inaccurate; The speech lacks organization

20%

13–20

9–12

7–8

0–6

Interaction & Participation

Time allocation for each part is appropriate; excellent performance in questioning and exchanges; active participation

Time allocation for each part is acceptable; Participating in questioning and exchanges; good performance

Overtime; questions and answers with inappropriacy

Improper control of time; seldom participation in discussions and exchanges

10%

9–10

7–8

4–6

0–3 (continued)

82

M. K. Ng

(continued) Criteria

Excellent

Good

Fair

Poor

Score

Final Score Comments

References Abblitt, Stephen. 2019. A Post-Digital paradigm in literary studies. Higher Education Research & Development 1: 97–109 Adler, Mortimer J. and Van Doren, Charles. 2014. How to read a book: The classic guide to intelligent reading. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc Andrews, Richard, and Smith, Anna. 2011. Developing writers: Teaching and learning in the digital age. Mc Graw Hill: Open University Press Cardoso, Gustavo, Ganito, Carla, and Ferreira, Cátia. 2012. Digital reading: The transformation of reading practices.In Proceedings of the 16 th international conference on electronic publishing, Social shaping of digital publishing: Exploring the interplay between culture and technology, 126–134. Nieuwe Hemweg: IOS Press. https://ebooks.iospress.nl/publication/32019 Celik, Bünyamin. 2016. Developing writing skills through reading. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies 6 (1): 206–214 Chan, Ping-Leung 陳炳良. 2012. Yuedu de wu ge cengci 閱讀的五個層次 [Five layers of reading]. Journal of Chinese Literary Studies ⽂學論衡 20: 37-48 Deane, Paul. 2020. Building and justifying interpretations of texts: A key practice in the english language arts. ETS Research Report Series 1: 1–51 Dong, Yuguang 董宇光, Kong, Fanyan 孔凡艷, and Liu, Chunrong 劉春榮. 2004. Fenceng jiaoxue zizhu tanjiu yuwen yuedu jiaoxue chutan 分層教學、⾃主探究語⽂閱讀教學初探[A preliminary research on the teaching of reading for learner differences and self-exploration]. Beijing: Language & Culture Press 語⽂出版社 Li, Jinlan 李⾦蘭. 2016. Chuzhong yingyu yidu daixie jiaoxue shili tanxi 初中英語以讀帶寫教學 實例探析 [A case study of reading for writing in junior high school english learning]. English Language Learning 英語學習 10: 49–54 Mayer, Richard E. 2003. The promise of multimedia learning: Using the same instructional design methods across different media. Learning and Instruction 13 (2): 125–139 Mayer, Richard E. 2021. Multimedia learning (The 3rd edition). New York: Cambridge University Press Ng, Mei-Kwan 吳美筠. 2008. Xianggang shiren zai xiaoshuo zhong de ziwo zhishe: cong jiedu Yu Zhou de huayu celue kaishi ⾹港詩⼈在⼩說中的⾃我指涉——從解讀《⿂咒》的話語策略 開始 [Self-Reference of Hong Kong Poets in Novels: Starting with interpreting discourse strategy of Fish Curse]. Tengfei sui yue: yijiu sijiu nian yilai de xianggang wenxue 騰⾶歲⽉——1949 年以來的⾹港⽂學, 383–406. Hong Kong: School of Chinese, The University of Hong Kong ⾹港⼤學中⽂學院 Pan, Guohua 潘國華. 2011. Yidu daixie duxie xiangzhang: yuedu yu xiezuo jiaoxue xiang shentou peiyang xuesheng yuwen zonghe nengli 以讀帶寫 讀寫相長——閱讀與寫作教學相滲透培養 學⽣語⽂綜合能⼒ [Reading for writing, reading and writing are mutual beneficial: Reading and writing teaching mutually cultivating students’ synthetic ability of language]. Education and Teaching Forum 教育教學論壇 33: 83–84 Piro, J.M. 2001. The rembrandt teaching project: Promoting multiple literacies in teaching and learning. Art Education 3: 12–21

Reading for Writing: A Case Study of Multi-Media Presentations…

83

Shu, Lan 樹蘭. 2013. Duo motai huayu yanjiu de yuanqi yu jinzhan 多模態話語研究的緣起與進 展 [The origin and progress of multimodal discourse research]. Foreign Language Research 外 語學刊 2: 17–23 Speaker, Kathryne. 2004. Student perspectives: Expectations of multimedia technology in a college literature class. Reading Improvement 41: 241–255 Zheng, Qiongyue 鄭瓊⽉ and Huang, Baoshan, ⿈寶珊. 2014. Wenxue yuedu jiao xue de xin celue: Xianshang dushu hui zhi xuexi chengxiao fenxi ⽂學閱讀教學的新策略——線上讀書會之學 習成效分析 [The new strategy of literary reading education learning effectiveness analysis on online reading club]. Journal of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences ⼈⽂與社會學報 3: 137–172 Zou, Weihong 鄒偉宏. 2017. Yidu daixie, duxie jiehe: duxie jiehe zhongkao xiezuo qu shi zhanshi 以讀帶寫, 讀寫結合——「讀寫結合」中考寫作趨勢展⽰ [Reading for writing, read-write union: ‘Read-write union’ high school entrance examination writing trend demonstration]. Small Snow Flake (chuzhong gaofen zuowen) ⼩雪花(初中⾼分作⽂) 1: 25–27

Creative Writing in the Narratives of Interactive Games—The Cases of Grand Theft Auto 5 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Shawn Shao Dong

Abstract The gaming industry is a thriving form of new media in the entertainment industry. With its interactive and immersive mode of experience, it is popular amongst the new generation of young people. With the focus on two electronic games, viz. Grand Theft Auto 5 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, this research studies how they complete their complicated multiple threads of literary narratives and multiple outcome narratives upon an interactive visual basis, and analyses the necessity and special features of creative writing in this new type of new media through a study of their narrative features and hidden interactive narrative clues. Keywords Electronic game · Grand Theft Auto 5 · The Witcher 3 · Immersion experience · Interactive narratives

1 Introduction: Multistranded Narratives in Different Media Since the twenty-first century, with the rapid development and reform of technology and media, electronic games, which were considered to be electronic heroin or fierce wildlife in the past, have gradually become a significant means and platform of entertainment for different age groups. From a general understanding of entertainment and in addition to its functions as leisure and a tool to channel emotions, many gaming industry practitioners gradually emphasise the unique interactive and immersive experience of electronic games. This interactive media has opened up more possibilities and forms of arts and created a batch of unprecedentedly highquality interactive narrative works. The gaming narrative has gradually become an important issue in academia and developed characteristics that are different from the narratives found in other media. According to Watanabe and Nakamura (2015, 73), the crucial narrative elements in games are to explain to players the roles, objects, space, and signs in the game, and the mixture of these elements form the fictional D. Shawn Shao (B) School of Arts and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_7

85

86

D. Shawn Shao

time and space so that the player would head toward the next fictional event and space. The most essential characteristic of a gaming medium is to make use of visual effects to guide players to participate in the narrative story; that is, the interactivity of narratives. In a 90-min movie with not one minute more or less, the scene in which the main protagonist appears on screen will not be brought earlier or delayed according to the personal preference of the audience; likewise, there will not be any changes to the angles of each shot. Similarly, the text of the story, the sequence of the narratives, and the content of the story will not change according to the reader’s personal preference either. In a game, however, interactivity constitutes a considerably important feature. In many open-world games, you can simulate your own life and choose to have different conversations with various characters, or choose between love and hate; You can also make different decisions on behalf of the main protagonist when he or she faces ethical difficulties, which eventually lead to different endings. Semiotician Ryan (2006, 86), accurately describes this particular type of narrative: the digital narrative is also known as multimedia narrative or cross-media narrative; and gaming narrative, as a type of new media narrative, is categorised as a digital narrative. She mentioned in her book Avatars of Story that, different from the narratives in traditional media in the past, the digital narrative is “autogenous, not scripted; engaging, not receptive; simulated, not representational; synchronous, not retrospective”. She also compared the differences between digital narrative and classical narrative from the special features of digital media. Lindley (2002) found that the narrative in digital games can be deemed as a cross-category between the narratives of traditional literature and games. There are many similarities between games and such media types as television drama, television news, film and so on; there is a narrative structure in all these. The difference is that, the narrative structure of electronic games not only contains a system of episodes or factual elements, but it also involves three types of basic symbolism based on time structure: game, model, and narrative. Nowadays, many games have their backgrounds set against some traditional stories, such as Role-Playing Games (‘RPG’) which simulate the journey that the game character goes through and experiences the virtual world such as the well-known game of Chinese Paladin 仙劍奇俠傳. Similarly, literary works can become the materials of many games because of their narrative features and the richness of the story content, such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國志 series or the Suikoden 幻想⽔滸傳 etc. It can be said that the richness of the gaming experience plays a considerably significant role in the extensive meaning of literary works. To some readers of the literary works, these games add an interactive dimension to the literary experience. For example, in her article “Theory of Interactive Media: Multitude of Interaction and Narrative Modes in Electronic Games” 互動 媒介論: 電⼦遊戲多重互動與敘事模式, Guan 關萍萍 (2010) explores the novel dissemination mode of electronic games, the three types of interactive models among players of electronic games, and option-based narratives in electronic games. She suggests that the dissemination mode of electronic games is based on their interactive and narrative nature. The game narratives brought forth by the player’s selection are uncertain intrinsically. The players’ actions became a constituent of the content of

Creative Writing in the Narratives of Interactive Games—The Cases…

87

the game narratives. At the same time, this is a significant difference between the narrative of electronic games and the traditional narratives. In the notion of interactivity, this chapter focuses on the important topic of multistranded narratives, too. How the multistranded narratives are formed in a game? And how is the multistranded narrative organised in a game? These are the questions worth considering. In the literary field, which is more familiar to us, there are existing routines for multistranded narratives. For example, in the Chinese classical stories of The Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 or Outlaws of the Marsh ⽔滸傳, the storyteller in the novels often serves the function of transit from one scene to another with phrases such as “On this side … on the other side” (這邊廂……那邊廂) and “Let’s set this aside first, meanwhile” (此處按下不表, 卻説), etc. Intrinsically, the combination of several episodes has achieved the function of a multistranded narrative, while this narrative is relatively simple. For example, Dictionary of the Khazars: A Lexicon Novel by Milorad Pavi´c and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner achieve a more organic multistranded narrative by switching the perspectives from religion to characters to portray the same events from multiple angles, forming a multifaceted interpretation and radial multistranded narrative. Further examples can be found in All Souls’ Day by Nooteboom, C. and Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo. They both intensively intertwine the worlds of the living and the dead through a crisscrossing multistranded narrative, showing a multistranded narrative that surpasses time and space. Lastly, it is very worthy of mentioning Han Bangqing’s 韓邦慶 cinematic novel The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai 海上花列傳. This novel adopts the oneshot narrative method in film, which allows readers to see from the perspective of the storyteller and walk through the streets and lanes of Shanghai behind different characters, explicitly or implicitly portraying each person in the story. In the field of film, the situation may be similar but slightly different. Examples of combination of episodes in films are Chungking Express 重慶森林 directed by Wong Kar-wai 王家衛 and Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino. Paradigms of multiangle narrative in the film are Rashomon 羅⽣⾨ directed by Akira Kurosawa ⿊澤 明, Elephant by Gus Van Sant, and Hero 英雄 by Zhang Yimou 張藝謀. The typical example of the application of parallel montage, which is an even more cinematic technique—or the crisscross narrative in film terminology—is the scene of the lastminute rescue in D. W. Griffith’s film Intolerance. The above are the techniques commonly seen in handling multistrand narratives in regular artistic works. However, does this narrative have any disadvantages? The answer is also obvious—the lack of interactivity. Firstly, the audiences are not free to choose the content, and they can only view the edited content, whether in fiction or film. The organisation of a multistranded narrative has been pre-set by a writer, while the so-called “reality” is also the effect deliberately rendered by the writer who has not created a stable interactive environment for narratives. Secondly, whether the audience or the readers, they are bystanders from the beginning to the end. Even if the narrator is “me”, the audience or reader cannot immerse themselves into the roles or choose for the narrator. Therefore, this type of narrative itself is at some distance

88

D. Shawn Shao

from the audience and viewers. In this respect, the game narrative has a considerable advantage that is irreplaceable. This paper will focus on two games, viz. Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA5) and The Witcher 3 (W3), and will discuss how they complete the complex multistranded literary narratives and their multiple endings on an interactive visual basis. Through studying their narrative features and hidden interactive narrative clues, this paper will analyse the necessity and characteristics of creative writing in this new type of new media.

2 The Narrative from Multiple Perspectives in Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA5) Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series has been considered one of the most popular products in the history of electronic games. The background of the series of works is a contemporary fictional city in the United States. In the game’s open world, players can control the main character to freely roam around the city’s main streets and small lanes. One can go into the cinema, shopping arcade, casino, and vice establishments. One can speculate on stocks and shares or real estate. One can join a gang and interact with passers-by. One can drive and move freely in the city. However, the reason for this series to become the paradigm of electronic games is, in some ways, due to its point of view. The so-called “Grand Theft Auto” as in the title is, in fact, the euphemism for car thieves, and the choice of main protagonists throughout the series are basically marginalised people in the U.S. society who may be gangsters, criminals in dire poverty, or fierce bank robbers. Their behaviours are strictly prohibited by law, but they act upon civic virtues and a sense of justice to “breach prohibitions with violence” to bestow these marginalised individuals with the grounds for social criticism as the storyline develops with considerable mockery of American culture. To a certain extent, this series can be comprehended as a group of protagonists of American Outlaws of the Marsh ⽔滸傳, or a contemporary romantic story resembles A Better Tomorrow 英雄本⾊. The latest work of the series Grand Theft Auto 5 was launched in 2013. It has been years since its launch, but over the years, it still holds the leading position in the various pop charts. The cost of developing this game was enormous: over the development period of 5 years, the upfront cost was US$276 million. However, with its excellent storyline and narrative design and unrestricted gameplay together with its excellent reputation, the game sold 11 million copies on the first day of release, and the income solely from that day reached US$800 million, reclaiming the costs within 3 h. The revenue in three days broke through US$1 billion, and the volume of sales in 8 years soared to 140 million copies. What are the attractions of this applauded and acclaimed piece of work? Much of it relates to the excellent screenplay and attractive narrative method.

Creative Writing in the Narratives of Interactive Games—The Cases…

89

In terms of gameplay, there is no significant difference between this version and the previous ones, but the numerous scenarios and gaiety of the urban environment are unprecedented. The script alone is 3, 500 pages, while the script of an ordinary film is about 70–150 pages. In addition to the basic storyline, it also includes many hidden branches of storylines and content that require players to trigger and uncover as they play as the protagonist. Such branch tasks would require having a conversation with specific characters at a certain level before it can be triggered and complete the main storyline. In this game, the introduction of the multistranded narrative seems experimental; at the same time, players can choose the time (priority and sequence) and method (violence or strategy) to pursue the task to push forward the scenario. The most important feature is its unique form of multistranded narrative, which consists of three parallel stands that can be switched freely amongst them. The storyline of Grand Theft Auto 5 is, in fact, not complicated. There are three main protagonists in the game, viz. Franklin, Michael, and Trevor. At the beginning of the game, only Franklin is there. One day, Franklin, the petty thief, has stolen Michael’s car. In revenge for that, his company was bashed up badly by Michael, the veteran thief. From here, there are two controllable protagonists. Then, the two of them want to commit a heist on a jewellery shop. The scene then shifts to the countryside of Los Santos. After the anti-social Trevor has destroyed the group of auto-racers, he drives through the downtown, and then enjoys the night scene of the prosperous and greedy Los Santos. From here, all three main protagonists are unlocked, and the game formally begins (3DMGAME 2021). A fantastic part of the game is that one can, in fact, freely change to any of the three main protagonists while playing the game. When the player switches to the role of Franklin, Michael and Trevor will not stop their actions; instead, they would continue to live their own life. In the actual gameplay, when you are controlling one of them to drive a car, switching control over another character might reveal that the second protagonist is fighting in a bar as the third one flirting with his yoga trainer in his luxury residence. Their respective scenarios are not presented through sequential episodes of the story but by simultaneous multistranded narrative. They all share a common timeline, which is a feature of real-life events. Some specific scenarios can only be triggered by switching to a particular character in a specific scene, such that there is a difference between explicit and implicit stands of the story. That is to say, beyond the main storyline, there are multiple episodes; the player has to keep switching to different roles in order to further comprehend the story. “The three characters are completely independent. Each of them has their own house, car(s), wardrobe and bank account. Against this setting, the player would have a strong sense of presence, whichever the characters he or she switches into. When playing the role of Franklin, one would feel that he is a young person of colour with perplexed feelings about his future; as Michael, a middle-aged man of an unfortunate family; as Trevor, a complete mad man” (3DMGAME 2021). According to the definition of narrative texts from the perspective of semiotics by Zhao 趙毅衡 (2014), “With the variation of the participation by a protagonist, a scenario is formed and is organised into a piece of semiotics text which can be

90

D. Shawn Shao

comprehended by the recipient as having the dimensions of time and meaning.” The dimensions of time and meaning in the narrative text of Grand Theft Auto 5 have a very strong implication of freedom which is not edited by the director or the author. Instead, the way the story develops is up to the choice of the players, as to take forward the tasks of which the protagonist goes first. Therefore, there may be variations in the ways and angles the story unfolds to its eventual outcome. In the game, the time and meaning will be woven by the players’ own actions. The players will easily immerse themselves into the protagonists and believe that the initiation and development of actions are out of one’s consciousness; therefore, the senses of reality and achievement are enhanced. The presence of this type of consciousness of self in a game is highly outstanding.

3 The Consequences of Real Choices: The Witcher 3 The Witcher 3 is a top seller of a Polish game company, CD Project Red, and its worldwide sales volume is enormous. This game is so influential that it has been given to foreign guests as a national present in Polish diplomatic events. The game itself is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. In recent years, the web drama adaptation of the novel on Netflix has been well-received by the audience worldwide. The plot of the Witcher series is not complicated. It is a story about Geralt of Rivia, the magically enhanced monster-hunter, in a fantasy world. The strongest attraction of the story is the ups and downs in the plot, and the variety of real choices would take the player to the ending of the story. The refined story structure and the success in the portrayal of the characters are absolutely spectacular. In the past, the games usually offered options for the players to choose from, and the direction of the story varies depending on their decisions. These choices often drop obvious hints that suggest what these decisions are leading towards. For example, when the male protagonist chooses to have more conversations with Woman A, he will end up spending the rest of his time with Woman A; if he chooses to interact more with Woman B, the two of them will get married subsequently. This type of predictable choice is, to a certain extent, some simple narrative, showing the players two possible development trends to choose from. In the past, players were used to such simple narratives; through some basic logical reasoning, the player would know how to get the “best” outcome he wants. However, one of the reasons why the Witcher series has received widely acclaimed consistently is that the options in different are always complex; the choice of scenario will have a butterfly effect. One may even have to choose between two glasses of poisonous wine. One must make some forfeiture in order to make some gains. These multiple alternative endings cannot be simply summed up as good or bad endings. Also, there is a countdown of time for meaningful conversations to prevent the player from looking up the strategy guide. For example, in the main storyline of The Witcher 3, the main protagonist is looking for his daughter. After having found her, a lot of

Creative Writing in the Narratives of Interactive Games—The Cases…

91

conversations are generated during the time they are living together. Interestingly, the choice that influences the ending is not explicit. That decision only involves a casual conversation between the protagonist and his daughter. It becomes known afterwards that the more care for her, the greater the possibility of her leaving her father in the end. Moreover, many games allow the player to be a ladies’ man, but in this game, once the protagonist shows his love for more than one woman, he will eventually be lonely and abandoned by all women. A very important episode in the game called “Sin of the Body” fully reflects the value of a real-life choice. In this episode, a female friend of the main protagonist survives severe injuries caused by a sadomasochistic slaughterer, but more women continue to fall victim in the city. During the investigation with the forensic pathologist, it is found that the villain uses exceptionally brutal means, but the investigation work progresses slowly. Each day, different innocent women fall victim: the villain usually chooses a woman or a prostitute randomly and practices sadomasochism on her. Despite the investigation ongoing, there is no trace of any clue as the number of victims continues to rise every day. The villain even pours formalin over the corpses and leaves provoking notes on the scene. Still, the main protagonist is always one step short, and the villain always manages to escape. This time, the main protagonist eventually obtains a clue and comes to a brothel. After breaking into the room, he sees a man, with a pair of fire tongs in hand. He has tied a woman onto a chair and is about to inflict harm on her. At this time, three choices pop up on the screen, and the player has to make a choice within the set period: A. Come on, you bastard. B. You tell me first. Why? C. Just this? No formalin? In this case, most players, enraged by his brutal acts, would choose A, or B, setting off some fighting. This episode will end after the villain is killed, and no more crimes would take place. However, some meticulous players find that, if C is chosen, a new conversation will appear: D. You almost took me in. E. Who is leaving the note on the dead body? F. Be polite, or you will regret it. Options D or F, same as the previous ones, will set off fighting; only option E will lead to the truth: the villain in front of the main protagonist is only a scapegoat arranged by the murderer. The real murderer is someone else. Then, there will be a considerable amount of content to be discovered, and, eventually, the real perfect ending unfolds: the murderer will be caught, and the friend will be healed. The scriptwriter and the game producer made painstaking efforts to mislead players, not allowing them to come close to the truth in the plot while leaving this truth at the end as a bonus to intentional players. This violates the traditional function of games that, usually, serve as a tool to please the players. On the contrary, it gives them significant challenges. Also, this form of interaction makes the games more realistic. There is

92

D. Shawn Shao

more than just winning or losing a game. There is also a situation where the player does not know that he has failed. This kind of multiple-choice interaction further elevates the gaming experience.

4 Conclusion This chapter briefly analyses the two works Grand Theft Auto 5 and The Witcher 3. By scrutinizing their narratives’ unique contents and values, this chapter attempts to clarify the value of games as a new medium for interactive art and the possible development of narratology. It deserves particular attention that the freedom of narrative in games, the environment of excitement, and the possibility for the participant’s free choice of narrative shall form the foundation for developing such a type of media. If the twentieth century is a century of films, the most important art form in the twentyfirst century then must be games. In the studies of game narratives, there could be more for the academics to explore.

References 3DMGAME. 2021. Cong GTA5 dao Rulong 0 duo juese xushi de jishu yu yishu 從《GTA5》 到《如龍0》多角⾊敘事的技術與藝術 [From GTA5 to Rulong 0: The techniques and arts of narratives by multiple protagonists]. 3DMGAME. https://kknews.cc/zh-hk/game/qepnnzg.html. Accessed 10 June 2021 Guan, Pingping 關萍萍. 2010. Hudong meijie lun: dianzi youxi duochong hudong yu xushi moshi 互動媒介論——電⼦遊戲多重互動與敘事模式 [Theory on interactive media: Multiple interaction and modes of narratives in electronic games]. Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press 浙江 ⼤學出版社 Lindley, Craig A. 2002. The gameplay gestalt, narrative, and interactive story-telling. In Proceedings of computer games and digital cultures conference, ed. Frans Mäyrä, June 6–8, 2002, 203–214. Tampere: Tampere University Press Ryan, Marie-Laure. 2006. Avatars of story. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press Watanabe, Syuji, and Akinori Nakamura. 2015. What is gameplay [Youxi xing shi shenme 遊戲性 是什麼]. Translated by Fu, jiaxin 付加鑫. Beijing: Posts & Telecom Press ⼈民郵電出版社 Zhao, Yiheng 趙毅衡. 2014. Lun erci xushu 論⼆次敘述 [Discussion on secondary narrative]. Fujian Tribune (The Humanities & Social Sciences) 福建論壇(⼈⽂社會科學版) 1: 121

A Preliminary Study of Transmedia Storytelling: The Case Study of a Special Exhibition of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum Janet Lau Man-Ying

Abstract The study of transmedia storytelling is not a new area, scholars have been discussing and reviewing not only novels and literary works, but also expanding to other forms of media, including texts and images, music, dance, film, drama, and even visual arts and performing arts, as well as popular mass media, such as television, film, animation, games and online platforms. However, exhibitions and theme parks have not received much attention or discussion. In fact, many studies have pointed out that museums, art galleries and other alternative spaces for exhibitions are regarded as media with transformative and communicative characteristics. An exhibition is considered a kind of “text”, and it features multimedia at the same time. However, the process of communication and dialogue with visitors take place at the exhibition also depends on the display mode, covering the selection, organisation and arrangement of the texts and items to empower the visitors to imagine and understand its content, and even to indulge their sensual gratification. This study attempts at exploring how museum exhibitions in recent years use stories of a person through the means of transmedia storytelling. With technological development, the interpretation of cultural content in museum exhibitions is richer and more diverse in meanings. In addition to objects and texts as narrative tools, the use of multimedia has become the norm: visualising texts and even virtualising reality. This study aims to take the “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu‧Art‧Life” 武‧藝‧⼈⽣ 李⼩龍, a special exhibition at Hong Kong Heritage Museum, as an example to explore how its transmedia storytelling connects the visitors, and their feelings towards Hong Kong through the exhibition. Keywords Transmedia storytelling · Symbolic meaning · Museum exhibition · Display mode

M. Y. Janet Lau (B) School of Arts and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_8

93

94

M. Y. Janet Lau

1 Introduction Novels and literary works, particularly their languages and words, have conventionally been the focus of narrative studies. However, one cannot thoroughly understand a literary work solely by analysing its text literally, but also the concept, context and culture of a society behind the work. Therefore, the subjects in narrative studies have been expanding the fields from literature to other forms of media, including texts and images, music, dance, film, drama, and even visual arts and performing arts, and so on. As a result, narrative studies are no longer restricted to language and words—they can be visual or spatial narratives, too. Many new concepts have been developed based on this idea. For example, research on intermediality and intertextuality were introduced by the West in the 1970s, followed by the idea of transmedia storytelling. This research trend also promotes different ways of expansions in creating stories: the new developments of “Media Expansions” engendered the concept of Multimodality, which examines the interplay among different media; and “Narrative Expansions” expand the notions of new roles and scenes from the original themes, genres and formula. The diversity and extensibility of narratives, especially in this current Internet era, have clearly been manifested. Some studies on narrative concepts and museums began to emerge in the 1990s. For instance, Eilean Hooper-Greenhill (2000, 124) points out that “Museum pedagogy is structured through the narratives produced through the displays, and also through the style in which these narratives are presented… The curatorial meaning of objects in museum is produced through a complex and multi-layered museological process where museum objectives, collecting policies, classification methods, display styles, artefactual groupings and textual framework come together in articulation.” Therefore, the exhibition can be regarded as a kind of text equipped with the characteristic of transmedia. Different media have various display modes and limitations. How museum staff organise various objects and what medium they use to tell stories are essential. An important purpose for them to deliver messages through exhibitions is to communicate with museum visitors, but there is little research on this aspect in Hong Kong. Chang Wan-Chen 張婉真 points out in The Narrative Turn of Contemporary Museum Exhibition 當代博物館展覽的敘事轉向 (2014, 8) that “the application of exhibition narrative in museums has become a way to analyse how objects and their arrangements produce meanings.” This study attempts to use “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life”, a special exhibition at Hong Kong Heritage Museum, as a case study on how textual narrative tells a story of a person, and how the narrative evokes the visitors’ imagination, association, memory and, thus, feelings. Dedicated to the biography of Bruce Lee, this exhibition displays objects in settings with multimedia installations as an effort to enrich and diversify the exhibition content, making the exhibition more appealing to visitors. This study intends to explore the textual narrative and display modes of this exhibition, and how they use the symbolic meanings and transmedia storytelling in the exhibition to build a connection with visitors—that is, to communicate with visitors and satisfy them by offering links between different media and their own experiences.

