Modernism vs realism: Zhang Xianliang's getting used to death

An intriguing literary crisscrossing appeared in recent decades around the dichotomy of realism versus modernism: while many Western critics and writers have grown increasingly weary of the ‘habitualized’ disruptive techniques of modernism, many young Chinese writers feel that realism has become an embarrassment in their literary creation and are seeking to discover/rediscover the meaning of modernism and to emulate the modes of modernism. In the meantime, there are other Chinese writers in post‐Mao China who are challenging the polarized dichotomy of realism and modernism and are experimenting in the ground between the two. This paper inquires into this literary phenomenon by looking into Getting Used to Death, a recent novel by the internationally acclaimed Chinese writer Zhang Xianliang, placing it in the discourse of the literary relationship between China and the West.