NATIVIST FICTION IN CHINA AND TAIWAN: A THEMATIC SURVEYbyRosemary Maeve HaddonB.A., The University of British Columbia, 1973M.A., The University of Victoria, 1986A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULHLLMENT OFTHE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHYinTHE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES(Department of Asian Studies)We accept this thesis as conformingto the required standardTHE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIAOctober 1992© Rosemary Maeve Haddon, 1992Signature(s) removed to protect privacyIn presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanceddegree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make itfreely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensivecopying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of mydepartment or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying orpublication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my writtenpermission.Department of ?//&1/ 5V2L4J(The University of British ColumbiaVancouver, CanadaDate )4 IffIDE-6 (2/88)Signature(s) removed to protect privacyIIAbstractThis dissertation comprises a historical survey and thematic analysis of the various regionaland temporal expressions of Chinese and Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue (“nativism” or“homeland literature”). Chapter One traces Chinese xiangtu wenxue from the rural stories of LuXun through the 1920s generation of writers of xiangtu wenxue (xiangtu zuojia f’g).These writers used two different narrative modes to analyze China’s deepening rural crisis. One ofthese was the antitraditionalist mode inspired by Lu Xun; the other was a positivist modeformulated from new concepts and intellectual thought prevalent in China at the time of MayFourth (1919). The narrative configuration established by this decade ofxiangtu writers ischaracterized by nostalgia and is based on the migration of the Chinese village intellectual to largeurban centres. This configuration set the standard for subsequent generations of writers ofxiangtu wenxue who used an urban narrator to describe a rural area which was either the author’snative home, an area he/she knew well or one which was idealized.Chapters Two and Five discuss Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue from the 1920s to the 1970s.The emergence of this fiction is linked with Taiwan’s insecure status in the forum of internationalrelations. In Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue, the countryside is a refuge from the forces ofmodernization; it is also a storehouse nurturing ancient traditions which are threatened by new andmodern ways. Taiwan’s xiangtu writers valorize traditional culture and seek in rural Taiwan atranscendent China predating Taiwan’s invasion by the West. These works are all narrated by anurban narrator who rejects modernity and desires to counteract foreign influences.The focus of Chapter Three is China’s rural regional xiangtu wenxue of the 1930s. In thisdecade, rural fiction became a general trend in China with the rise of the Chinese CommunistParty, Japanese aggression and China’s increasing urbanization. The shift away from China’surban-based fiction is characterized by an increasing concern for the peasants, regional decayunder the onslaught of Westernization and the life, customs and lore of China’s hinterland. InInmany of these regional works, concern for the nation is interwoven with non-nationalisticinterests.Chinese xiangtu wenxue of the 1940s and 1950s is discussed in Chapter Four. The xiangtuwenxue of this period took on a distinctly Communist guise in the wake of Mao Zedong’s 1942Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art. Chinese Communist xiangtu wenxue isprimarily defined as revolutionary realism and is concerned with the construction of Chinesesocialism which takes place in the countryside through the forced implementation of draconianParty policies. The peasants in this fiction often attempt to evade these policies. Occasionally,these stories and novels slip into a hardcore realistic mode conveying a peasant reality whichstrongly dissents from the orthodox Party view. At least one writer of this period was persecutedand killed for his putatively disloyal beliefs.Finally, with the passing of Maoism in China, a new form of xiangtu wenxue emerged in themid-1980s. This is the subject of Chapter Six. In these works, traditional Chinese culturesupercedes Maoism as the basic fabric unifying Chinese life. Many of the writers in this periodevince a psychological bifurcation arising from their conflicting views about the value of traditionalChinese culture. This bifurcation stems from the narrator in this fiction who is caught up in theprocess of urbanization and is unable to fully integrate his vision of the countryside into a largervision of modernity. The ambivalence about Chinese culture in xiangtu wenxue is a leitmotifwhich underlies xiangtu wenxue’s many, disparate forms.ivTable of ContentsAbstract iiAcknowledgements viIntroduction 11. Chinese Xiangtu wenxue of the 1920: The Sojourner-Narrator 18Lu Xun and the Rise of Xiangtu wenxue 31Wang Luyan (1901-1944) 522. Taiwanese Xiangtu wenxue and the Legacy of Colonialism 59Prelude to Modernity 68Taiwanese writers of xiangtu wenxue of the 1960s 78Hwang Chun-ming 80Wang Zhenhe 89Chen Yingzhen 933. China’s RegionalXiangtu wenxue 99The Regionalism of Shen Congwen 103The Writers of the Northeast 128Xiao Jun 132Duanmu Hongliang 137Xiao Hong 143Conclusion 1544. China’s Post-Yan’an Xiangtu Wenxue 157The Shanyaodan School and Zhao Shuli 159Zhao Shuli 165“Middle Characters” and “Training, Training” 178Ma Feng and Zhou Libo 183HehuadianSchoolandSunLi (1913- ) 192Liu Shaotang and the Theoretical Nature of Xiangtu wenxue 199Conclusion 2045. The Xiangtu wenxue Movement of Taiwan 206Wang Zhenhe 215Hwang Chun-ming 217ZengXinyij(1948- ) 225Wang Tuo 229Yang Qingchu 237Chen Yingzhen 2446. China’s “Nativist Culture” (Xiangtu wenhua) of the 1980s 252Gao Xiaosheng 258Shi Tiesheng 270Han Shaogong 273MoYan 284VConclusion 293Conclusion 296Bibliography 301Appendix 324viAcknowledgementsMy debt of gratitude goes first and foremost to my family and friends who showed mepatience, gave me support and assisted me in a variety of ways throughout the duration of my PhDprogram.I am also grateful to friends and acquaintances in Taiwan who introduced me to the historyand literature of Taiwan’s Japanese colonial period. My conversations with Chen Yingzhen,Wang Tuo, Hu Qiuyuan, Chen Guying and others assisted me in my analysis of Taiwanesehistory and writers. My ex-husband, Roger H. C. Lin, who would have accompanied me toCanada were it not for a record of sedition, assisted me in reading the original texts and with theirtranslation.During the years 1986-92, the Department of Asian Studies conferred upon me a number ofteaching assistantships, research assistantships and a Sessional Instructorship which enabled me tocomplete my program. I am grateful to the department for its support.I received valuable support from the librarians of the Asian Studies Library, UBC, and fromLinda Joe, the Head Librarian of the ASL, where I carried out the bulk of my research on Chinesewriters. My special thanks go to Patrick Dunn, UBC Interlibrary Loan Librarian, for many hoursof his time spent in tracking down hundreds of obscure journals and articles. I could not havecompleted my research without his assistance.Finally, my thanks go to my advisor, Professor Michael S. Duke, Chair, Department ofAsian Studies, UBC. Knowing my interest in xiangtu wenxue, Professor Duke suggested mydissertation topic and introduced me to a number of Chinese writers, including Thao Shuli andZhou Libo and also the “Searching for Roots” school of writers whose works are the subject ofChapter Six. Professor Duke read the drafts of my dissertation, pointed out problematical areasand gave me conscientious editorial advice.IntroductionIntroductionXiangtu wenxue emerged in China in the wake of the May Fourth Movement. In its earlyphase, this subgenre1 represents an infusion of many of the social, economic and populistconcerns of May Fourth. Primary among these are the concern for the common person,particularly the peasant, the notion of social and economic rights, the survival of the Chinesenation in the face of imperialism and warlordism and the breakdown of the old cultural order andthe emergence of the new. These concerns reflect China’s search for modernity which continuesto be the primary concern of twentieth century China. As for xiangtu wenxue, the search formodernity is a fundamental law which governs the first appearance of this literature and itssubsequent fictional development.Like all generic designations, the term “xiangtu wenxue,” which I use as a descriptive ratherthan an evaluative term, is both elusive and problematic. The most fundamental problem, whichis compounded by various other issues, is the selection of writers to be included in this subgenre.In order to carry out this selection, some very basic generic considerations must be established,the least of which are criteria differentiating xiangtu wenxue from non-nativist Chinese fiction.But even this most basic differentiation is not entirely free from exceptions: the dividing linebetween Chinese nativist and non-nativist fiction is often blurred by grey areas. One fundamentalpoint of division, for example, is the classification of xiangtu wenxue as a subgenre of fictionalworks about the country or rural life in contrast to literature about urban life. An exception tothis, however, is certain Taiwanese works of xiangtu wenxue which centre around charactersfrom the lower social orders who live a ghettoized existence on the margins of Taiwan’s urban1 I have classified xiangtu wenxue as a “sub-genre” primarily because it is more limited in scope, bothtemporally and thematically, than the genre, for instance, the Chinese vernacular novel (zhanghui xiaoshuo). At the same time, this fiction exhibits a set of literary norms, or “conventions and codes,”characteristic of a “literary form” and which are also used to characterize the genre. (M. H. Abrams,“Genre,” A Glossary ofLiterary Terms, 5th ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1988): 73,72.)Introduction 2life. Other exceptions are pieces of Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue about urban office workers orother characters of varied educational backgrounds who encounter problems adapting tomodernity or who sometimes completely fail to make the transition to a fully urbanized life.Notwithstanding the urban setting of these works, their themes are interwoven with conceptionsabout the countryside, and they evoke the continuum of Chinese agrarian values. Thus it followsthat rather than state categorically that xiangtu wenxue is about the country or is set in thecountry, I contend that xiangtu wenxue and its thematics are interwoven with allegoricalconceptions about the country which can be either positive or negative and that they evokeagrarian values or an agrarian woridview.For the reader who is unfamiliar with the broad spectrum of modern Chinese literature, thisinitial attempt at classification can be clarified by contrasting xiangtu wenxue with certain modemChinese writers who, categorically, can be excluded from all nativist considerations. Many ofthese writers are considered to be important members of the canon of modem Chinese fiction, aconsideration which raises questions about the relation of xiangtu wenxue and xiangtu writers tothe Chinese canon. Furthermore, it raises questions about Chinese canon-formation in general.Qian Zhongshu (1910-- ), for instance, is a major twentieth-century Chinese writer who can beconsidered non-nativist for a number of reasons. The first of these stems from his considerableeducational attainments-- a feature not generally found in the backgrounds of xiangtu writers--and, more specifically, from his alignment with the rigorous tradition of Chinese scholarship.Besides being a writer of urban satire about contemporary social manners, Qian is a recognizedscholar of both Chinese and Western literature and has a record of considerable scholasticachievement. A comparable background or record cannot be found among the xiangtu writerswho, in general, hail from less elite families and are less traditional in their orientation. QianZhongshu’s traditional type of orientation and the subject matter of his satires clearly make hisfiction non-nativist.introduction 3A second criterion separating non-nativist Chinese writers from the xiangtu writers is theclassification of certain of the former as “solipsists.” Besides Qian Zhongshu, Ling Shuhua(1904-- ) and Eileen Zhang (Zhang Ailing, 1921-- ), both of whom are women writers fromprominent, official families, are writers of urban-centred fiction with an autiobiographical strain.The subjective elements of their fiction contrast strongly with the majority of works of xiangtuwenxue which tend to be socially-oriented. Ling Shuhua’s fiction evinces a certain psychologicalinsight into the lives of urban women, old-fashioned girls and children who comprise thecharacters of her stories. Eileen Zhang’s stories, on the other hand, are more generally concernedwith “bourgeois life in Shanghai and Hong Kong” and the manners and mores of the “decadentupper class.”2 Zhang makes extensive use of psychological realism, which C. T. Hsia maintainsis rooted in her personal emotion and her contemplation of her unhappy childhood.3 Theeducational as well as family background of Qian Zhongshu, Ling Shuhua and Zhang Ailing, notto mention the subject matter of their works, contrast strongly with the xiangtu writers, theirbackgrounds of relatively less elitism and traditionalism and elements of greater realism anddidacticism of xiangtu wenxue.As stated above, the primary criterion I have devised for establishing a subgenre ofxiangtuwenxue is whether these works of fiction express certain allegorical conceptions about thecountry and evoke agrarian values or an agrarian woridview. A second criterion of selection isbased on the extent to which xiangtu writers and their works represent the various regional andtemporal expressions of the subgenre.4 There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of writers who canbe considered as xiangtu zuojia. My omission of many of these writers does not reflect on the2 C. T. Hsia, A History ofModern Chinese Fiction (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1971):390, 407.Ibid. 407.4 I have referred to Yan Jiayan’s schematization of xiangtu wenxue in the Big Chinese Encyclopedia(Zhongguo da baike quanshu [Beijing/Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe, 1986]: 1077) as ageneral guideline in my selection of writers. To a lesser extent, I have also referred to Chinese secondarysources and references in them to Chinese writers as xiangtu zuojia.Introduction 4quality of their works but, instead, on the limited time and space of this study. These twodifferent sets of criteria are cumbersome, and the selection process I developed from them iscomplicated by a number of other problems. Three of these are concerned with the followingissues: the differences in narrative structures in the corpus of any one individual writer whichsometimes evinces varying degrees of nativism; the difficulties in what Susan Rubin Suleimanrefers to as disengaging the “formal resemblances”5 among works; and, finally, the problematicchore of critically evaluating writers and their works according to aesthetic and artistic standards.In the first instance, a case in point is Shen Congwen’s (1902-1989) romances which arequite different from his first, early fictional works about his childhood which are more commonlyrecognized as xiangtu wenxue. Though this is the case, I briefly discuss Shen’s romances for thepurpose of comparison and in order to distinguish the nativist from the non-nativist features ofhis fiction. The longer fictional work of the Manchurian writer Xiao Jun (1907- ), on theother hand, is less nativist than his shorter stories. Nonetheless, I have discussed this longerwork briefly, primarily for the simple reason that it is better-known. These differences in anywriter’s works lead me to a further problem which is whether a writer can be considered axiangtu writer on the basis of a few nativist pieces in his/her corpus? This problem also existswith respect to China’s writers of the mid-1980s who, strictly speaking, cannot be consideredxiangtu writers. This fact, nonetheless, cannot be used to rule out certain of their fictional workswhich express conceptions about the country and evoke an agrarian woridview. For this reason,I have included various works of these writers for discussion in the final chapter of this thesis,while I clearly maintain that I do not consider them xiangtu writers per Se. In sum, some writersI have selected for discussion in this thesis can, without a doubt, be considered xiangtu zuojia.As for other writers who are the authors of nativist works, some prefer to be called writers ofSusan Rubin Suleiman, Authoritarian Fictions: The Ideological Novel As a Literary Genre (New York:Columbia University Press, 1983): 5.Introduction 5realism than xiangtu zuojia, while others can more properly be classified as members of otherfictional schools.The second problem mentioned above concerns disengaging the “formal resemblances”among works. Suleiman explains that these “formal resemblances” (the narrative or thematicstructures) does not imply the “identity of their specific content,” whether this content is political,ideological or episodic.6 Like my study, Suleiman’s is the first of its kind, and the problems weboth encountered in establishing a fictional genre stem, in at least one instance, from the diversityof content found in the body of works as a whole. The Chinese xiangtu wenxue of the 1920s--the focus of Chapter One of my thesis-- is thematically concerned with the cultural, historic andsocial factors giving rise to China’s chaotic rural conditions in that decade. This content is verydifferent from that of Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue which focuses almost exclusively on questionsof modernization.7Taiwanese fiction is very different again from China’s post Yanan xiangtuwenxue which is purely Communist in content. The diversity of content in these works is vast;nonetheless, these various regional and temporal expressions of Chinese and Taiwanese xiangtuwenxue do share certain formal resemblances which lead me to formulate a definition of thesubgenre which takes them all into consideration. In brief, these resemblances are three: First,xiangtu wenxue usually evokes the (urban or urbanized) narrator’s rural, childhood home. Insome cases, this rural home is an idealized, imaginary home located some time in the narrator’sancestral post. Second, xiangtu wenxue is structured around the country which exercizes an6 Ibid. 6.‘ In general, modernization is the process by which societies are transformed under the impact of scientificand technological revolutions. This process entails the transformation of a country into an urbanized,industrialized society oriented to the application of science and technology. (“Introduction,”TheModernization of China, Gilbert Rozman, ed. [New York: The Free Press, 1981]: 3, 1.) My use of thisterm applies to the social change associated with modernization, such as the undermining of existing socialpatterns, the increased international dependence and the growth of manufacture. In Taiwan, modernization isequated with “industrialization” which is used in a broad sense, not just in its connotative distinction fromagrarian processes. The concept of modernization in Taiwan is also used interchangeably with“Westernization” which refers specifically to the patterns of modernization which were engendered byTaiwan’s association with Japan and the U.S.introduction 6allegoricalfunction in this fiction. There are, in the main, four meanings evoked by thisallegory: the country is the locus ofsociocultural andpoliticalforces which cripple the nationalconsciousness; it is the refugefrom the forces ofmodernization; it is the locus oftransformationof the Maoist canon; and it is the locusfor the examination of the inefficiency and corruption ofthe Chinese Communist Party. Third, the characters in xiangtu wenxue are disempowered ormarginalized, that is, they are either peasants, women or other characters from the lower socialorders. This definition allows for the various expressions of xiangtu wenxue which, as statedabove, are separate and distinct from their specific content.The third problem stated above is an aesthetic one and concerns the stylistic evaluation ofindividual works and writers according to artistic standards. This evaluation, willy nilly, hasprobably influenced my selection of writers. Nonetheless, in this thesis I have determined not tocarry out this type of analysis, or to make an extensive stylistic evaluation focusing on the“literariness” of works or to clarify my aesthetic standards, and this is due primarily to timeconstraints. Suffice it to say that I fmd the post-Yan’an Chinese Communist xiangtu wenxueformulaic and less personally appealing than Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue or Chinese fiction of themid- 1980s.Two final points must also be made here regarding my establishment of the xiangtu wenxuesubgenre. The first concerns my use of the designation xiangtu wenxue as a descriptive ratherthan an evaluative term as I mentioned above and, the second, my reference to xiangtu wenxue asa “subgenre.” The term “xiangtu wenxue” means different things to different people, and, insome contexts, this term has negative connotations. One such connotation arises from thepopular (mis)perception of xiangtu wenxue as stylistically inferior, especially when compared tobetter-known works, that is, those generally classified as “canonical,” and that it is “peasant”literature written by local amateurs whose educational achievements are low. As rural-basedfiction, it is often deemed of less value and, ironically, as less universal than meanstreamliterature which focuses on urban life. Even the term “xiangtu” itself has connotations ofintroductionearthiness and rusticity which imply that such a literature exists on the very margins of art. Mythesis attempts, to a certain extent, to rectify these misconceptions. In Taiwan, on the other hand,certain writers such as Hwang Chun-ming (Huang Chunming). AJ (1939-- )8 and ChenYingzhen (1937- ) dislike being referred to as “xiangtu zuojia” for these and otherreasons. Hwang and a third Taiwanese writer, Wang Tuo I(l944-- ), prefer, instead, to beregarded as writers of realism. The preferences of these writers stem, in part, from the negativeconnotations of “xiangtu wenxue” and, in part, from the popular confusion ofxiangtu wenxuewith “village literature” (xiangcun wenxue Jlt5Jj1 ), a misconception which I discuss furtherin Chapter Five. During Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue movement (xiangtu wenxue yundong ±(1977-78), the difficulties of establishing a normative definition for Taiwanesexiangtu wenxue were aggravated by the charge on the part of certain detractors that this fiction isCommunist. The arguments and counterarguments which raged during this movement are alsooutlined in Chapter Five.Finally, the question of where xiangtu wenxue is located in the mainstream of modernChinese literature, the breadth and scope of this fiction, and the issues involving the Chinesecanon are all factors interwoven with my decision to refer to xiangtu wenxue as a “subgenre.”As stated earlier, the primary concerns of the first forms of Chinese xiangtu wenxue in the decadeof the 1920s are: the concern for the common person, particularly the peasant, the notion ofsocial and economic rights, the survival of the Chinese nation in the face of imperialism andwarlordism and the breakdown of the old cultural order and the emergence of the new. Theseconcerns are the very stuff of what C.T. Hsia aptly refers to as the “obsession with China” on thepart of many modern Chinese writers who make up the mainstream of modern Chinese literature.These concerns are not only limited to the xiangtu wenxue of the 1920s; they also reappear in thecontext of my discussions about Lu Xun, Xiao Jun. Xiao Hong (1911-1942), Han8 I have retained this romanization of Hwang’s name out of respect for the writers’s preference.Introduction 8Shaogong 4 .J(1952--) and Mo Yan T (1956--). Accordingly, xiangtu wenxue thussubstantially overlaps with mainstream modern Chinese writing and, in some cases, can even beconsidered as mainstream writing. This fact alone would seem to call for its classification as agenre. Nonetheless, the fact remains that there is a strong need to separate xiangtu wenxue fromChinese urban-based literature, much of which is regarded as canonical, and this is the majorfactor in my decision to classify xiangtu wenxue as a subgenre (the genre being fiction). Thisdecision is thus also normative rather than evaluative. The question of the canon, whichcomprises primarily urban-based fiction, also arises when we consider that many of the xiangtuwriters, with the clear exception of Shen Congwen, Xiao Jun and Xiao Hong, stand outside thecanon. The term “subgenre” which must accommodate vast numbers of works and writers ofxiangtu wenxue has thus little to do with volume and more to do with canonical versus non-canonical issues. These issues concerning the canon, not to mention the rural-based subjectmatter of xiangtu wenxue and the marginalized characters in this fiction, are issues we canconsider when we attempt to differentiate xiangtu wenxue from the large category of Chineseurban-based, non-nativist fiction.From the concerns of the 1920s, xiangtu wenxue developed in different ways andembraced a variety of fictional themes. These themes include Japanese aggression, regionalism,the inception of the Chinese Communist Party and the construction of socialism and, finally, theissue of Chinese traditional culture. The xiangtu wenxue of Taiwan, on the other hand, focusesalmost exclusively on the themes of colonialism and modernization. Unlike its counterpart inChina, Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue emerged from the tensions engendered by Taiwan’s insecurestatus in the forum of international politics. The scope of these issues, questions and themes inChinese and Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue is very broad and diverse; nonetheless, it is the reasonthat xiangtu wenxue can be considered a type of “national literature” (minzu wenxueIntroiuctionXiangtu wenxue is a mirror of the problems, issues and conflicts which have accompanied thehistoiy of these two areas from the nineteenth through the twentieth centuries.As mentioned above, xiangtu wenxue first emerged in China hard on the heels of the MayFourth Movement. The stylistic and thematic configuration of xiangtu wenxue was influenced byvarious movements of both the New Culture and May Fourth Movements, such as the vernacular(baihua movement and the movement advocating realism in literature. Compared to theEuropeanized May Fourth literature, the language of the 1920s decade of xiangtu wenxue is morepopulist, and thus it is closer to the language of the masses of the Chinese people. Xiangtuwenxue is thus also closer to the ideal of Qu Qiubai, the one-time Communist Party General-Secretary and head of the League of Left Wing Writers. Qu called for a true proletarian literature,one written in the common language (puronghua which, he theorized, would fosterclass struggle.9 Unlike Qu Qiubai, however, none of the xiangtu writers in the 1920s advocatedclass struggle; instead, they brought a variety of popular concepts to their writing which includednot only socialism but also democracy, humanism, anti-traditionalism and anti-imperialism.The populist Rural Reconstruction movement10 and the folksong collecting movementwere particularly significant to the emergence of xiangtu wenxue. At the time of theReconstruction programs, China was experiencing severe economic chaos and social disorderwhich were incurred by the collapse of the old order, warlordism and imperialist aggression. Therural areas were especially hard hit, and, of all the Chinese population, the peasants in particularwere encumbered with an impoverished economy and the ravages of warlords and bandits. In9 Paul G. Pickowicz, Literary Thought in China: The Influence of Ch’u Ch’iu-pai (Berkeley:University of California Press, 1981): 157-158.Among the various types of xiangtu wenxue, the type which comes closest to Qu’s ideal of “proletarianliterature” is that written by Zhao Shuli. Zhao is discussed in Chapter Four of this dissertation.10 Chinese rural reconstruction was part of a global movement against modernization and Europeanutilitarianism which was generated out of fear of spiritual and cultural deracination. See Chang-tai Hung,Going to the People: Chinese Intellectuals and Folk Literature, 1919-1937 (Cambridge, Mass.: HarvardUniversity Press, 1985) for a comprehensive account of this movement.Introduction 10light of this situation, many May Fourth intellectuals felt that China was in need of a national andcultural revival, and they began to turn to the rural areas as the locus for this revival and for theanswers to China’s many problems. The major figures in the Reconstruction movement, LiangShuming (Liang Sou-ming) and James Y. C. Yan,11 thus predated the Chinese Communists intheir formulation of concrete social and economic measures designed to salvage the ruraleconomy and to transform the dispersed “village society” of China into one unified whole.The reconstructionists were originally inspired in their programs by Li Dazhao, a cofounder of the Chinese Communist Party. Li was inspired by the populist Narodnik movementof Russia which took place in the 1870s. He believed that intellectuals should “be of one breath”with the labouring classes and in 1919 exhorted China’s educated youth to “go to the villages!” IJ9.in order to learn from the peasants.’2 Other movements engendered in China by LiDazhao’s summons were the Mass Education Lecturing corps whose purpose was to “advanceknowledge of the common people and awaken consciousness of the common people,”3 the folkliterature movement (minzu orpingmin wenxue yundong and thefollcsong collecting movement. The aim of the folk literature and folksong collecting movementswas to unearth and preserve China’s traditional culture. Some of the foildorists, such as GuJiegang, romanticised the peasant and peasant life while others, like Zhou Zuoren, criticized the1 As a traditionalist, Liang Shuming is described as a “conservative nationalist who tried to resistWesternization by restoring China’s ancient cultural values (fugu)” and defending the “national essence”(guocui) against the May Fourth iconoclasts. (Guy S. Alitto, The Last Confucian: Liang Shu-ming and theChinese Dilemma ofModernity [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979]: ix, xi.) Mao Zedong andChiang Kai-shek also formulated various programs for rural reconstruction.James Y. C. Yan (Yen Yang-ch’u) was a Yale graduate and a YMCA cadre. His reformist activities inChina began with mass education, and in 1923 he founded The National Association of Mass EducationMovements (MEM). In 1926, the MEM started a rural pilot project at Ding Xian, Hebei. This wasfollowed by a Rural Reconstruction Movement which took part in a nation-wide change of consciousness totransform the way the village was perceived in the 1930s. (Charles W. Hayford, Introduction, To thePeople: James Yen and Village China [New York: Columbia University Press, 1990): x.12 See Chang-tai Hung 10-12.13 Hung 17, 29.Introduction 11backwardness of rural life and charged the peasants with embracing a superstitious and fatalisticoutlook. To all of them, however, folksongs were the crystallization of the national spirit andrepresented the natural reaction of the people to the stifling code of Confucianism. All thepopulist movements, including the Rural Reconstruction movement, Chiang Kai-shek’s NewLife Movement and Mao Zedong’s peasant movement were attempts to use a rural model to haltChina’s slide into disintegration. The inception of rural fiction in China was yet one moreexpression of the popular concern for China’s rural life.In the 1920s, the first works of xiangtu wenxue were certain stories by Lu Xun, forinstance, “My Old Home” (Guxiang 1921), “New Year’s Sacrifice” (Zhufu jJ j]i,, 1924)and “Village Opera” (She xi, TIf 1922). Lu Xun was drawn to the rural areas for reasonswhich had less to do with Reconstruction or the rise of Chinese Communism and more to do withhis conception of Chinese tradition which he conceived within the rural context. Lu Xun raisedetiological questions about Chinese traditional culture which were based on the concept ofChina’s “spiritual disease” (sixiangshang de bing One expression of this conceptoccurs in Lu Xun’s rural fiction where he ascribes certain “feudal”14 attributes to the peasantwhich are the source of the peasants’ ongoing oppression.Lu Xun was followed by the first generation of writers of xiangtu wenxue for whom heacted as a patron. These writers wrote rural fiction about the small towns and villages of thesouthern and interior parts of China. They were influenced by Lu Xun’s rural stories and by hisanti-traditionalism which they brought to bear in their examination of the traditional customs andrites and the oppressive family system in the villages. Others in this first generation spurned LuXun’s antitraditional approach in favour of a more scientific set of criteria which they garnered14 I have enclosed the word “feudalism” within quotations marks throughout the length of this dissertation tosignify the usage conferred upon this term by post-1949 China and to distinguish it from the system inEurope between the ninth and fifteenth centuries based on the relations between the lord and his vassal. Inthe Chinese context,”feudal” denotes a superstitious, backward and often oppressive mentality. InCommunist fiction, a “feudal” peasant is one who refuses to go along with the wishes of the ChineseCommunist Party.Introduction 12from the positivism of May Fourth. These writers used a criteria of analysis based on classconflict, the unequal distribution of wealth and the need for social reforms to explain thedisintegration of China’s countryside and the loss of the peasants’ livelihood. With the rise ofChinese Communism in the 1930s, xiangtu wenxue became permeated by leftist concepts suchas class struggle. The epistemology of the 1920s decade of writers of xiangtu wenxue neveragain reappeared in subsequent generations of xiangtu wenxue. One question I ask in the firstchapter of this thesis is where xiangtu wenxue as a sub-genre fits in the spectrum of popular andserious literature in China in the decade of the 1920s prior to the programmatic literature of the1930s?In the 1930s, according to Leo Ou-fan Lee, Chinese rural fiction became the dominant trendof modem Chinese literature 15 though as we have seen this trend actually began a decade earlier.The rural writers of this decade-- Mao Dun, Lao She, Ye Zi, Ye Shaojun, Ai Wu and Sha Ding,et al. -- signalled a clear and permanent shift away from the previous mode of urban-basedautobiographical fiction to the rural panoramas of China’s regional writers.16 Lee maintains thatthere were three factors which contributed to the emergence of this trend: the first was the onsetof the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945) which prompted an exodus away from the coastal areas tothe Chinese hinterland; the second was the increasing momentum of the Chinese Communistrevolution which by this time had moved its base to the rural areas; and the third was the patternsof urbanization in China which served to augment traditional Chinese ambivalence toward thecity.’7 Traditionally, China was characterized by an “urban-rural continuum,”18 but at the end15 Leo Ou-fan Lee, “Modern Chinese Fiction: An Interpretive Overview,” unpubi. ms. (University ofChicago): 1. The slightly revised form of this article was published in Critical Issues in East AsianLiterature: Report on an International Conference on East Asian Literature (13-20 June, 1983) (Seoul:International Cultural Society of Korea, 1983): 249-273.16 LeoLeel4, 15,21.I have not included these writers for discussion in my dissertation, primarily due to considerations of time.17 Ibid.introduction 13of the nineteenth century, treaty ports came into being on the coast which engendered an urban-rural split. Many intellectuals feared this trend because they associated the foreign domination ofthe treaty ports with increasing Westernization. “Shanghaization” (Shanghaihua as itwas called, augured the spread of Westernization in China which intellectuals and leaders such asLiang Shuming, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek hoped to counter by their strategies for ruralreconstruction. Like others during this decade, China’s rural writers of the 1930s found a safehaven from the Western invasion by retreating to the Chinese hinterland. There they attempted torecapture the local colour, flavour and the traditions of a specific locale which was often one andthe same as the writer’s native home. These writers shifted their attention to China’s rural areaspartly from the fear of cultural deracination associated with Westernization and partly as a protestagainst a regime which was doing little to ameliorate China’s rural crisis. Writers such as MaoDun and Ai Wu wrote specifically about the rural crisis and the regime that was doing nothingabout it.The rural regionalism of Shen Congwen was also engendered by Westernization and by hisfear of modernization. Shen embodied the Hunanese unease with littoral, urban China which heassociated with Westernization and with the attempts to colonize Hunan. Shen Congwen differsfrom other writers ofxiangtu wenxue in that he romanticized the peasant, the Miao and thecountryside. This mode of representation stems from the particular welisprings of ShenCongwen’s creative inspiration whereby he attempted to subvert the stifling code of HanConfucianism. The most nativist aspects of Shen Congwen’s fiction lie in his depiction ofregional decay and the passing of old traditions which are undermined by commercialism andother aspects of modernization. The regional writers of the Northeast (Dongbei), on the otherhand, felt compelled to write about their homeland for a different reason. Xiao Jun, Xiao Hongand Duanmu Hongliang (1912- ) were inspired by the loss of their homeland to the18 0. William Skinner, Introduction: “Urban and Rural in Chinese Society,” City in Late Imperial China, ed.G. William Skinner (Stanford University Press, 1977): 258.Introduction 14Japanese to write nativist stories and novels describing the sufferings of the people of theNortheast under the Japanese, the potential of the peasants to create change and the myths, loreand customs of their region. In some of these works, the interests of nationalism are subsumedby other interests, for instance, the sectionalism of Shen Congwen or the gender interests of XiaoHong. The privileging of the nation mode which dominates modem Chinese literature is oftenabsent from the works of the regional writers. One is led to question to what degree theseinterests influenced China’s search for modernity?As mentioned above, the rise of the Chinese Communist Party (1921) and the establishmentof the Communist regime in 1949 were major factors in the development of xiangtu wenxue inthe 1930s and later. After Mao Zedong met with defeat in the cities in the wake of the failedAutumn Harvest Uprising, he established his base in the rural areas of Kiangsi and Hunan. Theincreasing momentum of the Chinese Communist revolution in the 1930s influenced China’swriters in their use of the tools of socialism to analyze the countryside. Mao Dun, for instance,was among the first to analyze China’s rural collapse in terms of class oppression, imperialistaggression and the need for peasant solidarity.The single, greatest factor which had both thematic and formal implications for xiangtuwenxue, however, was Mao Zedong’s 1942 Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art..The Talks compelled writers to comply with the various formal and topical strictures of thesocialist realism canon;19 they also spawned a generation of proletarian literature which praisedthe revolution and the Party. Under the Maoist canon, the countiyside is the locus of the forcesof revolutionary transformation, and, accordingly, the peasant subject in the xiangtu wenxue ofthe 1940s and 1950s is conflated with the means of nation-building, specifically, socialism.Zhao Shuli (1906-70) disputes this conceptual identification of the subject-with-nation;19 Socialist realism is the aesthetic canon adopted by the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930s. Accordingto this doctrine, literature “could not merely reproduce life, it must depict life as it should be or as the partysays it should be. Events and characters of literature should be idealized portrayals in order to educate andindoctrinate the public in the party line at a given moment.” (Merle Goldman, Literary Dissent inCommunist China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967): 8.Introduction 15nonetheless, his fictionalized peasants rarely escape this identification and are ultimatelyconstrained into compliance. Both Zhao Shuli and Zhou Libo .fr]19O8-l979) depictpeasants who fall into the two opposing Maoist categories of “progressive” and “feudal.” Thelatter often oppose the egregious agrarian policies of the Chinese Communist Party and wish tomaintain their own economic interests. Because of this type of peasant representation, ZhaoShuli was branded a Rightist and considered disloyal to socialism. He was subsequently killedduring the Cultural Revolution. Though China’s writers of xiangtu wenxue of the 1940s and1950s outwardly subscribed to the Maoist formula laid out in the Talks, they also found subtleways to express their dissent.In Taiwan, as mentioned above, xiangtu wenxue came into being on the basis of Taiwan’sprecarious status in the arena of international politics. Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue of the 1920sgrew out of Taiwan’s status as a colony of Japan, and the first pieces of xiangtu wenxue duringthis period depict the oppressive nature of Taiwan’s colonial relations. In the 1960s and 1970s,Taiwan experienced rampant modernization which resulted in the further erosion of Taiwan’straditional lifestyle. Japan and the United States-- the “Other” in the xiangtu wenxue of thesedecades-- are censored for their economic and cultural infiltration of the island’s traditionallifestyle and for its increasing deracination. The countryside in Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue is arefuge from the forces of modernization; moreover, it is also the source of a pre-Westernized,transcendent China which Taiwan’s writers of xiangtu wenxue conceive as the storehousenurturing the ancient traditions. The reader of Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue of the 1960s and 1970sis led to question whether China will experience similar problems with modernity when thatcountry becomes fully modernized?A final theme which is found in both Chinese and Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue is the valueof Chinese traditional culture in China’s search for modernity. The question of how to be bothmodern and Chinese first arose in China during the nineteenth century when China encounteredthe superior military power and the positivism of the West. Chinese intellectuals first examinedintroduction 16Chinese culture from the perspective of its universal validity and questioned whether theConfucian classics could continue to act as the repository of morals and aesthetics for a rapidlychanging China.20 In the twentieth century, Lu Xun and other intellectuals attributed China’songoing spiritual crisis to Chinese traditional culture, and this conception in Lu Xun’s works isthe source for his unique antitraditionalism. With the passing of Maoism in China, Chinesewriters again began to examine the question of culture and tended to either accept or rejectChinese traditional values as a part of the modem Chinese psyche. In at least one of the works ofMo Yan, Chinese traditional culture represents a vital source of spirituality for the peasants whichthree decades of Maoism was unable to destroy.One fmal point that must be mentioned is that within the dramatic setting of Chinese andTaiwanese xiangtu wenxue the peasant is the single most important actor.21 In general, thepeasants are represented in an ironic mode which implies bondage or the inability to change one’ssocial, economic or political circumstances.22 The only exception to this is Shen Congwen’sfiction in which the peasant is usually idealized. In both fiction and real life China’s peasantsconfront immutable obstacles which govern and control their lives. These obstacles stem fromthe tradition which weighs them down, the social and economic aspects of their lives which arehistorically determined and which circumscribe their lives, the colonial presence or that of theChinese Communist Party which oppresses them, the patriarchy which tramples on Chinesepeasant women and the economic aggression which is the cornerstone of Taiwan’s xiangtuwenxue and which leads to the commodification of the “little people” (xiao renwu iJJ\). Allthese forces compell the peasants to expend their energies in the relentless, grinding battle for20 See Joseph R. Levenson, Confucian China and its Modern Fate: The Problem ofIntellectual Continuity(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958) for an examination of the changing position of the classics inChina’s nineteenth century intellectual life.21 Some exceptions are works from Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue movement about office workers.22 In Northrop Frye’s scale of the power of the hero to act the ironic character exhibits a power of actioninferior to the one assumed to be normal. (Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays [PrincetonUniversity Press, 1957]: 366.Introduction 17mere survival, leaving little space for the enjoyment of the aesthetic or spiritual aspects of life. Ifthis is the reality of the lives of the peasants in China, it is not surprising that they have becomesuch important players in twentieth-century China. It is not surprising, for instance, that thepeasant was used as the primary tool with which to carry out one of the most momentousrevolutions of the twentieth century. At the same time, however, the peasant still remains amarginalized subject, both in fiction and in real life. In the language of critical parlance, thepeasant is a disempowered or a “colonized subject,” that is, one who cannot escape theconstraints of some type of bondage to a higher power. These constraints stem from the Chinesetradition which psychologically cripples the peasant; industrialization which forces the peasantinto a state of commodification; and the Chinese Communist Party which has the peasant at itsmercy with its draconian policies in the countryside. As a woman writer, I empathize with thepeasant struggling with these various types of bondage and hope for the day when the rights ofChina’s peasants are recognized and their struggles are vindicated.Nativism Chap. One18Chapter OneChinese Xiangtu wenxue of the 1920s:The Sojourner-NarratorHow far did they fly? Five and a half thousand as the crow. Or: fromIndianness to Englishness, an immeasurable distance. Or, not very far atall, because they rose from one great city, fell to another. The distancebetween cities is always small; a villager, travelling a hundred miles totown, traverses emptier, darker, more terrifying space.--Salmon Rushdie, The Satanic VersesBudapest is my homeland/Toronto is my homeIn Toronto I am nostalgic for Budapest! In Budapest I am nostalgic forTorontoEverywhere else I am nostalgic for my nostalgia--Canadian writer Robert Zend (1929- 1985)1Chinese xiangtu wenxue came into being in the decade of the 1920s as a set offictional narratives about the farming villages in the interior and coastal areas of China.This was an unusual subject matter for this period and can account for the fact that thisdecade of xiangtu wenxue is virtually unknown. The characters in this fiction-- peasants,labourers and small producers eking out a marginalized existence in the poorer, rural areasof China-- are also anomalous and set xiangtu wenxue apart from the majority of MayFourth literature which focuses on rural subjects to a far lesser degree. At the same time,these characters also bring xiangtu wenxue closer to the May Fourth ideal of “massliterature” (minzhong wenxue though one must look hard to find anysemblance of the tendentiousness associated with this term. Compared to Chinese fiction1 Salmon Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (London: Viking, 1988): 41. Italics mine.Robert Zend, “In Transit,” Beyond Labels (Toronto: Hounslow Press, 1982): 136.Robert Zend, “In Transit,” in Beyond Labels, quoted in Books in CanadaNativism Chap. One19of the decade of the 1930s, xiangtu wenxue is less bound by a political ideology or creedand, as a consequence, it is a more realistic representation of life in China’s poor, ruralareas. The subjects of peasants and rural life, which were elevated to national proportionsin the 1930s’ decade of the Communist revolution, only served to consign xiangtu wenxueto relative obscurity in this pre-revolutionary period.The majority of the writers of xiangtu wenxue hailed from humble backgrounds and ledlives close to China’s rank and file. The May Fourth writers, in contrast, were from elite orgentry families and received a traditional Confucian training which constituted a barrierseparating them from China’s peasant masses.2 Many of the May Fourth writers wereconcerned with the welfare of China’s rural poor: they sympathised with China’s labouringclasses and attempted to expose the suffering visited upon China’s masses by imperialism.Nonetheless, the social chasm confronting them denied them direct or intuitive understandingof the peasants. Accordingly, some were compelled to turn to family servants or localshopkeepers who served them for models for their fiction.3 This situation stands in sharpcontrast to the writers of xiangtu wenxue who led their lives in a plebian social and culturalmilieux and whose educational achievements were low.4 This miieux, compared to that ofthe May Fourth writers, gave them access to the realities of Chinese peasant life which theytranscribed easily and realistically into their fiction.The subject matter of peasants and rural life in xiangtu wenxue also made this fictiondifferent from the “Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School” which, by comparison with xiangtuwenxue, was frivolous and had a wider entertainment value. The “Butterfly School” arose2 Ezra F. Vogel, “The Unlikely Heroes: The Social Role of the May Fourth Writers,” in MerleGoldman ed., Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era (Cambridge, Mass.: HarvardUniversity Press, 1977): 145, 147.Vogel 148.Wang Luyan, for instance, who is one of the better known xiangtu zuojia of this period was the son of ashopkeeper and did not complete primary school. (Shen Siheng, Introduction, Luyan sanwen xuanji[Tianjin: Baihua wenyi chubanshe chuban, 19821: 2.)Nativism Chap. One20chiefly as a response to the reading demands of the Chinese urban population and enjoyedimmense popularity. One can assume from the popularity of this fiction that the urbanpopulation had correspondingly little interest in realistic narratives about the harsh life ofChina’s peasants.The question that can be raised here is where xiangtu wenxue as a genre, or, morespecifically, as a sub-genre, of Chinese literature fits in the spectrum of serious and popularliterary expression in China in the decade of the 1920s? It is clear that this fiction reflects awider base of interests than the Butterfly School and even the literature of May Fourth. Muchof May Fourth literature is a genuine attempt to represent China’s masses; nonetheless, itsEuropeanized language precludes this.5 Based on a comparison with these two types ofliterature, I maintain that xiangtu wenxue is closer, stylistically and thematically, to thepopular, storytelling tradition of pre-modern China. Its inclusion of dialect and its greaterdegree of mimetic representation of the life of China’s masses are factors which make thiscomparison possible. This assessment also adds greater weight to the theory that the twentiethcentury Chinese short story form is the inheritor of Ming and Qing vernacular fiction.6 At thesame time, however, the ruralist focus ofxiangtu wenxue, not to mention its predominatelytragic tone, ultimately consign this fiction to a class of its own.The question of the Europeanized language of May Fourth was a concern of Qu Qiubai, the former secretaryof the Chinese Communist Party and one of the first Chinese Marxist literary thinkers. Qu called thevernacular baihua the “new wenyan” and maintained that it was the language of the new upper-class, Western-educated urban intellectual. As such, Qu believed it was used in much the same way as the literary languagehad been used earlier by the gentry, to suppress the Chinese masses. (Merle Goldman, “Left-Wing Criticismof the Pai Hua Movement,” in Benjamin I. Schwartz, ed., Reflections on the May Fourth Movement: ASymposium, Harvard East Asian Monographs 44 [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973]: 86-87, 85.) The 1920s decade of xiangtu wenxue is still written primarily in baihua; however, the inclusion ofdialect in these stories brings them closer to the language of daily speech.See Edward Gunn, Rewriting Chinese: Style and Innovation in Twentieth-Century Chinese Prose (Stanford,Ca.: Stanford University Press, 1991): 36-69 passim for a discussion of the Europeanization of the Chinesebaihua.6 This is the view of Jaroslav Prusek. The contrasting view maintained by C.T. Hsia is that modern Chineseliterature came into being under the influence of the European short story form. (See Jaroslav Prusek, TheLyrical and the Epic: Studies ofModern Chinese Literature [Indiana, 1980] for an account of this debate.)Nativism Chap. One21The xiangtu zuojia are listed variously in available critical studies as Xu Yu’nuoPan Xun Peng Jiahuang Xu Jie Wang Renshu (penname Ba Ren)Jfr, Jian Xian’ai , Fei Wenzhong], Xu Qinwen!4 )andWangLuyan. These writers, or, more correctly, their short stories, can be divided into two groupswhich I have classified according to my thematic reading of this fiction.7 The first of thesegroups is made up of stories which focus on the issue of Chinese culture and which arenarrated from a cultural iconoclastic point-of-view. These are structured around the etiologicialview that there are dark forces such as ignorance and superstition which cripple the nationalconsciousness and are accountable for China’s cultural and fiscal backwardness. The idea thatChinese culture is primarily responsible for that country’s backward state reflects thephilosophical conceptions of the modem writer Lu Xun and Chinese thinkers from thegeneration of Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei who conceptualized Chinese culture as sufferingfrom a “spiritual disease.” The symptoms of this disease signified that the Chinese organism is“sick” but that it could be holistically cured through the treatment of these symptoms. Thesymbolic recreation of these symptoms occurs throughout much of Lu Xun’s fiction.The reappearance of this culture theme in this group ofxiangtu wenxue stories reflectsthe apotheosis of Lu Xun’s complex consciousness; however, in other areas of their fiction thewriters of xiangtu wenxue also departed from the Lu Xun model. For instance, throughouthis lifetime Lu Xun despaired of the possibility of a real cure of the Chinese disease, and thisbelief made him profoundly pessimistic. The writers of xiangtu wenxue did not share thissentiment, which is due to a number of factors. In the first place, these writers were notsubject to the deep rifts and contradictions which scarred Lu Xun’s psyche and, in the second“ I base my discussion of the 1920s decade of xiangtu zuojia on Lu Xun’s enumeration of these writersin his introduction to volume 4, Xiaoshuo erji, of the five-volume collection, Zhongguo xinwenxue da xi(hereafter abbreviated as Da xi) (Xianggang wenxue yanjiushe, 1935): 1-17 and on Mao Dun’sintroduction to volume 3, Xiaoshuo yiji: 1-32 of the same collection. I have also drawn on the two-volumepublication, Zhongguo xiangtu xiaoshuo xuan (hereafter abbreviated as XX), He Jiquan, Xiao Chengang, eds.(Guizhou renmin chubanshe, 1986) for its selection of xiangru zuojia.Nativism Chap. One22place, they were subject to the greater immediacy of the material demands of their environmentwhich prompted them to look for socioeconomic causes, beside the cultural factor, for China’srural decline. The writers of xiangtu wenxue inherited the cultural iconoclasm of their famouspredecessor but, at the same time, they also embraced a correspondingly greater degree ofpsychological and scientific detachment which they brought to bear in their treatment ofpatriarchal famiism, Chinese local customs, superstitions and practices. One can concludefrom this that these writers belonged to a generation which had a less prescribed, lesstraditionalistic view of Chinese life and culture and had imbibed more deeply of the scientismof May Fourth. In sum, the emergence of xiangtu wenxue in the 1920s symbolized a shiftaway from the culturalism of Lu Xun to a correspondingly greater degree of scientific andmimetic realism. As such, xiangtu wenxue can be considered a transitional period from LuXun to the programmatic fiction of the 1930s.The second group of xiangtu wenxue stories is concerned with the political andeconomic factors influencing life in China’s rural areas. Xiangtu wenxue belongs historicallyto the difficult and harsh period when China was torn apart by warlordism, internal strife andimperialist aggression. The revolution of 1911 had not brought unity to the Chinese nation; onthe contrary, different political groups contending for power occasioned only grief and miseryfor the Chinese people. The Guomindang (GMD) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP)collaborated in an uneasy alliance during the period from 1923 to 1927. However, this alliancedid little to alleviate the wartime conditions, and, ultimately, friction between the two partiesled to the purge of the Communists in a bloody attack by the Nationalists in April, 1927.These unsettled conditions were interwoven with the rising tide of Chinese nationalism whichwas engendered by the indifference of the foreign powers to the terms of the WashingtonConference (192122).8 The most violent eruption of nationalism was the May Thirtieth8 The major considerations at the Washington Conference were the Shandong question, China’sterritorial integrity and political independence.Nativism Chap. One23Incident of 1925 which originated in a workers’ strike in protest against low wages at aJapanese cotton weaving mill in Shanghai. The confrontation ended in a violent clash,resulting in one worker dead and seven others wounded.9 The May Thirtieth incident wasfollowed by clashes elsewhere in China and symbolized the ideological and political ferment ofthis period. At the very least, it also represented a decade of repression, misery and bloodshedall of which filtered down to the rural areas.Besides warlordism and imperialism, China also suffered from a deepening economicdecline in the 1920s. As the largest sector of the economy, the rural areas were particularlyhard hit. There are different scholarly explanations for this slump; however, the most popularone points to the factors of population and class structure which had particularly disastrouseffects in the rural areas.1° China’s expanding population led to rural overcrowding and to anincrease in landless peasants. This situation was exacerbated by corrupt and and ineptbureaucratic mismanagement and by China’s venal landlord class which led to the neglect ofthe rural economic infrastructure.11 Besides this, the special exemptions given to Westernenterprises in the treaty ports brought ruin to many handicraft producers in the inner areas ofChina and forced peasants to sell their land.12 In the fmal analysis, China’s worsening ruralcrisis in the decade of the 1920s was due to to a number of factors, including natural andhuman disasters, banditry, famine (1920-21), regional conflicts and heavy taxation,13 and ofthe entire Chinese population, the peasants in particular were suffering acute poverty and9 Immanuel C.Y. Hsü, The Rise ofModern China, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983): 534.10 Philip C.C. Huang, The Peasant Economy and Social Change in North China (Stanford, Ca.: StanfordUniversity Press, 1985): 300.11 Ramon H. Myers, The Chinese Peasant Economy: Agricultural Development in Hopei and Shantung,1890-1949 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard U. Press, 1970): 23.12 Ibid24.13 James C. Thomson Jr., While China Faced West: American Reformers in Nationalist China, 1928-1937(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969): 43.Nativism Chap. One24demoralization. In sum, these national, political and economic factors are reproducedthematically in this second group ofxiangtu wenxue stories.In an extensive article introducing new Chinese writers of this same period, Mao Dunexamines a number of writers of xiangtu wenxue such as Xu Yu’nuo, Pan Xun, WangRenshu, Peng Jiahuang and Xu Jie, and he observes that the xiangtu zuojia were among thefirst writers in China to point out the terrible conditions in the countryside. In this connection,he cites Pan Xun’s “Rural Heart” (Xiang xin jf, 1922) as the first story to bewail thedisintegration of the farming villages’4 which, in this case, is due to the economic factor. AGui, the young carpenter in the story, is motivated to leave his village and go to Hangzhou byhis desire to avoid his share of the burden of the family debt. In Hangzhou, however, hediscovers that life is not much easier, and he is compelled to join the ranks of China’s urbanpoor: A Gui fmds it difficult to obtain employment and ends up taking up residence in anarrow, cell-like room located in a tiny, narrow alley filled with several families of dishevelledwomen and filthy children. Like so much ofxiangtu wenxue, the tone of this story is ironicand is summed up in A Gui’s statement, “What is so great in leaving the countryside if I haveto live like this?”15 Stylistically, xiangtu wenxue comprises a series of minimalist, linearnarratives or sketches, characterized by mimetic realism, themes of bondage or oppression andan image or a simple set of images. The image of the “rural heart” in this story symbolizes thepeasant who has made the physical transition to an urban lifestyle but who, at the same time, isunable to disengage himself from the numerous emotional and psychological ties linking himwith the rural world.In his critical appraisal of these writers, Mao Dun does not refer directly to them asxiangtu zuojia; instead, he merely addresses them as “writers who describe life in the farming14 Mao Dun, Introduction, Da xi, 3: 27.Pan Xun’s “Rural Heart,” originally published in Yzsdian ii, is anthologized in Da xi, 3: 272-283.15 Pan Xun 282.Nativism Chap. One25villages.” He praises their realistic depiction of the variousproblems of the rural village, their direct style of language and their lack of the “defect ofconceptual abstraction.” j’7 A central thesis in his discussion is what heterms the writers’ portrayal of the peasants’ “struggle with fate,” a conceptwhich is repeated in a second article written eleven months later and which is more explicitlyconcerned with xiangtu wenxue.18 In this second article, Mao Dun refers toxiangtu wenxueas a literature about remote areas and peoples and one that describes the peculiar customs of alocale. He maintains, however, that the deeper meaning of xiangtu wenxue extends beyondthe motif of description which is merely a beautifying device for the “tragic background”of this literature, and it is this “tragedy” that prompted Mao Dun to demand that thisliterature portray what he called a “struggle against fate.” Mao Dun states:As for ‘xiangtu wenxue, ‘I thought that if it only described a peculiarcustom or practice it was like looking at a picture of an alien place. Eventhough it could amaze us, all it did was satisfy our curiosity. Therefore,aside from the [descriptions of] peculiar customs and practices, there mustalso be the universality of the struggle against fate which is common to usall. 19Mao Dun’s demand that xiangtu wenxue should depict a “struggle against fate” reflectshis own development as a writer of revolutionary literature or what Lu Xun refers to as“command-obeying literature” (zunming wenxue which became the literary trendin China in the 1930s. This development began with his early works, such as The WildRoses (1928-29), and ended with the completion of his famous novel, Midnight (1933). It is16 Mao Dun 26.17 Ibid.18 Mao Dun, “Guanyu xiangtu wenxue,” Mao Dun lun zhongguo xiandai zuojia zuopin (Beijing daxuechubanshe, 1980): 239-241. This article was first printed in Wenxue (Feb. 1936), 6:2.19 Ibid. 241.Nativism Chap. One26documented that originally in the act of creating, Mao Dun dramatized his subject matter,however, by the time he began to write Midnight, his desire to write fiction in support of theneeds of the revolution led him to select and portray actual happenings in support of theleaders’ interpretation of events, which he then incorporated into his writing.20 As a result,Midnight is an instance of a work of literature written with the needs of the revolution inmind. It is in this light that Mao Dun views the xiangtu wenxue of this decade, that is, asrevolutionary literature, a view which is not substantiated in xiangtu wenxue. There is little ofa revolutionary nature in xiangtu wenxue; indeed, the lot of China’s peasants as it is depictedin xiangtu wenxue was the least of the Communists’ concerns.Lu Xun also paid considerable attention to the 1920s’ generation of writers ofxiangtuwenxue. In actual fact, his relationship to them was one of patron, and he was eveninstrumental in establishing one or two as important literary figures.2’ Lu Xun’s discussionof these writers, in which he enumerates han Xian’ai, Fei Wenzhong, Xu Qinwen, WangLuyan, among others,22 is based on a different conceptual framework than Mao Dun’s. likeMao Dun, Lu Xun also praised these writers for the simplicity and strength of theirdescriptions which, he contends, evoke sorrow and anger.23 But unlike Mao Dun, Lu Xunexplicitly refers to them as xiangtu zuofla or xiangtu wenxue de zuojia 24 aterm which he employs to signify the fact that they were “sojourning” (qiaoyu in Beijingat the time of their writing. Lu Xun also refers to them as qiaoyu wenxue de zuozhe20 Chen Yu-shih, Realism and Allegory in the Early Fiction of Mao Tun (Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press, 1986): 2.21 Lu Xun edited a collection of short stories by Xu Qinwen, the publication of which turned the authorovernight into a literary success. (Howard Goldblatt, “Lu Xun and Patterns of Literary Sponsorship,” in LeoOu-fan Lee, ed., Lu Xun and his Legacy [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985]: 209.)22 Lu Xun, Introduction, Da xi, 4: 8-10.23 Ibid. 8.24 Ibid. 10.Nativism Chap. One27jj’(sojourner-narrators) for this reason. Lu Xun’s discussion of these writers is thedefmitive one for this period ofxiangtu wenxue:Jian Xian’ai describes Guizhou, Fei Wenzhong is concerned withYuzhou. Whoever in Beijing writes what is in his heart, no matterwhether this writer describes himself as objective or subjective, inactuality, he is the author of xiangtu wenxue. Where Beijing isconcerned, this is the “sojourner-narrator.” However, this is not whatG. Brandes refers to as “exile literature,” because what is sojourning isonly the writer himself and not the works of this writer. For thisreason, we see only the fleeting appearance of nostalgia in the works ofthese writers; only rarely does the ambiance of the alien land ring forth aresponse from the reader or flash before the reader’s eyes. Xu Qinwengave the title of Guxiang to his first collection of short stories, andunknowingly, he thus ranked himself as a xiangtu zuojia. However,before he could begin to write xiangtu wenxue, he was banished fromhis rural home, his livelihood compelling him to go off to otherplaces... 