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Heilan was established for a simple reason: over the past twenty years, there has not emerged a single medium devoted to the artistic and spiritual ideals of Chinese literature, so we created one according to our aspirations I founded the organisation (the name of which means Black & Blue in Chinese) as an avant-garde writers’ group in 1992 The inaugural print magazine was published in 1995, but was closed down by the state before a second issue could be released It re-launched as a digital publication at the beginning of this century, and since then we have published 127 issues The purpose of the magazine is to preserve and promote young writers stymied by the drastic changes to China’s literary landscape These changes had started even before 1990, when I first started writing In the period between 1978 and 1990, my society’s yearning for literature, art, free thinking, and freedom found expression as Chinese printing presses published almost the entire Western canon It was a time when the entire society took pride in the accumulation of knowledge, accompanied by a proliferation of literature magazines This cultural moment peaked in 1990 with the rise of a Chinese avant-garde literature that placed art at its centre: writers such as Yu Hua, Su Tong, Ge Fei, Ma Yuan, Sun Ganlu and Lv Xin This was the lucky generation The demand for literature meant that experimental writers like Sun Ganlu and Ma Yuan were free from the pressure of finding publishers for their works, even enjoying sponsorship from official institutes Su Tong and Sun Ganlu were given the title of ‘professional writer’ by the China Writers’ Association (meaning that they were paid a lifetime salary) Such treatment is now unimaginable   What are the reasons for the sudden decline of experimental Chinese literature around 1990? Deng Xiaoping’s economic and political reform and China’s subsequent rapid economic development might be identified among the causes Government-funded platforms for the publication of literature suffered – although a few still survive today, they can only maintain their rosters and are unable to assist new writers Secondly, the market’s increasing