"Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature" by Li-hua Ying - Part 19 pdf

poets Zhai Yongming and Bai Hua. Echoing American poet Wallace Stevens, Ouyang asserts that the highest form of reality can be achieved only through the intervention of creative agency and that poetry, be- cause of its total dependence on the perception of the individual mind, contains more truth than any other genre. OUYANG SHAN, PEN NAME OF YANG FENGQI (1908–2000). Novelist. Ouyang Shan is often compared with Lao She, for they began their literary careers at about the same time, with Ouyang writing about urban life in the southern city of Guangzhou and Lao She, the northern city of Beijing. This is, however, where the similarities end. Ouyang Shan, because of his membership in the Left-wing Association of Chinese Writers, had strong Marxist leanings and his writings clearly reflect his political orientation. Most of the fictional works he published in the 1920s and early 1930s were romantic tales with a revolutionary theme. Ouyang’s first novel, Meigui can le (The Roses Have Faded), a senti- mental tale influenced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, tells of the tragic love between a university student and a young woman, interspersed with indignant outcries against impe- rialism. Ai zhi benliu (The Current of Love) shows greater artistic merit in depicting a young man’s entanglement with two women, one poor and the other rich. This tragic story exposes the cruelty of high society and shows sympathy for the lower class, an ideological preoccupation that continues into his later works, such as Gao Ganda (Gao Ganda) and Yidai fengliu (A Whole Generation of Heroes). Gao Ganda, which records the agricultural cooperative movement in the Communist- controlled northwest, was his first novel written in response to the di- rectives issued by Mao Zedong at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art in 1942. The voluminous Yidai fengliu, consisting of five parts, is his most ambitious project. It portrays the complicated relations among three families during the period from 1919 to 1949. San jia xiang (The Three-Family Lane), the first volume of the series, is generally con- sidered the best of Ouyang’s work for its panoramic view of Chinese society at the beginning of the 20th century and its successful portrayal of distinctive characters. Ouyang considered his writings after the mid-1930s, when he joined the Left-wing Association of Chinese Writers, “new realism,” and those published after 1942, when he attended the Forum on Literature and Art, 152 • OUYANG SHAN, PEN NAME OF YANG FENGQI “revolutionary realism.” Both advocate a seemingly self-contradictory principle: “Characters must not be separated from reality and they must be made to stand higher than they really are.” This approach, taken by many other Communist writers, dominates much of Ouyang’s work. See also SOCIALIST REALISM. OUYANG YUQIAN (1889–1962). Play and screenplay writer. One of the founders of modern Chinese theater and cinema, Ouyang Yuqian often acted in the plays he wrote and directed and his impact on Chinese performing arts is profound. Ouyang spent his teenage years studying in Japan, where he joined a theater club. In 1906, he began training to be a Peking opera actor at the age of 17 and launched his professional acting career nine years later. His success at playing the female role earned him eminence comparable to that of Mei Lanfang, the legend- ary Peking opera actor who also impersonated women onstage. Ouyang expanded the Peking opera repertoire with several of his own pieces, including Pan Jinlian (Pan Jinlian: A Seductress), Daiyu zang hua (Flower Burial), and Yuanyang jian (A Pair of Swords), as well as of- fering performance techniques and stage installations shaped according to his own aesthetics. From the opera stage, Ouyang moved on to transform the Chinese theater, introducing huaju (spoken drama), a new form influenced by the Western genre of play. He wrote and directed historical plays such as Mulan cong jun (A Woman Warrior) and Tao hua shan (The Peach-Blossom Fan). Having established his reputation in the theater, Ouyang entered the film industry, again writing, directing, and some- times acting in his own films. Tianya genü (A Female Street Singer), Qingming shijie (At the Qingming Festival), Xin taohua shan (A New Version of the Peach-Blossom Fan), and Yehuo chunfeng (Blustery Wind and Wildfire in Spring) are among his most memorable films. In keeping with the spirit of the times, these films promote progressive agendas such as the emancipation of women and national salvation. After 1949, Ouyang held several positions in the Chinese theater and academia, including president of the Chinese Academy of Theater and chairman of the Chinese Dance Association. See also LEFT-WING ASSOCIATION OF CHINESE WRITERS; SINO-JAPANESE WAR; SPOKEN DRAMA. OUYANG ZI, A. K. A OUYANG TZE, PEN NAME OF HONG ZHI- HUI (1939– ). Fiction writer and literary critic. Born in Japan, Ouyang OUYANG ZI, A.K.A. OUYANG TZE, P EN NAME OF HONG ZHIHUI • 153 Zi went to National Taiwan University. Along with fellow students Bai Xianyong, Wang Wenxing, and Chen Ruoxi, she