"The Country Folk" and Shen Congwen’ s Self-acceptance

As key components of acceptance in modern China, individual, self and related discourses involve complicated relationship between individuals and society, state, nation and other communities. As key words in life dictionary of Shen Congwen, the country folk embraces a meaning for Shen Congwen distinct from that for other writers such as Xiao Gang, Li Guangtian, etc. (who have claimed to be rustics), because this form of address—the country folk—is a self-orientation and self-acceptance for a writer of Miao extraction who comes from remoter western part of Hunan rather than a self-depreciation or self-compliment, thus it is of essential significance for Shen Congwen. Such a paradoxical concept of complex connotations has resulted in cross-boundary writing of writers as well as their inner division.