The Opium Description in Ai Wu’s Journey to the South and The Sequel to Journey to the South

Department of Literature, Nankai University, 300071, Tianjin, China

^* Corresponding author: 2110583@mail.nankai.edu.cn

Abstract

The writing about “opium” in Ai Wu’s Journey to the South and The Sequel to Journey to the South is a common theme, as these works are based on Ai Wu’s two trips to the south. This article aims to analyze the various depictions of opium in Ai Wu’s novels, and to explore his writing style and emotional changes in different historical periods. According to his first southbound trip to Yunnan and Burma, Ai Wu’s writing of “opium” in Journey to the South reflects the serious opium problem in the southwestern border area in the 1920s and 1930s, and also enthusiastically depicts the wildness and freedom of the laboring people who relied on opium to survive. However, in The Sequel to Journey to the South, the writing of opium is incorporated into political discourse and becomes a simple symbol of peasant exploitation by landlords, losing the depth and tension seen in Journey to the South. The Bright Red Poppies, revisits the style of Journey to the South. Through the analysis of the writing of “opium”, this article provides valuable insight into the borderland world and the main theme of the journey in Ai Wu’s works.