25It is remarkable that while Lu Xun failed to notice one important aspect of thesewriters-- the fact that they were speaking out en masse about rural conditions-- he paidsuch a great deal of attention to the fact that they moved away from their rural homesbecause of economic privation. I maintain that the primary reason for this stems from thematerial circumstances of Lu Xun’s own background and his experiences living away fromChina in Japan,which had a profound effect on the course of his creativity. The similarityof the conditions in Lu Xun’s life and in the lives of these writers of xiangtu wenxue ledLu Xun to identity, or at least, to empathise with them. Lu Xun’s own family backgroundis well-known. His family suffered economic decline due to the imprisonment of his greatgrandfather, and this led to his decision to enroll in the Kiangnan (Jiangnan) NavalAcademy in Nanjing rather than to pursue an official career.26 The course of this decisionfinally took Lu Xun to Japan where he spent seven years as a “voluntary self-exile” and25 Ibid. 9.26 Leo Ou-fan Lee, Voices from the iron House: A Study ofLu Xun (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,1987): 9.Nathrism Chap. One28lone patriot.27 Lu Xun’s epiphany in Japan led him to reject medicine in favour of writingliterature. He relates that one day in his biology class he saw a slide show in which aChinese accused of working as a spy for the Russians was about to be decapitated by theJapanese military. The Chinese prisoner was surrounded by a crowd of apathetic Chinesespectators who had gathered to watch the event. Lu Xun’s reaction to this scene,particularly to the spirit of the spectators, was one of profound horror. He concluded thatrather than heal the physical body of the Chinese, it was more important to “transform theirspirit” and this, he felt, could only be accomplished through literature.28The xiangtu zuojia also underwent some fairly traumatic experiences while theywere sojourning in Beijing. This also affected the course of their creativity. In the firstplace, they were exposed to the events and currents of May Fourth which were thensweeping through the capital29 and which were the determining factor in the developmentof their humanist outlook. Besides the debates on science, democracy and socialism, therewas also Li Dazhao’s summons to “go to the villages” which, however, was fairlysuperfluous where these writers were concerned.3027 Ibid. 15, 19.28 Lu Xun relates his decision as follows:Before the academic year was over, I had already left for Tokyo; for, I felt henceforwardthat medicine was not such an important matter. An ignorant and weak people, howeverstrong and healthy they may be, can be no more than senseless raw material or audiencefor the executioner; and it is not necessarily deplorable that many of them should die ofillness. Thus, the first work of importance is to transform their spirit. Since I wascertain at the time that literature was the best means to this end, I decided to promote aliterary movement. (Lu Xun, Na han, zixu, Lu Xun quanji [Renmin wenxue chubanshe,19811, 1: 416-417, quoted in Lu Yu-sheng 107.)29 Dai Guangzhong, “Qiaoyuzhe de huailian: Lue lun ershi niandai de ‘xiangtu wenxue,” Tianjin shidaxuebao, 1 (1986): 64.30 Li Dazhao’s summons is the subject of a poem by Xu Yuruo as follows:In this pride and luxury-seeking world,There are some calling out: “Go to the people,” “1j .“.We appreciate their good intention, 1t!1PiJ ,But actually our brothers already all “come from the people.” 1B 1P iJ 57Nativism Chap. One29There was another, darker side to these writers’ experience in Beijing which alsoechoed Lu Xun’s experiences in Japan. They found their surroundings harsh andinhospitable, and some reacted with repulsion. They were also filled with homesicknesswhich prompted them to turn back psychologically to the sanctity of their old homes. LuXun recalls Jian Xian’ai’s terrible homesickness in Beijing in which he conflates hiscountry home with memories of his childhood.31I... came to Beijing from far-off Guizhou, and in the midst of this sandand dust and feeling very confused, I have passed almost seven years.This cannot be said to be a short time, but how I have spent this time isbeyond my recall. Day after day passes quickly by and the images ofchildhood become indistinct like the morning mist which spirals away andvanishes until all that is left me is a feeling of emptiness and aloneness.For the last while, except for the few poems and pseudo short storieswritten in the last couple of years, what else have I done? Each and everymemory plucks desolately at my heart, so I have decided to print thiscollection of short stories ... as a means of remembering the lovely yearsof my childhood from which I have been separated.32Besides nostalgia, there were other reasons for the writers of xiangtu wenxue toturn back psychologically to the village. Writers such as Xu Qinwen, Wang Luyan andJian Xian’ai, for instance, arrived too late in Beijing to participate fully in the May Fourthintellectual scene; instead, they found themselves stranded on the beach after the maincurrents of thought had passed.33 When the May Thirtieth Incident erupted in 1925,they, along with other intellectuals such as Lu Xun, were deeply affected by despair over(Xiaoshuoyuebao, 14: 6 [1923].)31 The narrative patterns of the xiangtu zuojia-- the fact that they came from rural backgrounds and moved to theurban centres where they wrote fiction about their homes and that they conflated their homes with memoriesof childhood or with other images-- are the main features distinguishing xiangtu wenxue from the similarChinese genre of “peasant fiction” (nongmin wenxue).32 Jian Xian’ai, “Chao wu,” quoted by Lu Xun in Da xi: 8. Lu Xun’s empathy with the homesicknesssuffered by the xiangtu zuojia stems in all likelihood from his own sense as a “voluntary self-exile”living in Japan. The element of nostalgia is an important motif in Lu Xun’s “My Old Home.”Dai64.Nativism Chap. One30this incident. Still others were repulsed by Beijing because of its degradation anddarkness which are the subjects of Wang Luyan’s “Sorrows of the Autumn Rain” (Qiuyude suku, The writers of the Creation Society, by contrast, wereengaged in positively depicting the lifestyle of the urban centres and disparaged therusticity of the villages-- a tendency which led Lu Xun to deprecate the works of theSociety as stories about “sexual love and urban darkness.”35 Mao Dun also praised thewriters ofxiangtu wenxue for enlarging the range of subject matter in literature from theindividual concerns, such as those expressed in the works of the Creation society, tosociety at large.36 The contrast in subject matter between these two groups of writers--those of the urban-based Creation Society and the ruralist writers of xiangtu wenxue-paralleled the growing split between the urban and the rural which increasinglycharacterized China’s twentieth century geophysical landscape. This split, incidentally,also characterized the development of twentieth-century Chinese literature. In conclusion,the conflicting emotions the writers of xiangtu wenxue experienced in Beijing became thesource for the motifs of separation and nostalgia which lie at the heart of the narrativeconfiguration of xiangtu wenxue. This configuration runs like a leitmotif throughout themany different types xiangtu wenxue in subsequent periods of Chinese literary history.In this essay, Wang Luyan castigates the urbanites for their love of money and their apathy,despairing that “The earth is filthy, everywhere is darkness, everywhere is odious.” ft! :r IJjIJ j3J. (Wang Luyan, “Qiuyu de suku, in Shen Sixiang, ed., Luyan sanwen xuanji 36.)With few exceptions, Wang Luyan’s works anthologized in the currently available collections are all undated.Wang’s disillusionment can also be traced to his lack of worldliness which would otherwise have enabled himto cope with the “modern” (modeng) lifestyle of the city.Lu Xun disparaged the Creation Society as made up of “wits and vagabonds.” (Lu Xun, “Shanghai wenyi zhiyi pie,” Lu Xun quanji, 4: 296.)36 Mao Dun, Introduction, 3: 12.Nativism Chap. One31Lu Xun and the Rise of Xiangtu wenxueLu Xun’s conceptual and stylistic influences on the 1920s’ decade of xiangtu wenxuebegan with the publication of his short story “My Old Home” which is set in the Chinesecountryside.37 Xiangtu wenxue can thus be said to begin with him. Prior to this there weremany stories depicting Chinese village life; none, however, were as influential in the formationof a ruralist trend.As is the case in xiangtu wenxue, “My Old Home” is characterized by narratorialelements of nostalgia and separation, though in “My Old Home” the urbanized narrator is notjust describing his village from afar but has returned to his village home.38 There he comesface-to-face with the village’s economic decline and the dark forces of ignorance andsuperstition which have claimed the heart and mind of his childhood companion, Runtu. Thenarrator ends his visit in despair on behalf of his former companion. This despair has alsobeen engendered from his sense of the futility of hope in never being able to bridge the gapbetween himself and the rural world he has left behind.37 Zhao Xiaqiu, “Liuyuzhe zhigen xiangye de wenxue: lue lun ershi niandai de ‘xiangtu wenxue’,” in Zhongguoxiandai wenxue lunwenji, Yan Jiayan, et al, eds., (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1986): 375.Lu Xun based fourteen of his short stories in the Chinese countryside, which Leo Lee contendsconstitutes a “microcosm of rural Chinese society” in Lu Xun’s works. The characters in this rural setting,such as Ah Q, are both individualistic and representational. (Leo Lee 60.)One Chinese critic maintains that Lu Xun’s style contains three xiangtu wenxue elements. These are asfollows: his description of natural scenery and local customs (xiangfeng Jj,) his use of dialect (xiang yinand his element of nostalgia (xiang qing ). (Li Yukun, “Lu Xun-- xiangtu wenxue de dianjizhe,”Hebei shfan daxue xuebao, 3 [1986]: 14-17.)38 The return of the narrator to his country village does not appear as a theme in the 1920s’ decade of xiangtuwenxue. It is, however, an important part of the narrative structure of the fiction of Mo Yan , a memberof the post-1979 generation of Chinese writers, for example, Mo Yan’s”White Dog and the Swing” (Bai gouqiuqian jia, 1985) and “Red Sorghum” (Hong gaoliang, 1987).Nativism Chap. One32In the following discussion, I have chosen three anti-traditionalist motifs or themes in severalstories by Lu Xun which exercized a selective influence on xiangtu wenxue. These are: thetraditional Chinese oppression of women (“New Year’s Sacrifice”) the superstitions and bizarrecustoms and rituals of the rural areas (“Medicine” [Yao, 1919]) and, to a lesser extent, theapathy and ignorance of the Chinese national character (“The True Story of A Q” [A Q zhengzhuanI31iJQ .EIL 1921]). These themes, which exemplify Lu Xun’s iconoclastic attitude towardChinese culture,were emulated by these writers. Lin Yu-sheng theorizes that Lu Xun and twoother May Fourth intellectuals, Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi, all adopted the attitude that China’s“liberation” could only be accomplished through a “total, fundamental break with the entire culturaland social order of [China’s] past.”39 These thinkers envisioned a transformation of the Chineseworld view and the reconstruction of the traditional Chinese mentality”40 which would emergefrom this break.Lin Yu-sheng calls the approach of these intellectuals “cultural intellectualist” because of itsprivileging of culture over other factors such as the economy in bringing about social change.4’This attitude, again according to Lin, is rooted in a deep-seated traditional Chinese predisposition,one of the manifestations of which is the belief in the power of conscious ideas in transforminghuman life.42 In the thought of Lu Xun and Chen Duxiu this approach had the potential ofevolving into a “holistic” way of perceiving Chinese culture which could then become a weaponfor iconoclastic totalism. An example of Lu Xun’s holistic way of thinking was his perception of39 Benjamin J. Schwartz, Forward, Lin Yu-sheng, The Crisis of Chinese Consciousness: ix.40 Lin Yu-sheng, The Crisis of Chinese Consciousness 26.‘ Ibid. 26, 28.42 This belief characterized the intellectual outlook of the Qing thinkers Kang Youwei and Yen Fu. KangYouwei was one of the leaders of the reform movement of 1898. Yan Fu was China’s first great thinker tocarry out a systematic translation into Chinese of Western writers such as Herbert Spenser, Adam Smith andJohn Stuart Mill. He believed that the importation of these ideas into China was a necessary corollary forChina’s search for “wealth and power.” (See Benjamin Schwartz, In Searchfor Wealth and Power: Yen Fuand the West [Harvard University Press, 1964]).Nativism Chap. One33Chinese culture as a disease infected by the traditional Chinese mind which must first be cured inorder to cure the body politic.The logic of Lu Xun’s approach engendered a deep sense of pessimism in him which,however, was not shared by other thinkers nor, as I stated above, is it shared by thisgeneration of writers of xiangtu wenxue.43 Lu Xun’s pessimism is revealed in hisdiscussions about his fiction in his preface to A Call to Arms (Nahan DJIIJ) in which heformulates his metaphor of the iron house and in the contradictions in his fiction. Lu Xun’sinability to reject certain Chinese moral ideals, notwithstanding his iconoclastic totalism, was akey factor in his intellectual tensions. His validation of the notion of filiality which is a pivotalmotif of “In the Wine Shop” (Zaijiulou shang j1J 1924) reflects his mentality of“cherishing old ties” (nianjiu which was a major source of intellectual tensions forhim.45My discussion of xiangtu wenxue begins with its Lu Xun-lilce cultural iconoclasm,reproduced through the motifs of the traditional oppression of women, the strange rituals ofthe rural areas and the Chinese national character. I begin with the first of these issues as it isphilosophically treated through the character of Xianglin Sao.Xianglin Sao’s tragedy in “New Year’s Sacrifice” stems from China’s superstitious wayof thought which is scrutinized in the story. The narrative relates how Xianglin Sao isLin Yu-sheng theorizes that Lu Xun’s despair resulted from the “logic of [his] holistic demand forintellectual and spiritual revolution” and his failure to rise above this logic. (Lin Yu-sheng, “The Morality ofMind and Immorality of Politics: Reflections on Lu Xun, the Intellectual, Lu Xun and his Legacy :109.)44 Lu Xun relates his metaphor as follows:Imagine an iron house without windows, absolutely indestructible, with many people fastasleep inside who will soon die of suffocation. But you know since they will die in theirsleep, they will not feel the pain of death. Now if you cry aloud to wake a few of thelighter sleepers, making those unfortunate few suffer the agony of irrevocable death, doyou think you are doing them a good turn? (Lu Xun, Na ha zixu 419 quoted fromSelected Stories ofLu Hsun Ir. Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang, [Peking, ForeignLanguages Press, 1960]: 5.)Lin Yu-sheng, The Crisis of Chinese Consciousness 149.Nativism Chap. One34shunned and ostracized by the village after becoming widowed a second time. She is viewedas the incarnation of bad luck and is compelled by custom to purchase a temple threshold (Juanmen/can to atone for her remarriage. Notwithstanding her attempts to redeem herselfXianglin Sao still ends her life in beggary and starvation.Lu Xun’s treatment of this issue is typically a liberal humanist one, which alsocharacterises the treatment of this issue in the majority of May Fourth fiction. Within thisdiscourse, the oppression of women is ranked with little consideration of ascendancy alongsidea host of other problems and abuses which are the symbolic tokens of a general system ofabuse. A feminist reading of this story would assert that this type of treatment violateswomen’s “textual difference,”46 that is, it fails to depict women’s oppression as arising solelyby virtue of gender differences. The critic David Der-wei Wang points out that Xianglin Sao isa symbol of the oppressed Chinese masses, which, he maintains, stems from the “old traditionof using women’s predicament as a projection of social or political abuses.”47 ThoughWang’s interpretation is slightly different from mine, the implication is the same: the reform ofthe Chinese social system is seemingly of more value than the reform of issues solelyconcerning women.Tai Jingnong’s”Candle Flame” (Zhuyen 1926)48 is similarly an account ofthe thematic oppression of a woman which also results from the belief in a Chinese46 The linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure, maintains that language is a differential network of meaning, that is,there is no self-evident or one-to-one link between “signifier” and “signified” (the word as [spoken or written]vehicle and the concept it serves to evoke.) Jacques Derrida took this concept one step further by stating thatmeaning is achieved through the “free play of the signifier,” that is, the open-ended play between the presenceof one signifier and the absence of others. With the field of signification thrown wide open, writing ortextuality breaks open the prison house of patriarchal language allowing for the emergence of women’s“textual difference.” (Christopher Norris, Deconstruction: Theory & Practice [London and New YorlcMethuen, 1982]: 24; Toni Moi, Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory [London and New York:Methuen, 19851: 106, 107.)“ David Der-wei Wang, “Feminist Consciousness in Modern Chinese Male Fiction,” in Michael S. Duke, ed.,Modern Chinese Women Writers: Critical Appraisals (New York :M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1989): 248-249.48 This story is anthologized in Tai Jingnong, Di zhi zi, jiantazhe (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1984):42-48.Nativism Chap. One35superstition, in this case, chongxi 4 (lit. “event of great joy”). Like “New Year’sSacrifice,” the superstition is foregrounded in the narrative, which serves to shift attentionaway from the actual act of the woman’s oppression. Cui’er, the female protagonist in thestory, becomes engaged to the young, ailing son of a wealthy family as a result of the family’sbelief that a marriage arranged on their son’s behalf will drive away his bad luck and hasten hisrecovery. Cui’er is doubly victimized by this arrangement because she is widowed a few daysafter being married and is subsequently forced to comply with the traditional taboo againstremarriage. “Candle Flame” is a mixture of patriarchal language and superstitions which throwup a smokescreen hiding the true meaning of Cui’er’s fate as a woman without separaterights.49Women’s oppression is treated in a similar way in a couple of other stories of this period,in which the focal point is not superstitions per se but local customs or practices. Xu Jie’s“The Luck of the Gambler” (Dutu jishun 1925),50 for instance, is an account ofwife pawning (dian qi ) in which a man is compelled to pawn his wife in order toredeem a gambling debt. The object of condemnation in the story, however, is not the fact thatwives are little more than the property of their husbands to be disposed of at will so much asdissolute village life.Traditionally in China, the birth of a daughter was not welcomed because a daughter will marry out andbecome the property of her husband’s family. Cui’er’s father is referring to this attitude when he states:“Ultimately, our daughter belongs to that family [lit., “other people”].” J. (TaiJingnong 44.)The image of the red bridle candles, which symbolize marriage in the story, function to shift the reader’sattention away from Cui’er’s oppression to the realm of Chinese superstitions. Cui’er’s mother lights a pairof red candles prior to Cui’er’s departure for her husband’s home in the bridal palanquin. Suddenly the candleon the left glows dim as though blown by a gust of wind. This is interpreted by the villagers as an evilomen signifying that the groom will soon die. The candle on the right, on the other hand, continuouslytrembles and weeps which, according to village interpretation, portends Cui’er’s unhappy fate after the deathof her husband. (Tai Jingnong 47.)50 Anthologized in Da xi, 3: 422-446.Nativism Chap. One36In Wang Luyan’s “Marriage” (Chujia n.d.), 51 the custom of posthumousmarriage (ming hun a custom which can still be seen in present-thy Taiwan, issimilarly held accountable for the fate of this young woman. Juying in the story has died at theage of seven or eight years, but ten years after her death her mother still insists on carrying outher “marriage.” The noisy farce as it is related in the story is tinged with irony:The first to pass were two women who were giving away the bride. Alarge, red silken cloth was draped over the back of each. After thesewomen had gone the distance of half a ii, the procession arrived at itsdestination. At the head of the procession was a large lantern on which waswritten a red character. Behind the lantern were eight banners and eightbuglers. Following this was a long line of carefully constructed, real-looking paper children of various colours, paper maids, paper horses, papersedan chairs, paper tables, paper chairs, paper boxes, paper rooms, andmany utensils made of paper. Behind this were a drum bassinet, twocarrying poles of paper dowry displays and two carrying poles of realdowry displays. After the displays came a tower-like incense urn, and afterthis, Juying’s palanquin. This was not the same as the usual bridalpalanquin; instead of being red, it was blue, decorated colourfully aroundthe edges. A dozen or so pallbearers followed after the palanquin, bearingup a heavy coffin in which Juying’s corpse lay. The coffin was on a squareframe which was hung with a red woolen blanket decorated around theedges. Finally, a troupe of children came after the coffm, two sitting on thepalanquin, the others walking, ready to retreat at the half-way point.52On a symbolic level, this ceremony represents the continued enslavement of women, evenafter death.The final story I have selected for discussion in this section about women is XuQinwen’s “Mad Woman” (Feng fu Ji[, l923). This is a narrative about a mother-inlaw/daughter-in-law relationship which has turned sour ostensibly due to the behaviour of51“Juying’s Marriage” is anthologized in Wang Luyan, Lu Yan duanpian xiaoshuoji (Shanghai: Kaimingshudian,1947): 205-215.52 Ibid. 209-210.This story is anthologized in Xu Qinwen, Xu Qinwen xiaoshuoji (Hangzhou: Zhejiang wenyichubanshe, 1984): 52-58.Nativism Chap. One37the daughter-in-law: Shuangxi’s wife, according to her mother-in-law, is wasteful becauseshe serves up too many fancy dishes for the enjoyment of her mother-in-law. One day thedaughter-in-law has a vision of her husband who is away at sea, and she loses a sieveful ofrice she has taken to the river to wash. Her mother-in-law’s treatment of her worsens afterthis incident, and she eventually falls insane and dies.54 The cause of the daughter-in-law’s demise is not fully accounted for in the story, but it can be better understood if wetake into consideration the strains which have traditionally characterized the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship in Chinese society and the relative powerlessness ofwomen in Chinese patriarchal society. It is popularly known that Chinese mothers-in-lawabuse their daughters-in-law despite, or because of, the fact that they were similarly abusedas daughters-in-law. The difficulties of this relationship are aggravated by the relativepowerlessness of women within the Chinese family and can be aggravated even further bythe absence of grandsons. If Shuangxi’s wife had produced a son, he could haveaugmented the status of his mother in the eyes of her mother-in-law which would haveaccorded her a certain amount of protection.Besides the issue of women, some writers of xiangtu wenxue expressed their culturaliconoclasm through the motif of the bizarre and often destructive customs of China’s ruralareas and the ignorance and superstitions which fuel these customs. In this set of stories,the mode of expression of this motif is derived from the concept of the spiritual disease asLu Xun formulated it in “Medicine.” The belief that imbibing human blood can curetuberculosis which is the basis of “Medicine” is echoed in Tai Jingnong’s “Tian BrotherThe theme of women and insanity is also a theme in a piece of xiangtu wenxue from the JapaneseOccupation period in Taiwan entitled “Wealth, Sons, Longevity” (Cai zi shou, 1942) by the writer LU Heruof. Village rumour in this story attributes the insanity of the daughter-in-law to superstitious belief, inthis case xiang chong [J] 3ci , the belief that coming in contact with a dead person, passing by a cemetery,etc., at a time when a person is particularly vulnerable, may induce illness, insanity or even death. Accordingto the narrative structure, however, Yumei’s insanity results from puerperal fever which she had contractedafter her in-laws denied her food. The withdrawal of food was their punative treatment of her for producing adaughter instead of a son.Nativism Chap. One38Number Two” (Tian er ge 1926) in which the protagonist believes that alcoholcan cure all manner of disease and that urine can relieve inebriation. The eventualexpiration of the protagonist in this story is attributed to a large amount of alcohol and twolarge bowls of urine which his belief had prompted him to imbibe as medication.Jian Xian’ai’s “Water Funeral” (Shui zang Jc, 1926)56 is an account of a differentkind of custom but one which is also symptomatic of the disease syndrome. This storyrecalls Lu Xun’s portrait of the apathetic nature of the Chinese national character and theignorant crowd mentality which figure in a number of his stories. According to a Chinesecritic, the custom depicted in “Water Funeral” is a regional custom that appears only inQianbei, Guizhou, and he maintains that the suffering imposed by this type of customstems from traditional “feudal” China.57 This custom, however, also figures as thesubject matter in Shen Congwen’s “Qiaoxiu and Dongsheng” (Qiaoxiu he Dongsheng I5J4, 1947)58 set in Hunan twenty years later and is thus more universal than this criticmaintains. The significance of this custom lies first and foremost in the absence of auniversal legal system in China, the apathy and ignorance of the Chinese national characterand, in the case of “Qiaoxiu and Dongsheng,” Chinese traditional misogyny.“Water Funeral” is a description of the penalty of enforced drowning which isimposed on a young man called Luomao who is accused of committing theft. In a separatestatement, han Xian’ai made the following comment about the absence of habeas corpusin the village where this event took place: “The civilized Tong Village had never had avillage head or other such designation. There was therefore no need to pass judgement onAnthologized in Da xi, 4: 417-421.56 Anthologized in XX, 1:103-108.57 Li Yukun, “Jianlun ershi niandai de xiangtu wenxue,” Hebei shfan daxue xuebao (supplementary issue 1986):63.58“Qiaoxiu and Dongsheng” is an account of a young widow who is accused of violating the practice ofchastity expected of widows in traditional China. She is sentenced to drown in a lake.Nativism Chap. One39the criminal: the sentence could be carried out in private. The sentence of shui zang leviedagainst thieves has been in existence in the village since ancient times.”59 The author’smoral stance in this statement is ambiguous: it is unclear if he is in fact condemning thiscustom or condoning it as a historical relic. The narrative stance of “Water Funeral,”however, is clearer.The omniscient narrator in “Water Funeral” relates that Luomao is compelled bycircumstance to steal. He is subsequently sentenced to drown in a river. The villagersexcitedly flock to the river to watch this event just like the crowds in “A Q zhengzhuan”who gather to watch A Q’s execution. The spectators are devoid of even one ounce ofcompassion for the victim of this custom; on the contrary, one even confesses that he findsit “more interesting than the ‘Western mirror’ from Sichuan.” 1b)II “60 There are other shades of A Qism in “Water Funeral” when Lomao shouts out onthe road taking him to his death: “After a few years I shall be another stout young fellow!”“61 Luomao’s shout, however, stems less from thedesire for an A Q type of spiritual victory than from the narrator’s moral outrage at thebarbarity of this custom.At the conclusion of “Water Funeral,” Luomao’s mother anxiously awaits her son inthe doorway of their home, wondering why he does not return. This motif of motherhoodin “Water Funeral” attracted the attention of Lu Xun who commented as follows: “WaterFuneral’ reveals for us this rural custom of far-off, ancient Guizhou and the greatness ofQuoted in Wang Hongru, “Jian Xian’ai bixia de Qianbei fengqing,” Shan hua, November, 1984: 79.60 Jian Xian’ai 104.The “Western mirror” is probably a reference to the Western motion picture.61 Jian 105.Ah Q shouted Out the phrase “In twenty years I shall be another stout young fellow” on the way to hisexecution. (“Ah Q zhengzhuan,” Lu Xun quanji, 1: 526.). This phrase was often yelled by criminalsprior to execution to show their scorn of death.Nativism Chap. One40maternal love in the midst of this cruelty.” “)J(” j1PLji]’‘ i*fli”*t62 Leo Lee has analyzed Lu Xun’sconflicting attitude concerning motherhood and filiality in connection with “In the WineShop.” He maintains that the sustained dialogue between the protagonist and the narratorin this story is a “fictional dramatization”63 of the author’s attempts to sort out his innerferment, that is, the contradiction between his totalistic iconoclasm and his mentality of“cherishing old ties.” In brief, Lu Weifu in the story is unable to resolve his rejection ofthe past with his attitude of filiality. There is no such contradiction in “Water Funeral,”however, primarily because the notion of “cherishing old ties” is not central to thenarration. In short, the validation of certain traits in the Chinese cultural order on the partof these writers only signified a relatively less involved, more objective and scientificengagement with Chinese cultural problems and a selective rejection of Chinese culture.What is of greater historical value is the question of whether Jian Xian’ai and other writersbelieved in the power of the rural masses to foment social change and whether literaturecould play a role in this change. Jian Xian’ai’s antitraditionalism is like Chen Duxiu’s:there is little apparent contradiction between his recognition of certain areas of Chinesetraditionalism and his totalistic iconoclasm.MThere is one final area of the culture theme in these works which is absent in theworks of Lu Xun, and this is traditional Chinese familism.65 The unquestioning, blindacceptance of clan authority is the focus of Peng Jiahuang’s “Instigation” (Songyong62 Lu Xun, Introduction 8.63 Lee64.64 Despite his iconoclasm, Chen Duxiu recognized certain positive values in the Confucian tradition. (Lin Yüsheng 80.)65 Famiism does not figure as a separate theme in the fiction of Lu Xun. This may be due to hisemulation of his mother and his attitude of filiality, reflected in the fact that Lu Xun adopted his mother’ssurname of Lu as his penname.Nativism Chap. One41n.d.)66 in which family authority is the source for the intra-clan factionalism between thetwo clans of Niu and Feng. This story narrates that when the age-old feud between thetwo clans starts up again, Er Niang, the wife of Zhengping in the story, must follow clanorders and be buried alive with a pair of dead swine. Er Niang subsequently attemptssuicide, and while she is unconscious she is stripped of her trousers in order to expeditethe practice of “tong qi 5(channe1ing of air) which will supposedly bring her round.67This is an act which robs her of face and turns the uncomprehending couple into the objectof clan mockery. Xu Jie’s “Gloomy Fog” (Can wu 1924)68 similarly narratesanother instance of blind obedience to clan authority. In this case, obedience results in theengagement in vifiage warfare between the Yu Hu and Huan Xi Villages over the rights todevelop an islet. The story concludes with many people dead. The theme of clan authorityin these two works reflects the persistence of the more severe and repressive aspects oftraditional familism in the interior parts of China, a theme which was also adopted by MayFourth writers.69In sum, the existential state of China’s masses in the decade of the 1920s wasexamined by certain writers of xiangtu wenxue through the lens of culture. This factorwas used by these writers to explain the oppression of women, the persistence of strangecustoms which cripple the national consciousness and the apathy and “feudal” mentality ofChina’s peasant masses. This paradigm reflects the legacy of Lu Xun and the profundityof his approach in explaining China’s problems. At the same time, other writers preferred66 Anthologized in Da xi, 3: 482-498. This is an example of a story written with a high degree of dialect,which is an important feature distinguishing xiangtu wenxue from the Europeanized May Fourth literature.67 This obscene practice is directed at the anus and is carried out through the use of a pair of bellows inthe belief that the increased supply of oxygen would bring the victim round.68 Anthologized in XX, I: 25-59.69 Famiism is the central theme, for instance, of Ba Jin’s Jia (Family, 1931).Nativism Chap. One42to explain China’s rural crisis through a totally different set of problems, to which I nowturn.The second set of xiangtu wenxue stories-- those which attribute China’s rural crisisto natural, political and economic factors-- resulted from the education these writersacquired while they were in Beijing. In brief, this came about from the currents of thoughton scientism and various political concepts to which they were exposed and whichultimately came to determine their perception. In this set of stories, the peasants areconstantly victimized not by culture but by bandits, soldiers, landlord oppression and badeconomics.Prior to examining these stories I wish to first mention the mode of characterization inthese works because this can give us a better understanding of the mentality of thesewriters, and it also takes us back to Mao Dun’s attempts to classify xiangtu wenxue asrevolutionary literature. The characters in these stories are generally depicted in an ironicor low mimetic mode, which is also the mode of a great deal of May Fourth fiction. Withinthis mode, the characters are governed by a sense of powerlessness and a kind of cosmic,Daoist fate which circumscribes their lives.70 Contrary to Mao Dun’s assertion, this fateis not one which indoctrination into the revolutionary cause can ameliorate.Traditionally in Chinese literature, especially poetry, the peasant was a fairly commontopic of representation, and his or her depiction is either heroic (mythic, romantic, mimetic)or ironic (satiric or non-heroic) depending on whether the poet praised or criticized thefanning situation.71 These two basic poetic constructs became models for latergenerations of writers and continue to serve as models in twentieth century fiction.70 M. H. Abrams defines “cosmic irony” as a trope in which “God, or destiny, or the process of theuniverse, is represented as though deliberately manipulating events so as to lead the protagonist to falsehopes, only to frustrate and mock them.” (Abrams, A Glossary ofLiterary Terms 94.)The Daoist concept of the cosmos is that of an “unfeeling universe” (tiandi bu ren.).71 Stephen Lee Field, “Taking up the Plow: Real and Ideal Versions of the Farmer in Chinese Literature,”diss, U of Texas at Austin, 1985, 2.Nativism Chap. One43Nonetheless, it still took the new thought of the May Fourth generation, steeped in“democracy” and “socialism,” to expose the roots of peasant oppression. The xiangtuzuofla, in particular, embraced this mission, and, as a consequence, the non-heroic orironic mode became their mode of depicting peasant life.Some stories in this group define the fate of rural families in terms of the vulnerabilityof their marginal existence. This is easily upset by any natural or human disaster such asdrought or illness or arrest, and in some cases, the family is even destroyed. TaiJingnong’s “Worms” (QiuyinmenI1P, 1926)72 is an account of a peasant, Li Xiao,who led a happy and abundant life until a drought year destroyed his life. A similar themeis repeated in Wang Sidian’s “Paralysis” (Pianku j1T, 1922) in which Liu Si was auseful farmer, well respected by the community, until a stroke forced him to sell hischildren and compelled his wife to work as a wet-nurse. In these stories, the peasants’delicate balance of existence is destroyed by natural or external factors.Wang Renshu’s “The Exhausted One” (NbeitheJj ,1925) presents avariation on this theme. The peasant Yunyang, who is one of the more defiant charactersin all of xiangtu wenxue, spends his entire life labouring for others but his home is nevermore than a broken-down old temple. One day he is accused by his neighbour of stealingtwo yuan. In his defense, he claims instead that his money has been stolen from him. Hecalculates as follows: “During these twenty years in which I have worked, I have earnedten yuan a year, so I should have two hundred yuan. I just don’t know who stole this twohundredyuan from me.” , ±,t ZThjJ.4]J!75 This infuriates the gentry presiding over the case who72 Anthologized in Da xi, 4: 434-440.‘ Anthologized in Da xi, 3: 304-308.Anthologized in XX, 1: 84-94.‘ Wang Renshu 93.Nativism Chap. One44recommends a charge of thievery to the magistrate. Consequently, Yunyang is thrown intoprison for one year and the plaintiff lands a job as investigator. Upon his release, Yunyangbecomes a beggar, ironically pondering his good fortune in finding himself a newlivelihood.“Stone Quarry” (Shidang, 1926)76 by Xu Qinwen is a grisly story about anothertype of disaster shattering the peasants’ marginal existence. This is one of the earliest shortstories about labourers, in this case, rock-gatherers whose dangerous occupation compels themto gather rocks from a mountain quarry. Through the course of their work, the rock-gathererseither become ill because of their occupation or are buried alive by rockfall. The climax of“Stone Quarry” occurs when a group of rock-gatherers are trapped under a boulder and cannotbe rescued by friends and relatives. The latter can only stand by helplessly as the victimsslowly die of starvation. After two days, the call of “Help!” can still be heard issuing fromunder the boulder, arid it was “so tragic that the villagers no longer had the courage to gothere.” EI] With no other means oflivelihood, however, the gatherers once again climb back up to the other side of the mountainin order to continue to gather rocks. The peasants suffer in this story not because of ignoranceor pigheadedness, such as Lao Tong Bao in Mao Dun’s “Spring Sillcworms” (1932) butbecause their paucity of skills does not provide them with the means to a better existence.There is a strong sentiment of fatality in “Stone Quarry” which impels those involved into astoic acceptance of their fate.Other writers ofxiangtu wenxue attributed the deepening crisis of the peasants in the1920s to China’s political situation. The peasants in these stories are victimized either bywarlords contending for power, soldiers, bandits or landlords, and this is the case in Xu76 Anthologized in XX, 1: 109-112.XuQinwen 112.Nativism Chap. One45Yu’nuo’s “An Old, Worn-out Shoe” (Yi zhi p0 xie 1924).Th The peasant in thisstory, Hai Shushu, is cut down by bandits after visiting his nephew who is studying in anearby school. Hal Shushu is left calling for help for three days in the wilderness and is thendevoured by a pack of wild dogs. At the end, there is nothing left but an old shoe to serve as atoken of the peasant’s miserable death. I stated above that many of these pieces of xiangtuwenxue are simple, linear narratives featuring an image or set of images. The image of theold, worn shoe in this story symbolizes the empty, miserable lot of the peasants whom fate andthe nation have abandoned. “An Old, Worn-out Shoe” is based on the northern village andpeasants of Lu Shan and makes strong use of the northern dialect, as do other works by XuYu’nuo.79Tai Jingnong’s “New Grave” (Xin fen J, 1926),80 on the other hand, is an accountof the destruction of a family by soldiers. In this story, a well-to-do widow, Si Taitai, islooking forward to the day when her sons and daughters can get married and establishthemselves. Unfortunately, a mutiny brings death to her daughter who is first raped bysoldiers then killed by them, and her son is killed by gunshot. At the conclusion of “NewGrave” the widow loses her sanity and commits suicide. The sufferings of the widow in“New Grave” are like the sufferings of Hardy’s Tess-- they are the result of the ironicmanipulation of fate. The symbolic significance of the image of the “new grave” needs littleelaboration.Landlord and gentry oppression are the reasons for ruin in Xu Yu’nuo’s “MyGrandfather’s Story” (Zufu de gushij ., 1923).81 The grandfather in this storywas once strong and able to withstand great hardship. However, he loses his fertile fields to78 Anthologized in XX, 1: 60-83.‘9 Liu Jixian, “Lun Xu Yuruo xiangtu xiaoshuo de tese,” Zhengzhou daxue xuebao (1985), 3: 101.80 Anthologized in Da xi, 4: 428-433.81 Anthologized in Da xi, 3: 350-358.Nativism Chap. One46the landlord and ends his life filled with sorrow and haired and his self-respect gone. This is apicture of an old peasant who has struggled a lifetime for an elusive security; it is also thedepiction, according to one critic, of a social system which must be overthrown.82The third and final factor for the bankruptcy of the rural areas is the economic factor.As mentioned above, Pan Xun’s “Rural Heart” belongs to this group. This story narrateshow the young carpenter, A Gui, has left his rural home where his father and brothers, allskilled carpenters, are encountering economic difficulty. In short, A Gui has run awayfrom a potentially bad fate in the countryside, one which would be exacerbated by hisfather’s intention to divide the family property so that the sons shoulder an equal share ofthe accumulated family debt.Lu Xun cites the economic factor in connection with two other stories, Xu Qinwen’s“My Father’s Garden” (Fuqin de huayuan , 1923) and Wang Luyan’s “Gold”(Huangjin l927). He states: “What troubles Xu Qinwen is that he has lost his‘father’s flower garden’ on earth. What vexes [Wang Luyan] is that he has left paradise onearth.” I”33E84 In the first story, the garden which was once flourishing is now adesolate ruin, and this ruin has been brought about by fmancial collapse.85 In “Gold,” onthe other hand, the protagonist Rushi Bobo was once a prosperous villager of Chensiqiaobut today he is destitute, a situation which has been engendered by his son’s failure to82 Liu Jixian 99.83 The first of these is anthologized in Da xi, 4: 265-267, the second in XX, 1: 113-129.84 Lu Xun, Introduction 10.85 On the subject of Xu Qinwen’s “Fuqin de huayuan,” Lu Xun states the following:Before [Xu Qinwen] started writing xiangtu wenxue, he was forced to leave his nativehome, his livelihood compelling him to go to other places where he could only reminisceabout the ‘flower garden of his father.’ Furthermore, it was a flower garden that no longerexisted, because it is more restful and comforting to think about those things that nolonger exist in one’s old home than those which clearly exist but which are beyond one’sgrasp. (Lu Xun Introduction 9.)Nativism Chap. One47remit money home. These short stories are reminiscent of the decline in the fortunes of LuXun’s own family which is related in “My Old Home.” In brief, all three writers areconcerned with the small producer and his bankruptcy which has been brought about byChina’s economic collapse.In conclusion, this second group of xiangtu wenxue stories represents a shift awayfrom the cultural determinism of Lu Xun to a positivist approach that is both historicist andphenomenological in its explanation of Chinese reality of the 1920s. This shift in theorientation of these writers signified the end of the “cultural-intellectualist” mode ofthinking which had defmed the Chinese category of thought since Kang Youwei and thebeginning of a new mode which was epistemologically more advanced. One critic evenmaintains that the materialist orientation in these stories is an outgrowth of social progressand the development of knowledge which account for the difference of the characters inthese xiangtu wenxue stories from Lu Xun’s.86 A Gui and Yunyang, for instance, exhibita greater ability to reason than Lu Xun’s Ah Q or Runtu; they are thus not afflicted by theChinese “spiritual disease” to the same degree as Lu Xun’s characters.The transition to the new orientation is very abrupt and is similar to theepistemological break which Michel Foucault theorizes marks the end of one epoch,discourse or “episteme”87 and ushers in a new one. This occurred, for instance, inEurope at the beginning of the classical age in the seventeenth century and the beginning ofthe modern age at the end of the eighteenth. Foucault is characterized as a philosopher ofdiscontinuity; nonetheless, his breaks also emphasize the continuity between epistemes in86 Li Yukun, Jian1un ershi niandai de xiangtu wenxue” 61-62.87 Michel Foucault’s discourse is a conceptual terrain in which knowledge is formed and linked to the exercise ofpower. The forms of discourse ensure the reproduction of the social system through selection, exclusion anddomination. Foucault writes of discourse as follows: “In every society, the production of discourse iscontrolled, organised, redistributed, by a certain number of procedures whose role is to ward off its powers anddangers, to gain mastery over its chance events, to evade its materiality.” (See, Michel Foucault, “The Orderof Discourse,” in Untying the Text: A Poststructuralist Reader, ed. Robert Young [Boston: Routledge &Kegan Paul, 1981]: 48-77.)Nativism Chap. One48which certain cognitive processes are merely rearranged, thus allowing for a greaterunderstanding of reality.88 The new discursive mode in this set ofxiangtu wenxuestories similarly does not represent a total change but is merely a new methodology throughwhich writers narrated Chinese reality. In the following discussion, I refer to this neworientation as the positivist mode, as opposed to the cultural-intellectualist mode of LuXun.The positivism of the new mode also indicated that this mode was essentially aWestern one. The West intruded on the Chinese cultural scene one hundred and fortyyears previously and set in motion a process of intellectual and cultural change whichaccompanied China’s move toward modernity. This intrusion resulted in the imposition ofthe unequal treaty system and extraterritoriality and reduced China to a position of semi-colonialism vis-a-vis the Western powers. The semi-colonialist context is reflected in themodes of realism and romanticism of May Fourth which were inherited from nineteenthcentury Europe and the Europeanized language of May Fourth. It is also apparent in thescientism of xiangtu wenxue’s positivist mode.Another important feature regarding this mode is the impact of Chinese nationalism.Chinese nationalism was engendered as a direct response to the Western intrusion andbrought forth a new hierarchy of values, one of the most fundamental features of which isthe privileging of the nation over other values and beliefs. This privileging of the nation isan important feature in the configuration of most of twentieth century Chinese literature, forexample, the devaluation of gender differences in Lu Xun’s “New Year’s Sacrifice,” and itremains a characteristic and enduring element of most forms of modern Chinese fiction.The appropriation of Chinese literature by the Communist revolution with its emphasis onthe nation occurred naturally as a result of this privileging.88 Karlis Racevskis, “Geneological Critique: Michel Foucault and the Systems of Thought,” in G. DouglasAtkins and Laura Morrow, eds., Contemporary Literary Theory (University of Massachusetts Press, 1989):231.Nativism Chap. One49One final point of discussion is the question of the relation of xiangtu wenxue to theChinese Communist revolution and whether xiangtu wenxue exhibits the programmatictendencies of Chinese revolutionary literature of the 1930s. I maintain, as I stated above,that this literature evinces little of a revolutionary ideology and that the characters in xiangtuwenxue also exhibit little revolutionary awareness of the environmental factorsinfluencing their lives. Yunyang in “The Exhausted One,” for instance, has littleknowledge that his situation has been engendered by class oppression; he only knows thathe should have an accumulated savings of two hundred yuan. A Gui also does not analyzehis situation from the perspective of a Marxist concept, such as the contradiction betweenthe country and the city. He merely evinces a vague awareness of the economic factors asa source of his woes. My conclusions regarding xiangtu wenxue are shared by themajority of Chinese critics in the secondary criticism, though for reasons different frommine. They aver that the writers of xiangtu wenxue “lament the misfortunes of thepeasants” but only rarely display “anger at the [peasants’] failure to struggle.”89 Thus they echo Mao Dun’s sentiment that xiangtu wenxue should evince arevolutionary zeal which would allow it to be classed as revolutionary literature. As Istated above, however, this is not possible. The critics also maintain that xiangtu wenxueexhibits certain deficiencies which arise from the fact that the xiangtu zuojia did notpersonally participate in the revolutionary struggles of the late 1920s and 1930s, and thusthey lack depth of understanding.9°One critic maintains that, as “petty-bourgeoiswriters,” their works are characterized by anxiety and depression, and thus they lack theidealism of the true proletarian writer.91 This argument is irrelevant, however, becausewith very few exceptions China to date has produced only very few “proletarian89 Dai Guangzhong 68.90 Shen Siheng, “Luyan de xiangtu xiaoshuo tanxi,” Wenxue pinglun, 5 (1984): 86.91 Ibid.Nativism Chap. One50writers.”92 There is one critic, on the other hand, who maintains that Yunyang representsa move away from critical realism to the revolutionary realism form which accompanied thesuccesses of the peasant movements in Kiangsi and Hunan.93 I do not agree with thisposition, however, as there is little to substantiate this in the literature. There is also littleevidence to substantiate the assertion by one critic that Lu Xun was dissatisfied with thexiangtu zuojia for their lack of revolutionary idealism.94 Lu Xun’s rejection of politicsand his denial of the concept of “revolutionary literature” is well-known.95 Xiangtuwenxue, on the other hand, is somewhat akin to the popular art form envisioned by QuQiubai because it reflects a real side of society and hints at the direction that reform ought to92 One such writer is Zhao Shuli who is discussed in Chapter Four.Xu Zhiying, Ni TingLing 78.Georg Lukacs defmes the critical realist as follows:The critical realist, following tradition, analyses the contradictions in the disintegratingold order and the emerging new order. But he does not only see them as contradictions inthe outside world, he feels them to be contradictions within himself, though he tends--again following tradition--to emphasize the contradictions rather than the forces workingfor reconciliation. (Georg Lukacs, The Meaning of Contemporary Realism [London:Merlin Press, 1963]: 114, quoted fmm Contemporary Chinese Literature: An AnthologyofPost-Mao Fiction and Poetry, Michael S. Duke, ed. [New York/London: M.E. Sharpe,Inc., 1984]: 4.)Revolutionary realism is usually referred to as socialist realism and is the literary form promoted by MaoZedong in his Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art. It was the only literary form deemedacceptable by the Chinese government between the years 1949 and 1979.94 Dai Guangzhong is referring one of Lu Xun’s zagan in which he states that those works which “despisedthe old society, and ... had no ideals for the future” were not revolutionary works. (Lu Xun, “Sanxianji:xiandai de xinwenxue de gaiguan,” Lu Xun quanji, 4: 134.) In ftn 12 of his article, Dai Guangzong alsoquotes Li Jiye who recalls “ He [Lu Xun] always detested reading works which left one feeling dispirited.He expressed this sentiment to us many times.” According to Dai, Lu Xun was referring to the xiangtuzuojia in this statement. (Dai 3.)95 Lu Xun’s sentiment on this topic was the subject of a speech given on December 21, 1927 in whichhe states that “revolutionary writers and revolutionists can be said to be two entirely different kinds ofbeings.” (Lu Xun, “Wenyi yu zhengzhi de qitu, Jiwai ji, Lu Xun quanji, 7: 118-119, quoted in Lin Yüsheng, “The Morality of Mind and the Immorality of Politics” 117.)Nativism Chap. One51take.96 In this sense, too, xiangtu wenxue differs substantially from the majority of MayFourth literature.In the following section I discuss the works of one particular xiangtu zuojia, WangLuyan. Wang Luyan is a representative writer of this period; thus, an examination of hisworks can give us greater insight into the nativist mentality of these writers, not to mentiontheir perspective on national events in the 1920s as they affected the Chinese countryside.Wang Luyan is also concerned with one aspect of Chinese society which had not yetbecome a common theme at this time but which became so in later periods ofxiangtuwenxue, and that is the commercialization of Chinese society. The appearance of thistheme is the central focus of Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue and would have continued as acentral topic in Chinese xiangtu wenxue in the 1930s if this fiction had not beenappropriated by the revolution.In the decade of the 1930s, Wang Luyan was swept up by the communist revolutionin the countryside just as many of his contemporaries were in the urban centre. Hisconversion to the revolutionary cause carried over into his writing, and he began writingrevolutionary literature, as it is defined by Mao Dun. This development of Wang’sdovetailed with the conversion of many other Chinese writers who also wrote about therevolution in the countryside, such as Mao Dun, Lao She, Ye Zi, Ye Shaojun, Ai Wu andSha Ding, who, because of the peasant characterization and rural setting in their works canalso be considered xiangtu zuojia. I conclude, however, that the strong contrast betweenthe revolutionary subject matter of xiangtu wenxue in the 1930s and the purely nativisttopics of the earlier period only further substantiates my claim that the xiangtu wenxue ofthe 1920s is not “revolutionary literature.”96 Qu envisioned a “Proletarian May Fourth” as an alternative to the Europeanized May Fourth because themajority of May Fourth writers were regarded as foreigners by the people. His formulation consisted of threecategories of revolutionary popular literature and art. (Pickowicz, 153-154.)Nativism Chap. One52Wang Luyan (1901-1944)Wang Luyan is in many ways a typical xiangtu zuojia though Lu Xun, for one,questions whether all the works of this writer fall into the xiangtu wenxue sub-genre.97Wang’s early works, that is, those written during the 1920s are without a doubt nativist inorientation: they describe local customs, the atmosphere of suffocation and stagnation in thevillages and the struggles between the worlords and the landlords which are typical themes inthe works by other writers of the 1920s. The only theme in Wang’s works which isexceptional is the commercialization of Chinese society, which Wang was the only writer inthis group to consider. In the period leading up to the war with Japan, Wang’s works changeddramatically and he began writing stories about the revolution. I do not agree with Lu Xun thatthe politicization of themes in these works ipso facto precludes their classification as xiangtuwenxue. Even so, I discuss these particular works only briefly here.98Wang Luyan is classed as a xiangtu zuojia primarily because, like Lu Xun, he focuseson the local colour, natural scenery and customs of a region, in this case, Ningbo in Zhejiangprovince. Many of his short stories describe the farming villages of Jiangnan, the Jiangnanriver scenes with wooden plank bridges and rice-grinding boats and the areas in Jiangdong9’ Lu Xun remarked: “In looking at the literary topics and style of one portion of Wang Luyan’s works, itseems that he is also a xiangtu zuojia.” (Lu Xun, Introduction, 4: 10.) The critic Hu Lingzhi alsocontends that many of Wang Luyan’s works do not fall into the category of xiangtu wenxue. Lu Xunand Hu Lingzhi are probably referring to Wang’s revolutionary works written after 1937. (Hu Lingzhi’sarguments are found in his article “Wang Luyan yu xiangtu wenxue,” Wenxue pinglun, 3 [19861:139-140.)98 My discussion of the revolutionary aspect of Chinese xiangtu wenxue will take place in a future study.Nativism Chap. One53where the urban and the rural converge.99 Like Lu Xun, these nativist elements constitute thebackdrop for the author’s thematic concerns.“Fishing” (Diao yu, n.d.)100 is a typically nativist story. The author has conflatedhis rural home with the memories of childhood in this work, as is the case in so much ofxiangtu wenxue, starting with “My Old Home.” In “Fishing,” however this conflation isaccompanied by the heroic, idyllic treatment of village life characteristic of Shen Congwen’sworks and contrasts strongly with the ironic presentation of other types of xiangtu wenxue.The heroic treatment in “Fishing,” like the heroic mode in traditional Chinese literature, stemsfrom the author’s praise of China’s farming situation.The I-narrator in “Fishing” is a young boy at the beginning of the narrative who relateshow he loved to go fishing in a river that ran past his home. The detailed description of thedifferent types of sports fishermen grouped along the river embankment, the construction ofthe rods and baits and the different kinds of fish and shellfish and their habits evoke thememories, nostalgia and rusticity of China’s “field and garden” poetic mode. The narratorrelates that the river embankment is constructed of piles of rocks, leaving holes in which theshrimp and fish congregate. When the level of the river sinks in the summer, the waterbecomes very clear and one can see to the river bottom from the top of the embankment. In themorning sun, “even every hair of the shrimps’ whiskers can be clearly discerned.”—j—tjj 101 Later, the narrator returns to visit his country home as anadult after spending a number of years in the city. Though he no longer engages in childhoodpleasures, the narrator continues to hold a romanticized conception of his village.The idyllic quality of “Fishing” contrasts strongly with Wang Luyan’s works whichindict rural realities. The posthumous marriage ceremony in “Marriage,” for example, isShen, “Luyan de xiangtu xiaoshuo tanxi” 84.100 Anthologized in Luyan xuanji 32-43.101 WangLuyan33.Nativism Chap. One54patterned on the cultural iconocolasm of Lu Xun. In this story, the savagery and depravednature of Ningbo rural customs trammel village life and reflect the need for social reform.“Marriage” is more discursive than “Fishing” which is augmented by the inclusion of irony inthe text. 102 This ironic technique invites the reader into an examination of the iconoclasticelements of this text, a technique which is absent in the more heroic “Fishing.”“Little Heart” (Xiaoxiao de xin, )J)Jj n.d.) recounts another kind of traditionalChinese custom, in this case, the sale of children which Wang Luyan contends was especiallycommon in Fujian province.’03 The free barter of children in which one or two hundred yuancould “purchase girls as bond-maids or boys as sons, to be used from a young age as slaves”—J’j —1 iJ’’’iJj1 104 arose from the primacyof the family in traditional China and from the demands of the Chinese patrilineal system.Wang’s emotional treatment of this issue, attributed to his concern for the fate of children, alsostems from this author’s antitraditional attitude and his rejection of traditional culture.The “little heart” in the story refers to A Pin, a young boy whom the narrator befriendswhile he is working as an editor in Xiamen. The narrator inadvertently discovers that A Pincan speak a few words of his own native Ningpo dialect and becomes suspicious. He makesinquiries of the boy’s father, a well-to-do engineer, when the latter comes to visit A Pin who isin the care of his maternal grandmother. A Pin’s father subsequently terminates therelationship between these two, and the narrator uncovers the reason for this only when he istransferred to Quanzhou, Fujian, which is also the engineer’s former place of employment. It102 Discourse assumes a speaker and a hearer. Discursive texts characterized by irony also guarantee moreeffectively the subjectivity of the reader who can participate in the construction of the meaning of the text.(Catherine Belsey, Critical Practice [London: Methuen, 1980]: 72, 79.)103“Little Heart” is anthologized in the collection Luyan duanpian xiaoshuoji 369-388).Wang Luyan, “Wo de chuangzuo jingyan,” Luyan duanpian xiaoshuoji: 6.104 Wang, “Little Heart” 388.Nativism Chap. One55turns out that A Pm is from Ningbo but was abducted and sold to this engineer as a son. Atthe conclusion, the narrative strongly condemns the child slave trade popular in that region.Wang Luyan’s other works of this period focus on the national conditions of China in1920s, such as the conflicts between the warlords and the battles between the landlords whichcreated social unrest. The is the theme of “Pomelo” (Youzi, - n.d.),’°5 Wang Luyan’sfirst creative effort. This story relates an execution that takes place during a battle between theHunan warlords in the region of Changsha. The I-narrator, one of the spectators of theexecution, describes the senseless crowds who trample each other down in order to get a viewof the decapitation. The function of the pomelo as the central image in the story is clarifiednear the conclusion when the narrator and his buddies stop by a pomelo vendor’s stall to enjoya post-execution snack. The cheap, sweet pomelos evoke a comparison for the narrator withthe cheap value of Hunan peasant life. The story concludes with his remark, “Hunan pomeloahh! (Just like) the head of the Hunanese! Ahh!!” -D.! JJ\JU!106Wang Luyan’s unique thematic contribution to this period of twentieth-century Chineseliterature are his works about capitalism and the sociological change in the rural/urban interfaceengendered by the new productive forces. As a writer of realism, Wang acknowledged theentrance of capitalism into China, the change in social and economic relations and the effectthat this had on human relations and psychology. Underlying these themes is the concern thatthe new materialism will gradually erode traditional Chinese culture.“On the Bridge” (Qiaoshang, jJ n.d.)’7 is a story about the bankruptcy of a storeowner, Uncle Yixin, due to the forces of mechanization. This piece opens with the arrival ofthe rice-grinding boat in Xuejia village, which Uncle YiXin watches with anticipation. Theboat can hull rice faster and cheaper than the traditional way, and this takes business away105 Anthologized in the collection Lu Yan xuanji 13-21.106 Wang 21.107 Anthologized in Luyan duanpian xiaoshuoji: 345-366.Nativism Chap. One56from Yixin and his store. Out of desperation, Yixm adjusts his rate in order to remain on a parwith that of the boat but ultimately he cannot compete. In the last analysis, Uncle Yixin’sbankruptcy can be attributed both to his old-fashioned mode of operation and to external forceslying beyond his control.108Wang Luyan’s “Gold” is a more explicit example of commerce and its effects on humanrelations. This story attracted the attraction of Mao Dun who commented that, in contrast to LuXun’s characters who are all from old China, Wang Luyan’s have already begun to feel theeffects of industrialism and commercialism.1 Mao Dun’s position about capitalism is clear:he refers to it as the “destruction of the village economy by industrialized civilization”flJ1jj’. Mao Dun also remarked that “Gold” is one of the few stories of its time todescribe village callousness and the psychology of the petty bourgeois.”°The protagonist in “Gold,” as I mentioned earlier, was once a successful, respected manin his community of Chensiqiao, but today he is destitute. Rushi Bobo has retired from his joband has entrusted his son with the support of himself and of the other members of his family.The son remits money faithfully on a monthly basis until the twelfth month when the expectedcheque fails to arrive. The village buzzes with rumours, and Rushi Bobo and his familybecome the butt of ridicule and derision, all of which is due to the loss of the customaryremittance. Rushi Bobo is denied his usual seat of honour at a village banquet, their youngestdaughter is bullied in school and the family’s faithful dog, Laifa, is killed by a local hoodlum.The village’s pettiness and hypocrisy is summed up by the eldest daughter who points outcaustically: “If one has money, they come to you and respect you like a god. If you’re poor,108 Mechanization and the gradual disappearance of traditional ways are the thematic subject matter of Lu Heruo’s“Oxcart” (Niu che, 1935) which was written during the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan (1895-1945).This story is about an oxcart driver who fmds he has become superannuated by the introduction of themechanized pedicab into Taiwanese society.109 Fang Bi [Mao Dun], “Wang Luyan lun,” Xiaoshuo yuebao, 19:1 (1928): 171.110 Ibid.Nativism Chap. One57they’ll turn their backs on you and laugh coldly at you, ridicule you and insult you heartlesslyto no end.” lIfl th1PJ’, IIT;I1]’,1th1 iW*IJiIn brief, the unhappy denouement of this family isattributed in part to the validation of money over other more traditional values in the newmonetary social system. The fact that this aspect of Chinese society is historically new couldbe called into question; nonetheless, “Gold” represents one of the first few instances in whichthis issue is treated as a theme in Chinese fiction. “Gold” ends with a dream in which RushiBobo finally receives a huge remittance from his son, and the villagers flock to his house toreverently kowtow.The final phase of Wang Luyan’s fiction in which he began writing revolutionaryliterature coincided with the dramatic events in the Chinese countryside in the wake of theKMT-CCP (1927) split. After the failure of the Chinese Communists to ignite a proletarianrevolution in the urban centres, they pursued an independent course in the countryside whichled to the peasant movements in Hunan and Kiangsi. Wang’s works of this period reflect thispeasant revolutionary movement. If there is a trend toward revolutionary realism in his worksit is thus apparent only during this phase.Wang Luyan continued to write during the onset of the war with Japan and into the firstyears of the 1940s. Irony, which was the characteristic feature of Wang’s xiangtu wenxue ofthe 1920s, has been completely subsumed in these novels by the themes of foreign aggression,class contradictions and the national struggle. The appearance of these themes was also a clearsign that Wang Luyan had joined the ranks of China’s leftist writers-- Jiang Guangci, ShaDing, Mao Dun, Wu Zuxiang and Ye Zi-- and had begun writing revolutionary literaturestructured around Mao Dun’s formula of the “struggle against fate.” The themes of these otherwriters, on the other hand-- the violence of Guomindang (KMT) politics, the deepeningimpoverishment of the peasants and the peasants’ organized class struggle-- indicated that111 WangLuyan 123.Nativism Chap. One58Chinese revolutionary fiction of the 1930s was not entirely divorced from the earlier villagethemes of the 1920s, primarily because of the continued use of the rural setting and peasantcharacterization as props for the dramatic concerns of these works. On the basis of this link, infact, one can conclude that the xiangtu wenxue of the 1920s contributed in many ways to thedevelopment of Chinese fiction of the 1930s, and that Chinese revolutionary fiction of the1930s was a new form of expression derived from the xiangtu wenxue of the 1920s. Thisevolution parallels the dramatic fictional development of Wang Luyan and his shift over to therevolutionary camp. At the same time, xiangtu wenxue in other parts of China continued toexhibit the various modes of expression of the earlier period of xiangtu wenxue, such as theheroic mode of Shen Congwen which was established earlier in Wang Luyan’s “Fishing” andthe realist mode of Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue, concerned primarily with the themes ofcommercialism and industrialism and the erosion of traditional values, which were alsoestablished earlier in Wang Luyan’s “On the Bridge” and “Gold.” The reemergence of thesemodes and themes in later periods of xiangtu wenxue signified the continued vitality of theruralist mode in the development of Chinese fiction. I discuss these themes and modes insubsequent chapters of this dissertation.Nativism Chap. Two59Chapter TwoTaiwanese Xiangtu wenxue and the Legacy of ColonialismE’en now, methinks, as pondering here I standI see the rural virtues leave the land.