Commercial Narratives in Ding Di's Novels of the 1940s

Abstract

In the 1940s novels of Ding Di, a popular writer of Shanghai civic literature in the 20th century, commercial organizations, financial speculation and the survival predicament of ordinary citizens are taken as the core content, which meticulously presents the institutional structure and operational logic of Shanghai's commercial society during the war. The commercial narratives in his novels not only depict the capital organization, hierarchical positions and profit distribution mechanisms of financial and commercial institutions such as old-style stores, silver shops and companies, but also reveal the reality of power domination, information manipulation and the infringement of workers' rights and interests under the superficial rules of the modern commercial system. Meanwhile, they present the speculative economy driven by the combination of war, idle capital and rising prices, explaining how speculative activities involving gold, foreign exchange, public bonds, futures and daily necessities exacerbated inflation, the polarization between the rich and the poor and social imbalance. Moreover, from the perspectives of ordinary citizens' blind entry into the market, information asymmetry and family livelihood pressure, they show the tragic situation of the lower and middle classes being swallowed up by the capitalist order. Ding Di's commercial narratives are not simply to expose the shady deals in the business world, but to integrate institutional criticism, class observation and livelihood concern in the wartime urban experience, and implicitly convey national salvation consciousness and expectations for the prospects of a new society. Therefore, they have important value for supplementing the research on Shanghai literature in the 1940s and understanding modern urban economic culture.