The author questions the validity of the concept “twentieth century Chinese literature,” and suggests that the concept was
proposed by Huang Ziping, Chen Pingyuan and Qian Liqun in the mid 1980s in response to the demand from contemporary academic and literary circles for an emancipation of the mind and the need to eliminate the stranglehold of politics on literature. This concept demonstrated a global perspective and attracted great attention from students of contemporary literature and theoretical literary criticism. However, this literary concept has obvious
limitations, mainly because it has not shaken off the yoke of a particular culture on literature, and has evolved into a non literary
proposition, expressed in modernity, commonality and literary style. The author proposes a literary approach in which “literature that crosses cultural and political boundaries is substituted for literature that is propelled forward by politics and culture. Such literature would fulfil the “literary requirement” of the “ontological negation” of cultural and political realities.