A Preliminary Study of Transmedia Storytelling: The Case Study …

95

2 Methodology Since exhibition is a combination of textual narrative, transmedia and multimodality, the theory in this study mainly draws on articles about symbolic meaning, exhibition narrative, exhibition practice and media application, and transmedia storytelling. In addition, this case study will help us grasp a deeper understanding of visual language and communication in transmedia narrative, and how they interact with audiences. Museum visitors comprise people from different regions, age groups— or even speakers of different languages. This demographic factor would make the analysis more challenging. Therefore, this study mainly concentrates on local visitors in Hong Kong. Interviewees were mainly adults who had already visited the Hong Kong Heritage Museum’s special exhibition: “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life” before. As a preliminary exploration, the research scope of this study is confined to media narrative and symbolic information in the exhibition. Interview questions are open-ended and are designed to collect data regarding the visitors’ perceptions of the special exhibition. This study aims to examine which media are of interest to visitors in the exhibition narrative, and whether the symbolic meaning presented there is related to their associations with Hong Kong through analysis and comparison of the preliminary data collected from the interview.

3 Museum Exhibitions One of the main tasks of a museum is to let the public appreciate different cultural relics and exhibits by organising exhibitions, which enriches their viewing experience and expands their knowledge. In order to initiate an effective conversation with its visitors and allow them to understand and receive relevant information, museum staff select appropriate words and objects and employ interesting display methods and spatial design corresponding to the exhibition content. Regarding exhibition texts, Chang Wan-Chen (35) asserted that “they are not confined to words themselves; instead, they are verbal discourses, which integrate visual senses with multi-sensory experience to interact with audiences.” They are more of an “open textual space”. Besides, exhibition texts can be roughly divided into two types: Firstly, text for exhibit-centred exhibitions. Exhibition texts in art exhibitions, for example, tend to be more explanative and descriptive, which allow visitors to use their creativity and interpretation; Secondly, text for theme-centred exhibitions, such as exhibitions devoted to science, history, social issues, etc. Such exhibitions adopt narrative texts, which try to convince the visitors to accept the messages intended (17). Therefore, the text strategy for thematic exhibitions focuses more on communication with visitors and information dissemination, and narrative elements are usually applied in object and installation displays, with consideration of spatial design, colouring, audio effects, visiting routes, etc. In addition, all exhibitions are purposeful communication, and they are not necessarily neutral; however, the symbols represented in

96

M. Y. Janet Lau

the exhibition are polysemous in a multicultural context. Would visitors generate the intended associations?

4 Symbolic Meaning of Exhibits Museums convey information to visitors through text narratives and object displays. Wang Sung-Shan 王嵩山 mentions in Museums, Thought, and Social Action 博物 館、思想與社會⾏動 (2015, 139) that “people’s memories are often fragmented, selective, and unstable, so they must be embodied through objects.” That is why museums combine and arrange various objects to interpretively communicate with visitors, evoke their imagination, and even connect their memories to produce meaning and resonance. It is believed that curatorial works in museums also “mean cultural representation which involves not only property definition for objects, but also the process where objects establish their subjective values, and cultural emic significance” (86–87). When museum staff design various exhibitions, they need to consider the symbolic meaning of the exhibits. Their selection of texts, objects, and the media to be used for display are all carefully curated and arranged. These exhibits can be interpreted by visitors based on certain selected content. The exhibition’s texts, objects, and positioning can all be considered signs. From the perspective of linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist, points out that all signs consist of two parts: the signifier and the signified. The signifier represents the sound-image, and the concept derived from this metaphor is signified. In daily life, symbolic meanings are embedded in these signs to generate dialogues and communications. Roland Barthes further developed corresponding denotation and connotations based on this, and even extended texts to popular culture studies. Barthes wrote in the article “Semantics of the Object” (2008, 188) that “to signify means that objects carry not only information, in which case they would communicate, but also constitute structured systems of signs, i.e., essentially systems of differences, of oppositions and of contrasts.” He further explains that the intrinsic purposes of objects are not limited to their functional nor aesthetic and decorative purposes only; they can also serve as a meaning carrier. “In other words, the object effectively serves some purposes, but it also serves to communicate information; we might sum it up by saying that there is always a meaning that overflows the object’s use” (190). The essence of objects emphasises certain purposes and conveys messages as signs. However, it also generates additional meanings when they are set in different spaces and contexts. From the first conventional level to the second level of connotation, signs can continuously extend their connotation meaning. For instance, one may accumulate the memories and stories of cities or persons to a sign’s connotation. “As a matter of fact, all objects are polysemous, i.e., they can pave the way to different interpretations; the existence of an object almost always can be interpreted in several ways. These interpretations are not only given by two different readers, but also, sometimes, by the same reader” (196). Thus, the meanings of signs can change.

A Preliminary Study of Transmedia Storytelling: The Case Study …

97

Furthermore, Mikhail Bakhtin implies that “signs do not have fixed meanings; rather, the meanings of symbols are given by the two-sided relationship between the speaker and listener, addresser and addressee” (Barker 2015, 96) This can also be used to explain the objects displayed in the museum. Despite that these objects may represent functional signs; they also include curators’ intentions. However, visitors have diverse backgrounds, emotions and knowledge, and hence their interpretations will produce other meanings, creating multiple cultural signs.

5 Communication Between Visitors and Signs In museum exhibitions, for example, museum staff first need to encode the messages intended with the signs and meanings that the exhibits represent, by which they generate codes. As visitors look at the exhibits, they are decoding—that is, communication with the signs represented by the exhibits, and attempting to understand the messages and meanings (signs) intended to deliver. However, during the communication process, visitors do not necessarily receive the messages intended originally. This is because these signs deliver diverse, rather than single, meanings to visitors. Furthermore, the meanings of the signs are closely related to social culture. Anything that interacts with the environment produces meanings, and it also connects to the history and memory of a country, ethnicity, society, and event(s). For these reasons, how visitors receive the message delivered through signs in the museum depends largely on their perceptions of social culture. Only in this way can the meaning of signs be received and understood. Therefore, different visitors can read, appreciate and explore the signs represented by the objects from different perspectives when they look at the same object even in the same exhibition space. When different visitors decode signs, completely different meanings and cultural symbols can be produced. “In other words, the meanings of signs are not fixed and negotiable” (95). Chang Wan-Chen 張婉真 wrote on museum exhibition signs in The Narrative Turn of Contemporary Museum Exhibition 當代博物館展覽的敘事轉向: Today, we know from research findings in various fields such as semiotics and communication theories that culture relies on workings of different symbolic systems, and we always transfer and deliver various messages between different media. Museum exhibitions are also based on existing meanings, symbolism, form and objects, and these elements are transformed and reorganised in unique ways. Therefore, the exhibition becomes a manufacturer of culture. (Chang 2014, 57)

6 Transmedia Narratives in Museum Exhibition In the past, museum exhibition narratives mainly revolve around objects and collections to produce meanings. However, technological advancement diversifies the ways

98

M. Y. Janet Lau

of narratives and enriches the style of an exhibition. This change responds to the trend of transmedia narrative. Henry Jenkins’s book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (2006, 96) argues that “in the ideal form of transmedia storytelling, each medium does what it does best—so that a story might be introduced in a film, expanded through television, novels, and comics; its world might be explored through game play or experienced as an amusement park attraction.” In short, multimedia serve as a platform to tell stories; “media extension” and “narrative extension” are used to strengthen the narrative of the stories. Different content related to the story can be presented on different media simultaneously, complementing each other. The more media on different platforms the audience experience, the more they will be able to understand the context of the whole story. Exhibition narrative tends to employ media extension and considers it a tool for exhibition design and auxiliary interpretation. Sensory communication, which is a characteristic of multimedia narrative, has been adopted to set up a dialogue. Today’s museum exhibitions use different media content to deliver the messages of the exhibitions. Hunter (2002) points out that common media in museums can be divided into five categories, which, from stationary to motive, are listed as follows: Media

Category

Images

Photographs, prints, maps, manuscripts, documents, drawings, paintings, movie stills, posters

audio

songs, music, plays, interviews, oral histories, radio programs, speeches, lecturers, performances, language recordings

Video/film

Full feature films, documentaries, news clips, anthropological/expedition footage, home movies, animation

Graphics

3D models, simulated walk-throughs of buildings, archeological sites, VRML

multimedia presentations, slide shows, SMIL files, QuickTime VR

7 “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life” Special Exhibition “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life” Special Exhibition (Fig. 1) is a large-scale project jointly organised by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and the Bruce Lee Foundation. From 2013 to 2018, the exhibition attracted nearly 2.8 million visitors, with an average of about 560,000 visitors each year (Sing Tao Daily, 2018). Due to its popularity, the exhibition has been modified with new installations and extended to 2026, becoming the longest-running special exhibition in the museum. The exhibition has a total area of 850 square meters, divided into different parts so that the exhibition can clearly and comprehensively deliver messages to visitors. It has six exhibition areas and more than 600 exhibits, including Bruce Lee’s autograph drawings and notes, photos, costumes, fitness equipment, movie props, posters and so on. The exhibition revolves around Bruce Lee’s biography. The six exhibition areas are named “Preface”, “A Man: Lee Jun Fan”, “Actor: Bruce Lee”, “Kung Fu Master:

A Preliminary Study of Transmedia Storytelling: The Case Study …

99

Fig. 1 “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life” Special Exhibition (Photography by Janet Lau Man-Ying)

Bruce Lee”, “Legend: Bruce Lee”, and “Collectors’ Corner”. Each exhibition area features different scene designs, objects and furnishings to simulate and recreate the context where he lived and worked. The design of the exhibition sections and their titles reveal that the curators arranged the exhibition in a sequential manner, resembling a biography. For the exhibition narrative, the exhibits are extensively displayed across the media classified by Hunter, depicting Bruce Lee’s personality with the use of transmedia, which makes his character more distinctive and persuasive. The exhibition has a specially-designed entrance featuring a semicircle-shaped corridor, which is decorated with multiple vertical rectangular TV screens that play featured videos produced by local artists as an introduction. The video uses the flow and dynamics of water drops as the main visual element, which intersperses with Bruce Lee’s core Kung Fu concept, “Be Water”, to present the legendary figure, arousing visitors’ senses and emotions (Fig. 2). Next, along the path, visitors enter the first exhibition area “A Man: Lee Jun Fan”. It emulates Hong Kong’s domestic life from the 1940s to the 1950s, showcasing the objects and pictures of Bruce Lee’s life in Hong Kong when he was young, followed by images and letters of him from his later life in the United States. The other two exhibition areas, “Actor: Bruce Lee” and “Kung Fu Master: Bruce Lee”, show his career development, covering his acting and Kung Fu career. In these sections, the main scenes from five of his classic Kung Fu movies were selected for display alongside a large number of pictures, video clips, book and magazine covers, and movie posters. A three-dimensional animation specially designed and produced for this Kung Fu Master exhibition area is also played, showing the essence of Ip Man 葉問 and Bruce Lee’s Kung Fu. This video focuses more on the delivery of Kung Fu’s step-by-step information. These two exhibition areas primarily display Bruce Lee’s achievements in acting performance

100

M. Y. Janet Lau

Fig. 2 A Set of Multimedia installation Arranged in Semicircle at the Entrance of “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life” Special Exhibition (Photography by Janet Lau Man-Ying)

and Kung Fu philosophy. For the last two exhibition areas, “Legend: Bruce Lee” and “Collectors’ Corner”, the Museum reproduces Bruce Lee’s study room in an actual size diorama to set the atmosphere and display many cultural relics and collections related to Bruce Lee (Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6). Though Bruce Lee has been an iconic figure in popular culture both in Hong Kong and overseas, he has rarely been the theme of an exhibition. This exhibition displays a large number of objects about Bruce Lee that can hardly be found elsewhere. In addition to public media content, many of the objects are private collections. The objects are diverse and abundant, from graphics and manuscripts to three-dimensional models and animations, along with a number of special installations and dioramas that recreate scenes, too. These objects and media play an important role in the communications of this exhibition and are indispensable display elements. Since this exhibition is divided into different exhibition areas to showcase Bruce Lee’s life, each exhibition area tells a story, highlighting several important milestones in his life. It seems that the objects and scenes in the exhibition provide a glimpse of Bruce Lee’s personal life, but it also narrates the story through the use of signs. When visitors immerse themselves in the exhibition and look at the objects, they are processing the information and experiencing the person’s life. This exhibition brings visitors not only the social environment Bruce Lee lived in his time, but also the social changes they are currently experiencing, which may evoke and echo their associations and memories.

A Preliminary Study of Transmedia Storytelling: The Case Study …

101

Fig. 3 Introduction Board of “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life” Special Exhibition (Photography by Janet Lau Man-Ying)

Fig. 4 The Simulated Movie Scene of “The Game of Death” Displayed at “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life” Special Exhibition (Photography by Janet Lau Man-Ying)

102

M. Y. Janet Lau

8 Research Findings Twelve visitors who visited the “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life” special exhibition were interviewed. There were five men and seven women, aged between 23 and 60. They were approximately divided into three age groups: 23–30 years old (five persons), 31–45 years old (two persons), and 46–60 years old (five persons). All of them have received a tertiary or higher level of education, and they visited the exhibition with their friends. While the duration of their visit ranged from 20 minutes to about 2 hours, most of them spent an hour there. They all knew Bruce Lee before their visits. As for the reasons for visiting this exhibition, nine interviewees indicated that they visited the museum for other exhibitions and stopped by the Bruce Lee exhibition. Two interviewees visited this exhibition for school activities. Only one interviewee visited the exhibition out of mere interest. Since the exhibition’s media is a very important communication tool, interviewees were required to select a scene or an impressive exhibit from the exhibition and explain the reason for their choice. This question would help us understand how an object or a scene communicated with visitors and triggered feelings. In terms of the selection of exhibits, four visitors from different age groups were deeply impressed by Bruce Lee’s film and television works. Some of them believed that his film and television work help them get to know more about Bruce Lee. The other two visitors from another age group were more impressed by movie stills and pictures. They pointed out that they spent a lot of time on these exhibits because these materials were abundant and valuable. Two elderly visitors were most impressed by the notes and manuscripts. They believed that there were few opportunities to read Bruce Lee’s handwriting, and one of them was particularly fond of this because she found the handwriting aesthetic. Two visitors from the young and middle-aged groups had an unforgettable impression of the yellow jumpsuit (Fig. 5). One of them believed that the yellow jumpsuit is a classic movie scene as well as a symbol of Bruce Lee, emphasizing that this was the interviewee’s childhood memory. Another elderly visitor was interested in 3D animation because using animation to introduce Kung Fu moves was something new. The last young visitor was most impressed by the statue of Bruce Lee (Fig. 7) as its supremacy boosted the atmosphere, and yet it aroused sorrow for Bruce Lee’s premature death. Among the five media categories put forward by Hunter, only the audio in the exhibition had not been mentioned by the interviewees, and the video/film was the most impressive. Perhaps this is because the exhibition theme is the life story of a film and television celebrity, and the media that serve this theme well are more popular. Although much attention was paid to the spatial design and layout of this exhibition, it seems that such an effort did not draw the visitors’ attention. The manuscripts and documents in the video category were given more attention by the elderly among the three age groups.

A Preliminary Study of Transmedia Storytelling: The Case Study …

103

Fig. 5 The Study Room in an Actual Size Diorama of “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life” Special Exhibition (Photography by Janet Lau Man-Ying)

Fig. 6 The Scene of “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life” Special Exhibition (Photography by Janet Lau Man-Ying

As for the visitors’ views on the connection between Bruce Lee and Hong Kong, only two young interviewees thought that Bruce Lee and Hong Kong are not connected. Other interviewees believed that there is a connection between Bruce Lee and Hong Kong. The summary is as follows:

104

M. Y. Janet Lau

Fig. 7 The Bruce Lee’s Statue Placed at the Museum Entrance (Photography by Janet Lau ManYing)

1. Bruce Lee grew up and became famous in Hong Kong. His movies are popular all over the world, and many foreigners get to know Hong Kong because of him. 2. Bruce Lee studied Wing Chun with Master Ip Man in Hong Kong when he was young, and his invention of Jeet Kune Do 截拳道 has attracted many foreigners to study Kung Fu in Hong Kong. 3. Bruce Lee’s famous saying “Be Water” has been deeply rooted in the hearts of Hong Kong people. 4. Bruce Lee’s films are popular among the people of Hong Kong, and many following films pay tribute to his films by using his classic dialogues. 5. Bruce Lee represents the strong spirit of Hong Kong. The above-mentioned post-visiting experience of the visitors, especially their views on the connection between Bruce Lee and Hong Kong, can be regarded as the feelings engendered by the exhibition. As Bruce Lee grew up and cast movies in Hong Kong, most of the interviewees naturally linked Bruce Lee to this region. His famous quotes and symbols that have often been mentioned in Hong Kong embody a certain self-identity of Hong Kong people such as points 3 and 5 above.

A Preliminary Study of Transmedia Storytelling: The Case Study …

105

9 Conclusion From the preliminary case study of the “Bruce Lee: Kung Fu · Art · Life” special exhibition, it is found that today’s museum exhibition narrative adopts different media to meet visitors’ various needs and expectations to enrich the exhibition content and provide fruitful experience to the visitors. However, as a biographical exhibition, its text strategies seem to be overly systematic. It is undoubtedly safe to guide the visitors through the biography in sequential order; however, solely relying on objective information undermines the character’s emotion and sensation. For example, Bruce Lee’s personal life experience in Hong Kong and the United States covering his growth and pursuit of dreams can be presented in greater depth as the narrative focus. Such experiences of growing up to pursue dreams could resonate with nearly everybody, but seemingly they do not leave a profound impression on visitors as from the findings. As for the reading of exhibits as symbols, it seems that multimedia is not suitable for all exhibition narratives. The most important thing about an exhibition is to connect emotionally with visitors, like the use of theatrical effects may enhance visitors’ sensual experience. For instance, the lighting and sound effects can be added to the scene of the yellow jumpsuit to enhance the feeling of actually being in a movie, evoking visitors’ imagination. In recent years, exhibitions emphasise participation rather than passive reception of exhibition information and this aspect can also be established by narrative extension. For example, the exhibition can include the re-creation of works of the legendary Bruce Lee, whether the imitation played by other actors or created characters, which are produced by Hong Kong and other regions. Such re-creations or imitations could help enhance the visitors’ understanding of the exhibition of a person’s life from the past without being disconnected from the present time. This study attempts to use exhibition narrative as a textual study, especially in the application of multimedia. The research offers an initial discussion, aiming to attract more people who are interested in this aspect to study and share their research findings about the exhibition narrative study.

References Barker, Chris. 2015. Cultural studies: Theory and practice [Wenhua yanjiu: lilun yu shijian ⽂化 研究: 理論與實踐]. Translated by Lo, Shi-Hung 羅世宏. Taipei: Wu-Nan Book Inc. 五南圖書 出版股份有限公司 Barthes, Roland. 2008. Sémantique de l’objet [Wuti yuyi xue 物體語義學]. In L’aventure Sémiologique [Luolan Ba’erte wenji: fuhao xue lixian 羅蘭·巴爾特⽂集: 符號學歷險]. Translated by Li, Youzheng 李幼蒸. Beijing: China Renmin University Press 中國⼈民⼤學出版社 Chang, Wan-Chen 張婉真. 2014. Dangdai bowu guan zhanlan de xushi zhuanxiang 當代博物館 展覽的敘事轉向 [The narrative turn of contemporary museum exhibition]. Taipei: Yuan Liou Publishing Co., Ltd. 遠流出版事業股份有限公司 Christer, J. and S. Petersson. 2018. Introduction. In The power of the in-between: Intermediality as a tool for aesthetic analysis and critical reflection, ed. Petersson, S., Johansson, C., Holdar, M., and Callahan, S. Stockholm: Stockholm University Press

106

M. Y. Janet Lau

Dowd, T., M. Fry, M. Niederman, and J. Steiff. 2013. Storytelling across world: Transmedia for creatives and producers. Burlington, MA: Focal Press Hooper-Greenhill, E. 2000. Museums and the interpretation of visual culture. London: Routledge Hunter, J. 2002. Combining the CIDOC CRM and MPEG-7 to describe multimedia in museums. In Museums and the Web 2002: Proceedings. Boston: Massachusetts. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED4 82096 Jenkins, H. 2006. Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press Scolari, C.A. 2013. Lostology: Transmedia storytelling and expansion/compression strategies. Semiotica 195: 45–68. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2013-0038 Wang, Sung-Shan 王嵩山. 2015. Bowu guan, sixiang yu shehui xingdong 博物館、思想與社會 ⾏動 [Museums, thought, and social action]. New Taipei City: Walkers Cultural Enterprises Ltd. 遠⾜⽂化事業股份有限公司

Creative Writing and New Interpretations of Chinese Classical Culture

A Discussion on “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” and Its TV Series Adaptation from the Perspectives of “Chinese Tragic Consciousness” and “Intertextuality” Leung Tak-Wah Abstract The “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” 孔雀東南⾶ is a long yuefu 樂府 narrative poem written in the Han Dynasty. The whole poem consists of 353 neatly composed pentasyllabic lines, containing 1765 characters in total. It describes a poignant love story between Jiao Zhongqing 焦仲卿 and Liu Lanzhi 劉蘭芝. It has always been valued by literati and scholars because of its moving plot, cohesive narrative, and detailed description of characters and dialogues. In 2009, mainland China even adapted the “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” into a 36-episode long TV series in which some changes have been made to the original main characters and plot. It is inevitable that reinvented scenes would constitute major parts of the TV series, given that the production team has to complete the daunting task of adapting an ancient poem of around 1,700 words into a long modern TV series. However, whether such modifications can fit into the original ballad’s unique “Chinese tragic consciousness” is worthy of further discussion. Focusing on “Chinese tragic consciousness” and “intertextuality,” this article discusses the effects of the TV adaptation on the original ballad with respect to its sense of tragedy and modifications to the plot by comparing the most representative scenes in the ballad “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” and their corresponding TV adaptation. Keywords Han yuefu · Southeast Fly the Peacocks · Chinese tragic consciousness · Intertextuality · TV Series

1 Introduction The “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” 孔雀東南⾶ is a long yuefu 樂府 narrative poem written in the Han Dynasty. The whole poem consists of 353 neatly composed pentasyllabic lines, which constitutes 1765 characters in total. It describes a poignant love story between Jiao Zhongqing 焦仲卿 and Liu Lanzhi 劉蘭芝. It has always been valued by literati and scholars because of its moving plot, cohesive narrative, T. W. Leung (B) Department of Chinese Language and Literature, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_9

109

110

T. W. Leung

and detailed description of characters and dialogues. In 2009, mainland China even adapted “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” into a 36-episode long TV series in which some changes have been made to the original main characters and plot. It is inevitable that reinvented scenes would constitute major parts of the TV series, given that the production team has to complete the daunting task of adapting an ancient poem of around 1,700 words into a long modern TV series. However, there has been significant dispute over whether such adapted or added scenes could deliver the unique “Chinese tragic consciousness” of the original poem. For example, Zheng Mingxia’s 鄭明霞 “Discussion on the TV Series Adaptation of ‘Southeast fly the Peacocks’” (2019) suggests that the TV series is an excellent adaptation of the original work, which covers new topics and thus conveys deeper messages. Yet, Li Shiqi’s 李⼠奇 “The Weakened Interpretation of the Tragic Theme of TV series Southeast Fly the Peacocks” (2010, 53) points out that the TV series created too many fictional characters and scenes, attenuating the articulation of the original ballad’s theme. Thus, further research and discussion on this topic are necessary. Focusing on “Chinese tragic consciousness” and “intertextuality,” this article discusses the effects of the TV adaptation on the original ballad with respect to its sense of tragedy and modifications to the plot by comparing the most representative scenes in the ballad “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” and their corresponding TV adaptation.

