ABSTRACT
Earth Gate is set on the outskirts of Xijing between 1995 and 1996 against the background of China’s rapid urbanization and industrialization. By this time Jia Pingwa’s Xijing is no longer the place of historical and cultural significance that it is in Defunct Capital and White Nights, where culture and tradition are discovered, recollected or even invented on its site. The city in Earth Gate is now an urban monster that expands itself horrendously at a bewildering speed, and the expansion ruthlessly wipes out the nearby villages. Earth Gate tells the story of a village called Benevolence (Renhoucun ) and its struggle against its eventual demolition in opposition to its formidable enemy, the city of Xijing.
