CAN XUE’S “LOVE IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM” FROM AN EXISTENTIAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Can Xue is one of the most innovative writers in contemporary Chinese literature and the most widely translated female author from China. As a member of the avant - garde generation that emerged after the Cultural Revolution, she is regarded as a representative figure of Chinese literature imbued with existential sensibility in the late twentieth century. The article approaches “Love in the New Millennium” - a novel nominated for the Man Booker International Prize and the first of Can Xue’s works translated into Vietnamese - from an existential perspective, aiming to clarify how the author assimilates and transforms existentialist thought through her depiction of human modes of being. By combining interdisciplinary research and comparative literary studies, the article examines “Love in the New Millennium” through two dimensions: the solitude of the individual in an absurd world and the human engagement toward the realization of being. The findings offer a new interpretive framework for understanding Can Xue’s fiction while contributing to a broader of her reception in Vietnam.