2 The Differences in “Chinese Tragic Consciousness” and Themes Between the Original Ballad “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” and Its TV Series Adaptation “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” was formerly titled “An Old Style Poem Dedicated to Jiao Zhongqing’s Wife” 古詩為焦仲卿妻作 in Xu Ling’s 徐凌New Songs from the Jade Terrace ⽟臺新咏 in the Southern Dynasties. It was later included in Guo Maoqian’s 郭茂倩 “Miscellaneous Songs” 雜曲歌辭 in the Collection of Yuefu 樂 府詩集 and was retitled “Jiao Zhongqing’s Wife” 焦仲卿妻 in the Song Dynasty. People of the subsequent generation, for the sake of clarity, took the first line of the poem as its name: “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” 孔雀東南⾶. The author of the poem remains unknown, and its provenance has received diverse opinions from scholars of different generations. Some argue that it was written in the Han Dynasty, while others in the Six Dynasties. However, most scholars believe that the poem is a work of the later Han Dynasty and had been polished by later literati during its transmission (Liu 1997). The poem’s preface reads, “During the Jian’an period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu, the wife of Jiao Zhongqing, government clerk of Lujiang, was cast out by Zhongqing’s mother. She then vowed not to marry again. As her family forced her to remarry, she committed suicide by drowning. After Jiao Zhongqing heard the news of her death, he hanged himself on a tree in his yard. Their contemporaries were

A Discussion on “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” and Its TV Series…

111

saddened by this tragedy and wrote this elegy.”1 The poem describes the tragic love story between Jiao Zhongqing and his wife Liu Lanzhi. Although they loved each other, Jiao’s mother detested Lanzhi and urged her son to divorce her and remarry another. Even worse was that Lanzhi’s brother forced her to remarry a prefect’s son. In the end, Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi killed themselves because they could not live on without each other, becoming the victims of tyrannous parental authority. Such an elegiac plot gives the impression that “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” is full of tragedy. However, this kind of tragedy is different from that of the West; thus, how the poem reflects the characteristics of Chinese tragic consciousness is indeed worth exploring. Tang Junyi’s 唐君毅 The Spiritual Value of Chinese Culture 中國⽂化之精神價 值 (2002, 259–269) discusses the differences between Chinese and Western literary works with regard to tragic consciousness. Tang explains why Chinese literature does not have works similar to Western tragedy: Chinese literature aims at encouraging kind-hearted people to perform good deeds and wishes that their spiritual world would receive support from reality. Tang also analyses the tragic consciousness of the Chinese (259–262). He states that Chinese tragedies are different from the Western’s because not only do they involve the personal fate and traits of the protagonist, but they are also formed around the Chinese society, culture and context. Furthermore, Tang identifies the characteristic of Western tragedies as gendered by the conflicts between the protagonist and the society, pointing out that China lacks such tragedies that highlight the liberation of individual wills. Tang’s analysis focuses on Chinese novels and operas, without noting the ancient poem “Southeast Fly the Peacocks”. First, the protagonists of the poem Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi eventually committed suicide because of the detestation by Jiao’s mother and the coercion in marriage by Liu’s brother. This is undoubtedly a tragedy. However, at the end of the story, “the two families hoped to bury Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi together near the Huashan Mountain (兩家求合葬, 合 葬華山傍)”, which suggests that the couple could finally reunite with each other after their deaths. From this perspective, the poem’s ending is consistent with Tang’s conclusion that Chinese tragedy tends to have a happy ending. The last two lines of the poem read, “Remember, people of later generations. Please take this as a lesson and do not forget about this! (多謝後世⼈, 戒之慎勿 忘!)” The author of the poem hopes to warn people about this love tragedy, persuading family members not to put pressure on their children or younger siblings any longer as this could drive them to commit suicide. The preface of the poem states that “people at that time mourn for this tragedy and, thus, they wrote this elegy to commemorate it (時⼈傷之, ⽽爲此辭也)”. This statement supports Tang’s theory that “Chinese literature aims to let kind-hearted people’s spiritual world receive support from reality” and prevents tragedies like this from happening again. Tang believes that the plots of Chinese tragedy originate from society and human cultures (⼈間⽂化), rather than simply being driven by protagonists. Evidence of such can be found in “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” as well. As mentioned above, the tragedy of Jiao and 1 All texts of “Southeast fly the Peacocks” used in this article are reprinted in Cao Xu’s 曹旭 Nineteen Ancient Poems and Selection of Yuefu Poems 古詩⼗九⾸與樂府詩選評 (2002).

112

T. W. Leung

Liu was not solely caused by personal pursuits of love. Such misfortune, first of all, was driven by the mother of Jiao’s hatred of Liu, who forced Zhongqing to divorce her wife and remarry. Furthermore, Liu was coerced into remarriage by her brothers after she was divorced and sent back to her family’s home. This shows that the deaths of the two protagonists were caused by traditional Chinese values—as Tang put it, “human culture.” From this point of view, although “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” is neither a novel nor an opera, its characteristics of Chinese tragedy are, as Tang ascertained, different from the traits of Western tragedy. Nevertheless, since the 36-episode-long TV series “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” was adapted from a poem, a significant number of changes have been made to the plot of the poem. This adaption has obscured the tragic theme of the original poem, especially the satire on the traditional authority of parents in ancient times. The biggest change of the TV series to the poem is that the catalyst of the tragedy was changed from the mother of Jiao’s hatred of Lanzhi to Gao Zhubu ⾼主簿, who was a supporting character in the ballad. In the original poem, Zhubu had no influence on Jiao and Liu’s love. The poem reads, They mentioned Lanzhi, whose family had produced officials for generations. They, too, brought up the prefect’s fifth son, who is not yet married. Zhubu ordered me to act as a go-between. The prefect’s family has this fine son. He would like to ally himself with your great house. That’s why he has sent me to your noble gate. (說有蘭家女, 承籍有宦官。云 有第五郎, 嬌逸未有婚。遣丞為媒⼈, 主簿通語⾔。直說太守家, 有此令郎君, 既欲結 ⼤義, 故遣來貴⾨。) (“Southeast Fly the Peacocks” 1974, translated by Frankel, Hans H.)

This illustrates that Zhubu only served as a matchmaker who facilitated the marriage between the prefect’s son and Lanzhi. However, Zhubu is turned into the main antagonist who directly caused Jiao and Liu’s love tragedy in the TV series. For example, he prevented Zhongqing from getting a promotion and fabricated the rumour that Lanzhi was sterile, which provoked Jiao’s mother into thinking about making her son divorce his wife. As mentioned above, the core reason for the tragedy in the original elegy is the interference of traditional parents. Only in the original context of the poem, which is set in the Han dynasty when filial piety was upheld as a core value, and parents’ orders must not be defied, could the tragedy in Jiao and Liu’s love be foregrounded. However, in the TV series, all the misdeeds were attributed to Zhubu, who was just a supporting character in the original poem. Admittedly, this adaption quite manifestly twists the plot of the original poem, while making the series potentially more appealing to audiences with a strong sense of justice. On the other hand, this adaption diminishes the original poem’s criticism of traditional tyrannical parents. From another perspective, the harm brought about by corrupt officials to the common people can also be considered a type of “human culture”; however, the loose adaption of the TV series lacks the irony of the “original sin” from the viewpoints of Jiao and Liu, who were both subjected to their superior family members’ coercion. As Li Shiqi 李⼠奇 (2010, 53) said, “This TV series has a flaw that has to be pointed out: The screenwriters’ grasp onto the tragic theme is improper; this weakens the criticism of the tragedy.” In addition, the ending of the original poem says,

A Discussion on “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” and Its TV Series…

113

The two families asked for a joint burial for Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi near the Huashan Mountain. Pine and cypresses were planted on the east and west sides, and plane trees were planted on the left and right sides. The branches covered each other, and leaves crossed each other. In the tree there was a pair of birds called mandarin ducks. They raised heads and called to every night until dawn broke. Pedestrians stopped and listened. Widows roused and stirred. Remember, people of later generations. Please take this as a lesson and do not forget about this! (兩家求合葬, 合葬華山傍。東西值松柏, 左右種梧桐。枝枝相覆蓋, 葉葉相 交通。中有雙⾶⿃, ⾃名為鴛鴦; 仰頭相向鳴, 夜夜達五更。⾏⼈駐⾜聽, 寡婦起傍徨 。多謝後世⼈, 戒之慎勿忘!) (“Southeast Fly the Peacocks” 1974, translated by Frankel, Hans H.)

The poem describes the joint tombs of Liu and Jiao, surrounded by pines, cypresses, and plane trees; there was also a pair of mandarin ducks, whose shriek pierced through the nights and stirred pedestrians and widows. These scenes created a poignant and elegiac atmosphere, embellishing the tragedy of the lovers who died for love. As mentioned above, the ending in which Jiao and Liu were jointly buried brings out not only how the protagonists were rewarded eventually for their goodwill, but also an alert for readers of the poem. Therefore, the scene of Jiao and Liu’s joint burial is not exaggerated, subtly conveying the author’s message. However, such a profound ending has also been modified in the TV series. First, the pines, cypresses, and plane trees surrounding Jiao and Liu’s tomb are nowhere to be seen. Furthermore, the mandarin ducks in the original poem, perhaps for the sake of matching the title of the TV series, were changed to peacocks. Even the officiant of the funeral is turned into Prefect Li 李⼤守, another supporting role in the original poem. These modifications have dismissed the sorrowful atmosphere of the original poem. In fact, the “mandarin ducks” in the original poem are a symbol of loving couples in ancient China, and this metaphor is widely used in poems of the Han and Wei Dynasties. For example, in “Nineteen Ancient Poems: A Guest Comes from Afar” 古詩⼗九⾸. 客從遠⽅來, there is a line that reads, “Embroidered with a pair of mandarin ducks in colourful silk, was the tailored wedding quilt. (⽂綵雙 鴛鴦, 裁為合懽被。)” Xu Ling’s徐陵 “Mandarin Duck Rhapsody” 鴛鴦賦 reads, “Mandarin ducks! Their sincere and faithful love is inspiring and surprising. Their love has surpassed many people. Would they ever dislike each other? When people hear the name of a mandarin duck, it reminds them of the pursuit of love. (特訝鴛 鴦⿃, 長情真可念。許處勝⼈多, 何時肯相厭。聞道鴛鴦⼀⿃名, 教⼈如有逐春 情。)” Furthermore, the original poem starts off with the sentence: “Southeast Fly the Peacocks, wheeling every five miles (孔雀東南⾶, 五⾥⼀徘徊)”, in which the author uses the technique qixing 起興, depicting a tangential object or scene, then introducing the main theme to the readers. The poem describes peacocks that wheel every five miles as they fly southeast before introducing the love tragedy of Jiao and Liu. The poem uses the scene of peacocks to invoke images in readers’ minds, and then introduces the theme to the audience, setting up the atmosphere for the whole poem. Nevertheless, the mandarin ducks at the ending of the original poem turned into a crying peacock at the end of the TV series. This modification not only distorts the original poem’s use of the symbol of the mandarin ducks, which represent the love between Jiao and Liu as husband and wife, but also the poem’s setting—it is during the Han and Wei periods when mandarin ducks were used as a cultural symbol of

114

T. W. Leung

spousal love; it is also when the original poem was composed. Although the adapted TV series superficially uses peacocks to echo the beginning and the ending of its storyline, it’s altered ending actually obfuscates the message that Jiao and Liu would rather die than be separated. The plot in which Prefect Li officiated the joint burial also blurs the authorial intent of the original poem: to compose this tragedy in the form of a poem so that the message of warning the public could be more easily disseminated. Therefore, with regard to the “Chinese tragedy consciousness” and the plot of the original poem, the TV adaption fails to highlight the themes of the original poem and its tragic elements.

3 Analysing the TV Adaptation of the Original Poem from the Perspective of “Intertextuality” As discussed above, the content and plot of the poem “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” are full of deep tragic consciousness. Thus, whether or not the TV adaptation could retain the original poem’s sense of tragedy and artistic techniques is extremely crucial to the success of the 36-episode TV adaptation. This section will first explain the concept of “intertextuality” and discuss the potential aesthetic requirements for the TV series for audience members who are familiar with the original poem. The concept of “intertextuality” suggests that texts do not exist independently. Each text has a relationship with different texts and previous works. Tiphaine Samoyault, a French scholar, points out in L’Intertextualité: Mémoire de la littérature that “intertextuality is a basic element in the studies of the language of literary works”. She believes that: With the combination of the horizontal axis (author-reader) and vertical axis (text-context), a fact is illustrated: a phrase (or an article) is a recurrence of another word (or text). People can at least find a phrase (or a text) of another work as they read…Every finished work is akin to a piece of colour picture of words. Every text absorbs and transforms other texts (Tiphaine, Samovault n.d., as cited in Wang and Wang 2006, 430).

From this point of view, all literary works, more or less, are derived from works of previous generations; they are not independent pieces of composition that are unrelated to other texts. Thereafter, Qiu Yuyun’s 邱于芸 Using Stories to Change the World: Cultural Context and Story Prototype ⽤故事改變世界—⽂化脈絡與故事原型 (2014, 318– 319) employs “intertextuality” to study the relationships between Chinese classical and modern fictions, stating that “Any novel is a complex tissue of repetitions and of repetitions within repetitions, or of repetitions linked in chain fashion to other repetitions—J. Hillis Miller’s Fiction and Repetition: Seven English Novels. Covering the discussions from prototype to a cultural context, this book aims at explaining the fundamental elements in all stories that will never change, and how various creative works are composed under the ironclad criteria. A process of seeking common ground

A Discussion on “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” and Its TV Series…

115

from differences and seeking differences in similarities is a dynamic representation of “intertextuality.” To sum up, as far as the theory of “intertextuality” is concerned, the literary composition is the result of absorbing, transforming, and echoing preceding work, rather than an existence independent of other texts. In terms of film and television adaptations, although TV series are not texts, their recurrences of scenes are actually derived from texts through the transformation and modification of literary works. Therefore, one may argue that there is “intertextuality” between the original literary works and the adapted TV series. Especially when audiences are familiar with the original literary works, they will anticipate that the adaptation would remain loyal to, as well as exhibit a certain degree of “intertextuality” with the original work; that is, they will unconsciously evaluate the success of film and television adaptations of literary works based on the accuracy of the adaptation. Of course, as Qiu Yuyun points out, a successful work of fiction can be based on an altered version of previous works. Scenes, personalities of the characters, and other details do not necessarily need to be identical to the original works. In her book she uses Shi Zhecun’s 施蟄 存 Shi Xiu ⽯秀 as an example, which is adapted from a modified version of the classical fiction Water Margin ⽔滸傳; however, this article suggests that, if adapted TV series stray too far away from their original literary works, they might not be able to satisfy the audience’s “intertextuality” expectations, which can be construed as the expectation that the TV series would be a recreation of the original works. To illustrate the problems of the TV adaptation of the poem “Southeast Fly the Peacocks,” this essay will conduct a comparative study on the representative contents selected from the original poem with their corresponding scenes in the TV adaptation from the perspective of “intertextuality”. First of all, the original poem “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” has a very consummate structure. The story starts off with the conflicts between Liu Lanzhi and Jiao’s mother, Zhongqing and his mother, Lanzhi and Liu’s brother, and Lanzhi and Jiao’s mother. Each scene is immediately followed by another, presenting a very intense and coherent plot. However, many new scenes and characters were added to the TV series as adapted from the original poem, which makes the original plot less cohesive. As mentioned above, Gao Zhubu becomes the main antagonist, acquiring a more important role in the TV series. At the end of the series, Gao Zhubu seemingly sent Jiao on a trip to handle administrative affairs while dispatching assassins to kill him. Mistakenly believing that Jiao was already dead, Lanzhi threw herself into a river. Meanwhile, Jiao did not meet Lanzhi in time, and thus he hanged himself for love.2 We can see how the TV series has distorted the original poem’s theme, which condemns the dictatorship of traditional parents. The series also added excessive scenes filming the intervention of the wicked as the loving couple died for their faithful love. Such changes have significantly twisted the plot of the original poem, undermining the “intertextuality” between the original poem and the TV adaptation. “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” is known for its ingenious structure. This pentasyllabic poem (wuyan shi 五⾔詩) is neatly composed, and long narrative poems 2

This argument is supported by Li Shiqi’s “TV series ‘Southeast fly the Peacocks’ Weakens Criticism of Tragedy Theme” (2010), too.

116

T. W. Leung

in ancient China are extremely rare. Chinese poems are different from fiction and operas. Using poems to narrate stories, portray characters, and design dialogues are extremely difficult. Although this poem is rather long, its wording is refined and succinct. Shen Deqian 沈德潛 (2006, 76), a scholar of the Qing dynasty, in The Wellsprings of Old Poems 古詩源 suggested that “The structure of a poem is crucial. If the poem starts by describing two families’ statuses and ends by narrating their families’ remorse, wouldn’t the poem become too slow-paced and tedious? However, the poem surprisingly depicts these scenes with only one or two stanzas. Thus, this poem is long yet well-structured.” Chen Zuoming 陳祚明 (2009), another scholar of the Qing dynasty, asserts in Caishu Tang’s Collection of Selected Ancient Poems 采菽堂古詩選 that the poem does not spend too many words on the two families’ statuses or their agitation, for they are not important. While a few descriptions of the background are necessary, it is superfluous to expatiate things that do not matter. Thus, one can see how the poem is structured.” Therefore, a complex plot delving into excessive details would have loosened the structure of the poem. As mentioned above, Shen and Chen have already pointed out that the utmost difficulty in balancing the structure of a piece of literary work is to determine which materials appear to be indispensable but do not actually fit its themes. Genres such as novels and operas would have allowed the story of Liu and Jiao to include more details, such as the backgrounds of the characters and the sorrow of Liu and Jiao’s families at their funeral; however, in the pentasyllabic ancient poem (wuyan gushi 五⾔古詩) “Southeast Fly the Peacocks”, these embellishments would have to be removed. Moreover, in order to set up a piteous mood, the plot has to be appropriately designed. For example, the dialogues and reactions of characters in the poem are written in great detail, which highlights the consciousness of this love tragedy. However, the TV adaptation not only distorts the plot of the original poem, but also makes the supporting roles overshadow the main characters, thereby obscuring the focus of the story. The TV adaptation even creates new characters and scenes that do not exist in the original poem. The poem reads, “There is a virtuous woman in the East named Qin Luofu. No one can match her lovely posture. I shall plead for your marriage. You should send Lanzhi away quickly, and do not let her stay. (東家有賢女, ⾃名秦羅 敷。可憐體無比, 阿母為汝求, 便可速遣之, 遣去慎莫留。)” (“Southeast Fly the Peacocks” 1974, translated by Frankel, Hans H.). Qin Luofu秦羅敷 never appears as a real character in the original poem; she is only mentioned as Jiao’s mother’s ideal daughter-in-law. However, the TV series has placed great emphasis on Qin Luofu’s 秦羅敷 role, disrupting the balanced plot of the original poem while also distracting readers from the main storyline of Jiao and Liu’s love tragedy. Furthermore, the original poem shows excellent use of cohesive devices. For example, in Chen’s Caishu Tang’s Collection of Selected Ancient Poems (2009): “Any long story must be frequently linked, otherwise its plot will be loose. The following descriptions were used to connect different parts of the story: silk-weaving at thirteen, going to the office, flat rock and reed, the sounds of roosters and cow, and their utter silence. All of these are applications of cohesive devices. Yet such usage is so natural and subtle that it is spectacular.” For instance, as the couple parted for the first time, Lanzhi said to Zhongqing: “You ought to be like a flat rock, I ought to

A Discussion on “Southeast Fly the Peacocks” and Its TV Series…

117

be like a reed. The reed is as tough and pliable as silk, the flat rock neither moves nor shifts. (君當作磐⽯, 妾當作蒲葦。蒲葦紉如絲, 磐⽯無轉移。)”. As Zhongqing met Lanzhi later on, he said: “Flat rock is square and thick, it can last a thousand years. The reed is tough for a while, from dawn until evening. (磐⽯⽅且厚, 可以卒 千年; 蒲葦⼀時紉, 便作旦⼣間。)” (“Southeast Fly the Peacocks” 1974, translated by Frankel, Hans H.). It can be seen that the metaphors of reed and flat rock appeared twice in the poem, which not only shows the faithful love between Jiao and Liu, but also link up the beginning and end of the story, thereby strengthening the structural coherence of the poem. However, in the TV series, such intricate uses of cohesive devices have been modified, too. The metaphor of flat rock appears only until the 30th episode of the TV series through Zhongqing’s dialogue. He said that his heart is like a flat rock and he will not remarry. The context has also been changed. In the original poem, the metaphor was used while he was accompanying Lanzhi to go back to her family’s home; in the TV series, this was changed to a scene in which the two characters hugged and wept in their room. It was only after this scene that Lanzhi said “you must be like a flat rock, I must be like a reed” to respond to Zhongqing’s aforementioned quote. The reed and the flat rock are the most symbolic metaphors in the whole poem. Not only do they embody the deep love of the couple, but they also push forward the plot and serve as a cohesive device. As this metaphor is used in the poem, the two characters’ moods and circumstances change as well. However, the TV series fails to recreate such exemplary scenes, which impairs the poem’s cohesiveness, thereby weakening the “intertextuality” between the TV series and the original poem.

4 Conclusion This article attempts to discuss in-depth the relationship between the original poem “South East Fly the Peacocks” and its adaptation of the TV series with regard to the concepts of “Chinese tragedy consciousness” and “intertextuality”. This essay points out that the plot of the original poem encapsulates the typical “Chinese tragic consciousness”. However, the TV adaption obscures the original poem’s criticism of traditional tyrannical parents. In addition, the ending of the TV adaptation weakens the tragic consciousness of the original poem. Moreover, from the perspective of “intertextuality”, this article points out that while the TV adaptation is not a piece of literary work, it shares a very close “intertextual” relationship with the original poem. Thus, it has an influence on the aesthetic expectations of the audiences who are familiar with the original literary work. Audiences may pay attention to whether the adaptation has reached the level of “recreating the classic” by comparing the TV series with the original poem. This article has chosen representative lines of the poem and has compared them with their corresponding scenes in the TV series, suggesting that the adaption has impaired the poem’s plot, structure and cohesiveness. Nevertheless, this argument is based on this article’s pursuit of “intertextuality”; audience members

118

T. W. Leung

who are unfamiliar with the original poem and consider the TV series a reinvention of the poem, they may think differently of it.

References Cao, Xu 曹旭. 2002. Gushi shijiu shou yu yuefu shi xuanping 古詩⼗九⾸與樂府詩選評 [Nineteen ancient poems and selection of Yuefu poems]. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chuban she 上海古籍出 版社 Chen, Zuoming 陳祚明. 2009. Caishu tang gushi xuan 采菽堂古詩選 [Cai Shu hall ancient poems collection]. In Zhongguo jiben guji ku 中國基本古籍庫 [Database of Chinese classic ancient books], 2, 29. Beijing: Beijing Erudition Digital Technology Research Center 北京愛如⽣數字 化技術研究中⼼ Frankel, Hans H. 1974. The Chinese ballad “Southeast Fly the Peacocks”. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 34: 248–271 Li, Shiqi 李⼠奇. 2010. Dianshi ju Kongque dongnan fei bei ju zhuti de pipan xing ruohua 電視劇 《孔雀東南⾶》悲劇主題的批判性弱化 [The weakened interpretation of the tragic theme of TV series Southeast Fly the Peacocks]. Movie Review 電影評介 2: 53, 62 Liu, Yuejin 劉躍進. 1997. Zhonggu wenxue wenxianxue 中古⽂學⽂獻學 [The philology of medieval literature]. Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chuban she 江蘇古籍出版社 Qiu, Yuyun 邱于芸. 2014. Yong gushi gaibian shijie: wenhua mailuo yu gushi yuanxing ⽤故事改 變世界——⽂化脈絡與故事原型 [Using story to change the world: Cultural context and story prototype]. Taipei: Yuan Liou Publishing Co., Ltd. 遠流出版事業股份有限公司 Shen, Deqian 沈德潛. 2006. Gushi yuan 古詩源 [Origin of Ancient poems]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company 中華書局 Tang, Junyi 唐君毅. 2002. Zhong guowen huazhijing shenjia zhi 中國⽂化之精神價值 [The spiritual value of Chinese culture]. Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press 廣西師範⼤學出版 社 Wang, Xianpei 王先霈 and Wang, Youping 王又平. 2006. Wwenxue lilun pi ping shuyu huishi ⽂ 學理論批評術語匯釋 [A glossary of critical terms in literary theory]. Beijing: Higher Education Press ⾼等教育出版社 Zheng, Mingxia 鄭明霞. 2019. Lun Kongque dongnan fei de dianshi ju gaibian 論《孔雀東南 ⾶》的電視劇改編 [Discussion on the TV Series adaptation of “Southeast Fly the Peacocks”]. Masterpieces Review 名作欣賞 8: 58–59

Resources for Creativity from Chinese Classical Culture: A Discussion on the Creative Thinking and Creation Pattern of “Old Tales Retold” and Revelations on the Development of Creative Writing Benson Tong Tsz-Ben Abstract This research aims to explore the relationship between the creative thinking of “Old Tales Retold” 故事新編 and nurturing the writing of creative works by students, to analyse further its creative pattern, and ultimately unveil the inspiration that the creative method of “Old Tales Retold” has brought upon the development of creative writing pedagogy. This research discovers that classical Chinese culture offers excellent elements for creative writing. By processing and reflecting on traditional stories and the ways of writing “Old Tales Retold”, students will be able to render classical Chinese stories into resources for creative writing appropriate for current trends to induce greater resonance amongst readers. “Old Tales Retold” has outstanding effects in enhancing students’ ability to select the subject and approach to creating their work. Through analysis and transformation of elements in traditional stories, students will learn to interpret the text and apply critical thinking. In addition, using the approach of creative writing, they will be able to master the principles and skills of fiction writing through mastery of story fabrication, narration methods, shaping of characters, and switching of perspectives. Lastly, with the emphasis on nurturing university students’ abilities to create literary works, this paper proposes that Chinese classical culture should be introduced to the development of creative writing studies so that students can acquire knowledge of classical Chinese culture and find inspiration therein and ways to express creativity. Upon the foundation of classical Chinese culture, students would be able to seek inspiration from it and use creative methods to apply the knowledge of the past. They would also be able to build a cognitive process of writing model—that is, the synergy of text interpretation and reaction—through interpretations of classical culture. Keywords Old Tales Retold · Creative thinking · Creative pattern · Creative writing as an academic discipline

T. B. Benson Tong (B) School of Arts and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_10

119

120

T. B. Benson Tong

1 Introduction Two contrasting viewpoints have long existed in the teaching of creative writing. In creative writing, should there be principles to follow or not? It is quite commonly believed that the training of thinking should be the focus of creative writing. Therefore, teaching should not be constrained by reading materials, while some believe that reading is the foundation for writing. Should there be insufficient model works for reference in the teaching of creative writing, the students would lack writing ideas. This is the dilemma in creative writing as an academic discipline. If there were no assigned teaching materials in class, how are teachers supposed to teach? If, on the other hand, students are taught according to the writing techniques in the assigned textbooks, would they crank out cookie-cutter literary works, which corrupt the original intention of creative writing? Ge Hongbing 葛紅兵 has discussed this issue in his article “Creative Writing: As a Method of Teaching” 創意寫作: 作為⼀種教學⽅法, which is quoted as follows: Teaching creative writing as an academic disciple treats the nurturing of “creative thinking” as an aim, while the nurturing of “writing ability” is treated as the realisation of the said aim. The definition of teaching aim differs from that of the teaching of traditional writing. Thus, the identification of the content of education also differs from the teaching of traditional writing. Furthermore, the aspirations in teaching methods also differ from the teaching of traditional writing (Ge 2020, 9).