-Oliver Goldsmith, “The Deserted Village”But when amid such pleasing scenes I traceThe poor laborious natives of the place,And see the mid-day sun, with fervid ray,On their bare heads and dewy temples play;While some, with feebler heads and fainter hearts,Deplore their fortune, yet sustain their parts:Then shall I dare these real ills to hideIn tinsel trappings of poetic pride?-George Crabbe, “The Village”Taiwan, separated from China by the one hundred and fifty kilometers of theTaiwan Straits, also experienced a genesis of xiangtu wenxue in the decade of the 1920s.The circumstances surrounding the emergence of xiangtu wenxue in Taiwan, however,were quite different from those in China because Taiwan was a Japanese colony at thistime, and the first forms of this literature were directed primarily at Japanese colonialrule.1 Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue grew out of the vernacular period of Taiwan’s NewLiterature Movement (Taiwan xin wenxue yundong (1920-1937)which overlapped with Japan’s liberal Taishô era (19 12-1926). During this period,stories, poems and plays from the May Fourth period in China were introduced intoTaiwan through the medium ofjournals such as Taiwan minbao This journal,1 Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895 under the Treaty of Shimonoseki following China’s defeat in the firstSino-Japanese war (1894-1895). The Japanese colonial government ruled Taiwan for fifty years until Japanwas forced to renounce its colonies at the end of World War II.Nativism Chap. Two60aptly described as the “Taiwan version of the May Fourth Movement,”reprinted works by Bing Xin, Lu Xun and Hu Shi, among whom Lu Xun wasperhaps the most influential in the formation of Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue trend.2 Thistrend in Taiwan began with the realist works of the Taiwanese writer Lai He1(1894-1943)-- the “Lu Xun of Taiwan”-- and continued with stories by LU Heruo g(1914-1947), Yang Kui j11906-1985), Long Yingzong (1911- ) and Zhong Lihe1 f1J (1915-1960). Lai He and his stories signified that Taiwanese fiction had madethe transition to a socially-engaged literature, one devoted almost exclusively to exposingthe excesses and oppression of Japanese colonial rule. With Lai He, too, xiangtu wenxuebecame the main literary trend in Taiwan during the period from 1926 to 1937.The works by Taiwan’s writers of xiangtu wenxue of the Japanese period arecharacterized by a discourse which is anti-colonialist and nationalistic. The peasant inthese stories figures as a colonized subject, held in bondage by political andsocioeconomic forces typical of colonial power in any subject country. This discourse ledcertain Taiwanese critics to place Taiwan among the ranks of nations referred to inChinese as the “weak and small nations” (ruoxiao minzu guojia specifically,the countries of Eastern Europe such as Poland and Hungary.3 These countries share ahistory of oppression and domination similar to Taiwan, and the peoples of thesecountries likewise struggled for freedom against this oppression. The themes ofnationalism, patriotism, heroism, and the issues of national revolution and national2 Ye Rongzhong, et al, Taiwan minzu yundongshi (Taipei: Xuehai chubanshe, 1979): 544.Jane Parish Yang lists Bing Xin’s short story “The Loner” (Chaoren); Lu Xun’s stories “My Old Home,”“Dairy of a Madman” (Kuangren riji), “The True Story of A Q”; and Hu Shi’s play “Can’t be Spoken”(Shuobuchu) among the first May Fourth works to be reprinted in Taiwan. (Jane Parish Yang, “TheEvolution of the Taiwanese New Literature Movement From 1920 to 1937, diss. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1981: 64-67.)3 This is the opinion of, for instance, Xu Nancun (pseudonym of Chen Yingzhen), “Xiangtu wenxue’ demangdian,” Xiangtu wenxue taolunji (hereafter abbreviated as Taolunji), Yu Tianzhong, ed., Yuanjingcongkan 3 (Taipei:Yuanjing chuban shiye gongsi, 1978): 95.Nativism Chap. Two61identity in the literature of these European countries rang a bell for intellectuals of Chinasuch as Zhou Zuoren who saw in them a means to awaken the Chinese masses into anawareness of China’s plightin the first and second decades of this century. Zhou andother intellectuals were led by these themes in European literature to translate many ofthese works into Chinese for the purpose of making them available for the Chinesereading public and for “transforming society.”4 Though only a few of these works werereprinted in Taiwan journals,5 the images of oppression, awakening and resistance inTaiwan’s xiangtu wenxue can be traced derivatively to May Fourth realist fiction and tothese translated European works. The nationalistic discourse in these works once againreflects the Chinese authorial tendency since May Fourth to privilege the nation above allother interests.Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue of the 1920s is similar in many ways to its counterpart inChina. The peasant and rural motifs in this fiction can be traced to Lu Xun’s use of thesemotifs in his own writing, to his obsessive concerns with rural traditionalism and to hisperception of Chinese village life as constituting the heart of Chinese traditionalism. Moregenerally, these motifs in xiangtu wenxue also stem from the perception on the part of theChinese intellectual of the village as a microcosm of Chinese social and political life.According to this view, everything that happens on the macro or national level-- thedynamics of cultural and social life and the interactions of political and economic power --is telescopically played out in the arena of village life. In short, the village constitutes amini configuration of national life. In Lai He’s fiction, the setting of the village providesthe stage for the fictional dramatization of the operations of colonial power, the recreationIrene Eber, “Images of Oppressed Peoples and Modem Chinese Literature,” in Modern Chinese Literature inthe May Fourth Era: 130.See Bonnie S. McDougall, The Introduction of Western Literary Theories into Modern China, 1919-1925(Tokyo, 1971) for a more complete study of the iranslation and introduction of Western literature into ChinaFor example, Alphonse Daudet’s “La Demier Class” and Guy deMaupassant’s “Deux Amis” were reprinted inTaiwan minbao in May, 1923 and March, 1924, respectively.Nativism Chap. Two62of colonial systems of control and the colonization of the peasant as an imperial Japanesesubject. The issues of national identity and the psychological processes involved in thecolonization of the subject, on the other hand, are themes in the fiction of Long Yingzongand Yang Kui.A final point to be mentioned concerning Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue is the absenceof themes of Chinese cultural iconoclasm such as in Lu Xun’s fiction and in the firstgroup of Chinese xiangtu wenxue stories of the 1920s. The reasons for this lie inTaiwan’s separate historical development as an island frontier on the periphery of theChinese geocultural land mass. Chinese national and cultural forms and institutions cameto Taiwan only during the period of the Qing prior to the island’s cession to Japan. Itscultural development thus took place not just as a part of China but as a colony of Japanand, more recently, as the close “younger brother,” metaphorically speaking, of theUnited States. In Taiwanese realist literature, which includes xiangtu wenxue, Taiwan’sstatus and its relations with the Other, particularly Japan and the United States, is ofgreater concern than issues of culture per se.6 Accordingly, questions of colonial powerand the Taiwanese national identity take precedence over issues of cultural iconoclasm.One of the first major short stories of Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue is Lai He’s“Steelyard” (Yi gan chengzi — l926).’ This stoiy features a vendor by thename of Qin Deshen and his encounter with a Japanese colonial policeman who representsthe Japanese Other in this story. Qin has happily come into possession of a new steelyard6 Taiwan’s exile literature, (by writers such as Yu Lihua or Bai Xianyong who write about life in the ChinaMainland prior to 1949 or about the Chinese living in exile in Taiwan or in the U.S.), Taiwanesemodernism of the 1950s (see fin. 22) and Taiwan’s current post-modernist fiction are more directly concernedwith culture.‘“Steelyard” was first printed in the February 14 and 21, 1926 issues of Taiwan minbao; it is currentlyanthologized in Yi gan chengzi: Guangfu qian Taiwan wenxue quanji, Ye Shitao, Zhong Zhaozheng, eds.,Yuanjing congkan 126 (Taipei: Yuanjing, 1979), 1: 57-70.Unlike some of the other writers during this period, Lai He persisted in writing in Chinese, in spite of thedifficulties this entailed in Japanese colonial Taiwan. His creative process underwent two phases: he firstwrote in the classical language then translated this into the vernacular.Nativism Chap. Two63with clearly-inscribed markings, and he launches upon his new business feeling assuredthat the steelyard complies with the rigorous standards of the colonial-government in therealm of weights and measures. The Japanese colonial government was felt in all spheresof life in colonial Taiwan-- all movement and conduct, the story relates “fell withoutexception into the realm of interference and prohibition by law.”4i8 Thus, Qin is particularly anxious to comply with these regulations where hisbusiness interests are concerned. Later that same day, however, Qin still falls prey to thearbitrary practices of the Japanese colonial police which reinforce the irony andpowerlessness of the colonized subject who attempts to circumvent colonial power. Qinis accused by the policeman of falsifying the markings on the steelyard and is fined threeyuan. When he refuses to pay, he is sentenced to three days in jail. “Steelyard”concludes with the murder of a Japanese policeman and Qin Deshen’s suicide. From apostscript which Lai He appends to the story, the author credits Anatole France’s“Crainquebille” [1904] for inspiration in writing this story.9 The closely interlockingthemes, that is, the intertextual nature of “Steelyard” and this earlier European short storyreflects the influence of European literature on the growth of Taiwanese fiction.Lu Heruo’s “Oxcart” (Niu che [“Gyüsha” in the original Japanese], l935)’° isalso an account of a Taiwanese colonial subject and his ironic encounter with a Japanesepoliceman. The protagonist in this story, like Qin Deshen in “Steelyard,” also symbolizesthe oppressed colonial struggling against the autocratic, arbitrary practices of colonialrule.8 LaiHe6l.Lai He states: “Recently, I have had occasion to mad Anatole Frances’s ‘Crainquebille,’ and I came to realizethat this type of incident is not confined to undeveloped countries oniy but can arise in any place where thepower of force holds sway.” (Lai 67-68.)Anatole France’s story is about a French costermonger by the name of Crainquebile who is fined by aFrench gendarme as he is selling his wares one day and is subsequently sent to prison.10 Originally published in the Japanese journal Bungaku hyôron in 1935; currently anthologized in Niu che:Guangfu qian Taiwan wenxue quanji, 5: 5-43.Nativism Chap. Two64A second theme of “Oxcart” concerns the erosion of Taiwan’s traditional culturethrough the island’s modernization, specifically, industrialism, which was initiallyintroduced into the island during the Japanese colonial period.” The construction ofTaiwan’s comprehensive infrastructure and certain key industries is credited to theJapanese period; however, the Taiwanese also paid a heavy price for this earlyindustrialization, such as uncontrolled urbanization and the deterioration of traditionalvalues. These concerns were increasingly evoked by Taiwanese nativism, and in thedecade of the 1960s the themes of industrialism and commercialism are the exclusivehallmark of Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue. This theme echoes Wang Luyan’s fiction and theincipient nature of industrialism during the 1920s in China.In “Oxcart,” the carter Yang Tianding discovers that he is being slowlysuperannuated by the mechanized pedicab which has just been introduced into Taiwanesesociety along with other signs of industrialization. Yang increasingly finds that he isunable to compete with the faster-moving vehicles in the booming transport business,and, eventually, he coerces his wife into prostitution in a desperate attempt to avoidstarvation. As the couple’s domestic life deteriorates, Yang’s hopelessness also deepens.Totally demoralized, Yang Tianding falls asleep on top of his oxcart one day. He isawakened by a Japanese policeman who fines him one dollar for violating this colonial11 The link between colonialism and modernization is a generally recognized one. See, for instance, The Riseand Growth of the Colonial Port Cities in Asia, ed. Dilip K. Basu ed., Monograph Series No. 25, Centrefor South and Southeast Asian Studies, Berkeley, California (Lanham: University Press of America, 1985)for a study of the genesis and economic development of Asian cities under European colonialism. SeeRamon H. Myers and Mark R. Peattie, eds., The Japanese Colonial Empire (Princeton, N.J.: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1984) for a comprehensive account of the Japanese developmental policies in Taiwan andother colonies during the half-century of the Japanese empire.See ftn. 8, p. xi of the Introduction for my usage of modernization.The fact that the Japanese are credited with laying the founthtions for Taiwan’s post-war, juggernaut-likeeconomy is not meant to discount the earlier efforts to modernize the island under the progressiveadministration of Liu Mingchuan during the Qing period. Liu governed Taiwan from 1885-1889, and duringthis time he reorganized the administration and fiscal systems of the island, rebuilt the coal mining industry,shipping, telecommunications and Taiwan’s railway. (Samuel C. Chu, “Liu Ming-ch’uan andModernization [sic]of Taiwan,” Journal ofAsian Studies 23:1 [November 1963]: 37-53.)Nativism Chap. Two65prohibition, that is, sitting on the cart, and, spurred on by his mounting desperation, hesteals a goose in order to pay the fine. The story closes with Yang and his goose fleeinginto the market place, hotly pursued by another Japanese policeman who, the readerpresumes, will present yet another jail sentence to this victim of colonial rule.Taiwan’s relations with the Japanese Other are intensified in Long Yingzong’s“Village of Papaya Trees” (Thi you muguashu de xiao then 1J,1937),12 which deals primarily with the theme of national identity. The protagonist inthis story experiences an identity crisis as a result of adopting a Japanese lifestyle. Doingthis, he assumes, would make him privy to certain key advantages otherwise denied himif he were to retain his Taiwanese nationality. Under the colonial-government’s policy ofgradual assimilation (zenka), the colonized Taiwanese were compelled to speak Japaneseand to take on Japanese surnames.13 The goal of this policy was to make the Taiwaneseinto loyal Japanese subjects and thus worthy of membership in the Japanese empire. Thispolicy engendered an attitude of subservience on the part of the majority of the colonizedTaiwanese population, many of whom renounced the mores and manners associated withtheir native nationality. This issue and the exaggerated depiction of the “despicable”qualities associated with the Taiwanese nationality is the theme in this story by LongYingzong.“Village of Papaya Trees” opens with the description of a little Taiwanese village.The sole merit of this hot, filthy little town and its crowded, dark alleyways stinking withurine and ravaged by termites is an abundance of tall, graceful papaya trees. The12 Originally published in the Japanese journal Kaizô in 1937; anthologized in Zhi you mugua shu de xiaozhen: Guangfu qian Taiwan wenxue quanji, 7: 5-63.13 This policy was adopted by the Japanese government in 1896 after considerable debate in the Japanese diet.(See Chen Ching-chih, “The Evolution of Japanese Assimilation Policy in Colonial Taiwan,” PaperPresented at the XXVIII Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Toronto, Canada [March 19-21, 1976] for a comprehensive account of the assimilation policy of the Japanese government in Taiwan.)With the move toward Japanese militarism in the 1930s, the gradualist policy gave way to theImperialization or Japanization (kominka undo ) program which aimed to make the Taiwanese loyal subjectsof Japanese imperial rule.Nativism Chap. Two66inhabitants of this town are sunk in sloth and self-indulgence, which is exacerbated by thecopious number of prostitutes in the town. In this environment, upward mobility ispossible only through the adoption of a Japanese lifestyle, and it is toward this end thatChen Yousan devotes his life. Chen vows to study hard and to ascend upward throughTaiwan’s social ranks by way of the civil service examination He wears only Japaneseattire and speaks only Japanese, and thus he avoids identification with the Taiwanese whorank as the despicable natives in the colonial pecking order. Chen lists the “contemptible”qualities of the Taiwanese as follows:They’re a stingy crowd, lacking in cultivation, common and dirty, andaren’t they his compatriots? Those old grannies with bound feet who bitchand curse and fix you with their furious stares, and all because of a dime;those crafty, wheedling businessmen who will go a lifetime withoutspending a penny but when it comes to a wedding or funeral will borrowmoney hand over fist in order to have a good time These people werelike the worst kind of weed, grasping and multiplying in the sordid, uglierparts of existence.14Isolated by his academic aspirations and mocked by his colleagues as a Don Quixote,Chen Yousan eventually undergoes a spiritual decline. Towards the conclusion of “TheVillage of Papaya Trees,” he turns to drink and becomes infected by the inertia of thetown. Gradually, by sinking to the level of bestiality characteristic of his compatriots, he“returns ...to his [Taiwanese] nationality.” 5j.5The last story I include in this discussion of Taiwanese colonial xiangtu wenxue isYang Kui’s “Paperboy” (SongbaofuI*[“Shinbun haitatsufu” in the originalJapanese], 1932)16 This story most exemplifies the epithet of “literature of resistance”14 LongYingzongl9.15 Ibid42.16 Originally published in Japanese in 1932 in Xinminbao; currently anthologized in Yang, Kui, E mamachujia (Taipei: Huagu shucheng, 1978): 77-135.Nativism Chap. Two67which some Taiwanese critics use to refer to this period of Taiwanese literature.17 Thisholds true for “Paperboy” because this story is a rare account of a Taiwanese nationalwho actually attempts to throw off the trammels of colonial rule. In this semi-autobiographical account, the young protagonist by the name of Yang comes to anunderstanding of the plight of his country under Japanese occupation while he is living asa worker-student in Japan. Eventually, he joins an underground resistance movementwhich is organized by a Japanese communist. The narrative process of Yang’spoliticization is intermingled with flashbacks which reveal the tragic events suffered bythe boy’s village back home in Taiwan. The narrative reveals that during the time of hisfather’s generation, their village was destroyed by the Japanese sugar cartel’s practice ofland enclosure. 18 The villagers lost their land and many were killed, including Yang’sfather. The village itself fell apart, and when Yang came of age he felt impelled to travelto Tokyo in order to chart a course for his future life. At the conclusion of “Paperboy,”Yang returns to “Formosa,” which was the island’s name prior to Japanese rule. Thenarrative ends by concluding that, though beautiful on the exterior, Formosa is actually“rotten like a canker” the poison of Japanese imperialism.’9In the year 1937 war broke out with Japan following the Marco Polo Incident inChina. In Taiwan, the Kôminka undo program (Imperialization of Subject Peoples)2°17 The critic Ye Shitao, for instance, maintains that Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue of the colonial period reflects themany experiences of resistance inherent in the political and social movements of this period. (Ye Shitao,“Taiwan xiangtu wenxueshi daolun,” in Taolunji: 87.)18 The various Japanese sugar interests came together in 1909 to form the Taiwan Sugar Association. Thiscartel reaped huge interests from its operations in Taiwan during the colonial period. Jack F. Williams’article entitled “Sugar: The Sweetener in Taiwan’s Development,” in Ronald 0. Knapp, ed., China’s IslandFrontier: Studies in the Historical Geography of Taiwan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980):219-25 1 is an excellent account of the operations of the Japanese sugar cartel in Taiwan.19 Yang Kui 135. I have given this final sentence a liberal translation.20 The Kôminka undo program accompanied Japan’s launch into militarization. This was, in effect, anintensification of the earlier assimilation policy designed to transform the Taiwanese into “loyal Japanesesubjects” through the promotion of the Japanese language and other programs designed to inculcate loyaltyto the Japanese state. (See Chen Ching-chih, “The Evolution of the Japanese Assimilation Policy inColonial Taiwan.”)Nativism Chap. Two68implemented in that year seriously curtailed the type of themes which had hithertocharacterized xiangtu wenxue, not to mention other forms of dissatisfaction with Japanesecolonial rule. In that year, too, the Chinese literary supplements of local newspapers andjournals such as the Taiwan minbao were banned, making further publication in Chinesenext to impossible. This period of Taiwanese literary and cultural development was briefnonetheless, it was also sufficient to allow the Taiwanese to find their voice, to establishlinks with the social and literary movements of China and to construct a firm foundationfor the later development of Taiwanese fiction. In sum, the tone and many of the issuesarticulated in the fiction of this period provided a model for Taiwan’s subsequent literarydevelopment.Prelude to ModernityDuring the post-war period, after Japan relinquished Taiwan and its other colonies,Taiwanese literature developed in a number of different ways. In one way or another,however, all of this literature, including the xiangtu wenxue which reemerged in the1960s, was associated with modernity.Modernization came to Taiwan relatively early compared to other Chinesegeocultural areas, and this is credited primarily to Japanese colonial rule. When thecolonial period was over, Taiwan experienced a new period of economic growth underthe patronage of the United States. Taiwan today has one of the highest per capita GNPrates in the world, a fact which cannot be overlooked when we examine the existing linkbetween Taiwanese literary expression and the intimate, diverse effects of modernity onpeople’s lives. The referential aspect of Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue allows for itsclassification as a type of Chinese realism.Nativism Chap. Two69The referential aspect of Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue also differentiates this fictionfrom Taiwan’s modernist literary discourse of the 1950s.21 Wang Tuo and otherlikeminded writers and critics disparaged the “wholesale Westernization” (quanpan xihuaof Taiwanese literature under Modernism (xiandaizhuyi IJft ), the byproduct, they maintained, of Taiwan’s neocolonialist status under American patronage.This status, they felt, was to blame for the loss of national dignity, the erosion of nativetraditions and, most importantly, the importation of a “compradore” culture which hadlittle connection with real life in Taiwan.22 Wang Tuo was one of the more vocal criticswho advocated the death of Modernism and the regeneration of a more nativist discourseafter the fashion of that already established during the Japanese period. A nativistdiscourse, Wang maintained, would more closely reflect the lives of the Taiwanesepeople. Wang’s recommendation is as follows:In order to put a stop to this trend of the blind Westernization ofliterature and scholarship, and in order to concern ourselves withthe life of Taiwan’s farmers and labourers, we advocate thedevelopment of our own national literature. We suggest thatliterature must be bound with the soil and with the people. This isthe essential spirit of xiangtu wenxue.21 Modernism was introduced into Taiwan through the urban centre of Taipei; it was thus a result of Taiwan’sincreasing urbanization and urban-rural split. The term “Modernism” applies to a number of Westernliterary modes imported into Taiwan during the 1950s and early 1960s when Taiwan was culturally isolatedand when US-Taiwan relations and cross-cultural exchange underwent an expansion. These “fashionableWestern isms” or “the products of the depraved stage of Western capitalism” as they were designated by thecritic Jiang Xun, were introduced “wholesale and compradore-like” into Taiwan via the Department ofForeign Languages and Literature at National Taiwan University. (Jiang Xun “Taiwan xieshiwenxuezhong xinqi de daode liiang,” Introduction to Wang Tuo’s Wang jun zao guei [Taipei: Yuanjingchubanshe, 19771: ii.) Joseph S.M. Lau defmes these isms as “symbolism, surrealism, existentialism,futurism, modernism, phenomenalism, etc.” and elaborates that, having no idols of their own, the“disinherited Taiwanese writers” made use of these isms in order to create a tradition of their own. (JosephS.M. Lau, “How Much Truth Can a Blade of Grass Carry?’: Ch’en Ying-chen and the Emergence of NativeTaiwanese Writers,” Journal ofAsian Studies, 4 [19731: 623.)22 Many of these sentiments intensified to fever pitch during the late 1970s. The xiangtu wenxue movementand debates (xiangtu wenxue zhenglun) of the years 1977-78 are discussed further in Chapter Five.23 Wang Tuo, “Xiangtu wenxue jiu shi Taiwan wenxue,” Jiushi niandai, 6 (1988): 89.Nativism Chap. Two70Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue did indeed evolve as the dominant trend in Taiwanthroughout the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Leo Ou-fan Lee affirms that in acomparison with modernism, with “its social and humanistic concerns, its realist mode,[xiangtu wenxue] comes much closer to the tradition of modern Chinese flction.” Atthe same time, however, the development of xiangtu wenxue is in some measure still dueto the fertile medium of Modemism.Modernity initially came to Taiwan with its installation as an agricultural appendageto Japan in line with Japan’s developmental policy.26 Through this policy, Japanacquired a cheap source of foodstuff with which to feed its rising industrial populationand also an export surplus which could then be reinvested into the island.27 As aconsequence of this policy, Taiwan was supplying Japan with between six to sevenpercent of its rice requirement by the end of the 1930s.28The most successful and profitable agricultural industry during Taiwan’s colonialperiod was sugar. Sugar was an excellent means whereby Japan improved itsunfavourable balance of trade, and at the turn of the century, Japan’s imports of sugarexceeded its total exports by ten percent.29 The impact that this industry exerted on locallife is graphically recounted in Yang Kui’s “Paperboy.” As this story pointed out, thecontrol of the sugar industry by the Japanese cartel spelled exclusion for the Taiwanese.24 Leo Ou-fan Lee, “Modernism’ and Romanticism’ in Taiwan Literature,” in Chinese Fictionfrom Taiwan21.25 Wang Zhenhe and Chen Yingzhen, for example, were both graduates of the Department of ForeignLanguages and Literature at National Taiwan University, yet both became writers of xiangtu wenxue.26 Samuel P.S. Ho, Economic Development of Taiwan, 1860-1970 (New Haven and London: Yale UniversityPress, 1978) 29.27 Ibid.28 Samuel P.S. Ho, “The Development Policy of the Japanese Colonial Government in Taiwan, 1895-1945,”in Government and Economic Development, ed. Gustav Ranis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971) 327.29 Andrew Grajdanzev, Formosa Today: An Analysis ofEconomic Development and Strategic Importance ofJapan’s Tropical Colony (New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1942) HRAF AD1, 003Nativism Chap. Two71In fact, Taiwanese participation in this industry was limited to that of cane-grower only.3°The sugar-producing parts of the island were divided into supply areas by governmentdecree in 1905 which had the effect of making the sugar companies monopsonistic, and afew years later in 1909, the cartel, the Japanese Sugar Association, was formed.31 Byexercising exclusive power to regulate prices, the Japanese not only earned great profitsfrom their “hothouse industry”-- from twenty to forty percent of paid-up capital-- butthrough the confiscation of land, they also ultimately acquired ten percent of all Taiwanesefarmland.32During the 1930s, Japanese capitalists on the island were motivated by Japan’s warpreparations to diversify Taiwan’s economy. The objectives at this time were to producemanufactured goods previously imported from Japan and to supply industrial rawmaterials for Japan’s heavy industry.33 As Japan’s foreign policy became increasinglyexpansionist in the mid-1930s, Taiwan’s economic relations became redirected towardsouth and southeast Asia. Taiwan, nicknamed the “stone aimed at the south,” becameviewed as a natural stepping-stone southward in Japan’s construction of the Greater EastAsia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The establishment of the Taiwan Electrical Company, theJapan Aluminum Company, the Taiwan Technological Society and the TaiwanDevelopment Corporation all took place at this time.34The implementation and maintenance of Japan’s economic policies in Taiwan wereaccompanied by a harsh system of social and political controls designed to wear downlocal resistance. The primary props of colonial power were the Bandit SuppressionOrdinance, put in place at the outset of colonial rule, the baojia which was a traditionally30 Jack F. Williams, “Sugar: The Sweetener in Taiwan’s Development” 231.31 Ho, Economic Development 38.32 Williams 234.3 Ho, “Development Policy” 324.Ramon H. Myers, “Taiwan as an Imperial Colony of Japan: 1895-1945,” Journal of the Institute of ChineseStudies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 6 (1973): 438.Nativism Chap. Two72Chinese rural community organization aligned along household groups for thepreservation of peace and local control, and the posting of large numbers of police in thecolony.35 While the baojia was a neighbourhood system of mutual spying, the policesystem was a heavy-handed measure designed to eliminate all residual forms of resistanceleft over from the initial period of the Japanese takeover.36 All of these policies-- thepolicy of economic exclusion and the policies of social and political controls on the island,not to mention the fact that the colonized population also suffered a drop in real wages anda lower consumption of rice due to the high export of this product to Japan37 -- constituteevidence that the native Taiwanese sustained heavy social and economic costs brought tothem by the colonization of their island.The Taiwanese population responded to the harsh colonial conditions with demandsfor reform. These demands were channelled through various social and politicalmovements, whose existence was possible only due to the liberalized Taishô atmosphereThe Bandit Suppression Ordinance made the death penalty mandatory for any two persons who acted as agroup to commit violence. (Edward 1-te Ch’en, “Formosan Political Movements Under Japanese ColonialRule, 1914-1937,” Journal ofAsian Studies, 31:3 [1972]: 482.)The baojia was reintroduced into Taiwan in 1898 under the Kodama-Gotô administration, the fourthgovernor-general and his administrator who governed Taiwan from 1898 to 1906. Under this system as itwas practised in colonial Taiwan approximately ten households joined together to form a unit called ajia andten jia made up a bao. (Chen Ching-chih,”The Adaptation of the Pao-chia Systems in Taiwan, 1895-1915,”Journal ofAsian Studies, 34 (1975): 396.The police, called the “hands and feet of the governor-general,” were so numerous that Taiwan caine to becalled a polizeistaat. (Shi Ming, Taiwan ren sibai nianshi [San Jose, Ca.: Pengdao wenhua gongsi, 19801:269.) Prior to 1925 there were one hundred policemen for every five hundred persons, and even in the late1930s, this ratio was much higher than in Japan. (Chen Ching-chih, “The Police and Hokô Systems inTaiwan Under Japanese Administration (1895-1945),” Papers on Japan 4, ed. Albert Craig [Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard East Asian Research Centre, 19761: 154.) Mochiji Rokusaburô, who once served in thecolonial-government in Taiwan, attributed the success of the colony to its development as a police state.(Mochini Rokusabuiô, Taiwan shokumin seisaku [Tokyo: Fuzambo, 19121: 67-68.)36 At the outset of the Japanese Occupation, the local population waged a five-month war of resistance againstthe incoming colonizing forces which was followed by nine major anti-Japanese rebellions during the years1907 and 1915. (See Harry H. Lamley, “The 1895 War of Resistance: Local Chinese Efforts Against aForeign Power,” in Taiwan: Studies in Chinese Local History, ed. Leonard H.D. Gordon, Occasional Papersof the East Asian Institute of Columbia University [New York: Columbia University Press, 1970]: 93-110.)Ho, Economic Development 93, 96.Nativism Chap. Two73of the decade of the 1920s. These demands included a lobby for the repeal of Law 63,38which would terminate the Bandit Suppression Ordinance and the baojia, and later becamea movement to demand a separate legislature on Taiwan. The best-known of the socialmovements was the Taiwan Cultural Association whose mandate was to promote nativeculture on the island and which also attempted to carry out various types of social andeducational reform. The Association struggled throughout its history with policeharassment and arrests and ultimately became involved with the Taiwan PeasantMovement (1923-1932). The literature which emerged during this period was onlyone link in the entire social and political reform movements which characterized theTaiwan New Literature Movement. With the onset of the Pacific war and thereinstatement of military rule on Taiwan in 1937 these movements and Taiwanese-runjournals were forced to disband. However, during the short time in which they existed,they unmistakably signalled the first stirrings of a national identity which, ironically,arose as the product of Japanese efforts to assimilate or “Japanize” the nativepopulation.4° This sense of identity gained in strength throughout the post-war decades.In the post-war period when Taiwan was recovered from Japan, the islandexperienced considerable economic expansion under primarily American patronage. Withthe victory of the Chinese Communists in the mainland of China, the United Statesadministration conceived of a need for a bastion against Communist expansion in thedefense perimeter in the western Pacific. Taiwan, strategically located close to theChinese mainland, was perfect for this role. Accordingly, during the years 1951 to 1965,the United States carried out a 1.4 billion dollar aid program whose aim was to establish38 The governor-general ruled through a system of “delegated legislation” called Law 63 which granted himcomplete legislative powers on the island. (Edward Ch’en 482.)Edward Ch’en 489.40 Taiwan’s situation strongly contrasts with Korea, also a Japanese colony at about this same time, where thefeelings of nationalism and the sense of national identity were much stronger than in Taiwan.Nativism Chap. Two74strong military support on Taiwan.41 As a consequence, this aid abetted the process ofeconomic development which had begun earlier in Taiwan under the Japanese.By 1965 when American aid was terminated, Taiwan’s economy had reached the“take-off’ stage through rapid growth and the increased net domestic saving ratio.42 Theisland’s economy henceforth assumed its present configuration of capitalist free enterprisebased on foreign trade which advanced from an emphasis on food processing and textilesin the 1950s and 1960s to petrochemical and electronic goods in the 1970s and 1980s.Currently, Taiwan is a major world exporter.Taiwan’s political stability43 and economy attracted a large amount of overseasinvestment, particularly from the United States and Japan. Certain critics, however, suchas Wang Tuo and Jiang Xun, objected to the neocolonialist and imperialist nature ofTaiwan’s relationship with these countries and referred to Taiwan’s post-war decades as a“second colonial period.” Anti-imperialist sentiment which was incipient during theJapanese period resurfaced in a strong groundswell in the late 1970s. This sentimentbecame increasingly xenophobic until everything that was associated with imperialistdomination, such as capitalism, was denigrated and vilified.In the 1960s, many members of the Taiwanese community, including Taiwan’swriters of xiangtu wenxue, had already begun to react strongly to the developmentalprocess of Taiwan’s social life and economy under Westernization. Taiwan hadmodernized to such a profound degree that industrialism and commercialism touchedalmost every facet of Taiwanese life; even the countryside, regarded as the last bastion of41 Neil Jacoby, U.S. Aid to Taiwan (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966): 38, 39.42 Shirley W. Kwo, The Taiwan Economy in Transition (Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press, 1983): 1.43 The Nationalist government (GMD) instated martial law soon after its arrival in Taiwan in 1947,ostensibly for the purpose of quelling Communist subversion. In reality, however, Martial Law wasintended to quash any potential opposition to Nationalist rule. The effect of Martial Law was to abrogateconstitutional rights and also to create a stable political atmosphere conducive to overseas investment.44 For example, Wang Tuo refers to Taiwan’s “economic colonialism” under the U.S and Japan. (Wang Tuo,•‘Shi ‘xianshizhuyi’ wenxue, bu shi ‘xiangtu wenxue,” in Taolunji: 2293.Nativism Chap. Two75traditional culture, was also affected by the new productive relations. Nonetheless, thesewriters still turned to the countryside and reproduced it metaphorically in their stories asthe last sanctum against the encroachment of Westernization.45 The countryside, whichwas the one remaining place left relatively undefiled by the outside world, represents inthis decade of xiangtu wenxue an ideal, transcendent China extending far back into theroots of Chinese culture. The countryside in these works is the vision of the truth,wisdom and virtue, and the countryfolk, the only folk in present-day Taiwanese societywho coexist with this vision.It may be easier to understand the polarized urban-rural images in Taiwan’s 1960sdecade ofxiangtu wenxue if we compare this fiction with nineteenth-century Britishliterature, much of which is also concerned with the diminishing English rural landscapeand rural values in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. While Oliver Goldsmith waswriting “The Deserted Village,” for instance, the Industrial Revolution in England wastransforming both city and country, creating urban poverty and bringing deterioration tothe rural world.46 Throughout this time, however, and even while the English werepredominantly urban-dwelling people, English attitudes toward the country persisted, somuch so that even after English society was for the most part urban English literatureremained predominantly rural.47Industrialism was the major factor determining English nostalgia toward countrylife. The destruction of the “timeless rhythm of agriculture and the seasons” and the deathof the “organic community” of Old England are documented in Thomas Hardy’s novelsThe writers of Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue were not the only writers in Taiwan concerned with the effects ofindustrialism and commercialism on Taiwan’s traditional way of life. A strong anti-urban bias is evident inmany other modem works of Taiwan literature. Sima Zhongyuan, Ya Xian, Luo Men, Qi Dengsheng,Xu Jiashi, and Zhang Jian also write about the erosion of traditional rural values, the environmental qualityof life in the urban centres and the challenge of the West. (See James Chan, The Intellectual’s Image of theCity in Taiwan, Papers of the East-West Population Institute, No. 68 [Honolulu, Hawaii: East-WestCentre, May 1980.])46 Raymond Williams, The Country and the City (London: Chatto and Windus, 1973):1.Ibid. 2.Nativism Chap. Two76which refer back to the period between the 1820s and 1870s, that is, to the period of thegreatest rural change. William Cobbett, a writer of the English countryside who stayed indirect touch with the rural England of his time looked back, too, to the “happier,” oldEngland of his boyhood of the 1770s and 1780s. Cobbett was convinced that thedecisive change in the villages of England had occurred during his lifetime. OliverGoldsmith who spent his childhood in the Irish village of Lissoy also lamented the loss ofthe natural beauties of Lissoy and the warm-hearted manners of Lissoy’s inhabitants.In the works of all these writers, precise historical reference to times past is lacking.Instead, what emerges is an idealization of feudal or post-feudal values which is thenturned into a critique of industrialism. Raymond Williams calls this phenomenon“retrospective radicalism” and points out that the “rural-intellectual radicalism” in Englandwas “genuinely and actively hostile to industrialism and capitalism; opposed tocommercialism and to the exploitation of the environment; attached to country ways andfeelings, the literature and the lore.”49 What is held up for idealization by theseradicalists is the “natural” or “moral economy” which served as the foundation forpastoral happiness and virtue in contrast to the ruthlessness of capitalism.In England, the moral values traditionally ascribed to the urban and rural worldswere heightened by the rise of industrialism. The city, for instance, was satirized as earlyas the second century AD by Juvenal (c. 60-c. 160 A.D.), the Roman satirist. Faultedwith the rise of the lawyer, merchant, pimp and procurer, the city, according to Juvenal,exudes the stink of place and profit and exhibits the danger and noise of crowds.50 Themonied order of the city sinks its surplus capital back into the land, thus perpetuating the48 At the time in which Goldsmith was writing, in 1770, the village of Lissoy had been destroyed bythe enclosure of common land by big estates. This compelled the inhabitants to migrate to thetowns or to emigrate.Williams 36.50 Ibid. 47.Nativism Chap. Two77exploiting processes. The country not only must support the city, but the interlockingrelationship between the two dooms the country as a whole to be forever exploited by thecity. Trotsky theorized that the history of capitalism has been the history of the victory oftown over country. Engels also saw the modem city as a social and physical consequenceof capitalism which, in the process, created the potential for ending capitalism through therise of the urban proletariat. In England, those who were made landless by the enclosuremovement became the working class of the new industrial towns and possessed thepotential for revolution. In European fashion, these theorists also denigrated what theyperceived as “rural idiocy,” and extolled the bourgeoisie for rescuing both a part of thelocal population and the “barbarians” in the colonies from the “idiocy of rural life.”In conclusion, visions of modernity in Taiwan in the 1960s are neither unique nornew, given the quasi-archetypal, universal attachment to the rural world found in othertimes and places. This attachment echoes the sentiment of nostalgia for the countrysidefound among Chinese writers; it also echoes Lu Xun’s “cherishing old ties”-- his deepbonds with the roots of Chinese culture located deep in the Chinese countryside. Inshort, Chinese traditional attitudes toward their culture and the conflation of Chineseculture with the rural world are ongoing motifs in modem Chinese and Taiwanese fiction.Where Taiwan’s writers of xiangtu wenxue part company with Lu Xun is in itsvalorization of traditional culture. During Lu Xun’s time, writers did not yet have to dealwith the vulnerability of Chinese culture in the face of the hard facts of modernity; thusthey could afford to be iconoclastic. Unlike their earlier Chinese counterparts, Taiwan’swriters of xiangtu wenxue had undergone at least one decade of rapid, intenseindustrialization. Caught squarely in the throes of modernity, these writers recognized thefragility of their country’s traditions and embraced them, turning a blind eye to the ruralbonds of oppression. The countryside for the writers of xiangtu wenxue was the“stronghold of ‘Chinese consciousness” which protected and nurtured the legacy of pastNativism Chap. Two78traditions.51 At the time I am writing this, however, this question is already in abeyance:many of the perilous issues the writers of xiangtu wenxue raised have disappeared in theprogressive march of a Westernized time into Asia. For a remembrance of things past,one must turn to the fiction for the best record of a culture and a nation in transition.Taiwanese writers of xiangzu wenxue of the 1960sCompared to the English, the consciousness of the Taiwanese people has onlyrecently emerged from a predominantly agrarian orientation. As a result, the newly-modernized urbanites of Taiwan-- those who moved to the cities to work in the factoriesor to start a business --still retain strong ties of identification with their places of origin,whether these are the farming villages of central and southern Taiwan or the fishingvillages along the coastline. These urbanites return on a regular basis to their countryhomes to celebrate traditional festivals or merely to reaffirm their deep ties with thecountryside in line with the centuries-old Chinese tradition. The country also representstheir escape route from the angst, stress and Westernized lifestyle of the cities. From theperspective of sociology, the consciousness of the new Taiwanese urbanite reflects therural-to-the-urban migration patterns common to all countries undergoing modernizationand industrialization.Like their fellow urbanites, Taiwan’s writers of xiangtu wenxue of the 1960s werealso urban sojourners who. retained a strong rural bias. As writers, they shared the samesojouming perspective as China’s xiangtu writers who wrote about their rural villages inthe 1920s. Wang Tuo points out that a number of Taiwanese writers, such as himself,Hwang Chun-ming and Wang Zhenhe I1ij1(l94O-1988) all came from remote farming51 Jing Wang, “Taiwan’s Hsiang-t’u Literature: Perspectives in the Evolution of a LiteraryMovement, in Chinese Fictionfrom Taiwan, ed. Jeannette L. Faurot (Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press, 1980): 55.Nativism Chap. Two79or fishing villages in Taiwan.52 Wang Tuo, for instance, comes from the fishing villageof Badouzi in Keelong which is the setting of many of his stories; Hwang Chun-ming’shome is located in Luodong, Yilan county; Wang Zhenhe’s origin lies in Hualian; andanother writer, Taiwan’s “worker-writer” Yang Qingchu (1940- ), hails from ahumble background in the remote area of Qigu Village in Tainan. These writers spenttheir childhood in Taiwan’s rural villages and, after migrating to the capital, they began towrite fiction about their old homes. At the same time, they also wrote about the situationof people who had migrated to the urban areas.53 Xiangtu wenxue is thus not merely“literature about the villages” (xiangcun wenxue jj) but also consists ofnarratives about life in the cities and factories. It is for this reason that Taiwanesecritics refer to xiangtu wenxue as “national literature” (minzu wenxueIn a passage which could also be applied to Taiwanese literature, RaymondWiffiams states of English literature that it celebrates the humble and worthy characters ofthe country setting in contrast to their wealthier counterparts in the city.55 He also statesthat the contrast of city and country provides the atmosphere of lamentation for past ruralvirtues which are irrevocably lost. Both these themes--the celebration of humble, ruralcharacters and the sense of nostalgia over the loss of the rural world-- inform Taiwanesexiangtu wenxue. The world of the “little people” from the lower orders of Taiwan societyis a world peopled by those who are either living out the last vestiges of a traditionallifestyle or who are attempting to contend with the onslaught of industrialism which is fastmaking their rural world a thing of the past. These are themes and concerns in the storiesof Hwang Chun-ming.52 Wang Tuo, “Xiangtu wenxue jiu shi Taiwan wenxue” 89.Ibid.Ibid.Williams 72.Nativism Chap. Two80Hwang Chun-mingHwang Chun-ming was among the first of Taiwan’s native writers of the post-warperiod to begin writing xiangtu wenxue. After an earlier period in his writing career inwhich he wrote a number of “lightweight” stories,56 Hwang turned to writing ruralworks which are slice-of-life narratives about rural life and people. A portion of theseshort stories documents the changes to the rural areas engendered by the encroachingurban spread, and the effect that these changes had on Taiwan’s rural lifestyle. Inherentin these changes is a moral dilemma based on the fact that there are certain materialbenefits which accompany the deterioration of traditional values. The question is, how dothese benefits add up when weighed against the loss of a traditional lifestyle? Hwang’sintention is not to solve this dilemma; he merely evokes it through irony and pathos. Inshort, this writer provides us less with a prescriptive answer than a descriptive, anecdotalaccount of what happens when change occurs to the deepest parts of Taiwan society. Asa result, Hwang’s works of this period of his writing have little didacticism, and theyenjoy a wide, enthusiastic readership.The changes that are depicted in Hwang Chun-ming’s short stories are usuallydisruptive: they exercise adverse, even tragic effects on those involved, and they createsituations of angst. Hwang Chun-ming is far from being a sentimental writer, however.On the contrary, he writes humorously and with a flair for storytelling. It is partially forthis reason that he has been compared to the American southern writer William Faulknerand has earned the title of voxpopuli--the spokesperson of the “little people.”57Hwang resembles Faulkner in more ways than his provinciality, however.Faulkner wrote about an agricultural economy, life in the farms and villages of the56 Howard Goldblau calls these stories “lightweight though not unappealing.” (Goldblatt, “The Rural Storiesof Hwang Chun-ming,” in Chinese Fiction from Taiwan: 110.)Ibid.Nativism Chap. Two81American south, the old-fashioned set of values that accompanied this life and its religionwith its cult, creed and norms of conduct, and he contrasted all of this with the life in thegreat cities.58 Like other writers who are associated with a particular region, such asThomas Hardy with Wessex, Faulkner used his regional difference as a vantage pointfrom which to criticize the powerful metropolitan culture, especially its commercialism.59Hwang resembles Faulkner in all of this, in particular, in his recognition of the erosion oftraditional practices and attitudes in Taiwanese society as a result of the spread of urbanculture. The element of nostalgia for Taiwan’s vanishing traditional lifestyle runs like asubtext through Hwang Chun-ming’s works.Hwang Chun-ming was born in the township of Luodong in Yilan county. Thislittle town is the place he knows best; thus, like Lu Xun, Wang Luyan, and other Chinesexiangtu writers who wrote about their old homes in the Chinese countryside, Hwangnaturally sets many of his stories there. “The Gong” (Luo 1968) is one such story.60In Luodong, according to Hwang Chun-ming’s own accounts, there was a gong-beater who may or may not have been named Kam Kim-ah.61 Kam Kim-ah makes hisentrance near the opening of “The Gong,” lamenting his recent social and economicdowngrading into near-obsolescence. Once the “only remaining practitioner of the uniqueprofession of gong beating,”62 .. Kam Kim-ah has beensuperannuated by the loudspeaker-equipped pedicab. This pedicab, like the pedicabs and58 Cleanth Brooks, William Faulkner: The Yoknapatawpha Country (New Haven: Yale University Press,1963) 1.Ibid. 1, 2.60 Anthologized in Hwang Chun-ming, Luo, Yuanjing congkan 1 (Taipei: Yuanjing chubanshe, 1974) 107-194.61 Hwang Chun-ming has stated “emphatically” on several occasions that such a person existed in hishometown. (Goldblatt 125.)The romanization of the character’s name in “The Gong” follows standard Hokkien.62 Hwang Chun-ming, “The Gong,” in The Drowning of an Old Cat and Other Stories, Tr. Howard Goldblatt(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980): 61.Nativism Chap. Two82trucks in “Oxcart,” signifies that modernization has fmally come to his little rural village.Announcements about lost children or temple festival days that Kam Kim-ah was oncecalled upon to perform have now been taken over by a young man who pedals hismotorized pedicab up and down the streets, maldng announcements louder and coveringmore ground faster. Kam Kim-ah despairs over his fate and attempts to wheedle his wayinto the good graces of another marginalized group-- the town’s funeral mourners-- inorder to recoup his livelihood. Never fully accepted by the group, Kam Kim-ah comes tonear-grief over a scandal involving the local town lunatic and retreats in even greateranguish to the safety of his air-raid shelter. Soon after, Kam is called out of retirement bythe District Headquarters and is instructed to make an announcement about taxes. Carriedaway by enthusiasm, Kam confuses the word “property” in his announcement about taxeswith “propriety” and is promptly fired. “The Gong” concludes with pathos, heighteningthe existential wretchedness of this marginalized, forgotten figure.Hwang Chun-ming is a more regional writer than, for instance, Lu Xun. By this Imean that he writes exclusively about a geographically small area. At the same time,many of Hwang’s characters are as representational and as typically Chinese as LuXun’s. Kam Kim-ah in many ways resembles A Q, that is, he too is a typical ruralEveryman. He also has A Q’s tendency to prevaricate, and his traits of self-deception andself-rationalization mirror A Q’s dearth of self-knowledge. For example, at one point inthe story Kam Kim-ah responds to an inquiry about the reason for his recent firing. Heprevaricates, hedges, and finally rationalizes that what he was announcing was “not goodnews so I just knocked off for a while.”63 Hethen adds that he quit because “beating a gong doesn’t interest me anymore.”64Like A Q, Kam Kim-ah also turns his defeats into moral victories. Sensing63 Ibid. 73.64 Ibid76.Nativism Chap. Two83his rejection by the group of mourners, they become in his eyes “A bunch of old bums,lower than pigs”65 —J Jand, by implication, he is superior. As faras Taiwan’s rural domain is concerned, Kam is typical of many rural Taiwanese. Histypicality, however, stops short of Taiwan’s westernized, urban population.Like “The Gong,” “Drowning of an Old Cat” (Nisi yizhi lao maoalso concerns the erosion of the traditional Chinese lifestyle through the encroachment ofurban spread. The protagonist of this story, Uncle A Sheng (A Sheng Bo), is also amarginalized villager, in this case, one of a group of superannuated old-timers who passtheir days in idle gossip beneath an old banyan tree beside the Temple of the Patriarch.Up until now, the village of Clear Spring has been protected from the fads of the nearbyurban centre, such as mini skirts and discos, by the intervening distance of two and one-half kilometers. What contact it has experienced has been in the form of the town’s elitewho help themselves to the healthful qualities of the village’s natural spring. It soonemerges, however, that plans are afoot in the town to dig up Dragon Eye, the village’shallowed spot, and to construct a swimming pool for the use of the town’s residents. ASheng and the other oldtimers, such as Cow’s Eye and Earthworm, are now witness tothe beginning of the disintegration of their community.Outraged, Uncle A Sheng decides to act. He begins to spout strange, cryptic riddlesand, in his new role of village shaman, assumes supernatural powers that he believes canhalt the construction. Notwithstanding his otherworldly performance, the constructionproceeds as planned. Soon, children beg to be taken swimming, and revealing, two-piecebathing suits make their appearance in the village. It is apparent that the majority of thevillagers have tuned in to the advantages offered by modernity.65 Ibid. 117.66“Drowning of an old Cat” is anthologized in Hwang Chun-ming, Xiao Guafu, Yuangjing congkan 11(Yuanjing chubanshe, 1975) 17-39.Nativism Chap. Two84“The Drowning of an old Cat” concludes in ambiguity. Driven by the urge toprotest, Uncle A Sheng jumps, stark naked, into the pool. But “a cat is not a dog,”67 as the saying goes, and he is dead by the time he is pulled out. Like his previousmegalomania, Uncle A Sheng’s delusions about his powers can do little to halt modernity;in fact, they are as futile as the arm-waving of the mantis in the parable by Zhuangzi.Uncle A Sheng is driven to this act by anguish, the kind of primordial anguish rooteddeep in the collective terror of the unknown. Ultimately, this anguish has compelledUncle A Sheng and the other old-timers in the story to ask this one, overwhelmingquestion: What will happen to all of us when the life we know now is gone?Any discussion of modernity must concern the individual, specifically, the effects ofalienation on the individual which arises during the process of the exchange of labour formoney. In Marx’s view, alienation arises when the social relations of production denycontrol over the means and ends of production to those who labour. The result is thethwarting of self-consciousness and damage to the purposive consciousness of those wholabour.68 In Marx’s view, all forms of industrialism as we now know, transform humanlabour into a mere commodity whose utility lies in extracting a surplus value for thosewho own the means of production; thus, it exercises a dehumanizing and oppressiveeffect. Marx was concerned not only with the economic and philosophic implications ofalienated labour, but also morally with its destructive effects on individuals and on thecollective consciousness.69 Marx’s concepts are summed up as follows:First, ... work is external to the worker, ... it is not part of hisnature; and ..., consequently, he does not fulfill himself in hiswork but denies himself, has a feeling of misery rather than wellbeing, does not develop freely his mental and physical energies but67 Hwang Chun-ming, “The Drowning of an Old Cat,” in The Drowning ofan Old Cat and Other Stories” 35.68 Michael L. Schwalbe, The Psychosocial Consequences ofNatural and Alienated Labor (Albany: StateUniversity of New York Press, 1986) 11.69 Ibid. 12.Nativism Chap. Two85is physically exhausted and mentally debased.... [Work] is notsatisfaction of a need, but only a means for satisfying other needs.Its alien character is clearly shown by the fact that as soon as thereis no physical or other compulsion it is avoided like the plague.7°The alienation of labour and the “damage to the purposive consciousness of thosewho labour” are the subjects of fictionalization in Hwang’s “My Son’s Big Doll” (Erzi deda wanou f)f)2’ As commercialism-industrialism intensified in Taiwan inthe 1950s and 1960s, the new relations of production penetrated as far as the small ruraltownship. “My Son’s Big Doll” relates the kind of alienation that the protagonist, Khunchhiu, experiences when these new relations compel him to sell his labour as a “sandwichman” (guanggaode J-J). One critic comments that the work Khun-chhiu doesprovides him with “neither dignity nor personal satisfaction.”72 However, the cause ofKhun-chhiu’s misery is not so much the type of work he does, which is indeeddehumanising, as its “alien character” which distances Khun-chhiu from himself and hisenvironment.“My Son’s Big Doll” opens with the preamble that the sandwich man was acommon sight in capitalist North America, and that this occupation one day also made itsappearance in this remote part of Taiwan. The “adman”s job consists in displaying twoadboards, fore and aft, which advertise such products as Hundred Herb Tea, tapewormdrugs and movies. The adman, preposterously overdressed in a costume of a nineteenthcentury European military officer, weaves his way through the byways of the town withhis signboards, mechanically and mentally acting out the effects of his commodiflcation.One of these takes form as the subjectivization of his visual perceptions along his way. Asecond is the regurgitation of recent experiences which the adman also attempts to70 Karl Marx, Early Writings [1844], 1963: 124-5, as quoted in Schwalbe 15.71 Anthologized in Luo 3 3-62.72 Howard Goldblatt, “The Rural Stories of Hwang Chun-ming,” in Chinese Fiction from Taiwan: 124.Nativism Chap. Two86subjectivize by replaying over and over his original role as participant in the event. Hisprocess of subjectivization is accompanied by a play of commentary which is recordedparenthetically in the text; these comments are thereby foregrounded and serve todefamiliarize73and compel the reader into an examination of the adman’s unusualcondition. The result of all this narration is a pyrotechnic display of literary devices suchas interior monologue and stream-of-consciousness in a flashback mode, all of which aredevices inherited from Taiwan’s period of Modernism.Like the eye of a camera, Khun-chhiu records visual impressions as though theywere cinematic effects and comments on them through a mode of simultaneousnarration.74 Khun-chhiu’s main preoccupation on his lonely journey, however, lies inthe random regurgitation of recent events: a quarrel on separate occasions with his wifeand uncle and dialogues with his boss. In one instance, a dialogue that took placebetween Khun-chhiu and his wife on the topic of their son, A-long, is replayed in thenarrative. As usual, Khun-chhiu makes his subjective and unvoiced comments in thepresent time on what happened. The narration relates this dialogue as follows:Khun-chhiu was happy. This work allowed him to have Ahong; having A-long gave him the patience to endure the work.“Idiot! Do you think A-hong really likes you? Do you think thischild is aware that such a person as the real you even exists?”(At the time I nearly misunderstood what A-chu was saying.)“When you go out in the morning, if he’s not asleep, he’s on myback and I’ve gone out washing. Most of the time when he’sawake, you’ve got your make-up and costume on. When youcome back in the evening, he’s asleep again.”(It couldn’t be! On the other hand, though, the child is gettingmore shy of strangers these days.)‘“Defamiliarization” is a technique used by the Russian formalists to “estrange” the reader through theforegrounding of the linguistic utterance. By disrupting the ordinaiy modes of linguistic discourse, literature“makes strange” the world of everyday perception. (M.H. Abrams, A Glossary ofLiterary Terms 236.)74 Hwang Chun-ming is credited with two film documentaries about Taiwanese festivals. The author’scinematic experience is probably the source for this narrative mode.Gerard Genette defines simultaneous narration as the narrative in the present which is contemporaneous withthe action. (Gdrard Genette, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method, tr. Jane E. Lewin [Ithaca, NewYork: Cornell University Press, 19801: 217.)Nativism Chap. Two87“He likes your painted face and your clowning. Do I need sayit? Your his big doll!”(He he! I’m A-hong’s big doll. Big doll?!!)75At this point, I temporarily take leave of the small parameters of Taiwan fiction andtake the reader on another intertextual excursion, also to the world of nineteenth centuryFrench literature. In the works of Charles Pierre Baudelaire, there is a comparable figureto Hwang’s adman who, while his occupation is different, reaps a similar arsenal ofepistemological and sensory experiences as he strolls through the streets of his Frenchtown. This is the figure of the flaneur, or Ragpicker, who, half a century later, reappearsas a leitmotif in the Arcades project of Walter Benjamin (l892l94O).76 Susan Sontagcomments about Benjamin’sflaneur that he is like a photographer or poet who indulgesin a kind of pack-rat activity of collecting, cataloguing and internalizing everything that noone else wants. Sontag describes the flaneur as follows: “Everything that the big citythrew away, everything it lost, everything it despised, everything it crushed underfoot, hecatalogues and collects.”77 While for Baudelaire, the flaneur is the man of the crowd, inBenjamin’s Arcades, the flaneur merely aimlessly strolls through the crowds in the bigcities, in studied contrast to their hurried, purposeful activity. As he does so, “thingsreveal themselves in their secret meaning,” and he is privy to the meaning of the past. Heis transfigured by the “angel of history” who both sees the ruin of the past and ispropelled forward by history’s progress.78 As he strolls through the streets of his town,the adman, too, is propelled forward by history. At the same time, his unique perspective‘ Hwang5l.76 The Arcades project, which Walter Benjamin began in 1927, was the author’s projected book aboutnineteenth-century Paris. This project centred on the investigation of historical forms of culture, proceedingfrom historical and literary texts (Baudelaire). The metropolitan topography is treated as if it were arevealing record of historical forces. (Peter Demetz, “Introduction,” Walter Benjamin, Reflections: Essays,Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings (New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989); xxxviii.