China and the West

Wu, Gefei. Sartre's encounter with China : discovery and reconstruction of the human paradigm in new-era Chinese literature [ID D24331].
The influence of existentialism is overwhelmingly that of Jean-Paul Sartre in the New Era Chinese literature because Sartrean existentialism in China has long been considered a mix of all the schools of existentialism that have ever been produced in the past several decades, while at the same time he developed an existantialist notion of his own. Sartre is a great philosopher and literary master, as well a famous social activist : he not only produced a number of novels, dramas, and critical literary works advocating his existentialist thought and theory, but also actively participated in various social and political struggles for national freedom and independence. He is a committed writer in real sense. All of the attributes mentioned above made Sartre's theoretical and social reputation exceed any other existentialists introduced to China.
As a new kind of humanism, Sartre's existential philosophy as well as his literary works greatly contributed to the discovery and deepening of the human paradigm in New Era Chinese literature.
The essential concept of Sartrean existentialism is 'freedom' based on the idea of pure antitheism. It advocates the individual's escape from the dungeon of traditional values and realization of the self's essence by making free choices. Such an idea easily produces a resonance among young people, especially young intellectuals. Second, Sartre's description of isolation, absurdity, and self-consciousness is in accordance with those young writers' own experiences of reality and life. Because there is no God in the world and the world is absurd, the self is the only thing that can be trusted and relied upon.
The Sartrean influence on New Era Chinese literature is mainly an ideological one. It is a miracle that Sartrean ideology coexisted with Chinese Marxism. The reason is that Chinese writers and critics succeeded in reconciling the two different ideologies and unified them in literature. Sartrean existentialism is generally considered not to have been in contradiction with the Marxism that dominated Chinese literary writing for more than half a century because Marxism considers the human being as a summation of all his social relationships, whereas Sartre holds that human existence consists of a series of actions that cannot do without the others. Sartre also believes human existence is one that exists in a set of social relationships. As a matter of fact, existentialist philosophy is literally that of interpersonal relationships to a large extend. Moreover, one cannot equate the influence of Sartrean existentialist philosophy on literature with that of Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Kafka, and Camus. Their philosophies in China are generally considered pessimistic because they advocated isolation, desperation, and death. In contrast, Sartre was considered quite the opposite because he believed his existentialist philosophy "is not in the least that of plunging men into despair... it is not a kind of description of human pessimism, because it has entrusted human being's destiny into one's own hands, therefore no theory was more optimistic than it".
Sartrean existentialist philosophy and literature encouraged the discovery, deepening, and reconstruction of human paradigms. These gave birth to a new kind of humanism in New Era Chinese literature, mainly represented by modern intellectuals' suspicion and negation of existing moral principles, the pursuit and transcendence of existential essence, situations, and values. The cult of nothingness was at its core in order to establish, in a world of nothingness that breaks everything, a real and meaningful self, an independent and individual value orientation of high spirituality, which constantly transcends the self, as well as a moral goal helping to realize one's particular expectations.