Also: Teaching traditional writing as an academic discipline restricts the teachers and students in voluminous compulsive training in “texts production”, which, in fact, renders minimal achievement in enhancing the students’ creativity; the root cause lies here. Such a method does not emphasise training the students to observe, gain experience, and apply judgment. It does not touch on enhancing the students’ inherent creativity or the external realisation of their creativity (Ge 2020, 10).

Ge Hongbing discloses the fundamental differences between the two academic disciplines, traditional writing and creative writing. The teaching method for the former mainly focuses on the teaching of assigned texts, while that of the latter aims at nurturing “creative thinking”. Ge Hongbing touches upon the consideration of the teaching of creative writing and believes that, when compared to the teaching of texts, the nurturing of creative thinking would no doubt be closer to the inherent nature of creative writing as an academic discipline. Subsequently, Ge Hongbing and Li Xiaoyin 李梟銀 raise the compromising viewpoint of “creative close reading” 創 意型細讀 to resolve the problems encountered during actual teaching in practice, as quoted below: The construction of the teaching method for creative writing is an important dimension. It is because for an academic discipline to find its place in the contemporary university system, there must be a set of practicable and replicable teaching methods, out of a need to manifest the characteristics of the subject and a need for actual teaching in practice. What is “creative writing pedagogy”? To explain this in brief, after accepting that creative writing can be taught, we need to consider how creative writing should be taught. The answer in this article

Resources for Creativity from Chinese Classical Culture: A Discussion…

121

is: to construct a set of teaching methods with “creative close reading” as the core (Ge and Li 2021, 59).

The idea of using “creative close reading of assigned texts” as a teaching method shows that, in the eventual case, assigned texts are indispensable to creative writing.1 However, the defined content of “creative close reading of assigned texts” is a field of research yet to be developed. For example, Ge Hongbing and Li Xiaoyin point out at the end of their paper: In terms of feeling, building rational analysis to nurture independent thinking and creativity is a necessary quality for members of modern society. On this basis, together with practical experience, one enters into diversified stages of reading to form one’s creative reading, which is a high standard arising from expectations in creative reading. From this perspective, this paper only puts forth a concept, while the various discourse resources of “creative close reading” would still require in-depth analyses, and its actual implementation procedure would also require further deepening. Therefore, “creative close reading” is “a work to be completed” (Ge and Li 2021, 59).

On the other hand, this research is also inspired by the viewpoints of Zhang Yiwei 張怡微. In her research paper “Potential and Absent: A Discussion on Two Directions of Research on Localisation of ‘Creative Writing’ Localisation”, she traces the source and the subsequent trend to point out that: From the perspective of intention and strategy, the novels of the Ming and Qing Dynasties can be deemed as the predecessor of “creative writing” in China. … writers of literary adaptations focus on the core topics of the original works and make supplements to the main characters or branches of the main storyline; whether the changes are made in form of continuation, supplement or amendment, they are all, in fact, adaptations. If we need to find out their motive to write … for example, Hu Shi 胡適 rewrote the Journey to the West 西遊記, while Lu Xun 魯迅 rewrote the “Old Tales Retold”. They could express their understanding of the original work through different actions such as comments and discussions. However, they chose to re-create the works as both the reader and writer, which has a rather profound meaning. … For each close reading, some illusions of “origin” and “on the scene” were created which can be a goal of training for creative writing that can be attained by continuing or transforming the ancient Chinese novels. The continuation of Chinese novels is a collective phenomenon of “big language” and “big texts”. It should have a place in the framework of literary history. It should also converge with writing as an academic discipline to attain breakthroughs in creative methodology. This is one of the inconspicuous reasons for sinicizing the teaching of “creative writing” (Zhang 2019).

The viewpoint of Zhang unveils the connection between the literary adaptions in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and creative writing. Her viewpoint becomes the foothold of the research in this paper and inspires this study. Accordingly, this paper shall begin the study on Lu Xun and extend to the study on creative thinking in “Old Tales Retold” and its relationship with nurturing students’ creative literary writing. Pinpointing the above issues related to the teaching of creative writing, this paper intends to approach the investigation of the teaching of creative writing based on the creative phenomenon of “Old Tales Retold”, and to further analyse its pattern of creation in order to enrich Ge Hongbing’s research on “creative close reading”, and 1

Meanwhile, Wang Haifeng 王海峰 (2021) also put forth some similar viewpoints.

122

T. B. Benson Tong

to assess the possibility for “Old Tales Retold” to become “creative text for close reading”. The main discussion in this paper is, how was “creative thinking” generated during the process of creating “Old Tales Retold” against the original version? How to proceed with a creative interpretation of the characters, plot, and thematic structure? Also, what inspiration does it spark in the development of creative writing as an academic discipline?

2 The Origin, Concept, and Creative Thinking of “Old Tales Retold” The phrase “Old Tales Retold” 故事新編 appeared in the first edition (1935) of the collection of short stories by Lu Xun (1881–1936) for the first time (Fokkema 2005). According to Lu Xun, “Old Tales Retold” is to “take ideas both from the past and the present for writing short stories… for conducting extensive literary research was conducted to trace the origins … Only take a small portion from the original work, and a complete piece of writing by unrestricted elaboration” (Lu 1981, 1–11). In other words, “Old Tales Retold” is a creative method that involves using Chinese traditional legends and mythology as a blueprint to gain an in-depth understanding of the fundamental meaning through tracing the source and the subsequent trend as a foundation. Then select the most unique and attractive elements and integrate them with contemporary writing ideas with imagination and elaboration. Finally, give traditional stories an overhaul through rewriting (Zhu 2010). This type of creative method has been taken in by subsequent literary creators. The form was gradually set as a creative pattern and a genre, as pointed out by Zhu Chongke 朱崇科 (2005, 200): “Old Tales Retold” is a significant stage or milestone in the maturity and abundance process of Lu Xun’s works. … The multiple co-existence, the narrative mode of contention and the inclusion of a hundred schools of thoughts render it another subgenre: the originator of the genre “Old Tales Retold” in Chinese literary history of the 20th century.

According to the viewpoint of Zhu Chongke in his book The Ecstasy of Tension: A Discussion on Subject Intervention of the Newly-written Novels about Lu Xun and His Successors 張⼒的狂歡——論魯迅及其來者之故事新編⼩說的主體介 入 (2005, 200), after Lu Xun, works that adopted the creative method of “Old Tales Retold”, such as Shi Zhicun’s 施蟄存 “Jiangjun Ditou” 將軍底頭; Liu Yichang’s 劉 以鬯 “Xiyuan Gushi” 西苑故事, Old Tales Retold 故事新編, “Snake” 蛇, “Spider Demon” 蜘蛛精; Lilian Lee’s 李碧華Green Snake 青蛇; Xi Xi’s 西西 “Feitu Zhen Huilan Ji” 肥⼟鎮灰闌記 should be classified novels of the genre “Old Tales Retold”. The author of this chapter generally agrees with the saying of Zhu Chongke. On this basis of discussion, the author of this chapter believes that all contemporary texts created with “Old Stories Retold”, including novels, poetry, and such new literary forms as internet literature etc., fulfil the definition of “Old Stories Retold” in this chapter.

Resources for Creativity from Chinese Classical Culture: A Discussion…

123

From this perspective, the creative thinking of “Old Stories Retold” is to appreciate a target text from an uncommon point of view. This idea aligns with the teaching method of Chinese creative writing as an academic discipline. In the creative thinking of “Old Stories Retold”, the original is not necessarily the definite and unchangeable authoritative text. Instead, attempts can be made to transform the connotation of traditional Chinese culture into the personal activity of creative writing on the basis of the framework of the original text and according to the creator’s background of the times, his interests, and originality. As to the pattern of creation of “Old Stories Retold”, in general, it operates along with the following three principles: 1. Putting Emphasis on Creativity and the Creator’s Subjective Self-Awareness According to the connotation of creativity concluded by Michael (1977), creativity is the generation of new information or the generation of products and processes that never existed before. In “Old Stories Retold”, the stress on creativity is shown in the aspects of change in the core thinking of the original text, the transformation of the design of the characters, the creative narratives and so on. Firstly, “Old Stories Retold” often conducts innovative processes upon the foundation of the original text. For example, in the chapter “Taming the Floods” 理⽔ of Lu Xun’s Old Stories Retold 故事新編, he changed the central idea of the myth “Great Yu Tames the Floods” ⼤ 禹治⽔ to criticism and sarcasm against the deep-rooted wickedness of the people of the times, so as to highlight the central idea that humans are far more frightening than a natural disaster. In this story, therefore, Lu Xun shrewdly criticises the academics on the “Cultural Hill” ⽂化山, the thoughts and behaviour of the officials of the Water Resources Bureau to present creative interpretation against the contents of the original text.2 Furthermore, “Old Stories Retold” also reflects creativity through the transformation of character design. For example, “Snake” 蛇, a short story by Liu Yichang, was an adaptation of the classic story Legend of the White Snake ⽩ 蛇傳. The original story was retold by changing the identities of the characters. Liu redesigned the character Bai Suzhen ⽩素貞, the snake spirit of a thousand-yearold in the classic story, as a real human woman, and shifted the emphasis of the story to the psychological description of the character Xu Xian 許仙. The central thematic change shows Liu Yichang’s exploration of humanity (1991a, 1991b, 282– 286). Thirdly, in the aspect of the innovation of narration, for example, Xi Xi’s “Chentangguan Zhongbingfu Jiashi” 陳塘關總兵府家事, which is an adaptation of the story of Ne Zha哪吒, is narrated from the perspectives of ten different characters, 2

For example, Lu Xun mocks the academics of “Cultural Hill” because they always bury themselves in archaeological research, yet never care about the reality. He goes, “You were fooled by the rumours. In fact, there was no such thing called yu 禹. ‘Yu’ is a worm, and does a worm know how to tame the floods? As far as I am concerned, I see it, there isn’t any gun 鯀 either. Gun is a fish. Can a fish tame the floods? As he speaks, he stomps with both of his legs in a seemingly very hard way. He, too, sarcastically mocks the officers of the Water Resources Bureau for paying no attention to the sufferings of the people, “Bread fall from the sky every month; we are not short of fish either, they may have some muddy smell, but they are meaty, my lord. As to the commoners, they have elm leaves and seaweed. They are “always well-fed, but have no heart”—they don’t bother to do their work with heart, having these to eat should be enough. We have tasted it before. They taste not bad, quite special indeed…” See Lu Xun’s Old Tales Retold (1981, 28–43).

124

T. B. Benson Tong

viz. Li Jing李靖, Ne Zha’s mother and his brothers Jin Zha⾦吒 and Mu Zha⽊吒, the horse, and the servant girl in order to demonstrate the diversity of thinking by enriching the plot in the original classical story that Ne Zha repaid the kindness of his parents with his own flesh and bones (Xi 1998a, 1998b, 125). 2. Breakthrough the Conventional Concept of Space and Time Creators of works in the genre “Old Stories Retold” can demonstrate in their work some creative interference with the intrinsic concept of time and space in the classical text. The creator can intertwine the past and the present in his adaptation, and highlight his theme through conversations, clashes, conflict, harmonious convergences, and so on. For example, in the chapter “Taming the Floods” of Lu Xun’s Old Stories Retold, the contemporary Chinese terms such as “daxue ⼤學 (university)” and “youzhi yuan 幼稚園 (kindergarten)”, and Chinese transliteration of English phrases such as “gu maolin 古貌林 (good morning)”, “haodu youtu 好杜有圖” (how do you do)” and “OK” etc. to render the story closer to the background of contemporary times, and to present an ambiguity between the past and the present, so as to strengthen the nature of the sarcasm. Another example is the second half of “Shaonian Shennong” 少年 神農 by Dung Kai-cheung 董啟章. In this literary work, Dung attempts to place the image of Shennong Shi 神農氏 in the real-life context of Hong Kong at present. Dung tries his best to portray the incompatibility of Shennong and his surrounding environment, and he surprisingly turns into “an incompatible green monster (沒 法相處的綠⾊怪物)” and an extreme environmentalist. This demonstrates Dung Kai-cheung’s reflection on the present (Dung 1996a, 1996b, 95–127). 3. The Creative Element Must be a Reference or Extension of the Original Classical Text Creative works of “Old Stories Retold” are not carefree rewritten works. Some of the meaning must be built upon the foundation of the classical text. For example, all stories in Lu Xun’s “Old Stories Retold” have not digressed from the original framework, “Taming the Floods” 理⽔ was inspired by “Xiabenji” 夏本紀 in Shiji 史記, “Reserection” 起死 by “Perfect Enjoyment” 至樂 in Zhuangzi 莊⼦; and Su Tong’s 蘇童 Binu: the Myth of Lady Mengjiang 碧奴: 孟姜女哭長城的傳說by Gu Jiegang’s 顧頡剛 research materials on the story of Lady MengjiangNu 孟姜女; all these have intertextual effects. Zhu Chongke has accurately summarised this: As the name suggests, the new adaptation has to have an existing story in the first place before it can be adapted. The old text undoubtedly serves as reference, while the “new adaptation” cannot be thoroughly new. It must be an extension, adjustment, or change upon a part of the semiosis of the traditional text. This reflects the constraint of the old text upon the new text (Zhu 2001).

Resources for Creativity from Chinese Classical Culture: A Discussion…

125

3 Revelation of “Old Stories Retold” on the Development of Creative Writing as an Academic Discipline Creative writing studies aim to nurture students’ creativity to generate new products and processes. Through the above initial inspection of “Old Stories Retold”, this research finds that inheritance engenders the generation of creativity, and what “Old Stories Retold” has inherited is the resources of Chinese classical culture. If Chinese ancient traditional stories are used as texts for creative writing, Chinese classical culture can offer excellent literary elements. Through reflection upon traditional stories and reference to different writers’ adaptations of the respective original classical texts, eventually, students would be able to apply the creative method of “Old Stories Retold” to transform classical Chinese stories into creative resources that can align with the present and serves as a reference for other writers. This will strengthen readers’ empathy and generate the literary effect of intertextuality. From my experience teaching the “Creative Writing Workshop” in the Creative Writing programme at Hong Kong Metropolitan University (formerly The Open University of Hong Kong), “Old Stories Retold” has outstanding effects on enhancing students’ ability to choose the right materials and approach for their writing. By analysing and transforming the elements of traditional stories, students will learn the interpretation of texts and apply critical thinking. Furthermore, they will learn various expressions and creative skills through “Old Stories Retold”. Different works will show students the authors’ creations based on the original story in the aspects of the design of characters, central idea, concept of space and time, and the format of narratives. Upon the notion of creative writing, students will be equipped with principles and skills of story writing as story composition, narratives, character description, and perspective shifts to help them absorb creative elements, and learn how to reveal their unique ideas through the development and transformation of traditional stories (Tong 2021). Take for example the assignment in “Creative Writing Workshop” titled “Old Stories Retold: Lady Mengjiang Cried the Great Wall of China”, “Lady Mengjiang Cried the Great Wall of China” 孟姜女哭長城 was assigned as the source to be adapted in class (Shi 2006 and Tong 2021). The lecture covers the storyline of the classic story of Lady Mengjiang and the transformations during the dissemination of the story. Students are guided to consider the possibility of the need for further explanation and elaboration. Other examples are taken, viz. Zhang Henshui’s 張恨⽔ “Lady Mengjiang” (1993), Liu Yichang’s “Lady Mengjiang” in Old Stories Retold (2018, 93–241) and Su Tong’s Binu: Mengjiang Nu Ku Changcheng de Chuanshuo 碧奴: 孟姜女哭長城的傳說 (2006). Through the method of close reading of texts, analysis is conducted on how the writers render their uniqueness into an old story to suit the modernity of the times. Then, the assignment requires students to use the original work as the basis and apply the knowledge they learned to adopt the original story into a piece of creative writing. According to the teaching experience in the recent five years, students’ creative works can mostly appropriately transform the elements of the story of Lady Mengjiang, and they manage to re-create and re-write

126

T. B. Benson Tong

upon the basis of the original work. As pointed out by Fokkema (1999), a Dutch academic, “There is no re-writing without a creative effort by the subject”, and he also stresses that “Re-writing is a form of repetition with differences. It is a repetition that springs surprises and a fresh way to see things” (2005). Students may be able to produce an adaptation using Hong Kong or other cities of China as the background to write on the important scenes of Lady Mengjiang, such as “meeting by the pond”, “sending winter clothing”, “crying” and so on. In an ambiguous background of the times without specifying the past or the present, modernity and personal thoughts are rendered. Or by using some of the allegories in the story of Lady Mengjiang such as the “Great Wall” or the “gourd”. As the main connection in the traditional story of Lady Mengjiang and as the narrative clues throughout the whole piece of work in order to develop the storyline in the moderate use of stream of consciousness to create some metaphorical and artistic effects. Or, for example, Emperor Qin Shi Huang 秦 始皇, other warriors, or other characters may be the narrator of a monologue who tells the story of Lady Mengjiang, explaining why Lady Mengjiang is so frail or discussing the details in the story that have always been neglected. All of these show the students’ modern reflections on the traditional story. Or, for instance, apply the style of writing in novels by portraying the thoughts of different narrators to compile pieces of the story of Lady Mengjiang. The students’ creative contents mostly relate to their idea of present-day living. The creative endeavour of “Old Stories Retold” is used as a means to observe and imagine Hong Kong and the Mainland cities, attempting to engage in constructive discussions on social issues such as women’s autonomy rights and social status, the concept of love in present and in ancient times, marriage, homosexuality, gossips, education, infrastructure and so on.

4 Conclusion Lastly, focusing on nurturing university students’ capacity in creative writing, this chapter proposes that Chinese classical culture should be introduced to students in the development of creative writing studies to build Chinese creative writing studies (Ge and Xu 2011). This encourages students to attempt to seek inspiration from Chinese classical culture as their foundation and equips them with methods of the present or past to create literary works, and construct a cognitive process of writing model that involves of the processes of text interpretation and reaction through a new interpretation of classical culture. (Flower and Hayes 1981).

Resources for Creativity from Chinese Classical Culture: A Discussion…

127

References Dung, Kai-Cheung 董啟章. 1996a. Anzhuo Zhenni 安卓珍尼 [Androgyny]. Taipei: Unitas Publishing Company 聯合⽂學 Dung, Kai-Cheung 董啟章. 1996b. Shaonian shennong 少年神農 [The Young Shen Nong]. In Anzhuo Zhenni 安卓珍尼 [Androgyny], 95–127. Taipei: Unitas Publishing Company 聯合⽂學 Flower, Linda, and John R. Hayes. 1981. A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition and Communication 4: 365–387 Fokkema, Douwe W. 1999. Rewriting: Forms of rewriting in the Chinese and European traditions [Zhongguo yu Ouzhou chuantong zhong de chongxie fangshi 中國與歐洲傳統中的重寫⽅式]. Translated by Fan, Zhihong 范智紅. Literary Review ⽂學評論 6: 144–149 Fokkema, Douwe W. 2005. Nine theses and three suggestions concerning the comparative study of literature [Guanyu bijiao wenxue yanjiu de jiu ge mingti he san tiao jianyi 關於比較⽂學研究 的九個命題和三條建議]. Translated by Zhang, Xiaohong 張曉紅, and Dong, Fangfeng 董⽅ 峰. Journal of Shenzhen University (Humanities & Social Sciences) 深圳⼤學學報 (⼈⽂社會 科學版) 4: 59 Ge, Hongbing 葛紅兵. 2020. Chuangyi xiezuo: zuowei yizhong jiaoxue fangfa 創意寫作: 作為⼀ 種教學⽅法 [Creative writing: As a teaching method]. Language Planning 語⽂建設 6: 9–13 Ge, Hongbing 葛紅兵, and Li, Xiaoyin 李梟銀. 2021. Chuangyi xiezuo xue shiye xia de wenben xidu yanjiu: zuowei jiaoxue fa de chuangyi xing xidu 創意寫作學視野下的「⽂本細讀」研 究——作為教學法的「創意型細讀」 [Research on ‘text perusal’ under the perspective of creative writing as an academic discipline – as ‘creative text perusal’ pedagogy]. Journal of Huanggang Normal University ⿈岡師範學院學報 1: 59–97 Ge, Hongbing 葛紅兵, and Xu, Daojun 許道軍. 2011. Zhongguo chuangyi xiezuo xue xueke jiangou lungang 中國創意寫作學學科建構論綱 [Theses on the construction of creative writing as an academic discipline in China]. Exploration and Free Views 探索與爭鳴 6: 66–70 Liu, Yichang 劉以鬯. 1991a. Liu Yichang juan 劉以鬯卷 [Liu Yichang volume]. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Company 三聯書店 Liu, Yichang 劉以鬯. 1991b. She 蛇 [Snake]. In Liu Yichang juan 劉以鬯卷 [Liu Yichang volume], 282–286. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Company 三聯書店 Liu, Yichang 劉以鬯. 2018. Mengjiangnu 孟姜女 [Madam Meng Jiang]. In Gushi xinbian 故事 新編 [Old Tales Retold], ed. Lau Yin-Ping 劉燕萍, 93–241. Hong Kong: Chung Hwa Book Company 中華書局 Lu, Xun 魯迅. 1981. Gushi xinbian 故事新編 [Old Tales Retold]. Beijing: People’s Literature Publishing House ⼈民⽂學出版社 Michael, W. B. 1977. Cognitive and affective components of creativity in mathematics and physical sciences. In The gifted and the creative: A fifty-year perspective, eds. J.C. Stanley, W.C. George, and C.H. Solano. Baltimore: John Hopkins Press Shi, Aidong 施愛東. 2006. Mengjiangnu ku changcheng 孟姜女哭長城 [Madam Mengjiang crying at the Great Wall]. Beijing: China Social Press 中國社會出版社 Su, Tong 蘇童. 2006. Binu: Mengjiang nu ku changcheng de chuanshuo 碧奴: 孟姜女哭長城的 傳說 [Binu and the Great Wall: The myth of Meng]. Chongqing: Chongqing Publishing House 重慶出版社 Tong, Tsz-ben Benson 唐梓彬. 2021. Daxue chuangyi xiezuo de shouke fangshi ji jiaoxue guo cheng: yi Xiang Gang Gongkai Daxue chuangyi xiezuo kecheng weili ⼤學創意寫作的授課 ⽅式及教學過程——以⾹港公開⼤學創意寫作課程為例 [The teaching method and teaching process of creative writing in university: A case study at the Open University of Hong Kong]. Writing 寫作 1: 41–48 Wang, Haifeng 王海峰. 2021. Chongshen xin piping shijiao xia de chuangyi xiezuo jiaoxue 重審新 批評視角下的創意寫作教學 [Reexamination of creative writing teaching from the perspective of new criticism]. Journal of Guangxi Science & Technology Normal University 廣西科技師範 學院學報 1: 1–13

128

T. B. Benson Tong

Xi, Xi 西西. 1998a. Chen Tangguan zongbing fu jiashi 陳塘關總兵府家事 [Domestic events of Chen Tang Guan Zong-bing Fu]. In Gushi li de gushi 故事裡的故事, 1–25. Taipei: Hongfan Shudian 洪範書店 Xi, Xi 西西. 1998b. Gushi li de gushi 故事裡的故事. Taipei: Hongfan Shudian 洪範書店 Zhang, Henshui 張恨⽔. 1993. Mengjiangnu 孟姜女 [Madam Mengjiang]. Taiyuan: Beiyue Literature & Art Publishing House 北岳⽂藝出版社 Zhang, Yiwei 張怡微. 2019. Qianzai de yu quexi de: tan chuangyi xiezuo bentu hua yanjiu de liang ge fangxiang 潛在的與缺席的——談「創意寫作」本⼟化研究的兩個⽅向 [Potential and absent: A discussion on the two directions of local researches on localisation of ‘creative writing’]. Shanghai Culture 上海⽂化 9: 34–42 Zhu, Chongke 朱崇科. 2001. Shenyou yu zhuzu: lun Liu Yichang gushi xinbian de xushi shiyan 神遊與駐⾜: 論劉以鬯「故事新編」的敘事實驗 [Wandering and halting: A discussion on the narrative test by Liu Yichang in ‘Gushi Xinbian’]. Hong Kong Literary ⾹港⽂學 201: 46–53 Zhu, Chongke 朱崇科. 2005. Zhangli de kuanghuan: lun Luxun ji qi laizhe zhi gushi xinbian xiaoshuo dezhu tijie ru 張⼒的狂歡——論魯迅及其來者之故事新編⼩說的主體介入 [The ecstasy of tension: A discussion on subject intervention of the newly-written novels about Lu Xun and his successors]. Shanghai: Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore 上海三聯書店 Zhu, Yuhong 祝宇紅. 2010. Gushi ruhe xinbian: lun Zhongguo xiandai chongxie xing xiaoshuo 「故」事如何「新編」——論中國現代「重寫型」⼩說 [How to “offer a new edition” to “old” stories: A discussion on the “re-written type” of novels in Contemporary China]. Beijing: Peking University Press 北京⼤學出版社

The “First Generation” of Creative Cyber Literature and Its “Genre-Bending Writing”: Thoughts on Using Jun Tian as a Method Zhan Yu-Bing

Abstract In general, “internal research” on cyber literature usually adopts the approach of “time as warp, genre as weft” to paint the picture of literary history and use the same train of thought for writers and their works. However, there are many inherently hidden parts in this picture that are seemingly “neat and tidy”, “chronologically clear” and “clean in the classification of genres”. For instance, the “first generation” of writers of cyber literature, whose creative directions are driven by the printed books in the “prepay-to-read” era, to a large extent, have the characteristics of the transience of popular literature in the form of traditional printed books and cyber literature. Take another example amongst the seemingly clear genres of classical literature. There are writers and works classified as “cross-genre” or “multi-genre”. This paper attempts to take the example of writer Jun Tian 君天 and his creative fictions to partially disclose the accomplishments of cyber literature in the two above-mentioned genres, which are easily neglected by traditional research on cyber literature, as well as the complex ecological field of genre fiction and the multitude of literary resources in contemporary China. Keywords Jun Tian 君天 · Cyber literature · “Pre-pay-to-read” era · Genre fiction · Genre bending At present, there are usually two main pathways to approach the study of cyber literature: One approach is to focus on the factors beyond literature, viz. “media”, “audience”, “mechanism of dissemination”, and “business nature” and so on to analyse the characteristics of the “new media” of cyber literature. This can tentatively be called “external research” on cyber literature. The other approach is to learn from the experience of research on traditional popular literature and genre literature which adopt the method of portraying the literary history and the orientation of writers and their works to ascertain the chronological order, the sustained impact, and categorisation of various writers’ works. Correspondingly, we can call this “internal research” on cyber literature. Contrasted with the latter research approach, in this seemingly Y. B. Zhan (B) Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Fudan University, Shanghai, China e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_11

129

130

Y. B. Zhan

“tidy”, “chronologically clear”, and “neatly classified” picture of the literary history of cyber literature in China, there are many parts that have been hidden inherently. For example, the “first generation” of writers of cyber literature, whose creative directions are driven by the printed books in the “prepay-to-read” era, to a large extent, have the characteristics of the transience of popular literature in the form of traditional printed books and cyber literature. Take another example. There are many writers and workers of “cross-genre” and “multi-genre” (Ge 2012)1 in the seemingly clear-cut classical classification of novels. This paper attempts to take writer Jun Tian 君天 and his fictions as an example to disclose the accomplishments of cyber literature in the two above-mentioned genres, which are easily neglected by traditional research on cyber literature, as well as the complex ecological field of genre fiction and the multitude of literary resources in contemporary China.