‘ Susan Sontag, “Melancholy Objects” in On Photography (Hainmondsworth: Penguin, 1979) 78, as cited inLloyd Spencer, “Allegory in the World of the Commodity: The Importance of Central Park,” New GermanCritique 34 (1985): 74.78 Walter Benjamin, Illuminations (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1955): 12, 13.Nativism Chap. Two88makes him aware of the “ruin” brought to Taiwan’s social and economic life by thehurried launch into progress.The flaneur knows the city; so, too, does the prostitute: the rise of the city and itslabyrinthine character is closely linked with prostitution. As Benjamin puts it: “Thelabyrinth, whose image had passed into flesh and blood in the flaneur, is at the same timecolourfully framed by prostitution.”79 The adman in “My Son’s Big Doll” is like theflaneur who picks his way through the labyrinthine streets of the town, collectingeverything the town had “lost, despised and crushed underfoot,” and as he does so he isalso privy to the town’s “first arcanum,” as Benjamin refers to prostitution.80 In “MySon’s Big Doll,” the red-light district is beside Yuying Elementary School where theprostitutes, dressed in pyjamas and wooden clogs, are grouped about the roadside stalls,eating snacks. Some sit in doorways, applying cosmetics while others lean against thedoorway or read comics. When the adman approaches, the serenity of the scene isshattered. The prostitutes attempt to lure him away from his perambulations, but theadman walks off, then laughs long and loud once he reaches the end of the alley. He thencomments to himself in another one of those interpolated asides which so successfullyforeground his thoughts: “Sure, I’d go. If I had the money, I’d go like a shot. I’d havethe one from Fairy Happiness leaning against the doorway with that far-away lookIn sum, Hwang Chun-ming’s stories are about the underprivileged and marginalizedof Taiwanese society-- the gong-beater, the adman, prostitutes and other outcasts. This“Faullcner of Taiwan” peopled his stories in the same way that the American writer createdhis Yoknopatawpha from the “yeoman farmers, sharecroppers and white trash” of the‘ Walter Benjamin, “Central Park,” New German Critique 34 (1985): 53.80 Ibid.81 Hwang39.Nativism Chap. Two89American Old South. In the American literary tradition, Faulkner was alive to the comicpossibilities of the poor white. But he also sympathized with them, recognizing in theman integrity, dignity and values which correspond little with their linguisticinadequacies.82 It was in this light that Hwang Chun-ming viewed his lower-classcompatriots, recognizing in them traditional virtues which, historically, have always beenascribed to the Chinese lower classes. These virtues came to light again in the 1960s withthe “discovery” of the Taiwanese people.Wang ZhenheWang Zhenhe’s “Dowry--One Oxcart,” (Jiazhuang yi niuche II 1967)83is also about a marginalized group which, in this case, has refused to make the adjustmentto Taiwan’s industrialized society. Wanfa the oxcart driver, his wife A Hao and the“Luganger,” the garment merchant from Lugang, are ghetto figures who are not merelymarginalized to the lowest ranks of society, they are also, in effect, society’s castaways.Doomed forever as misfits, this trio represents the inevitable few who, thrown off by thewheels of social and economic change, are unable or unwilling to change their lifestyle toadjust to the changing times. Ghettoized by their dearth of skills, their unattractivenessand their existential isolation, they play out a little drama which combines all the elementsof the theatre of the absurd. In short, this little drama is senseless, nonconsequential andridiculous.Wang Zhenhe delineates his characters with skill and compassion; at the same timehe also satirizes and mocks them for, ultimately, their existential uselessness. As a satire,“Dowry--One Oxcart” is supremely ironic and is characterized by “bondage, frustration,82 Brooks 11.83“Jiazhuang yi niuche” was first published in Wenxue jikan, 2 (April, 1967); it is currently anthologized inWang Zhenhe, Jiazhuang yi niuche (Yuanjing congkan 13 (Taipei: Ynanjing chubanshe, 1975): 7 1-97.Nativism Chap. Two90[and] absurdity” typical of the ironic mode. One commentator classifies this text aslow burlesque which he defines through a borrowed analogy of “squat, obese goblins” inthe trick mirrors of the amusement park.85 This classification, however, fails to take thetragic elements of the drama into account; thus I prefer the stylistic comparison of‘Dowry--One Oxcart” with the plays of Beckett. The utter meaninglessness of Wanfa andA Hao’s existence results from their place in an alien, unkind universe which confersupon its inhabitants a life which is both anguished and absurd.Near the beginning the narrative outlines the dramatic setting of “Dowry--OneOxcart” which consists of a hut bordering on a cemetery somewhere in rural Taiwan.This setting allows the three figures of the drama to carry on their tragicomicmisadventures far from the intervention of the real world. Their residence is described asfollows:On the right-hand side of the little roadway leading to thecemetery stood a little grass hut: their home. It reminded one of anold man cringing out in the freezing cold, so shrunken andwizened it was! It was no lone wolf, however, as at a distance ofabout ten feet, there was a second, thatched hovel standingcrookedly. A family had lived there at one time, but eventuallythey could no longer stomach the strange anomalies which defmesthe cemetery at night, and one year ago they had removedthemselves to fairer climes: an area of regular people and things.86As the narrative unfolds, it introduces the three characters, one by one. It turns out thatall of them possess some deformity or defect which defines their ghettoized identity butwhich the narrator also uses to comic effect in the story. Wanfa suffers from deafnesswhich resulted from an infection from dirty water during the war. His recourse at the84 Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays 34.85 Robert Yi Yang, “Form and Tone in Wang Chen-ho’s Fiction” in Chinese Fiction from Taiwan: 136.Robert Yang is quoting David Worcester from The Art of Satire (New York: Russell and Russell, 1960):41.86 Wang Zhenhe 74-75.Nativism Chap. Two91time to treatment by a gynecologist did little to alleviate his condition which became thesource for his nickname of “stinky deaf-ears” The narrative intimates that healso suffers from impotence which ultimately leads to his cuckolding.A Hao, on the other hand, is so thin that with “her hands placed on her hips sheresembled a pair of parentheses with a number inside. This number was only a single,skinny ‘1,’ however, there was nothing more curvaceous to make the heart race.”I fljJf87 A Hao’s prize possession is a Western-style dress the colour of butter which wasthe victory she had scored after attending church one day the previous year. This dress isdecorated with a fetter-like ornament which resembles a lock strung up on a tin-platechain, a decoration which is repeated across her lower abdomen. The sexual subtext ofthe narrative is revealed by the narrator’s ironic insinuation that these two locks “weremeant to form a blockade to defend the secret, private parts of her person!1IJ!88The coprological description extends next to the Luganger who is afflicted withbody odour. This affliction forces him to “scratch and scratch in the cavern of his aimpit,as though lice had taken up residence.”89 The omniscient narrator shares Wanf&s discomfiture when he states: “Theymust have defaulted on the rent for many years, and now the time had come to drive themout! It was truly unbearab1e.”-* JJ1Ifi,T ftt39°The farcedoes not stop here, however. The narrative continues to relate that the garment merchanthails from Lugang, and the dialect of Taiwan’s oldest port makes it sound as though “a87 Ibid. 75.88 Ibid. 83.89 Ibid. 77.90 Ibid.Nativism Chap. Two92big steamed bun had been shoved into his mouth.” )ç ii:i 91 For poordeaf Wanfa, it was impossible to make out even one word of what the man was saying.At one point, the Luganger moves in with his lover and Wanfa, and a family of vegetablepicklers then moves into the vacated hut next door. To Wanfa, the nasal quality of thevoice of the pickle-vendor sounds as though his mouth was “projecting into a picklecrock--Hwuuang!“jIjIJO, — _lII12 Wherever the pickle vendor went, hewas invariably in command of a squadron of red-headed flies. With this description, thenarrator comments in an ironic aside that “He who calls has nothing to offer but trouble.”The tragic aspects of “Dowry--One Oxcart”-- Wanfa’s cuckolding by A Hao and theLuganger-- is highlighted by the presence of an all-seeing, all-knowing crowd whichfunctions as a kind of Greek chorus in the story. The chorus is privy to all the details ofthe story and, like its Greek predecessor, passes judgement on them. All his life, Wanfahas wanted nothing more than his own oxcart, and, at last, he comes into possession ofone. This cart is a gift, no more no less, from the Luganger in exchange for his wife.94After assenting to the exchange, Wanfa obligingly absents himself from the house for afew hours a day and makes his way to a local country eating-house to enjoy ligusticumduck and beer--his “Balm of Giiad,” also paid for by the Luganger. “Dowry--OneOxcart” concludes with the jeering, carousing chorus of villagers who, having finishedtheir meal in the eating-house, saunter outside and begin staring in. The pitiable figure ofWanfa, bent over his ligusticum soup, is the butt of their joke. The narrator relates thescene as follows:91 Ibid.92 Ibid. 93.Wang, “An Oxcart for Dowry,” Tr Wang Zhenhe and Jon Jackson, in Chinese Storiesfrom Taiwan: 1960-1970, ed. Joseph S.M. Lau (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976): 96.9 This exchange is the source in the story for the saying: “For a virgin bride--one box of cakes; for a twice-wedded hag--one oxcart!” (Wang 96) and also for the title of the story.Nativism Chap. Two93Several pairs of eyes fixed shamelessly on Wanfa. Then there wasmore talk and hilarity. It seemed as though they were saying thatWanfa’s ass was growing on his head!Like Hwang Chun-ming, Wang Zhenhe is a regional writer. He writes about thestagnation of his community and the social effects of change. Wang’s works are closelybound with the soil and the people; thus, they are nativist by virtue of the fact that theyduplicate the mores, social customs and attitudes of Taiwan’s rank and file. As such,they are a direct expression of the Taiwanese cultural locale.96 His works are also atypical example of the independent development of xiangtu wenxue from Taiwan’s“compradore” literature. This, in a nutshell, sums up many of the works, the writers ofTaiwan’s xiangtu wenxue of the 1960s and their ethos.Chen YingzhenChen Yingzhen is another writer ofxiangtu wenxue who wrote about rural changeand the superannuation of cultural and social institutions which resulted fromindustrialism. “Family of Generals” (Jiangjun zu l964), one of ChenYingzhen’s best-known short stories, is about this theme.“Family of Generals” fails into the first phase of Chen’s writing career which lastedfrom 1959 to 1965 and which is characterized, in Chen’s words, by a “Chekhovian”Ibid. 97.96 This should not be confused with cultural separatism which Taiwanese political groups, especially thoseadvocating independence, projected onto this literature a decade later. There is little political ideology in the1960s decade of xiangtu wenxue. Even when Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue became more ideological in thelate 1970s, there is little evidence to support the claim that this literature embraced a political viewpointeither for independence or for reunification.“ Anthologized in Chen Yingzhen, Jiangjun zu, Yuanjing congkan 25 (Taipei: Yuanjing chubanshe, 1975):99-118.Nativism Chap. Two94melancholy.98 The stories of this phase differ both from his “humorous”99 secondphase and from his more ideological works of the 1970s and 1980s. “Family ofGenerals” represents Chen’s period of experimentation with rural and urban themes priorto the author’s political realignment.’°°The central theme of “Family of Generals” concerns a traditional Taiwaneseinstitution-- the drum and gong funerary band-- which in current Taiwan reality hasdisappeared under the onslaught of industrialism. The manufacture of stereos andrecorded music which began with Taiwan’s shift to technology in the 1970s has graduallymade this band obsolete, though at the time Chen wrote this story, it was in all likelihoodstill in existence as part of Taiwan’s rural or suburban social life. Chen’s fictionalrecreation of this band stems from nostalgia for a community which is fast disappearingand from a collective memory of a bygone life, which, when examined through thedistorting, rosy lens of time, appears attractive and romantic. Chen Yingzhen’s nostalgiafor this bygone life, which is somehow better than the present life, is a replay of thenativist mentality we have examined already in “Oxcart” and “The Gong.” Thedisappearance of this old institution in “Family of Generals,” along with the customs andmores it represents, constitutes a xiangtu wenxue leitmotif.The characters in “Family of Generals” are two members of the drum and gongband, nicknamed Triangle Face and Skinny Yatour. Triangle Face is a Mainland Chinesewho came to Taiwan from China in 1949, and Skinny Yatour, a young Taiwanese girl98 Xu Nancun, “Shilun Chen Yingzhen,” in Xiangru wenxue taolunji 171.Ibid.Chen’s second phase is represented by “Tang Qing de xiju” (The Comedy of Tang Qing, 1967); his third,ideological phase is represented by the collection Huashengdun dalou: yun• di yi bu (WashingtonMansions: Clouds: Part One, 1983).100 Chen Yingzhen was charged with sedition in 1968 in a secret military trail and sentenced to ten years inprison. This was the first leftist political case of post-1949 GMD-ruled Taiwan. This sentence wascommuted at the death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1975, at which time Chen was released along with the othermembers of the case. He had served seven years of his sentence. After his release from prison, Chengathered his two stories into two collections and began writing fiction about the corporate world.Nativism Chap. Two95with a sordid family past. These two figures are drawn together from their equalpositions of powerlessness-- both are disenfranchised and both have little power tochange their life. This equity defmes not just their social disenfranchisement but also theirgender relations-- neither exhibits power over the other-- and is maintained unchangedthroughout their anguished life together. This is an unusual situation in the fiction ofChen Yingzhen in which women are usually represented as the victim of male powerrelations. 101Chen Yingzhen is unusually sensitive about the ethnic mix on Taiwan where aboutfifteen percent of the population are Mainland Chinese.102 Often, he exhibits profoundcompassion for these exiles who, in a number of his works, are fictionalizedempathetically alongside their Taiwanese compatriots. Certain critics have criticizedTaiwanese xiangtu wenxue for its regional emphasis; Chen’s profound sympathy for theMainland exiles, on the other hand, is the reason, according to one critic, that he is not a“bigoted regionalist.”°3 Though I would hesitate to label stories such as “Dowry--OneOxcart” “bigotry,” the intermingling of Taiwanese and Mainlanders in Chen’s fiction,minus the exile motif usually present in stories about ethnic Chinese in Taiwan, implies anexpanded national focus and the blurring of cultural distinctions.Triangle Face in “Family of Generals” is a trumpet player in his forties while SkinnyYatour, a young teenager, is the band’s baton twirler. Both lead lonely lives and areisolated by their experience of personal misfortune. Triangle Face is entrapped by hismemories of World War II, the Japanese, and a wife left behind in China; Skinny Yatour,for her part, is marginalized by her stigma as a one-time prostitute. Drawn together by101 The representation of women in this way is the source for the sordid dynamics of Chen’s “Night Freight”(Ye xing huoche, 1979), for example, which is examined in a later chapter.102 That is, those who came to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek in 1947 after the Nationalist defeat in China.103 Yen Yuanshu, “Social Realism in Recent Chinese Fiction in Taiwan,” Asian Culture Quarterly, 4:2 (1976):23.Nativism Chap. Two96misery, the two exchange whispered conversations at night through the partition wall oftheir sleeping quarters. Skinny Yatour informs Triangle Face over a number of occasionsthat she was sold into prostitution by her family and that she ran away from her owner.Her family must now sell their farmland in order to compensate him for his loss. TriangleFace offers her money with which to redeem herself from her family’s persecution but,misinterpreting his intentions, Skinny Yatour refuses. One day Triangle Face places hislife savings under her pillow and leaves the band. Five years pass, at which time the pairis joyously reunited. With this reunion, “Family of Generals” draws to its surrealistic,modernistic conclusion.When they meet, Triangle Face proposes marriage to Skinny Yatour. SkinnyYatour refuses, however, because she feels that her body is unclean and thus unfit formarriage. Triangle Face laments that “In this life it seems there is some force constantlypropelling us toward tragedy, shame and defeat....,” tijj,b04 adding that perhaps their union would be possible in their next lifetime.Yatour replies, “That’s right. Our next lifetime.... When that time comes, we’ll both beas clean and pure as new-born babes.” Jj,105 The two get up from where they are seated and march stiff-legged along the dike,he whistling the “Procession of Kings,” and she beating time with her baton. The nextmorning their bodies are found by some labourers:Male and female were dressed in the uniform of the funeral band,their hands clasped primly on the front of their chests. A little hornand a conductor’s baton were placed very neat and straight at theirfeet, shining and glinting in the light. The two bodies lay there,tranquil and absurd, touched by a hint of sobriety.’06104 Chen Yingzhen, “Jiangjun zu,” in Jiangjunzu, Yuanjing congkan 25 (Taipei: Yuanjing chubanshe, 1975)118.105 Ibid.106 Ibid.Nativism Chap. Two97The source for the title of the story appears in the form of a brawny peasant who rides byon his bicycle at this moment. Seeing the couple lying stiffly on the ground, hecomments: “The pair of them are lying there very straight and correct-- just like twomighty generals.” 1çfbO7The conclusion of “Family of Generals” is defined by its lack of closure, that is,there is no established meaning for these two mysterious deaths. This open-endednessallows not only for speculation on the part of the reader but also for the assigning ofsymbols or the reading of “signs” in order to explain the meaning of the text. Accordingto one critic, Triangle Face and Skinny Yatour have committed a type of double suicidewhich, however, is accompanied by no visible mark of violence.’08 On the other hand,this segment in the text could also be read as a fantasy or dream sequence which hasresulted from the author’s personal intervention in the realization of his characters’desires. Ultimately, Triangle Face and Skinny Yatour are in a state of suspendedanimation; as such they symbolize the culture, ethos and consciousness of a life that isrightly past. They also signify that the past is never severed, and in some shape or form itcontinues into the present, to live on in the present and to remind us of the life that oncewas. This extension of the past into the present and the rural into the urban constitutes avital set of dynamics typical ofxiangtu wenxue. In Taiwan, in particular, these dynamicssignify the recherche, retrospective nature of Taiwanese life of the 1960s.In conclusion, Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue of the decade of the 1960s is defined bythe themes of industrialism and the disappearance of traditional culture and norms whichcommenced with colonialism. The colonial legacy left its mark in the engendering andrestructuring of social and cultural life which took place alongside the initial forms of107 Ibid.108 Lucien Miller, “A Break in the Chain: The Short Stories of Ch’en Ying-chen,” in Chinese Fiction fromTaiwan: 104.Nativism Chap. Two98industrialism. Many works of Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue deal with life in abeyance asthese norms struggled for redefmition, first under colonialism, then under the tide ofwesternization. Time and again, characters such as Yang Tianding, A Sheng Bo, KamKim-ah and even the narrator in “Family of Generals” watched fearfully as the old lifegently slipped away, and no one among them could predict what the new life wouldbring. With hindsight we could say that many of these changes were for the better;nonetheless, at the time the authors grieved over the loss to the life as they knew it, andreconstructed this life with a strong sentiment of nostalgia. The conflation of the past inthese works with the rural world is an ongoing motif in the history of Chinese literatureand signifies that no amount of urbanization will ever entirely eradicate the rural elementin the contemporary Chinese consciousness.Nativism Chap. Three99Chapter ThreeChina’s RegionalXiangtu wenxueIn his every movement I saw so many of his rural fellow-countrymen, all uneducated, but at the same time all so very goodand honest. Time had uprooted the peace-loving soul of an oldeastern race, and thrust it into a world of wars with which it had noempathy. Life had compromised itself, with a touch of melancholyand much restraint, in order to survive in this new world, but itsdreams retained the lights and colours of a bygone world.--Shen Congwen, “The Lamp”Within the corpus of twentieth century Chinese fiction there is a type ofxianguwenxue which is defmed by its strong association with a particular geographic region.This regional xiangtu wenxue has already been discussed in connection with the works ofHwang Chun-ming; in China, however, it can also be found in the works of Lao She* (1899-1966) of Beijing, Shen Congwen of Hunan, Xiao Hong of China’s Northeast,and many other Chinese writers to a greater or lesser degree. These writers can beconsidered regional writers because of their fidelity to the folklore, customs, dialect andhistory of their native place. At the same time, they are also xiangtu zuojia because theytend to celebrate “the poor as opposed to the rich, the declasse [sic] rather than therespectable, rural folk instead of urbanites.”1 The roots of this type of characterization canbe traced back to the movement to popularize literature during May Fourth which was amovement to create a national literature reflecting a broad base of interests. The interestsinvested in this type of “national literature” conflict only minimally with the sectionalism ofa writer such as Shen Congwen or the regional and gender differences of a writer like Xiao1 Jeffrey C. Kinkley, “Shen Congwen and the Uses of Regionalism in Modern Chinese Literature,” ModernChinese Literature, 1:2 (1985): 157.Nativism Chap. Three100Hong.2 The reason for this lies in the fact that China’s regional writers also use theirregionalism to express universal concerns, such as the life of China’s masses and the plightof the common person during a time of great national disunity. In sum, regional xiangtuwenxue contributes in its own special way to the development of Chinese nationalliterature, and this contribution is all the more valuable for its unique depiction of regionallife.Regionalism in Chinese history has existed in several guises: economically, theregion has been linked with the administrative functioning of capital cities; politically, it hasbeen associated with the Taiping Rebellion, cliquism and warlordism.3 Culturally,regionalism has always existed in China’s south where resentment against themandarinization of the north runs high, and in the hinterland where there has similarly beenopposition to the “shanghaization” of Chinese culture from littoral China. Regionalism hasalso existed as a social force in China since the 1 890s when imperialism was at a peak.Local initiative to rebuild the nation was popular among Chinese nationalists at that timeand served to hold Chinese society together at the local level when all else failed. Themajor obstruction to regionalism is nationalism; however, for the Chinese nationalists,focus on and love for one’s region did not necessarily invalidate love of nation.4 On thecontrary, nationalism, like sectionalism, can foster regional pride. Finally, one might askwhether regions could serve as building blocks in the creation of a new China? The2 The attempt to develop a Chinese “national literature” was closely linked with the concept of “dialectliterature” or regional literature (fangyan wenxue or dfang wenxue) during the folksong-collecting campaign.Zhou Zuoren, for one, stressed the relationship between an area and its arts and wrote that all the arts, not justxiangtu wenyi, should be embued with rural elements. (Zhou Zuoren, “Difang yu wenyi,” in Tanlongji[Shanghai: Kaiming shuju, 1931]: 15.)G. William Skinner, “Introduction: Urban and Rural in Chinese Society” 254.See Diana Larry’s study on cliquism: Region and Nation: The Kwangsi Clique in Chinese Politics, 1925-1937 (Cambridge, England, 1974) and Donald G. Gillin’s Warlord: Yen Hsi-shan in Shansi Province, 1911-1949 (Princeton, NJ, 1967) for studies of these phenomena.Jeffrey C. Kinkley 159Nativism Chap. Three101answer is certainly yes, except for the military regionalism associated with warlordismwhich was anathema to Chinese national unity.During the first few decades of the twentieth century, the region was associated withcultural de-centralism, perhaps for the first time in Chinese history. This was a period ofgreat disunity: China had grown dispirited, and regional identity became inseparablylinked with the search for national self-identity. Chinese intellectuals turned away from thedead ritualism of Confucianism to the region, and especially the rural areas in the region, asthe site in which to carry out a national revival. During the folklore movement, ZhouZuoren, Gu Jiegang, Liu Bannong and Lu Xun studied Chinese regional folklore andbeliefs with the goal of preserving the features of the region and fmding a solution toChina’s national problems.5 Shen Congwen was also creatively inspired by thismovement, and the reason he turned back to his native region of West Hunan (Xiangxi)was to search for the means for China’s cultural revival. There in West Hunan, Shenunearthed a colourful and spiritually young cultural ethos which made the ritualism ofConfucian China seem time-worn. In sum, the contribution of China’s regional culture toChina’s national regeneration indicated that regionalism constituted a defining characteristicin the search for modern China.Traditionally, certain works of literature have been associated with the region, forexample, the Shijing is associated with the region around the Yellow River and the Chu ciwith present-day Hunan. In the twentieth century, the concept of regional literature grewslowly due to the prevalence of nationalism which tended to subsume other interests.6Writers such as Shen Congwen and Xiao Hong, however, eschewed the deep feelings ofnationalism and national loyalty embraced by other intellectuals in favour of a deeper senseof loyalty to their region. Their feelings of nostalgia and their deep personal knowledge ofChang-tai Hung, Going to the People 456 Shen Congwen once remarked on the impoverishment of regionalism and local colour in the literature of histime. (Ling Yu, “Shen Congwen tan ziji de chuangzuo,” Wenjiao ziliao jianbao, 112 [April, 19811: 21-36.)Nativism Chap. Three102their locale rendered them disinclined to identify with larger national interests. Thetendency to privilege the nation which is the pervasive characteristic of modern fiction andwhich is also a factor in the slow growth of regional literature is thus not so readilyapparent in their writing. Only Shen Congwen, however, went so far as to expresssectional feelings in his writing: in the main, the Chinese intellectual’s training to valueuniversal over particular concerns by and large tended to preclude this type of politicalsentiment. As the Chinese state becomes increasingly less centralized in the last decade ofthis millennium we may see more examples of regional literature.The defining feature of Chinese regional literature lies in its documentation of thefoildore, customs, dialect and history of a region. The use of local dialect was cultivatedby both the abovementioned writers and those who had no strong regional orientation,such as Lu Xun. Dialect clashed with the ideal of linguistic unity promoted by the literaryrevolution of May Fourth; nonetheless, it was also the only available building block for anew national language besides foreign languages. China’s regional writers were motivatedto use dialect in their fiction either because of the inadequacies of the national vernacular orbecause of their desire to augment the regional associations of their works, though many ofthose who initially made extensive use of dialect for the latter reason also ultimatelydropped it in order not to alienate their national readers.7 In short, the use of dialect toexpress or link a piece of literature with the local colour, the landscape, geography andcustoms of a region or locale is the ultimate detenninant in cultural regionalism, and this isalso where Chinese regional literature dovetails with xiangtu wenxue which has alsoalways tended to use dialect.8 In the final analysis, however, the co-mingling of nativist7 The use of dialect in twentieth-century Chinese literature ranges from the exclusive to the sporadic. There areinstances of regional literature from the area of Guangdong which is written exclusively in dialect. Writerssuch as Lao She, Shen Congwen and Lu Xun made moderate use of dialect, though Shen Congwen made lessuse of it as his works matured. Lu Xun also eventually eliminated all dialect from his work in order tomaintain its national appeal.8 The use of dialect in Chinese xiangtu wenxue was briefly discussed in Chapter One. Taiwanese xiangruzuojia of different periods also tend to use dialect. During the years 1922- 1937 of the New LiteratureMovement in Taiwan, the question of literature, the locale and dialect were the subject of a debate. TaiwaneseNativism Chap. Three103interests with those of the region at this juncture attests primarily to the universal quality ofxiangtu wenxue as a fiction about the poor, the disempowered lower orders of the Chinesesocial classes and the rural. And this, in short is the defming attribute of Chinese regionalxiangtu wenxue.The Regionalism of Shen CongwenShen Congwen is known by his nickname of “Little Miaozi,” an epithet whichreveals his origins in the heart of West Hunan. His family was ethnically-mixed9andbelonged to the military gentry class which influenced the course of his professional careerand the creative cast he gave to his ideas and sentiments. This family participated in themilitary rule of West Hunan, and Congwen himself decided at an early age to undertake amilitary career as his father and grandfather had done before him. His hatred of violence,however, which intensified with his exposure to the ideas of home rule and SocialDarwinism washing into West Hunan with the other currents of May Fourth prompted himto leave the military several times throughout his life and, ultimately, to devote himself towriting and teaching. As a pacifist, Shen rejected both Communist and Nationalistsolutions for China; his lifelong refusal to pay allegiance to any political ideology isreflected in the non-didactic nature of his writing, which is romantic and idealistic in hisearly works and pantheistic in his later ones. After 1949, Shen Congwen’s steadfastnationals argued that only the language of daily speech-- Taiwanese-- could adequately record experiences onTaiwan and was the only suitable language for literary forms. (Zhang Wojun, “Xinwenxue yundong de yiyi”rpt. in Zhang Wojun wenji, ed. Zhang Guangzhi, Chun wenxue congshu, no. 63 [Taipei: Chunwenxue,1975]: 52.) The unique regional qualities of Taiwan and the Taiwan dialect were brought together in theconcept of xiangtu wenxue which formed the ultimate link between the locale and the literature of that locale.(Huang Shihui, “Zenyang bu tichang xiangru wenxue?” in Woren bao [Aug. 16, 1970], quoted in LiaoYuwen, “Taiwan wenzi gaige yundong shilue” rpt. in Wenxian ziliao xuanji, vol. 5 of Rijuxia Taiwan xinwenxue: Mingji, ed. Li Nanheng [Taipei: Mingtan chubanshe, 1979]: 488-489.) The implications of thesetheories and debates in Taiwan are universal, that is, they could also be applied to other areas of China.Shen’s mother was Tujia and his grandmother was a Miao. Shen himself was non-Han.Nativism Chap. Three104refusal to adopt the Communist cause led to his decision to lay aside writing and to devotehimself to the research of China’s material cultural.Shen Congwen’s fiction is closely linked with his home in West Hunan and withWest Hunan history. This latter point accounts for the description of his work as a“roman-fleuve” embodying a political apology for the cause of China’s Southwest.’0Shen began to write about his region in the early 1920s after he left Hunan in 1922 andtravelled first to Beijing and then to Shanghai. His early works of the 1920s, whichcomprise typical pieces ofxiangtu wenxue about family life, fishing scenes, scenes at themarket, local plants and animals and cuisine are all based on his childhood memories ofHunan. As we have seen, the use of childhood memories in the descriptive narration ofone’s native place is commonplace among Chinese and Taiwanese writers ofxiangtuwenxue, and Shen Congwen was no exception to this. Later, however, Shen Congwen’sworks became more engaged, that is, they became tightly bound with the history andsecularist sentiment of his region. Ultimately, West Hunan history served as the key linkin Shen Congwen’s evolution to a full regional writer.West Hunan has a history of militarism and central Chinese colonialism which datesback to the Qing period. The Qing established frontier military outposts in the Miaouplands of Hunan where a town was founded in 1700 to govern the Miao of the ZhenStream of the Yan plain.” This town was called Zhen’gan (Congwen’s native home,known as Fenghuang after 1913), and it became the focus of Han and Manchu powerwhen the circuit taking in all of West Hunan was headquartered there in 1704.12 Seventhousand soldiers were quartered outside Zhen’gan’s walls in order to pacify the Miao andYuan River lowlands and neighbouring provinces.’3 These soldiers symbolized the type0 Jeffrey C. Kinkley, The Odyssey of Shen Congwen (Stanford, Ca.: Stanford University Press, 1987): 5.1’ Ibid. 13.12 Ibid.13 Ibid.Nativism Chap. Three105of imperial invasion and colonialism from littoral China which many of China’s frontiergarrison towns experienced at one time or another. West Hunan’s regional secularismasserted itself in the Revolution of 1911 which took place in West Hunan as a kind of asecret society revolt against the yamens of the Manchu circuit intendant and brigadecommander.14 To the West Hunan mind, the yamens were the symbols of imperial powerwhich thwarted their search for self-determination. The domination of West Hunan by thecentral government was also reflected in the control of the local economy by merchantsflooding in from Jiangxi, Guangdong and Fujian. These merchants symbolized the adventof commerce which Shen Congwen equated with the corrupting effects of the city and“civilization,” and which, in his view, brought depravity to West Hunan. Like many otherxiangtu zuojia, Shen Congwen embraced a hatred for the city which for him wasrepresented by Shanghai and which his regional pride and prejudice caused him to view asreactionary and compradorial. Shen also tended to link Shanghai with capitalism andimperialism, biased publishers, the demeaned status of writers since May Fourth and theself-serving interests of certain well-known writers.15 In sum, Shen Congwen’sregionalism and his attitude toward littoral China stem from a basic Hunanese fear ofdomination by Jiangnan, and this fear is the primary ingredient fuelling West Hunaneseand other types of Chinese regionalism.Besides its history of militarism and domination, West Hunan also possesses ahistory of banditry, warlordism and violence which took place against the backdrop of thecivil war between the Nationalists and Communists. As China prepared for war withJapan in the l930s, more soldiers were sent into Hunan, and their presence intensified theexisting instability. Warlordism was at its height at the time Shen Congwen was writing,14 Ibid. 29.15 Shen Congwen embraced a long.term dislike of Lu Xun whom he linked with the dominant culture ofJiangnan. This changed only when, through the intermediary of Ding Ling, Lu Xun began to assist ShenCongwen in the publication of his work. (Kinkley 82, 85.)Nativism Chap. Three106and one militarist after another conquered the area during the 1920s and 1930s with gunspurchased through the revenues from opium.’6 Ultimately, warlordism contributed to thedevelopment of a West Hunanese regional self-consciousness which culminated in itspolitical autonomy. This autonomy, however, only lasted until 1935 at which timecontinuous violence and anarchy returned to West Hunan, earning for the region itsreputation for barbarianism, banditry, dueling, ethnic uprisings and violence. Thisreputation has remained with Hunan today.Shen Congwen’s decision to write about his region was in part motivated by a desireto tell the true story about Hunan.17 He explained West Hunanese refractoriness by virtueof its oppression by outsiders, governmental and military forces, military suppression,ruthless taxation and economic exploitation, loss of legitimate leadership and rebellionagainst national (or provincial) attempts to integrate the region.’8 His development as aregional writer began with a visit back to West Hunan during the years 1933-1934 after anabsence of eleven years. This visit inspired him to embrace a pessimistic view of hishome. Increasingly, Shen came to explore the rights and wrongs in the relationshipbetween the Chinese region and the central power which he conceptualized as anoppressive one, and against this background, he also explored the fundamental problemsof the Chinese state. A greater degree of sectionalism crept into his works during thisperiod. Shen’s writing evolved further with a second trip back to Hunan in 1937 when hebegan to write more exclusively about the regional decay characterizing his home province.Shen Congwen’s full development as a regional writer at this time is comparable to HwangChun-ming. Both writers tended to depict their rural community in terms of its stagnationwhich was inflicted upon it by the outside world.16 Kinkley65.17 This decision is recorded in Shen Congwen’s Discursive Notes on a Trip Through Hunan ( Xiang xing sanji,1936).18 Ibid. 134, 237.Nativism Chap. Three107Shen Congwen’s obsession with West Hunan was not only historical but alsocultural. The West Hunan region is the modem descendant of the ancient kingdom of Chu,and the vanishing nature of Chu culture and traditions was a vital source for Shen’screative vision, just as it similarly inspired more contemporary Hunanese writers.19 Chuthought is conceived in Shen Congwen’s stories as a state of equality and harmonioussocial relations, though this concept can also be traced to other Chinese traditions whichwere precursors to Shen’s art.20 In the main, however, Shen’s fiction belongs to theeremetic tradition of Tao Yuanming-- the “field and garden” poetic tradition-- whichaccounts for his tendency to idealize.Chu culture also provided Shen Congwen with other aspects of his writing, inparticular, the subject matter of his romances. These romances are peopled by the Miao-the modem descendants of ancient Chu--and are structured around Miao customs,legends, lore and myths. They are filled with Miao singing masters, star-crossed loversand all the sights and sounds of the Yuan River which Shen made use of to augment theregional flavour and eroticism of his works.21 More importantly, Shen borrowed theMiao cultural tradition for the purpose of casting aspersions on traditional Chinese cultureand the moral basis of Confucianism. Shen Congwen believed that the old in China, bywhich he did not mean Confucianism but the type of culture associated with the Chu, couldbe the model upon which a new China could be constructed. This construction, he19 Shen Congwen’s influence and the Chu history and culture found in Hunan province has inspired the writingsof Gu Hua, Wang Zengqi and Han Shaogong. This is the subject matter of Jeffrey C. Kinkley’s “ShenCongwen and the Romance of Chu Culture: Their Legacy in Chinese Literature of the 1980s,” an upublishedconference paper given at a Harvard University Conference on “Contemporary Chinese Fiction and its LiteraryAntecedents” (May 11, 1991).20 These other iraditions include the utopianism of Tao Yuanming’s “Taohuayuan” which was based on theimage of a harmonious society of humans and nature; the ideal of peace and hamiony separate fromConfucianism found in the Huainanzi; and the Laozi with its idealized life of the xiaoguo kuamin whichwas projected onto a primitive society.21 The type of eroticism found in Shen Congwen’s writing reminds one of the extraordinary sensuality of QuYuan’s Jiu ge which is descended from Chu cultural traditions.Nativism Chap. Three108believed, could also take place without fear of Westernization-- the normal by-product ofmodernization. Accordingly, Shen Congwen depicted the Miao in an eternally youthful,pristine state, untrammelled by the type of repressed sexuality associated both with thestifling code of Confucianism and with Shen Congwen’s own family background. Insum, Shen’s attention to this psychological dimension of modern life, that is, sexuality,reflects his role as a new intellectual of May Fourth who has been exposed to readings inFreudianism and Western theories of abnormal psychology, and one who was alsoengaged in revolting against upper-class Chinese society and his own Confucian heritage.Finally, the rural element is another important aspect of Shen Congwen’s fiction.This element reflects Shen’s reference to himself as a “countryman” (xiangxiaren j1J),though this had little to do with his actual class standing. The walled settlements of WestHunan symbolically divide the Hunanese population into urban dwellers and those “in thecountry” which includes not just the Miao hilifolk but also all those who lived upstreamfrom the larger cities of Changde and Changsha.22 In Shen Congwen’s stories, the Miaotend the fields outside the city wall, run shops making beancurd and peddle buckwheatbiscuits. The Miao, however, are only one of a number of disempowered character typesfrom the lower orders of West Hunan’s rich cultural mix as it is represented in Shen’sstories. Others are are soldiers, officers, boatmen, peasants, shopkeepers, stevedores,prostitutes, bandits and mill owners whom Shen came to know and understand during hisperegrinations as a soldier through the interior of China during the years 1915-1922.Where Shen Congwen differs from other writers of xiangtu wenxue is his heroicrepresentation of these types, especially the Miao, peasants and boatmen. This heroicrepresentation contrasts strongly with the ironic mode which I discussed previously inconnection with the representation of the Chinese peasants in China’s xiangtu wenxue ofthe 1920s, and it led Shen to ascribe moral virtues to the peasants, such as dignity and self22 Kinldey 14.Nativism Chap. Three109determination which are absent in the earlier fiction. More importantly, it also led him tocharacterize their life with ease, rusticity and loftiness. The ideology of the “happy farmingfamily” (nongjia le in this type of characterization reflects his view of a “natural”economics of self-sufficiency, a concept which can also be found in the works of certaintraditional Chinese poets and modem writers.23 In brief, Shen’s paternalism-- both as anintellectual of May Fourth and as a member of the gentry class-- and his sentimentalismcoloured his objective observation of peasant life. Had he observed the peasants moreobjectively, he would have found their lives to be filled with the miseries typical of Chinesepeasant life. It goes without saying that these miseries would also have been exacerbatedbecause of the national disunity of this period. This, if the reader recalls, was certainly thecase in China’s xiangtu wenxue of the 1920s. In conclusion, Shen’s idealization ofpeasant life was closely linked with his rejection of his own cultural tradition and hisdiscovery of another past cultural and psychological tradition which served to reinforce hisintellectuals predispositions.Shen Congwen’s most nativist works are his early stories of the 1920s. Asmentioned above, these stories were written while he was in Beijing and were based on hisrural childhood memories. They reflect the influence of Lu Xun, especially “VillageOpera,” which, Shen maintains, was the first piece of fiction to show him how ruralthemes could be treated in literature.24 In brief, these pieces of xiangtu wenxue areextended local colour mood pieces in which he romanticizes country life and people.23 An example of this type of self-sufficiency is found in this line of verse from Wang Yucheng’s “Yutianci”: “In the self-sufficiency of planting and harvesting, they know of neither Yao nor Shun.” Thereference to Yao and Shun presumably reflects the poverty of these two sage-kings. (The reference toWang Yucheng is quoted from Xu Zhiying, Ni Tingting 73.)The heroic mode characterizes the works of the short story writers Fei Ming and Feng Wenbing. TheChinese critic Dai Guangzhong maintains that this mode is adopted by a minority of xiangtu zuojia dueto China’s political climate at the time and the increasing influence of Lu Xun’s realistic type ofrepresentation. He also maintains that these writers should not be blamed for their idealization whicharises from the difficulties of the times and from the pressures of urban life. (Dai Guangzhong 66.) Myargument against this is that this type of idealization results from Chinese paternalism.24 Kinldey 85.Nativism Chap. Three110One of Shen Congwen’s nostalgic reminiscences about his home is “Events GoneBy” (Wang shi , n.d.). The setting is Fenghuang during a pestilence, and thenarrator is the author’s childhood personna by the name of Yun’er. Yun’er runs aboutwild, eating at will from roadside stands. Fearing that he or other members of the familywill fall victim to the pestilence, Yun’er’s mother loads him and his elder brother into abasket on Fourth Uncle’s back, and the family makes the trek to Tongren in the Miaocountry. This little narrative differs stylistically from the other works of Chinese xiangtuwenxue written in the 1920s by virtue of the fact that the latter are often schematicallystructured around a simple image or set of images. There is no such image in this story byShen Congwen; instead, the nativist elements of “Events Gone By” are provided bydescriptive details of food, climate, flora and fauna, and superstitions. The narrator relatesthat when Yun’er and his family pass through the Tangtong Mountains, for instance, theytake a rest by a little shrine erected to the tutelary god of the mountains. This is locatedunder a tree whose branches are weighted down by stones, placed there by travelers in thebelief that this will provide “relief from fatigue.” 26 This is the type ofsuperstition which is typically found in xiangtu wenxue beginning from that of Lu Xun.After arriving in Tongren, Yun’er admires the large species of bamboo growing in thecountry, gathers fresh-water mussel shells and watches his uncle fish with the use of onlya torch and a sickle. He also watches in awe as his Fifth Uncle operates the grist mill andas his cousins play in and about the bamboo water mill which lifts water for irrigation. Insum, “Events Gone By” is a typical nativist sketch, short in its execution and filled withnostalgic recollections of childhood life.25 Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji (Hong Kong: Huacheng chubanshe, 1982), 1: 5-9.26 Shen6.Nativism Chap. Three111Shen Congwen’s “New Year’s Congee” (Laba thou 1925)27 is anotherconsummate, plot-less local-colour piece. The narrative commences by stating that nomatter what age a child may be all of them love this type of sweet congee. The ingredientsthat go into the making of this holiday fare are: millet, lentils, dates, chestnuts, sugar andpeanuts which are “boiled up all together in a mush.” _. 28 Thenarrative states that “just watching the hissing and simmering and smelling the sweetness isenough to make the mouth water in anticipation.”JJ[1 fl jD.,*329 Evening falls and the patience of Ba’er, the young boyin the narrative, is finally rewarded-- he is served up with a big bowl of the sticky mess.At this point, the topic of the piece switches with little apparent connection to that of thefamily Pekingese. The haba gou DI])1, which the careful reader notices rhymesmeaninglessly with laba zhou, is the subject of the second half of the story in which thedialogue of the adults confers little more than a phatic quality to the narrative-- asmeaningless as the “sticky mess” of the la ba zhou. In short, “New Year’s Congee”evinces Shen Congwen’s special brand of word-play and, as a narration, describes asuspended moment in time of one day in the life of a Hunanese family.Several of Shen Congwen’s early pieces of xiangtu wenxue concern the Miao. Thetitle of “Dai gou” (Dai gou ft , n.d.),30 for instance, is taken from a Miao term ofendearment for a child. The boy, presumably a Miao in this short piece, is compelled byhis father to steal firewood from the local hillside in order to support the father’s drinkinghabit. The father muses over the pros and cons of the risks involved for his ten year-oldson, who, he is convinced, is sufficiently clever to avoid getting into trouble. All this is27 Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 1: 23-27.28 Shen23.29 Ibid 23.30 Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 1: 19-22. The term daigou along and other obscure usages of localdialect are explained by the author in annotated footnotes attached to the stories.Nativism Chap. Three112weighed against the greater difficulties posed for him if his son were arrested and he werehe forced to procure a load of pine needles worth two hundred qian in order to obtain hisrelease.“At the Butcher’s Block” (Tuzhuo bianç, 1925)31 comprises a more colourfulpicture of the Miao tribespeople and all the goings-on in a West Hunan marketplace. Whatis of immediate interest is the description of a Miao countrywoman, which is only one of anumber of such descriptions of women in Shen Congwen’s fiction. Female characters-- inboth dominant and secondary roles-- are represented in many of Shen’s stories, and theyare usually drawn in the same way: Madonna-like, passive and often victimized.Zhicheng’s wife in “The Butcher’s Block” is one such Madonna-like figure who occupies asecondary role in the story, in this case, she is in charge of receiving payment for herhusband at the butcher block. This woman is described near the opening passage of thestory:Over the top of her starched cotton gown the colour of a fish’s bellyand which had just been washed she had tied a blue waistband. Herround face was lightly powdered and a pair of dangling gold hoopearrings hung down from her earlobes. The blue crepe silk turbanon her head dipped down to her temples just above her eyebrows,and her blouse was brand-new. She had not forgotten to powderher neck as most women were wontThe image of the Miao woman in this description is based on the practice of sexualdifference33 and the phallocentric practices in China’s cultural system at large. In otherwords, it is based on concepts of female disempowerment. As such, this description istypical of the representation of female characters in xiangtu wenxue who are generally31 Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 2: 60-66.32 Shen 60.The notion of sexual difference first began with Sigmund Freud who based his theory on the visibility ofdifference, that is, it is the eye which decides what is true and what isn’t. According to Freud, the femaledifference is perceived as an absence or negation of the male norm. (Toni Moi 132.)Nativism Chap. Three113disempowered. This image also reflects Shen Congwen’s Han paternalism and hisexoticization of the Miao which should be taken into consideration when reading ShenCongwen’s fiction.As stated above, Shen Congwen began to use West Hunan as a region in his fiction afew years after his early pieces of xiangtu wenxue. His regional fiction evinces Shen’sattraction to the theories of Western mythologists and anthropologists to explain foildoremotifs, and they also show his influence by Gu Jiegang and Thou Zuoren and othersinvolved in the follcsong movement. These regional stories, which are all based on hismemory, are about ordinary Han Chinese and Miao tribespeople, prostitutes, boatmen andpeasants, not to mention women. Some of them, especially his Miao romances, could betermedfengtuhua j I or “portraits of local follcways” because of their inclusion ofWest Hunan legends, lore and history.34 These stories also serve as the backdrop forShen Congwen’s universal questions about life, sexuality and social and cultural change.35Shen Congwen is best known for his mythic, legendary romances about the Miao.The author had little first-hand knowledge or anthropological literature about tribal Miao;thus, to a certain extent, he was thrown back on his own resources in his creation of aMiao mythopoesis. A major mark of Miao culture in these romances are Miao matingsongs which are full of exotic botanical metaphors and double entendres evoking more thespirit than the substance of the Miao formal mode of discourse.36 This discourse appearsin Shen Congwen’s novel Phoenix (Fengzi [name] , 1933) in the form of threekinds of Miao songs but more particularly in his story “Long Zhu” (Long Zhu [name]Jeffrey C. Kinkley points out that the word “folkways” has also been applied to the stories of Wang Zengqi.(Kinidey, “Shen Congwen and the Romance of Chu Culture, ftn. 40: 59.)Kinkley 111.36 Ibid. 151.This discourse, especially the exotic botanical metaphors, is also reminicent of Qu Yuan’s Li sao.Nativism Chap. Three1141928) whose thematic structure draws heavily on Tang chuanqi.37 The latter is awell-known romance about Shen’s Miao hero by that name. Long Zhu, as the legendgoes, is the son of a chieftain of the White Ear tribe and a model of beauty and perfectioncomparable to the god Apollo, an image which is replaced by Buddha the Heavenly Kingin a revised version. This hero is a master of song with a “reputation for musicality andlyric inventiveness.”38 His beauty and intelligence work against him, however, becausethese talents make women fear him, and this is a constant source of chagrin for this Miaohero. As it says in the story, “No woman can treat a god as an equal, or make feverishlove to him, or shed tears and blood for him.”39 Eventually, Long Zhu woos a princesswith the help of his loyal dwarf slave who acts as a “vocal go-between.” This dwarf, whois reminiscent of the “loyal slave” in Tang chuanqi,40 possesses singing powers that arenot so impressive as to frighten women away, and Long Zhu eventually becomes the son-in-law of the chieftain of the Ox Palisade. The absurd, soap-opera ending of “Long Zhu”reinforces its mythic qualities.The metaphorical mode of discourse and Miao tradition of legends and fables are thebasis for other of Shen’s romances, such as “Under the Moonlight” (Yuexia xiaojing, T1J 1932) 41 whose theme centres around a notorious Miao sexual taboo. Nuoyou, thechieftain’s twenty-one-year-old son, and his lover, a nameless young girl whom Nuoyou37 Phoenix is anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 5: 302-390; “Long Zhu” is anthologized in Shen Congwenwenji, 2: 362-383.Shen’s literary tastes ran from the Ming and Qing vernacular novels, adventure, history and the strange, Tangclassical tales and Western literature such as Dickens, Daudet, France, Shakespeare, Baizac and Joyce.(Kinkley 2.) His influence by Tang chuanqi is apparent in this story.38 Kinkley 152.Shen Congwen, “Lung Chu,” in , Chinese Earth , Tr. Ching Ti and Robert Payne (London: George Allen &Unwin, Ltd., 1947): 137.40 The “loyal slave” is a common motif in chuanqi. This slave often intercedes on behalf of the otherwisehelpless scholar (caizi ) to win for him the love of the beautiful maiden (jiaren). I am indebted to ProfessorMichael S. Duke for pointing out this chuanqi theme running parallel to the love theme in “Long Zhu.”41 Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 4: 44-57.Nativism Chap. Three115compares to the “sisters of the Lady Fairy Ho,”42 are constrained from consummatingtheir love by a traditional penalty: a tribal girl is forbidden to marry the man with whomshe has lost her virginity. In full knowledge of the penalty, however, the couple one night“exchanged one soul for another” then sought freedom through the act of suicide.The motif of double suicide is also the basis for “Meijin, Baozi and the White Kid”(Meijin, Baozi, yu na yang,” 1929Y in which love is ignitedthrough the Miao custom of alternative singing from facing hillsides. Meijin and Baoziagree to consummate their love in Treasure Cave but tragedy ensues when Baozi fails tokeep the tryst. Instead, he spends most of the night searching for a pure white kid inexchange for the virginal blood of his lover, which is again a custom dictated by his tribe.By the time Baozi finally arrives at the cave, Meijin is breathing her last from a daggerwound she has inflicted upon herself in the belief that she has been forsaken. In trueRomeo and Juliet fashion, Baozi then thrusts the bloody knife into his own breast andexpires along with his true love.In conclusion, I maintain that these Miao romances cannot properly be considered asxiangtu wenxue for the following two reasons: first, their structure is basically a mythicone whose epistemology about peasant life is propelled into an idealized, heroic sphereunlike most types of xiangtu wenxue which tend be more realistic. Second, they lack thetwo basic motifs which can found in any work of xiangtu wenxue: the anti-urban or anti-industrialism sentiments and the conceptual visions of the countryside. The primarycontribution of these romances to a nativist tradition lies in the record they present of thelife and colour of the West Hunan region and of the enduring customs of the Miao peopleShen Congwen’s non-mythic regional fiction include his “waterways” which are setagainst the sights and sounds of the Yuan River. “Baizi” (Baizi j--, 1928),” for42 Shen, “Under Moonlight,” in Chinese Eaarrh: 94-5.Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 2: 392-404.Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 2: 96-103.Nativism Chap. Three116instance, is a raunchy tale of a boatman who visits his sweetheart-hooker whenever hisboat docks at Chenzhou port on the Yuan River. This story is full of unrestrained sexualimagery, the rough-and-tumble, seamy side of life on the river and the comraderiecharacterizing the relations between the prostitutes and their boatmen-clientele. In short,there is little of the prudery and sexual repression in “Baizi” which often characterizedescriptions of Han sexual relations in Chinese fiction. At the same time, there is also nomention of emotional pain or of economic hardship in the lives of Shen’s prostitutes whichcontrasts sharply with the descriptions of prostitutes in the works of Hwang Chun-ming.45Shen’s peasants and prostitutes are also free of any sign of disease, poverty, anxiety oroppression which were grist for the mill for the Chinese writers of xiangtu wenxue of the1920s and Chinese writers of the 1930s; this lack ultimately called down onto Shen thecriticism of the Chinese Communist Party. Other critics attribute S hen’s pastoral visions towish fulfillment, that is, to his desire to escape the dictates of Han Confucian propriety andto a yearning for a personal life beyond his grasp. This would also account for hisromanticism and for the absence of class interests in his fiction. Whichever way ShenCongwen’s works are read, it is clear that the welisprings of his creative genius lay insomething other than Communism or May Fourth-type leftism. Instead, Shen Congwen’screative wellsprings derive from nostalgia, sentimentalism and Han paternalism.Besides “Baizi,” prostitutes figure in other stories by Shen Congwen. Shenconcedes that a fellow-townsman by the name of Zeng Qinxuan taught Shen a good deal ofwhat he later put into his stories about prostitutes.46 These stories, however, are again45 Hwang Chung-ming’s “The Sea-Watching Days” (Kan hai de rizi, 1967), for instance, is a painful account ofa Taiwanese prostitute called Baimei who ultimately procures her “emancipation” through the birth of a child.See my discussion of this story in Rosemary Haddon, “Representation of Women in Chinese Fiction: TheFemale Body Subdued, Re(s)trained, (Dis)possessed,” in Dawn H. Currie & Valerie Raoul, Anatomy ofGender (Ottawa; Carhon University Press, 1992): 81-96. A second story by Hwang Ch’un-ming entitled“Little Widow” (Xiao guafu, 1975) is a novella about prostitution in Taiwan during the time of the Viet NamWar. See Chapter Five for my discussion of this work.46 Kinldey6l.Nativism Chap. Three117less realistic than those by Hwang Chun-ming; at the very least, they have a different focusfrom the vision of pain and suffering in Hwang’s. “The Husband” (Zhangfu193O), for example, concerns a prostitute who works on a flower-boat on the river andwho apparently enjoys her life of servitude. This woman has been sent from thecountryside by her husband to labour as a prostitute. However, she evinces littleawareness of herself as the object of gratification by male clients and also as the means ofmaterial enrichment for her husband. On the other contrary, she evokes the attributes oflack, exhibitionism and voyeurism inscribed into the subjects of cinematic narratives. Herdescription is as follows: “Her great pile of gleaming hair, her fine eyebrows artificiallyplucked with a pair of small forceps, the white powder and scarlet paint on her face, hercity manners and city dress-- all these things confuse the husband who comes from thecountry. “48Besides prostitutes, Shen Congwen also wrote a number of stories about soldiers andothers engaged in some aspect of anny life. These stories were based on his own lifeexperiences and are set in a pastoral community on the edges of the encroaching urbanmaterialism. “Huiming” (Huiming [name] !B, 1929),9 for instance, is a story about anunattached, lonely army cook of this name who dreams of one day being able to live in theforests in the Western frontier. In the meantime, he finds great pleasure and a transcendentcontentment in his simple occupation of raising a hen and twenty chicks. “Three Men andOne Woman” (San ge nanren he yige nüren.JJJ1—JbJ. 193O),° on the otherhand, is about a sergeant-- a Shen Congwen personna who confesses as he narrates thestory that he has since left army life and gone to the city which he finds equally unsuited toAnthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 5: 2-22.48 Shen, “The Husband,” in The Chinese Earth 42.9 Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 3: 269-281.50 Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 6: 25-49.Nativism Chap. Three118him-- and a bugler who befriend the young proprietor of a beancurd shop. The narratorrelates that these three men are all secretly in love with the fifteen-year-old daughter of agentry family who lives across the street. The young girl is engaged to be married but shesoon thereafter commits suicide. Her corpse is subsequently exhumed and is found nakedand decorated with wild blue chrysanthemums in a cave half a ii from her grave. Thebugler, who was the first to discover these irregularities, informs the sergeant whosubsequently becomes convinced that this crime has been perpetrated by the young shopproprietor. Presumably driven by grief and lust, the proprietor consummated his passionon the dead girl’s body.5’ The conclusion to this strange tale could be explained by theChinese love of guai-- the divine or bizarre which figures in traditional chuanqi.Nonetheless, the nativist elements of this story-- the clisempowered characters, the bucolicsetting and the anti-urban sentiment-- also provide a frame for this woman’s fate whosegendered difference renders her a victim. This, in short, is also the way other women arerepresented in Shen Congwen’s fiction.Shen’s most memorable army character is the retired soldier who acts as cook,steward and house-manager for the Shen persona in “The Lamp” (Deng , 1929).52More so than in “Three Men and One Woman,” the dynamics of this story arise from thecontradictions between city and country life and the I-narrator’s dislike of the urban centre.The I-narrator is a “village product” who is alienated in his current teaching environment.He laments, “This world was not mine. Weary of city life, and weary of life itself, I feltdriven to think of leaving all these amenities behind...,”53 and at night he dreams of thetiny country villages from which he had become psychologically distanced due to his51 The motive for this act is complicated by a superstition, originally related by the bugler, that a woman whohad committed suicide by swallowing gold could be brought back to life if she were loved by a man withinseven days of her death.52 Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 5: 23-45.Shen Congwen, “The Lamp,” tr. Kai-yu Hsu, in Joseph S. M. Lau, C.T. Hsia and Leo Ou-fan Lee, eds.,Modern Chinese Stories and Novellas (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981): 239.Nativism Chap. Three119commitments in the city. The narrator’s nostalgia is projected onto the figure of hissteward in whom he recognized “so many of his rural fellow-countrymen, all uneducated,but at the same time all so very good and honest.”54 This soldier typifies ShenCongwen’s tendency to ascribe heroic and moral virtues to China’s villagers and hisvalorization of rural life. The past is also valorized in this story: the I-narrator notes thatthe current period is a time of war; thus, they all dream of the world gone by. This bygoneworld, conflated with the idealized rural world existing now only as a dream in the new,urban environment, is a leitmotif we have encountered in other instances of xiangtuwenxue.The heroic attributes Shen ascribes to the steward in “The Lamp” are reminiscent ofShen’s portrait of Guisheng, a peasant in the story by the same name (“Guisheng” j.,1937), who is similarly lauded as “simple, honest and strong.”55 Guisheng is an irregularfarm labourer who minds two hills planted with wood-oil trees. Sincere, upright, loyal,thrifty and big-hearted, Guisheng epitomizes Shen Congwen’s idealized conceptions of thepeasant. At the same time, his stubbornness, his traditionalist, superstitious mode ofthought and his unquestioning acceptance of fate-- all reminiscent of Runtu-- are rooted inChina’s outmoded, traditional belief system which Shen depicted in much the same kind ofreformist light as many of his more leftist contemporaries. Shen’s depiction of this otherside of this rural character signifies that, aside from his tendency to romanticize, ShenCongwen also had an understanding of the dark side of the Chinese rural mentality.Guisheng, according to the storyline, is attracted to the daughter of a one-time pedlarwho has since become the proprietor of a local general store. Unfortunately, Guishengalso subscribes to the superstition that a girl such as Golden Phoenix who possesses “aIbid. 240.Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 6: 338-61.Shen, “Guisheng,” in The Border Town and Other Stories, Tr. Gladys Yang, (Beijing: Panda Books, 1981):158.Nativism Chap. Three120pink and white face, long eyebrows and eyes that slanted upwards was believed to beunder a jinx,”56 and he shrinks back from asking for her hand in marriage. The stage isnow set for tragedy: Guisheng’s hesitation allows Fifth Master, the representative of thelocal landholding elite who is similarly superstitious, to spirit Golden Phoenix away as hisconcubine. (Fifth Master believes that taking a concubine will change his bad luck atgambling.) Following this, the inauspicious mingling of Guisheng’s zodiacal sign (thetiger) with that of Golden Phoenix (the squirrel) bars him from attending the wedding, andthis, the reader is led to surmise, foments his desire for revenge. In the meantime,Guisheng constantly reminds himself that everything is preordained by fate: it is fate thatdecrees Fifth Master’s fancy for the girl. Furthermore, that her father agreed to thismarriage was also put down to “fate.” This attitude is reinforced in the text whichpronounces, “It’s fate that decides everything-- not men.”57 This irrational convictionstands in the way of Guisheng’s understanding that his traditional mode of thinking, not tomention the local power-brokers, are thwarting his happiness. His “revenge,” which isQuixotic and misdirected, takes place in his arson of the farm labourer’s cottage and thestore by the bridge, and finally, in his own suicide. In sum, the tragic outcome of thisstory is one expression of the dark, destructive aspects of rural China; this outcome alsomakes “Guisheng” unique in Shen Congwen’s corpus.Shen Congwen wrote a couple of stories in which women play a dominant dramaticrole. These women are portrayed in such a way that they are the object of the reader’s (andthe narrator’s) admiration and compassion, more so than the young girl in “Three Men andOne Woman” whose death is not explained in a way that is satisfactory to the reader.Compared to Shen’s romances, there is a greater degree of realism in these stories whichmakes them more typical ofxiangtu wenxue; the women in them are also correspondingly56 Thid. 162.