The Cotemporary Era of Zhejiang Literature refers to the period from the early after-liberation years, when the literature was comparatively weak, till today, totaling over half a century.
As for novel, there were such works in the early after-liberation years as Chen Xuezhao's Working Is Beautiful, Ji Fang's The People Traveled at Night, Zheng Bingqian's Liu Jindao and His Wife which mainly celebrated the new life and abounded in the spirit of the times. The Cultural Revolution caused a slump in literature. But with the implementation of the reform and opening up policy, Zhejiang literature began to recover. There were many novelettes and short stories, and various literature genres came into existence, like Scar Literature, Reconsideration Literature, Root-seeking Literature and Reform Literature. In 1983, Li Hangyu wrote Relique of Shazhao which made the Wu-Yue culture as its background; in 1985, Zhang Tingzhu released He Died Before Daybreak which made the Self-defense and Counterattack War as its theme. These two short stories won the National Literature Award successively.
In 1994, the female writer Ye Wenling received a U.S. Award for her river novel The Valley without Dreams. And she also wrote the long historical novel Qiu Jin and some other novels.
Another female writer Wang Xufeng won the Mao Dun Literature Award because of her Tea Peasants' Trilogy published by Zhejiang Arts Publishing House. The series consisted of The Southern Woods (1995), The Nightless Marquis (1998) and Build Up a City with Grass (1999).
Contemporarily, there were many important novel collections like Li Hangyu's The Last Fisherman and Birthday Gift, Lin Jinlan's The Scenery of the Creepie Bridge and Li Qingxi's sketchbook collection The Notes of the World, etc.
There were such important novelettes as Wan Zhecheng and Wen Xiaoyu's Soil, Ye Lin and Xu Xiaoyu's A Yard with No Doorplate, Ye Wenling's The Scenery of Changtang Town and A Romantic Dusk, Yu Hua's Alive and Wang Biao's The Deadly Imitation, etc.
There were such important full-length novels as Xu Chi's autobiographic novel A Small Town of River South, Chen Weijun's serial novels The Resentment of Ou River and Xi Shi.
Besides, Zhejiang Arts Publishing House published the Hangzhou-origin Taiwan writer Gao Yang's history novels Hu Xueyan and Xiao Baicai.
	Wang Xufeng, writer of The Tea Peasants' Trilogy

As for poem, the old poets like Ji Fang and Tang Shi continued their poem writing after liberation. Apart from them, there were lots of part-time writers who were mainly workers. In 1958, the whole nation began a large scale Great Leap Folk Poem Movement but presented little good poems except Li Suqing's Little Boat with a Roof. It won high praises for its charming artistic taste. In the 1960s and 1970s, the poem writing mainly served the political movements. Sing Towards the Sun was the representative of the period which was a collection written by several poets.

In the early 1980s, the aged, middle-aged and young poets made concerted efforts to promote the writing of poems. In 1983, Wang Jingzhi released Buy Life from Hades and Ji Fang released the collection named I Admire; in 1984, Mo Luo published the collection Cradle of Dream and Tang Shi released The Beautiful Dreamy Journey; and other middle-aged and young poets co-published their collections like The Little Dense Woods in 1982 by Zhang Deqian, Ji Yigong, Guan Sigeng, Cheng Weidong, Huang Yazhou and Xie Lubo and the female writers' poem collection Our March 3rd in 1983 by Bing Ling, Zuo Yalin, Ma Yingying, Bai Hong and Yi Lin. Besides, poets like Huang Yazhou, Long Bide, Ji Yigong and Wang Biao released many long poems, set poems and short ones. The common characteristics of these poets were: they were brave enough to tell the truth, developed the themes and improved the artistic taste and use of language.

Since the mid-1980s, the poem style has changed greatly. The modern style and realistic style interacted and developed together, thus widening the views and ideations of the poets. Poem genres grew from singularity into great variety. In addition to the realistic genre, there were different genres like the Southern Life genre represented by Ke Ping, Gong Hui and Li Hong; the East Sea School represented by Wang Biao, Li Yue and Chen Yunqi; the Pioneer genre represented by Liang Xiaoming, Li Xuntian, Pan Wei and Liang Jian. These poets released their poems not only in mainland China, but also in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the U.S. The number of published poem collections increased year by year, including many influential ones like Ji Fang's The Love Song with No Pause (1986), The Selected Collection of the East Sea School edited by Chen Qi and Wang Biao (1992), Tang Shi's The Blue Sonnet (1995), Ji Yigong's Facing the Sculpture (1995), Zhang Deqiang's The Sensitive Wing-bell (1998), Long Bide's Eye Contact with the Eagle (1998) and Lu Wenli's Incomparable Beautiful Scenery (1999).

Besides, the Xia Chengtao Ci Poem Collection released in 1981 and the Tianfeng Pavilion Poem Collection released in 1982 were respectively old style Ci and poem collections.

As for prose, there had been many prose about the new life and socialism during the early years after liberation, most of which were published on Zhejiang Daily, such as Cao Xiangqu's The Rising Era (Jan. 1st, 1950). From 1957, the literature witnessed a slump, which lasted till the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee.

In the early 1980s, there had been several hundred reportages among which Li Junxu's Ah, Dragon published in the magazine Contemporary won the national excellent reportage award. In the late 1980s, the historical biography was developed greatly; for example, Heart Broken on Wu Ling published in1987 was co-written by Xue Jiazhu and other writers.

The scribble developed a lot in the new era, not only in quantity, but also in the relevant research. The magazine Zhejiang Study opened a special column for the observations on scribbles.

Since the 1980s, the prose writing has been prevailing. In the 1990s, there were over 10 prose collections published per year. Ye Wenling and Zhao Jianxiong were two most productive writers then. Besides, there had been such influential collections as Xie Lubo's Washing the Green Lichens Alone (1993), Mo Xiaomi's In the Open Arms of the Sofa (1996), Xue Jiazhu's Brushing Images (1997), Zhao Jianxiong's Falderal (1997) and Lu Dunji's The Winds Blow and Clouds Float-After Reading the History of Han, etc.

Besides, Qi Jun and Yu Qiuyu, who take temperary residence in Taiwan and Shanghai respectively, published their own prose collections then.

During the period, Zhejiang made great progress in dramas and films. The achievements in the early years after liberation were as follows:
1. The revision of the traditional plays, such as: Kun Opera Fifteen Guan and Western Garden Tales, Yue Opera Recognize the Mother in the Nunnery, Shao Opera Fighting Thrice against the White Skelton Monster, Wu Opera Invite Pear Flower Thrice and Yong Opera Half Pair of Scissors, etc. The famous Yue Opera play Rouge was adapted from the story of the novel Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio.
2. The newly written plays about the ancient characters and stories, for example, Shao Opera Yu Qian.
3. Modern plays, for example, Yong Opera The Two Brothers. Excellent plays were produced in great numbers after the reform and opening up, such as: Yue Opera Five Daughters Offering Birthday Felicitations, Lu You and Tang Wan and Ou Opera Miss Qiu, etc.
The composition of film plays came later than drama. Gu Xidong wrote the play Miss Silk Flower in early 1960s; Yao Yun's Sonata of the Little Urchin won the special award for the national excellent children's feature movies in 1980s; and in the early 1990s, Huang Yazhou and Wang Tianyun's play Creation of the New World won the 12th Gold Rooster Award for screenplay.
From the year 1980, the composition of teleplay has been active. There were such good plays with great influences as Lu Xun, Hua Luogeng, The Voiceover of a female Journalist and The Saint Flame of China.
	Huang Yazhou, writer of Sun Rises in the East

The children's literature has obtained outstanding achievements during the period.

As for Children's novel, there are such influential representatives as Li Jianshu and Shen Hugen. The Blue Army Passing the Deference Line was the representative of Li Jianshu; The Young Classmate and The Precious were masterpieces of Shen Hugen.

As for fairy tale, Zhao Bingbo is the most famous writer. He was regarded as the representative writer of the contemporary lyric fairy tales for his clear, elegant and beautiful style. Zhao Bingbo's main works included: Swing, Swing¡­, The Blue Whale's Eyes, Wolf Bat and The Death of a Poisonous Spider, etc.

As for the children's poem, Tian Di is a nationally famous writer whose representative work is Spring of the Motherland.

Zhejiang writers constitutes an important force of the national allegory circle. Jin Jiang is the most influential writer of the nation with great achievements. He wrote The Selection Allegories of Jin Jiang. In 2002, Sun Jianjiang's (pen name Yu Yu) collection Gastrologist's Hunting was presented the 5th National Excellent Children's Literature Award by the Chinese Writers' Association. And Sun Jianjiang is also a theorist for the children's literature whose representative work is An Introduction to Chinese Children's Literature in the 20th Century.

Besides, the study and revision to the folk tales also obtained outstanding achievements, such as the stories about Liang Shangbo and Zhu Yingtai and The Tale of the White Snake.

(Writer: Guo Mei, Translator: Zhang Ying)