1 “First Generation” of Writers in Creation of Cyber Literature The “genesis” of cyber literature in China has been contentious. Perhaps a more typical “starting point” is between 22 March and 29 May of 1998, when Pizi Cai 痞⼦蔡 launched the serial story The First Intimate Encounter 第⼀次親密接觸 on the Maomi Leyuan BBC (貓咪樂園 BBS) of the National Cheng Kung University of Taiwan; or to trace back earlier to 25 December 1997 when American Chinese Zhu Weilian 朱威廉 set up the main page of the website “Rongshu Xia” 榕樹下. Recently, Shao Yanjun 邵燕君, an academic, raises another “starting date” of cyber literature in China, pushing it back to August 1996 when “Jinyong Kezhan” ⾦庸客 棧 was established. Certainly, the significance behind putting forth different starting points of cyber literature is never about “who is the earliest”; its significance lies in its contribution to mapping different development stages and launching a whole new knowledge framework and exploring new research perspectives. To this, the proposal of the starting point of “Jinyong Kezhan” by Shao Yanjun reveals a strong self-awareness of the concept of literary history: “Therefore, if the suggestion of 1998 is mainly a consideration on influential power, what we need to consider is, whether the range of radiation of this influential power is within the world of traditional literature or that of cyber literature? After having clarified this point, the conclusion shall be clear to see. The First Intimate Encounter and “Under the Banyan Tree” received great attention from mainstream academics. This exactly explains their transient nature, the genes of printed literature are relatively stronger” (Shao and Ji 2020). With further investigation into the history of the development of cyber literature in China, it is not difficult to discover that, the “VIP pay-to-read mechanism for the Chinese web started in 2003 has cast a massive and profound influence (even to 1

For the relevant concepts of “cross-genre” and “multi-genres” and their respective interpretations, please refer to Ge Hongbing’s Fundamental Theoretical Issues of Genre Fiction (2012).

The “First Generation” of Creative Cyber Literature and Its…

131

a certain extent, we can call it “fundamental influence”) on the mode of operation and generation of works of cyber literature. Similarly, as Shao Yanjun says, “The most crucial factor behind the successful establishment of this mechanism is that, from the on-start, the initial team has directly and clearly placed the readers in the position of consumers while the mode of operation has been set up with consumers as the focus” (Shao 2020a, b). Here, the interpretation that “the mode of operation has been set up with consumers as the focus” can be made on two levels. On the first level, professional writers of cyber literature after 2003 are different from the writers of cyber literature of earlier times who are, by comparison, more idealistic and straightforward and interest-driven. The more recent participants in the game become more deeply involved in the economic interest in the “creative writing/productionreading/consumption” structure. On the second level, readers of cyber literature, in the capacity of literature (economic) consumers, gradually become one of the primary sources of income for writers of cyber literature (mainly professional writers), which further altered the stable writer-reader relation where the earlier internet writers still connect with their readers to some extent through traditional printed media, which is the ultimate goal of their professional career. In this sense, let us reinvestigate the writers of cyber literature of the early era, including Jun Tian 君天, Cai Jun 蔡駿, Na Duo 那多, Zhou Haohui 周浩暉, Lei Mi 雷⽶, Jiang Nan 江南, Cang Yue 滄⽉, Yan Leisheng 燕壘⽣ and so on. (It is interesting that they have gained extensive attention during the era of cyber fiction, but they are often not considered as writers of cyber fiction, at least not typical “writers of cyber fiction”.) It is not difficult to find some common characteristics shared amongst them: they are amateur lovers of literature who set foot in writing cyber literature out of literary interests and ideals; they have gained considerable achievements in creative writing and fame on the Internet. However, before cyber literature in China had self-transited to the business mode with a payment system in which “readers are consumers”, these writers were still driven by the printed magazines of popular literature and physical books. In terms of “time” and “practice” of literary creation, they filled in the blank in the reading market of genre literature in the Mainland in the early stage of this century. After the payment system for reading cyber literature has been commonly established, they have pulled themselves away from cyber literature. At the same time, popular printed magazines, best-seller novels, and film and television adaptations became their major battleground and primary source of income. This point coincided with the issue raised by Shao Yanjun when ratifying “Jinyong Kezhan” to be the starting point of the creation of cyber literature in China, “The new martial arts and oriental fantasy genres, which were established in ‘Jinyong Kezhan’ had not been continued as cyber literature. Instead, they proceeded to develop offline in magazines such as Jingu Chuanqi. Martial Arts Edition 今古傳奇·武俠版, Kehuan Shijie: Fantasy Edition 科幻世界·奇幻版, Jiuzhou Huanxiang 九州幻想 and so on (Shao and Ji 2020). It is very possible to extend the corresponding “print literary publication” referred to by Shao Yanjun to even more genre fictions such as Zhiyin Manke 知⾳漫客 and the later Xuanyi Zhi 懸疑志, Xuanyi Shijie 懸疑世界, Suiyue.Tuili 歲⽉·推理, Tuili Shijie 推理世 界, Zui Tuili 最推理 and so on. From the starting date of cyber literature, there has

132

Y. B. Zhan

always existed a group of writers of popular literature and genre literature who rely on print magazines and physical books as the main channel to disseminate their works, and this group of writers, in fact, largely overlaps with the group of the “first generation” of cyber literature in China. However, at the same time, the different creative platforms and directions have influenced the aesthetic interests, choice of content, and writing style of these contemporary genre fictionists, which set them apart from those generally known as writers of cyber fiction. In consideration of these interwoven factors, perhaps we may call them the “intersection” or “amalgamation” of “China’s ‘first generation’ of writers of creative cyber literature” and “China’s contemporary genre fictionists”. Their common ground can be simply summarised as “the characteristics of the transition or integration of popular printed literature and cyber literature”.2 Particular mention has to be made that the division of different groups of writers here is not “intrinsically distinctive” or “clear-cut”. For instance, as defined in this paper, the creative group of the so-called “China’s contemporary genre fictionist” mostly had the experience of “Internet access”. The time they gained access and entered the Internet may be earlier than those we recognise as internet fictionists. Shao Yanjun asserts that “the first batch of China’s netizens went online in 1995. Due to such restrictions as online resources, charges for the Internet, and limitations of technology, most of these first netizens were ‘science geeks’ with elitist skills born in the 1970s. After that, the number of Internet users increased year after year; by 2002, the number soared to 59.10 million. A group of readers and writers, later called “Xiao Bai” ⼩⽩ rushed in, and it consists of a considerable portion of university freshmen born in the 1980s (who had access to the free-of-charge Internet on campus). This weakened the early image of the Internet as a space for idealists” (Shao 2020a, b). With this information given, one can study Jun Tian in the notions of “Internet access”, online creative writing and track record: He was a computer major in a university. He had access to the Internet at a relatively early stage. He started logging online in about 1999 (highly consistent with the portrayal of Shao Yanjun’s first batch of netizens in China “most of these first netizens were ‘science geeks’ with elitist skills born in the 1970s”). In 2001, his works started to appear on various literary websites. His creative writing Showcase of Weaponry of the Three Kingdoms 三國兵器譜 received extensive attention. In September 2001, he served as moderator of the martial arts forum “Xiake Shanzhuang” 俠客山莊 on “Rongshu Xia” 榕樹下; in October of the same year, he founded the “Internet Martial Arts League” 網路武俠聯盟 with the participation of seven central martial arts forums … In consideration of his early experience, Jun Tian can be considered as a typical “China’s ‘first generation’ of writers of creative cyber literature” and is worthy of this title. Jun Tian’s short martial arts story, Dessert Winds ⼤漠風起, was published in Gujin Chuanqi. Martial Arts Edition 今古傳奇·武俠版 in 2003 and was selected for the collection of short stories entitled Billboard of Neo-classical Martial Arts 新古 2

The reference of which as “transitional” characteristics may inherently imply that cyber literature shall become an inevitable trend and the final destination; however, this paper focuses on the its intrinsic nature “bending”.

The “First Generation” of Creative Cyber Literature and Its…

133

典武俠風雲榜 in 2004. In 2005, Jun Tian’s two early novels, Showcase of Weaponry of the Three Kingdoms” and Showcase of Ancient Artifacts of China 華夏神器譜 were published by Wenhui Publishing House. In 2006, his early representative novel, Roam Free 縱橫, was published by Huashan Literature and Art Publishing House 花 山⽂藝出版社. In 2007–2008, his Especial Criminal Investigation Service 異現場 調查科 and X Space–Time Investigation X 時空調查 series was published as a serial in several print magazines, including Xuanyi Zhi 懸疑志, Xuanyi Shijie 懸疑世界 and Manke Xuanyi 漫客懸疑. His independent stories were also published by several publishing houses including New World Press, Volumes Publishing Company, Chang Jiang Publishing House and China Pictorial Publishing House and so on. In 2013, Jun Tian’s new suspense martial arts novel Taxue Zhe 踏雪者 was published as a serial in Zui Tuili magazine 最推理 and was published continuously by Chang Jiang Publishing House … From these creative works and publication track record, one can tell that Jun Tian is also a classic example of a writer of “non-cyber literature” or, at least, a typical “genre fictionist of contemporary China” whose works are beyond the superficial coverage of cyber literature. Further inference can be made on the complex identity of Jun Tian, and extend it to the group of writers who have a similar track record: they not only have the early experience (Jun Tian, Jiang Nan) of creating cyber literature, but also have published their works in print magazines (Cang Yue, Yan Leisheng), and even have the experience of founding printed popular literary magazines and expertise in literary/business operation (Cai Jun). Nevertheless, some may “re-test the waters” by returning to the writing of cyber literature (Jun Tian is recently making a fresh attempt to write an extra-long cyber fiction The Fragmented Three Kingdoms 碎裂三國. In addition, some of them have works published in serious literary publications in the public body of the China Writers Association (Cai Jun’s The Endless Summer 無盡之 夏 was published in Harvest 收獲); while some may have “screen access” with literary works adapted for film and television or experience as a scriptwriter (Lei Mi 雷⽶) and so on. Therefore, identities such as Internet novelist, genre fictionist, scriptwriter, or screenwriter for film/television drama/internet drama could hardly offer a close description of their creative experience, the complicated changes and evolvement processes prior and thereafter. As such, the “intersection” or “amalgamation” of the two creative writing groups “China’s ‘first generation’ of writers of cyber literature” and “China’s contemporary genre fictionists” have been proposed in this paper. “Intersection” indicates mainly that these writers usually possess creative awareness of cyber literature and have even internalised a lot of trendy elements (so-called “plot”) of Internet literary culture; at the same time, they have retained a certain extent of self-constraint in traditional popular literature and the writing of genre literature. “Amalgamation” mainly refers to their weaving to-and-fro between cyber literature and standard popular literature (instead of one-way transformation); there may even be repeated attempts and challenges to enter into traditional serious literature or screen adaptation of literary works. This offers a glimpse of the diverse ecological picture of the group of the “first generation” writers of cyber literature and discloses the first layer of the scene of literary creation and the complexity of evolution trajectory in the so-called “using Tian Jun as a method” in this paper.

134

Y. B. Zhan

2 “Genre Bending” of Martial Arts, Suspense, Fantasies Writings of the East and West If the creative experience and orientation of literary identity of Jun Tian and the “first generation” of writers of cyber literature of the same period are considered in the “time as warp” dimension, we will encounter the complex situation of their consistent creative transformation, exchange, integration, and shuttling between cyber literature and traditional popular literature. Therefore, it seems more practicable to divide, define and segregate their respective creative works by “genre as weft”. For example, Cai Jun and Na Duo in “suspense novels”, Zhou Haohui and Lei Mi in “detective novels”, Cang Yue, Bu Feiyan 步非煙, and Feng Ge 鳳歌 in “new martial arts novels” and so on. (Of course, the discussion of the logic and ambiguity of classifying “suspense novels” and “new martial arts novels” as a part of genre fiction should first be set aside here). However, when we “use Jun Tian as a method” to review the classification of these seemingly “clear-cut” and “indestructible” genre fictions, new issues and the plight of narration shall be encountered. Let us first look at the trail of Jun Tian’s creative development: Initially, in Showcase of Weaponry of the Three Kingdoms” (Wenhui Publishing House, 2005), Jun Tian had already demonstrated features of “genre-bending” when he employed the methods of martial arts fiction to re-write historical fiction. For example, the most outstanding point in the entire book is to have the whole historical process of the Three Kingdoms re-structured into one duel after another among the famous generals. With detailed and refined portrayal, he “sculptures” each duel between the veteran fighters. Jun Tian embellishes each moment of martial arts action by adding in between the descriptions of the scenery, characters’ thoughts, feelings, or flashbacks. By doing so, the formation and delivery of the entire plot are completed during the description of the duel. At the same time, when narrating the duels in the novels, Jun Tian reveals a strong sense of heroism, particularly the lonesomeness of a hero having grown old or struggling with his invincibility. Jun Tian is best at expressing such a type of feelings. He even “personifies” and “deifies” each part of the weapon in the hands of his veteran generals (not to mention that “weaponry” is the name of this story), as if each piece of weapon has its soul and “heroic” character. In addition, mysterious elements such as the constellation symbols of the azure dragon, white tiger, vermilion bird, and black tortoise vaguely appear in Showcase of Weaponry of the Three Kingdoms, which only serve as occasional “decoration” in the entire set-up of the story. Subsequently, the Showcase of Ancient Artifacts of China” (Wenhui Publishing House, 2005) can be deemed as an “upgrade” and extension of the Showcase of Weaponry of the Three Kingdoms. It not only extends such literary characteristics as the delivery of history through martial arts, the portrayal of feelings through actions, refined description of weaponry, and “personification” of the weapons as in Showcase of Weaponry of the Three Kingdoms, he broadens the scope and connotations of the “weapons” in the story. For example, “Wu Zhui of Xiang Yu” 項⽻的烏騅, “Yuan Chonghuan’s city wall” 袁崇煥的城牆, “Wen Tianxiang’s heart” ⽂天祥的

The “First Generation” of Creative Cyber Literature and Its…

135

⼼, “Zheng He’s marine vessel” 鄭和的船, “Zheng Chenggong’s navy” 鄭成功的⽔ 師 all came under the ambit of “weaponry” in Jun Tian’s story. This also implies that the Showcase of Ancient Artifacts of China not only extends one dynasty—Three Kingdoms—into five thousand years of Chinese history, but he has also achieved a breakthrough in such aspects as the understanding of weaponry, the orientation itself, the “personification”, “glorification as hero” and “unification of the man and his weapon” and so on. Jun Tian’s characteristic of “genre-bending” is quite outstanding in his creative fiction, Roam Free, which was published by Huashan Literature and Art Publishing House in 2006. In this novel, on the one hand, the player in the book travels across time into the sci-fi setting inside the game to bring out the difference and connection between the two worlds. On the other hand, the rules of the game and the plot of the story in the book are set as the main storyline, which consists of some structural features of “sci-fi” and “game/visual fiction”. Meanwhile, the novel has applied the primary method used to deliver the history of martial arts as in Showcase of Weaponry of the Three Kingdoms. Through the features of virtual reality in the gaming space, which is free from constraints of time and space, famous generals, veteran ministers, and even poets across the dynasties are gathered together in this particular time and space of “Three Kingdoms Continent” 三國⼤陸 to stage the imaginary show of “Guangong battles against Qinqiong” 關公戰秦瓊 (or we can say that he has put the characters of Huaxia Shenqi Pu into the time and space of Sanguo Bingqi Pu). Nevertheless, his fictions Dadi Zhi’e ⼤地之鱷 and Taibai Shenjian 太⽩神劍 have further strengthened the fantasy elements when compared to his earlier works, while traces of romance elements and plot of Hua Tianqing 華天晴 and Chen Xue 陳雪 and Yan Lei’er 顏淚兒 appeared for the first time. In his subsequent series of works such as Especial Criminal Investigation Service (New World Press, 2008) and X Time–Space Investigation (China Pictorial Publishing House, 2009), Jun Tian brought the trend of “genre-bending” into full play in his novels, while the corresponding contents of “Universe of Jun Tian” 君天宇宙 started to be constructed and brought gradually to perfection. “Investigation by private detectives” serves as the basic storyline which linked up various stories in different chapters of two major series of novels, so that a kind of inter-relation that is relatively loose but independent from one another was consistently present in each story of different series. Against this basic narrative framework, on the one hand through the setting of the main character and his opponent’s “superpowers” (called “The Super-powered Individuals” 異 能者) in the novel, it is natural to laterally and extensively include in the novel such elements as the invisible man, magician, vampire, werewolf, time traveler, AI robot, alien, or parallel universe in popular Western culture as well as Chinese martial arts masters “Tangmen Anqi” 唐⾨暗器, “Shaolin Wudang” 少林武當 to form further a reading/appreciation/“collage” effect of “highly integrated magical circle and technology!” (Jun 2018, 9). On the other hand, with the convenience brought by the main character’s ability to “travel across time” (called “time manipulator” in the novel), various significant junctures in Chinese history become a stage of time and space for the main character to bring his abilities into full play, and thus completes a “full coverage” of the vertical chronology. It is worth our attention that in his novels, Jun

136

Y. B. Zhan

Tian mingles reality with his fiction in his portrayal of “history”; The descriptions of the figures Lu Buwei 呂不韋, Zhao Kuo 趙括, Le Yi 樂毅 are historically accurate; while Guo Jia 郭嘉 and Sun Ce 孫策 are, obviously, characters from Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義. In this notion, Jun Tian is conscious of his creative concept. In the “epilogue” of his novel Time Flies 時間⾶揚 (Flower City Press 花 城出版社, 2018), he points out that: “Eventually, it boils down to the same words. In the world of Jun Tian’s novels, there are no forced restrictions whatsoever upon martial arts, fictional science, fantasy, suspense, and history. The world of novels should be all-inclusive. More importantly, I hope you will like this story” (434). It is due to his attempt to break the walls between different genres of literature and his creative ambition to embrace all kinds of popular cultures from the West to the East both in ancient and present times, that Jun Tian’s creations present a kaleidoscopic patchwork. In one of his works, the novel entitled Fengming Shijian Bu 風名事件簿 (Chang Jiang Publishing House, 2015), the design and portrayal of “Feng Ming City” can be deemed as a visual miniature of “genre-bending” of Jun Tian’s novels: Independent from the rest of the world, the discreet Feng Ming City is located on Junxuan Island of Donghai, China. Its permanent residents include martial arts families and the “Super-powered Individuals” as well as real monsters. Therefore, in the outside world, it is known as the “City of Monsters”. This city is separated into two by Aolai River. The East Side is a society of Eastern classical culture. The West Side is a society of modern western technology. Whether it’s architectural style or the layout of the city, it demonstrates two contrasting landscapes. Some compared the East Side to the ancient Chang’An and the West Side to the present-day New York, with horse carriages shuttling around on the East Side and race cars speeding around the West Side. From the aerial perspective, the two sides form a bizarre magical world (Jun 2015, 14).

In Jun Tian’s novels, he has widely adopted various writing skills. On the level of the content of the story that corresponds to “genre-bending”, that is the so-called structure of “Universe of Juntian”, which means that in different novels in “Universe of Juntian” or in different series of stories, there are deliberate common grounds, such as the scenes, cameo appearances, or other crucial items or crops repeatedly appear in varying time–space in different novels. For example, the underground arena and many of the cameos Uncle Ximen 西⾨⼤叔, Du Qingfeng 杜青鋒, “Wuzun” Ai Zhe’er 「武尊」艾哲爾, Wen Elai ⽂惡來 often appear in Especial Criminal Investigation Service. In the novel, no clear indication was made that the character whom Shi Yufei 時⾬霏 travels across three thousand dimensions to find is exactly the main character, Yue Lin 樂麟, of The Magical World Cup 魔幻世界盃. Not to mention the very mysterious but excessively charming supporting role, Shi Feiyang 時⾶揚 is the main character of X Time–space Investigation (as well as that of the subsequently updated edition of Time Flies) … Jun Tian uses some explicit or inexplicit characters or clues to skillfully link together different series, texts and dimensions in stories to complete the construction of the “Universe of Jun Tian’s novels” 君天⼩說宇宙. This type of connection and construction of the “Universe of Juntian” can only be possible upon the basis of “genre-bending” of creative writing. In other words, due to “genre-bending” in terms of narratives, elements of the East and West in the contents

The “First Generation” of Creative Cyber Literature and Its…

137

can come together in a patchwork and be mixed well. It would not seem awkward for ancient and present-day characters to “gather together”; instead, it makes the storyline more reasonable. Furthermore, another piece of work by Jun Tian is also worth mentioning: Fenghu Beiwang 風虎北望 (Chang Jiang Publishing House, 2014) is the only “one of the Jiuzhou Series” of novels with the theme of military history. Yuejia Jun: Feng Qi 岳 家軍: 風起 (Chung Hwa Bookstore 2016) uses historical fiction as the basis, and has incorporated many portrayals of martial arts, which are the dexterity of the writer; at the same time, many characters in Outlaws of the Marsh ⽔滸傳 such as Meiran Gong Zhu Tong 美髯公朱仝 are included. Also, in Taxue Zhe 1, 2 踏雪者 1, 2 (Chang Jiang Publishing House, 2018, 2019), for the first time, Jun Tian adds a large amount of romantic content to his novel with elements of martial arts, suspense, and detective stories, which are Jun Tian’s specilaisation (Du Yufei 杜郁非, Luo Xie 羅 邪, Su Yueye 蘇⽉夜) and so on. Although these few pieces of fiction works are not as “all-embracing” as Yi Xianchang 異現場 series, the maturity of exploration in a particular genre shows a tendency for further development. It is certain that in the novels of Jun Tian, not that there is no limit to the “allinclusive” content and elements of “genre-bending”. At the ending part of the novel Unknown Crime Investigation Section: Alien Serious Crime Unit 未知罪案調查科: 外星重案組 (Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd., 2019), there is a section in which the main character suspects whether he is in a novel, and the way it is written is similar to “metafiction”: “Tell me, are we living in someone’s novel? We are ordinary characters only. In fact, we have no control over anything of ours.” Ge Shuxin said slowly, “If that’s the case, what is the point of trying so hard from the time when we were young?” “The main character in the other’s novel could have a million imperial concubines, the power to destroy heaven and earth, the ability to rule the world, to massacre the entire planet when feeling upset, it’s a pity … that’s only someone else’s novel” Tang Fei scolded, “For heaven’s sake! The novel we are living must be a fake one.” “Must be fake, can’t be more fake.” Said Ge Shuxin (Jun 2019, 287).

I am not trying to forcefully put the discussion, doubt, and “complaint” about the settings of the characters or the plots of Jun Tian’s novels in the theoretical framework of post-modernism and “metafiction”. Instead, I wish to point out: On one hand, the fictitious characters’ doubts or complaints against the fiction they live in are more similar to a high-class duplicate of NPC’s (non-player characters) doubts in Roam Free縱橫 than deliberate writing of metafiction. In other words, the boundary between the inside and the outside world is destroyed in the novel Roam Free, and it elevates this in an attempt to destroy the barrier between the fiction itself and reality (Unknown Crime Investigation Section: Alien Serious Crime Unit). On the other hand, the quote stated metaphorically that the seemingly “all-inclusive” set of content in Jun Tian’s novel, in fact, has a clear silhouette and borders; that is, burning passion and aggressive spirit to fight (the main character is unable to possess the powers to destroy heaven and earth and to master the world. He has to “make his best effort” all along from the time when he was young). Thematic content

138

Y. B. Zhan

and genre elements developed around this conception, whether martial arts, history, magic and fantasy, or fictional science, can adopt the “Grabism” 拿來主義 attitude and boldly integrate into one’s creative fiction work. While the so-called different genres are, in fact, promoting further development in various aspects as a narrative for the character to continue moving forward. As Jun Tian says, his novels are not restricted by genre; it is not his intention to constrain himself as he only wants the story itself to be “good to read”. This “good-to-read” philosophy, when applied to the text itself, illustrates the passion and the spirit of resistance and progressiveness, which continue to attract readers. As a creative literary writer who managed to break through restrictions, build the “Universe of Juntian”, and create “good-to-read” stories, Jun Tian has already achieved breakthroughs in all three aspects of genre narrative, thematic content and creative objective, which are incredible achievements. However, researchers must try to ask a further question, that is, in Jun Tian’s novels, how is “genre-bending” amalgamated in the aspect of narrative? In concrete terms, the various genre elements integrated into Jun Tian’s novels are, in fact, not balanced amongst themselves: the core genre of Jun Tian’s novels is, in fact, adventure stories, where the main character continuously explores the world (entering into the world of the game or travelling across time into ancient time and pace), and experiences various encounters and adventures, difficulties, and enemies. This forms the basic narrative framework of the novels. While the main character is continuously undergoing adventures and encountering the world, it is definite that externally he or she would be able to solve suspenseful events, which would constitute the primary incentive for developing each independent story. Internally he or she, the protagonist, would attain spiritual growth (On this point, this is, in fact, not obvious in Jun Tian’s novels. The characters in his novels often maintain stable internal psychological cognition from the beginning to the end). Therefore, for characters in the novel, to resolve their conflict, the primary method would be to resort to martial arts, that is, through the most traditional fighting and duelling as the format of conflict and dispute resolution. In the way of expression of adventures and fighting, Jun Tian combines a full array of complicated superpowers, fictional science, magic, oriental martial arts, fantasy, time travel, and virtual games to produce a scene of literary installations which is enjoyable to read, and constructed a “kaleidoscopic” shell for the storyline. To briefly sum up in one sentence, the core nature of “genreintegration” in Jun Tian’s novels is adventure and suspense stories which sets in motion the form of conflict resolution by fighting while building an array of grand literary installations and shell of a story by boundless imagination in fictional science, magic and fantasy. This primary method and writing strategy of “genre-bending” cannot fully encompass our usual research in several classical literary genres. This is the second level of meaning this paper intends to disclose via the so-called “using Jun Tian as the means”; that is, in/beyond the framework of research in genre literature. Through the practice of creative writing in “multi-genres” or “cross-genre”, the mixture features of “genre bending” are formed.