“ Ibid. 173.Nativism Chap. Three121less idealized. In both these stories, the women’s victimization arises solely from theirgendered difference; thus, the narrative structure defers to, rather than violates, thewomen’s “textual difference.” “Xiaoxiao” (Xiaoxiao [name] 1930),58 the first ofthese stories, is about the marriage, rape by a farm-hand, pregnancy, abandonment andnear-murder by drowning of a young child-bride which arises from Chinese traditionalmisogyny and from Xiaoxiao’s absolute powerlessness within her in-law family. Therural custom of purchasing a child-bride-- a dark aspect of Chinese traditional culture--provides the nativist framework for this story and is the source of the girl’s oppression.“Xiaoxiao” is an empathetic portrayal of the oppression of Chinese woman; it is also aharsh condemnation of Chinese traditional culture.Sansan in the story of the same name (“Sansan” 193 on the other hand,deals more effectively with her gendered oppression. This is due, in part, from thestrength of her character and, in part, from her status as a millwright’s daughter. Sansanand her mother are intimately surrounded by the class society and come into daily contactwith the great social divide above them. The powerholding class in this story is made upof rural landholders closely allied with the city, and, like those in “Guisheng,” theselandholders provide no effective leadership in fending off the decadent ways of the city.The invasion of city ways is epitomized in “Sansan” by a young opium addict from theurban centre who has moved in with a rural “lord” ostensibly to recuperate. However, hesoon commodifies Sansan as “pigtail merchandise” and seeks to take her as his wife.The city motif continues in another dimension in the story-- in Sansan and hermother’s daydreams. The narrative relates: “All day long mother and daughter spoke aboutthe city, which they had never visited; and they imagined that the city was full of people58 Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 6: 220-35. This story was the basis for “The Girl from Hunan,” oneof a number of movies called “Fifth Generation” films in Chinese.Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 4: 120-48.Nativism Chap. Three122like the woman in white and the man with the white face....”60 At the same time, thesewomen are intuitively wary about urban life and keep a firm grasp on the surpluses of theirlabour, refusing to cash them in for city silver or for a generally sought-after urbanlifestyle. In conclusion, Sansan is aware of both the gender and social dynamics whichintimately affect her life, and she fights a daily war to fend off these threats to herautonomy. Ultimately, she and her mother manage to maintain their rural innocence.Shen Congwen’s other stories about women, including some of his novels, concernan issue which is related more directly with Shen Congwen’s own life: love and its manyproblematics. One critic points out that on the basis of recent research, it is possible tospeculate that Shen Congwen’s attitude toward love reflected theories of physiologicaldesire which were prevalent during his time.61 This would account for the author’sperception of love as a violent impulse, one which often brings tragedy or destruction. InBorder Town (Bian cheng , 1934), for instance, Cuicui’s mother had a love affairwith a soldier at Chadong and became pregnant as a result.62 Elopement was out of thequestion for this unfortunate couple, and after her lover died from illness, Cuicui’s mothercommitted suicide. Cuicui was thus left an orphan at a young age.illicit love and the penalty for this love is the theme of “Qiaoxiu and Dongsheng”(Qiaoxiu he Dongsheng L4 1947),63 one story in a trilogy about sexual taboo,elopement and crime. The story’s nativist framework is provided by the dramatization ofthe rural custom of enforced death by drowning. This theme runs parallel to that in “The60 Shen, “Sansan,” in Chinese Earth: 81.61 Wang Dewei, “Chutan Shen Congwen: ‘Bian cheng’ de aiqing chuanqi yu xushi tezheng,” Wen xing, 6(1987): 60.62 Anthologized in Shen Congwen xiaoshuoxuan (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1982), 2: 207-293.63“Qiaoxiu and Dongsheng” is anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 7: 363-8 1.This story is one of a trilogy featuring Qiaoxiu as heroine. The other two stories are “After Snow” (Xueqing,1946) and “Truth is Stranger than Fiction” (Chuanqi buqi, 1947).The male spoken subject is equivalent to the male viewer in semiotic theory.Nativism Chap. Three123Water Funeral,” the earlier work of xiangtu wenxue by Jian Xian’ai. In contrast toLuomao who was sentenced to drown for theft in “The Water Funeral,” Qiaoxiu’swidowed mother in “Qiaoxiu and Dongsheng” broke the chastity taboo for widows andwas consequently forced into the lake with a millstone around her neck. This story isclearly narrated by the male spoken subject who gazes rapaciously on the “fresh, lustrousyoung flesh”M of this naked woman just prior to her being pushed into the deepest part ofthe lake. The impulsive, destructive effects of love also dominate the lives of the nextgeneration, specifically Qiaoxiu, who elopes with a suona player from Zhongzhai.65 Thisyoung man is eventually killed after a raid on some opium dealers, and Qiaoxiu and hertwo children are left in a position echoing the earlier one of her mother. In sum, the centralnarrative details of this trilogy are the ongoing cycle of ifficit love which is eventuallyfrustrated, children born out of wedlock, despair and death.To turn briefly to Shen Congwen’s novels, Border Town marks the end of theauthor’s eleven-year absence from his home and the beginning of a new phase in which hebegan to embrace a pessimistic view of his region. The nativism of this novel derives fromits descriptions of nature and water, which are reminiscent of Lu Xun’s descriptions ofJiangnan in “Village Opera”; the disempowered, rural characterization; the author’sidealized conceptions of rural life; and the regional customs such as the dragon boat racesin celebration of the poet Qu Yuan. In the first instance, there is a detailed, vivid picture ofthe Miao mountain village of Chadong-- the villages houses half built over the water, theriver and the high mountains on either side, the peach blossoms and the colourful purpleclothing hung out to dry. The characters in the novel-- the romanticized figure of the oldferryman who is Shen’s peasant ideal of honesty and simplicity; his sexually maturing64 Shen, “Qiaoxiu and Dongsheng,” in Recollections of West Hunan, tr. Gladys Yang (Beijing: Panda Books,1982): 146.65 The destructive effects of passionate love is the central theme of Shen’s trilogy of which “Qiaoxiu andDongsheng” is but one part.Nathrism Chap. Three124granddaughter, Cuicui; and the two Wang brothers (Nuosong and Tianbao) who are theimage of Miao morality and self-sacrifice-- are also typical ofxiangtu wenxue. The littledrama involving these actors is played out against the novel’s romanticized, bucolic settingwhose pristine state is suspended in time, little affected by the outside world. The novelalso documents in nativist fashion the Miao idiom of courtship called “taking the horsetrack” (zou malu in which love songs from twelve different categories are usedto evoke or express love.66 Like the heroes of Shen’s romances, Nuosong uses the “envysong” to court Cuicui at night from the top of a high cliff overlooking the ferry dock.The theme of Border Town, which is a variation on the author’s recurring theme oflove and Freudian sexual yearning, is closely linked with the author’s psychology. Thereis not the same degree of wish fulfillment in Border Town as there is in Shen’s Miaoromances; however, Shen Congwen’s concern with the Confucian constraints governingsexual expression as well as his own fruitless search for a life beyond his grasp areimpulses behind the narration of this novel. The events of Border Town hinge on thecircumvention of Cuicui and Nuosong’s love and marriage because of a misunderstandingarising from the death of Nuosong’s brother. Passions are unfulfilled, and the actors in thenovel undergo unhappy or violent ends. Two years after the publication of Border Town,Shen Congwen wrote that his intention in writing this novel was “not to guide the readeron an excursion into Taoyuan, but to borrow a few honest and simple folk from a smallvillage in the You Shui basin seven hundred ii above Taoyuan. When these folk becameinvolved in practical human affairs, each would have his or her share of sorrow andhappiness and would give an appropriate explanation of ‘love.”tI _uj.tiRs3J\S ““f—Ju66 Jiang Xianqing, “Ye tan Shen Congwen ‘Bian cheng de xiangtu tese,e Zhongnan minzu xueyuan xuebao, 2(1986): 113.Nativism Chap. Three12567 From this statement it is clear that the author’s intention is neither utopiannor is it to examine the many dimensions of Chu culture.68 Instead, Shen Congwen usedthe idyllic atmosphere of the remote mountain village as a stage, not just for theexamination of love, but also for the working out of his own psychology. The pessimismcolouring this novel and the loneliness and sadness of the tone of the story could be thesubject of a statement Shen Congwen made about his other writing.69Phoenix, written one and one-half years prior to Border Town, is Shen Congwen’smost nativist novel. This novel is set in Shen’s native place of Fenghuang, or morespecifically, Shen’s roots in the Miao border pale west of Fenghuang, of which there is apanoramic description in the novel. In brief, it is a story about a city stranger who meets acountry girl and dreams of dalliance and even of giving up his old life. The novel, or moreprecisely novella, is pervaded with Chu mysticism, which is expressed through luguan‘music and Miao discourse through song. This novel is C.T. Hsia’s favorite: Hsia findsits pastoral vision and its “primacy of the mythical imagination” comparable to Yeats.70According to Hsia, both writers shared a creative concern which stressed the “virtues of anordered existence in rhythmic keeping with nature and the gods.” 71 Phoenix is a regional67 Shen Congwen, “Congwen xiaoshuo xizuoxuan daixu,” Shen Congwen wenji, 11: 45.68 I am refemng here to some contemporary writers, specifically Han Shaogong, who make use of use WestHunan as a site for their examinations into Chu culture.69 In the “Author’s Preface” to the English version of Recollections of West Hunan, Shen Congwen states:Rereading these four collections of essays, what strikes me as strange is that althoughwritten at different times, with different backgrounds and feelings, they share one commonncharacteristic. All are permeated with a local idyllic atmosphere tinged with loneliness andsadness, as if I grieved over many of the people and events I described. Perhaps this was dueto some inherent weakness in my character since I came from an ancient race, or perhaps itwas just my reaction after all the wounds life had inflicted on me. What I wrote or failed towrite reflect [sic] the serious injuries I suffered both physically and mentally, which couldnot be remedied despite all my efforts (14).I am unable to locate the original Chinese text for this quotation.70 C. T. Hsia, History of Modern Chinese Fiction 19071 Ibid.Nativism Chap. Three126apologia for regional images and legends like blood feuds and the gu poison cult.72 Insum, it is the expression of Shen Congwen’s cultural nostalgia-- his yearning for anantidote to the twentieth century Chinese wasteland.Little Stockade (Xiaozhai 1937), written three years after Phoenix, reflectsShen Congwen’s increasing pessimism about the future of his region. This is a dystopicnovel which is a mirror image of his earlier pastoral fiction. The main actors in this workare a corrupt military detachment, a diseased prostitute, her madam and a young boy withdropsy, the last of whom is just learning as a customs official how to cheat on the localpeasants. He represents the type of leeching opportunism filtering into West Hunan fromthe outside, more developed world.73 This is a nativist theme we have seen in many otherexamples of xiangtu wenxue.Shen’s second trip back to Hunan in 1937 resulted in two other long works: his nonfictional literary gazetteerXiangxi (West Hunan 1939) and the novel Chang he(Long River 1934-42). The latter is both a pastoral comedy and Shen Congwen’srequiem for his region and its old way of life.74 This novel depicts in more detail than hisother works the forces of decay which Shen Congwen posited were undermining hisregion. Kinkley maintains that one source of this decay lay in the greater opportunities forgain which were created by parasitic armed forces and tax collectors.75 Shen Congwen,however, like other writers of xiangtu wenxue, put his region’s disintegration down to thecoming of commerce and prosperity, that is, to the “profit-only mentality which wasvulgarizing people’s outlook on life.” In Long River there is a72 Kinkley 231.The gu poison cult also appears in fictional form in Han Shaogong’s “Bababa” (Bababa, 1985).‘ Kinldey 231.‘ Kinkley 245, 246.‘ Ibid. 246.76 Shen, “Chang he tiji,” Preface to Chang he (Shanghai: Kaiming shudian, 1943): i.Nativism Chap. Three127criticism of the replacement of rural industry with city manufacture; machines are faultedwith being the instruments of “bureaucratic capitalism.”77 The hostility to commerce inthis and other of Shen’s works parallels the English attachment to country ways andfeelings and the idealization of the “natural” or “moral economy” which served as thefoundation for “pastoral happiness and virtue.” The theme of moral decay and thedegeneracy brought to a previously undefiled rural region by the outside world is typical ofxiangtu wenxue and makes the regional Shen Congwen comparable to Hwang Chun-ming.In conclusion, what features of Shen Congwen’s fiction make this writer a typicalxiangtu zuojia? The main one, and one which is the trademark of most xiangtu wenxue, isthe sentiment of nostalgia which inspired the author to begin creating sketches of hischildhood home. These short narratives, based on childhood recollections, relate the localcolour, plants, animals and simple rural activities of West Hunan and, in this respect, theyare reminiscent of many works of xiangtu wenxue. Like Wang Luyan, Shen Congwenwrote these early pieces of fiction while he was living in loneliness in the big city ofBeijing. In his later works, Shen Congwen was driven by this same sentiment of nostalgiato write about other aspects of his region, specifically, its decay. These works are similarto the fiction of Hwang Chun-ming: the regional disintegration described by these authorsis attributed to outside forces, especially commercialism and the profit motive whichdisrupt the region’s premordial, pristine existence. Once this change is in place, thispristine state is irretrievable.Other nativist aspects of Shen Congwen’s works are the dramatic elements of hisfiction which form the framework for the non-nativist themes in his other works. Many ofthese themes do not involve the countryside or tradition per Se; instead, the countrysideserves as the backdrop for the author’s philosophical speculations about love, sexuality,God or religion. The only exception to this is “Guisheng” in which tradition isKinldey 173.Nativism Chap. Three128foregrounded and which has some elements in common with China’s leftist writers of the1930s.As a regional writer, Shen’s regional folkways dovetail with his nativism in hisdepiction of the exotic regional culture of Hunan. Shen renders this diffusely, allowing itto blend in and symbolize the vastness of China’s hinterland. In this respect, Shen’snativism is universal, that is, it differs little from that of other parts of China or otherChinese geocultural areas. Shen’s regionalism-- his insight into the locale and the customsof a little-known region of rural China-- point the way for a national revival, though thiswas not his primary preoccupation in writing about Hunan. Instead, as a writer of xianguwenxue, Shen Congwen wrote from nostalgia for his home and from his concern for thepassing of its native traditions.The Writers of the NortheastIn the 1930s, there was a group of writers writing in Japanese-dominated Manchuria(known as Dongbei or the Northeast) which was also the source for another type ofregional xiangtu wenxue. These writers were known collectively as the Northeast Groupof Writers (Dongbei zuojia qun.[If though many of them, such as Xiao Hongor Xiao Jun, were also better known as individuals. Besides writing about local colourand customs and peopling their stories with characters drawn from the Northeast, one ortwo of the writers in this group also actively wrote about Japanese aggression. Besidesbeing a threat to regional security, the domination of the Northeast by the Japanese in the1930s was the greatest threat to Chinese national unity. The writers of the Northeastresponded to the aggression against their homeland with a strong sense of nationalconsciousness and an awareness of the fragility of their region. Their works express theNativism Chap. Three129co-mingling of regional and national interests which is typical of regional xiangtu wenxueunder foreign domination.The year 1928 is an important one for the history of the literature of China’sNortheast. In December of that year, the Young Marshall Zhang Xueliang renounced hisregional control of the Northeast, northern and southern China were reunited under ChiangKai-shek and the capital was moved to Nanldng. In that year, literature began to flourishin the Northeast, spurred on by literary trends both inside and outside of China. Betweenthe year 1922 and 1928 works by Chinese writers such as Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, BingXin, Ye Shengtao and Yu Dafu were extensively introduced into the Northeast through themedium of the journal, the Shengjing shibao Shengjing Times).78 By the endof the decade, leftist journals such as Chuangzao yuekan IJ which were carryingstories by Jiang Guangci and Ding Ling began to make an appearance in the region.Russian literature and Japanese proletarian literature (pub wenxue were alsotranslated and reprinted and proved to be highly influential in Northeastern literary circles.There was even a call for proletarian literature which went up in 1929. All this activitywas curtailed, however, when the Mukden Incident broke out in 1931, and the threeprovinces of the Northeast fell into Japanese hands. For the next fourteen years underJapanese domination the configuration of Northeastern literature was determined almostexclusively by the presence of Japan.During the Japanese occupation, two types of literature were produced in theNortheast. The first was allied with the Japanese rulers and was referred to as ImperialLiterature (wangdao wenxue or “Whitewash Literature” (fenshi wenxue).80 As these terms imply, this literature reinforced Japanese interests and the78 Huang Wanhua, “Lunxian guotushang de minzu beige: lun Dongbei lunxian shiqi de xiangtu wenxuechuangzuo,” Kangzhan wenyi yanjiu, 4 (1986): 41.‘ Ibid.80 Ibid. 40.Nativism Chap. Three130attempts of the Japanese government to assimilate the region. The second was the nativisttrend in which writers such as Liang Shanding iiT Yuan Xi Wang Qiuying IJfj and Dan Di 1.1L were the first to raise the clarion call for resistance efforts against theJapanese.8’ This second trend formally began in 1933 with the publication of Xiao Hongand Xiao Jun ‘s jointly-authored collection of stories and essays entitled Trudging (Ba she, 1933) and continued until the end of the war in 1945. These writers were influencedby the Chinese literature published earlier, they also exhibited similarities with the earlierChinese xiangtu wenxue.The development of this second trend of literature in the Northeast was augmented byunderground political activity and journals established during this period. In 1932, forinstance, the Manchurian Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party movedfrom Shenyang to Harbin, at which time it commenced anti-Japanese propaganda andorganized the northern literary arts movement.82 In 1933, the supplement Ye shaocommenced publication through the influence of Xiao Jun and became the primary mediumof publication for writers like Xiao Hong.83 Xiao Hong published more works in thisliterary supplement than any other writer. These included her five works written under thepenname of Qiao Yin lE1’ which were later anthologized in Trudging. Besides XiaoHong and Xiao Jun, many other dramatists, poets and essayists were also products of theliterary arts world in Harbin at this time.85Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun’s Trudging had the distinction of being the first collectionof short stories and essays published during this period. Furthermore, this collection was81 Ibid. 41.82 Hua Ming, “Lun Xiao Hong de wenxue daolu,” Lianning shiyuan xuebao, 4 (1981): 11.83 Ibid.84 Ibid.85 For example, the dramatist Sai Ke (Chen Ningqiu), the poet and essayist Shu Qin, and writers Luo Fengand Yang Shuo. (Ibid. 12.)Nativism Chap. Three131perhaps the most strongly-articulated protest against the Japanese domination of thesewriters’ homeland. This work with its heavy nativist colouration was immediatelyproscribed by the Japanese, however, and the mantle of resistance subsequently fell toother writers such as Wang Qiuying and Liang Shanding.86 The latter, for instance, wroteabout the struggles of the labouring class under the heavy boot of the Japanese and vowedto destroy the atmosphere of “whitewashing” that dominated literary circles.87After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident erupted in July, 1937, the anti-Japanese stanceof the writers of the Northeast, not to mention their goal of countering the pro-Japaneseliterature of the region, became even more pronounced. As a result, xiangtu wenxuebecame closely linked with resistance efforts. Liang Shanding, for instance, advocated thatxiangtu wenxue realistically reflect the life of the peasants and the farming villages andconcern itself with local customs in order to expose the realities of Japanese occupationalrule.88 The Japanese, in the meantime, merely mocked xiangtu wenxue and, instead,trumpeted “colonial literature” (zhimindi wenxue which they insisted was theonly literature which could “strengthen the colony” (qianghua zhimindiThe fact that the Japanese wished to import their own national literature into Manchuriamade the Northeastern writers aware that their literature could readily become a“sojourning” literature, such as the xiangtu wenxue of the 1920s. Lu Xun’s statementabout the “fleeting appearance of nostalgia,” which he used with reference to the xiangtuwenxue of the 1920s could apply equally well to these Northeastern writers. Indeed, forthese writers, the loss of their homeland was a daily experience which they agonized over86 Ibid. 42.87 AsquotedinHuang4l.88 Liang S handing, “Xiangtu wenxue yu ‘S handing hua,” Mingming, 5, as quoted in Huang 42.89 This sentiment is expressed in “Xiangtu yu wenxue,” “Zai lun zhimindi wenxue” and other articles inManzhou wenyi wenjian, as cited in Huang Wanhua, 42.Nativism Chap. Three132until some did, in fact, move away. At this time their nostalgia became intenningled with avery real anxiety for the fate of their region and for the Chinese people as a whole.In sum, the genesis of literature in China’s Northeast is closely linked with the anti-imperialist and humanist traditions of May Fourth. May Fourth was the real beginning ofanti-imperialism in China, and in its confrontation with the Japanese Other, the xiangtuwenxue of the Northeast was a fleshing-out of May Fourth anti-imperialist themes.Culturally, its alignment with the labouring classes was also a legacy of May Fourth. Thisdiscussion will proceed with an examination of three writers who are representative ofChina’s Northeastern xiangtu wenxue.Xiao JunXiao Jun, the author of the well-known, anti-Japanese novel Village in August(Bayue de xiangcun )1. 1935), is the most representative of the Northeasternwriters who wrote on the theme of Japanese aggression. During the early 1930s, Xiao Junwas actively engaged in underground activity and revolutionary work as a guerrilla fighter.These experiences formed the basis for his novel which is structured around motifs of war,romance, class struggle, the revolutionary power of the peasants and anti-Japanesesentiment. It is clear from reading the works of this writer that the national struggle againstJapan was inseparable from that which was being waged at home.Xiao Jun’s revolutionary activity began after 1937 with the eruption of the MarcoPolo Bridge Incident and the outbreak of war. These events prompted Xiao Jun to leavethe Northeast together with Xiao Hong and to travel to Wuhan, the site of the ChineseWriters’ Anti-Aggression Association. From there, they went to Linfen, Shanxi, whereXiao Jun accepted a position as the cultural arts advisor at the People’s RevolutionaryNativism Chap. Three133University.90 Shortly after accepting this post, Xiao Jun resigned in order to realize hislong-held wish to participate in the anti-Japanese guerrilla movement at Wutai Mountain(Wutai Shan). This wish was never realized, however, because on the way to Wutai, XiaoJun encountered Ding Ling. Ding Ling had by then already been involved in revolutionaryactivity for several years, and, as Xiao Jun was already well-known as the author ofVillage in August, he was persuaded by both Ding Ling and Mao Zedong to go to Yan’an,the base for the Chinese Communist Party. In Yenan, however, both Ding Ling and XiaoJun soon became disillusioned with Mao and the Party’s method of ideological reformwhich was carried out through a number of campaigns to “rectify (unorthodox)tendencies.” Feeling betrayed, they joined a group of revolutionary writers who authored anumber of critical essays condemning what they considered to be the distortion ofCommunist ideals in practice and the subordination of humanitarian values to short-termtactical goals.91 A second concern of these writers was the role of the writer in a Party-run society, a role which they felt must not consist of propagandist for the regime. Shortlythereafter in 1942, Mao Zedong’s Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art waspublished which set down the Party line on all forms of artistic and cultural expression.The fears of these writer were thus borne out with the publication of the Talks.In the same year that the Yan’an Talks were published, the Chinese Communist Partylaunched its first Rectification Campaign (1942). This was the first of a series in whichintellectuals were sent “down to the villages” (xia xiang T) to learn about rural life fromthe peasants. The next year in 1943, the movement reached out to the cadres, and XiaoJun went down to the countryside voluntarily to live the life of a peasant. He returned toYan’an in 1944 and requested to enter the Chinese Communist Party, though he laterreconsidered his membership because of his dissatisfaction with the Party. Xiao Jun90 Wang Defen, “Xiao Jun zai Yan’an,” Xin wenxue shiliao, 4 (1987): 105.91 Merle Goldman, Literary Dissent in Communist China 21.Nativism Chap. Three134returned to his home in the Northeast after Japan’s defeat at the end of the war at whichtime the three provinces of the region were returned to Chinese rule.Xiao Jun is most famous for his novel, Village in August, which he wrote under thepenname of Tian Jun . C.T. Hsia considers this novel a type of “proletarian andromantic-revolutionary” work of fiction, besides being the first novel to embody the themeof anti-Japanese resistance.92 Village in August is an episodic narrative about a rovingband of guerrilla soldiers whose enemies are the Japanese, the Manchukuo puppet troopsand the Guomindang. In the course of the novel, a pro-Japanese landlord is shot and histenant farmers are recruited to their cause. The novel concludes with the band moving outto Dong’an for further training and supplies while a small detachment is left behind to carefor the sick and wounded. At this point, the novel’s romantic subplot involving therelationship between Captain Xiao Ming and Anna, a young Korean girl in the band,pointedly becomes a prop to emphasize the ideological orientation of the story. GeneralChen Zhu, commander of the band, orders Xiao Ming to stay behind at Dragon’s ClawHill while he takes Anna with him on the march to Dongan. The resulting conflict betweenthe ideals of romantic love and revolutionary duty weigh most heavily on Xiao Mingwhose origin is bourgeois. He grows increasingly dispirited over the deprivation of hispersonal happiness and ultimately loses the respect of his men who scorn and ridicule him.In more ways than one, Village in August is a political novel: it vilifies the Guomindang fortheir part in the evils committed by the landlords; it also preaches class struggle and theproletarian revolution. As a novel about class struggle, and especially the episode in whichthe pro-Japanese landlord is executed, it foreshadows the Chinese proletarian novels aboutland reform of the decade of the 1940s. In sum, Village in August represents an importanttransition in the political development of Chinese xiangtu wenxue.92 Hsia 273.Nativism Chap. Three135After writing a number of stories about the anti-Japanese struggle, Xiao Jun beganwriting descriptive narratives about daily life which are more nativist in tone than Village inAugust. His two collections of short stories, entitled On the River (Jiangshang IJ:1936) and Sheep (Yang, 1935) and a second novel, Third Generation (Di san dai E1937), were all written while the author was living in Shanghai and are based onnostalgic reminiscences of life in his home region of the Northeast. These three worksdescribe the sufferings endured by the people of the Northeast after the region was lost tothe Japanese; they also embody themes of Northeastern village social life, such as thecontradictions between the peasants and landlords. In brief, they are less propagandisticthan Village in August and are more characteristic of the nativist sub-genre.As in other works of xiangtu wenxue, the characters in these stories by Xiao Jun aretypically from China’s disempowered lower classes. These can be listed as the lowest-ranking among the enlisted army men, forestry wardens, dock workers, child labourers incoal smelters, people living in exile, dancing girls who moonlight as prostitutes, sailorsand sheep thieves, all of whom are affected either by class oppression or the nationaldisaster of the Mukden Incident. “Widower” (Guanfu , l935), for instance,describes the lonely life of an honest but psychologically weak forestry warden and hisexploitation at the hands of a landlord. This story is based on Xiao Jun’s memories ofmountain village life in his native village of Liaoxi, Liaoning Province,94 and echoes thetheme of oppressive class relations found in Village in August. The other three stories inOn the River are “Story of Horses” (Ma de gushi 1935), which narrates the lifeof a farming family at the time of the Mukden Incident the title piece, “On the River”(Jiangshang IJ, 1936), which describes the hardships of the life of a dockworker, and93 This is the first story in the collection On the River (Kunming: Yunnan renmin chubanshe, 1982): 1-75.Xing Fujun, “Xiangtu de juanlian: lun Xiao Jun xiaoshuo chuangzuo fengge de fazhan,” Liaoning shifandaxue xuebao, 4 (1985): 57.Nativism Chap. Three136“Fellow Traveller” (Tongxmgzhe j, 193 which comprises a fragment from thelife of a wanderer. Unlike Village in August which is based on the author’s indirectknowledge of the history of the Panshi guerrilla band, coupled with his personalexperience of life in the army, the stories in the two collections are based on the author’slife experience.96 These collections represent Xiao Jun’s increasing artistry with respectto autobiographical material.Xiao Jun’s second novel, Third Generation, is also set in the autho?s native place-- aLiaoxi mountain village-- and is based on historical materials which the author garneredfrom his childhood memories.97 This novel is an account of the conflict between thepeasants of Ling River and the landlords; in the end, the peasants defy landlord oppressionby “going up the mountain to become bandits” (shang shan dang huzi j’’). Thistheme is also present in Duanmu Hongliang’s Korchin Plains (Ke’erqinqi caoyuan jlJ[j1939) and is symptomatic of the collapse of the Chinese social order whichoccurred with the downfall of the Qing empire and the beginning of the Republican period.During that period in Chinese history, many peasants became bandits or they took controlof forest lands to wreak revenge on the landlords. There is little romance associated withthe bandits in this novel; on the contrary, they suffer the same hardships as the peasants,though they also long to return to the farming life. In sum, Third Generation is thereflection of the social life of the period from the 1911 Revolution to the Changchundemonstration of 1915 against Yuan Shikai and the Twenty-One Demands; the novel couldthus be classified as a kind of historic epic.98“Story of Horses” is anthologized in On the River 76-94; “On the River” and “Fellow Traveller” are alsoanthologized in the same collection, pp 95-133 and 134-164, respectively.96 Xing Fujun 57.Ibid. 58.98 Ibid 59.Nativism Chap. Three137In conclusion, as a writer of regional xiangtu wenxue, Xiao Jun narrates the historyand social life of his native home in the Northeast during the period of JapaneseOccupation. The struggles against the Japanese which are depicted in his fiction minglewith the struggles of the peasants against the landlords and, in this respect, foreshadow thedevelopment of Chinese Communist xiangtu wenxue of the 1940s. The nativist elementsin Xiao Jun’s fiction derive from his nostalgic reminiscences of his homeland, hissympathetic portrayals of the life of the peasants and the life of the people of his region.Though Xiao Jun’s works represent a transitional period to a more politicized xiangtuwenxue; nonetheless, his memories of his homeland upon which he based his works makehim as much of a xiangru zuojia as the other writers discussed so far.Duanmu HongliangDuaninu Hongliang is another major writer of the Northeast Group of Writers. Theregional nativism of this writer is evoked by his naturalistic descriptions, his accounts ofthe pain and oppression suffered by the peasants because of the Japanese occupation oftheir homeland, the legends and foildore of his region and the peasants’ revolutionarypotential. Like some of the works by Xiao Jun, the stories by Duanmu Hongliang whichdeal with the latter theme also anticipate the political works of the 1940s about classstruggle and land reform. In brief, Duanmu Hongliang’s regional images evoke thesociocultural matrix of Northeastern peasant life and the peasants’ potential to change.Duanmu Hongliang was born in 1912 in Changtu, Liaoning. He was a student inTianjin during the May Fourth movement and read many translations of foreign works,including Lenin, and literary and political journals.99 This writer was attracted to theworks of Balzac and Tolstoy and was also influenced by Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Ye99 Fu Hu, “Wenzi di xia de xielei gushi: fang lao zuojia Duanmu Hongliang,” Kangzhan wenyi yanjiu, 2(1984): 122.Nativism Chap. Three138Shengtao and Mao Dun, especially Mao Dun’s Midnight, from which he learned a range ofstylistic techniques. 100 When the Mukden Incident erupted, Duanmu Hongliang becameinvolved in anti-Japanese activities and was subsequently expelled from school. He leftTianjin and in 1932 entered the History Department of Qinghua University where hecontinued his political activities. Duanmu Hongliang’s best-known work, Korchin Plains,documents the change in a Northeastern farming village around the time of the MukdenIncident. This novel represents the accumulation of Duanmu Hongliang’s revolutionarythought and experience which he brought to bear in his descriptions of peasant life andstruggle.Korchin Plains is set in the author’s native home and is based on an incident inDuanmu Hongliang’s father’s family.’01 According to historical documentation, refugeesbegan flooding into the area of the Korchin Plains and opening up land at the beginning ofthe Qing period.’02 Two hundred years prior to the time at which Duanmu Hongliangwrote this novel, a family by the name of Ding came to Guandong in the Northeast fromShandong. This family was the prototype for the big landlord family which eventuallydominated the Northeastern region.’°3 Duanmu Hongliang’s own family members werealso pioneers in the area of Guandong, and in the author’s great grandfather’s time theywere the biggest landlords in the area. At the time of Duanmu Hongliang’s father,however, this family had already begun to decline. The Dings, on the other hand,established their economic power through pioneering land reclamation, exploitation andcollusion with officials, but they eventually lost their power with the outbreak of the100 Hu Wenbin, “Fang zuojia Duanmu Hongliang,” Bafang xiandai wenxue shilial, 1 (1981): 100.101 Thid. 103.102 XingFujun78.103 Fu Hu 121.104 Ibid.Nativism Chap. Three139Russo-Japanese war, the Mukden Incident and the expanding power of Japaneseimperialist economics.105 Their decline is symptomatic, not just of the “degeneracy of thelandlord class” as the Chinese critics put it, but also of the loss of the whole Northeasternregion to the Japanese.106Besides the novel’s historical theme of the Northeastern landlord class, KorchinPlains is also an account of collusion, class conflict and exploitation. These are thesubjects of a statement that Duanmu Hongliang made concerning his intention in writingKorchin Plains: “I wished to expose how the great Northeastern landlords used commercialcapital to buy up land, how they bullied the nomads and peasants and exploited the tenantfarmers, and finally, how they made use of “feudal superstition” [quotes mine] to solidifytheir ruling authority, and all this through my description of the magnate Ding family of theKorchin tribe.” bcI&LI1if,F29 ‘ jfr1O7 Korchin Plains is thus a novel about China’s domesticoppression, which is framed within the larger parameters of historical aggression andexpanding imperialist economics. As a novel whose scope of subject matter is very broad,Korchin Plains can be considered a type of modern epic reminiscent of Midnight.Korchin Plains is peopled with figures driven by instinctive heroism, coarseness,ferocity, and a Cossackian wiliness and toughness. This portrait of a people and of avigorous, primitive region set apart from the decadence of the coastal cities is reminiscentof Shen Congwen’s fiction and his unshakable faith in the essential goodness of the region105 The critic Xing Fujun, for instance, interprets the novel as an account of the “degeneracy of the feudallandlords.” (Xing Fujun, “Shishi: Duanmu Hongliang wenxue qibu de xuanze,” Wenxue pinglun, 6 [1987]:78.)106 Wang Yao, Zhongguo xinwenxue shigao (Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 1982), 2: 475.107 As quoted in Hu Wenbin 101-2.Nativism Chap. Three140and the people of West Hunan, a faith which was also nurtured by his memories ofhome. 108 The two protagonists of Korchin Plains , Ding Ning and his friend/foe Dashan,are both modelled on members of Duanmu Hongliang’s maternal family and are heros ofthe oppressed, in the first instance, and of the tenant farmers, in the second. This type ofheroism makes Korchin Plains reminiscent of the romantic-revolutionary fiction producedin the leftist decade of the 1930s.09 The peasants in this work are coarse, tough, savageand primitive; their strength and energy originates from the earth. These characteristicsinform Duanmu Hongliang’s novels with a naturalistic imagery which endows his nativismwith a romantic, Byromc and elemental quality unique in the fiction of the Northeast.Besides Korchin Plains, Duanmu Hongliang was also the author of a number ofshort stories on a variety of themes. One recurring theme is the peasants’ resistance againstthe Japanese which constitutes the storyline in “Torrential Muddy River” (Hunhe dejiiuiiJfij , 1936).”° This story is about the peasants living in the region around MuddyRiver, Liaoning, who are ordered by the steward of the region to procure five hundred foxpelts in celebration of the wedding of the Imperial Concubine. The Concubine, who is atribute from the Japanese, wifi enter the imperial bedchamber on the 1st of October, leavingthe peasants only twenty-five days to deliver five hundred pelts in five colours to match theManchukuo flag: red, yellow, white, black and purple. However, it is the wrong seasonfor fox-hunting in White Deer Woods, and, unable to meet this quota, the peasantsultimately decide to stage an armed uprising against their oppressors. “Torrential MuddyRiver” concludes with Jinsheng, the lover of Shuiqinzi in the story, overcoming his initial108 C. T. ilsia, “The Korchin Banner Plains: A Biogrnphical and Critical Study,” Colloque international organisepar la Fondation Singer-Polignac en juin 1980 (Paris, 43, avenue Georges-Mandel: Editions de in Fondation SingerPolignac, 1980): 40.109 Ibid.46.110 Anthologized in Duanmu Hongliang xiaoshuoxuan (Hunan renmin chubanshe, 1982): 81-108.The English translation, “The Rapid Current of the Muddy River,” tr. Margaret M. Baumgartner and NathanK. Mao is anthologized in Modern Chinese Stories and Novellas, 1919-1949 496-507.Nativism Chap. Three141hesitation and leaving for the front lines with the other peasants. This story embraces ahigh degree of artistry in its depiction of peasant life, material hardship and the peasants’developing consciousness of resistance.“Why Doesn’t Yeye Eat Gaoliang Gruel?”1 is another moving account of a peasantfamily living under the boot of Japanese oppression. In the narrative, it is the evening ofthe fifth anniversary of the Mukden Incident. Yeye and his family are visited by MaLaoshi, an unemployed, poverty-stricken teacher who talks in a combination of classicalallusions and quotations from the Four Books. Yeye is mourning the fifth anniversary ofthe death of his oldest son and, unable to eat his sorghum, watches in silence as Ma Laoshigreedily wolfs down a bowl of the shiny, lucent gruel. In the course of the conversationMa Laoshi draws an analogy between the loss of their homeland and the defeat of theKingdom of Zhou by King Wu. This well-known allusion, which confers considerableerudition on this simple story, stems from the example of the two sage-kings, Boyi andShuqi, who regarded this defeat as one tyranny being replaced by another and vowed neveragain to eat millet from the Kingdom of Zhou.112 Ma Laoshi concludes his monologue byproclaiming that as they had also lost their land, they, too, should abstain from eating Zhoumillet, or, in this case, sorghum gruel. In the meantime, Yeye watches in ironic silence asthe famished Ma Laoshi wolfs down two more bowls, and he then inquires what happenedto Boyi and Shuqi. “After that... urn, they starved to death....” came Ma Laoshi’sreply.”3 Ma then added by way of explanation that even if they had wanted to eat Zhoumillet, there was none to be had. “Why doesn’t Granddad Eat Sorghum Gruel” concludesin pathos with the outraged Ma Laoshi intoning these lines like a refrain: “All of them,I am unable to find the original text for this story. The translation is anthologized in Duanmu Hongliang,Red Night, Tr. Howard Goldblatt (Beijing: Chinese Literature Press, 1988): 236-25 1.112 See “The Biography of Bo Yi and Shu Ch’i,” tr. Burton Watson, in Cyril Birch, ed., Anthology of ChineseLiterature (New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1965), 1: 103-105 for this well-known allusion.113 Duanmu Hongliang 247.Nativism Chap. Three142starved to death. There was nothing for them to eat, even if they’d wanted to, nothing,even if they’d wanted to.”4“Red Night” (Hongye 1943)” is the final story of Duanmu Hongliang’sselected for discussion. The nativism of this piece lies in its narration of a local legendabout a place called Kunlun Grotto and the annual shaman’s dance performed by the localpeople to invoke the transcendent power of the spirits. The story begins with the narrationof the legend of Stone Man by the mother of Caogu. In the legend, the old man in the localhamlet promised the hand of his daughter to any man who entered the grotto and came backout the other end. Many young men died in the grotto until one, more handsome than theothers, made it through by using his ‘own blood as fuel for his torch. By the time he exitedfrom the grotto, his blood was all gone and the young man turned to stone. The youngwoman in the legend happily marries the Stone Man and, embracing him, also turns tostone. This legend comes to life in Caogu’s mind, and when she joins the dance sheimagines her older sister is dancing with the Stone Man. She only comes to her senseswhen the dance is stopped by the shaman who accuses two young people of sinning.Normally, love between boys and girls is something to boast about; however, on thisnight, Caogu’s older sister and Precious Dragon had defiled the religious rites and angeredthe spirits. The subtext of “Red Night” is sexual awakening, love and fertility-- motifswhich are evoked against the backdrop of local legends and stories, local color and naturalbeauty. “Red Night” is a haunting tale of lyricism and a unique combination of nativistelements.In sum, Duanmu Hongliang’s regional writing is about the peasants of the Northeast,their potential to create change in their lives, their pain under Japanese oppression and thelegends and myths of the Northeastern region. His writing is highly lyrical and engaging114 Ibid.251.115 Anthologized in Duanmu Hongliang xiaoshuoxuan: 254-271.Nativism Chap. Three143and his nativism is the most primitive and earthy of all the writers in the Northeast Groupof Writers.Xiao HongXiao Hong is the most well-known and, in my view, most interesting, of China’sNortheastern writers. She began writing at the age of twenty-one and wrote for a period often years prior to her premature, tragic and lonely death in Hong Kong at the age of thirtyone. Xiao Hong’s childhood overlapped with the chaos and imperialist aggression ofChina’s Republican period, and she was brought into direct contact with many of therevolutionary aspects of this period. However, her works are not overly concerned withthis; instead, they focus on the domestic and private sphere of life and her familycompound. The narration of the regional images of her work-- the way of life, thecustoms, beliefs and practices of Hulan-- is based on her memories of her birthplace inHulan county. This writer also brings a special perspective as a woman to her narration,which makes her works different from Xiao Jun’s and very different again from ShenCongwen’s. Besides being famous for her evocative style and her recreations of peasantlife in Northeastern China, Xiao Hong is also well-known for her feminist thought.In the private sphere of her life, much of Xiao Hong’s life was spent grappling withfeelings of lovelessness, unhappiness and oppression experienced both in childhood andlater in her adult life in two abusive relationships, first with Xiao Jun, then with DuanmuHongliang. Xiao Hong recounted that she spent her life in “perpetual longing and pursuitto find ... warmth and love,”116 seeking that which others took for granted but whichseemed to be forever denied her. Her adult life brought her extreme poverty, an unwantedchild, addiction to opium and an attempted suicide until her life was brought to a premature116 Xiao Hong, “Yongjiu de chongjing he jiuqiu,” Baogao, 1 (January 10, 1937): 74, as quoted in HowardGoldblatt, Hsiao Hung (Boston: Twayne, 1976): 20.Nativism Chap. Three144end by the illness which had always haunted her. Notwithstanding these misfortunes,Xiao Hong produced a large and brilliant fictional corpus.Xiao Hong was born into a landlord family near Harbin in Heilongjiang province.This was headed by a tyrannical father and a mother of “mean words and nasty looks”117who passed away when Xiao Hong was nine. The central figure in Xiao Hong’s youthwas her grandfather from whom she derived a certain amount of love and affection. XiaoHong credits her grandfather with nurturing in her the “strong sense of humanity and lovefor nature and beauty”8 which figure in her work. Xiao Hong had this to say about hergrandfather: “I learned from my grandfather that besides coldness and hatred, life alsoincludes warmth and love. And so, for me there is a perpetual longing and pursuit to findthis warmth and love.”119 Xiao Hong’s novel, Tales ofHulan River (Hulan he zhuanL1JI 1942), which is widely believed to be autobiographical,’2°and in which thegrandfather also figures, exemplifies this search. The element of nostalgia in Tales ofHulan River and in Market Street (Shangshi jie ijj, 1936), which is the record of herlife together with Xiao Jun, makes these works among the most nativist of Xiao Hong’sfictional output.Xiao Hong left Hulan in 1927 to attend a middle school in Harbin where sheencountered the new thought then sweeping across China. She soon threw herself intoanti-Japanese activities. After graduating from middle school in 1930, Xiao Hong facedthe prospect of an arranged marriage by her parents, and she subsequently fled back to117 Xiao Hong, Tales ofHulan River: 87, as quoted in Goldblatt 17.118 Ibid.21.119 Xiao Hong, “Yongjiu de chongjing he zhuiqiu” 74, as quoted in Goldblatt 21.120 In my examination of Xiao Hong’s works I intend to avoid ascribing a large degree of autobiographicalmeaning to this writer’s works. This is based, in part, on my feeling that it is more interesting to examineher work from other angles and, in part, on the desire to avoid the autobiographical “phallacy,” whereby malecritics hold that women’s writing is somehow closer to their experience than man’s, and that the female text isthe author or an extension of her unconscious. (Ton Moi 61.)Nativism Chap. Three145Harbin. There, alienated from family and friends, and beset by material and emotionalproblems, she sequestered herself in poverty and debt in Harbin’s Dongxingshun Hotel-- arun-down rooming-house “peopled by vagabonds and prostitutes.” It was shortly afterthis in 1932 that Xiao Hong first met Xiao Jun whom she recognized as the short storywriter, San Lang .E3. Her relationship with Xiao Jun and their subsequent residencetogether, first in a tiny hotel room in Harbin then in No.25 Shangshi Jie (Market St.),coincided with the beginning of her writing career. Xiao Hong’s first short story, “TheDeath of Wang Asao” (Wang Asao de si 1933),121 which is an account oflandlord oppression held indirectly responsible for the death of a peasant woman, waswritten at this time. This, the four other stories published under the penname Qiao Yin andthe six stories by San Lang which were all anthologized in Trudging were immediatelyproscribed by the Japanese. The couple’s subsequent fear of arrest by the Japaneseauthorities prompted them to flee to Tsingdao in May, 1934, and later that year, toShanghai. Xiao Hong vowed in Market Street that she would never return to theNortheast as long as Manchukuo existed.’22 In Tsingdao, Xiao Hong wrote her first, andto some critics finest, novel, Field ofLife andDeath (Shengsichang 1935). Thiswas published in 1935 with the assistance of Lu Xun and with a preface by him and apostface by Hu Feng.In examining Xiao Hong’s works, I find it appropriate to apply the foundingassumption underlying much feminist theory and practice, that is, “the personal ispolitical.” In brief, the “personal” encompasses the innate and socially acquired nature ofthe individual and the individual’s experiences in the world, and these, in turn, reproducedominant assumptions about subjectivity, such as gender difference and language, which121 Anthologized in Ba she (Guangzhou: Huachengchubanshe, 1983): 98-108.122“As long as there was a “Manchukuo,” we would never again set foot on this soil.” Xiao Hong, MarketStreet: A Chinese Woman in Harbin, Tr. Howard Goldblatt (Seattle and Washington: University ofWashington Press, 1986): 130.Nativism Chap. Three146have political implications.’23 This assumption is based on the concept of the socialconstruct of femininity, rather than on a notion of biological femaleness, and on languageas a site of political struggle.124 The subjectivity and the woman’s voice in Xiao Hong’sfiction recreate the dynamics of patriarchal power which govern relations and whichinscribe gender difference into her female characters. The reproduction of Chinese culturalinstitutions in Xiao Hong’s fiction is particularly relevant in this discussion about nativismand is directly linked in her fiction with her characters’ gendered difference and socialoppression. The narration of issues of gender and of the “negative” aspects of dominantpatriarchal power in Xiao Hong’s fiction is the source for Howard Goldblatt reference toher works, particularly Market Street, as “feminist” and “anti-male.”25Xiao Hong’s feminist perspective is apparent in the construction of her femalecharacters in, for instance, Field ofLife and Death. This novel is about peasant life, inparticular, the lives of three peasant families, in a Manchurian village in the periodpreceding and just after the Mukden Incident of 1931. The novel unfolds with thehardships of the peasants, who are depicted as ignorant and conservative, and with thedeepening encirclement of the Japanese occupation. Even without the Japanese, life hasalways been a bitter struggle, and, what with nature’s mercilessness and the rapaciouslandlords who are demanding higher land taxes, the present time seems worse than usual.The omniscient narrator guides the reader through the vagaries of peasant existence: illicitsex and pregnancy, the agonies of childbirth, an aborted rebellion against rising taxes,madness and suicide, poverty and epidemic disease. The cyclical, non-developmentalaspects of peasant existence are explained by way of the story’s Buddhist subtext, that is,in terms of the endless round of “birth, old age, sickness and death” and the Buddhist123 Chris Weedon, Feminist Practice & Poststructuralist Theory (Basil Blackwell, 1987): 74.124 Ibid.125 Goldblatt, Introduction, Market Street: x., xvi.Nativism Chap. Three147notion of the “sea of endless suffering.” In the story, humans are little better than“mosquitoes”; they, together with their beasts, “busied themselves at living and atdying.”26The diurnal life of the peasants provides the framework for the experiences of thewomen in the novel. As mentioned above, the narration of their pain and suffering stemsfrom the realistic appraisal of women’s sexual difference, patriarchal power and China’soppressive cultural institutions. The peasant women in this novel belong to the category ofthe marginalized subject which is the characterization typical of Chinese xiangtu wenxue.In the case of Field ofLife and Death, the relationship of these women vis-a-vis theJapanese domination of the Northeast and vis-a-vis patriarchal power makes them doubly“colonized.”Mother Wang (Wang Po) is the village midwife and the dominant female character inField ofLife and Death. She was originally married to an abusive man in the story and hadlost a child through an accident. She then married and lived with Zhao San, a bigoted andimpulsive peasant who comes to an awareness of his Chinese national identity in the wakeof a personal history of setbacks. During the course of the story, Mother Wang discoversthat her son has become a “red beard” (communist guerrilla), and when he is executed sheloses her mental balance and attempts suicide notwithstanding her previous strength ofcharacter. Ultimately, her daughter also becomes a “red beard” to avenge her brother’sdeath, and with this event, Mother Wang begins to develop a heightened politicalconsciousness.Yueying and Golden Bough (Jinzhi) are two women characters in the novel whosuffer directly from their gendered difference. Yueying is the village beauty who dies anagonizing death amidst her own excrement, neglected and abused by her husband. Thelatter declares that having a wife like Yueying is like “being married to one of my own126 Xiao Hong, Tr. Howard Goldblatt and Ellen Yeung, The Field ofLife and Death (Bloomington & London:Indiana University Press, 1979): 56, 66.Nativism Chap. Three148ancestors and having to make offerings to her!”127 He argues that since Yueying is goingto die, she does not need a comforter and props her up with bricks. Yueying complainssadly: “That heartless animal dreams of ways to torture me,”128 and three days later she isdead.The life and fate of Golden Bough, on the other hand, reflect the author’s in somerespects. Golden Bough is seduced and made pregnant by a village youth, Chengye, in thestory. After a shotgun marriage, she is subsequently overworked by her husband. Facedwith increasing indebtedness, Chengye takes out his mounting frustration on their littledaughter, Xiao Jinzhi (Little Golden Bough), and one day dashes her against the wall. Hescreams: “You bad investment. I’ll sell you to pay off our debts.” The narrative thenadds sadly, “So ended a tiny life.”129 Near the end of the tale, Golden Bough becomes awidow, and she makes her way to the city of Harbin. There, however, she is raped, andsoon after she returns to the village. Golden Bough declares, “I used to hate only men;now I hate the Japanese instead”; and “Do I hate the Chinese as well? Then there isnothing else for me to hate.”130When Golden Bough makes this statement she is a mouthpiece for the author;however, there are clearly other implications for the progression of the narrative in thesewords. Up to this point, the themes of the novel have been nativist and feminist; at thispoint, however, the feminist interests collide with those of nationalism and, as can beexpected, the balance of the novel-- the latter third-- gives way to the theme of Japaneseaggression. In short, the “priviledging of the nation,” which is the common feature of somuch of modern Chinese fiction, dominates the rest of the text. One day, so the narrative127 Ibid. 39.128 Ibid. 40.129 Ibid.65.130 Ibid. 100.Nativism Chap. Three149goes, the Japanese flag is planted in the village. Manchukuo is established, and the villagewomen are raped by the incoming Japanese soldiers. Mother Wang is chosen as thecharacter in the text to describe the violation of the Japanese troops: “The Japs in thevillage are getting worse and worse. They’re slitting open the bellies of pregnant womento counteract the Red Gun Society (one of the volunteer armies). The live fetuses slideright out of the bellies.”131 The peasants explode in anger and, one by one, includingZhao San, become progressively involved in anti-Japanese activity. Generally speaking,the anti-Japanese content of the novel constitutes but a minor theme; nonetheless, Field ofLfe and Death has been lauded by Chinese critics as an “account of the initial stages ofawareness and resistance of the peasants.”32 The author herself is also acclaimed bythese critics as an anti-Japanese writer. While the Chinese critics prefer to rank Field ofLife and Death alongside anti-Japanese works in the Chinese arsenal of anti-Japanesefiction, I myself prefer to read the novel primarily as a piece of nativist and feminist fiction.In his preface to Field ofLife and Death, Lu Xun comments that the novel is “asketch, a narrative and a description of scenery.” jj] 133 Indeed, XiaoHong has created scroll after scroll of imagistic, rural landscape in traditionally nativiststyle. Xiao Hong’s recreation of her native place, which also extends to the desolate,backward, poor and dirty Harbin of the 1930s, was coloured by her flight from her fallenhomeland. After Xiao Hong left the Northeast, she found her voice as a sojourner.Ultimately, her nostalgia as a refugee gave her work the characteristic stamp of xiangtuwenxue.Xiao Hong’s life in Shanghai was characterized by her deepening friendship with LuXun whom she came to regard as a personal mentor, her deteriorating relationship with131 Ibid.100.132 Wang Yao, Zhongguo xin wenxue shikao (Shanghai, 1953), 1: 253, as quoted in Goldblatt, Hsiao Hong: 45.33 Lu Xun, Xuyan (Preface), Shengsi chang. (Shanghai: Null she, 1938), 1.Nativism Chap. Three150Xiao Jun and her continued writing and publishing. Market Street, written in Shanghai,was completed in May of 1935 and published a year later, a mere eight months after TheField ofLife and Death. This work is a chronological account of the last year and a half ofXiao Hong and Xiao Jun’s life together in Harbin from the summer of 1932 until May1934 prior to their flight to Tsingdao. This is primarily a work about urban life in theNortheast, specifically, the life of poverty-stricken urban intellectuals in the 1930s at theoutset of Japanese rule. As such, it parallels other works of nativism about urbanintellectuals.134 This piece of semi-autobiographical fiction depicts the I-narrator’s manylonely hours of solitude and isolation, her writing, and her oppression and battering at thehands of Langhua, the figure based on Xiao Jun in the work. The latter two themes are thereason for Howard Goldblatt’s evaluation of the work as “anti-male.”135 In my opinion,however, Xiao Hong’s representation of the gender issues in this work is based on herpersonal, real-life experience and not on a tendency toward misandry. More than any otherof her works, Market Street exemplifies the critical adage that “the personal is political.”Xiao Hong was the author of a number of other, very moving accounts of women’sexperiences such as “Hands” (Shou .