edited a literary magazine called Xiandai wenxue (Modern Literature), which was the main venue for Taiwan’s modernist writings. Most of Ouyang’s creative endeavors are short stories of an experimental nature that make liberal use of modernist techniques such as stream of consciousness, multiple perspectives, and symbolism. Her best critical writing is a study of Bai Xianyong’s Taipei ren (Taipei Characters). See also MODERNISTS; WOMEN. – P – PAN JUN (1957– ). Fiction writer. Born in a small town in Anhui Prov- ince, Pan Jun had a difficult and lonely childhood. His artist father, labeled a rightist one year after Pan was born, was sent to live in the countryside separated from his family for the next 18 years. Pan be- came known as an avant-garde writer in the late 1980s when his ex- perimental fiction was first published, including “Nanfang de qingxu” (The Mood in the South), “Xianjin” (Trap), and “Sanyue yiri” (March the First), all about humanity’s fear and anxiety about surviving in the world. Other notable works written during this period include Baise shalong (A White Salon), “Liudong de shatan” (Moving Beach), and most important, Feng (Wind), which culminates his innovative effort with narrative techniques. Feng is written in three different narratives, representing respectively the historical perspective, the imagined world, and reality. Interlocked, they deconstruct one another, destroying the illusion that each has painstakingly created. At the height of his success, Pan put his writing career on hold to join the business rush in the south, and in 1996, when he was financially se- cure, Pan resumed writing. In the second phase of his creative endeavor, Pan has produced an impressive range of works, from experimental plays to historical novels. The most significant is an autobiographi- cal novel entitled Dubai yu shoushi (Soliloquy and Hand Gestures), in which the author and the narrator collapse to create a confessional narra- tive. In this tale about a writer who returns to his hometown after a long absence and reminisces about the past 30 years of his life, Pan explores self-imposed exile and historical imperative, themes that have preoccu- pied much of his work. The novel also manifests the author’s fascination 154 • PAN JUN with formalistic features through the integration of verbal narration with visual images of his own art, a talent developed during the years Pan spent in the countryside after high school. Other such innovative stories include novellas Lan bao (Blue Castle), Chong tong (Two Pupils in the Eye), Qiusheng fu (Ode to Autumn), and Taohua liushui (Peach Blos- soms and Flowing Water). Pan’s most recent book, Sixing baogao (A Report on the Death Pen- alty), as its title indicates, examines tradition, law, and practice with re- gard to the death penalty. Pan cites many international cases, including the O. J. Simpson trial in the United States, to provide a comparative framework for the Chinese cases he focuses on. Inspired by an incident in which an innocent man was beaten to death while in police custody, the book represents the author’s concern over the lack of justice and compassion in China’s legal system. PING LU (1953– ). Fiction writer. Born in Gaoxiong, Taiwan, Ping Lu studied psychology at National Taiwan University and statistics at the University of Iowa. While working as a statistician for the United States Postal Service, Ping published stories in Taiwanese newspapers. One short story, “Yumi tian zhi si” (Death in a Cornfield), won first prize in a fiction competition sponsored by the United Daily News. Ping has worked as editor and professor of journalism and creative writing in Taiwan, and since 2002 she has been living in Hong Kong. Of her prose fiction, the 1995 novel Xing dao tianya (Marriage Made in Revo- lution), about Sun Yat-sen and Song Qingling, and her 2002 novel about the pop singer Deng Lijun, are the best known. – Q – QIAN ZHONGSHU (1910–1998). Born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, Qian studied literature at Qinghua University. In 1935, he went to England with his bride, Yang Jiang, and two years later earned a baccalaureus litterarum (bachelor of literature) degree from the University of Oxford with a thesis on the image of China in English literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. Soon after, the couple moved to France for further study and research. They returned to China in 1938 and began a long career in academia. Called “the most learned man in 20th-century China,” and fa- mous for his extensive knowledge of both Western and Chinese literature QIAN ZHONGSHU • 155 and thought, Qian acquired the reputation of an erudite scholar bent over books in his study, showing no interest in the outside world. Qian saw himself foremost as a scholar and devoted his entire career to studying literary works, both Chinese and Western. His scholarly publications include an exegetical book on Song dynasty poetry, Song shi xuan zhu (Annotated Poetry of the Song), a study of poetry Tan Yi Lu (On the Art of Poetry), and the voluminous Guan zhui bian (Studies of the Classics), which evaluates the Chinese classics from a comparative perspective, drawing contrasts with