The “First Generation” of Creative Cyber Literature and Its…

139

3 Further Discourse: Reflection and Reverie on Contemporary Information Explosion and Diverse Creative Resources for Genre Fiction of the New Age The reading and research of genre fiction, in general terms, as Yang Zhao 楊照 described, “The biggest difference between genre fiction and pure literary novels is that, we cannot read one singular volume of genre fiction. Nobody reads only one volume of martial arts fiction, one volume of romance fiction, or one volume of a detective story. Of course, there is no authoritative rule preventing us from reading just one volume of a detective story, but the fun of reading detective stories lies in the echoes and relations involved in various volumes” (Yang 2015, 2). With the application of Yang Zhao’s arguments to the research of genre literature, i.e., the research of genre literature must be placed and inspected under the context of the development of specific genre literature with an accurate research approach. The difficulty is that, in the society at present, given the “information explosion” and “genre-bending”, the former is decisive on the complexity of the writer’s source of information. The latter is presented in the complexity of the form of expression in the literary work. How shall we pursue “archaeology of knowledge” in the context of one type of genre literature? Or shall we say, how to investigate the literary origin and knowledge composition of contemporary or Internet fiction writers? We shall continue our discussion with Jun Tian as an example. In his first novel, Showcase of Weaponry of the Three Kingdoms, it is not difficult for us to find that the most important source of knowledge therein is the Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義 and its subsequent literature, drama and film, or even games and other franchises (in Jun Tian’s own words, amongst the cultural products on the “Three Kingdoms”, he is mainly influenced by the game Romance of the Three Kingdoms X). Nevertheless, as a member of the “first generation” of writers in creative cyber literature, at the same time when he was writing the Showcase of Weaponry of the Three Kingdoms or slightly earlier, the most popular works in the realm of Internet literary creations during that time were Jin Hezai’s 今何在 Wukong Zhuan 悟空傳, Lin Changzhi’s 林長治 Shaseng Riji 沙僧⽇記, Jiang Nan’s 江南 Cijian de Shaonian 此間的少年 and so on. The common feature of all these works is that they are “fan fictions” re-interpreted upon the basis of renowned classical works of Journey to the West 西游記, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義 and martial arts novels written by Jin Yong ⾦庸. It is very likely that Jun Tian has been influenced by the trend of “early Internet fan-fiction” during his creation of the Showcase of Weaponry of the Three Kingdoms. Or, writing “fan fiction” of renowned classical works can be described as a “shortcut” for young Internet writers to be relevant and break into the literary world and gain readers’ attention and recognition. Of course, for Jun Tian, who debuted with “martial arts fiction” with “genre bending” as his creative style, in his first work, he even obviously fused Jin Yong ⾦庸 and Gu Long’s古 龍 style of martial arts fiction and so on. For example, the “personification” and highlight of the various weapons in the novel would easily cause readers to associate this with Li Xunhuan 李尋歡 and Xiaoli Feidao ⼩李⾶⼑. To a certain extent, they

140

Y. B. Zhan

have commonly demonstrated a kind of “concept of weapons” that, to a warrior, the weapon is an extension of his life. Different weapons would even reflect the mode of behaviour and unique temperament of the user. In later creative works of Jun Tian, namely, the Yi Xianchang 異現場 and X Shikong X 時空 series, the styles of different works can subtly be seen in his works, including Huang Yi’s “heroism series” 義俠系列 (in Posui Xukong 破碎虛空), “fantasy series” 玄幻系列 (in Xunqin Ji 尋秦記), and “historical heroes” (in Datang Shuanglong Zhuan ⼤唐雙龍傳) and so on. The methods he uses to blend various types of elements in different genres such as fictional science, martial arts, and detective stories resemble the courage and ambition of Ni Kuang’s 倪匡 “Wisely Series” 衛斯理系列. Jun Tian’s definition of “superpower detective” in two main fiction series also makes readers make associations with Wen Rui’an’s 溫⾥安 The Four 四⼤名捕. According to Jun Tian’s words, senior writers including Jin Yong, Wen Rui’an, and Huang Yi cast the greatest influence on him. For example, the portrayal and writing style of fighting and duelling scenes of Huang Yi and his fusion of fictitious characters and actual history significantly inspired Jun Tian in his early works. Also, the intertwining of several independent stories in Wen Rui’an’s works formed the overall design of the so-called “Fictitious Universe of Wen Rui’an” 溫⾥ 安⼩說宇宙, inspired Jun Tian to create his own “Universe of Jun Tian”. Jun Tian even admitted that his pseudonym originated from the novel Wen Rui’an’s “Shenzhou Qixia” 神州奇俠, in which the alias of Li Chenzhou 李沉⾈, the ringleader of Quanli Bang 權⼒幫, was “Junlin Tianxia” 君臨天下. The influence, heritage, and tribute given to him are self-evident. We can continue with this kind of “knowledge archaeology” and trace further back in time. It is not difficult to find Jun Tian’s creative fictions with ancient themes that can broadly divide into two streams and storylines: one is represented by Showcase of Weaponry of the Three Kingdoms”, “Showcase of Ancient Artifacts of China”, “Roam Free” and “Yue Jia Jun: Fengqi” 岳家軍: 風起, which can be traced back to the interpretation of ancient history and traditional war-themed novels, i.e., the “Changqiang Paodai”長槍袍帶 stream; the other one is ancient suspense-theme novels represented by his series “Taxue Zhe” 踏雪者, which can be traced back to the tradition of chivalry and detective-style fiction of the Ming and Qing dynasties (martial arts + cracking of cases are primary constituents of the stories), that is the stream “Duandao Gongan” 短⼑公案. The differentiation between “Changqiang Paodai” and “Duandao Gongan” can be an effective way to understand Jun Tian’s creative works on ancient themes. Indeed, discussion of the complicated details cannot be covered in this paper; a separate paper on the specific discussions may be required. As we re-read the creative works of Jun Tian, whether we read them as “fan fiction”, “genre archaeology”, or “historical fictions”, it seems that we have no exhaustive understanding and knowledge of the resources for literary creations in Jun Tian’s novels; some of which are even beyond the scope of literature. The inspirations of the contemporary elements in popular culture (film, serial drama on television, games) are worth further exploration and research. For example, the reference drawn from the US serial dramas Criminal Minds and Naval Criminal Investigative Service can be found in his work (“NCIS” in series Yi Xianchang 異現場, which is

The “First Generation” of Creative Cyber Literature and Its…

141

the acronym of “ECIS” for “Especial Criminal Investigation Service”, is inspired by the acronym “NCIS” of “Naval Criminal Investigative Service”); and the relationship between Tian Jun’s Yi Xianchang and X Shikong (X 時空) series and the US TV series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” As disclosed by Jun Tian himself, the creation of the story in which Du Yufei 杜郁非 first appeared in Taxue Zhe was inspired by the film The Longest Nite 暗花 (especially there are some interesting re-appearance and transformation in the villain police officer played by Tony Leung 梁朝偉 in the film and transformation in “Taxue Zhe”) and so on. If we continue on the inspection, we must conduct a thorough investigation into his experiences in appreciating different forms of art, such as history, movies, serial drama, and games. Of course, this paper aims not merely at pointing out the multifarious popular cultural resources behind the creative works of Jun Tian—from ancient detective cases to “Jin Gu Liang Wen” ⾦古梁溫; from Isaac Asimov3 to Marvel Universe—this paper intends to “use Jun Tian as a method” to preliminarily point out the complexity and difficulty of the current research on cyber literature and genre fiction. Against the background of the information explosion era and the writer’s variety of channels to obtain a multitude of knowledge and information, it would be an enormous challenge to clarify the literary resources of the writers and the recreation process; therefore, this is the third level of meaning which this paper aims to unveil by “using Jun Tian as the method”. From the “incompleteness” of the sectional division of online literary history to the “cross-media” and “multi-media” of many creative writers in cyber literature, print media, and film and television; from the “cross-genre” features of the current genre literary creations to the abundance and complexity of resources for creative writing for writers in the knowledge explosion era … “using Jun Tian as the method” allows us to see preliminarily the ecology and complicated scene of creative writing of Internet fiction and popular genre fiction in contemporary China, as well as the difficulties that researchers have to face when they conduct their research. That is, we must adopt a more refined, closer, and more sufficiently historical attitude and method, such that we could do our best to show the multi-facets and dynamic status of their creative works.

References Ge, Hongbing 葛紅兵. 2012. Xiaoshuo leixing xue de jiben lilun wenti ⼩說類型學的基本理論問 題 [Fundamental theoretical issues of genre fiction]. Shanghai: Shanghai University Press 上海 ⼤學出版社 Jun, Tian 君天. 2015. Fengming Shijian bu 風名事件簿 [Notebook on the Feng Ming event]. Hubei: Changjiang Publishing House 長江出版社 Jun, Tian 君天. 2018. Shijian feiyang 時間⾶揚 [Time flies]. Guangzhou: Huacheng Publishing House 花城出版社 3

It can be pointed out that Jun Tian’s creative writings are influenced by the novels of Asimov, for example, the concepts “Tianyi Xitong” 天意系統 and “Zhedie Yinhe” 折疊銀河 in his novels, and his narrative of which he uses short and medium-length stories to describe the macro-universe. Due to the constraint of length, this aspect will not be discussed in detail in this paper.

142

Y. B. Zhan

Jun, Tian 君天. 2019. Weizhi zuian diaocha ke: waixing zhongan zu 未知罪案調查科: 外星重案 組 [Unknown crime investigation: Major extraterrestrial crimes unit]. Beijing: Beijing United Publishing Company 北京聯合出版公司 Shao, Yanjun 邵燕君. 2020a. Wenxue wangzhan chuangchi zhe: yi qun shenhuan “yuedu jike zheng de shengyi ren ⽂學網站創始者: ⼀群深患“閱讀飢渴症”的⽣意⼈ [Founding fathers of literary websites: A group of businessmen who suffered severely from a ‘thirst of reading’]. Literary and Art Newspaper ⽂藝報, August 24 Shao, Yanjun 邵燕君. 2020b. Yi meijie biange wei qiji de ‘aiyu shengchan li’ de jiefang: Dui Zhongguo wangluo wenxue fazhan dongyin de zai renshi 以媒介變⾰為契機的 “愛欲⽣產⼒” 的解放——對中國網絡⽂學發展動因的再認識 [Liberation of ‘a desire for productivity’ upon the opportunity of media reform: A revisit of the incentives for development of cyber literature in China]. Literature & Art Studies ⽂藝研究 10: 63–76 Shao, Yanjun 邵燕君 and Ji, Yunfei 吉雲⾶. 2020. Weishen me shuo Zhongguo wangluo wenxue de qishi dian shi Jinyong kezhan?為什麼說中國網絡⽂學的起始點是⾦庸客棧? [Why Jinyong Kezhan is considered to be the starting point of cyber literature in China?]. Literary and Art Newspaper ⽂藝報, November 6 Yang, Zhao 楊照. 2015. Tuili zhi men youci jin 推理之⾨由此進 [Enter here from the door of detective fiction]. Beijing: China Federation of Literary and Art Press 中國⽂聯出版社

Implications of Global Contexts for Creative Writing

Creative Writing Research: What, How and Why Graeme Harper

Abstract Creative writing research is actively moving us further toward knowing what creative writing actually is—in terms of our human actions and our responses when doing it. It is approaching such things as completed literary works and author recognition within the activities of creative writing, not mostly as representatives of that practice, and it is paying close attention to the modes, methods and functions of the writerly imagination, the contemporary influence of individual writer environments on writers, to writerly senses of structure and form and our formation and reformation of writing themes and subjects. We certainly understand creative writing and creative writing research best when we remain true to why creative writing happens, when and where it happens, and how it happens—and creative writing research is doing that, focusing on the actions and the material results as evidence of our actions. Creative writing research has also opened up better communication between our knowledge of creative writing and our teaching of creative writing, with the result that we are improving that teaching, not only in our universities and colleges but also in our schools.

1 What is Creative Writing Research? Within the academy, definitions of research are largely uncharted outside of their respective fields, and the full extent of any field of research is not academic lingua franca. In the wider world, this is even more so. While it might be that someone in the community knows a little about what occurs in Chemistry research or Computer Science research, in Psychology research or in History research, the public generally really has limited information about the research taking place in our universities and colleges. This academic esoterism is occasionally disturbed when a researcher makes a groundbreaking discovery. When that occurs, a university makes every effort to ensure that research is known to and understood by a wider public. The press reports G. Harper (B) The Honors College, Oakland University, Rochester Hills, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_12

145

146

G. Harper

on it, sometimes awards are given, and celebrations happen. Through these things, and to a minor extent, the research activities of the academy are revealed—momentarily. Such public recognition encourages support for what academic researchers do and can therefore encourage governments to fund the academy. That overview of the societal position of academic research is important to the understanding of creative writing research. Not least, because what we can call “contextual confusion” about creative writing research occurs both within the academy and in the wider community. This has been exacerbated by our focus in education on the completed works of creative writers and, to a lesser extent, on the lives of selected authors as exemplars of creative distinction. In other words, when we have heightened the importance of the artefact (the poem, the novel, the script) over the creative actions that brought it about, and added to this a celebration of the cultural significance of academically chosen authors who have been recognized for their writerly prowess, we have not largely been studying the modes and methods of creation those authors employed or the actions involved in creation or suggesting doing creative writing is available to all who can write or identifying publishing, fame, cultural approbation as adjunct nor core activities of creative writing. To understand creative writing research, we need to reposition our understanding more toward what creative writing actually is in terms of actions and responses when doing it, and in terms of what is produced in toto—in other words, reposition our contextual understanding—and to approach such things as completed works and author recognition within the actual practice of creative writing itself not as representatives of that practice. This repositioning is not to denigrate in any way the contribution, importance or pleasure found in engaging with completed works of creative writing. Nor is it to suggest that writerly prowess is unworthy of our celebration. However, both in early education—where creative writing has primarily been linked to improving literacy or encouraging childhood creativity—and higher education—where it has mostly been subsumed in departments focusing on textual and cultural studies—research into creative writerly action has either been left out entirely or seen as a sub-set of the study of writing generally. Attention to such things as the mode, methods and functions of the writerly imagination, or the contemporary influence of individual writer environments, or the creative writerly senses of structure and form (as the appear and change, in action, and not always on the page), or the formation and reformation of themes and subjects—none of these have been prioritized or considered from the point of view of what creative writers do and what creative writing is. In short, creative writing research is not defined only by an existent or projected product (that is, by a final material result). Nor is it defined only by the individual writer as representative of the cultural category of “a writer”, whereby the researcher enacts and reenacts the processes and attitudes commonly associated with a predefined national, regional or local literary culture. Nor it is grounded necessarily in what is regarded as the “literary”, at least as this might be labelled according to a set of predetermined criteria or to current academic tastes in literature. All of these things might be a focus of a creative writing research project—but they are not by default necessarily present in one, nor are they necessarily present in creative writing

Creative Writing Research: What, How and Why

147

itself. Rather, to understand creative writing research we need first and foremost to be true to why creative writing happens, when and where it happens, and how it happens. Creative writing research can be: . practice-led: where a creative writing project or projects forms the bases of an investigative methodology, often including a critical discussion relating to that creative investigation. . thematic: where the approach to the research is determined largely by the themes the researcher wishes to explore. So, for example, a set of interviews conducted with creative writers who have approached a defined social issue, to determine if there is any compositional or methodological pattern common between them. . structural and formal: including here creative writing research that focuses on a particular genre, and suggesting in this instance that it is the form of the works created that determines the research trajectory, with an investigation of such things as compositional patterns, graphic representative, resonance, voice and tone—the structural and formal characteristics that are inscribed by the writer, . psychological: individuality is a key trait of creative writing because the practice draws together the singular imagination of the writer with the influences of education (generally and specifically as associated with the learning of writing). Similarly, creative writing is frequently informed not only by an analytical approach but by one informed by human feelings. Research can consider individual psychologies, comparative emotions, the relationship between individual and societal experiences. . philosophical or aesthetic: research into principles underlying a way of thinking, tastes and definitions of beauty that inform a decision on such things as word choice, or character, on setting, on the sound of or a word or the shape of a phrase, on determining what is colloquially sometimes called “what works” in creating a line or a passage. . historical, social or cultural: the grounding of individual works in a larger context, or the grouping of practices according to wider influences, or the mapping of individual responses against mainstream interpretations, or the investigation of change in attitudes and interpretations that in turn effect change in a writing practices or outcomes, or the comparative study of environmental influences, between place of times. These and other socio-cultural or historical focuses give creative writing researchers insight not only into individual writing project but also into how questions of cultural and social value are formed and reformed. . technological: to inscribe (which is the act of writing) always involves some kind of tool. From the earliest etching of rock to the latest mergers of virtual reality and artificial intelligence, the role, influence, choice and application of writing technologies influences creative writing. Research that targets this fact might aim to identify acts of writing brought about by the use of a particular technology, or they might explore such things as pace and rhythm, the contemporary impact of corrective software that suggests or even automatically corrects choices in grammar, punctuation and syntax. A researcher could take writing itself to be a technology and consider how it influences and presents the transference of

148

G. Harper

conscious thought from writer to reader or audience or how it is used to give form to the unconscious. . pedagogic: when teaching of creative writing we clearly have to decide what is taught, why it is taught and what the results of it being taught might be. Determining the nature of creative writing knowledge therefore offers researchers a considerable array of potential projects. We can also consider what messages we send through our creative writing teaching—messages concerning what we value and who we value (and that last note is consequential because if our teaching suggests only some voices are relevant, some styles of writing, some perspectives, some human experiences then clearly we are signifying what creative writing is worth undertaking and what is not). Pedagogic research has focused on such significant sites of creative writing teaching as the workshop and on questions concerning whether learning of creative writing occurs in a linear way or an interconnected, matrixed way. Pedagogic research might focus on levels of learning and teaching, types of learning, the scope and form of courses associated with a genre or technique, the industrial context of types of learning (and whether information on publishing or the media of the performance industries might be included), on individual learning versus group learning, and how information about creative writing is best conveyed in that regard, on associative understanding (between creative writing and other arts practices or between creative writing and other writing or between creative writing and epistemologies of the sciences or social sciences). . industrial: some creative writing takes place largely outside of the creative industries, with the motivation for doing the writing being about self-expression. Alternatively, a great deal of creative writing is tied to an industrial need—whether, for example, in the film and television industries and in the production of leisure software, in advertising, in graphic design, in music, or in the performing and visual arts. Creative writing is essential to a range of creative industries, and it is possible to research the industrial characteristics of how that writing is undertaken and how it interacts with other art and communication forms that these industries employ. Research topics here are varied. Areas of interest might include contrasts between individual writerly activities and teamwork (say in the advertising, theatre or TV industries) or the way a brief to produce a particular piece of creative writing is handled to reach the required results. Research projects might also include those focused specifically on the publishing industry—perhaps on how changes in it have influenced creative writers, or on the ways in which communities of creative writers are created and supported given contemporary publishing practices, or on the influence of marketing and publicity or the impact of any perceived requirement to have a public persona or profile.

Creative Writing Research: What, How and Why

149

2 Choices In all research, we have personal and professional choices to make –choices about focus and expectations, where we want to spend our time and spend our energy. For us, in this field, the choices can be largely individual—in that, creative writing relates to our personal tastes and interests and desires. Or the choices can be public—in that, creative writing happens within a cultural, social, economic and political realm and the influences on it and the results of those influences have their public dimensions. Some creative writing research choices are well known today and there are indeed identifiable foci around the world. For example, there are creative writing researchers who work on pedagogic topics, those whose primary interest is in practice-led research, and the strategies and approaches connected with such practiceled research, those who consider diversity, equity and inclusion, and those with interests in psychological or behavioral topics. However, although the field is increasingly grounded in a global discussion it remains relatively unmapped, compared to many other academic fields. Additionally, because a considerable range of work done in the past twenty-five years has been done by doctoral students in creative writing doctoral programs in countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the power of those graduates to build on their research results has been at the mercy of institutional abilities to recognize creative writing research as a field of endeavor. In essence, for those graduates to find academic jobs. That has not always been the case— more so perhaps than in some Arts disciplines, because creative writing teaching in the academy has not been associated with creative writing research. The contextual conditions in which finished works of creative writing area primarily valued, and well-known writers’ lives are primarily studied has not worked in favor of creative writing graduate researchers and therefore the progress in seeing such research wellgrounded in academic departments has been uneven. This is changing as the field of Creative Writing Studies—that is the critical study of creative writing—gains global momentum. One area of my own current research interests is in tracking back the antecedents of creative writing research in the practices and outcomes of other disciplines’ research, particularly from the mid-20th Century. Meaning, by this, that it is possible to find antecedent elements of creative writing research in Literary and English Studies and in arts research in such areas as Music, Theatre, Visual Arts and Film making, in Composition and Writing Studies, in Linguistics and Cultural Studies, and to a lesser extent in Philosophy and Educational Studies, in Psychology, Communication and Translation Studies, and in Sociology. Admittedly, this is a personal area of investigation; however, it is also reflected in the wider Creative Writing Studies (CWS) community when we see CWS scholars exploring previous CWS related work in Composition and Writing Studies, or when considering the history of representation in Literary Studies classes as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion in Creative Writing workshops, or when determining which elements of practice-led research draw on previous understanding of arts practices, or when examining creative dissertations submitted in the United States as part of English Literature Ph.D. programs,

150

G. Harper

thirty, forty or fifty years ago, or when discussing the use of creative writing pedagogies for students learning English as a second language or with first language English speakers who were less competent in their language use, and discussing the discoveries made around how creativity generates linguistic competence or the ways in which understanding form in creative writing leads to greater understanding of linguistic form, generally. This, all by way of saying that creative writing research as we now define and explore and develop it did not begin necessarily at the point where we named something “creative writing research”; rather, like all forms of human investigation and discovery it has recognizable antecedents.

3 Structuring Projects While structuring a research project in our field is not vastly different to structuring research in any other field, we do have the relatively distinct option of combining critical and creative methods (and the more distinct option of doing this primarily through acts of writing). In that option the fluidity and interconnectivity of the imagination is likely to be heightened. That said, structuring CWS projects has several universal research traits: . determining the nature of the raw material, either work already published and available, or information and experiences that can be gained from experiential research (and this is the same whether the project is creative practice-led or purely critical). Experiential research could be related to themes or subjects, whereby the researcher determines a starting point in a subject or theme and seeks to find creative writing material (currently available or through writing it) that explores that subject or theme. It could be through a controlled “experiment” (for example, in a pedagogic research project trying new modes of teaching and gauging their success) It could be the raw material of already published secondary source materials such as writers’ diaries, interviews, notebooks. Raw material could refer to comparative work—a creative writing researcher taking, say, a group of texts set in a particular place or particular period, or by a particular author or authors and looking for patterns of composition, endeavoring to find traits that relate to the operation of the imagination, or the influence of environment, or the conditions of a culture or time in history. “Raw material” in creative writing research can in this way be both physical material already available to us (such things as published works, manuscripts, notes, writers’ personal correspondence) or it can be material produced through actionbased methods (writing something, testing out ideas with a group learning creative writing, even gathering material related to stimulus in creative writing, visual records of things, documentary evidence of invents that influence writing). . formulating what in some disciplines are called hypotheses may come about because of an assessment of the raw material on a particular topic or theme. For

Creative Writing Research: What, How and Why

151

example, it might be a researcher is aware of consistent reports that screenwriters work most efficiently when working in teams. Armed with this raw material, this empirical knowledge, the researcher might formulate a hypothesis that suggests the nature of screenplay writing, with its emphasis on interaction (actor to actor, actor and camera, sound and vision, and so on), is such that collaborative writing is suggested by the collaborative nature of the medium. Aiming to test that hypothesis (and in creative writing research “hypothesis” is not a commonly used word— instead, this might simply be thought of as “an idea”) the researcher sets out to try some writing tasks that screenwriters complete individually and then together, and to gauge the success of these tasks. From the results of these investigations, the researcher formulates that theory that indeed the fact that a screenplay is a template for another artform, and that this artform most often involves multiple collaborations, the mode of creative writing in screenplay writing is almost always best to be collaborative. Hypotheses and theories in creative writing research (like in any other field of human endeavor and human knowledge) can be individual or group based. They probably won’t be called “hypotheses and theories” by the researchers, though the way in which creative writing researchers pose questions and seek answers and come up with suggestions about who things work in creative writing is evolving all the time and the language of discussion changes as things evolve. Certainly, any creative writing researcher begins with a response of some kind to what they know, think or feel—and that response is manifest in beliefs that inform the actions of investigating and the actions of writing. The historical context of creative writing study in universities and colleges and cultural context of creative writing in societies means that it still remains relatively unusual to imagine someone undertaking a creative writing researcher project through the lens of many other established research disciplines. For example, the practice-led creative writing researcher who speaks of exploring an idea or theme or concept through writing a creative work is not always considered to be in the same enterprise of creating knowledge as the biologist doing an experiment or the engineer investigating new industrial processes. But they are in fact doing exactly that—and though the knowledge might be of a different kind, the results of their investigations presented in different ways, and the societal sense of their researching received in different ways, the creative writing researcher, like all researchers, seeks to know more, seeks to explain what they know, and seeks to advance our knowledge of the practice they are examining and the field in which they work—in this case, of course, the practice and field of creative writing. . exchanging current research ideas with others in the field is both a formal and informal practice among all researchers. Formally, through conferences, likewise in journals (and the concept and activity of “peer-review” is often used to designate journals that formally assess submissions for their validity in their field) and through the publication of books. Informally, researchers exchange current ideas in their general social interactions with others in their field and in the casual conversations that take place in academic departments between colleagues in

152

G. Harper

the same field. These formal and informal exchanges assist in building project ideas, and in suggesting avenues of investigation, and in challenging assumptions. Sometimes they create research groups who pursue topics together, regionally, nationally or globally, or they support the presentation and dissemination of new ideas in a field by recognizing, even lauding, a researcher’s discovery. Creative writing researchers do much of this too; however, the focus of creative writing research can be highly individualized. Some researchers—perhaps most of all practice-led researchers—design their investigations around topics and practices based on personal interest informed by feeling and propelled by a desire for a particular result. You might suggest this is no different than the practices of any other researcher! But creative writing research is undertaken in situations where even the notion of “knowledge” is individually determined. For example, imagine you seek to know how to create (and how other writers create) resonant effects in their poetry. A poetry writing project, then; but, not one in which you do as a literary scholar might do and study (comparatively perhaps and primarily) the final poems of a number of poets and consider the textual evidence of resonance. Rather, a poetry writing project in which you seek, study and consider evidence of the compositional acts “in motion”, the things done and the thoughts about them. In which you seek, also, through biographical, cultural and (yes) also textual routes evidence of why decision-making occurred, how it occurred and when it occurred. The knowledge you are aiming to discover is that about how acts of creative writing came about and progressed and the results of this are part (but not all) of your explorations. Individual goals, then, are common in creative writing, personal goals informed often as much by the emotional, psychological, singular reasoning of the writer ore researcher—borne on the back a question or questions that relate to how the writing is (or was) done, and why the writing is (or was) done and what results from this doing. Of course, this assumes the individual reasoning was about producing a text. In some cases, the creative writing researcher might be seeking more to consider an experience (of writing, or of teaching, or of discovering) and a final textual outcome might not be the focus. Creative writing research, however, can also come about from those kind of group exchanges that impacts on researchers in all fields. Focusing on pedagogy, or on diversity, equity and inclusion, or on inter-arts influences on creative writing practice, or on practice-led research can point a researcher to others doing similar work, and that group exchange of current work in these areas is not today uncommon today. Today, that is, because the field of creative writing research has seen an international expansion over the past 30 years, with recognizable strong growth in the United Kingdom and Australasia, growth of interest in the countries of Asia and Africa and continental Europe, and an increasing strength of interest and involvement in this field in the United States, where the antecedents of creative writing research reach back into a range of cognate disciplinary histories. Finally, considering research ideas (whether in your own internal assessment of routes to take or in communicating with others with similar interests) involves asserting value. Such assertions of value manifest themselves in the choice of routes to

Creative Writing Research: What, How and Why

153

travel when researching—that is, which parts of Creative Writing Studies to pursue— and in the sense of what results are sought, whether those results are creative or critical texts, or whether they are writerly experiences, or whether they are enhancement of teaching practices, or whether they are the increased understanding of what creative writing is and how it happens and why it happens. What we value in the practice of creative writing, and in the results of that practice—all of those results: the material objects that emerge from the practice and become conduits for communication, for emotional exchanges and for discussion, works of arts that they are; the experiences of writing, creatively, and of re-writing, the challenges, the frustrations and the thrills; the opportunities for teaching, in teaching, through teaching to engage others in the practice of creative writing and to empower them—what we value in creative writing is informed by why we seek to expand our knowledge of it, and because we place value in sharing our understanding.