-, 1936) and “On the Oxcart” (Niucheshang1936), the former of which is acclaimed by some critics as her best work.’36 Thesestories feature female peasant characterization and various aspects of women’s suffering;they are also characterized by a shift away from the anti-Japanese theme and toward the134 For example, the late 1970s works by the Taiwanese writer, Chen Yingzhen (Huashengdun dalou: yun,1977), discussed in a later chapter.135 Ibid. xvi.136 These two stories are both anthologized in Xiao Hong, Xiao Hong xuanji, Zhongguo xiandai wenxuancongshu (Hong Kong: Xiang kang wenxue yanjiushe, 1980): 86-103, 104-115, respectively.Howard Goldblatt comments that “Hands” is “far and away the best and most artistically executed of HsiaoHung’s short stories.” (Howard Goldblatt, “Hsiao Hung,” Joseph S. M. Lau, C. T. ilsia and Leo Ou-fan Lee,eds., Modern Chinese Stories and Novellas, 1919-1949 455.)Nativism Chap. Three151inclusion of a greater degree of Chinese nativist thematics. In short, these are also thefeatures of Xiao Hong’s great long narrative, Tales ofHulan River.With the Marco Polo Incident and the outbreak of war Xiao Hong and Xiao Juntraveled to Wuhan, then to Linfen, Shanxi, where Xiao Hong broke off her common-lawrelationship with Xiao Jun. She subsequently returned to Wuhan via Xi’an. In Wuhan,Xiao Hong had formed a new relationship with Duanmu Hongliang which proved to be asequally destructive to her well-being as her previous relationship with Xiao Jun. Duringthe period from 1936 to 1939 Xiao Hong lived in Chongqing, and there she wrote the bulkof her first draft of Tales ofHulan River. With the bombardment of Chungqing beginningin 1939, Xiao Hong left for Hong Kong. Prior to her lonely death in Hong Kong in 1942,she completed Tales ofHulan River and wrote her second and last novel.’37Mao Dun remarks in his 1946 preface to Tales ofHulan River that the work is “anarrative poem, a colourful genre painting, a haunting song.”38 Howard Goldblatt alsorefers to Tales ofHulan River as Xiao Hong’s “most representative work” and “her mostpersonal and artistic creation.”39 Less a novel than a series of highly evocative sketches,Tales ofHulan River stands in strong contrast to the wartime propaganda which was at thattime promoted as art in China.As an exemplary work of nativism, Tales ofHulan River is characterized by itselement of nostalgia which informs the description of the author’s native place in Hulan, itscustoms, its peasant population and their mentality. Tales ofHulan River details the livesof this population-- Widow Wang who is a seller of bean sprouts, the workers in thebeancurd shop and the paper mill, the vender of rice pudding, the noodle makers, beggars,dyers, sorceresses, and carters, etc, as well as all the “inconsequential and common137 This is Ma Bole (Ma Bole [name], 1940).138 Mao Dun, Preface to “The Hulan River,” Chinese Literature, 2 (February, 1963): 31.139 Goldblatt, Introduction The Field ofLfe and Death: xxv.Nativism Chap. Three152realities”140 of daily life in Hulan. Life passes according to the Buddhist dictum of birth,old age, sickness and death and the simple philosophy of the Hulan natives. If someoneasks a person of Hulan what he or she lives for, the answer is: “A person lives to eat foodand wear clothes.” JJ[1 141 If they are asked about death, they reply:“When a person dies that’s the end of it.” 3JC3’42 The concept of fate is oftenan intrinsic part of peasant philosophy, and in Tales ofHulan River this philosophycolours the narrative with irony.A second nativist feature of Tales ofHulan River is its documentation of the dialectand customs of the Northeastern region. Two examples of the former are the expression“fire clouds” (huoshao yun for sunset and the slang phrase “hairy one” (maozi ren€the local reference to Caucasian foreigner Both of these add to the strong localflavour of this work. The various customs and festivals detailed in Tales ofHulan Riverinclude the dance of the sorceress for the treatment of illness, the Festival of the HungryGhosts during which the inhabitants of the town release lanterns on Hulan River and theoutdoor opera performance which is staged to give thanks to the gods after a bountifulharvest. The narration of these customs provides a venue for the work’s feministdiscourse which, like that in Field ofLife and Death, focuses on women’s oppression.For example, during the outdoor performance, marriages are often arranged by familieswho attend this performance. The narrator comments caustically on the fate of womenwho are the victims of these arranged marriages, and a little further on, the narrator alsocomments on the double standards involved in wife-beating:The young women, bewildered, cannot understand why they must suffersuch a fate, and so tragedy is often the result; some jump down wells,others hang themselves.140 Xiao Hong, Tales of Hulan River, Tr. Howard Goldblatt (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co., Ltd., 1988): 41.141 Xiao Hong, Hulan he zhuan (Hong Kong: Xinyi chubanshe, 1958): 26.142 Ibid.Nativism Chap. Three153[W]hy is it that no words of praise for the courage of these women whojump down wells are included in the memorial arches for a chaste woman?That is because they have all been intentionally omitted by the compilers ofsuch memorials, nearly all of whom are men, each with a wife at home.They are afraid that if they write such things, then one day when they beattheir own wife, she too may jump down a well; if she did she would leavebehind a brood of children, and what would these men do then? So withunanimity they avoid writing such things, and concern themselves onlywith “the refined, the cultured, and the filial....”’43During the festival at the Temple of the Immortal Matron the narrative’s feministdiscourse is broadened to include an attack on sexual inequality and the socialization ofmen and women as this is mirrored in the female and male idols in the temple. However,the most scathing attack on the oppression of women appears in the the fifth chapter whichchronicles the Chinese custom of the purchase of young girl children as child-brides. Inthis case, the vulnerability and powerlessness of a young child-bride leads to her beating,torture and death. She is subjected to the dance of the sorceress, tortured three times byimmersion in boiling water and finally dies, killed off for no better reason than that she“didn’t look or act much like a chi1d-bride.” The real reason for her death, however, isher sexual difference which allowed for her victimization at the hands of the Chinesepatriarchal family system.Tales ofHulan River was criticized by Maoist critics in China for its lack of arevolutionary ideology. These critics maintain that the novel represents a step backward inits depiction of the Communist revolutionary “struggle.”45 As a consequence, both TalesofHulan River and Market Street were neglected by a generation of Chinese critics. In myopinion, however, the lack of conformity to the Maoist line in Tales ofHulan River has143 Xiao Hong, Tales ofHulan River 57-58.144 Ibid. 132.145 Quoted in Goldblatt, Xiao Hong 106.Nativism Chap. Three154allowed for the work’s high degree of realism, especially where its depiction of China’speasant is concerned. The work portrays the peasants as cruel, ignorant, abused andabusive, stubborn, conservative and cowardly. Mao Dun notes that Tales ofHulan Riveris full of “poor creatures” who choose to be “slaves to tradition.”146 The section dealingwith the dangerous mudhole which annually claims the lives of animals and children butwhich never becomes the object of organized effort exemplifies the peasants’ adherence totradition and, according to Mao Dun’s interpretation, can be read as an indictment of ruralChina. At the same time, this passage also symbolizes the cyclical non-development ofChinese peasant existence which remains the fate of the Chinese peasant even today. MaoDun found the author’s empathetic attitude toward the peasants perplexing; nonetheless,Xiao Hong’s attitude signifies that she refused to put politics before art and allowed hernatural sympathies to override revolutionary concerns. The latter she left for her moreradical counterparts to explore.ConclusionIn conclusion, there are many writers of different regions of China who can beconsidered to be authors of regional nativism. However, I have selected only a fewrepresentative authors of this type of xiangtu wenxue because I assume that the regionalimplications of their art are shared by other writers in various regions of China. Theseshared features confer a strong degree of universalism onto this type of fiction which, inbrief, makes regional xiangtu wenxue a type of national literature.The works of the four writers discussed in this chapter are all centred on the author’snative home. Some of these writers began writing in their native homes or provinces untilcircumstances forced them to leave. At this time, they travelled to China’s large urban146 Mao Dun, “Preface to The Hulan River,” Chinese Literature (Peking), 2 (1963): 31.Nativism Chap. Three155centres where they continued to write about their homes, guided by sentiments ofnostalgia. This is the narrative configuration of all the different types ofxiangtu wenxuediscussed in this dissertation so far. To briefly summarize, some writers were compelledto leave their homes for fmancial reasons; others, such as Shen Congwen left forprofessional reasons. Others still, such as the writers of the Northeast, left because theirhomeland was invaded by the Japanese. Nonetheless, they were all prompted byobsessive sentiments of nostalgia to write about what they had left behind: peasants,carters, boatmen and women, in other words, all the various types of marginalized or“colonized” subjects which constitute the population of their home regions and of all ofChina.Stylistically, the various types of regional xiangtu wenxue are quite different. ShenCongwen, for instance, is the author of a field and garden type of idyllic prose which isvery different from Xiao Jun and Duanmu Hongliang’s political novels and the latter’snaturalism. Shen’s subject matter, which ranges from his heroic romances about the Miaothbespeople to the boatmen and prostitutes of the Yuan River is also very different from thenovels about the homeland by Xiao Jun and Duanmu Hongliang which combine anti-Japanese resistance with anger at the abuses of the landlord class. The works of all thesemale writers are very different again from the feminist thought and configuration of XiaoHong whose works are filled with the images of the pain of down-trodden women andwomen suffering abuse at the hands of their spouses or the Chinese patriarchal family. Insum, these writers wrote about the same social class in China; however, their perspectiveand political or personal philosophy made their works quite different from each other andultimately created a varied and interesting tapestry of China’s regional life.Finally, all these writers discuss issues in their works which have implications formodernity. The issue of sectionalism in Shen Congwen’s works, the issues of imperialismand national liberation in the works of Xiao Jun and Duanmu Hongliang and the issues ofNativism Chap. Three156women’s liberation in Xiao Hong’s works are all “modern” issues. These are issueswhich came to the forefront during May Fourth and remain in various forms in present-dayChina. Unless they are resolved they will continue to defme modern Chinese literature.Nativism Chap. Four157Chapter FourChina’s Post-Yan’an Xiangtu WenxueThey say some worker or other came here this evening from thedistrict to drive us all into the collective farm. This is the end of ourkind of life. You work and save tili your hands are all corns andthere’s a hump on your back, and now they want you to throw allyour possessions into the common pot-- cattle, grain, poultry, evenyour house, I suppose? Looks as if it’s a case of give your wife tothe other man, and find yourelf a whore--Mikhail Sholokov, Virgin Soil UpturnedIn the decades of the 1940s and 1950s, two schools of fiction appeared in Chinawhose classification as xiangtu wenxue is also based on regional considerations. The firstis the Shanyaodan School (Shanyaodanpai-J) associated with the ShanxiShaanxi liberated area and, the second, the Hehuadian School (Hehuadian paiassociated with Henan. The writers in these schools share the same concern with thenational struggle against Japan as the Northeastern Group of Writers; however, anyresemblance which they bear to other forms of xiangtu wenxue, aside from the peasantcharacterization and the rural motif universally present in the xiangtu wenxue sub-genre,ends here. On the contrary, the fiction of the Shanyaodan and Hehuadian Schools isunique.The fiction of the Shanyaodan and Hehuadian schools, especially the first, ispredominately governed by socialist themes, and this is due to the development of thisliterature under Communist rule in the Chinese liberated areas. In 1942, Chinese literaturebecame the exclusive domain of the Chinese Communist Party with the publication of MaoZedong’s Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art. The Talks compelled writersto “transform and remould their thoughts and feelings” in order to comply with the variousformal and topical strictures outlined by Mao. As a result, much of the fiction whichNativism Chap. Four158emerged in the period since the Yanan Talks, including the two schools discussed in thischapter, can be characterized as “literature of workers, peasants and soldiers”(gongnongbing wenyi !), a genre which dominated the Chinese literaryworld during the first two decades of Communist rule. Mao’s theoretical foundationgoverning Chinese literature and art is summed up in the formula: “The unity of politicsand art, the unity of content and form, the unity of revolutionary political content and thehighest possible perfection of artistic form.”2 In short, this formula spawned a generationof proletarian literature which praised the revolution and the Party and imputed a“revolutionary consciousness” to the peasant. At the same time, the Shanyaodan writerswho in theory subscribed to this formula also found subtle ways to express theirunderstanding and visions of Chinese peasant life which dissented from Mao’s. Oneconcern of this chapter is to show how this dissent took place.As a type of socialist realism, much of the xiangtu wenxue of the 1940s and 1950scomprises a mirror of the Chinese Communist Party version of the major national eventswhich took place during these decades. This was a period of socialist construction whichbegan in the early 1930s with the establishment of mutual aid cooperatives,3which wasfollowed in 1942 by the movement for the transformation into agricultural cooperatives.These movements ultimately led to the land reform of the late 1940s and early 1950s andthe establishment of people’s communes beginning in 1958. The socialist construction ofthis period took place exclusively in the village which is also the fictional setting for thestories under discussion. The Chinese Communists initially turned to the rural countrysideas the site for their political base after their defeat in the early 1930s in the urban centre of1 This is the type of “mass” literature promoted by Mao Zedong in his Ya’nan Talks which aimed at theeducation of the workers, peasants, soldiers and revolutionary cadres who comprised the audiences in the baseareas.2 Mao Zedong, “Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art,” in Selected Works ofMao Tse-tung(Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1965), 3: 90.These were a new method of village administration.Nativism Chap. Four159Shanghai. However, they had begun to view the rural areas as the site for the forces ofrevolutionary transformation as early as 1927. At that time, Mao Zedong envisioned arevolutionary potential existing in the Chinese peasantry which he theorized could be usedto achieve the aims of the Party.4 On the basis of this theory, Mao set up peasant“soviets” in which he used latent class hatreds to carry out the first stages of land reform.Chinese history since that time comprises the various stages in the socialist transformationof the Chinese countryside, much of which was erroneous, egregious and highlydestructive to human life. The works of the Shanyaodan school reflect the village as thelocus of the early stages of revolutionary transformation and the peasants’ resistance to thistrend prior to its ultimate discontinuation. In sum, the village, the countryside and thepeasant in these schools of fiction perform a very different ideological function than theseelements in other works of xiangtu wenxue. This will become clear in the followingdiscussion.The Shanyaodan School and Zhao ShuliThe Shanyaodan School is associated with the northern provinces of Shanxi andShaanxi and the new farming villages of the newly liberated areas. Its founder, ZhaoShuli, exercized extensive artistic influence over a group of nine writers including Ma Feng(1922- ) and Xi Rong (1922- ). Together, they became known as theShanyaodan School.The writers of the Shanyaodan School share a unique stylistic feature, and this is theinclusion in their fiction of elements from traditional Chinese folk literature. During theYan’an period, the literary and arts circles in the base areas experienced an upsurge ofinterest in Chinese folk arts and popular literary forms such as storytelling and folk drama.Benjamin I. Schwartz, Chinese Communism and the Rise ofMao (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UniversityPress, 1961): 101.Nativism Chap. Four160This interest was engendered by Mao’s promotion of national forms (minzu xingshiJf. i1), which ultimately affected all areas of the Chinese arts in the liberated areas. Thesocialist realism of the Shanyaodan fiction was also affected.The primary types of national forms which the Shanyaodan writers were influencedby were the storytelling (jianghua ) and “listen and record” (ting ii ) forms fromChina’s oral tradition. As a youngster, Zhao Shuli grew up with the shuochang [1jmode of storytelling which was popular in his native village. After he became involved inrevolutionaiy activities, Zhao became adept at musical and artistic folk forms which heincorporated into the rhymed drama he wrote prior to the outbreak of the Sino-JapaneseWar.5 Zhao also wrote a number of clapper arts (kuaiban and after 1949 heparticipated in folk literary activities in Beijing, such as editing the journal Shuoshuochangchang.Zhao’s influences from folk literature can be seen, for example, in his short story“Blacky Gets Married” (Xiao Er Hei jiehun, 1JZ1 1943) and its examination ofthe question of free love. Two other short stories, “Record” (Dengji, 1950) and “ShiBulan Drives a Cart” (Shi Bulan gan che, 1959), which are written in the“commentary” (ping shu I) and shuochang wenxue styles, respectively, arealso examples of this influence.8 The traditional technique of making everything clear atthe very outset of the story, accompanied by the phrase “Let’s start from the beginning andfollow it from there” (Cong tou shuoqi, jieshangqu shuo,” ±-jis thetrademark of Zhao Shuli’s novel about collectivization, Three Mile Village (Sanliwan,Liu Jinsheng, “Shanyaodan’ pai zuojia he minjian wenxue, “ Shanxi daxue xuebao, 1 (1987): 21.6 Ibid.‘ Anthologized in Zhao Shuli wenji (Beijing: Gongwen chubanshe, 1980), 1: 1-16.8“Record” is anthologized in Zhao Shuli wenji, 1: 30 1-329; “Shi Bulan Drives a Cart” is anthologized in ZhaoShuli wenji, 3: 1261-1296.Ibid.Nativism Chap. Four161•1 1955). Finally, clapper arts and the folk lyric form (changci OJ) are majorstylistic features of Rhymes ofLi Youcai (Li Youcai banhua, 1943), 10Zhao’s famous novella about land reform and the contrasting styles of two politicalworkers. Zhao’s inclusion of these stylistic elements in his fiction make it lively andfolksy; they also augmented its entertainment value for the audiences in the base areas. Inshort, Zhao was not a mere imitator of tradition: he created a new and separate type ofpopular art form. Zhao’s artistic achievements attracted the attention of Zhou Yang, thespokesman of the Chinese Communist Party on literary matters who praised Zhao asfollows: “[Zhao Shuli’s] language is the living language of the masses. He is no sticklerfor tradition but an innovator, a truly creative writer.”11The popular nature of the Shanyaodan School is apparent in another area of thisfiction: the language of the Shanyaodan works which is markedly different from theEuropeanized language of May Fourth, that is, it is closer to the language of the masses.This school is also closer stylistically to the ideal of the popularization of literature and of“literature going down to the countryside” first advocated by Mao Dun, Lu Xun and LiDazhao in the 1930s. The figure of the peasant, who in this literature assumed a new andvital role, also augments the popular nature of this fiction. Cyril Birch describes the newrole of the peasant in terms of the peasant “moving from his place in the wings, where hewaited to perform briefly as buffoon or potential bandit, to the centre of the stage as adramatic figure in his own right.”2 These fictional developments can, in part, beattributed to the renewed usage of national forms and, in part, to the class background ofthe Shanyaodan writers which is of even more humble origin than the other writers ofAnthologized in Zhao shuli wenji, 2: 337-542.10 Anthologized in Zhao Shuli wenji, 1: 17-61.11 Zhou Yang, “Chao Shu-li and His Stories: an Appreciation,” in Rhymes ofLi Yu-tsai and Other Stories , tr.Sidney Shapiro (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1950): 149.12 Cyril Birch, “Fiction of the Yenan Period,” China Quarterly, 4 (October-December, 1960): 11.Nativism Chap. Four162xiangtu wenxue discussed so far. Zhao Shuli, for instance, was the son of impoverishedpeasants and was a factory worker during his life. This background made him privy to thelife and thought of the peasant which he transcribed into his fiction.Ma Feng, the second major member of the Shanyaodan School after Zhao Shuli, alsoincluded elements in his fiction from the Chinese folk literature tradition. Maacknowledged that as a young child he read the detective novels, Cases ofJudge Peng(Peng Gong an and Cases ofJudge Shi (Shi Gong an) , as well as Mingand Qing vernacular fiction such as Three Knights and Five Heroes (San xia wu yi EJ).13 Ma’s novel, Heroes ofLu and Liang (Lu-Liang yingxiong zhuan,1946), which he co-authored with Xi Rong, was modelled on the Water Margin. Thiswork comprises narratives about the heroic struggles of the Chinese against Japaneseaggression. Ma Feng, Zhao Shuli and other Shanyaodan writers also collected and editedlarge numbers of folk stories, folk songs and clapper arts in their original forms. Thecharacteristic quality of brevity of these popular forms and their inclusion of colloquialismand peasant dialect exerted a stylistic influence on the fiction of these writers.Both Zhao Shuli and Ma Feng spent time labouring in the countryside; both made useof this experience in certain aspects of their fiction. This Maoist principle of combiningtheory with practical work was the basis for further praise of Zhao on the part of ZhouYang who commented that Zhao Shuli’s stories marked the “successful realization of MaoZedong’s principles on literature and art.”14 Zhao’s experience in the countryside, termed“reeducation” by the Chinese Communists, took place as a rural Party worker when hewent down to the countryside in China’s impoverished hinterlands. During the war withJapan, Zhao Shuli and Ma Feng supervised village struggles against the landlords for rent13 Liu Jinsheng 22.14 Zhou Yang, “Chao Shu-li and his Stories” 155.Nativism Chap. Four163reduction and land reform.15 Zhao also spent many years in the base areas involved inproduction, the building of cooperatives, propaganda and mobilization work. He not onlyparlayed this experience into material for his writing but he also wrote numerous theoreticalarticles discussing village work. Zhao acknowledged that this practical work was of equalif not greater value than his career as a writer.16 Thao’s Rhymes ofLi Youcai was theproduct of research undertaken while he was in the countryside. Ma Feng’s Heroes ofLuLiang similarly resulted from that author’s more than ten years’ experience in China’s ruralareas.Finally, the fusion of work and fiction was the source for the Shanyaodan’s so-called“problem stories” (wentixiaoshuo )J). Zhao Shuli explained that certain“problems” (“contradictions” in Maoist terms) arose during the process of village workwhich were not easily solved. Zhao made these problems into the subjects of his works;accordingly, he referred to many of his works as “problem stories.”17 “Problem stories”have existed since May Fourth-- one example is the fiction of Bing Xin. More recently,they can be found in the Scar Literature (shanghen wenxue of the post-CulturalRevolution era. The “problem story” of the Shanyaodan school is different, however.These stories are based on real-life problems, the solutions to which pivot around whichtheoretical line to be adopted in order to arrive at a solution. The responsibility forassessing the correct theoretical line and for selecting the correct methodology to solve theproblem lies, in Maoist theory, with the Party’s rural workers.’8 Other problems arise15 Zhang Zhizhong, Sun Gengheng, “Nongcun gongzuozhe de guancha he sikao: ‘Shanyaodan pa? xin lun”Shanxi daxue xuebao, 3 (1985): 44.16 Kang Zhuo, “Ba” (Postscript), Zhao shuli wenji , 4: 1964.17 Zhao Shuli, “Dangqian chuangzuo zhong jige wenti,” Zhao shuli wenji, 4: 1651.18 The “contradiction” arising from the different working styles of Party cadres was a focal point of MaoZedong’s February 1957 speech “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People” delivered tothe Eleventh Session of the Supreme State Conference. This speech dealt with “rectifying the working style”of the Chinese Communist Party and led to the Rectification Campaign of April 1957. This is an exampleof how closely writers such as Zhao Shuli followed each particular Maoist party line as it was formulated andused it as a basis of their fiction.Nativism Chap. Four164from the methodology and working style of the cadres and the intransigence of the peasantswhich are motifs in most of these stories. A typical example of a “problem story” is ZhaoShuli’s “Training, Training” (Duanlian duanlian, 1958),’9 a story about peasantintransigence and the problems which arose from the dictum of “to each according to hislabour” which involved the uncertain rewards for labour. In this story, the communemember Xiao Tui Teng (Aching Calf) takes advantage of the situation engendered by thisdictum to work only when it is profitable. Ultimately, she is criticized during theRectification Campaign which brings the story to a close. Another type of “problem story”is Xi Rong’s “Sister-in-Law Lai” (Lai Dasao, jJç jJj 1962).20 This story focuses on theproblem of raising pigs in the commune with is both economically precarious andpolitically uncertain due to the constantly shifting policies of the Chinese Communist Party.Ultimately, Li Zhu Ma sells a pig and keeps the profits, and this prompts the othercommune members to start raising pigs. Other “problems” reflected in Shanyaodan fictionwere engendered by the remnants of “feudalistic” (in the Maoist usage of the term) rule inthose villages which have been liberated, “boasting” (foukuafeng among partymembers and cadres, “leftist adventeurism” (zuoqing maoxianzhuyi 1j and“bureaucratism” (guanliaozhuyi among the revolutionary army ranks. Thelatter is a motif in Zhao Shuli’s Rhymes ofLi Youcai.In conclusion, the xiangtu wenxue of the Shanyaodan School is very different, bothstylistically and thematically, from the various other examples of the xiangtu wenxue subgenre. In general, all the different types of xiangtu wenxue are concerned with the life andhardships of the peasant; however, none besides the Shanyaodan fiction and works of the1930s21 consciously aim at validating the peasants as the future masters of society.19 Anthologized in Zhao Shuli wenji, 2: 763-785.20 Anthologized in Xi Rong, Song Lao Dajin cheng (Beijing: Renmm wenxue chubanshe, 1980): 65-80.21 I am referring here to the writers such as Mao Dun, Sha Ding, Ai Wu, etc. whose works are notdiscussed in this dissertation.Nativism Chap. Four165Examples ofxiangtu wenxue from other periods similarly focus on political issues, suchas the class conflicts between the landlords and peasants; however, none of these arecompelled to manipulate their form and content in order to comply with Party dictatesregarding the representation of these conflicts in literature. Furthennore, the writers ofthese works were also not compelled to deal with the representation under Communistliterary controls of the real-life problems that arose during the implementation of erroneousParty policies regarding the peasant. The works of the Shanyaodan writer Zhao Shuli, onthe other hand, is concerned with these issues.Thao ShuliZhao Shuli’s writing career began in the 1930s while the warlords were stillstruggling for national power and spanned a thirty-year period to the early 1960s. Hisgreatest literary achievements, which include the short story “Blacky Gets Married,” thenovella Rhymes ofLi Youcai and his two novels Changes in Li Village (Lijiazhuang dek ‘‘ 22 .bianqian, tij 1946) and Three Mile Village, were written from the time ofthe Yan’an Talks in 1942 to the year 1958P Prior to 1949, Zhao was active in theTaihang Mountain revolutionary base area of Shanxi province where he participated invarious revolutionary activities. After 1951, he migrated to the urban centre to work butreturned often to the base and to his home village near Jincheng in the heart of the base areato live and work. The close relationship that Zhao Shuli fostered with his village and withthe peasants was maintained throughout much of his life. Zhao’s depth of understanding22 Anthologized in Zhao Shuli wenji, 1: 71-194.23 Sun Mingyou, “Shi inn Zhao Shuli xiaoshuo de chuangzuo fangfa,” Shanxi shida xuebao, 3 (1986): 56.24Taihang was an anti-Japanese war base created by the Eighth Route Army in 1937 in the Taihang mountainrange separating Hebei from Shanxi.Nativism Chap. Four166of the vifiage compelled Thou Yang to state that no other Chinese writer matched ZhaoShuli in his understanding of the peasant and the Chinese village.25Upon the publication of Zhao Shuli’s famous work “Blacky Gets Married,” this storywas hailed as a great success in the Chinese liberated areas. Unlike the current anti-Japanese propaganda literature, it held great appeal for the audiences in the base areas. In1943, the same years of its publication, “Blacky Gets Married” was made into a folk opera,and it toured China, including the Guomindang and occupied areas.26 The theme of thisstory-- the struggle for free choice in marriage-- and the typicality of its characters weremore universal than that found in the propaganda literature. “Blacky” thus enjoyed widepopular appeal.There are a number of contrasting elements in “Blacky Gets Married” of a good-versus-evil, new-versus-old nature which are responsible for this story’s dramatic quality.These elements lent themselves easily to dramatization. The first category comprises thetwo types of villains,27 the first of which are epitomized by the Jinwang brothers-- thevillage landlords in the story. These brothers struggle against the new “progressive”elements to gain advantage in the village. They avail themselves of the chaos broughtabout by village collectivization to set themselves up as cadres and thereby win power. Onthe the basis of this, they also hope to win Xiao Qin who is the story’s heroine. Thesebrothers represent the excesses of the old regime and are the new “class enemies” whostrive to undermine the advances of the revolution. In the end, the machinations of thesebrothers are exposed when the Chinese Communist Party steps in in the guise of thedistrict government and engineers their demise.25 Zhou Yang, “Zhao Shuli wenji xu,” Zhao Shuli wenji, 1:1.26 Huang Huilin, “Shanhua nongyu yong bu diao: lun ‘Xiao Er Hei jiehun,” Mingzuo xinshang, 6 (1982): 15.27 Cyril Birch, “Chao Shu-li: Creative Writing in a Communist State,” New Mexico Quarterly, 25: 2 & 3(1955): 188.Nativism Chap. Four167In the second category of contrasting elements, the “new” elements are representedby Xiao Er Hei and Xiao Qin, the young couple who seek the freedom to marry. Theirstruggle against the “feudal” custom of arranged marriages is opposed by the two “old”elements, or the second type of villain, in the story. These are Er Zhuge (Thuge theSecond), the father of Xiao Er Hei, and San Xian Gu (Auntie Three the Witch), themother of Xiao Qin. These two figures represent the backward, superstitious and self-seeking elements of China’s old society which persist into the new. Er Zhuge is namedafter Zhuge Liang, the supreme strategist of the Three Kingdoms period. Like ZhugeLiang, he is also disposed to superstitious belief in divination and the Chinese zodiacwhich he uses to arrange others’ fate, as it were. According to his calculations, thehoroscopes of Xiao Er Hei and Xiao Qin “don’t agree”; thus he opposes their marriage.He subsequently makes arrangements for the daughter of a refugee to be Xiao Hei’s wife--a proposition which is fiercely rejected by his son. At the conclusion of “Blacky GetsMarried,” Er Zhuge is publically shamed by his continuous wrong predictions and iscompelled to agree to his son’s marriage with Xiao Qin.Sanxian Gu, on the other hand, opposes her daughter’s love relationship for adifferent reason-- she herself secretly lusts after Xiao Er Hei. For thirty years, San XianGu has acted as the village shamaness and is wont to dress and make herself up as a youngwoman. Eventually, she, too, is shamed by the district authorities and in the end calls offher daughter’s arranged marriage to Brigadier Wu. The young couple triumph and theirmarriage is duly celebrated.29 One by one, the villains in this story meet their just desertsand descend from the stage-- the Jinwang brothers, Er Zhuge and, finally, San Xian On.28 Zhao Shuli, “Hsiao Er-hei’s Marriage,” in Rhymes ofLi Yu-tsai and Other Stories, tr. Hsiung Teh-wei(Peking: Foreign Languages, Press, 1955): 116.29 Cyril Birch has perceptively observed that the Chinese Communist Party acts in loco parentis in arrangingthe young couple’s marriage in this story. I am indebted to Professor Michael S. Duke for pointing this outto me.Nativism Chap. Four168This progression prompted Cyril Birch to state of “Blacky Gets Married” that “themetaphor from the theatre is inescapable.”30Six months after the publication of “Blacky Gets Married,” Zhao Shuli published theRhymes ofLi Youcai, the work for which the author is best known. In the preface to thiswork, Zhao stated a propos the genre of “problem stories” that during the process ofvillage work he encountered problems that were difficult to solve and made them thesubject of his stories.31 He states further that he wrote Rhymes ofLi Youcai to put rightthose enthusiastic young colleagues or village cadres who did not understand the realsituation in the rural villages and who were misled by superficial achievements.32 The“problems” Zhao mentions refer to the working style of the political or “mass worker”(qunzhong gongzuoyuan or gongzuoyuan. If ), usually referred to ascadre (ganbu.f), and their interpretation of government policy. The “achievements,”on the other hand, comprised the small gains acquired in carrying out this policy.The storyline in Rhymes ofLi Youcai takes place in the year 1937. Tn this year theland reforni policy implemented by the Chinese Communist Party has been scaled downbecause of the more pressing concern of the war with Japan. What has taken the place ofthis policy is the movement in the villages for the reduction of rent and interest. In thewords of one critic, this is the result of “national contradictions” JtaIdngprecedence over “class contradictions.”J33 In order to meet the goals of the wareffort, the economy of the country must produce a surplus, and this can be achieved onlythrough efficient taxation, cooperation and mobilization of the various sectors of thepeople. In Rhymes, the people in the “model village” of Yanjiashan are mobilized into30 Birch, “Chao Shu-li: Creative Writing in a Communist State” 189.31 Zhao Shuli, “Dangqian chuangzuo zhong jige wenti” 1651.32 Ibid. 1950-5 1.Chen Juan, “Zhao Shuli yu shanyaodan pai,” Yuwen xuexi, 4 (1987): 41.Nativism Chap. Four169peasant and anti-Japanese associations which play vital roles in the lowering of rents.Ultimately, these associations also succeed in the overthrow of the village landlord, YanXifu.There are two rural political workers who play important roles in the story. The firstis Comrade Zhang whose inexperience leads to his inadvertent collusion with the wily Yan.This results in a false measurement of land. These and other problems are rectified whenthe second worker, Comrade Yang, who is also the chairman of the county peasantassociation, is sent down to inspect the village and to assist with the harvest in the sixthdistrict. After his brief inspection, Yang gives a correct assessment of the village, and,under his guidance, more support is won over for the peasant association; the land andcash that Yan had confiscated is redisthbuted and even Li Youcai, the itinerant villageballadeer, is given a proper job. What began as a bungled job by an inexperienced cadreended with the achievement of the goals of “mass work.”Like “Blacky Gets Married,” Rhymes ofLi Youcai is lively, fast-paced and was aliterary success at the time of its publication. This success was due not so much to thestoryline as to the inclusion of clapper arts which reinforce the storyline and add comic-relief. The clapper arts in Rhymes are “witty and successful exercises in folk form,” andthey are credited with Zhao’s success as a traditional kind of storyteller.34 The source forthe clapper arts in the story is Li Youcai, the landless peasant whose gift of composingrhymes not only provides the illiterate cave-dwellers at the east end of the village with theirmain source of entertainment but also with their main source of information. In the mouthof Li Youcai, the clapper arts are also an effective editorial on the happenings in the village.The first introduction of this folk form comprises a comment on the annual mayoralelections, which, as was anticipated, results in the reelection of Yan Hengyuan:34 Cyril Birch, “Chinese Communist Literature: The Persistence of Traditional Forms,” in Chinese CommunistLiterature, ed. Cyril Birch (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1963): 77.Nativism Chap. Four170Oh, Yen Heng-yuan’s our mayor, worse luck!Our mayor is always Yen!Ten years we’ve fallen in his snare...Are we going to, again?Each year we’ve voted, ten years nowWith so much blah and fuss.A new broom, so they say, sweeps clean,But Yen sweeps the floor with us!Then why not make a rubber stampWith his name on for mayor?‘Twould surely serve us just as well,And treat us just as fair!Just stamp--no need to write a word--As time for voting nears,And it’d last, as good as new,For years and years and years!35Other clapper arts consist of sardonic comments on village personalities such as Yan Xifu,the “tiger on the prowl,” and Zhang Degui, the “nasty little flatterer,” and they are also putto good use to recruit people into the peasant association.Zhao Shuli’s Rhymes ofLi Youcai represents the first work in the base areas to dealwith the theme of the early stages of land reform and the “turning over” (fanshen ‘ofthe peasants. Zhao’s longer novels, such as Changes in Li Village and Three Mile Village,lack the lively, spirited style of Rhymes ofLi Youcai.. The former has been described as a“run-of-the-mill indignant denunciation of landlord villainy.”36 Changes in Li Village isan important work in terms of subject matter; however, the lack of unity and manifoldsubplots of this novel make it more ponderous and less readable than Zhao’s shorter-lengthfiction.Thao wrote Changes in Li Village upon his return to his village at the end of the warwith Japan, and the homecoming of Zhang Tiesuo in the book is also based on thisevent.37 Zhao’s own village near Jincheng had suffered much during the previous severalZhao Shuli, Rhymes of Li Yu-tsai, tr. Sidney Shapiro, in Rhymes of Li Yu-tsai and Other Stories 3-4.36 Birch, “Chinese Communist Literature” 78.Birch, “Chao Shu-li: Creative Writing in a Communist State” 193.Nativism Chap. Four171decades, first from its repeated domination by the Japanese, then by the Guomindangtroops, the Communists and the warlord Yan Xishan, and Zhao was motivated by what hesaw and heard to write a village history.38 The novel covers the years from 1928 to 1946;however, in the attempt to cover this vast sweep of political history and all the conflictswhich took place between the various forces contending for power, the plot is somewhatdisunified. Zhang Tiesuo-- a figure who dominates the first part and promises to be thecentral protagonist for the novel-- disappears halfway, only to reappear at the end as azealous cadre, though his reeducation has been left unexplained. The novel furnishesgrisly descriptions of wartime bloodshed and ends with the murder of Landlord Li who istorn limb from limb when liberation brings opportunities for revenge. Changes in LiVillage was cited as “ideologically correct” by both Mao Dun and Zhou Yang; however,even they failed to see any serious literary merit in it.39Three Mile Village, on the other hand, is a more interesting and engrossing novelthan Changes in Li Village. It was also the most popular among the novels responding toMao Zedong’s call for the acceleration of the transformation into agricultural cooperatives.On July 31, 1955, Mao, who at that time held dual posts of Chairman of the ChinesePeople’s Republic and of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party,delivered a speech, “The Question of Agricultural Cooperation,” to a meeting of provincial,municipal and autonomous regional committees of the Party in which he castigated theleadership for failing to keep pace with the movement.4038 Ibid.Ibid.40 Mao’s speech begins with the words: “Throughout the Chinese countryside a new upsurge in the socialistmass movement is in sight. But some of our comrades are tottering along like a woman with bound feet,always complaining that others are going too fast. (Mao Zedong, “The Question of AgriculturalCooperation,” in Communist China, 1955-1959: Policy Documents with Analysis (Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press, 1965): 94.)Nativism Chap. Four172Initially, during the first phases of the transfonnation into agricultural cooperatives,Zhao Shuli echoed Mao’s concern that cooperativization was not taking place fast enough,that is, he was in active agreement with the Party’s policy regarding collectivization.41However, after 1956 when the movement peaked, he perceived the imminent danger ofcollectivization to village life and economy. In 1956 and 1959, respectively, Zhao wrotetwo letters to Party authorities in which he articulated the contradiction as he perceived itbetween the fundamental policy of the central committee and the wishes of the peasants.42According to Zhao, the Party’s understanding of the peasants on this point was farremoved from reality. Other problems Zhao articulated were the same as those which hehad raised earlier, for example, the attitude of the lower level cadres who were concernedonly with transmitting orders from above. For these and other reasons, Zhao Shuli washeavily criticized and eventually killed during the Cultural Revolution.43 After Three MileVillage, Zhao’s voice differed radically from that of the Party.Three Mile Village is a novel about the transitional phase from mutual aid teams toagricultural cooperatives and foreshadows Zhao Shuli’s public concerns aboutcollectivization. The coverjacket of the 1955 Peking edition of Three Mile Village outlinesthe plotline of this novel though it fails to mention the resistance on the part of the peasantsto this program and the coercive role played by the Party in achieving its aims. Theglorification of the socialist ideal is also absent from the original text. This summary is asfollows:Three Mile Bend is a relatively remote village which is also shortof water. To improve the productive environment of the area, the41 Katô Miyuki, “Guanyu Sanliwan de pingjia,” Ir. Gao Jie, Shanxi daxue xuebao, 2 (1987): 93.42 These two letters, “Gei Chang Zhi diwei x x de xin” (1956) and “Gei Shao Quanlin de xin” (1959) areincluded in Zhao’s collected works, Zhao Shuli wenji.Zhao’s letters and other material which had originally been suppressed emerged only after Zhao wasposthumously rehabilitated in 1978.Nativism Chap. Four173village Agricultural Production Cooperative makes plans to activatethe entire village for the opening up of an irrigation channel.Problems connected with the acquisition of land rights for thechannel stir up an ideological struggle; and sandwiched into theaction are the love and marriage relationships of three youngcouples. Contradictions and difficulties are extremely complicatedand confused, but under the correct leadership of the Party thevillagers succeed in overcoming their difficulties, complete thepreparatory work on the channel, and by means of this workactively carry out forward-looking education in socialism among themasses.In real life, Sanliwan is a mountain village in the early liberated area of northernChina. It was chosen as a model village during the land reform and mutual aid period, andin 1951 it organized one of the first agricultural producers’ cooperatives.45 Like ZhaoShuli’s other works, Three Mile Village was also based on the author’s actual experiencesworking in the countryside, in this case, engaged in collective farming.46The period of time covered in Three Mile Village is from September 1 to October 1,1951. Three Mile Village is experiencing material and ideological problems obstructing theroad to collectivization. The first set of problems are articulated as four words by WangJinsheng, the branch secretary and vice-chairman of the cooperative in the story. Theseare: “more,” “big,” “good” and “exploitation” (gao da hao bo ±jIJ) and stem fromthe early days of land reform. The narrator explains, “More’ meant those who had gotrather more than they deserved during land reform. ‘Big’ meant the big families, ‘good’those with good land. ‘Exploit’ meant those who still hired some labour.”47 In otherwords, there are too many people to contend with, too little land, especially good land, andQuoted in Birch, “Chinese Communist Literature” 78.‘ C.W. Shih, “Co-operatives and Communes in Chinese Communist Fiction,” in Chinese CommunistLiterature 197.46 Zhao Shuli, “Sanliwan xiezuo qianhou,” in Zhao shuli wenji , 4:1481-1492.47 Zhao Shuli, Sanliwan Village, tr. Gladys Yang (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1957): 19.Nativism Chap. Four174the soil is of poor quality. These are the basic material factors underlying the larger,ideological problems of the village.As always, the cadres are split into two opposing points-of-view over the means topersuade the four different households to enter the cooperative, and this constitutes thesecond set of problems outhned in the novel. One side maintains that the households in themutual aid teams should be drawn into the cooperative, at which point the mutual aid teamswould be slowly disbanded and the four different kinds of households would be isolated.They could then be guided into the cooperative. The opposing side contends that theleadership and education of the mutual aid teams should be increased, and at a certain pointthe whole team could then be mobilized into the cooperative.48 Whichever method thecadres decide to use, the problem of village irrigation has to be solved before thecooperative can be expanded. Ma Duoshou, a middle rich peasant in the story who is alsoknown as Ma Hu Tutu (Muddlehead), was in possession of a vital piece of land called the“handle-land” because of its peculiar shape. Whether or not he gives this land over to thecooperative is a crucial factor in determining the digging of the irrigation ditches. Losinghis handle-land would mean less power for his water wheel and less water for his land.Accordingly, he refuses to hand it over. Ma had joined the mutual aid team solely for thepurpose of making use of the team’s labour force on his land, and he is supported in hisbackward methods by another peasant who also did well during the land reform-- FanDenggao, the village head and a backsliding party member. Fan Denggao, who engages intrading as a sideline activity, is strongly criticized at party branch meetings and is urged togive up his “capitalist tendencies” and “bourgeois ideas.” At Ma Duoshou’s criticismsessions, on the other hand, Ma argues that private ownership is still legal, and he will giveup his land once socialism comes into existence. C.W.Shih sums up the characters in thenovel as follows:48 Katô Miyuki 93-4.Nativism Chap. Four175Here we see a group of people opposed to collectivefarming: middle peasants and peasants who have “turnedover” (fan-shen) since land reform and who are unwilling togive up their private possessions; peasants who believe inindividual fanning; and a backsliding Party member whoengages in private trading.49In the end, Ma and Fan finally enter the cooperative. In Shih’s words, these “recalcitrantfarmers are all finally persuaded by words, examples, and action to join the marchtowards Socialism.”50Meanwhile, Ma’s progressive third daughter-in-law wishes to break away from herdomination by this “feudal” household, headed by “Muddlehead” Ma and his “AlwaysRight” wife (Chang You Li), and insists on a family division. In the process, the “handle-land” is given to the cooperative by the second son of the Ma household for the benefit ofthe irrigation project, and this part of the problem is resolved.With the reformation of the backward peasants and the resolution of the irrigationproject, Three Mile Village draws to a hasty conclusion. This conclusion has beencriticized by both Chinese and Japanese critics on two points. The first point is stylistic:the themes of establishing the cooperative, constructing the irrigation ditches and reformingMa and Fan are interwoven with a subplot-- the three love relationships between a numberof young people in the village-- which is not fully developed. The marriages of the threecouples, which were dealt with only in the last few chapters, are sketchily drawn and serveonly as a backdrop for the rest of the story. The second, and more important point, isideological: Ma Duoshou and Fan Denggao’s joining of the cooperative is notaccompanied by a convincing change in their thought.5’ The elimination of the richpeasant and “capitalist” tendencies were sore points in the building of socialism as Maoc.w. Shih 198.50 Thid.51 Kató Miyuki 94.Nativism Chap. Four176emphasized in a speech on contradictions given in 1957.52 In short, as a socialist realistnovel, Three Mile Village did not set a good example in the treatment of these problems.Soon after the publication of Three Mile Village, collectivization peaked in China, andthe countryside was organized into peoples’ communes. This, in turn, influenced theevolution of Thao Shuli’s criticism, which focused primarily on his handling of the figureof the rich peasant.53 One critic stated that “Although [Zhao Shuli] has always embracedearnest hopes for the progress of the peasants, he does not purposefully etch an image ofthe peasants as being easily persuaded or being able to correctly understand anything.”—tjjia At first, Zhao agreed that Fan Denggao’s conversion wasnot explained in the novel. Thao enumerated three defects in the novel, the third of whichconcerned his feeling that he had not sufficiently dealt with the “bad function of the richpeasant in the village” (funong zai nongcun zhong de huai zuoyong).55 At the same time, he wondered if it was necessary to deal with this issue and laterdenied that this constituted a problem in the novel. Zhao also complained that he wasexpected to write about the mischief-making of the landlord, and that this constituted arestriction for writers attempting to write realistically about the village.56 In short, the52 The contradiction between the working class and the “national bourgeoisis” constituted the second point inMao Zedong’s speech, “On the Coffect Handling of Contradictions among the People.”Katô. 96.54 Jin Wuxiu, “Zhongguo de guangrong yu beican: Zhao shuli pingzhuan,” quoted in Katô Miyuki 94.Zhao Shuli, “Sanliwan xiezuo qianhou” 1491-92.The first two of these defects were: zhongshi qingren (stressing affairs over people) and jiude duo xinde shao(much of the old, a little of the new).56 The full text of this quotation is as follows:I feel that there are always bonds restricting the writer,.., and there are others whocriticized me for not writing about the mischief-making of the landlords in Three MileVillage. It seems that whoever writes about the village must write about the mischief-making of the landlord.(Quoted in Katô Miyuki 96.)Nativism Chap. Four177absence of a change of thought on the part of Ma Duoshou and Fan Denggao implies thatthese peasants were coerced into the cooperative, and, with hindsight, this may be the mostrealistic part of Three Mile Village. Collectivization was fully implemented in China, andChina’s peasants went along with it without necessarily believing in it. Later, theegregious nature of the Party’s agricultural policies proved these peasants right.In 1959, the same year that “Training, Training” was published, Zhao retracted hisprevious statement concerning Three Mile Village and reaffinned what he considered wasthe correct position of this novel. In that year, there was a furious debate surrounding thedepiction of the people’s internal contradictions in art. Zhao issued this statementregarding Three Mile Village: “This novel criticizes capitalist thinking and rightistconservative thinking and was written for the sake of the people’s internal contradictions.It is wrong when some people say that there are no contradictions in it between ourselvesand the enemy. I don’t agree with that.” 14’JLj57“Training, Training” spurred on other arguments surrounding Zhao Shuli’s fiction.This time, Zhao was accused of over-emphasizing backward peasants in his fiction and“uglifying” the image of the class that was supposed to be the force behind the revolution.Zhao strove for typicality in his representation of the peasant, and this involved hisdepiction of their “selfish” nature, or, in Engels’ words, their “self-sufficient economicideology.” Unfortunately, this type of representation called down upon Zhao the chargethat he was distorting the face of the peasant. Finally, in the wake of the Anti-Rightistcampaign of 1957-58, Zhao was accused of betraying the goals of the revolution. In short,Zhao became known as a writer of “middle characters” (zhongjian renwu EI]J\), acharge which was dropped only in 1978 with Zhao Shuli’s posthumous rehabilitation.Ibid.Nativism Chap. Four178“Middle Characters” and “Training. Training”In September 1959, an article appeared in Wenyi bao entitled “How Literary WorksReflect the Internal Contradictions of the People”58 which cited Zhao Shuli’s “Training,Training” as a model work. Shortly thereafter, however, in the wake of the DalianConference on Short Stories with Village Themes, “Training, Training” became a whip forthe extreme leftist tide of thought which had assumed control over the arts.59 The conflictcentred around the depiction of the so-called “middle characters.”The question of “middle characters” was originally affirmed by the critic ShaoQuanhin who stated that there should be more stories about “middle characters” whichwould make Chinese fiction more pluralistic. He cited “Training, Training” as a positiveexample.6° This viewpoint, however, soon became labelled as a “capitalist literary view”(zichanjieji de wenyi zhuzhang and “Training, Training” becamedisparaged as a specimen of work in which “middle characters” were wrongly extolled.When this brand of criticism peaked during the Cultural Revolution, “Training, Training”became labelled as a “poisonous weed,” and Zhao Shuli himself was criticized as the“grand old master of middle characters” (zhongjian renwu de zushiye flflI).61 In the final analysis, however, the “middle character” figure is one of the moreinteresting and realistic aspects of Zhao’s fiction.58“Wenyi zuopin ru he fanying renmin neibu maodun”Dalian nongcun ticai duanpian xiaoshuo chuangzuo zuotanhuiDong Dazhong, Zhao Shuli he Lade “Duanhian duanlian,” Dangdai wenxue, 1 (1981): 88.60 Ibid.61 Ibid.Nativism Chap. Four179“Training, Training” revolves around the exploits of two female characters: Xiao TmTeng and Chibubao (Can’t Get Enough to Eat). Xiaotui Teng is a woman whosehousehold consists of a son, daughter-in-law and a young grandchild. At first, Xiao TuiTeng cooked the meals and babysat her grandchild so that the daughter-in-law could gointo the fields to labour. Later, she refused to work and insisted on the daughter-in-lawdoing domestic chores, such as fetching water, fetching the chamberpot, sweeping,dusting, cooking, serving, etc., besides waiting on her. In the meantime, before theharvesting was complete, Xiao Tui Teng would avail herself of the opportunity to go intothe fields to do “initiative labour” (pianyi huo in other words, to steal. Whenthere was real work to be done, however, her “aching calf” would conveniently flare up.This was also the case when the family entered the commune: Xiao Tui Teng’s aching calfwould conveniently assert itself when the family had not fulfilled its work quota.The second character, Chibubao, on the other hand, was a woman in her thirties.The trademark of Chibubao was her concern over food. Originally, she was one of thebest in the “vying for achievement” (zhengxian she jE1) of her commune; however,her achievements soon became her personal burden. When Chibubao married, one of theconditions she raised was that she would not go into the fields to work, and when thesystem of state purchase of rice was implemented, she started complaining that she was notgetting enough to eat. To avoid collective labour, she would say: “There is not enoughrice. At every meal I must wait for Zhang Xin to finish eating before I can scrape thebottom of the pan. I really cannot work.” UII,!j3’762 Ultimately, Chibubao and Xiaotui Teng are struggled against andtargeted for criticism during the story’s Rectification Campaign.The furious debate concerning the story “Training, Training” centred on its image ofthese two peasant women. While some critics praised the work for presenting the62 Zhao Shuli, “Duanlian duanlian” 766.Nativism Chap. Four180unvarnished truth about peasant life, others condemned it for a number of reasons,including the charge that Zhao Shuli was “slandering rural women.” The latter critics wereoffended primarily because Zhao Shuli had surreptitiously engineered the story by shiftingit out of the comic mode and into the ironic mode.63 None of these critics, however,realized Zhao’s main point, which was that China’s rural women were being mistreated.This realization on the part of the critics was precluded by the conceptual limitation of theMarxist tools of literary criticism, the political rhetoric of the day and the public image ofZhao as a loyal socialist.The criticism of Xiao Tui Teng and Chibubao during “Training, Training”sRectification Campaign is not the only theme in this story. A second theme is the conflictin working methods between the cadres of the agricultural cooperative. The coop leader,Wang Juhai, who is also a middle peasant, has the unfortunate tendency of “employingpeople according to their character (zhuzhang an xingge yong ren He is alsothe arbiter of disputes and is given to “not showing (good) reasons when arbitrating”(heshi bu biaoli 1$’I). The question of internal contradictions found its way intothe storyline of “Training, Training,” and Wang Juhai was once again called upon to settledisputes on behalf of the villagers, which he did so again in his usual style of minimizingconfrontations. This earned him the nickname of “heshi lao”JULi -- the “peacemaker”who is more concerned with putting an end to the bickering than with settling the issue. Inthe changing times, Wang Juhai’s traditional methods of arbitrating are no longer needed,and furthermore, his methods inadvertently reinforce the behaviour of Xiao Tui Teng andChibubao. Wang is criticized by the branch secretary, Wang Zhenhai, who comments thatWang’s protection of these two characters has made them “ungovernable,” and that hemust “train, train” himself (duanlian duanlian), that is, struggle to overcome his backwardworking methods.63 i am indebted to Dr. Josephine Matthews, the Zhao Shuli scholar, for these points about “Training,Training.” They were conveyed to me through personal correspondence.Nativism Chap. Four181Zhao Shuli stated that one reason he wrote “Training, Training” was his wish tocriticize the peacemaking thought problems of the middle peasant cadres.M At the sametime, it is clear that he positively affirmed certain cadres, such as Wang Zhenhai, and theworking methods of Yang Xiao Si (Yang Number Four)-- the cadre who led the attackagainst Xiao Tm Teng and Chibubao. In essence, Zhao’s treatment of the differentworking methods of party cadres was based on his experience working in the countryside.One critic claims that, on the basis of this experience, Zhao Shuli was “seeking truth fromfacts” (shishi qui shi thus it is ridiculous to conclude that “Training, Training”constitutes “an insult to socialism.”65Zhao Shuli’s second reason for writing “Training, Training” concerned the questionof “middle characters.” Thao stated that by writing about characters such as Xiao Tui Tengand Chibubao in “Training, Training” he hoped to raise the consciousness of this type ofperson in real life and thus reform him or her.66 Besides these two, other “middlecharacters” include Ma Duoshou and his wife, Chang You Li, in Three Mile Village and ErZhuge and San Xian Gu in the story “Blacky Gets Married.” These characters can beconsidered backward, stubborn or “feudal” in the Maoist sense of the term; nonetheless,they are also lively and entertaining and, as fictional characters, leave the reader with astrong impression. They are also typical, that is, they successfully reflect true personalitytypes-- the xiaozibei 1J --in the same way that Lu Xun’s Ah Q is a typical ChineseEveryman. In Lu Xun’s case, however, that author was never charged with uglifying theface of the peasant or with betraying the goals of the revolution. Lu Xun wrote about thedark side of society, pointing Out social problems and thereby bringing them to generalattention-- a perspective which was in line with the historic role of the writer in China. For64 Zhao Shuli, “Dangqian chuangzuo zhong jige wenti 1651.65 Dong Dazhong 89, 90.66 Zhao stated: “I felt that the best way was to lay out the facts, to let them see, to raise their consciousness adegree.” (Zhao Shuli 1652.)Nativism Chap. Four182Zhao Shuli to write about this dark side, however, in the eyes of the Party, was tantamountto betraying socialism. Yao Wenyuan of the Gang of Four, for instance, charged that“middle characters” “obliterated and denied the objects praised by the socialist arts” and“elevated the position of capitalism.” i367 In sum, the accusation Zhao Shuli was charged with stemmed fromthe role that literature was compelled to play under the Chinese Communist Party and hisrefusal to go along this this. Zhao’s works did not betray socialism; they did, however,threaten the interests of the Party.By way of conclusion, the question might be asked: What kind of a socialist wasZhao Shuli? Throughout his life Zhao was popularly considered to be loyal to socialism.Some of the critics were similarly in the business of building Zhao up as a life-timemember of the Chinese Communist camp. Ultimately, however, Zhao Shuli’s loyalty laynot so much with any particular ideology as with whatever would draw China’s peasantsout of their indigence and benighted worldview. His dream was for a good life for thepeasants and for whatever would put an an end to their ongoing, grinding poverty. ZhaoShuli supported the Chinese Communists because he believed that they possessed ananswer to China’s rural problem and could ease the peasants’ poverty. From works suchas Three Mile Village and “Training, Training,” one can surmise that he was opposed notso much to the policies of collectivization as to its draconian, authoritarian implementationwhich overrode the interests of the peasants. In order for collectivization to work, Zhaobelieved, it must be voluntary. This, however, was not the case,and the fact that Zhaodepicted the Party’s authoritarianism called down upon him charges of distorting realityand of being disloyal to socialism. In sum, as a writer of xiangtu wenxue, Zhao’s ultimateloyalty lay with the peasant, not with a political cause, and with the alleviation of peasantoppression which has historically been the peasants’ burden and remains so to this day.67 Yao Wenyuan, “Shi shehuizhuyi wenyi tohua bianzhi de lilun,” Jiefang ribao (December 14, 1964).Nativism Chap. Four183Ma Fen and Zhou LiboAs mentioned earlier, Zhao Shuli exercized great influence over the youngergeneration of writers in China, especially those in the northern liberated areas. Like Zhao,many of these writers participated in revolutionary work which became a source ofinspiration for their creativity. Ma Feng is one example of this.A native of Xiaoyi, Shaanxi province, Ma Feng first went to Yan’an at the young ageof fifteen. During his lifetime he worked as a “people’s soldier” (zide bing 3- ) andpropaganda worker.68 After studying for two years in a training class for literary artsworkers in the Lu Xun Academy of Arts, Ma was sent to the anti-Japanese base area at theJin-Sui border region where he participated in the war effort. With the beginning of WorldWar II, the Japanese had stepped up their offensive in collusion with Yan Xishan. MaFeng-- who by then was only twenty-- worked in a munitions factory established by theChinese Communist Party, and he became involved in organizing unions in the factory,assisting in the production of a newspaper and in the organizing of a drama troupe.69In 1943, during the movement to reduce rents, Ma Feng joined a workers team andwent into the villages. There, he attended a meeting for rural workers in China’s outlyingareas which inspired him to begin writing.70 Besides yanggeju jlLJJIJ --the popularrural folk opera form revived during the Yan’an period-- Ma Feng also began to write shortstories and poetry.71 Later, he was transferred back to the border region at Jin-Sui as the68 Jiatofu (The original name of this Russian critic is unknown to me.), “Lun Ma Feng de chuangzuo daolu,” tr.Song Shaoxiang, Pipingjia, 1:3 (August 1985): 66.69 Ibid.70 Ibid. 67.71 Ibid.Nativism Chap. Four184editor of Dazhong bao. There he produced his first novel, Heroes ofLu and Liang, whichhe co-authored with Xi Rong, another young writer in that area.Heroes ofLu and Liang is based on real-life material about the people in the liberatedareas of the Lu-Liang mountain area and their struggles against the Japanese. This novel isconsidered one of China’s most successful war stories which is due in part to the freedomof vision writers still enjoyed prior to the increasing leftism in the arts during the Anti-Rightist campaign. One of the features of this novel is its indebtedness to popular literaryforms-- the trademark of Shanyaodan fiction discussed earlier. This includes, for instance,the type of practical joke played upon one’s enemy found in traditional fiction, such as theuse of women as wiles, men disguised as women to trick the enemy, surprise attackssprung upon the enemy in the dead of night, and others.72 The authors culled thesestories from the local area and incorporated them into their novel which augmented itspopularity.After the war ended, Ma Feng returned again to the villages as a member of a workteam when land reform began in 1947. Ten years later, he finally returned permanently tohis home town. He remained there as a cadre engaged in secretarial work at the lowerlevels of party organization while he continued to write short stories. “My First Superior”(Wode di yige shangji, —jJJil 1959), a typical piece of Shanyaodan xiangtuwenxue, was written at this time. Like Zhao Shuli’s Three Mile Village, “My FirstSuperior” also deals with the theme of irrigation problems and the expansion of theagricultural cooperatives.The themes of land reform and collectivization were also the concerns of a writeroutside the Chinese liberated area. This was Zhou Libo. Zhou was not a member of the72 Li Chi, “Communist War Stories,” in Chinese Communist Literature 144.Th Anthologized in Ma Feng xiaoshuoxuan (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1983): 237-254.Nativism Chap. Four185Shanyaodan School of the Shanxi-Shaanxi area; instead, his regional affiliations lay withhis native province of Hunan. Nonetheless, Zhou’s works exercized considerableinfluence, and they similarly contributed to the legacy of Chinese Communist xiangtuwenxue.Zhou Libo’s writings, which include the novels Hurricane (Baofeng zhouyu,1948) and Great Changes in a Mountain Village (Shanxiangjubian, 1959),focus on the rise of the Communists to power during their struggle with the Guomindang,the land reform and the various stages of collectivization. They are marked with a sense ofhistoric mission, and while they are less complex than Zhao Shuli’s, they also exhibitmany of the same revolutionary, realistic and artistic features as Zhao’s.Like Zhao Shuli, Thou Libo also headed a school of writers who can be consideredas xiangtu zuojia.75 This was the Camelia School (Chazihua liupai whichwas made up of a younger generation of Hunan writers. One of these was Gu Huawho exhibited the stylistic features of this school long after it was defunct.76 Zhou’sclassification as a xiangtu zuojia stems in part from the regional affiliation of the CameliaSchool and in part from his classification as a Communist writer writing about peasantsocialist themes during the first part of Communist rule. However, Zhou Libo alsoexhibits certain other nativist features in his fiction which he shares in common withxiangtu wenxue from Lu Xun on. These features include the use of dialect, which is mostpronounced in Hurricane, and the lyrical descriptions of Zhou Libo’s native village in theHunan mountain areas which provides the setting for Great Changes in a Mountain Village.Hurricane is anthologized in Zhou Libo wenji (Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 1981),1: 5-514; Great Changes ina Mountain Village is anthologized in Zhou Libo wenji, 3: 3-660.75“Zhou Libo xueshu taolunhui zongshu,” compiled by Liu Jian’an, Hunan shida shehui kexue xuebao, 2(1987): 88.76 Ibid. 87-88.Nativism Chap. Four186As we have seen before, the inclusion of the author’s home village as the fictional settingof a work is typical of Chinese and Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue.Zhou Libo was born in a village in Yiyang county, Hunan Province. As a youngman, he lived and worked in Shanghai prior to being arrested by the Guomindang in 1932.After his release in 1934, Zhou became a member of the League of Left-Wing Writerswhich was the major source of formative influences on the development of his thought.77Zhou was admitted into the Chinese Communist Party during this time and worked as ajournalist and translator, he also worked as a teacher at the Lu Xun Academy at Yan’an.78During the Cultural Revolution, Zhou was accused of having slandered Lu Xun; however,he survived the Cultural Revolution and died in l979.Like Zhao Shuli and Ma Feng, Zhou Libo derived inspiration for his creativity fromhis participation in revolutionary work. Zhou participated in the land reform movement inShangzhi County, Heilongjiang Province, in 1946, and he wrote Hurricane based on thisexperience after 1947 when he returned to Harbin. This novel became one of the mostwidely-acclaimed of Zhou’s works, and it was awarded the Stalin Prize, third rank, in1951. Zhou stated his purpose in writing Hurricane as follows:[I wished] to use the lively and rich material I had collected duringthe land reform in the Northeast to describe how our Party, for morethan twenty years, had been leading the people in the great and bitterstruggle against imperialism and feudalism, and to depict thepeasants’ happiness and sorrows during this period, so as to educateand inspire the revolutionary masses as a whole.80‘‘ Ibid. 87.78 Jaroslav Prusek, ed, Dictionary of Oriental Literature (New York: Basic books, 1970): 19.