Western classics. Written in classical Chinese in the style of reading notes, Guan zhui bian represents the author’s accumulated wisdom resulting from a lifetime study of literature, history, and philosophy. Qian’s creative endeavors, on the other hand, resulted in a relatively small body of works: a novel, several short stories all written before 1949, a collec- tion of essays, and poems composed in the classical style. Hardly pro- lific, Qian is nevertheless a household name, thanks to the television movie based on his novel, Wei cheng (Fortress Besieged). The novel makes fun of Chinese intellectuals, particularly those who have re- turned to China from abroad, for their lack of self-awareness and their failures at everything from marriage to career in a tumultuous country struggling for survival under Japanese occupation. In the protagonist, a college professor, Qian casts an image of the Chinese intellectual with good intentions whose downfall is assured because of his selfish, lowly, and petty nature. See also NEW CULTURE MOVEMENT; SINO-JAPANESE WAR. QIDENG SHENG, PEN NAME OF LIU WUXIONG (1939– ). A Taiwan native, Qideng Sheng graduated from Taipei Normal College with a degree in art. He is noted for his controversial modernist writ- ings, most published in the 1960s and 1970s and known for their loose structure and idiosyncratic, abstruse language. With little attention to plots, his stories, told often in the first-person subjective voice, read like lyrical essays. His protagonists, loners standing at the edge of society, tell the reader the minute details of their lives and innermost feelings, appealing directly to the reader’s sympathy. Letters and interior mono- logues as used in Tanlang de shuxin (Letters from Tanlang) and Simu weiwei (Whispers of Love) are typical of Qideng’s narrative style. Other works include Wo ai hei yanzhu (I Love Black Eyes), his best-known work about the alienated youth in modern Taiwanese society, and Shahe 156 • QIDENG SHENG, PEN NAME OF LIU WUXIONG bei ge (Sad Songs of the Sha River), recollections by a disillusioned musician suffering from acute lung disease. Other than fiction, Qideng has also written poetry. QIONG YAO, PEN NAME OF CHEN ZHE (1938– ). Romance novel- ist. Born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, Qiong Yao arrived in Taiwan with her family in 1949. Her first collection of short stories, Chuang wai (Outside the Window), was published in 1963 and since then she has written numerous novels, many of which have been adapted into popular movies or television series. Arguably the most popular romance novelists in the Chinese-speaking world, Qiong Yao places the devel- opment of a romantic relationship between the protagonists at the heart of all her novels, focusing on falling in love and the courtship, as well as the encounter and resolution of conflicts that are presented in the form of a triangular relationship, parental rejection, or misunderstand- ing between the lovers. Nearly all her novels emphasize the feelings of the female protagonist, often an innocent and beautiful girl, who makes unconditional commitment to the romantic relationship; her faith and good behavior are always rewarded in the end. In celebrating romantic love, Qiong Yao’s novels tend to neglect sociopolitical considerations. In her novels, both the conflict and the climax are directly related to the core theme of love. In 1970s Taiwan under martial law of the authori- tarian government, and in 1980s mainland just coming out of the politi- cal and ideological tight control of the Mao era, her novels, with their unequivocal emphasis on the true emotions shared by a young couple, were a breath of fresh air for teenagers learning about love and romantic relationships. See also WOMEN. QIU MIAOJIN (1969–1995). Fiction and prose writer. Despite a short life, Qiu Miaojin has left behind a notable legacy in contemporary Chi- nese literature. Her writings, along with her tragic death, have shed new light on the predicament gays and lesbians faced in Taiwanese society despite the significant gains in the perception and acceptance of homo- sexuality made in urban Taiwan in recent decades. Qiu graduated from National Taiwan University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. While studying in Paris, she committed suicide. She left behind four books: Gui de kuanghuan (Revelries of Ghosts), Eyu shouji (Notes of an Alligator), Jimo de qunzhong (A Solitary Crowd), Mengmate yishu (Letters Written in Montmartre before Death), and a diary, Qiu Miaojin riji (Diary of Qiu Miaojin), the last two items posthumously published. QIU MIAOJIN • 157 Of these works, Eyu shouji is the best, generally considered a Chinese classic on lesbian culture, whose reputation is so widespread that the name of its main character, Lazi—coined from Les(bian)—has been adopted as a self-reference by Chinese lesbians. The allegorical, semi- autobiographical novel traces the four undergraduate years of Lazi’s life, as she ponders the dubious integrity of the self in relation to sexual identity and the role of writing—ideas that function for her as a means to explain away her emptiness and self-doubt as well as a way by which she can