Answer

• The Explosion Chronicles wields a different perspective on reality to present a proactively illuminating and perceptive insight into contemporary China. This paper aims to discuss how money is depicted in the Explosion Chronicles. The paper will assess how money is considered essential than other factors in society and evaluate the story’s stance on whether money is good or not or a neutral force. Money is often essential for communities or a country’s growth. This paper will feature different stories in comparison with the Explosion Chronicles. For instance, the paper will compare different presentation styles used by Lao She in The Grand Opening (TGO) and The True Story of Ah Q (TSoAQ) by Lu xun.

  Paraphrase

              The Explosion Chronicles narrates a story of a town called Explosion. The story starts with the Kong family, which includes a father and four sons. Kong Mingliang promises the villagers riches and a thriving future, taking over the Zhu family’s supreme power and being the village chief. After attaining power, Kong Mingliang encourages and directs the villagers to attain riches by unloading goods from passing trains. The wealth accumulates fast in a short period. While the town was experiencing different developments, Zhu Ying, the daughter of the previous village chief starts her business by making money from prostituting in major metropolises and going back to Explosion to start this business through training young girls from the village (Lianke, 2016). The richness and interpersonal association of Zhu attract Kong, and he ends up marrying her to preserve the leadership of the village. On the other hand, Zhu agrees to marry Kong to get closer to leadership. Therefore, the hate and love of these families are united by this union.

              With Zhu’s help, Kong achieves getting Explosion registered as a town, later as a county, a city, and a provisional level megalopolis under the central administration. During this period, Kong is occasionally elevated from village chief to town mayor, county mayor, and city mayor. Kong’s life is a typical demonstration of contemporary Chinese power leaders. Kong’s promotions to higher power made him develop more greed and despondency to the extreme. Compared to The True Story of Ah Q by Lu xun a story about a rural peasant man, Ah-Q, describing the encounters of his everyday life. He has little education and lacks a definite job. What stands about the man is his ability to self deceptively convince himself not to deal with issues requiring his attention (Quach, 2018). He pampers himself with lies so that he does not face the truth of the situation. For example, when he loses a fight, he slaps himself and craft fully convinces himself that since he is doing the slapping, he is the victor. Money is depicted in Yan and Lu Xun in their stories as power.

  Observe

              Beyond the simple exaggerations of rapid urbanization, there are aspects of the fantastical in the Explosion Chronicles. As the author explains in an afterword, his approach is not one of realism but mythorealism. According to Yan, the only approach to convey and represent the story is through mythorealism, given that it is a practical approach. Still, the novel sputters frequently, overwhelmed by its characters and ambitions, not possible to follow through with many of the story’s ideas and lines. For instance, there are stretches where the author barrels ahead very effectively, primarily when he centers on an individual character’s progress. Still, there is a lot of cramming, and some parts are staffed carelessly. Compared to TSoAQ, though written by a Chinese for the Chinese population, the writer makes use of the Latin letter Q rather than a Chinese character (She n. d). The writer further employs trickery stating that he does not remember the actual name of the peasant name and therefore gives him the name Ah (a Chinese prefix for names). This gives the character symbolic anonymity. 

              The author uses a mythorealistic style to evaluate a contemporary allurement with both cyclical and linear time, thereby classifying the theme of financial development within a twisted temporality demonstration. The name Explosion implies the town’s radical economic growth and demonstrates the human heart’s change and division in modern society. The author presents practical figures to the novel and associates these figures with a fictional strategy, making the readers ramble between practical and imaginary, then slowly lose track of what is illusory and what is real. The story presents the readers with a sensation of influence and improves the perception of reality in the story (Lianke, 2016). In this case, the name Explosion is not a single demonstration of a town’s development but comprises various and deeper significance.

               The author evaluates the traumas that face modern China’s economic development, thereby, presenting a less alluring but fascinating perspective on the explosive development of the Explosion’s fictional community. The TGO is deeply humorous, with several scenes that involve poking fun at the ignorance of selected characters. The common thing about all the selected sections is that it is clear that everyone—regardless of their social class, can be fooled. The writer uses humor to achieve this effect. It is interesting to see how the patients accept the instructions without question (She, (n.d), even when it looks like the “doctors” themselves have no idea what they are doing. The language is simple and straightforward. One may imagine that the writer is even “playing with language” at some points. The brazen nature of the criminal activity, added to the addition of the relatives into the fray, makes us wonder how long this criminal act can go on, and how many more will be fooled. The honking of hired old cars is metaphorical, something about empty vessels making the loudest noise.