‘ Ibid.80 Quoted in Ting Yi, A Short History ofModern Chinese Literature, reprint ed. (Port Washington, N.Y. andLondon: Kennikat Press, 1970): 260-261.Nativism Chap. Four187In his preface to Hurricane, Zhou Libo describes how the land reform was already inprogress when he arrived in China’s Northeast in the winter of 1946. At that time, theNortheast Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party was calling upongovernment workers to go to the countryside to assist in this mass movement.81 In thesame preface, Zhou stated that the central concern of the movement was the contradictionbetween the landlords and the peasants and that the success of the land reform was thecrucial determinant in the success of the socialist revolution. Accordingly, Zhou plungedhimself, “heart and soul into the struggle”; thoughts of writing a novel occurred onlylater.82In essence, Hurricane is about the “turning over” of the peasants in the village ofYuanmao Tun in China’s Northeast. In terms of theme, this novel is comparable to DingLing’s The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River (Taiyang zhao zai Sanggan he shang, &%1948) which was also awarded the Stalin Prize, second rank, in the sameyear as Hurricane. Both novels are set during the period from the May Fourth Directiveissued by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in the year 1946 to thenation-wide meeting about land reform which took place in September, 1947.83 Thesecond part of Hurricane, however, continues on from the publication of the Outline LandLaw ofChina 84 in October, 1947 and ends with the intensification of the land reform inYuanmao Tun in 1948. There are other differences between these novels, such as thegreater degree of “romanticism” found in Hurricane as opposed to the strict socialistrealism of Ding Ling’s novel.81 Zhou Libo, “How I Wrote The Hurricane, “preface to The Hurricane, tr. Xu Mengxiong (Beijing: ForeignLanguages Press, 1955), 1: i.82 Ibid.83 Wang Guozhu,” Sanggan he shang yu Baofeng zhouyu de bijiao,” Hangzhou daxue xuebao (Journal ofHangzhou University), 17:2 (June 1987): 61.The May Fourth Directive focused primarily on opposing traitors and problems concerning land reform.84 Zhongguo mdi fa dagangNativism Chap. Four188In both novels, the successful “turning over” of the peasants stems from their degreeof political consciousness-- more acute among the poor peasants-- that the landlordsconstitute their main obstacle in their path toward liberation. Whether the peasants actuallyacted on this awareness to secure their liberation constituted another issue altogether. Zhoupoints out in Hurricane that the centuries-long “feudal” control dominating the peasantsmade them meek; accordingly, their struggle to wrest free from this thought is a pivotalpoint determining the success of the movement. Hurricane details the different stages ofsuccess in the land reform movement, the confiscation of landlord land and property andthe landlords’ resumption of power which takes place with their collusion with bandits andother “bad elements.”A second focus of Hurricane is its description of the land reform teams sent down bythe district committees, their involvement in the peasantry and their efforts to instigatemovements to overthrow the landlords and to redress past wrongs inflicted by thelandlords. As in Zhao Shuli’s works, the members of the work teams are eitherprogressive or they are characterized by backsliding. In Zhou Libo’s novels, this is less amatter of different working styles than of the particular character of each team member.When a progressive team member teams up with a poor peasant, this constitutes a vitalforce in the advancement of the movement. A recurring motif in Hurricane is themartyrdom of certain ideal peasant characters who possess great integrity. This is a type ofromanticism mentioned above.As mentioned above, Zhou Libo made extensive use of dialect in Hurricane, which isa feature typical of xiangtu wenxue. Zhou Libo is less “folksy” in this respect than ZhaoShuli; however, he was prompted to use the colloquial language of the peasant in order topopularize his literature. The concept of the popularization of literature was originallyarticulated by Lao She whose use of the Beijing dialect was a powerful reflector of Beijingsocial life and customs. Lao She theorized that the language of the masses was the onlyNativism Chap. Four189language suitable to convey the thought of the people. Thou Libo realized that the overuseof local dialect could pose difficulties for readers; nevertheless, he justified his use ofdialect by supplying annotated explanations for the more uncommon words and phrases.85In Hurricane, the carter, Lao Sun Tou, is the main source of peasant dialect, slang andcolloquialisms typical of the Northeast region.Zhou Libo’s second major work, Great Changes in a Mountain Village, constitutes asister novel to Hurricane, that is, what began historically in Hurricane is continued in thesecond novel. In Great Changes in a Mountain Village, the focus is on the transformationinto agricultural cooperatives which, as far as the peasants are concerned, representsanother major revolution second only to the land reform. As stated above, this novel is setin the author’s home village in Hunan province, and it takes place during the winter of1955. Like Zhao Shuli’s Three Mile Village, it was also written as a response to thegovernment’s call for collectivization, particularly, Mao Zedong’s “Question ofAgricultural Cooperation.”Great Changes in a Mountain Village begins with Deng Xiumei, the districtcommittee secretary, going down to the village of Qingqi in the year 1955 in order to helporganize agricultural producers’ cooperatives. The villagers have not yet even beenorganized into mutual aid teams, and they argue against the new changes, saying: “If amother gives birth to nine sons, they and the mother would together have ten minds.” —±1i86 In other words, the villagers do not see the likelihood ofworking together cooperatively. As in Three Mile Village, collectivization demands that thepeasants abandon their private economic interests, that is, give up the land they received85 There are more than 270 such annotations in Hurricane. (Qu Yanbin, “Kan xi xunchang zui qijue cheng rurongyi que jianxin: Baofeng zhouyu zhong de fangyan suyu qiantan jiantan xiangtu wenxue de yuyan wenti,”Dongbei xiandai wenxue shiliao, 9 (1984): 108.) A typical instance of Dongbei dialect is the expression“heshang cuole larou, luan lizi Ii” which describes someone rushing about anxiously. Such annotation isalso frequent in the literature of the “Searching for Roots Movement” (Xungen pai) of the 1980s.86 Zhou Libo 64.Nativism Chap. Four190during the land reform. In this novel, the cadres are also compelled to devise ways to dealwith the resistance they encounter on the part of the peasants to this policy. Gradually, thepeasants’ resistance is worn down, and after one month the cadres succeed in organizingfive cooperatives. This has been achieved largely through the efforts of Deng Xiumei, LiYuehui, who is the village branch secretary, and the radical group surrounding them.As in Three Mile Village, Great Changes in a Mountain Village also describes theprogressive and not-so-progressive forces in the village and the struggles that take placebetween them. On the one hand, Deng Xiumei performs her task with dexterity andcourage, and Li Yuehui is even more outstanding. Born into a poor peasant family, Li is aparty member and has been given the nickname Poppozi (Old Mother) because of histendency to mother everyone. This vifiage branch secretary commits a rightist error but heis loyal to the Party and has the trust of the villagers. On the other hand, the lessprogressive forces conspire to perpetuate their interests in the village.Zhou Libo’s novel also shares another feature with Zhao Shuli’s fiction, and that isits depiction of the wavering of the middle peasants and the hedging of the poor peasantswho are opposed to the radical changes of collectivization. Ting Mianhu (Ting FlourPaste), for example, is a poor peasant who derived great benefit from the land reform;however, he is opposed to the mutual aid teams and unknowingly comes under theinfluence of certain bad elements. The fact that he and other peasants in the novel resistcollectivization stems in part from their unwillingness to let go of their small economicadvantage gained after centuries of deprivation. A larger reason, however, lies with thelack of faith on the part of these peasants in the Party and of the Party’s agriculturalprogram for the countryside. This aspect of the novel reflects not only the author’sunderstanding of the Chinese peasant gained from his experience working in thecountryside but also his doubts about the leftist leadership over the peasantry. Thesedoubts are also apparent in his depiction of certain aspects of the character Li Yuehui. InNativism Chap. Four191the words of one critic, Great Changes in a Mountain Village foreshadows theconsequences of blind leadership and the problems stemming from “eating Out of one pot.”In conclusion, the post-Yan’an period ofxiangtu wenxue is primarily concernedwith peasant socialist themes. Many of these themes are structured around a pair of binaryopposites-- the “progressive” elements such as Party cadres and peasant Party members,on the one hand, and backsliding Party members and intransigent peasants who opposeany change which they feel jeopardizes their economic interests, on the other. The ChineseCommunist Party is always present in these stories and functions to bring about some kindof resolution to these opposites. In “Blacky Gets Married,” for instance, the Party acts as adeus ex machina, manipulating circumstances for the good: the downfall of the Jinwangbrothers and the marriage of Xiao Er Hei and Xiao Qin. In works such as Three MileVillage and Great Changes in a Mountain Village, on the other hand, the Party functions asan autocratic power exerting draconian means to compel the peasants to fall in with itswishes; it thereby achieves its policies in the countryside. This type of binary opposite andits resolution is absent from other instances of xiangtu wenxue and is a stylistic featurewhich makes post-Yan’an xiangtu wenxue unique in this fictional sub-genre.Another feature differentiating post-Yan’an xiangtu wenxue from other types ofxiangtu wenxue is the political circumstances surrounding the writing of the former. Thisis absent in other types of xiangtu wenxue which are characterized by a style free from thedictates of politics. Socialist realism ruled the arts in China beginning in 1942 with theYan’an Talks and prescribed that writers depict a certain type of peasant-- one whowelcomed the Party’s policies in the countryside. In the fiction of Zhao Shuli and ZhouLibo, this was not the case, however; on the contrary, the peasant representation of theseauthors moved beyond the narrow confines prescribed by socialist realism and into a more87“Zhou Libo xueshu taolunhui zongshu” 88.Nativism Chap. Four192humane and realistic domain. With historical hindsight, we know that the brand ofsocialism of these authors had the peasants’ interests more at heart than that of the ChineseCommunist Party. The Chinese Communist Party came into power on the basis of itscharletan peasant interests and used these interests as a pioy in the manipulation of power.The real tragedy of modem Chinese history is that, to date, there has never yet been a partyor power in authority in China which takes the Irue interests of the peasants to heart. Thexiangtu wenxue of the post-Yan’an period illustrates the truth of this statement.Hehuadian School and Sun Li (1913--’)The Hehuadian School was the second school of xiangtu wenxue to emerge duringthe post-Yan’an years. This school, which is associated with Hebei, was headed by SunLi who was a less political writer than Zhao Shuli or Zhou Libo. Sun Li also paidconsiderably more attention to questions of artistic style.Sun Li’s style was emulated by a number of younger writers in his region, includingLiu Shaotang 1921- ) and Han Yingshan 4 B5i1j.jwho were especially attractedto the lyrical quality of Sun Li’s best-known work, “Lotus Creek” (Hehuadian,1944).88 These three writers are accordingly referred to as the Hehuadian School. Sun Lihimself prefers to be called a writer of “national literature” rather than as a xiangtu zuofla;nonetheless, this writer has been classified as a xiangtu zuojia by Chinese critics whomaintain that xiangtu wenxue is a distinct literary school.89Sun Li’s writing career spanned the several decades beginning from the war ofresistance against Japan and the civil war (1946-49) up to the post-1949 period. Like the88 Anthologized in Baiyangdianjishi (Beijing: Zhongguo qingnian chubanshe, 1962): 250-257.89 Sun Li, “Guanyu ‘xiangtu wenxue’,” Beijing wenxue, 5 (1981): 34. Sun wrote this article in response to hisfollower, Liu Shaotang, whose view of xiangtu wenxue as a literary school differed from his mentor’s.These critics include Professor Yan Jiayen (Beijing University) and Lei Da, among others.Nativism Chap. Four193writers of the Shanyaodan School, Sun Li’s influences also derived from China’s popular,storytelling tradition. These influences are broader and more diverse than those found inthe Shanyaodan School and include the classical short story, the Ming and Qing vernacularnovel and the “jottings” (biji and zaji prose form.90 Sun Li was alsoinfluenced by the Tang and Song chuanqi, the Jingu qiguan, Story of the Stone and thephilosophical essays of Liu Zongyuan.9’ He was drawn to the language of Pu Songlingwhich he admired for its liveliness and “unembellished precision” and was also attracted toZhuangzi.92 As for modern literature, Sun Li studied Lu Xun, to which he attributed the“sketching” (baimiao E) impressionistic quality of his own work, and Pushkin andChekhov.93 Sun Li was less a writer concerned with political themes per se than a stylistinfluenced by the various literary traditions outlined above.Sun Li is a native of Anping, Hebei, and he spent several years in Anxin in the sameprovince where he worked as a teacher.94 In Anxin, he became familiar with theBaiyangdian region on the Hebei Plain which is formerly a part of the Shanxi-Qahar-HebeiBorder Region and Central Hebei. This region provided him with material for hiscollection of stories, Reminiscences ofBaiyangdian (Baiyangdianjishi,1958),which includes his most popular works.90 Li Yongsheng, “Neizai ziyou de huode: Sun Li xiaoshuo dui nuxing xingxiang shijie de yishu bawo,”Pipingjia, 2:2 (1986): 60.91 Huang Zhongwen, “Huafu changliu tiandi jiandu sun Li duanpian xiaoshuo zhaji,” Ji’nan xuebao, 3 (1986):104-105.Sun Li, Wan hua ji, as quoted in Huang Zhongwen, “Huafu chang liu tiandijian: du Sun Li duanpianxiaoshuo zhaji,” Jianan xuebao, 3 (1986): 105.92 Ibid.Jin Mei, “Shuqing, zheli he xianshi shenghuo de youji ronghe: Sun Li xiaoshuo yishu tan zhi yi,”Shenyang shfan xueyuan xuebao, 2 (1986): 67.9 Huang Zhongwen 105, 104.Zhongguo da baikequanshu: zhongguo wenxue , II: 817.Nativism Chap. Four194With the outbreak of war in 1937, Sun Li joined the resistance effort against Japanand did cultural work under the Party leadership in the Shanxi-Qahar-Hebei base area.95In 1939, he was transferred to the Fuping mountain area where he worked as acorrespondent, editor and teacher and also began writing. In Sun Li’s words: “I saw thepeasants, and their patriotism and courage in joining the war deeply moved me.”IL’I* f396 Accordingly, Sun Li beganwriting about the peasants. In 1944, Sun Li went to Yan’an where he worked in the LuXun Academy of Arts and published his short stories “Lotus Creek” and “The ReedMarshes” (Luhua dang, 1945). These stories were the first to gain him theattention of the literary world. At the end of the war, Sun Li returned to the rural villagesof the central Hebei region where he continued to write short stories and essays; he alsotook part in the work of land reform.98 After 1949, Sun became an editor of Tianjin ribaoand also wrote his longer works: the novel, Stormy Years (Fengyun chu ji, J jiJ,1962) and the novella The Blacksmith and the Carpenter (Tiemu qianzhuan, jfJ1 956).Reminiscences ofBaiyangdian is a sociopolitical narrative about the Shanxi-QaharHebei region and the participation by the people of this region in the armed resistanceagainst Japan. This collection also includes stories about the land reform movement andmutual aid teams, the labour and production of that area and the changes in social customsIbid.96 Sun Li, Wenxue he shenghuo de lu,” Wenyi bao, 6 (1980), quoted in Huang Zhongwen 102.“ Anthologized in Baiyangdianjishi 243-249.Zhongguo da baikequanshu: zhongguo wenxue, II: 817.98 Ibid.Stormy Years is anthologized in Sun Li wenji (Tianjin: Baihua wenyi chubanshe, 1981), 2: 5-4 10; TheBlacksmith and the Carpenter is anthologized in Sun Li wenji, 1: 387-452.Ibid.Nativism Chap. Four195of the people of Baiyangdian. As a narrative set in the author’s home province of Hebeiand based on Sun Li’s personal experience, Reminiscences ofBaiyangdian is a typicalwork of xiangtu wenxue. “Lotus Creek” in this collection is Sun Li’s most representativework.“Lotus Creek” is set against the backdrop of the war of resistance. It is a simple,highly lyrical account of the affectionate marital relationships between the men and womenof Lesser Reed Village. The young men of the village have just joined the army, and,hearing that they haven’t yet gone to the front, their wives take a small boat and paddleacross to Ma Village, ostensibly to send them supplies but really to see them. Their boatinadvertently gets drawn into an ambush set by the men against the Japanese, and a tragedyis narrowly averted. After this incident, the women decide that they cannot be outdone bytheir husbands and learn how to use rifles. When the Japanese attempt to mop up themarshlands, the women work hand in glove with the army, “slipping fearlessly in and outof the sea of These characters are sketched in the impressionistic stylereminiscent of the landscape artist Ni Can; nonetheless, these sketches are also sufficient toconvey an image of robustness and the spirit of self-sacrifice demanded by wartime.The opening passage of “Lotus Creek” is one of the most highly lyrical examples ofSun Li’s prose. The work opens with a summer night in the year 1940, and the wife ofShusheng, chief of the anti-Japanese guerrillas of Lesser Reed, is waiting for her husbandto return home. Only the omniscient narrator knows that on this night Shusheng willinform his wife that he has joined up:The young woman in the yard was plaiting a mat, seated on thelong stretch of it afready accomplished where she seemed enthronedon virgin snow or on a fleecy cloud. From time to time she strainedher eyes towards the creek, another world of silver white. Light,100 Sun Li, “Lotus Creek,” tr. Gladys Yang, in Lotus Creek and Other Stories (Beijing; Foreign LanguagesPress, 1982): 16.Nativism Chap. Four196translucent mist had risen over the water, and the breeze was ladenwith the scent of fresh lotus leaves. The gate was still open -- herhusband wasn’t home yet.’°’.Sun Li’s minimalism is even more apparent in the short story “Parting Advice” (Thufu, Ufj 1946).b02 Shuisheng, a young peasant from Baiyangdian Lake, had beenmarried only a short time when he decided to join the Eighth Route Army. He has not seenhis wife, who was pregnant at the time of his departure, for eight years. Shuisheng thusmakes a detour on his way to the front in order to return to his village and see her. Therehe spends half a night with his wife and child before hastily departing again. The meetingbetween husband and wife engenders a host of complex and contradictory feelings whichare cloaked in artistic understatement-- Sun Li’s special brand of minimalism. The“advice” in this story occurs at the end when Shuisheng’s wife instructs her husband tohurry up and defeat the enemy so that they can be reunited once more.The war of resistance also provides the thematic backdrop for “Recollections of theHill Country” (Shandi huiyi, Ij&Ilj[] 1949) 103 and for Sun Li’s novel Stormy Years. Inthe former, Sun’s brand of understatement comes into play when a young peasant girl ofFuping encounters a member of the Eighth Route Army washing his face in the river.Struck by the fact that he has no socks and that he is still going barefoot in the cold winterdays, she takes him under her wing and makes him a pair of socks with a piece of blueFuping homespun which she had originally set aside to make her father a gown. The girl’sinstructions to the soldier is to wear them to help him defeat the enemy.Scene upon scene of pitched battle with the enemy is similarly absent from Sun Li’snovel, Stormy Years. Instead, the peasants who live on each side of the Hutuo River,central Hebei, are primarily engaged in the business of staying alive. They are drawn101 Ibid.8-9.102 Anthologized in Baiyangdian jishi 204-213.103 Anthologized in Baiyangdian jishi 40-47.Nativism Chap. Four197incidentally into various adventures as the course of the war affects them. Stormy Years isprimarily a narrative about village conflicts and marital relations. In addition, the vifiagersalso make shoes, destroy roads, dismantle city walls and defend their dikes according tothe changing winds of war. There is one point in the novel when the people’s defencecorps led by the Communist Party engages in anned combat with the Japanese and thepuppet troops. This is positively drawn in contrast to the Central Anny of theGuomindang.Stormy Years includes a rare portrait of a literary arts worker, Bianji Ge, who comesto a deeper understanding of his creativity through his close involvement with the people.The novel relates the various activities and experiences Bianji Ge undergoes in his attemptto learn how to write simply and truthfully. The nature of the artistic interpretation ofreality in post-Yan’an China is a unique feature in Stormy Years.Finally, Sun Li’s fiction also deals with the theme of the construction of socialism.However, this is not foregrounded as in Zhao Shuli’s fiction; on the contrary, it isrelegated to the background where it provides the backdrop for the narration of emotive andethical issues. In “The Blacksmith and the Carpenter,” for instance, the friendship betweenthe blacksmith, Lao Fu, and the carpenter, Lao Li, is the primary theme of this work. Thisbond was formed many years ago during a difficult period of poverty and labour and isvery strong: Li has promised his son, Liu’er, to Old Fu’s daughter, Jiu’er, as testimony ofhis feelings. As the narrative ensues, however, Lao Li prospers as a result of the landreform, and gradually he begins to look down on his friend. Little by little, the friendshipbetween Li and Fu is destroyed.Other conflicts in the novella are those marring the relations between Liu’er, Jiu’er,and Liu’er’s lover, Man’er, in the story. Man’er is a young girl who has moved into thevillage to escape the oppression of her marriage in a village nearby. Her misery and lack ofself-awareness draw her into an intimate relationship with Liu’er, which is the source ofNativism Chap. Four198interpersonal conflict for these three young people. A peach tree in the story is a symbol ofMan’er’s fate and the narrator’s hope that one thy she will become a more productivemember of Chinese society.Man’er contrasts with Jiu’er, a more progressive character in the story, who takes anactive role in organizing the village’s mutual aid teams. There is also another side to thiswoman-- her loneliness which stems from her early childhood when her mother died. SunLi’s influence from Zhuangzi is apparent in this novella when Jiu’er compares life’sshifting, changing relations to little birds blown apart by a strong gust of wind and to ashort-lived little pool of fish which symbolize life’s transience and the bitter memories leftbehind. The narration of Jiu’er’s inner contradictions made her a “round” character in thefiction of this period.A third relationship in “The Blacksmith and the Carpenter” is that between Lao Li andhis fourth son, Si’er. The conflicts in this relationship are engendered by the differentpolitical awareness and ideals of these people. Li despises his fourth son who has joinedthe Youth League and organizes a well-digging brigade. A study group is organized by theLeague, and Si’er and Jiu’er engage in endless discussions in this group about how toreform their less progressive family members, specifically, Lao Li and Liu’er. The studygroup is a pivotal point in the novella, and it symbolizes all the changing social andeconomic relations which exist side-by-side with the establishing of agriculturalcooperatives. It also symbolizes the changes in the lives of the peasants, those who jointhe cooperatives and those, such as Lao Li, who resist change and the threat thecooperatives pose to their economic interests. The younger generation of peasants whostruggles with the older generation in an attempt to persuade it to give up its measure ofinterest gained during the land reform is a theme inherited from the Shanyaodan novels. InThe Blacksmith and the Carpenter, however, this is presented as a sub-theme only.Nativism Chap. Four199In conclusion, Sun Li’s fiction is a representative example of xiangtu wenxue. Thisevaluation derives principally from the criteria of regional associations, peasantcharacterization and the rural setting which is based on the author’s home. Sun Li’s fictionis a compilation of many aspects of the xiangtu wenxue discussed so far. These includethe characterization of the peasant and the hardships of rural peasant life, the theme of anti-Japanese resistance, and finally, the transformation into agricultural cooperatives underParty leadership which is resisted by the peasants. The attention this writer paid to thedevelopment of his style, however, is rarely duplicated in other works of xiangtu wenxue.As a result, Sun Li’s works are comparatively less didactic, and this quality can also beattributed to his systematic borrowing from China’s traditional legacy, particularly Chineselyricism. In sum, Sun Li’s work are a positive and interesting contribution to a period ofrelative Communist formulaism.Sun Li influenced the regional expression of his contemporaries, among whom thewriter Liu Shaotang formulated certain theoretical principles of xiangtu wenxue whichwere historically the first of its kind. This chapter concludes with a brief summary of Liu’sformulation.Liu Shaotang and the Theoretical Nature of Xiangtu wenxueLiu Shaotang, a member of the Hehuadian School, published his first collection ofshort stories, Verdant Branches and Leaves (Qingzhi luye in 1953. Fouryears later in 1957 during the Anti-Rightist campaign, Liu was labelled a rightist, and from1958 to 1962 he was exiled to his village in the Beijing suburbs to do labour reform.During the Cultural Revolution, Liu was sent down again to his village as a commune104 Liu Shaotang, “Wo shi yige tuzhu,” quoted in Yamaguchi Mamoru, “Liu Shaotang yu Lu Xun: ‘xiangtuwenxue’ lun zhong de geduan,” tr. Zhao Boyuan, Zhong shan, 2 (1985): 233.Nativism Chap. Four200member where he stayed until 1979.105 Liu was a university graduate and considered thismove a great setback; nonetheless, he was warmly received by his native villagers, and theprotection and affection they offered him prompted Liu to begin writing again.’°6 In lightof his experience in his vifiage, Liu wrote that he was nurtured by the peasants and wroteabout the farming villages and about the peasants of the Beijing area.”107 Accordingly, hebegan to write xiangiu wenxue in 1977 and referred to himself as axiangtu zuojia.’°8Liu Shaotang’s stories are set in his native village in the Tong district of Hebeiprovince. Liu’s intent was to write a “revolutionary history” which wouldrecord the process of enlightenment and the struggle of his fellow villagers.’09Accordingly, he set about culling material from local gazettes, which Liu regarded as aprime source of inspiration for writing xiangtu wenxue.”0 From his research, Liudiscovered that during the years 1935 to 1937, the Tong district was governed by aminiature Manchukuo government under the protection of the Japanese and with thecollusion of Jiang Jieshi.1 Armed with this material and coupled with his knowledge ofthe customs and the people of Jingdong, Liu wrote six middle-length works of xiangtuwenxue.”2 These works do not differ substantially from the fiction of his earlier period;nonetheless, they do reflect Liu’s deepening theoretical position regarding xiangtu wenxue.105 Ibid.106 Liu Shaotang, “Guanyu xiangtu wenxue de tongxin,” quoted in Yamaguchi Mamoru 234.107 Ibid.108 Zhu Zhenjun, “Zhizhu de zhuiqiu: fang xiangtu wenxue zuojia Liu Shaotang,” Wenxue bay, (January 16,1986): 2.109 Liu Shaotang, “Xianzhi yu xiangtu wenxue,” Beijing wanbao, 7: 7, (1981): 3.110 Ibid.111 Ibid.112 These are: “Humble Folk” (Puliu renjia, 1980), “Seiner Lights” (Yuhuo 1980-81), “Gourd Lane” (Guapengliao xiang, 1981), “Flower Lane” (Hua jie, 1981), “Thickets” (Caomang, 1981) and “Moan of the WaterDragon” (Shuiong yin, 1981). (These stones are anthologized in Puliu renjia [Beijing: Renmin wenxuechubanshe, 1985.])Nativism Chap. Four201Liu Shaotang enumerated a number of reasons for his decision to write xiangtuwenxue which he expressed in a letter to one of his supporters, Lei Da.113 The first ofthese was that Liu was born in a rural country village; as a writer of xiangtu wenxue, hethus possessed an understanding of village history, geography, customs, peasant dialectand ethics which he transcribed into his stories about the people on either side of theBeijing-Dongbei canal.114 Liu’s second reason was his exposure in childhood to Chineseclassical literature; as result of this, he was drawn to Mao’s “national forms” during theYan’an period.115 Liu thus made use of the same literary tools as his Shanyaodancontemporaries. In contrast to the Shanyaoclan writers who had never taken leave of theirpeasant background, Liu had lived for many years as an urbanite in Beijing. He was thuscompelled to turn to May Fourth for intellectual sustenance. Liu’s fourth reason forwriting xiangtu wenxue derived from the May Fourth dictum that intellectuals andliterature should “go to the people.”6In short, Liu Shaotang was the first Chinese writer and intellectual to attempt todefine the sub-genre of xiangtu wenxue. In the same letter to Lei Da he also formulated atheoretical paradigm for the writing ofxiangtu wenxue which he enumerated as fivepoints. In these points, Liu stressed that writers should:Ibid.113 Lei Da also formulated certain theories about xiangtu wenxue. These were more concrete than LiuShaotang’s. Lei felt that xiangtu wenxue constituted a distinct literary trend which began with Lu Xun. LeiDa ennumerated the writers in this trend as follows: Shen Congwen, Ye Zi, Xiao Jun, Xiao Hong, Sha Ding,Liu Binyi and Zhao Shuli (pre-1949); Zhou Libo, Liu Qing, Ma Feng, Xi Rong and Sun Li (post-1949).(Yamaguchi 236.)114 Liu Shaotang, “Guanyu xiangtu wenxue de tongxin,” quoted in Yamaguchi Mamoru 234.115 Ibid.116 Ibid.Nativism Chap. Four2021. Uphold the principles of party spirit”7 and the socialist nature intheir literary creativity;2. persist in the tradition of realism;3. inherit and develop the national style of Chinese literature;4. inherit and promote a strong Chinese style and rich local colour;5. describe the customs and people of the rural villages, the historyof the peasants and the destiny of a period.”8As a definition of xiangtu wetzxue, some of these points are problematical whileothers sum up different aspects of this sub-genre. The first can only be read in the contextof the period of the Shanyaodan and Hehuadian Schools and the programmatic literature ofthe 1930s. Even then, it is highly tendentious and self-serving: writers such as Zhao Shuliwere vilified just exactly for their lack of attention to the “principles of party spirit.” Thispoint thus contradicts Liu’s second point that writers should “persist in the tradition ofrealism.” The third point reflects the revival of “national forms” during the Yan’an periodwhile the fourth is more complex. Liu’s conception of a “Chinese style” (zhongguo qipai4:i J) in this point is equivalent to qigai meaning “spirit,” or “manner” andreflects a literary debate which was raging in China in the wake of the Gang of Four. Thecentral focus of this debate was the question of nativism versus non-nativism as stylisticand artistic elements in literature. For the first time these became a central issue in thecritique of China’s literary arts.The question of a “Chinese style” in the realm of literature reflects China’s relationswith the outside (Western) world and has great ramifications for modernity. Westernliterary and philosophical influences have been seeping into China since the nineteenthcentury, though they had a more concentrated influence on Chinese literature when Chinaopened its doors to the West in the wake of the Gang of Four. Liu Shaotang maintainedthat the co-mingling of Chinese and Western literary elements at that time eroded China’s117 Dangxing is equivalent to the Russian ‘Partinost.”118 Liu Shaotang, “Guanyu xiangtu wenxue de tongxin,” quoted in Yamaguchi Mamoru 235.Nativism Chap. Four203cultural forms; he also implied that xiangtu wenxue was a means whereby China couldmaintain its national integrity.119 At the same time Liu was not completely adverse to theWest. He once stated that “promoting internal literaiy activity and keeping the doors opento the outside are mutually beneficial.”A major figure in the nativist versus non-nativist dispute was Wang Meng, acontemporary of Liu’s whose career was halted for twenty years because of the Anti-Rightist campaign. Wang Meng became a topic of controversy when he began using themodernist stream-of-consciousness technique after the crushing of the Gang of Four.Wang was consequently regarded as the vanguard of the “Western school” (xiyang palas opposed to Liu Shaotang and other writers who were classified as “nationalwriters” (minzu pal )121 Wang Meng’s more traditionally-minded detractorsviewed Wang’s fiction as the primary threat to China’s national and cultural forms122 andcharged that Westernization was symptomatic of the decline of China’s native culture. Tocap it all, in a third article, Liu Shaotang resurrected the May Fourth bias against the city asthe source of evil and Western influences, in the process vilifying Wang Meng evenfurther.123 The charge against Wang Meng can be found in the following statement by LiCongzhong, a supporter of Liu Shaotang’s:It cannot be denied that while are putting an end to thedead-end “closed-door policy,” we have nurtured theerroneous tendency of infatuation with the bourgeois [sic]119 Liu stated that “For the world, we must construct Chinese native literature; domestically, we must constnictthe xiangtu wenxue of every area.” (“Jianli Beijing de xiangtu wenxue,” Beijing wenxue, 1 [19811, quoted inYanaguchi 235.)120 Liu Shaotang, “Zhongguo xiangtu xiaoshuo xuan xu,” Preface, XX, I: 5.121 Yaniaguchi 235. Yamaguchi does not specify in this article who classifies Liu Shaotang as a “nationalwriter.”122 Ibid 235.123 Liu maintained, “Wang [Meng] belongs to the city whereas I belong to the rural village.” (“Chuangzuo yaoyou ziji de tese,” Beijing wenxue, 11 [1980], quoted in Yarnaguchi, 236.)Nativism Chap. Four204Modernist school of literature. The way some people see it,Chinese literature can develop only if we import WesternModernist literature. Thus, symbolism, existentialism,stream-of-consciousness, etc. have become the mostfashionable thing. Many people are competing to imitatethem and are swarming toward them. On the opposite sideof the coin, China’s folk literature and China’s traditionalartistic methods are being ignored and are disdained asdefective. They are being abandoned like worthless oldshoes.124As for Liu Shaotang’s fifth point stated above, the record of customs have been a standardfeature of xiangtu wenxue since its inception in the decade of the 1920s. The history ofthe peasants and the destiny of a period are, sadly, also too well documented by mostwriters of xiangtu wenxue.ConclusionIn conclusion, prior to the debate about Wang Meng, the consequences ofmodernization on Chinese culture had not yet emerged as an issue in literary circles. Chinahad not yet begun to industrialize which meant that its doors were firmly sealed to theoutside world, ensuring relative isolation from Western influences. The xiangtu wenxue ofthis pre-Modernist period was thus the product of purely domestic concerns, centredaround the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. In short, these were theimplementation of Mao’s Yan’an Talks, the Party’s agricultural policies and the variousother issues in the construction of socialism.With the liberalizing policies of Deng Xiaoping beginning in the year 1977, all thischanged. The shift to the Four Modernizations was accompanied by the opening ofChina’s doors to the West and an ensuing influx of Western literary forms which had greatconsequences for the further development of xiangtu wenxue. In general, in the post-Mao124 Quoted in Yamaguchi 235-236.Nativism Chap. Four205period, literature experienced relaxation; however, in 1982, as Deng’s reform factionbecame increasingly secure, a reaction set in, and the scope of what was deemedpermissible in the arts was narrowed again.’2 This narrowing peaked in thegovernment’s implementation of its “anti-spiritual pollution campaign” against bourgeoiscontamination, but before this happened a new type ofxiangtu wenxue had already begunto emerge. This new type, which viewed ruralism as a refuge from the inefficiency of theChinese Communist Party, represented the third and latest typology of China’s xiangtuwenxue. In the meantime, the question of Westernization was also a primary issue in thexiangtu wenxue movement which erupted in Taiwan from 1977 to 1978. AlthoughTaiwan was substantially more modernized than China, it, too, still has not resolved theproblems of Chinese modernity. This movement in Taiwan is the subject of the nextchapter.125 Michael S. Duke, “Chinese Literature in the Post-Mao Era: the Return of “Critical Realism,” Introduction,Contemporary Chinese Literature: 5.Nativism Chap. Five206Chapter FiveThe Xiangtu wenxue Movement of Taiwan’when from the North arrived a seedthreatening, covetous, unjust,that like a spider spread her threadsextending a metallic structurethat drove bloodied nails into the landraising over the dead a vault.It was the dollar with its yellow teeth,commandant of blood and grave.“Ancient History, “VI, Pablo NerudaTaiwan’s Xiangtu Wenxue Movement (xiangtu wenxue yundong±)i)of the year 1977 to 1978 was an extension of the socioeconomic conditions which emergedin Taiwan in the 1960s. These conditions were initially generated from the introduction ofindustrialism into Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period which, in turn, engenderedthe rapid modernization of almost every aspect of Taiwanese life. In the 1960s, the citiesexperienced urban angst for the first time, while the countryside underwent the erosion ofTaiwan’s traditional lifestyle. The practice of xiangtu wenxue with its nativist poetics inTaiwan signified that modernization did not meet with unconditional, bilateralendorsement. The rejection by Taiwan’s writers of xiangtu wenxue of the outward signsof modernization was predicated on their view of the “corrupting” influences ofmodernization and their assumption of the moral ascendency of Taiwan’s indigenouscultural forms. These forms, especially rural ones, were valorized by these writers whosought in rural Taiwan a China which predated Taiwan’s Westernization. These writersThis chapter was published in a slightly revised version in B.C. Asian Review, 5 (1991): 1-40.Nativism Chap. Five207faced a dilemma, however, as their search for a transcendent China over and above thelimits of modernity remained solely in the realm of the ideal. The problem of modernity inTaiwan in the 1960s was as incapable of resolution as Zhang Zhidong’s “substance andfunction” (tiyong formula at the end of the nineteenth century in China,2 and in themid-1970s the crisis of modernity was back in circulation. This crisis was compounded bythe growth of Taiwanese nationalism which transformed the question of a transcendentChina into more immediate state and social concerns.In the 1970s, Taiwan’s relations with the Western Other began to deteriorate. In theearly years of that decade, a number of diplomatic incidents occurred which had greatimplications for the future course of Taiwan. These incidents were also the immediatecatalyst for the growth of the xiangtu wenxue movement. These events were: 1) theDiaoyutai Incident of l970; Taiwan’s expulsion from the United nations in 1971; 3) thevisit by United States President Richard Nixon to China in 1972 and the ShanghaiCommunique which resulted from that visit; and 4) the termination of diplomatic relationswith Japan in 1973 and Japan’s subsequent recognition of the People’s Republic ofChina.4 The Taiwan public was outraged by these events and responded with anoutpouring of aggrieved, nationalistic sentiment. Under the catalytic impact of theseevents, Taiwan’s previously apolitical xiangtu wenxue underwent a metamorphosis andwas replaced by strident polemics and an ideology which ultimately served to assuagepublic feeling about these incidents. The critic, Jiang Xun, noted that xiangtu wenxue was2 The “substance and function” formula, devised by the Self-sirengthener Zhang Zhidong, was an abbreviatedform of “old learning as substance and new learning as function” (fiuxue wei Ii, xinxue wei yong). Thisformula emphasized that areas of technical and other types of innovation from the West were of practical valueonly; essential value still lay within Chinese culture.(Levenson 59.)Diaoyutai (Senkaku in Japanese) is the largest of a group of eight small islands on the oil-rich continentalshelf near Taiwan. Japan’s claim to ownership prompted Chinese students in the U.S. to launch a campaignin 1970 in order to protect Chinese sovereignty. In April, 1971, the U.S. voted to give it to Japan.Wang Tuo, a writer and critic who articulated most clearly the aims and significance of the xiangtu wenxuemovement, was the first to point out these four events in his article, “Shi ‘xianshizhuyi’ wenxue, bu shi‘xiangtu wenxue,’” in Taolunji 101.Nativism Chap. Five208“welcomed with exultation by our society” and that this literature constituted an “unaffectedand correct realist trend.”5 A second critic even commented that xiangtu wenxue“gratified the public thirst for nationalism.”6 Its detractors, including the Guomindang,however, equated the new, more public xiangtu wenxue with Communism, and JosephS.M. Lau even compared the polemics of xiangtu wenxue to Marxist or Maoist Yan’anrhetoric.7 Xiangtu wenxue was no longer the avatar of a Chinese ideal concept; instead, itbecame the agent for a perilous, local cause.At the outset of the xiangtu wenxue movement, a controversy emerged concerningthe proper definition which should be given to xiangtu wenxue. The major theorist of themovement was Wang Tuo, and his explication remains the definitive one for this period.Wang pointed out that the popularity of xiangtu wenxue arose from its stance of oppositionto Modernism.8 This stance, however, sometimes led to three misconceptions concerningxiangtu wenxue which form the basis of Wang’s definition. At the very least, they offervaluable insight into what xiangtu wenxue is not.According to Wang Tuo, the first misconception about xiangtu wenxue arose fromthe confusion of this fiction with “village literature.” Wang maintained that xiangtuwenxue was popularly assumed to comprise short stories which centred on the village andvillage folk; those whose subject matter concerned urban life, on the other hand, werethought to be excluded from this sub-genre.9 On the contrary, Wang Tuo maintained thatTaiwan’s xiangtu wenxue is just as much a literature of urban life as about life in theJiang Xun, Introduction to Wang Tuo’s Wang jun zao gui: ii, as quoted by Joseph S.M. Lau, “Echoes of theMay Fourth Movement in Hsiang-t’u Fiction,” in Mainland China, Taiwan, and U.S. Policy, ed. Hung-maoTien (Cambridge, Mass.: University of Wisconsin, 1983): 138.6 Jing Wang, “Taiwan Hsiang-t’u Literature” 44.‘ Joseph S.M. Lau, “How Much Truth can a Blade of Grass Carry? 637.8 WangTuo 117.Ibid.Nativism Chap. Five209country; it comprises narratives not only about the countryside but also about life in thecities and factories and the industrial and commercial worlds. In brief, xiangtu wenxue isliterature about all levels of society: farmers and workers, national industrialists,merchants, civil servants and teachers.10A second misconception about xiangtu wenxue arose from the use of dialect in thisliterature which is also given credit for its great popularity. In stories where this usage wasoveremphasized, however, naive readers were led to misconceive the regional content inthis fiction as an expression of political separatism, which, Wang implies, is erroneous.11In fact, the writer and critic, Chen Yingzhen, theorized the exact opposite: Taiwanesexiangtu wenxue has the status of a “small and weak peoples” literature. Accordingly, thethe “anti-imperialist,” “anti-feudalist” nature of xiangtu wenxue make it a “glorious,unbreakable link in the modern literature of China.”c4I5ft,3IJt)I_12 Chen theorizes that Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue was influenced by thevernacular movement of May Fourth and that it is one link in the nationalistic, political,cultural and social movements of China.13 Despite the difference in opinion of thesewriters, both agreed that xiangtu wenxue is characterized by a “national spirit” (minzujingshen IJIi) and that its popularity stemmed from its opposition to the “all-outWesternization” or “compradore” nature of Taiwan’s period of Modernism.14The third and final misconception surrounding xiangtu wenxue was the confusion ofxiangtu wenxue with “literature of nostalgia” (xiangchou wenxue that is,nostalgia for those things in the village such as the oxcart and non-mechanized farm labour10 Ibid. 119.11 Ibid.12 Xu Nancun, “Xiangtu wenxue de mangdian” 95.13 Ibid. 96.14 See Chapter two p. 47 for a discussion of Modernism in Taiwan.Nativism Chap. Five210which disappeared under the onslaught of modernization.15 Some stories such as LUHeruo’s “Oxcart” and Hwang Chun-ming’s “The Gong” deal with this subject matter;however, these are relatively few, and nostalgia is virtually absent in the xiangtu wenxue ofthe 1970s. In an attempt to give a positive definition to this literature, Wang concludes thatthe real meaning of xiangtu wenxue lies in its reflection of human sentiment and real life inthe human world which includes tragedy, struggle, conflict and hope.’6 Accordingly,xiangtu wenxue is one type of “national literature.”17As the tide of nationalistic sentiment swelled in Taiwan, it not only spurred on theliterary movement but it also found expression in historical and cultural studies undertakenby Taiwanese historians. These were designed with the specific aim of constructinghistorical continuity with Taiwan’s past under the Japanese and even Chinese and Dutchrule and, ultimately, with promoting Taiwanese national interests. These studies fashioneda history that was primarily colonialist and, at the same time, one that depicted Taiwan as apuppet at the unceasing mercy of imperialist powers. Historians also argued that thesehistorical forces constitute the main determinant in the construction of a “Taiwaneseconsciousness’ (Taiwan yishi which is a problematical concept. On the onehand, this concept was used by the separatists to justify their political alms; on the otherhand, this idea lacked a verifiable basis in historical reality, and it was thus easily made useof by the reunificationists. Chen Yingthen, for instance, argued that the basis for the“Taiwanese consciousness” was none other than a “Chinese consciousness” (Zhongguoyishi )“18 which reflects Chen’s own interests in political reunification. Many of15 WangTuo 117.16 Ibid. 118.17 In Chapter One, I applied the term “national literature” to Chinese xiangtu wenxue. The application of thisterm to the literature of Taiwan is more problematical because Taiwan is not a nation in the sense that Chinais. Wang Tuo’s use of this term here reflects his reunificationist sympathies.18 XuNancun98.Nativism Chap. Five211these historical and cultural studies took the form of articles which were published in thepopular journal Xia chao (China Tide) and were later anthologized in separate volumes.The journal Xia chao also reprinted Taiwan fiction by the Taiwanese writers Lai He,Lu Heruo and Yang Kuei from the Japanese colonial period. The works by these writershad been banned prior to the mid-1970s under the Guomindang’s strict literary policyagainst leftist fiction; their reprinting in the mid-1970s thus provided an important modelfor writers of xiangtu wenxue in this period. Some Taiwanese critics interpreted theseworks from the Japanese period as resistance stories against Japanese colonialistrepression, though this criticism also often derived from the bias of vested interests.Nonetheless, Chen Yingzhen’s claim that these stories formed part of the legacy of theChinese May Fourth canon is also stylistically undeniable. In sum, the emergence ofcultural and historical studies in Taiwan in the decade of the 1970s and the reprinting ofTaiwanese xiangtu wenxue from the earlier period of Japanese rule were closely linkedwith nationalistic interests. At the same time, these studies did ultimately heightenawareness of Taiwan’s colourful cultural past.Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue of the late 1970s became increasingly coloured by astrongly socialist ideology. This literature took on the function of an exposé of thesocioeconomic injustices suffered by the underprivileged of Taiwan society. At the sametime, it cast the blame for these injustices upon the Western and Japanese imperialistpowers whose interests were sanctioned by the Nationalist (GMD) government. Asthough carrying on the legacy of the earlier Japanese period, Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxuebecame stridently anti-imperialist. Socialist critics labelled this period under American andJapanese investment capital a “second colonial period” and referred to the sentimentsexpressed in xiangtu wenxue as “anti-imperialist” and “anti-colonialist.” It was pointedout by various critics at the time that these ideological messages tended to overpoweraesthetic considerations in this literature, and this phase of xiangtu wenxue has sometimesNativism Chap. Five212been disparaged by literary historians for this reason. Joseph S.M. Lau has summarizedthe ideological messages of Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue during this period as follows:1) The resistance to Japanese and American “imperialism”on all levels, particularly cultural and economic;2) The call for social welfare reforms and the equitabledisthbution of wealth;3) The extolling of the essential virtues of the “little men”from the small town or countryside;4) The affirmation of the necessity for national self-respectagainst the effrontery and vulgarity of the “Ugly American”and “Lecherous Japanese.”9As a literary movement rich in political metaphor, xiangtu wenxue was not withoutits conservative detractors. These detractors raised issues related and unrelated to themovement in order to inveigh against it. In general, they rained disparagement on xiangtuwenxue’s political connotations, adding fuel to the fire of the controversy which wasraging out of hand. In August, 1977, Peng Ge addressed the economic issues suchas those summarized in the first two points above. Peng countered Wang Tuo’s view thatliterature should be a “champion of the underprivileged” and asserted that literature shouldbe based on morals and reflect basic human values.20 Peng maintained that xiangtuwenxue had lost its former spirit of purity and truth which had characterized this fiction inthe decade of the 1960s and that it had become degenerate and full of anger. Pengconcluded his discussion with the affirmation of the value of the intellectual as a vitalguarantee for freedom in society. He followed this with a caveat that literature not fall preyand be used as a tool for political purposes.Yu Guangzhong )i4i, on the other hand, contributed to the xiangtu wenxuecontroversy with his discussion on the concept of literature of “workers, peasants and19 Lau, “Echoes of the May Fourth Movement” 147.20 Peng Ge, “Bu tan renxing, he you wenxue?” in Taolwzji 248.Nativism Chap. Five213soldiers,” a variant form of which had recently appeared in the Taiwan arts scene. In“Wolf!” (Lang laile3, August 1977), Yu reminded his readers that this art form hadits roots in the political context of Mao Zedong’s Yan an Talks and warned againstconflating Taiwan’s local creations with Mao’s war of class struggle against “feudalism”and capitalism. Yu maintained that the high caliber of art produced by members of theTaiwan military was not due to class background but to artistic achievement alone.21 Yu’sdiscussion, however, barely concealed his charge that the pro-xiangtu wenxue faction,including Chen Yingzhen, Wang Tuo, et al., possessed a “Cry Wolf’ mentality. Before“capping” national writers with the various labels of “slave mentality,” “parasitic,”“compradore,” “foreign-loving,” “colonial,” etc., Yu warned that they should examine thecontent of their own “caps,”22 or, in other words, their Communist sympathies.The rampant and very real fear of Communism and Communist subversion in Taiwanwas, and still is, especially felt in government circles. In 1977, the xiangtu wenxuecontroversy predictably evoked a negative response on the part of the Nationalistgovernment. Hostile to anything that smacked of Communism, the government was leeryboth of xiangtu wenxue’s socialist content and of its criticism of the Guomindang’s“compradore” economic policy. If allowed to go unchecked, the movement couldconceivably undermine government policy and the Guomindang’s monopoly on power.Accordingly, on August 29, 1977, the Nationalist government convened a three-dayseminar entitled the Symposium of Literary Workers (Wenyi gongzuozhe zuotanhuiIf&!)which was ostensibly called for the purpose of declaring that Taiwanenjoyed artistic freedom under the Nationalists, in contrast to conditions on the Mainlandunder Communism.23 What emerged, however, was a debate over the affiliation of art21 Yu Guangzhong, “Lang Laile,” in Taolunji 265-266.22 Ibid. 267.23 Jing Wang 45.Nativism Chap. Five214and politics and the real fear on the part of the government that xiangtu wenxue had thepotential to call into being a “proletarian” literature. In the manifesto published by thesymposium, the government called down the charge of Communist subversion onto thisliterature:The enterprise of contemporary art and literature must payclose attention to the intelligence sources of our enemies.We have to propagate actively the arts and literature offreedom and humanity, a product of the cooperation of thewhole nation, and attack in full force the literature ofslavery, materialism and class struggle. We want to protectthe purity in the realm of our art, thoroughly smashing topieces the heresy of Communist literature and arts,uncovering the fallacious theories and distorted worksbewitched by Communism.25At the same time that the xiangtu wenxue movement was getting underway, agrassroots opposition political movement was also gaining momentum. This was theDangwai js (literally “outside the [Guomindang] party”) movement which was mostlyseparatist in political orientation, though a minor reunification faction did exist within thelarger movement. As a united front, the Dangwai lobbied for greater democratic andpolitical freedoms under the Nationalist government and was the forerunner of the variousreforms achieved in Taiwan during the decade of the 1980s.26 As one arm of the politicalmovement, the xiangtu wenxue movement also served as a forum for the dissemination ofthe ideas of the political movement. In 1978, two major writers of xiangtu wenxue, WangTuo and Yang Qingchu (1940- ), became discouraged by the slow rate of reformand social change which they originally conceived of accomplishing through their writing.Deserting the literary scene, they crossed over to the Dangwai political arena and became24 Ibid.25 Zhongyang ribao (September 1, 1977), cited in Jing Wang 45-46.26 For example, the abolition of Martial Law in 1988, which was followed soon after by the government’srecognition of the current opposition party, the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party).Nativism Chap. Five215actively engaged in politics and sought candidacy in the 1978 parliamentary elections. Thisevent signified even further the political nature of xiangru wenxue and its close affiliationwith reformist, opposition politics.Shortly after this, a number of events transpired which ultimately signalled the deathof both these movements in Taiwan. The first came in December of 1978 when the UnitedStates announced its intention to shift diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the People’sRepublic of China. With this announcement, the parliamentary elections were cancelled.Shortly after, the journal Xia chao was banned for one year, fictional works were alsoproscribed and an opposition politician was arrested and sentenced as an accomplice to acommunist spy. Finally, the Kaohsiung Incident of December 1979 provided thegovernment with the opportunity to quash both the literary and grassroots politicalmovements. Dangwai leaders were arrested, and along with these, the two writersmentioned above-- Wang Tuo and Yang Qingchu -- were also arrested. These eventsforeclosed the immediate activities of both the xiangtu wenxue and Dangwai movements,though the latter has since reemerged in the form of the legal opposition party, theDemocratic Progressive Party. Post-xiangtu wenxue literature in Taiwan has assumedother modes and genres more characteristic of post-modernist literature.Wang Zhenhe“Little Lin Comes to Taipei” (Xiao Lin lai Taipei, iJ]3f 1973)27 by WangZhenhe is one of the first stories to anticipate the shift ofxiangtu wenxue to its ideologicalstage. The narrative framework for this story is supplied by the rural-urban dichotomy,which is a legacy of Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue from the 1960s. These dynamics areevoked by the figure of Xiao Lin, who works as a company “gopher” (gongyou I) in27 Anthologized in Jiazhuang yi niuche 219-249.Nativism Chap. Five216the Taipei airlines corporation in the story. Xiao Lin represents that segment of the ruralpopulation which has migrated to the urban centre to seek employment in Taipei’s newly-emerged business and corporate sector. Lin comes from a background of rural penury,and the usurious squeezing of the countryside by the city, contrasted strongly with thesquandering excesses of the urban centre, constitute a primary theme of this story.Xiao Lin’s rural perspective in “Little Lin Comes to Taipei” contrasts with anotherkind of mythopoesis in this story: the “worship of things foreign” (chongyang meiwaij[Jj) which is the mentality of the company employees and is all too oftensynonymous with the nouveau riche outlook of Taiwan’s middle class. Sadly unaware ofthe meta-dynamics operating outside the little world of their company, specifically,Taiwan’s political betrayal by international interests, these ignorant, middle-class “imitationforeign devils” (jia yanguizi persist in their belief in the superiority of aWestern, particularly American, way of life. This ignorance is manifested through theirpursuit of the supposed utopian qualities of a Californian lifestyle, the advantages ofprocuring a foreign wife and the benefits of schooling their children in the American way.Xiao Lin discovers that possessing knowledge of English can also bring certain otheradvantages as well, for instance, a better position and higher salary in the company, andhis sympathetic concern for a long-term employee whose career has suffered from hisdeficiency in this area constitutes the type of humanist value in “Little Lin Comes to Taipei”which is characteristic of May Fourth. This value establishes a vital link between xiangtuwenxue and the earlier May Fourth legacy.Stylistically, “Little Lin Comes to Taipei” is classified as low burlesque.28 Thisclassification is based, in particular, on the author’s satire of the penchant of the “imitationforeign devils” for adopting English names.29 Wang makes use of a punning technique,28 Robert Yi Yang, “Form and Tone in Wang Zhen-ho’s Fiction” 140.29 The adoption of English names is found in other and earlier examples of Chinese fiction, for example, QianZhongshu’s Wei cheng. In this novel, however, the characters are not accorded the same mocking treatmentas in Wang’s short story.Nativism Chap. Five217for example, the name “Doris” to the ears of the unworldly narrator sounds like “to dumpgarbage” and is transcribed as “dao lese” JJ; “Nancy” in the story is “lan shi “!I or“rotten cadaver”; and “Douglas” is the even more farcical “&ioguolai lashi “jJmeaning “to shit backwards.”30 This particular technique is not common in other worksofxiangtu wenxue; it is, however, a channel allowing the author to give vent to his “lavaof spite and ire,”31 which, one could say, is typical of the 1970s xiangtu wenxuepolemics.Hwang Chun-ming32Hwang Chun-ming is a second writer whose fiction also took a sharp ideological turnin the 1970s. The critic Howard Goldblatt has delineated three phases in Hwang’s career,the third one of which overlaps with this turning-point to a more ideological focus in hisworks. In Goldblatt’s words, Hwang’s third phase is “urban-centred, more nationalisticand generally didactic.”33 The first story of Hwang’s under discussion is “Taste ofApples” (Pingguo de ziwei, n.d.)34 which is one of Hwang’s first stories ofthis phase. This story is less polemical than “Sayonara. Good-bye” (Sayonara. zaijian, ‘.J)1973) or the notorious novella Little Widow (Xiao Guafu, iJ J[30 Wang Zhenhe 221, 224.31 Yang 14132 During the xiangtu wenxue movement, Huang Chun-ming, Chen Yingzhen and Wang Tuo systematicallydenied that they were xiangtu zuojia. Hwang and Wang preferred to be called writers of realism.Howard Goldblatt, “The Rural Stories of Hwang Chun-ming” 111.Anthologized in Sayonara. zaijian, Yuanjing congkan 2 (Taipei: Yuanjing chubanshe, 1974): 27-57.Nativism Chap. Five2181975), both of which are discussed below; nonetheless, its tone suggests an incipientanti-Americanism which is systematically fleshed out in Hwang’s later fiction.“Taste of Apples” opens with an automobile accident: the bicycle ridden by thelabourer Jiang A-fa is hit by an American limousine as it enters a major intersection in thecity. At this point there is a disjuncture in the signifying configuration of the text: a hurriedphonecall is made to the U.S. embassy which introduces an open-ended discourse on U.STaiwan relations. While it is clear from this call that embassy personnel wish to avoid anincident, at the same time, it is also apparent that there is little likelihood of an incidentbeing made of this accident because of Taiwan’s compliant diplomatic attitude. From thisphonecall, it is obvious that Taiwan needs the U.S just as much as the U.S needs Taiwan:He won’t be in this morning.... Uh uh .... It’s of noconsequence. The Second Secretary can make a decision onthis.... Hmmm.... No, no, listen, you must understand --this is Asia! The other party was a labourer. Eh? --Hewas, wasn’t he?... Yes, a labourer! As I’ve said, it’s notworth losing our cool over. Eh?... Let me finish! Youthink the U.S wants to dirty its hands in something likethis?! Everyone back home goes along with this.... Ahhh,there’s nothing more to be said then. Just send him off!...Huh? Okay then, let me handle it.... Right, I’ll make a callright now.... Right, right! It’s settled then. So long!”36Next, Jiang A-fa’s wife, A-gui, and the couple’s children are spirited away bylimousine to the luxurious hospital where Jiang A-fa is hospitalized. These unsophisticatedcharacters from Taipei’s slums respond with spontaneity and ingenuity to the sparkling,new hospital surroundings. There is an obvious discrepancy implied in this story betweenthe facilities available for use by Taiwan’s underprivileged and those for the elite. Thisrecalls the summons for the equitable distribution of wealth-- the second item in Joseph“Sayonara . Good-bye” is anthologized in Sayonara . zaijian 127-190; Little Widow is anthologized inLittle Widow 93-213.36 Hwang28.Nativism Chap. Five219Lau’s schematization. In the hospital, the Jiang family is led to believe that Jiang A-fa’saccident is a blessing in disguise: not only are the medical expenses taken on by theAmerican, Colonial Gurley, but the family is awarded or, properly speaking, bribed, witha healthy sum of twenty thousand dollars. In fact, Jiang A-fa is reminded over and overthat he should thank his lucky stars that he was hit by an American and not by someoneelse. At this point, the narrator relates ironically that A-fa intoned his thanks, “tearful withgratitude.” 