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Title:: Prostitute Images in Novels of the New Century and China’s Modernity

Abstract:: Prostitute images in novels of the new century are special metaphorical vehicles and narrative codes offering us insights into the social reality of China in the new century and an approach to the issue of China’s modernity. These prostitutes mainly fall into four categories. Some are forced to engage in prostitution for utter misery, revealing the inequality of urban-rural dual structure and the cruelty of modernity. Some choose to be prostitutes on their initiative, through whose experiences the authors criticize the typical ill mentality in the age of consumerism. Some play an active role in the anti-Japanese war, in line with the motif of prostitutes saving the nation, indicating the authors’ return to traditional values. Some are excluded from the rural society for their past as a prostitute thus failing to return to normal life. The first three types show the authors’ reflections on and criticisms of modernity, while the last one manifests their calling for modernity and rage against the outdated traditional values. These prostitute images, endowed with different values in modernity, reveal the particularity and complexity of China’s modernity.