After the end of the Cultural Revolution, several genres emerged, one after another, within Chinese literary circles: Scar literature, reflection literature (which went further than scar literature, by criticizing the fallout of the Cultural revolution and suggesting solutions to them) and reform literature (which focused more on present-day reforms going on in China). In 1982, Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work "One Hundred Years of Solitude". This inspired Chinese writers to re-root their literary creations in the history and culture of the nation, thus giving rise to a new literary trend — 'xungen' ("root-searching") literature.

Xungen literature is known for transcending political criticism to instead deeply reflect on historical culture. In 1985, Han Shaogong published "The 'Roots' of Literature", in which he states that "literature has roots; the roots of literature should be deeply rooted in the soil of traditional national culture. If the roots do not run deeply, the leaves cannot grow luxuriant." Subsequently, Ah Cheng's "Culture Constrains Humanity", Zheng Wanlong's "My Roots", Li Hangyu's "Reasoning Our Roots" and other pieces all laid the theoretical foundation for xungen literature. Representatives of this genre include: Ah Cheng's "Qi Wang (The King of Chess)", "Shu Wang (The King of Trees)" and "Haizi Wang (The King of Children)"; Han Shaogong's "Bababa"; Zheng Yi's "Old Well"; Jia Pingwa's "Shangzhou" series; Wang Anyi's "Little Baozhuang"; and Mo Yan's "Red Sorghum Family". Mo Yan, in particular, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012.

References: [亞洲週刊("Yazhou Zhoukan","Asian Weekly")] (https://www.yzzk.com/article/details/文學/2014-17/1398311989781/魔幻現實主義影響中國文壇); [風傳媒 ("Storm Media Group")(Chinese)] (https://www.storm.mg/article/30084); [百度百科("Baidu Baike")(Chinese)] (https://baike.baidu.com/item/寻根文学/10969142)