Zhu Dake

Review of the 21st Century Chinese Culture, issued under Zhu Dake and Zhang Hong’s (张闳, culture critic and essayist) general editorship and published by Guangxi Normal University Press from 2003 to 2008, is an annual presentation of the cultural achievement of Mainland China. There are 7 volumes up to now. It includes the essence of documents on cultural criticism of the year, popular key words and their explanations, lists of cultural events of the year and so on. To highlight the spirit of humanist culture, the book was edited from with a unique stand and the spirit of criticism as the coordinate system of "culture map": "cultural events" as its meridians to show the important events of different cultural domains, "key words" as its parallels to penetratingly explain the key words in the public cultural space, plus "critical literary selections" to note the annual high mental standard of culture criticism.

The majority of the theses of cultural criticism that the editors selected, are fruits of folk language. They demonstrate the general popular state of narration through text and maintained the original creation of the language and different critics’ unique styles.

Starting in 1994, Zhu spent 8 years in Australia,. During his stay in Australia, he established a Chinese website called Australia News (澳大利亚新闻网 ), which was renamed Pioneer of Culture (文化先锋 ). In 2002, upon his arrival, Zhu announced that he and literature had divorced, he thought that he could't get rid of the solitariness and desperation by literature. After that, Zhu turned into a scholar, a critic. He intervened in the field of cultural criticism, using a completely new style of writing. With the publication of a series of essays, including: Escapee's Dossiers, The Festival of Liumang, Review of the 21st Century Chinese Culture, Zhu caused a storm in the intellectuals. In September 2006, along with Li Ao, Yu Qiuyu, Wang Xiaohui (王小慧 ) and Cheng Bao (程抱一 ), Zhu, as a representative of Chinese culture, was elected in the list of Top 50 Chinese who will affect the future of world. (As selected by the magazine Phoenix Life).

The Burning Papañca is Zhu Dake's first book. In 1991, when published, it attracted attention both among scholars and the public. Xie Mian (谢冕 ) claimed that it is a book full of wisdom, and it showed Zhu's talent as a critic. In this book, Zhu explained some professional problems involving contemporary poetry, cultural history, religion and myth, movie category. Articles included: An Anxious Generation and Urban Dreams, Inflamed papanca, Sublimation and Vulgarization of Literature, A Dialogue Between Scientism and Religionism, The Process of Cinema, etc. Zhu's unique and radical analysis of cultural phenomena and the suffering in contemporary life aroused broad controversy in the cultural circles. Moreover, owing to this book, the Chinese Writers Association in Australia awarded him a prize as Outstanding Chinese Writer. His statements were released abroad as a miniature of the ideologies of contemporary Chinese young people. As a representative of the young generation in the end of last century, Zhu thought extensively and deeply about the possibility of the existence of culture, inspiring the young readers’ thoughts on some fundamental issues concerning culture and education.

Rising to prominence in the mid-1980s, he was an important spokesman of the avant-garde culture. As a professor at Tongji University, working in its graduate school of cultural criticism, he is now engaged in the study and criticism of Chinese culture. He is considered adept in expressing his rational knowledge and determination toward the maintenance and development of the current culture with his advanced and sharp thoughts as well as his unique style of language. He was listed in "50 Top Chinese Influencing the World’s Future" by the weekly magazine Phoenix Life.

He worked as a locksmith for three years after leaving middle school and technical school. In 1979, though his dream was to study at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, he was admitted to East China Normal University. He spent most of his time reading in the public library outside the school. Graduating in 1983, he was assigned to teach College Chinese at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. In 1985, he attracted interest for the first time in the field literary theory with The Worried Generation and Their City Dream (焦灼的一代和城市梦 ). In 1986, he wrote an article entitled "The Drawback of Xie Jin's Model" (谢晋电影模式的缺陷 ) which was published in Wen Wei Po (文汇报 ) and which created quite a stir at home and abroad because he criticized the ways of filmmaking at that time. In the early 1990s, besides writing, he also broadcast music programs, organized painting exhibitions and worked on behavior art.

Zhu Dake was born to an intellectual family in Shanghai. He lived in the Taiyuan Housing Estate which had been the centre of the French Concession till 1977, spending his lonely childhood and early youth reading books and playing the piano, an instrument he began at age seven. By the time he was sixteen years old, he had read and studied War and Peace, Dream of the Red Chamber, some works of Karl Marx and so on.