The influence of Chinese and western cultures on Zhang Ailing first came from her parents. Zhang Ailing's father was gentle when he was young, which gave her some enlightenment in classical literature and encouraged her literary hobbies. Zhang Ailing once said in the juvenile exercise Dream of Genius: "I can recite Tang poems at the age of three." I still remember standing unsteadily in front of a cane chair of an old man in the Qing Dynasty, chanting' merchant girls don't know how to hate their country, but they still sing backyard flowers to cross the river' and watching his tears roll down. "However, Zhang Ailing's mother is a bold new woman who dares to study abroad and divorce. Her life interest and artistic taste are more westernized. When my mother came back from overseas for the first time, she planted the seeds of western culture in Zhang Ailing's young mind. According to Zhang Ailing's later article Whispering, her mother's return made her very excited. " I think everything in my family is the pinnacle of beauty. The blue chair cover matches the old rose-red carpet, but it's not very harmonious. However, I like, and I like England, because the word England reminds me of the little red house under the blue sky, while France is slightly rainy cyan, like bathroom tiles, with the fragrance of hair tonic. My mother told me that it often rains in Britain and sunny in France, but I can't correct my initial impression. "She has always liked Lao She's novel Two Horses, not only because her mother liked it at that time, but also because it is a story about Beijingers in London.

Secondly, it comes from her own experience. Influenced by her parents, Zhang Ailing studied English from an early age. When she was studying in a missionary middle school, she published an English article in the school magazine. Although she was admitted to the University of London, she was unable to go because of the war, but she still received a university education in Hong Kong where Chinese and Western cultures were mixed. This experience has a great influence on her creation. Her first novels, The First Furnace of Aquilaria Resinatum and The Second Furnace of Aquilaria Resinatum, are based on her life in Hong Kong. And her nutrition for The Journey to the West, A Dream of Red Mansions and other classical literary masterpieces has never left her hand. It has penetrated into her bone marrow and penetrated between the lines.

The cultural background in Zhang Ailing's works can be summarized as: declining culture and civilization in troubled times.

2. The main content, unique style and modernist "wasteland" consciousness of works such as "Hong Kong Legend" and "Shanghai Series" in Zhang Ailing's legend.

The understanding of the main contents of "Hong Kong Legend" and "Shanghai Series" in Zhang Ailing's legend can be based on The First Pot of Aquilaria Resina, Love in the Whole City and The Story of Golden Lock, supplemented by other works introduced in the textbook. The keynote of its unique style is "desolation". In the textbook, it analyzes how The Story of the Golden Lock deduces the absurdity and desolation of life to the extreme. You can also refer to the introduction of these three works.

The consciousness of "wasteland" with modernism in Zhang Ailing's works is rarely shown in the new literature since the May 4th Movement, which is also the uniqueness of her works. We say that Zhang Ailing's novels are elegies about civilization and human nature. The theme of Zhang Ailing's elegies is not to criticize society, let alone to transform society, but to show the degeneration and uneasiness of human spirit and the fragility and sadness of human nature under the background of colonial and semi-colonial modern cities (Hong Kong and Shanghai). At this point, the female images in her works are the most vivid, which are quite different from those of contemporary new literature writers and even since the May 4th Movement. First of all, we notice that the women in Zhang Ailing's works are different from the "new women of the times" written by writers in the 1920s and 1930s. In fact, she wrote about old women under the appearance of "new women". These women either have old-fashioned exquisite culture, or have received new university education, or even have experience of studying abroad, but they are all facing the dilemma of "what will happen after Nora leaves". They can neither stand on their own feet in the modern urban society nor stay away from the revolutionary movement. They can only regard being a "female wedding master" as their only career and outlet, and their education can only be sold if they are "married". Secondly, we also notice that the female images in her works are different from the conservative women in the works of general new literature writers. Zhang Ailing has no agricultural cultural background, and her literary attainments are formed in the urban background representing industrial and commercial culture. The female images in her works are almost all fallen ladies or ordinary citizens who are trying to climb up. The suffering of these women in life is not the economic poverty without food and clothing, but the mental panic of being homeless and pregnant before marriage. 3. Zhang Ailing's works are both elegant and vulgar, both traditional and modern, as well as extremely distinctive artistic originality and own defects.

Zhang Ailing's works are characterized by appealing to both refined and popular tastes, which are mainly manifested as "the foundation of classical novels" and "the color of street novels".