37The ironic tone established in “Taste of Apples” is maintained throughout the story toits conclusion. The narrative relates that there are other benefits which accrue to the Jiangfamily, for instance, apples, which were a luxury item in Taiwan at the time of the story.The children eye these apples which are set out on the table next to their father’s bed.Reminded of their worth-- one apple is worth four catty of rice-- each child bites into oneas they had seen apples being eaten on TV. These apples are symbolic not only of Taiwan-U.S relations but also of Taiwan’s smashed hopes and dreams in aspiring after Americanpatronage. As the omniscient narrator relates, the apples are “not as sweet and juicy asthey had imagined them to be. They were dry and mealy. One chewed and a little juicecame but it didn’t seem real somehow.”When the children remind themselves of the value of theapples, however, the taste seems to improve, and the story ends with a repeated “Choomp!” ringing through the room.The issue of Taiwan’s international relations is also the central theme of HwangChun-ming’s “Sayonara. Good-bye.” This story created an enormous sensation when itappeared in 1974, not just because of this issue but also because of its subject matterdealing with sex and prostitution which are generally considered to be taboo by the“ Thid.53.38 Ibid. 57.Nativism Chap. Five220conservative Chinese public. Hwang Chun-ming is known, rightly or wrongly, for hisfeminist sympathies, which were manifested as early as 1967 in his short story “Sea-Watching Days” (Kan hai de rizi, 1967) about a veteran Taiwaneseprostitute named Baimei. In “Sayonara . Good-bye,” however, the issue of women’srights is presented somewhat differently. They are related, instead, to Taiwan’sdependent, semi-colonial status under Japanese and American capitalist business interests.Deficient in raw materials, Taiwan is ever in need of foreign exchange with which toprocure these essentials to meet the needs of its ever-growing industrial sector. Currently,and in the decades under discussion, this need is met primarily through the sale of finished,industrial products. A second source of this exchange, however, and one in which thegovernment collaborated at the time of the story derived from the hostessing function ofChinese women who were manipulated, or “nationalized” in the terminology of the time, tomeet the sexual demands of the visiting foreign businessmen. The bars, nightclubs, dancehalls and spas which proliferated in response to this demand is testimony to the importanceof this sector of Taiwan’s population in meeting the needs of Taiwan’s national businessinterests. The criticism of the sexual exploitation of Chinese women in this context in“Sayonara. Good-bye” was just one aspect of the critique of the overall pattern ofTaiwan’s international business relations. In this story, this exploitation takes the form ofa Japanese sex tour which is a spin-off of this theme.In “Sayonara. Good-bye,” the protagonist, Mr. Hwang, is compelled by theadvertising company he works for to act as pimp for the Japanese “Thousand BeheadingsClub” (Sennin gin kurubu), a group of seven business clients from Japan. This clubderives its raison d’etre from the original samurai ideal of killing one thousand men;however, as the Samurai Code no longer exists today, the objective of the club members,or “Seven Samurai,” has been transmuted into the ideal of sleeping with one thousandAnthologized in Sayonara . zaiflan 59-126.Nativism Chap. Five221different women. Each man is equipped with a special “magic oil of India” and a memobook in which he records the “name of the girl, a description of her figure, how thelovemaldng went,”4°and so on, together with a space where he can affix one of the girl’spubic hairs with tape. With the reluctant “Hwang kun” in tow, the Japanese set off to visitand bask in the local amenities offered by the hot spring resort at Zhaoxi.41Hwang kun avenges himself on the Japanese in the final section of the story which isentitled “Japan’s Longest Day.” Joseph Lau points out that the protagonist in “Sayonara.Good-bye” is a Chinese familiar with the role of the Japanese in modem Chinese history.42His grandfather’s leg had been smashed by the Japanese during the Pacific War, and inhigh school he had seen pictures of the Rape of Nanking and other Japanese atrocities.Throughout his assignment, Hwang is compelled to swallow back his hatred and to servethe Japanese in such a way that brings humiliation on himself and on his female Taiwanesecompatriots. But his opportunity for revenge comes on the train on the way back to Taipeifrom Zhaoxi. During a chance encounter with a young student who introduces himself tothe Japanese in order to further his academic interests, Hwang kun succeeds in his intentto “turn their pleasure into anguish.”43 Not only does he get the Japanese clients to admitto the war atrocities, he also has them acknowledge Japan’s current economic aggressionagainst Taiwan. At the same time that he does this, Hwang also succeeds in giving theChinese student a lesson in patriotism. The aims of Chinese nationalism are thus met in“Sayonara. Good-bye”s comic ending. The only individuals for whom accounts haveyet to be settled are the Chinese women who suffered the greatest degree of humiliation.40 Hwang Chun-mmg, “Sayonara. Tsai-chien,” in Drowning of an Old Cat and Other Stories 259.41 Kun is an informal Japanese term of address for a younger man.Zhaoxi is a resort offering sulphur baths and prostitution located on Taiwan’s northeast coast.42 Joseph Lau, “Echoes of the May Fourth Movement” 140.Hwang 267.44 Northrop Frye defines comedy as the resolution of the action and the emergence of a new society. (Frye 163.)Nativism Chap. Five222This, however, is not even mentioned as an issue in the text, and the fact that it is not isindicative of the sublimation of female gender difference under the privileging of Chinesenational interests. The concept of gender difference arises as a separate issue only infiction by women such as Li Ang.45The nationalization of women is also the theme of Hwang Chun-ming’s LittleWidow. This novella replicated the confrontational stance vis-’a-vis the foreign presencein Taiwan which was displayed in Hwang’s “Sayonara. Good-bye,” though in the case ofthe Little Widow, the presence is American. This anti-foreign motif in Hwang’s stories ledJoseph Lau to comment that Huang Chunming’s stories represent a “conscious reactionagainst the demoralization of Taiwan life through American and Japanese culturalinfiltration.”46The plotline of Little Widow can be summarized as follows: In 1968, the island ofTaiwan was drawn into the Far East zone as a Rest and Recreation (R & R) centre for theAmerican troops stationed in the Viet Nam theatre of war. This event led to the furthermushrooming of bars and nightclubs throughout many cities in Taiwan as well as theintensification of hostessing activities. The “Little Widow” is one such bar which wascreated as the result of a new concept in the nightclub industry, one which aimed at beingas competitive as possible in the struggle to attract American military patronage. LittleWidow is a vivid and humanistic portrayal both of Taiwan’s prostitutes and the anguish ofthe American GIs stationed in Viet Nam. It is a piece of hard-core political reality: thereality of war, drugs and prostitution as well as the rock-bottom despair born of thehopeless situation of the US involvement in Indochina. The novella opens with the year1968:For instance, Li Ang’s novel Shafu (The Butcher’s Wife, 1983)46 Joseph Lau, “Echoes of the May Fourth Movement” 139.Nativism Chap. Five223In 1968, US President Johnson prescribed record-highnumbers of American military personnel for service in theViet Nam theatre of war. When involvement numberedmore than five hundred thousand, Taiwan was drawn intothe Far East zone as a Rest and Recreation centre for theAmerican troops. Taiwan’s previously sluggish bar andnightclub industiy immediately began to flourish as thoughseeing the sun for the first time. Bars mushroomed inTaipei, Keelung, Kaohsiung and other places. Even remoteHualien which had never before even possessed a bar,boasted about its new industry. Public teahouses undertookminor renovation to their exterior: neon signs with Englishwording were installed which blinked on and off like an eye,and lo and behold! -- A bar was created! With a flick of thehand, tea attendants were transformed into bar girls. Thequestion raised was whether this change in status was apromotion? If not, what was it? The tea attendants-cum-bargirls were themselves at sea about this. Nonetheless, deepinside, each one of them felt a delicious, unspeakable thrillof excitement.47The newly-created bargiris are provided with previously unneeded types of cosmeticsand a portable cosmetic case like those used by movie stars. The girls are also given animpromptu education consisting of pep talks which are designed to prepare them for theirnew duties. The boss of the bar, Huang Laoban, baptises each of them with an Englishname, teaches them how to pronounce it, and even encourages them to dye their hair redand get a “nose job.”48 These strategies are designed to augment the girls’ allure and tomold them for their new hostessing activities with Americans.The major alteration to the enterprise, however, is the introduction of a “concept”49aimed at beautifying the so-called “special business operation” and causing it totranscend the usual lewd connotations of “bar.” The brainchild of the concept is MaShanxing, a returned American scholar whose explication of his strategy in the section ofHwang 93-94.48 This operation involved inserting a piece of ivory into the nose to build up the bridge. A second one aimed atthe creation of “double eyelids” shuangyan p1. Both operations were designed to endow a client withAmerican-style facial features, considered the stardard for beauty at the time.This word is in English in the original text.Nativism Chap. Five224the novella entitled “Summit Talks” is punctuated by his abundant use of English terms,such as “concept,” “charming,” “oral communication,” “publicity,” “catch phrase,” “bodycopy” and so on. These words, like the adopted English names of the “imitation foreigndevils” in “Little Lin comes to Taipei,” are symptomatic of Ma’s foreign-loving mentalityand serve to successfully impress his audience with his U.S.-acquired knowledge. MaShanxing’s concept clearly embodies all the semiological ramifications of Barthes’“consciousness of the sign” with its symbolic, paradigmatic, and syntagmatic levels ofmeaning.5° Its motif of institutionalized widowhood evokes not only a plethora ofnuances rich in meanings and taboos but also embody a hidden eroticism designed totitillate and arouse the curiosity of the American GIs. Not only is the bar’s previous nameof “Lucian” replaced with “Little Widow” but the bargiris themselves masquerade as Qingstyle Chinese widows abiding by the traditional precepts regarding chastity. As a finalcoup, “Little Widow” is suggestively advertised in the local papers. All these “new warstrategies” stem from the hope that this will pave the way for these entrepreneurs to“fight their way to the front ranks” of the bar and nightclub industzy.51The bulk of the long narrative of Little Widow is taken up with the hard life of theprostitutes, their romantic involvements and the children conceived from theseinvolvements. It also describes the hardships of the American military clientele, thesolders’ war experiences in Viet Nam and the solace they find in the company of thewomen in the Little Widow. A subtheme of the story is the entrepreneurial successes ofthe soulless, opportunistic Ma Shanxing who is as indifferent to the suffering around himas the Fat Boy in Pickwick. Ma’s impassiveness contrasts with the humanism of thebargirl, Feifei, and the GI, Billy, two characters caught up in the storms and turbulence ofthe times. After being honourably discharged from the army, Billy returns to the bar to50 Roland Barthes, “The Imagination of the Sign,’ in A Barthes Reader, ed. Susan Sontag (New York: Hill andWang, 1982): 212.51 Hwang 105.Nativism Chap. Five225find Feifei and to show his gratitude to her: Billy believes that Feifei was responsible forhis survival in an incident with a mine during the war. The two are reunited and climb intoa taxi which speeds down Zhongshan North Road, bringing to a conclusion a complex andmoving saga of bar life during a unique period in Taiwan’s modern history. Thisconclusion of Little Widow is characterized by the pathos and open-endedness whichfeature the endings of most of Hwang Chun-ming’s fiction.Zeng Xinvij (1948- )The theme of the nationalization of women continues in the stories of Zeng Xinyi.52Zeng attained great distinction during the xiangtu wenxue movement for her stories withbar and dance hall settings, one at least of which was dramatized in the late 1970s. Zengwas the daughter of a bargirl, and she was herself a taxi dancer, thus she possessed firsthand knowledge of this world of Taiwan’s society which she brilliantly transcribes into herfiction. Her literary achievements and the sociopolitical messages of her fiction squaredprecisely with the ideological concerns of the xiangiu wenxue movement. They made ofthis writer one of the chief contributors to this movement.Zeng’s stories with bar settings include “Xu Wei in the Bar” (Jiubajian de Xu Wei,j4I*,n.d.).53 This story centres on the little bar world in the northern porttown of Keelung. This port town was not only a source for American-made goods whichcontributed to a brisk trade on the black market, but it was also a port of entry for AmericanGIs serving in Viet Nam who were then transferred to Taiwan for Rest and Recreation.These GIs were a major clientele of the bar; nonetheless, Xu Wei in the story cannot bearto watch the corruption of Chinese women at the hand of these foreigners and hopelessly52 The following discussion can also be found in my article, “Representation of Women in Chinese Fiction:the Female body Subdued, Re(s)trained, (Dis)posessed.Anthologized in Wo ai boshi, Yuanjing congkan 80 (Yuanjing chubanshe, 1977): 17-40.Nativism Chap. Five226desires to exact his revenge. The sublimation of female gender difference in this story byZeng once again points to the priority of national interests during this period of Taiwanhistory. The world of the dance hail, bargirls, drugs and jail are themes repeated in otherstories by Zeng, such as “Women of the Tower” (Gelouli de nUren,Though Zeng Xingyi is the author of at least three collections, her reputation as awriter derived principally from her well-known “I Love the Professor” (Wo ai Boshi,f , 1976) which, among all her works, attained the highest accolades during thexiangtu wenxue movement. It was rumoured that the source for this story derived fromthe author’s own life experience; however, it is also equally probable that this conceptionarose from the erroneous conflation of the author with the fictional narrator. This is a usualpractice in Chinese criticism.In “I Love the Professor,” the various exploitative ramifications of Taiwan’sinternational business relations, including the sexual manipulation of women, is reinforcedat home through the Taiwan “nativist elite.” The conflicting dynamics which mark therelations between the nativist elite and the nationalized female population is apparently aburden not uncommon in other semi-colonized Asian societies, for instance, post-colonialIndia, in which one scholar refers to the nationalized female population as the “genderedsubaltern.”56 In “I Love the Professor,” the representative of the nativist elite is aWesternized scholar named Zhang who returns to Taiwan after obtaining a doctorate fromHarvard. The “subaltern,” who speaks through the “I”-narrator, is an office worker who,since childhood, has idolized learning and believed that, equipped with learning, she wouldAnthologized in Wo ai boshi 79-94.Anthologized in Wo ai boshi 157-202.56 Gayatri Spivak’s keyote address entitled “Postcolonia]ism, Resistence and the Gendered Subaltern” which shedelivered at the August 10, 1988 International Summer Institute for Semiotic and Structural Studiesat UBC, Vancouver, BC, presented an almost exact parallel of this phenomenon in a piece of fiction frompost-colonial India.Nativism Chap. Five227be “adept at understanding and dealing with worldly affairs.”Attracted to Zhang as “honest and upright” and a “charming intellectual, hardworking and enthusiastic,” ¶, , the narrator engages in a loveaffair.“I Love the Professor” is largely devoted to descriptions of the tender interactionsbetween the lovers, doubts as to Zhang’s sincerity on the part of the narrator and thecolonized woman’s idolization of academe. Her colonization, accordingly, is of two kinds:the first which results from the unequal balance of power between herself and the returnedscholar and the second which exists between herself and the power-ridden institutes ofacademe. In the first instance, the “I” in the story recognizes that Zhang is an elite:“[Zhang] oozed with the easy fortunes of the affluent. He had the self-confidence andWesternized air of the returned scholar.... He had the ample confidence and authority ofthe elitist intellectual.” [] , Ithii 59 His elitism contrasts strongly with herstatus as an office worker. In the second place, the “I” perceives the doctoral degree as asymbol of her own quest for knowledge: “I had always pursued the truth-- this was theultimate belief and greatest meaning of my life.” :tfIUi,60 This knowledge, however, is largely inaccessible to this woman, denied herby her limited economic and social resources. Nonetheless, when Zhang abandons her fora Cantonese girl, the subaltern, overcome by a “grisly” sense of shame, throws herself intoher studies. She prepares to take the joint entrance exam for university, and when shefinds that she has been admitted to a department she likes, she is “delirious with joy.”61Zeng 180.58 Ibid 158.Ibid. 160-161.60 Ibid. 174.61 Ibid. 180.Nativism Chap. Five228Overshadowed by this happiness, the pain she has suffered gradually subsides. Thenarrative concludes with the subaltern’s growing awareness of her dependence, anawareness ultimately conferred upon her by her brief encounter with power.Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue during the 1970s evolved into more than a variant nativistinquiry into ruralism, such as China’s rural regionalism or Taiwan’s earlier ruralistindictment of modernization. Instead, this fiction acquired a political coloration, whichwas nationalist or socialist, or, what is more accurate, a combination of elements oftraditional xenophobia with a call for reform. The politicization of this fiction led to itsacclamation by its supporters as “literature of resistance,” “literature of exposure” and eventhe problematical “literature of workers, peasants, soldiers.” On the other hand, this samepolitical coloration also led to its vilification by its detractors as “proletarian literature” aswell as its equation with Communism. The division of the Taiwan reading public into twopolitical camps by this movement, which mirrored the two internal factions of reunificationand separatism, was also a unique feature of this period of xiangtu wenxue. In sum, thecomplexity of discourse of Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue during the 1 970s goes beyond theusual connotations of “nativism.”Over and above these concerns is the fact that this literature was produced byindividuals who evinced an unusually high degree of political awareness, and theseindividuals transcribed this awareness into their fiction. Whether these individuals can belabelled “intellectuals” in the traditional Chinese sense or whether they are writers in thepost-May Fourth evolution of the term, they all hail from a broad cross-section of Taiwansociety: they are office workers, factory workers, business people, taxi dancers andfisherfollc. Accordingly, they write about those sectors of Taiwan’s population with whichthey are most familiar, that is, bargiris, workers, slum dwellers, fisherfolk and officeworkers. The subsequent range of characterization in this fiction brings to mind WangNativism Chap. Five229Tuo’s comment that xiangtu wenxue comprises narratives about all aspects of Taiwaneselife.WanTuoAs mentioned above, Wang Tuo was not only a writer; he was also a theorist and anactivist who did his utmost to put his political ideals into action. Wang’s sense of socialand political justice and his advocacy of social welfare reforms stemmed in part from hisimpoverished family background. The son of a poor Taiwanese fisherman, Wang wascompelled to learn the trade himself at a young and impressionable age. This backgroundgave him a deep awareness of the disparity of privileges between the haves and have-notsin society which angered him so much as a child that he would “pick up a stone and hit thewindow of some ‘unfriendly family’ with all his might.”62 Wang recalls in this interviewthat, “If I heard a loud cracking sound, I immediately took to my feet. If I missed it, Iwould pick up the second and third stone. Not until that hated window was smashedwould I run away.”63 This type of experience set the tone for Wang’s fiction and for hispolitical activity in which he became engaged in later in life.In this interview, Wang gives evidence of an “expanded socio-politicalconsciousness.”M This is the type of consciousness which the Nationalists feared wouldlead to the emergence of a “proletarian” literature in Taiwan. At the same time, the moralrole of the writer and the self-imposed mission which Wang Tuo aspired to echo with LuXun-like sentiments and with Lu Xun’s reformist view of literature.65 During the62 QuotedinL.au 145.6364 Jing Wang 45.65 Leo Lee writes in Voicesfrom the Iron House that more than any other writer, Lu Xun exemplified “the self-imposed moral burden of being a critical conscience on behalf of society vis-a-vis the [Chinese] politicalestablishment.” (Leo Lee, Voices from the Iron House 133.)Nativism Chap. Five230Dangwai movement, Wang Tuo became convinced that literature was unable to performthe role of social reform that he so earnestly assigned to it, and he temporarily gave up hisliterary aspirations for participation in the arena of politics. After his arrest and while hewas serving his prison sentence for his part in the Kaohsiung Incident, Wang Tuosubsequently disavowed these activities and once again took to writing fiction.Many of Wang Tuo’s works centre on Taiwan’s fishing village, modelled after hishome town of Badouzi, Keelung, and on the difficult lives of Taiwan’s fisherfolk. WangTuo conceptualized the problems of the fishing village as one link in the whole spectrum ofsocial problems. When other problems do not meet with resolution, Wang theorized, thisproblem is also not resolved.66 “The Explosion” (Zha, 9 1973) is one such example ofthis theory.67 This is a story about rural poverty, economic powerlessness and greedwhich combine to make “The Explosion” a tragedy.“The Explosion” opens with all the dramatic elements of Lao She’s “The Teahouse,”though in this case the setting is not a teahouse but the gambling parlour of the Xingwanggrocery store in a little fishing village called Aodi. The young fisherman, Chen Shuisheng,has just gambled away the proceeds from the sale of his wife’s carefully-cultivated crop ofsweet potatoes. Shuisheng was originally hoping to win the balance of his son’s schoolfee which was due the next day; instead he has lost every penny of his wife’s one hundredand eighty yuan. Overcome by remorse, Shuisheng’s greatest fear is that his son will nownot be able to attend school and must spend his life in this poverty-stricken fishing village,forced like his father to live his life in insolvency. Chen Shuisheng turns for solace to theharbour and his sampan where he broods over his future and that of his son.Eventually, the fisherman finds his way back to the Xingwang gambling parlour andponders whether he should borrow the needed funds from Xingwang Sao, the wife of the66 Roger H.C. Lin, “Wang Tuo pingzhuan”, unpuhi. ms.67 Anthologized in Jinshui shen (Taipei: Xiangcaoshan chuban gongsi, 1976): 129-164.Nativism Chap. Five231storekeeper. If he borrows it, it will take him more than five years to return the interestalone; if he doesn’t, his son will be denied an education. Shuisheng approaches XingwangSao who reminds him that he already owes her three thousand five hundred and sixty-twoyuan. She agrees to lend him the required amount but on the condition that ChenShuisheng brings his son forward as collateral for the loan. The proprietress hadfeverishly wished for a son ever since her own had died a number of years previously, butChen Shuisheng is appalled by the suggestion. He storms out, and “The Explosion”swiftly descends to its tragic denouement: Chen Shuisheng decides to engage in the illegaland dangerous method of catching fish with explosives (zha yu ).68In the final scene, Chen Shuisheng’s emaciated form lies bleeding and unconsciousin the hospital, wounded by explosives. Nonetheless, the police continue to interrogatehim about the source of the explosives and who else is hiding them in the village.Xingwang Sao, fearing that Chen Shuisheng will die without repaying her loan, also putsin an appearance at his bedside. Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, she turns herfootsteps in the direction of his broken-down cottage. All she finds of value there,however, is his Chen Shuisheng’s sleeping child whom she wraps up with a blanket andplans to abduct. At this point, the avaricious impulses of this archetypical Chinese usurerare overcome by humanistic sentiment, and Xingwang Sao begins to weeps, questioningthe morality of her action. “The “Explosion” concludes with the repeated cries of the policealert, warning of a raid. In sum, this story is more than a work of simple village realism:the cruel practice of traditional usury supplies the element of “anti-feudalism” which makes“The Explosion” a part of modern Chinese literature. In Wang Tuo’s own words, thispiece of fiction reflects the world of real life of “tragedy, struggle and conflict” which, inthis case, are engendered by class oppression.68 Taiwan was under Martial Law at the time of this story was written; accordingly, possession and sale ofexplosives and weapons was strictly forbidden by law.Nativism Chap. Five232“Aunt Jinshui,” (Jinshui Shen 1975),69 on the other hand, is set in theauthor’s home village of Badouzi. This story centres on the travails of Aunt Jinshui who ismodelled after the author’s own mother.70 This elderly woman, who is a mother of fourgrown sons, makes her living vending household goods. According to the tenets of filialpiety, Aunt Jinshui should be enjoying her old age with the support of her financiallysecure sons, one of whom is a banker and another of whom is a successful commercialfisher. Instead, she hawks soap, underwear and cookies through the byways of Badouzi.As the narrative proceeds, the discrepancy between Aunt Jinshui’s virtue and poverty andthe lack of fihiality of her sons becomes clear: she is forced to live in a tumble-down, leakyshack while her sons reside in large, newly-constructed homes in the urban centre ofKeelung. At night, Aunt Jinshui lies down in the dark room, for which she is loath even tospare the money to install electric lights, and listens to the “di-dang” of the raindrops asthey drip into a tin bucket upon the bed. Outside, the sea wind moans “hoo-hoo.” AuntJinshui has martyred her life for her sons and they, in turn, have forsaken her.Calamity arises when it becomes Aunt Jinshui’s turn to make her payment to theneighbourhood loan association.7’ In a sustained flashback, the story reveals that AuntJinshui’s eldest son had come to her on a previous occasion and had asked her for her lifesavings to invest in a business venture. Unfortunately, the other party in the venture, aminister, has defrauded them of their total assets which came to one million five hundredthousand yuan. Now, Aunt Jinshui is unable to produce even the meagre four or fivehundred yuan required by the hui . One day, she sets out to the urban centre of Keelong69 Anthologized in Jinshui shen 189-256.70 Wang Tuo revealed this information in a conversation in Taipei at which I was present during the xiangtuwenxue movement. He also stated that there is a strong similarly between Aunt Jinshui’s sons in “AuntJinshui” and his own brothers.‘ The hui is a voluntary private banking cooperative in which each member puts in a fixed amount. The drawerof the decreasing monthly totals is the person who bids the highest interest rate. The hut organizer takes thetotal of the contributions, interest-free, the first month.Nativism Chap. Five233to borrow the money from her eldest son. There, however, she meets with a chillyreception and is forced to retreat home with nothing to show for her pains. That night, herhusband dies from wounds sustained from a fistfight he had engaged in on account of theirfinances, and Aunt Jinshui is left all alone in this world. Hounded further by her creditors,she disappears.On Mazu’s birthday that spring, the narrative reveals that Aunt Jinshui has beenworking as a domestic in Taipei and has made her payment to the hui. She also plans torepay the other debts incurred by the family. The story concludes with Aunt Jinshui,apparently as happy, light-hearted and hopeful as when she was vending her goods inBadouzi.The critic Jing Wang maintains that Aunt Jinshui’s suffering arose because of her“submissive, superstitious and fatalistic” attitude and that she was a “suffering Buddhaincarnate.., the very embodiment of love and hope.”72 In brief, Wang’s interpretationstems from his (mis)reading of a Chinese female ideal in the light of a stereotypical formulaabout female behaviour based on a patriarchal ideal. Reading the text in this way is to denythe character her larger symbolic significance. The tenet governing Chinese femalebehaviour stems from the Confucian code of the “three obediences and four virtues”(sancong side []), according to which a woman must obey her father in childhood,her husband in marriage and her sons in old age. In this story, Aunt Jinshui is constrainedinto servitude by this dictum and puts the demands and interests of her sons before herown.A second source for the distress of this character, however, lies in the corruptinginfluences of modernization which affect Taiwan society and her sons in particular. AuntJinshui’s Sons have become so corrupted by modernization that they put their own greedahead of their weak promptings of filiality. The processes of modernization are so strong72 Jing Wang 65.Nativism Chap. Five234in “Aunt Jinshui” that they have eroded this most traditional and deep-rooted of values inChinese society. The loss of this and other values in “Aunt Jinshui” is the reason thatmany critics refer to Taiwanese xiangtu wenxue as “conservative.”Wang Tuo’s “A Young Country Doctor” (Yige nianqing de xiangxia yisheng,1974), on the other hand, rings with echoes from Lu Xun’s “My OldHome.” The “I”-narrator of this story is a journalist in the city who has been assigned byhis office to write a story on local mining and sea mishaps. Accordingly, he returns to hisrural home of Nanliaozi, a little mining and fishing town filled with the briney smell of thesea on Taiwan’s northern coast, and also the place he had left ten years previously. Likethe narrator in Lu Xun’s “My Old Home,” the “I”-narrator in “A Young Country Doctor”finds that many things have changed in his country home. He expects to find clusters ofsilvery pampas grass dotting the hillside, swaying gently in the golden sunshine and aplace “full of sunlight and joy” 3 3‘JIjj ;74 however, he soon discovers that thisplace exists in his childhood memory only. Before him are “dust-blackened earthen walls”“piles of gray ash in the colliery grounds” J—f—f±iand an expression of “dark suffering and hopelessthe faces of his relatives,75 the latter reminiscent of the faces of the narrator’s relatives in“My Old Home.” In Taipei, this journalist wrote stories about movie stars and MCs who“raked in NT$1O,000 per nightly show.” LJ1,. 76 Thus, he had come toimagine that even his own village must be enjoying its share of the fruits of economicprosperity. Instead, the terrible backwardness he finds is proof that progress has notextended down to the far reaches of Nanliaozi; instead, the mine of Nanliaozi has dried up‘ Anthologized in Jinshui shen 165-187.‘ WangTuo 167.Ibid. 165.76 Ibid. 166.Nativism Chap. Five235and the village is even more backward than before. As in “My Old Home,” the narrator of“A Young Country Doctor” finds, too, that he is equated with the urban “Other” and isrejected. He is addressed as “sir” even by the venerable village elder Tho-hoai Pe-Konginstead of by the more familiar “Tiam-jin-a,”77 which compels the narrator to remark:“Nothing has changed about the abominable reality of Nanziliao’s descent into poverty.What has changed is the communal affection of childhood friendship that I cherish in mymemory. This has vanished behind some invisible barrier.” .—t)JS?’ PJ1*t—i1Mj378Over and above its parallels with “My Old Home,” “A Young Country Doctor” is anexample of Wang Tuo’s political ideals transcribed into action. This idealism is realizedthrough the character of Yixiong (Gi-hiong-a in Hokkien), a classmate of Tiam-jin-a’s,who was the only village son to succeed in graduating from the Medical Department ofNational Taiwan University. Yixiong is led by his idealism to decline an offer of a postwith a handsome salary made available to him by a private hospital in Taipei. He has alsocast aside a scholarship by an American university. Ignoring the warning of his teachersthat he is throwing away his career, he instead models himself after Albert Schweitzer andtakes the humanitarian decision of returning to his impoverished, backward village to serveas its one and only doctor. Ultimately, however, the loneliness and poverty Yixiongexperiences because of the village’s limited resources turn his initial euphoria to bitterness,all of which implies that without adequate welfare and other types of economic and socialprograms to back up a decision of this sort a sacrifice of the type undertaken by Yixiong isin vain.77 I have followed the Taiwanese nomenclature as it appears in the text; thus the romanization of the personalnames is carried out in the standard Hokkien transcription.78 Wang 182.Nativism Chap. Five236Wang Tuo’s “A Young Middle School Teacher” (Yige nianqing de zhongxuejiaoyuan, 1977)79 has a slightly different theme than “A YoungCountry Doctor.” This stoiy chronicles the disillusionment on the part of a young teacherwith the frivolous, commercialized vanities of his colleagues. During the xiangtu wenxuemovement, however, “A Young Middle School Teacher” was upstaged by Wang Tuo’s“Awaiting your Return” (Wang jun zao gui, S- 1977), which was regarded as a rareepic in the history of Taiwan fiction.80 Like Wang Tuo’s other works, “Awaiting yourReturn” evolved out of this writer’s first-hand understanding of the problems of the fishingvillage and Taiwan’s oppressive class relations. In this story, the misfortunes andsuffering of the fisherfolk are traced to the excesses of the propertied class, in this case, theboat owners who exploit the labour of the fisherfolk and, when disaster strikes, refuse topay out compensation. These owners line their pockets and thereby perpetuate their powerin the village. “Awaiting your Return” is unique in that the villagers in this story takethings into their own hands and enforce certain changes.“Awaiting your Early Return” narrates how a young fishennan by the name of Wanfuhas drowned at sea in a typhoon. The boat owners refuse to take responsibility for theaccident or to make equitable compensation to the bereaved families. Wanfu’s wife,Qiulan, goes daily to Wanfu’s fishing company and the Fisherman’s Association81 fornews of her husband, but her action is to no avail: the typhoon blows over and there is nosign of Wanfu. In the meantime, the families of the missing crew from the boats Huafeng‘ Anthologized in Wang jun zao gui 119-176.80 Anthologized in Wang jun zao gui 189-246.The use of the term “epic” should be taken lightly here. M.H. Abrams defines “epic” as a “long narrativepoem on a great and serious subject, told in an elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figureon whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race.” (M.H. Abrams 51.) Strictlyspeaking, there is no such form in Chinese and Taiwanese literature.81 This is a civic body comprising the owners of the fishing boats or heads of fishing boat companies and thefishermen.Nativism Chap. Five237I and Huafeng II also crowd into the company offices for news and to pressure thecompany to accept responsibility for the loss and to send out a search party. However, thecompany does not budge; instead, it metes out a paltry compensation to the families whoeventually yield and accept this offer. At last, the villagers can take no more. Under theleadership of Qiu Yongfu, an employee of the Fisherman’s Association, they resolve tocarry out organized resistance and to stand up to the boat owners. The enraged villagersstage a demonstration which ends with the sacking of the Qingchang Fishing BoatCompany. Although the results of the demonstration are not narrated in the story, thereader can assume that the mob successfully smashes the paternalistic holdings andpractices of the boat owners and establishes greater democracy in the village. This act inthe story reflects Wang Tuo’s theory of the positive effects of political action and his desirefor social justice. The author’s dedication at the beginning of “Awaiting your Return” is apoignant testimony of his motivation in writing this story:This story is dedicated to Third Brother who met his deathat sea seven years ago. My greatest respect goes out to mysister-in-law who has undergone untold hardship anddeprivation during this time in order to raise my nephewsand nieces. The sufferings and heartache of seven longyears is inconceivable to the outsider. Her courage andspirit of determination are a very telling example of thestrength of ordinary Chinese women.82Yang OingchuWang Zhenhe, Hwang Chun-ming and Zeng Xinyi write about urban Taipei whileWang Tuo describes the little-known world of Taiwan’s fishing villages. A fourth writerofxiangtu wenxue fills an important gap left by these writers: this is Yang Qingchu,82 WangTuo 189.Nativism Chap. Five238Taiwan’s “working-class writer,” who writes almost exclusively about Taiwan’s factoryworld and the workers who pass their lives in this world. As a writer of xiangtu wenxue,Yang also wrote about prostitutes, peasants, entrepreneurs and intellectuals, besidesfactory workers; however, it is the predominance of the latter in his fiction which gave riseto his popular “working-class” epithet. Yang Qingchu’s works are an extensivedocumentation of the processes of industrialization in rural and small-town Taiwan whichbrought about the disintegration of Taiwan’s traditional lifestyle. In this process of rapidchange, individuals, including peasant families, met with destruction to their lifestyle whileothers experienced a complete metamorphosis of their lives based on the new productiverelations. In the words of one critic, Yang Qingchu’s depiction of this transformation ofTaiwanese society is more vivid than “volumes of social science monographs”83 andconstitutes the primary reason for Yang Qingchu’s classification as a xiangtu zuojia.Yang Qingchu has also been described as a writer of modernization.84 Though theconnotations of this term are very broad, the designation in this case derives from Yang’srepresentation of social change which has been engendered by industrialism. Two ofYang’s stories depict the change in fortune experienced by two farming families in Taiwanwhich resulted from the growing emphasis on industry over agriculture. The shift ingovernment priority given to industry arose as a consequence of Taiwan’s successful landreform of the 1950s which was initially intended to create a surplus to support industrialgrowth. According to the economic philosophy then current, industrial growth at the timewas based on food processing which, in turn, was intended to support agriculturaldevelopment. As industrialization proceeded, however, new industries developed whichconcentrated on the local manufacture of goods which were then being imported. With theeventual saturation of the local market with these goods, the government subsequently set83 Thomas B. Gold, “The Modernization of Taiwan as Reflected in the Stories of Yang Qingchu”, Preface toYang Qingchu xiaoshuo xuan , Tr. Thomas B. Gold (Kaohsiung, Taiwan: Tur-li Publishing Co., 1978): 6.84Nativism Chap. Five239out to improve the investment climate. Taiwan’s continued, stable growth and itssuccessful export-oriented economy can be attributed to the island’s attraction as aninvestment haven but in the process Taiwan’s agriculture declined and could no longeroffer the viable lifestyle to Taiwan’s farmers that it once could. In the 1960s and 1970syoung people turned more and more to the industrial sector, abandoning the land and thelifestyle associated with it in order to become wage earners. A fictional account of theabandonment of the land in rural Taiwan is the theme of Yang Qingchu’s “Twilight in the85Fields (Lu yuan de huanghun, jju’ 1972).In “Twilight in the Fields,” there are only a few members of this once prosperousfarming family who are willing to till the soil, and as a consequence, the land has to be soldoff. The father of the family in the story has remained working on the farm while hisbrothers have prospered in industry. His eldest son, Shirong, likewise has stayed on thefann to enable his two younger siblings to receive advanced educations. As the narrativeunfolds, Shirong discovers that his sacrifice has also brought him a lifetime ofbachelorhood: as girls are no longer willing to be farmers or the wives of farmers, farmingboys, for the first time in Taiwan history, have trouble finding partners.A second story with a theme similar to that in “Twilight in the Fields” is entitled“Born of the Same Root” (Tong gen sheng, JJili 1970).86 In this story, a poor, thoughresourceful peasant has made good use of a chance idea to make money and has become asuccessful entrepreneur. His risk-taking, courage and hard work have rewarded him notonly with wealth but also with a new status in society which, in turn, attracts a returnedWesternized scholar as his son-in-law. His youngest daughter, Chunlian, is neither prettynor clever but she is fortunate to be the recipient of the fruits of her father’s labours, andsoon she will be whisked away to a new life in America. Meanwhile, the eldest and85 Anthologized in LII yuan de huanghun (Beijing: Zhongguo youyi chuban gongsi, 1987): 246-260.86 Anthologized in LII yuan de huanghun 71-80.Nativism Chap. Five240prettiest daughter, Chunyun, is trapped in a marriage to a driver of a pedicab to whom shewas wed prior to her father’s rise in fortunes. Chunyun’s shame crystallizes during hersister’s wedding, and, in despair, she runs out from the restaurant and returns home. Asin “Twilight in the Fields,” each sibling in the family in “Born of the Same Root”symbolizes a different stage in Taiwan’s blistering pace toward modernization.In 1975, Yang Qingchu published Factory Workers (Gongchang ren IJJJ aselection of stories about workers which is the major source for Yang’s epithet as aworking-class writer. This collection details the exploitation and personal humiliationwhich are life’s daily realities for Taiwan’s industrial workers. The nature of these realitiesis due to Taiwan’s new modes of production which are characterized by an absence ofstrong, independent unions, safety measures or government controls over factorymanagement and administration. All of these echo the conditions in Europe at the time ofthe Industrial Revolution.Three years later in 1978, Yang published a second collection about industrialworkers entitled Circle ofFactory Girls (Gongchang nU’er quan Thiscollection focuses exclusively on factory women and is thus more representative ofTaiwan’s industrial sector which is made up primarily of women industrial workers. Inthis volume Yang Qingchu has made use of the female voice to articulate his concerns.This voice is of value to social scientists researching case lives of factory women andconditions in Taiwan’s factories. In terms of Chinese literary history, it also indicates thatthis writer has moved beyond the technique of using women’s issues solely as a foil withwhich to level criticism against general social and political abuses; instead, in severalstories at least, Yang articulates these concerns from the point-of-view of the womeninvolved. Accordingly, one can assume that traces of a feminist sensibility exist in theconsciousness of this writer.Nativism Chap. Five241“Zhaoyu’s Youth” (Zhaoyu tie qingchun, 1976) in Circle ofFactoryGirls is a story whose theme runs parallels to and earlier story by Yang entitled“Promotion” (Sheng, j- 197 1).87 The theme in both stories is the difficulties a workerexperiences in obtaining a promotion in Taiwan’s blue colour sector. While the earlierstory features a male construction worker, “Zhaoyu’s Youth” is narrated by a femaleprotagonist who has laboured twenty-two years in a factory doing the work load of aregular job. Throughout all this time, however, she has been ranked only as a short-termfactory employee. In the normal course of events, girls who enter the factory becomepromoted to temporary employment within the first year or so. In general, these womenregard factory work as “a period of limbo only spent prior to marriage”j[4 because most leave the factory a few years later to get married. InZhaoyu’s case, however, she has not only not been promoted because of an unusual set ofcircumstances, but she has also found herself unwed at the age of thirty-nine and forced tosubsist on a meagre wage at the very bottom of the factory’s ranking system. Whenanother factory girl achieves her promotion after labouring for only eight months, Zhaoyuis stung with humiliation and rage. Finally, in desperation, she resolves to rectify hersituation. With great courage and determination, Zhaoyu succeeds in getting her requestfor promotion passed by the various bureaucratic levels in the factory’s administration; shealso succeeds in obtaining the approval of the factory director. At the story’s conclusion,Zhaoyu realizes that her gratitude for her successful promotion is not due to the variouspeople who have assisted her in her struggle; instead, it is due only to her spent youthwhich has been the price she has paid for her victory.87“Zhaoyu’s Youth” is anthologized in Gongchang nü’er quan, Duanli congkan 16 (Kaohsiung, Taiwan: Dunlichubanshe, 1978): 25-50; “Promotion” is anthologized in Lu yuan de huanghun 117-135.88 Yang27.Nativism Chap. Five242“The Tortoise Climbs the Wall and the Mountain is Levelled by Water” (Gui pa bi yushui beng shan, Jcjj l976) is also narrated from the perspective of a femaleprotagonist, in this case a young woman who leaves her village for the first time in order tolabour in a textile factory. After only a few weeks, this worker suffers an accident forwhich the factory refuses to assume responsibility. Ultimately, the fmancial burden for thegirl’s medication and hospitalization is shifted onto the girl’s family. “The Tortoise Climbsthe Wall” paints a bleak picture of the monotonous lives of the girls in the factory, thedismal factory environment and the humiliation and abuse the girls suffer at the hands ofmale managers and other labourers. The reference in the title derives from the analogy ofthe girls’ lives with the tortoise’s slow ascent up the wall which contrasts with thefountain-like wealth of the factory owners.The final story under discussion also deals with the theme of accident, hospitalizationand the refusal of the factory in question to assume responsibility. The dynamics of thestoryline in “Our Chinese Boss” (Ziji de jingli, 1977)° derive from theoppressive class relations of Taiwan’s industrial sector. In “Our Chinese Boss,” Mrs. Liuis working the evening shift in the Pickling Room of the Wilson Electronics Corporationlate one night when a phial of sulphuric acid explodes. The narrative relates that theexplosion was like a bomb and filled the room with thick, black smoke. At the instant ofthe explosion, Mrs. Liu screamed in terror, and sulphuric acid shot into her mouth anddown into her lungs and stomach. This incident provides the setting for the remainder ofthe narrative. The graphic description of Mrs. Liu’s working conditions are worthpresenting here:All year long, her constant companions were sulphuricacid, nitric acid, glacial acetic acid, hydrochloric acid,phosphoric acid and other chemicals. The acid was drawn89 Anthologized in Gongchang nü’er quan 93-130.90 Anthologized in Gongchang nü’er quan 145-161.Nativism Chap. Five243up from iron vats into a tower-like structure and directed intocisterns. From there it was siphoned into phials.Themixture was then transferred into a vibrator to be combinedwith silica and other materials. After this treatment, thematerials were then placed in an oven and dried by jets ofhot air. This was the last stage before it was conveyed to theproduction line for processing.91After the explosion, the narrative relates how the Wilson Corporation refuses toaccept responsibility for the accident and awards Mrs. Liu a meagre five thousand yuan incompensation. One month passes, at the end of which Liu’s husband goes to thecorporation to get the labour insurance form which is needed in order to extend his wife’shospitalization. Liu is informed, however, that the company has dismissed the worker fornegligence, thus making her ineligible for insurance. With no way out of his predicamentand his children suffering from increased privation, Mr. Liu finally enlists the assistance ofa public-minded assemblyman who fortunately goes out of his way to rectify the situation.The assemblyman is surprised to discover that the factory is run by a foreign director.According to him, foreign manufacturers usually have a better understanding of what isinvolved in an industrial society. The assemblyman asserts, “They’re not like ourmanufacturers who all hang on to the old concepts from the past agrarian society. When anemployee gets injured, they turn a blind eye.”,,Ultimately, three individuals from the Bureau of Inspection forFactories and Mines are sent on a tour of inspection of the factory. These inspectors makesuggestions to Robert, the factory director, concerning the factory’s ventilation system andalso recommend that the injured worker be given leave with pay. Robert maintains that heknew nothing about the accident, and it is his turn to be surprised when he discovers thatthe section manager in question, Mr. Ling, not only failed to report the incident but took on91 Yang 145.92 Ibid. 158.Nativism Chap. Five244the responsibility himself for dismissing Mrs. Liu. The narrative concludes with Robert’sremark that “Mr. Ling is Chinese like yourselves. Why would a Chinese boss treat hisown people like this? I don’t understand!”JJItThe ending of “Our Chinese Boss” is ambiguous and ironic, considering that thexiangtu wenxue movement was, in essence, xenophobic. An explanation for this can befound in Yang Qingchu’s own life which improved as Taiwan’s standard of livingimproved. The author himself attributed this improvement to Taiwan’s relations with theWest. Thomas Gold states it succinctly when he recounts that as the economy in Taiwanflourished, new opportunities became available, and the Taiwanese people moved fromilliteracy to literacy and from poverty to the satisfaction of basic material needs.94 Theextent to which foreign capital played a direct role in this is debatable; however, Westerntechnology, concepts of health care and popular education, which filtered into Taiwanthrough the medium of modernization, played a direct and credible part in the raising ofTaiwan’s living standards. This phenomenon cannot be used to dismiss the anti-foreignideology of xiangtu wenxue; it can, however, serve as a reminder that this movementshould be put in its proper perspective: it was an outgrowth of a unique period ofnationalism in Taiwan’s modern history.Chen YingzhenThe last writer under discussion in connection with the xiangtu wenxue movement isChen Yingzhen. Chen’s fictional works from the 1970s are thematically quite differentfrom Wang Tuo or Yang Qingchu’s, even though all these writers subscribe to a socialistIbid. 161.Gold 12.Nativism Chap. Five245ideology. Chen’s works of the xianglu wenxue movement date from his release fromprison in 1975, which is when he began writing about corporate business. Chen culledmaterial for these works from his first-hand experience in a large business corporation inwhich the writer was employed prior to opening his own printing business.95 The econopolitical discourse of this phase of Chen Yingthen’s fiction reflects this author’s middle-class, pseudo-Marxist or Leninist predisposition. It also reflects his occasional xenophobicbias.Two of Chen Yingzhen’s 1970s works are particularly representative of the xiangtuwenxue ideology during the peak of the movement. These stories are “One Day in the lifeof the Office Animal” (Shangban zu de yi ri, J and “Night Freight”(Yeh xing huoche, fJ .. n.d.). These were reprinted in the 1983 volume,Washington Building, Part One: Clouds (Huashengdun dalou, di yi bu: yun—:) which represents the mature phase of Chen’s fiction about commerce. Thissecond collection is set in the world of urban corporate business and includes Chen’sfiction about commerce which he wrote after the xiangtu wenxue movement.In his introduction to Washington Building Chen maintains that the profit motive hasvast implications for human material and spiritual life: it molds our behaviour, thought, andsensibilities. Accordingly, this volume is about people under the influence of this motiveand the general effects of commercial relations.97 Chen also maintains that this collectiondoes not pretend to be an economic or political analysis, which, he implies, belongs to theacademic world.98This information derives from my personal acquaintance with Chen Yingzhen.96“One Day in the life of the Office Animal” is anthologized in Ye xing huoche, Yuanjing congkan 154(Taipei: Yuanjing chubanshe, 1979): 195-232; “Night Freight” is anthologized in Ye xing huoche 233-289.Chen Yingzhen, Introduction, Huashengdun dalou, di yi bu: yun, Yuanjing congkan 200 (Taipei: Yuanjingchuban shiye gongsi, 1983): 1, 2.98 Ibid. 1.Nativism Chap. Five246“One Day in the life of the Office Animal” does, indeed, entail a description of theeffects on the individual human psyche of commercial business relations. This storycomprises a portrait of one day in the life of an assistant office manager who is sufferingthe effects of severe anomie. The manager of this large corporate business has just quit hisjob in disgust at what he feels are the fraudulent business practices of the members of hiscorporation, and the day in question is the first day he spends in his state of post-job blues.In essence, this day is spent in confusion and disorientation, a situation engendered by thebreakdown of the manager’s normal routine. The anomie constituting the tone of this storyis the same as that characterizing much of Chen’s fiction.“One Day in the Life of the Office Animals” narrates how the protagonist goes tolunch in a familiar restaurant upon awakening late to his new life. There he is recognizedas an employee in the corporate “Washington Building,” a signifying element and leitmotifin the stories in this collection. At this point, the diachronic present fragments, and thenarrative poses a mixed collage of memories from the protagonist’s past life. This is adream world in which the protagonist is beset by images from his personal andprofessional life-- clues to a past he has repressed along his route to professional success.He indulges, for instance, in a long revery about a mistress called Rose whose image istriggered by a resemblance to the waitress in the restaurant. This image becomes a vital,synchronic link in the protagonist’s reconstruction of his past. After he returns home, theprotagonist rediscovers his photography equipment which represents a second memory-link, this time with the world of his college days. More importantly, however, thisequipment serves as the medium for the concrete, palpable projection of Rose’s image ontothe reality of the family video screen. With this act, the protagonist’s spiritual crisis isresolved, and “One Day in the life of the Office World” concludes with the restoration ofthe present. Returning the video to its case, the protagonist firmly seals the cover on bothNativism Chap. Five247the camera and his past life. Therewith, the past has become but a brief memory-image inthe diachronic passage of the present.Chen’s “Night Freight,” on the other hand, is concerned less with the individualpsyche and more with the general effect on Chinese morale of international corporatebusiness. Though the author argues otherwise, this story is also more deeply analytical,posing a critical treatise of American and Japanese cultural/economic infiltration. “NightFreight” is based upon the author’s application of the dependency theory of economicrelations.99“Night Freight” is set in the Taipei branch of Malamud International, an Americanelectronics corporation. The dynamics of this story are thus directly linked to the presenceof American capital in Taiwan. These dynamics, however, serve only as the backdrop fora second, angst-ridden theme: the theme of love and its elusiveness. In the narrative, LiuXiaoling, who is an employee of the Taipei branch company and daughter of a formerprominent Nationalist politician of northern pre-war China, searches for a fulfilling loverelationship from among her male office colleagues. This search, however, only leads herthrough a series of unhappy love relationships, the first involving Lin Rongping, themanager of the finance section in the corporation, and the second, Zhan Yihong, who is asmall-town Taiwanese intellectual come to Taipei to make it big. The story is narratedthrough forward-moving flashbacks from the perspective of the omniscient narrator.When Lin Rongping refuses to terminate his marriage and marry Liu Xiaoling, shebecomes distraught and redirects her affections onto the figure of Zhan Yihong. ZhanThe dependency theory, based on Leninist theories of imperialism, holds that the international division oflabour has led to a situation in which the rise of foreign trade and the arrival of foreign capital from the “core”(developed or “metropolitan” country, for instance, the United States and Japan) lie at the heart of theunderdevelopment in the “periphery” (or “satellite”) nation, (in this instance, Taiwan). (Alice H. Amsden,“Taiwan’s Economic History: A Case of Etatisme and a Challenge to the Dependency Theory,” ModernChina, 5 [1979]: 342.) According to this theory, dependent nations would inevitably become economicfailures. Taiwan would appear to be a paradox where this theory is concerned; nonetheless, a second socialscientist argues that the costs of dependency do, in fact, exist in Taiwan, but they are simply hidden under aunique set of conditions. (Hill Gates, “Dependency and the Part-time Proletariat in Taiwan,” Modern China,V [1979]: 381, 382, 385-405.)Nativism Chap. Five248Yihong, however, is unable to reconcile himself with the fact that Liu Xiaoling is a “castoff’ of Lin Rongping’s. Unable to control his jealousy, Zhan Yihong perpetrates a numberof scenes of violence and battering against Liu Xiaoling. Finally, she resolves to call offher engagement to Zhan. These tumultuous passions are interwoven with “NightFreight”s xiangtu wenxue ideological and xenophobic thematics.The fourth item enumerated by Joseph Lau in his xiangtu wenxue schematization isthe “affirmation of the necessity for national self-respect against the effrontery andvulgarity of the ‘Ugly American’ and the ‘Lecherous Japanese.” Lau’s formulationapplies directly to Chen’s story in a couple of places, the first of which is a scene in the hotsprings resort area of Beitou.’ The activities of the Japanese tourists in this scenerepresent the degradation of Chinese women by the “Lecherous Japanese”; they are thus adirect illustration of the anti-foreign sentiment of this movement. The scene takes placeoutside an inn called the “Little Hot Sea”:A taxi sped up to the side door of the Little Hot Sea. Itscreeched to a halt directly in front of the porch. TwoJapanese who were presumably drunk were half-pulled,half-dragged out of the taxi by a couple of call girls.Smiling sweetly, the proprietress raced down off the porchto greet them.’01A second allusion to the Japanese is based on a Taiwanese cultural joke originatingduring the Japanese colonial period. During this period, the colonial rulers fabricated animage about the “uncivilized” Taiwanese who, they maintained, “urinated indiscriminately”in public places. The Japanese rulers made good use of this image to enforce their100 Beitou is northern Taiwan’s most notorious resort area. It was formerly a Japanese spa, and at present it hasseveral inns and hotels which offer hot sulphur baths and prostitution. Beitou is also mentioned in HuangChunming’s “Little Widow” in the section entitled “Summit Talks.” In this story, Beitou is referred to as thesubject of an article in Time magazine about US military men bathing with callgirls in the Beitou hotsprings. Beitou subsequently became a metaphor in xiangtu wenxue for the degradation of Chinese womenby Americans and Japanese.101 Chen 244.Nativism Chap. Five249stringent colonial regulations established to control the local population. This image,however, probably originally arose from the Taiwanese reference to the Japanese as the“four-footer,” (si-kha-ha Jfin Hokkien, meaning “dog”), which also refers to theindiscriminate habit of the Japanese of urinating in public. In “Night Freight” thismetaphor is transposed onto the figure of the Japanese tourist and businessman and formsthe basis for the following scene:At this moment, the sound of water flowing down from ahigh distance suddenly attracted their attention. Theylooked down from the dark porch. In the shadowy light ofan Oriental-style stone lamp in the little garden, a Japanesetourist was urinating. She immediately turned away. Hecontinued smoking and remarked with a smile, “TheJapanese really practise ‘unsystematic etiquette” (you ii wu“Unsystematic etiquette?”“Ordinarily they speak very politely, bowing back andforth. But then they go and urinate anywhere and raise hellwhen they’re drinking... “102The anti-foreign sentiments in “Night Freight” are brought into full play at thetension-laden conclusion of this story. The occasion is a farewell banquet given in honourof Liu Xiaoling, whose failed relationship with Zhan Yihong has prompted her to go to theUnited States, and for Mr. Dasmann who has concluded his duties as auditor for MalarnudInternational’s Pacific Office. Liu Xiaoling is flanked at the banquet table by Dasmann onone side and the American boss, Mr Morgenthau, on the other. Both men compete for herattention. Opposite them, Lin Rongping and Zhan Yihong are conversing, the latter ofwhom is also mulling over the fmal, explosive argument which had erupted betweenhimself and Liu Xiaoling. The conversation between Morgenthau and Dasmann turns topolitics, and the former asserts that, with reference to Taiwan’s precarious position in thecurrent world of diplomacy, multinational corporations such as Malamud would “never102 Ibid. 246.Nativism Chap. Five250allow Taiwan to be wiped off the map.” 103 He follows thiswith the remark that American businessmen love Taipei, which “is a miffion times betterthan New York” but that “you f ing Chinese think the UnitedStates is a f...ing paradise.”04 This remark is highly offensive to Zhan Yihong. Hetakes to his feet, demands an apology of Mr. Morgenthau then storms out of the banquethall. Liu Xiaolmg also rises to her feet and runs after him, and “Night Freight” comes toits enigmatic conclusion. Outside the hail, Zhan Ythong and Liu Xiaoling walk together insilence. They renew their engagement to be married, and then he begs her not to go to theU.S. Instead, he wishes her to return to the countryside with him. The story concludeswith the image of the night freight-- “the black, powerful, long, night freight, the nightfreight that thunders south toward his old home in the country.” jç,105Zhan Yihong’s decision to return to the Taiwanese countryside amounts to a finalstatement of the rejection of Westernization on the part of this small-town Taiwaneseintellectual. Zhan’s decision stems either from the angst engendered by Westernization orfrom his inability to adapt to the new age conditions. Caught in the process of themetamorphosis of Chinese society, Zhan turns back defeated to his traditional home lifewhich he once saw only in terms of bondage. As elsewhere in Chinese fiction, the countryhome in “Night Freight” symbolizes a refuge both from the degrading nature of the city andfrom the infiltration of the Other. This instance of a “cultural involution,” by which thisphenomenon was referred in Taiwan at this time, is also reminiscent of traditional Chineseeremetism: both are a local cultural response to foreign invasion.In conclusion, Chen Yingzhen’s “Night Freight” typifies many of the complex,convoluted motifs which make up the xiangtu wenxue paradigm. The desire to expel the103 Ibid. 285.104 Ibid. 286. The second part of this quote is in English in the original.105 Ibid. 289.Nativism Chap. Five251foreigners is coupled with a totalistic rejection of modernity, and this, at least in ThanYihong’s case, has once again raised the spectre of the pre-Westemized, transcendentChina reminiscent of Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue of the 1960s. What Zhan Yihong will findin his southern home and whether he will be happy there, not to mention Liu Xiaoling, isbeyond the realm of speculation. What we can question, however, is when and how thecomplex, thorny issues of modernity will be resolved in Chinese society.Nativism Chap. Six252Chapter SixChina’s “Nativist Culture” (Xiangtu wenhua) of the 1 980sAt the end of the line flew Azazello, gleaming with the steel of hisarmour. The moon had altered his face as well. The absurd,revolting fang had disappeared without a trace, and his blindnessturned out to have been false. Both of his eyes were the same,empty and blank, and his face was white and cold. Now Azazellowas flying in his true shape, the demon of the waterless desert, thekiller-demon.--Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and MargaritaFeeling her way along through the empty bedrooms she perceived thecontinuous rumble of the termites as they carved the wood, thesnipping of the moths in the clothes closets, and the devastating noiseof the enormous red ants that had prospered during the deluge andwere undermining the foundations of the house.Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years ofSolitudeIn the mid-1980s a type of literature emerged in China in which writers again turnedto the countryside to make certain statements about contemporary life and society. Forsome of these writers, the countryside was their rural home or the locus of China’s“nativist culture” (xiangtu wenhua ±1) they understood well. Others, on the otherhand, came to understand this nativist culture when they were “sent down,” or rusticated,during the years of the Cultural Revolution. Nonetheless, all of them, without exception,used their knowledge and understanding of this culture to make certain judgements aboutcontemporary Chinese life, whether this concerned the Chinese Communist Party and itspolicies in the countryside, traditional culture and values or modem urban life. Thesewriters are not xiangtu zuojia per Se, that is, they do not write about the customs, sceneryor dialect of their rural homes; nonetheless, through their writing they make certainimportant contributions to our understanding of Chinese peasant realities and ChineseNativism Chap. Six253traditional life. Thus I have included them for discussion here. These writers and theirworks are testimony of the fact that understanding the peasant and Chinese tradition are thecentral, vital issues in China’s ongoing search for modernity.There are four writers included for discussion here. The first of these is GaoXiaosheng (1928), whose designation as a “peasant writer” (nongmin zuojia1 stems from the “peasant fiction” (nongminxiaoshuo iJs1j) which he beganwriting in 1983.1 Gao was sent down for more than twenty years to the rural areas ofJiangsu province, and, during this period, he first began to learn about Chinese peasant lifeand the rural policies of the Chinese Communist Party. Gao’s early works of the late1970s are based on this experience and comprise virulent satires of the Party’sinefficiencies and corruption which he observed in the countryside. His works after 1983,on the other hand, present his conceptions of the ideal peasant striving for an ideal lifeunder the conditions of reform. My discussion of Gao’s works focus primarily on hisearly works.The other three writers in this discussion belong to the school of writing known asthe “Searching for Roots” school (xungen pai These writers were also rusticatedduring the Cultural Revolution; their fiction, however, is not as concerned as GaoXiaosheng’s with the myth-making properties of the Chinese Communist Party. Instead,these writers are concerned with more fundamental questions of Chinese social life,specifically, the issue of Chinese traditional culture. This preoccupation on the part of thexungen writers reestablishes culture as the fundamental issue in China’s search formodernity.At the height of popularity of xungen literature, a number of debates raged inChinese intellectual circles which summarized in telescopic form the central issues and1 Margaret Holmes Decker, “The Vicissitudes of Satire in Contemporary Chinese Fiction: Gao Xiaosheng,”diss, Stanford University, 1987: 111.Nativism Chap. Six254problems expressed in this fiction. These were the “cultural exploration” debates (wenhuatansuo which focused on the problem which has obsessed Chinese intellectualsfor the last one hundred years of Chinese history: the value of China’s traditional culturefor twentieth-century modernity. The many problems which have plagued China since themid-1800s stem from China’s difficulty in bridging the gap to modernity. Problems suchas the integration of traditional Chinese culture into modern life, the unresolved tensionsbetween traditional and modern values and the multi-dimensional problems arising fromChina’s relations with the West are just a few of the issues evincing the thorny nature ofthis process. These issues obsessed Chinese intellectuals such as Liang Qichao and KangYouwei in the late nineteenth century and Lu Xun in the second and third decades of thetwentieth. More recently, these issues reemerged during the mid-1980s when Chinareopened its doors to the West after three decades of isolation under Chinese Communistrule. At that time, they became formulated as a number of questions, such as: Howshould the tensions between Chinese traditional and modern values be resolved? How doChinese cultural values compare to Western, or putatively universal, values, and what isthe nature of each? What does it mean or should it mean to be both Chinese and modem intoday’s global community?2 The nature of traditional Chinese culture, its impact on thecharacter of the Chinese people and its relation to China’s modernization are central to thecultural exploration debates and can be summed up as one question: What are the roots ofChinese culture? This is the question which lies at the heart of xungen fiction.The reemergence of the culture issue in the mid- 1980s, which came hard on the heelsof three decades of Communist rule, reflects the fact that Maoism did little or nothing toresolve the basic problems of Chinese rural life. The questions these writers pose in theirfiction are all the more egregious in light of this fact and augment the dubious image of an2 These questions are rephrased from Michael S. Duke, Reinventing China: Cultural Exploration inContemporary Chinese Fiction,” Issues and Studies, 25:8 (1989): 31.Nativism Chap. Six255ideology that attempted to supercede other more traditional ways of thought and practiceunifying Chinese life. The first of these xungen writers discussed here is Shi Tiesheng •a rusticated “educated youth” (zhiqingnian ‘**). who brought back apositive view of traditional culture from his experience labouring on a rural commune deepin the Shaanxi countryside. This culture, he implies, must be nurtured and protected inorder to contribute to China’s modern life. