The Reception of Japanese Detective Fiction in Chinese Legal Literature Magazines of the 1980s：Focusing on Literary Autonomy

This paper examines how Japanese detective fiction was introduced, discussed, and received in Chinese legal literature magazines during the 1980s. Legal literature (Fazhi wenxue), which emerged in the early 1980s amid the reconstruction of China’s legal system after the Cultural Revolution, was initially positioned as a politically and educationally oriented literary genre aimed at promoting legal consciousness and socialist values. Within this framework, Japanese detective fiction was frequently interpreted through an ideological lens, particularly by being associated with critiques of capitalist society.</br>However, from the mid to late 1980s onward, changes in readers’ expectations and the growing autonomy of legal literature itself gradually transformed this interpretive framework. Ideological readings emphasizing capitalism criticism weakened, while increasing attention was paid to the literary qualities of Japanese detective fiction, including its depiction of social reality, narrative techniques, and characterization. As a result, Japanese detective fiction came to be regarded not merely as an ideologically opposed genre but as a valuable point of reference for the renewal and development of legal literature.</br>By analyzing reviews, introductions, and critical essays published in legal literature magazines, this article clarifies the changing discourse surrounding Japanese detective fiction and demonstrates how these shifts were closely connected to the evolving functions and self-understanding of legal literature in 1980s China.