Saints, Patriarchs and New Squires:Study on Images of Countryside Cadres in Modern Chinese Literature

The novels of the 1950s to the 21st century have reflected the complicated changes of revolutions and constructions in countryside.Images of countryside cadres have shifted from the saints who have died for great causes to the patriarchs who have governed countryside,and then to the new squires who have created wealth,and finally to the countryside bullies,countryside officials assigned and student countryside officials.A genealogy of those images in modern China,playing the role of cadres as well as villagers,is a unique contribution of the modern Chinese literature and has become an ideographic structure of China’s transitions of society.This structure not only turns out to be a knowledge structure and a cognitive device,providing evidences for China’s revolutions and transitions of society and history,but also echoes internally with those revolutions and transitions,manifesting the twisted road of China’s revolutions.