derive meaning out of a confused life. Lazi’s propensity for dark ruminations over her homosexual and homoerotic feelings is juxtaposed with the humorous, self-effacing disposition of the other main character, Alligator. Throughout the novel, Lazi’s first-person mythopoeic voice is frequently intersected by the lighthearted tone of Alligator, who rep- resents an entity at odds with society, unsure of its sexual orientation and uncomfortable with its appearance, a strange species on the verge of extinction now being chased and gazed at by the public, a mirror image of Lazi. Both characters fade away after having been repeatedly perse- cuted, indicating that death and destruction are inevitable outcomes of a precarious existence. Mengmate yishu contains 20 letters and journal entries Qiu wrote in France shortly before she took her own life. They are distressed profes- sions of her strong feelings for the woman who betrayed her. The out- pouring of her innermost emotions and the description of her tortured experience trying to come to terms with her lover’s betrayal reveal her views on the meaning of love, life, and art, and paint a self-portrait of the author as she struggled desperately between salvation and destruc- tion. Similarly, Qiu Miaojin riji is also self-writing at its most candid. On the other hand, both Gui de kuanghuan and Jimo de qunzhong are collections of short stories about an alienated and rebellious population rejected by mainstream society. At the heart of Qiu’s work lies the au- thor’s recognition that the nature of passion and love intensifies human existence in both its most beautiful and most monstrous moments. – R – ROOT-SEEKING LITERATURE (XUNGEN WENXUE). A literary movement that began in the early 1980s, root-seeking has been the most pervasive and influential literary trend in post-Mao Chinese literature. 158 • ROOT-SEEKING LITERATURE The poet Yang Lian was perhaps the first to express the need for Chi- nese literature to come to terms with China’s cultural heritage. In his po- ems written around 1982, such as “Banpo” (Banpo: the Neolithic Age) and “Dunhuang” (The Dunhuang Caves), Yang sets out to discover the nation’s past buried deep in the ancient lands and to examine its impli- cations for the Chinese literary imagination. At around the same time, Wang Meng published his Xingjiang stories Zai Yili (In Yili), which, while recounting his experience in exile in the remote northwest, intro- duces the unique cultures of the Uygurs and the Kazaks. Wang Zengqi creates in “Da nao jishi” (Notes about the Great Mire) a pastoral world steeped in Chinese traditional virtues. Soon after, many writers, particu- larly those who had spent years during the Cultural Revolution in rural China as educated youths, eagerly joined the movement. Jia Pingwa’s “Shangzhou chu lu” (Stories of Shangzhou), Zhang Chengzhi’s Bei- fang de he (The River in the North), Ah Cheng’s Qi qang (The King of Chess), Wang Anyi’s Xiao Bao zhuang (Bao Town), Li Hangyu’s “Zuihou yige yulao’r” (The Last Fisherman), and many other works all came out at once, creating a phenomenon that caught the immediate at- tention of literary critics. A conference was held in Hangzhou in 1984 to discuss the significance of this cultural and literary phenomenon and explore new methods in fiction writing. In the following year, several writers, including Ah Cheng, Zheng Yi, Han Shaogong, Zheng Wan- long, and Li Hangyu, published their “root-seeking proclamations.” Among them, Han’s article, “Wenxue de gen” (Roots of Literature), which gave the movement its name, was the most influential and widely regarded as the unofficial “manifesto” of root-seeking literature. Us- ing the example of the rich ancient Chu culture known for its highly imaginative and mystical shamanistic traditions, Han urged his fellow writers to “transcend reality” and to explore “the mysteries that define the development of a nation and of human existence.” In the view of Han and his colleagues, there was a gap between the ancient past and the present, and in the 20th century, China had experienced a period of amnesia, in which the nation’s rich past was erased from the collective memory of the Chinese. The responsibility of a writer, they believed, was to help the nation reconnect to its past, to “sort out,” in the words of Li Hangyu, the cultural roots. Only by doing so, they argued, would Chinese literature be able to “dialogue” with the rest of the world. The goal of the root-seekers, therefore, was to search for authentic Chinese national roots in order to claim a spot in the global literary scene. ROOT-SEEKING LITERATURE • 159 The primary locus of root-seeking literature is the Chinese country- side, where the political winds that swept China during the past century had only limited success. Agrarian society is thought to be the heart of Chinese culture, uncorrupted by Western influences and therefore retaining the primordial energies of humanity. Unlike the earlier nativ- ists (xiangtu pai), the root-seekers were not satisfied with realistic rep- resentations of rural life and regional customs. Influenced by a wealth of literary traditions from the West and particularly by Latin American magic realism, they identified ancient Chinese traditions as a source of a new literature that addressed profound, universal issues while expressing a subjective vision of art and life. Mo Yan’s Gaomi stories celebrate the exuberant primordial energies and affirm the masculine vigor as opposed to the physical inferiority of the meek and “civilized” Confucian tradition; Tashi Dawa’s Tibetan tales unfold a world of mysteries and religious practices, and Han Shaogong’s Bababa (Pa pa pa) depicts an isolated community in the remote mountains of Hunan where the villagers’ behavior is controlled by irrational, superstitious beliefs, unaffected by the events in the outside world. Although the ancient roots that inspired the root-seekers were most often found in remote rural China, they also existed in the cities and were uncovered by “the urban root-seekers.” Deng Youmei of Beijing and Lu Wenfu of Suzhou were the most representative of the group. Deng’s portraits of the Manchu descendents and Lu Wenfu’s stories about the history and customs of Suzhou not only record in vivid detail the vanishing or vanished cultures but also examine their impact on the people and the society they left behind. Although the root-seeking movement reached the height of popular- ity in the 1980s, its impact is still felt at present. From its ranks have emerged some of the best writers in China today and the ancient cul- tures that inspired the root-seekers to continue to provide inspiration for Chinese writers. See also CHEN ZHONGSHI; LI RUI; LIN JINLAN; FENG JICAI; JIA PINGWA; LIU HENG; SU TONG; NATIVISTS; YU HUA; YE ZHAOYAN; ZHENG CHENGZHI; ZHANG WEI. ROU SHI, PEN NAME OF ZHAO PINGFU (1902–1931). Poet and fiction writer. Born in Zhejiang, Rou Shi attended Hangzhou Number One Teachers’ College, where he became a member of Chen Guang She (The Morning Sun Association), a progressive literary organization. Af- ter graduating, he taught at various schools and continued to write in his 160 • ROU SHI, PEN NAME OF ZHAO PINGFU spare time. The short stories he wrote expressed his frustration with the state of the country. In Shanghai, he became acquainted with Lu Xun, who invited him to edit Yu si (Words and Language). He was a found- ing member of the Left-wing Association of Chinese Writers and the Chinese Communist Party. He was arrested by the Nationalist govern- ment and executed in prison along with four other left-wing writers. Of his fictional works, “Wei nuli de muqin” (Slave Mother) is best known. It describes a peasant woman’s sad life and calls for the liberation of the working poor. Other works include “San jiemei” (Three Sisters) and Jiu shidai zhi si (Death of the Old Era) as well as a poetry collection, Zhan (Fight). He also translated literature from Denmark, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. See also CIVIL WAR. RU ZHIJUAN (1925–1998). Fiction writer. Ru Zhijuan belonged to the generation of writers who were nurtured by the Communist revolution. Born into a poor family in Shanghai, Ru lost her parents at a young age. She received some schooling in Christian missionary schools until her elder brother took her with him to join the Communist army in 1944. She was a performer and a playwright in the army’s art troupe and worked as a nurse during battles. After she left the army in 1955, she was an editor for a literary journal in Shanghai until 1960, when she be- came a professional writer. She was the party secretary of the Shanghai Writers’ Association before her death at the age of 73. Ru is best remembered for her short story “Baihe hua” (Lilies on the Quilt) published in 1958. The story is based on the author’s experi- ence in the late 1940s when the Communists were fighting the Civil War with the Nationalists. Instead of the battlefield, the story focuses on what happens in the background. The simple plot involves a young soldier going to a village to borrow quilts for the wounded solders and meeting a family’s young bride. It is an innocent romantic story, with its subtle juxtaposition of a beautiful young woman enjoying the sweet love of her new marriage and a naive 19-year-old man ignorant of sexual matters. Treating a war story in such a fashion is uncharacteristic of Communist literature and it is no surprise that the story was singled out in the 1960s as an indication of the author’s bourgeois sentimental- ity. Ru wrote other stories but none captured the same kind of attention as “Baihe hua.” Among Ru’s works published after the Cultural Revolution, the best known is “Jianji cuole de gushi” (The Incorrectly Edited Story), RU ZHIJUAN • 161 . emancipation of women and national salvation. After 194 9, Ouyang held several positions in the Chinese theater and academia, including president of the Chinese Academy of Theater and chairman of the Chinese. the core theme of love. In 197 0s Taiwan under martial law of the authori- tarian government, and in 198 0s mainland just coming out of the politi- cal and ideological tight control of the Mao era,. juxtaposition of a beautiful young woman enjoying the sweet love of her new marriage and a naive 1 9- year-old man ignorant of sexual matters. Treating a war story in such a fashion is uncharacteristic of