4 Methods/Methodology of Creative Writing Research Research structure and research methods are entwined, of course, with an understanding of one being dependent on an understanding of the other. But method (or methodology, to offer a more formal concept) is based on systemic activities and defined principles. Methodology formalizes method by offering explanatory evidence of the choice of methods; that is, by providing reasoning for choices made, against a background of the subject, topic of discipline of investigation. In creative writing, the basic structural characteristics of research is dependent on a relationship with the components of creative writing. Simple enough: . actions of writing—are these the focus of your methods, so that how you discover things is through the act of writing itself? Writing creatively is the methodology of practice-led researchers and the methods employed relate to such things as the choice of form and genre, the techniques known by the writer and the skills of the writer, the relationship between the creative project and the questions being asked (in most cases a practice-led researcher writers sequentially, completing the creative work first and the critical reflection, exegesis or component concerned with it second). . textual evidence—is the guiding element of your methodology the texts you produce or that others have produced? Textual evidence (or the expectation of producing some) is an anchor, whereby the researcher is able to relate all critical opinion and expectations to the existence of a real or imagined text. The principle of the methodology here can be stated as “creative writing produces texts” and while we might discuss what kinds of texts, and how many texts, and who owns these texts, and in what ways these texts are the result of wider societal and cultural influences and what status this texts hold as knowledge providers or communicators, the primary methodological consideration is that in this case a text or texts grounds discussion.

154

G. Harper

. interaction with others. These others might be students (in the case of pedagogical research) or an audience (sometimes in the case of practice-led, and certainly in the case of “response” type research) where the results of the research are discussed, explored and perhaps even validated by the involvement of other people. In both cases, the methodological principle here is one of communication—that creative writing involves an exchange of some kind, or of many kinds, and that research must therefore methods of research in our field are dependent on forms of response. It is relatively uncommon for creative writing research to involve the observation of writers or even of the audience, but it is still possible that a researcher might employ observational method in order to determine how a text is received, or how a creative writer works or in what ways a theme or subject is manifest in a society or culture. . comparative or metaphoric examination. Here a way of describing how a creative writing researcher may seek to fill in the gaps in our current knowledge base. Because we cannot always observe how creative writers go about their own, and even if the creative writer is the researcher herself or himself an attempt to pause the writing to consider what is happening interrupts the creative process. Those undertaking textual or pedagogic research are faced not only with the difficulty of knowing through empirical means how things were actually written but with little in the way of analytical means to consider both the intellect (that employed to be able to use written language) and the imagination (the primary tool of human creativity). Therefore, the researcher seeks to work comparatively—by analogy comparing a creative writing technique, result or writerly purpose with that seen in another field (often one in the arts). Alternatively, by shifting to another plain of reference (that is, thinking metaphorically) in order to understand the action or outcome of creative writing. For example, a researcher might figuratively approach creative writing practice as a series of building blocks, as steps amounting to a complete journey, or as mathematical puzzle that produces a final answer. Alternatively, they might imagine the outcomes of the practice as the trunk and branches of a tree and what produced that visible evidence as the rhizomatic roots of the activity. Such comparative or metaphoric methodology can produce both pragmatic and philosophic research, whereby the researcher seeks to define meaning and reasoning in the practices and outcomes of creative writing.

5 The Research Environment Research in creative writing most often happens in individual circumstances, defined by a single researcher and that researcher’s personal interests or needs, not involving any kind of special equipment (and often not undertaken in specific locations), and pursued for personal interest not for disciplinary reasons (that is, not primarily for advancing discussions of a particular topic in the wider field of creative writing).

Creative Writing Research: What, How and Why

155

In other words, rather than the research being defined by a disciplinary lack of understanding of a particular component of knowledge (compare, for example, cancer research in the field of medical science where the area of knowledge is strongly defined and the reasons for undertaking such research very clear) it is mostly defined by individual creative curiosity or a personal desire to better perceive an aspect of creative writing as a human practice or by an admiration of a finished creative writing result (a book or books, a film, a particular authors oeuvre). The medical science contrast is intended to be harsh, to highlight how creative writing research does most often happen but also how it is most often perceived in institutions of higher learning, by governments and in the general community Creative writing is almost entirely about our quality of life, our human engagement with the world and with each other. Unlike medical research, researching in this field is clearly not about saving lives. It is broadly about life experiences and about life qualities. The relationship between personal and individual investigations and how we generally perceive research is therefore most significant. The environments for creative writing research reflect this—and so, beyond not often involving research equipment or particular research facilities, creative writing research receives little governmental funding, the expectations for the research are not often tied to the strategic goals of a research sponsor or research agency. Environments for creative writing research therefore are largely defined by individual writers not by the discipline, by universities or indeed by research sponsors, and certainly not by corporations in the creative industries or otherwise—and we can consider how such an individual focus impacts on what these environments, or more accurately “habitats” appear and how they influence the work at hand. For example, how much might the availability of books (and other library resources) impact on a CWS researcher? How much is this research generated by travel to other places and how much is it generated in the ordinary working locations of the person doing it? What role does the imagination play in the creation of habitats for creative writing research (for example, visual or sound stimuli or speculations of the imagination based on reading, or on watching media or on exposure to other artforms or knowledge forms, other disciplines, other researchers?) The launch, expansion and development of doctoral programs in creative writing over the past thirty years—particularly in Australia and the United Kingdom—has had a notable effect on creative writing research and its research environments. Governmental research agencies in those countries also put money into such research, including funding directly into graduate scholarships, and in doing so brought creative writing research to the attention of the wider academic research community. Other countries followed suit, in continental Europe, in Africa and in Asia, and though direct government funding for this has varied across the globe, and although not all countries have embraced investment with the same enthusiasm, more and more institutions of higher learning have developed programs with a regular contingent of creative writing researchers, along with research supervision and research mentorship. In the United States the effect of the expansion of doctoral programs related to knowledge in creative writing can be seen in pedagogic and professional questions

156

G. Harper

about whether the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) remains the appropriate “terminal degree” for a creative writer working in higher education or if the Ph.D. is now more appropriate. The M.F.A. had long been favored by America’s primary creative writing organization, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), while members of that organization increasingly have had Ph.Ds or have been pursuing Ph.Ds. The emergence five years ago of the alternative U.S.-based organization, the Creative Writing Studies Organization (CWSO), is a reflection of the changing demographics of creative writers working in higher education in the U.S. Together with looking back toward the antecedents of creative writing research the U.S. in Writing Studies programs and in Composition Studies and in creative dissertations submitted as part of doctoral study in English Literature, the U.S. has strongly entered the field of creative writing research and is beginning to have an increased global impact. All this relatively recent expansion of doctoral study in creative writing, has meant that the environment of 21st Century academe has altered somewhat to incorporate such research—with academic departments shifting some resources (space, personnel) to suit this growth, and the idea of a CWS research presence on campus no longer as unlikely as it once was. So, while most creative writing research remains in the private habitat of the individual creative writer, the discussions we see on campuses today, the incorporation into research in cognate fields such as Literary Studies and practice-led arts research, this has all had impact on how creative writing research appears in and influences the environments of our universities and colleges.

6 Results/Outcomes It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations. Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects. (The Wonder World to be Created by Electricity, Nikola Tesla 1915: 38)

The results of undertaking creative writing research are so many times determined by the pure inquisitiveness of the individual researcher. It is not that this cannot be, or is not the case in other disciplines, other areas of study and teaching. Almost certainly it is unhelpful for Creative Writing Studies (and the kinds of research CWS scholars undertake) to be seen as extraordinary or uncommon or atypical of research as we know it commonly—particularly as seen in our universities and colleges. And yet, if Creative Writing Studies is a recognizable field, and if has a research element, some practices and outcomes that ask for an exploration of current knowledge and the expansion and development of that knowledge, then creative writing research needs defining and re-defining as we progress it toward more and more discoveries. Dedicated attention, that is, and the ability see where paradigms are emerging and where they require revisiting.

Creative Writing Research: What, How and Why

157

To a large extent, how each of us undertakes creative writing research right now will compellingly determine how our field looks in the future. This is because Creative Writing Studies is still new enough that there are not long-established focuses of investigation; nor is there the considerable baggage of structures and historical methods of investigation that have to be unsettled in order for us to develop and pursue new ones. A simple way of putting this would be say that we have a notable opportunity to build this field and that such an opportunity is not all that common in academe or in the world at large. A less simple but more exciting notion is that it appears, considering we have had long enough now to determine this, that ours is a field only partly mapped by its antecedents, and that while they provide some directional support, in being only partly mapped much of the territory in front of us remains untraveled. Our only limitations are in our abilities to see the topics, the themes, the approaches and the outcomes we might produce, the potential for those around in academe (some of whom might be in positions of power) to not understand what it is we are attempting and therefore not support it, and the likelihood that many of us will need to carve out new trails in order to progress at all and in doing so need to come up with appropriate methodologies, structures and forms of outcome that allow us to share with us in our field what we have achieved—because without our exchange of ideas now, and the sharing of approaches, and results we will not progress. It seems likely, given the considerable contemporary global enthusiasm for creative writing research, and for Creative Writing Studies as the now well-known home to creative writing research, that in the next decade we will see considerable progress—progress far beyond what we have seen to date, in areas of investigation that are only beginning to emerge, and in fascinating new areas too.

Reference Tesla, Nikola. 1915. The wonder world to be created by electricity. Manufacturers Record 38–39

In Praise of Doggedness: On Going Local & Becoming Global as a Transpacific Poet-Scholar in Hawai’i, the Pacific Rim, and Coastal California Rob Sean Wilson

Abstract Drawing upon his career as a poet and scholar who had taught for 24 years in the English Department and creative writing program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and for another 23 years in the Literature Department at the University of California in Santa Cruz (as well as visiting positions in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong), the author defines, elaborates, and defends the writerly virtue of “doggedness” as a survival tactic of local-global endurance and literary recalcitrance. The author’s own career as a published writer is posited as a synecdoche for what Houston Wood calls “doing poetry in theory, and theory in poetry” and border-crossing networking and building up a transpacific writing community across Oceania and the Pacific Rim. Another factor of poetic survival amid the ethnic tensions of “local literature” becomes the act of securing allies in the right places, with gifts for circulation, mutual support, lines of creative flight, world-building, and networking.

…creativity takes place along a line of [transpacific] flight. – Gilles Deleuze1 When I reflect upon the problem of writing poetry in the general mishmash of this superpower USA and, more contentiously, as situated within the aggravated indigenous-local-settler agonistics of the ex-50th US state of Hawai’i where I taught 1 As this French theorist of nomadic becoming and writerly singularity capaciously phrases this ethos, “To fly is to trace a line, lines, long, a whole cartography [of the imagination]. One only discovers worlds through a long, broken flight. Anglo-American literature constantly shows these ruptures, these characters who create their line of flight, who create through a line of flight. Thomas Hardy, Melville, Stevenson, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Wolfe, Lawrence, Fitzgerald, Miller, Kerouac. In them, everything is departure, becoming, passage, leap, daemon, relationship with the outside.....the flight towards the West, the discovery that the true East is in the West, the sense of the frontiers as something to cross, to push back, to go beyond. The becoming is geographical.” See Gilles Deleuze’s Dialogues [with Claire Parnet] (1977).

R. S. Wilson (B) Humanities Division, Department of Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_13

159

160

R. S. Wilson

literature and creative writing for 24 years, the word for creative survival that comes to mind (like some mysterious mantra) is doggedness. As in a period piece from the Thatcher-and-Reagan-battered 1980s, I get a picture in my mind of enragedboxer Jake LaMotta (played by Robert DeNiro) being pounded into fleshly submission countless times in Raging Bull (1980); and, inches short of physical, psychic, and spiritual death, the fighter gets up each time to keep fighting on, to take another round, to endure another punch to the head or stomach; that is to say, to survive andkeep writing. Canadian poet-novelist Michael Ondaatje loved this film when he was a visiting teacher at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa in the early 80s when we saw it at a neon-glowing theater in Waikiki, and he advised in the sleepy corridors of the English Department at Ralph Kuykendall Hallthat anyone could study this Martin Scorsese masterwork on boxing and become not just a film maker but a writer in any genre. That made lasting poetic sense to me. Maybe this is not an encouraging self-image to propose to any aspiring young writer, I would now admit. Still, I had earlier got this same insight into writerly doggedness as an occupational necessity for writers from the late-great fiction writer from Iowa, upstate New York, and Oahu Island in Hawaii, Ian MacMillan (1941– 2008). Ian advised this same ethos when we were UHM colleagues back in the late 1970s and across the 1980s in Hawai’i. A rock-solid rural man of few words except when writing, Ian would chat with me after basketball games at the Kaniwai courts near campus (where my daughter Sarah went to the nearby grammar school) about his stoic method of coldly, and with sublime indifference, putting his well-wrought short stories back into another manila envelope up to twenty times after they had been indifferently rejected by some journal until another literary journal or editor, somewhere across the huge mainland USA, whatever amount of time it took, had the good sense to publish one of his well-wrought short stories. Ian in a sense had become a raging bull of a novelist from his Iowa University workshop MFA training. Now considered one of the ‘white ethnic’ local writers admitted (belatedly) into the multicultural company of Bamboo Ridge Press-published authors, as Susan M. Schultz has noted in her anthology Jack London Is Dead concerning the undertheorized and factitious twists and turns of “local literature” emerging in the era of cross-border globalization, this dynamic of peripheralizing indifference puts everything stable or identity-based into place-wary question marks across localizing and reindigenizing Native Hawaiian Hawai’i (Schultz 2013). For Ian Macmillan had managed to persevere, survive, and rise in the US fiction world before his untimely death from throat cancer (muscular and athletic, he was also an avid chain-smoker) in 2008. McMillan’s short stories and novels would become solicited after he won the American Writer’s Program award for best short-story collection for Light and Power: Stories in 1980. Ian later received several requests, he softly told me, from those very same semi-snooty journals of literary cachet that had once ignored or rejected his submissions of short stories over the years. He would soon go on to win broader national recognition and literary awards: as Wikipedia summarizes this, “Called “the Stephen Crane of World War II” by Kurt Vonnegut, MacMillan was the recipient of a number of literary awards, including the Hawaii Award for Literature in 1992, the O. Henry Award, the Elliot Cades Award for Literature in 2007, and the

In Praise of Doggedness: On Going Local & Becoming Global …

161

Pushcart Prize.2 He was further honored in 2010 by the creation of the annual Ian MacMillan Writing Award in his memory given in the creative writing program at the University of Hawai’i. His war-focused novel Village of a Million Spirits received the Pen Center USA Award for Fiction in 2000.”3 What about Rob Sean Wilson as such a Raging Bull-mentored poet? At times disheartened as a poet and writer, all but broken in spirit and resources at times as scholar and poet, lost to myself, crazed, bitter, blissed-out in oblivion, I worked on a poetry project I called (prefiguratively) Ananda Air Incorporated or (later) When the Nikita Moon Rose.4 I have persevered like Jake LaMotta in Hawai’i (from 1976 to 2001) and Santa Cruz (2001–2023) until various journals of literature and scholarship now seek out, in differing parts of the Pacific Rim from Taiwan and Hong Kong to Honolulu and Berkeley, the works I write in various genres. I will continue “doing theory in poetry, and poetry in theory” as my UHM doctoral student and scholar at Hawaii Pacific University, Houston Wood, once observed of my mixed-genre cross-coded writing taking place as “cultural studies” and “worlding poetics” across Oceania (Wood 2003). This contemporary writing situation in Hawai’i remains full of tensions and antagonisms, all the more aggravated (as an impossible coalition of oceanic imagination) given the more rise of a “settler colonialism” framework partly derived from such ideologized colonial discourse in Australia, Israel, South Africa, and India.5 Of course most writers, in any genre worth their enduring salt of misery and integrity, struggling to survive in the writing vocation, can most likely tell such detailed horror stories about having his/her poems or stories or novels turned down by journals (“Dear Mr. Wilson, Your poems don’t blast me off my feet!”; or as I wanted to write back, “Dear Poetry Editor, Try Heroin, it never fails.”) orsmarmy art journals, only to have these same poems accepted one week later by Poetry of Chicago or The New Republic. (I now wonder, at times, amazed by the flux of literary schools, traditions, mores, modes, audiences, and outlets from the local and regional to the national and global: was this really a good sign?). Along such work-ethic lines of torment and rebuke, I once had a senior editor at the Wallace Stevens Journal take my sweat-and-blood-birthed essay on the American sublime in Wallace Stevens, which he initially wrote back to say he had admired, back to New Jersey for the summer; then suddenly the man had died, his works in progress and life foreclosed (something that haunts one also as aging and closer to the closure that is death). But I was not informed of this fatality by the new editor of the 2

See the moving portrait of his UHM mentor by the journalist and fiction writer in A. Kam Napier’s “Remembering Ian Macmillan” (2008). 3 See the detailed entry on Ian Macmillan in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_MacMil lan(author). 4 See Rob Sean Wilson’s When the Nikita Moon Rose (2021), a poetry collection published both in English and with Chinese translations in the Transpacific Archipelagic Poetry series edited by Tee Kim Tong. 5 On related contextual issues and tensions, see Rob Wilson, Reimagining the American Pacific: From ‘South Pacific” to Bamboo Ridge and Beyond (2001); and Paul Lyons’s American Pacificism: Oceania in the U. S. Imagination (2005).

162

R. S. Wilson

Stevens journal until three years later after I had returned from a Fulbright to South Korea to my job as an assistant professor in the English Department at UH Manoa and inquired about the status of this Rob Wilson essay. Against all demoralizing odds I persevered, and the essay called “Decreating the American Sublime in Wallace Stevens” appeared in Lee Bartlett’s American Poetry journal and became part of a book-length study of American poetry called American Sublime: The Genealogy of a Poetic Genre published in 1991 in Frank Lentriccia’s American Writing Series by the University of Wisconsin Press in Madison. A writer must keep telling herself what Mark Twain confided to his Gilded Era audience all but tiring of literature, “the rumors of my death [as a writer] are greatly exaggerated.” Another factor of poetic survival in the hugely diverse United States of America— including amid the ethnic and indigenous tensions of “local literature” in Hawai’i— is securing allies in the right places, who have gifts for empathy, mutual support, and networking. By this I don’t mean just friends or lovers who like your work regardless of how embarrassingly bad it is, but uncanny writing and cultural allies who can see the future in you, perhaps are placed with welcoming journals and scrappy presses local or otherwise, from Tinfish and Bamboo Ridge in Honolulu to Duke University Press in Durham, North Carolina and New Pacific Press in Santa Cruz, who can see what you are up to as an experiment-risking writer and are willing to encourage, support and publish your work now and n the future. Eric Chock was such an editorial ally for me at Bamboo Ridge journal who could pick out a real poem out of batch of five so-and-so ones, along with editors like Robert Buswell at Korean Culture, Paul Bove and Donald Pease at boundary 2, Stephen Paul Martin at Central Park, Loretta Petrie and Jim Krauss at Chaminade Literary Review, and Frank Stewart at Manoa who all maintained a singular wavelength for things poetic. Poet and editor Susan Schultz at her Asia/Pacific-based Tinfish journal and chapbook press prodded my work as a poet and cultural theorist not only by what she chose, but by what she placed the work next too as well, and she prodded into being by her own work as writer, critic, and editor. Juliana Spahr as coalitional poet-scholar in Honolulu and Oakland and Lindsay Waters in Cambridge as executive editor of the Humanities at Harvard University Press later played vital roles in my long-willing survival as poet-scholar, as did allies in South Korea and Taiwan like Kim U-chang and Ping-hui Liao, and Joseph Puna Balaz in Cleveland. Finally, “going local” in this dogged sense of integral vision can be seen as one strategy of regional and self-survival that builds upon the assumption that poetic creativity can be sustained along a line of flight into and beyond locality or identity, via a renewed entrenchment in place, language, genre, and (perhaps above all) becoming part of an open-ended community existing in formation. Metropolitan power in sites like NYC and LA or Paris and London need not be the whole ballgame in this decentered polity of pluralism we call, warily, the United States of Poetry or Worlding Poetry. Dogged localism will out, if slowly to be sure, but it takes prolonged engagement and a commitment to vision in the struggle. To get my first collection of poetry called Waking in Seoul published I had first sent it to several publishers who handled Asian materials such as Tuttle and Weatherhill Press in Vermont, but I was politely told that

In Praise of Doggedness: On Going Local & Becoming Global …

163

anything with living poetry in it (for it must be better to be dead and immortalized) was kiss of commercial death. Later, I showed the manuscript to brilliant literaryscholar in South Korea, Kim Uchang, who had run my poems in Korean translation in a cosmopolitan journal he edited in Korea called Segue Munhak (World Literature) in Seoul. Professor Kim shepherded the ms. to the time-honored literary press in South Korea, Mineumsa Press, which published it in 1988. By this time, the University of Hawai’i Press which had initially looked at the manuscript but saw poetry as the kiss of commercial death, was willing to handle distribution in America and outside of Korea, which proved helpful to getting the work around in its unpredictable “afterlife” as a cross-border mixed-genre work in the “hanbun” tradition of Basho’s Narrow Road to the Far North and the voyaging Euro-American surrealism of Henri Michaux’s A Barbarian in Asia. This down-to-earth strategy that has nurtured this publishing life as poet-scholar is one I would honor as the spiritual-political option to root down and grow from the ground up: going local, paradoxically, becomes a mode of becoming global and emergent as well. To endure “with roots hanging” from what you write, as Charles Olson incarnated via his own lifelong commitment to the seacoast town of Gloucester, Massachusetts as a cosmopolis for writing and community and earlier in his Melvillian manifesto Call Me Ishmael. Gloucester became for Olson a maximal oceanic center of cosmos, cosmopolis, history, trade, and cosmopolitical being moving outward to the world and planet back across space and time. This local sense is not just taken as a region, taste or language, but as the loving ground and ethos of cultivating aesthetic, political, and spiritual ties, as a community-under-construction, a world-being-built-up: “Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (1 Corinthians 13: 7) to invoke the Pauline mandate to keep believing. Stubborness (doggedness) in this exact place and this fleeting time means, in thevernacularized language of novelist Milton Murayama, “all I asking for is my body.” (Wilson 2008). When I was in graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley in the nineteen seventies, where student work was all but being ignored and bypassed for works like 40-page essays on the Cantos of Ezra Pound, I helped to found (along with my mentor poet-scholar, Josephine Miles) a campus-based outlet called the Berkeley Poetry Review in 1974 which is still going strong at UC Berkeley as a “journal of emergent poetics” in the year 2023 and mixing the Bay Area local with national and international strands as happens in journals like Hawaii Review and, in a different way, Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing. Moving to Hawai’i in 1976 as visiting assistant professor (at first) and slowly entrenching down in thatcontested “local” ground of settler-multicultural and indigenous community, I have over the years published work in journals such as Bamboo Ridge, Hawaii Review, Chaminade Review, and Manoa, all of which proved nurturing, in various ways, to the emergence and growth of “local literature” in Hawai’i and Rob Sean Wilson as aspiring ‘world poet.’ If, in your desperately nervous quest to secure those fifteen minutes of fame, love, or glory you bypass the local, if you ignore the body and ground of the historical spirit and languages of place-bound writing, you may never buildup to the national

164

R. S. Wilson

or world levels of exchange anything much worth saying as literature. Jake LaMotta must have realized this sweating, coughing, hacking, and bleeding in the cramped bloody gyms of Brooklyn as did Robert De Niro copping his own style in the streets of Little Italy in New York, or Michael Ondaatje becoming Slaughter or Billy the Kid via Coach House Press in far-flung Toronto. I may be a little bit punch-drunk by now in my half-Italianate half-Scottish doggedness; but, against all odds, like some Li Po of 513 Kuykendall Hall or Oakes 311 and (later) Humanities 631 at UC Santa Cruz, I have kept on writing! Write something, as Facebook urges its mongrel multitudes of which I am one: so yes, each day, I wrote something in the mode of Emerson or Thoreau in their million-word journals. I wrote, I wrote, I wrote I always wrote something. As Ralph Waldo Emerson early mandated to himself in some circular tautology of prolific infinitude: “The way to become a writer is to write.” Or, as the late-great Hawaiian poet and activist Wayne Kaumuali’i Westlake once celebrated in a Waikiki poem, written in one of his uncanny haiku from anonymous enclaves of literary Hawai’i when the 1970s seemed to be drifting into tourist oblivion and US imperial sublation, Must be going crazy my favorite poet lately has been me! (Westlake 2009, 198)6

References Deleuze, Gilles. 1977. Dialogues [with Claire Parnet]. Translated by Tomlinson, Hugh. New York: Columbia University Press, 36–37 Lyons, Paul, 2005. American Pacificism: Oceania in the U. S. imagination. New York and London: Routledge Napier, A. Kam. 2008. Remembering Ian Macmillan. Honolulu Magazine 31 December 2008 Schultz, Susan M. 2013. Jack London is dead: Contemporary Euro-American poetry of Hawai’I (and some stories). Kaneohe, Hawai’i: Tinfish Press Westlake, Wayne. 2009. Westlake: Poems by Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (1947–1984), eds. Mei-Li M. Siy and Richard Hamasaki. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press Wilson, Rob. 2001a. Reimagining the American Pacific: From ‘South Pacific” to bamboo ridge and beyond. Durham, NC: Duke University Press Wilson, Rob. 2001b. Postcolonial pacific poetries: Becoming oceania. In From Spider bone diaries: Poems and songs, ed. Richard Hamasaki. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press Wilson, Rob. 2008. Milton Murayama’s working-class diaspora across the Japanese/Hawaiian Pacific. Postcolonial Studies 11 (4): 475–479

6

Wayne Westlake, Westlake: Poems by Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (1947–1984) (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2009), 198. For a fuller poetics of place-aking in Oceania, see Rob Wilson elaborating a range of poetries including Richard Hamasaki’s transpacific poetics of place-making in Hawai’i in Spider Bone Diaries: Poems and Songs (2001), in “Postcolonial Pacific Poetries: Becoming Oceania,” The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Poetries, ed. Jahan Ramazani (Cambridge, England: University of Cambridge Press, 2017) 58-71.