  Contextualize

              As the title “Explosion chronicles” suggests, the story is based on an ancient Chinese chronicle. In an excellent introduction, the author explains that this chronicle’s predecessors date back to Sima Qian’s 1st century BCE “Records of the Historian,” which is a bitter lamentation on the rule of the Yellow Emperor. Sima Qian had been castrated for offending the emperor, so he had a practical reason to feel resentful. He lists his setbacks alongside the attainments of his era. This chronicle became the model for twenty-four dynastic histories, each commissioned by the Imperial Court to chronicle the preceding dynasty. The novel is based on the mythical village’s development, Explosion from a village to a town, a county later a city, and a megalopolis (Lianke, 2016). This chronicle covers thousands of years, but it scampers over earlier periods, centering squarely on the era after Mao’s death when the Opening Up and Reform movement began.

  Analyze

              Armed with a literary approach named mythorealism, which demonstrates an unseen reality through creative writing, the author paints a metaphoric and outlandish picture of modern China obsessed with money and development that the wayside has left its moral values. Overflowing with absurdity, intelligence and, shrewdness, The Explosion Chronicles considers the extreme stakes of passion and power, the outcomes of greed and corruption, and the polarizing gestures of love and hate between families, and humankind’s resourcefulness through the changes of life.

              In comparison to Blades of Grass, Lao She Use of the Latin letter Q rather than a Chinese character is significant because it holds tenets of the May Fourth Movement, which advocated for Westernization. Symbolic anonymity by using the Chinese prefix for names (Quach, 2018), Ah, is significant because it puts every reader in the scenario to question themselves and their character. Is there anything wrong with their character, like Ah-Q? It helps the reader not point fingers at who needs to change rather focusing on themselves as the people who need change.

   

   

  Argue

              Yan’s exposition of the clan rivalry between the Kong and Zhu families is an apparent reflection of the purges and power struggles among China’s ruling elite, as is the preoccupation with the cyclical nature of progress. Moreover, it laments the loss of ancient Chinese culture’s bedrock as the rush to advancement becomes ever more frenzied (Lianke, 2016). In his author’s note, Yan reminds the readers, “contemporary China is currently hurtling past a series of economic and developmental milestones that took (Lianke, 2016 Europe over two centuries to attain.” That bewildering speed of economic and social reform is demonstrated by the natural world’s confusion over Explosion’s unprecedented alterations.  On the other hand, “The Grand Opening” can be read as a humorous depiction of greed by those in authority and the susceptibility of the masses, regardless of class, to fall to their machinations.

              Through a carefully arranged series of events and happenings, the author makes it almost impossible to have sympathy for the conned masses. The reader is instead astounded by their ignorance. Similarly, it is not easy to blame the narrator and his band of crooked friends—we only laugh at the extent of their greed and the extent to which they are willing to go. The success of these ill-intended actions paints a rather hopeless situation for society, but the inclusion of their friends and relatives into the criminal enterprise signals a potential end to their activities. The idea of a “Hospital of the masses” that would make use of oriental and Western methods of treatment signals the height of Lao’s ideological neutrality. It is neutrality that would prove rather fatal to him. Looked at deeply, “The Grand Opening” laughs at the ultimate ideals of the major world systems that have been looked at for decades—capitalism and socialism. In his world, they are two sides of the same coin.

   

   

  Reflect

              Is there an inherent significance in the narrator’s claim of the Explosion growing from a village to a megalopolis? Mingliang from Kong’s family is presented as the brains behind the village’s success. Is this metaphor for something bigger and different? Why did the author choose to feature the details about Zhu’s business? Is there a way in which the author perceives the relationship between Kong’s and Zhu’s families? And is this perception favorable? Or is the inclusion of the marriage between Kong and Zhu a legal action that now thrives another possible inclusion?  Moreover, in the TSoAQ, could the story represent the confusion present in the post-1911 republican government and how it dealt with foreign domination? Could the story simply be a representation of negative characters Chinese nationals should avoid?