In Praise of Doggedness: On Going Local & Becoming Global …

165

Wilson, Rob. 2017. Postcolonial pacific poetries: Becoming oceania. In The Cambridge companion to postcolonial poetries, ed. Jahan Ramazani. Cambridge, England: University of Cambridge Press Wilson, Rob Sean. 2021. When the Nikita moon rose [Ni ji ta yue shengqi shi: wei lei bo shiji 妮 基塔⽉升起時: 威雷伯詩集]. Translated by Wang, Zhiming 王智明, Li, Yunzi 黎韵孜, Zhang, Jinzhong 張錦忠, Zhou, Xuhua 周序樺 and Zhang, Yiping 張依蘋. Taiwan: National Sun Yaetsen Press 國⽴中山⼤學出版社 Wood, Houston. 2003. Cultural studies in Oceania. The Contemporary Pacific 15,2 (Fall): 340

Toward a Unified Field: Lore and the Complications of Global Context Stephanie Vanderslice

Abstract This chapter argues for a more nuanced view of lore in creative writing studies, interrogating the often dualistic ways in which scholars have depicted lore in the scholarship. The author re-defines lore, including her own past understanding of the term, and asks that scholars re-consider the ways in which lore has been depicted in a local context. Finally, she calls for the a more unified, global examination of the issue in order to understand the ways in which it at times supports and at times destabilizes the international progress of creative writing as a field.

In both the first and second editions of Can Creative Writing Really Be Taught: Resisting Lore in Creative Writing Pedagogy, the editors and I located the definition (Vanderslice and Manery 2017) of lore in Stephen North’s landmark (North 2011a, b) book The Making of Knowledge in Composition, which classifies lore as one of the eight kinds of knowledge in composition, that is: “the accumulated body of traditions, practices, and beliefs in terms of which Practitioners understand how writing is done, learned, and taught” (1987, 22). Lore also includes the myths about the teaching, learning, and practicing of creative writing today. But should it? Certainly lore can sometimes perpetuate myths about the activity of creative writing. It doesn’t always, however. I may be as or more guilty of conflating lore and myth in the last decade, but I want to advocate, from here forward, that we separate the two terms. To do that we need to be clear on their definitions. Let’s start with myth. The Oxford English Dictionary definition of myth that is most salient to this discussion is no. 2a.: A widespread but untrue or erroneous story or belief; a widely held misconception; a misrepresentation of the truth. Also: something existing only in myth; a fictitious or imaginary person or thing.

It’s fairly straightforward to enlarge this definition to make it salient to creative writing pedagogy. A creative writing myth, then, can be characterized as an untrue S. Vanderslice (B) College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 M. L. Rebecca Leung (ed.), Chinese Creative Writing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0931-5_14

167

168

S. Vanderslice

or erroneous story or belief about the process of creative writing, a misconception or misrepresentation of the way creative writing is practiced or accomplished, often in a way that inhibits the teaching or learning of the subject. Some of these myths emerge from writers themselves—as Wendy Bishop notes in Released into Language: Options for Teaching Creative Writing, writers can be notoriously in accurate in self-reports about their practice (1998). One can see why, according to this definition, the perpetuation of creative writing myths in the teaching and study of creative writing is problematic. Sometimes unreflective or unconsidered teaching lore, aided by the damaging cultural myths that surround creative writers and creative writing, does perpetuate erroneous beliefs about the subject. Other forms of teaching lore, however, have utility, especially since they are often based on practitioner-led inquiry and experience. Let’s compare North’s definition, again, the: “accumulated body of traditions, practices, and beliefs in terms of which Practitioners understand how writing is done, learned, and taught” with the traditional definition below yields some interesting results. From the OED: 5a. That which is learned; learning, scholarship, erudition. Also, in recent use, applied to the body of traditional fact, anecdotes, or beliefs relating to some particular subject, (e.g.as animal lore or plant lore)

So the traditional definition posits lore as something that is learned, but, like North, references it as a “body of tradition[al]” knowledge about a subject, knowledge that can be factual but can also be misleading or untested, depending on what it is and how it is used. This is, I believe, the most salient definition of lore for creative writing pedagogy: A body of traditional knowledge about a subject, knowledge that can be factual, especially if it is supported by research, but that can also be misleading or untested, depending on how it is interrogated and used.

In our enthusiasm at locating a problematic characteristic of creative writing teaching in composition scholarship twenty years ago, its dependence on lore, I now think Kelly Ritter and I may have been a bit hasty and dualistic in our approach, relying solely on North’s definition without considering its context, especially in light of the fact that by the time we were making connections between North’s lore and lore in creative writing, in the early 2000s, the book in which it appeared had been published for twelve years, and such context was already available. In this chapter, I want to unpack some of that context and complicate the subject, reconsidering lore and creative writing pedagogy almost twenty years from the time when Dr. Ritter and I first began examining it and broadening its implications.1 In part, this reconsideration stems from the transparency North himself shows in several essays in The Changing of Knowledge in Composition: Contemporary Perspectives edited by Lance Massey and Richard E. Gebhardt and published in 1

For another perspective on lore and creative writing pedagogy see “Reforming Creative Writing Pedagogy: History as Knowledge, Knowledge as Activism,” http://www.altx.com/ebr/riposte/rip2/ rip2ped/amato.htm.

Toward a Unified Field: Lore and the Complications of Global Context

169

2011. In fact, his introduction, “Notes on the Origins of The Making of Knowledge in Composition” (MKC), North candidly describes the emergence of the book as partly due to tenure pressure and department politics—he knew he needed a book for tenure and had been told by his chair that a book about writing centers, where he had been working for much of his early career, would not be accepted by the powers that be. He’d have to pursue another line of research.2 So it was out of necessity that he began thinking about the nascent field of composition knowledge as a whole, eventually producing a book that would shape knowledge in the discipline as much as evaluate it, although in an essay describing its significance in the same volume, Ed White acknowledges that with its publication (White 2011), North “paid a price for his originality and critical perspective on the field” (21). Indeed, practitioner lore emerged early on as perhaps the most problematic concept in MKC, something that would be debated on and off for the next ten years, before the idea of lore in creative pedagogy was even a twinkle in our eyes,3 and as Richard Fulkerson writes in “The Epistemic Paradoxes of Lore,” defining the term and its boundaries remains a sticking point: One of the most basic problems about lore is that it is often impossible to distinguish among potential meanings of the term: 1. Lore as knowledge 2. Lore as a hypothesis to be considered as inclusion in the field’s body of knowledge 3. Lore as a way of making knowledge (Fulkerson 2011, 48) Or, putting it another way, Fulkerson cites North’s portrayal of lore as “conclusion, possibility, or method” all at once (48). Lore as conclusion might include what he denotes as public “lorisms” like “not using red ink” or the idea that “teaching formal grammar improves prose” (48)—conclusions that have sometimes been misinterpreted in the field. It is “public lorisms” like these that can lead scholars to conflate lore with myth: sometimes they are frustratingly overapplied or inaccurate. Indeed, along these lines, some scholars, including David Bartholomae, saw North’s portrayal of lore as “imperialist and condescending” (Fulkerson: 49). Bruce Horner also pointed out that in MKC, “the knowledge constituting lore doesn’t stand up to the usual criteria for achieving status… in the end, lore doesn’t cut it” (qtd. in Fulkerson: 49). Others, at the same time, praised North’s recognition of “the contributions of practitioners to the making of knowledge” (49). According to Fulkerson, such diametrically opposed readings “happen because North’s treatment of lore in MKC is itself ambivalent” (50). It fails to recognize that lore is itself, “like scholarship or experimentation, a method [emphasis mine] of 2

The ways in which lines of research are and are not supported in the academy and the work that results—both renegade and mainstream—seems ripe for investigation itself. Joseph Moxley published Creative Writing in America despite the fact that his department chair informed him it would not count for tenure. In my own experience, it was a supportive chair, David Harvey, and a location in independent writing department that allowed me to pursue creative writing pedagogy in the early days, when it was not an established field. 3 Joe Amato and Kass Fleischer.

170

S. Vanderslice

proceeding, not the outcome, and that “any method can be ‘ill-used’.” Moreover, it is worth noting, that this perspective on lore emerged at a time when “rigorous empirical research” was privileged in order to counter what was perceived as “the field’s reliance on guesswork and speculation” (59–60), a time when the pendulum was swinging away from practitioner-led research and taking an experimental turn. Fulkerson points out that “non-quantitative [e.g., qualitative] research now dominates,” with even journals like Research in the Teaching of English publishing significant amounts of ethnography and case study (60). “If lore does not equal bad ethnography/case study,” he posits, “then does it make sense to say that ethnography and case study is lore done well?” (61). What, you may be wondering at this point, does all this talk about lore in composition have to do with lore in creative writing studies? On the one hand we can view it as a means to interrogate the dualistic ways scholars, myself included, have depicted it in creative writing scholarship in the past several years, presenting lore almost universally in the negative. Lore isn’t always an effective form of knowledge, but it can be effective if it’s based on reflection and practitioner-led research. Likewise, it isn’t always an ineffective form of knowledge, but it can be ineffective if it’s not grounded in adequate research or if it perpetuates or overapplies the inaccuracies or myths that continue to dog the teaching and learning of creative writing or writing in general. Another complication: lore and its influence can vary according to cultural context and perception. According to Jen Webb, writing about Australia in Can Creative Writing Really Be Taught? (the second edition), dependence on lore is less problematic in “Australian or UK creative writing courses, largely because government initiatives and related institutional demands have propelled writing teachers into the logic of the academy” (97). “Writing teachers in Australia,” she adds, are “at home with the work of (Webb 2017) researching pedagogy, interrogating traditions and truisms, producing analysis of process and developing arguments about research in practice… it has been a long time since anyone wondered whether it is possible to teach creative writing” (97). At the same time, Webb also describes a terroir in Australia that can be ambivalent when it comes to lore, such as the split system in AU universities whereby working writers teach as “casual teachers, transmit[ting] enthusiasm and technical knowledge, in which the tenured writing academics take on the responsibility, or perhaps the burden, of satisfying their institution’s requirement for engagement, entrepreneurship, research, and service, as well as teaching and pedagogy” (98). Although this situation is certainly not unrecognized in the US and other countries, it is problematic at best, as it allows the “casual” teacher to continue to reify lore even if it is inaccurate. In his review of Can Creative Writing Really Be Taught in the Australian journal TEXT, Ross Gibson (Gibson 2018) also implies that lore is a uniquely American problem—in spite of Webb’s examples otherwise—and to lament the book’s lack of attendance to other national contexts on the subject. The latter is an excellent point— creative writing scholars internationally do have a tendency to speak over one another instead of engaging together directly on the subject—a situation I am hopeful this

Toward a Unified Field: Lore and the Complications of Global Context

171

book will begin the process of dismantling. Moreover, editors of scholarly collections like myself, and others, need to be more intentional in seeking contributors.4 Graeme Harper—through his international conference Great Writing, and in his own work as well as personal conversations—also reminds us over and over that creative writing theory and pedagogy varies in focus according to the national contexts from which it emerged. Understanding these contexts is critical in creative writing scholarship. In doing so, I encourage readers to try to understand these contexts by reading the work of scholars describing them histories in TEXT, New Writing, and other important sites (the works of Paul Dawson and Harper himself are good places to start, and so is Janelle Adsit’s bibliography (Adsit 2019) [https://www.criticalcreativewriting.org/ creative-writing-studies.html]). However, instead of dismissing lore as an American problem (Webb has admitted it’s not; countless headlines decrying even the existence of creative writing in the UK university in British newspapers indicate the same), it’s more important to come together in these explorations, seeking to uncover the challenges we have in common and address them. Certainly, when I made a study of the teaching of creative writing in the UK for ten years, described (Vanderslice 2010) extensively in Rethinking Creative Writing, I explained the conditions under which creative writing gained a foothold and grew there, as well as how this trajectory meant that creative writing in the UK was in some respects further along than the US.5 My research into the system in Australia tells me a similar story.6 And yet in both cases, I also see ways that the systems are not perfect, especially when it comes to the perpetuation of lore. So back to North and our original posing of the problem of lore, which was grounded in a very specific definition set out by a landmark book in composition studies in the United States. Composition studies,7 writing studies, and their complicated relationships to creative writing studies actually form the landscape that creative writing studies emerged from in the United States. In fact, lacking the centralized governmental structures that influence higher education in other Anglosphere countries, composition studies in the US is our Dearing Report, our Dawkins Reforms.

4

Here I will admit that I invited Jen Webb’s contribution because I knew her work and worked with her in the Creative Writing Studies Organization. I should have sought other international scholars, especially from Australia, to weigh in. 5 Largely based on the Dearing Report and analyses of its effect on higher education in the UK, as well as several study tours of institutions in the UK. 6 Based on my study of Dawson and others and my limited knowledge of the effects of the Dawkins Reforms. I have long believed a study tour of Australia is in order to balance my knowledge of the UK system. Unfortunately, research funding in the US has dried up almost completely since my 2006 study tour. Let this footnote be a notice that I would welcome any opportunities to serve in a visiting or speaking capacity at an Australian university, in order to study, in person, their vibrant creative writing landscape. 7 In the US higher education system, which is four years instead of three, students must take a year of “general education” courses to prepare for their majors. This includes a universal “composition” course to prepare students for academic writing. Over the several decades, an entire discipline has grown from theorizing the best ways to teach this subject: composition studies.

172

S. Vanderslice

Some scholars, such as Dawson, Andrew Cowan, and Claire Woods8 recognize this and even suggest other scholars keep it in mind when interpreting American scholarship in the field. Others do not, continually infantalizing problems surfaced in the US as “American” and invoking a lack of growth in the field at all that is deeply inaccurate. TEXT, an Australian creative writing journal I have long admired, as I enumerate below, is even guilty of this practice by highlighting a quote from, of all things, a medieval-studies scholar in the US denigrating the state of creative writing studies there, instead of looking to the people actually working in the field, people whose work TEXT had actually referenced, reviewed, and published, like myself, Tim Mayers, Dianne Donnelly, and many others. To wit, this erroneous comment published on their web page in 2012: Kurt compared TEXT with Creative Writing discipline publications in North America: There is never any research published … that I know of in the U.S., on creative writing pedagogy. In fact, there is virtually no scholarly discussion of how creative writing might be taught better; there is little critical thinking along the lines suggested by [the] fruitful research which often appears in the pages of TEXT. North America has no “creative writing studies” …9 (Heinzelmen qtd. in Brophy and Krauth 2012)

One wonders why this quote was selected when the editors must have known otherwise and when the quote so obviously misrepresents the field. In fact, I wish they had asked me to speak to the value of TEXT, instead, a journal I have been reading and recommending to creative writing scholars for years, as have many of my colleagues, instead of a literature scholar in the US who had somehow, as late as 2012, leapfrog several important books and special issues of the flagship US journal College English on creative writing (edited by myself, Kelly Ritter and others) in his characterization. Why, indeed. The problem, I think, is that TEXT itself was guilty of something US scholars have often been accused: looking at only a slice of the story rather than considering the wider picture, a practice it’s easy to fall victim to, as I’ll describe later. To offer a capsule history of creative writing in the US that will bring us to 2012 and beyond, creative writing in US higher education started with the first course offerings in 1896 at the University of Iowa and developed slowly over the next forty years into the Iowa Writer’s Workshop formed in 1936 and initially led by Wilbur Schram. It was not until poet and entrepreneurial academic Paul Engle took over the workshop in 1941 however, that the program kicked into high gear. After World War II, with 8

From Woods, “Literacies in transition: Students and the journey in the discipline of writing” in “While Australian academics have positioned writing in higher education primarily by asserting the value and place of creative writing and, to a lesser extent, business and professional writing, the US context has been driven, on the one hand, through composition, rhetoric and research in written communication (with ongoing debate about how these fit alongside English, literature, or cultural studies) and, on the other, through creative writing courses taught often within fine arts programs [3]. It behooves us to be aware of such debates …”. 9 The author goes on to say that there were no creative writing studies journals at this point in the US. This is true. Special issues of major journals aside, the first issue of Journal of Creative Writing Studies in the US appeared in 2016.

Toward a Unified Field: Lore and the Complications of Global Context

173

the help of the GI Bill, the program grew from twelve to over one hundred students, many of whom became major figures in American and some of whom then scattered like seeds to develop programs elsewhere, all following the Iowa Workshop Model. By 1967, when the Association of Writing Programs formed, there were thirteen programs. By the 1990s there were hundreds. Truthfully, conversations about creative writing theory and practice in higher education, did lie fallow, for far too long, for many decades, in fact, as US writers in academia relished the sense of community they had found there more than anything else10 and considered that community to be enough. It wasn’t until Joseph Moxley published Creative Writing in America in 1989 and then Wendy Bishop, Hans Ostrum, and Katherine Haake began to investigate the subject in a deep and scholarly way that creative writing research began to appear and then gain momentum. In much the same way Iowa sowed the soil to grow creative writing programs across the US, these early scholars, many of whom who were writers who had also crossed over from composition studies, piqued the scholarly interests (passions, in my opinion) of a long list of scholars who began to interrogate the theory and pedagogy they had been instructed to take as gospel. These scholars included Patrick Bizzaro, Mary Ann Cain, Dianne Donnelly, Timothy Mayers, Kelly Ritter, and myself, all of whom had produced important work, books and articles, by 2012. Just five years later, creative writing studies had expanded to include a third wave, many of whom can be found in the significantly expanded second volume of Can Creative Writing Really Be Taught, an expansion that was the only way to do justice to a momentum that had begun in the ‘90s, exploded in the aughts, and had expanded exponentially into dozens of scholars in the teens who led the charge to found the Creative Writing Studies Organization and Conference and the Journal of Creative Writing Studies. Like the editors of TEXT, I have been guilty of looking at only part of the picture and want to use this chapter, in a book I hope will contribute mightily to establishing a foundation for an international portrait of the field, to make a call for looking at the whole, for training our eyes on global creative writing and its contexts rather than using one piece of the puzzle to cast doubt on the others or make our own landscape look better. Examining the broader picture involves setting aside our own assumptions, especially those that support our own theories. To borrow from a business perspective: “The moment you know something with certainty, you become a liability,” as career coach Tarah Keech writes in an online career journal, “certainty, of anything, is built on assumptions—and assumptions are risks” (2019) (Fairygodboss n.d.). To provide a personal example and bring the discussion back around to lore: Kelly Ritter and I were off to the races once we found a kernel of theory, a definition that highlighted issues we were having with our own discipline, without looking at the larger context and consequences of that research. It fit our worldview at the time (2001) that creative writing theory and pedagogy were moving too slowly, 10

Many scholars with many points of view have described the history of creative writing in America. For a more detailed version of my perspective, see Rethinking Creative Writing (Suffolk: Frontinus Publishing, 2011).

174

S. Vanderslice

a worldview that was entirely valid but supported by a definition that had been somewhat cherry-picked to suit our purposes. I re-introduce North, his definition of lore and fields of knowledge in composition and the work of subsequent scholars examining it, to point out that studying lore and its context just in the US alone reveals the subject to be deeply complex, much more complex than Kelly Ritter and I first thought. It is precisely because of this complexity that lore demands further study—in the US and abroad, in Anglosphere countries and others, as creative writing continues to spread to higher education internationally. It is not simply an American problem, although it can be a problem here, to be sure, but one that challenges all of us. Misused, lore remains one of the most significant threats to the learning and practice of the literary arts in higher education simply because it traffics in what really amounts to the “fake news” of the field. Continued attention to the use and misuse of this form of knowledge can help us ensure that practitioner knowledge is honored when it works and promptly discarded when it doesn’t. Ultimately, to dismiss lore as an American problem contributes to a kind of othering that does a great disservice to our field, mimicking the kind of name-calling and polarization that is happening politically around the world. It does not have to be this way. It is past time for the countries in places in which creative writing is studied and where its study is on the rise—too many countries to list now—to come together and honor the paths each has taken to this place, to present creative writing studies as a unified field. Describing composition studies in 2011 (Smit 2011), scholar Gregory Smit wrote, “After 45 years [as an academic field] composition studies is still arguing fundamental principles” (25). He argues, “without a common vision of what it means to do research in composition studies or a common vision of writing is, how writing is learned, and how writing ought to be taught, the term ‘professional’ [emphasis mine] in composition studies becomes almost meaningless” (228). Creative writing studies does not have to reinvent the wheel. We can learn from composition studies’ struggles and bring, as North himself hoped would happen in his own field, “practitioners, scholars, and researchers,” and I must add, creative writers outside academia, together, “to become familiar with and to value each other’s methods and knowledge” in order to achieve a unity that will enhance our position, globally. Moving forward from this unified position behooves us not least of all because, in whatever forms they take in the coming years, reifying lore or finally leaving it behind, the literary arts will proceed with or without us. What this unity will ultimately look like, I cannot prescribe or predict, but it begins by approaching our colleagues across borders not with assumptions but with questions, with curiosity, and with respect.11 It begins with this book, but it will only continue with many more like it.

11

I have also argued for a more collaborative spirit in creative writing than is evident in other disciplines and what that might look like in moving forward here: Vanderslice, Stephanie, “‘There’s An Essay In That’: Wendy Bishop and the Origins of Our Field.” Journal of Creative Writing Studies, no. 1 (2016): Article 2. Available at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/jcws/vol1/iss1/2.

Toward a Unified Field: Lore and the Complications of Global Context

175

References Adsit, J. 2019. Critical creative writing. London: Bloomsbury Brophy, K., and N. Krauth. 2012. Without TEXT, the practice, research, and pedagogy of creative writing at the university level would be in Dire Straits. Journal of Writing and Writing Courses 16: 2. http://www.textjournal.com.au/oct12/editorial.htm Fairygodboss. n.d. The four career lessons most women learn too late, According to a Career Coach. https://fairygodboss.com/articles/the-4-career-lessons-most-women-learn-toolate-according-to-an-executive-coach. Accessed 17 Sep 2019 Fulkerson, R. 2011. The epistemic paradoxes of lore. In The changing of knowledge in composition: Contemporary perspectives, ed. R.C. Gebhardt and L. Massey, 47–62. Logan: Utah State University Press Gibson, R. 2018. Unloreful. Journal of Writing and Writing Courses 23: 1. http://www.textjournal. com.au/april18/gibson_rev.htm Moxley, J. 1989. Creative writing in America: Theory and pedagogy. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English North, S. 1987. The making of knowledge in composition: Portrait of an emerging field. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Boynton/Cook North, S. 2011a. Afterword. In The changing of knowledge in composition: Contemporary perspectives, ed. R.C. Gebhardt and L. Massey, 323–325. Logan: Utah State University Press North, S. 2011b. Notes on the origins of the making of knowledge in composition. In The changing of knowledge in composition: Contemporary perspectives, ed. R.C. Gebhardt and L. Massey, 11–16. Logan: Utah State University Press Oxford English Dictionary. https://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=febc7b8d073c-48c0-bf50-7e11b81e8511%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc 2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=uca.50959346&db=cat04436a Smit, D. 2011. Stephen North’s the making of knowledge in composition and the future of composition studies’ without paradigm hope. In The changing of knowledge in composition: Contemporary perspectives, ed. R.C. Gebhardt and L. Massey, 213–235. Logan: Utah State University Press Vanderslice, S. 2010. Rethinking creative writing. London: Frontinus Vanderslice, S., and R. Manery. 2017. Can creative writing really be taught: Resisting lore in creative writing pedagogy, 10th Anniversary edition. London: Bloomsbury Webb, J. 2017. The traces of certain collisions: Contemporary writing and old tropes. Can creative writing really be taught: Resisting lore in creative writing pedagogy, 10th Anniversary edition. London: Bloomsbury White, E. 2011. The significance of North’s the making of knowledge in composition for graduate education. In The changing of knowledge in composition: Contemporary perspectives, ed. R.C. Gebhardt and L. Massey, 17–27. Logan: Utah State University Press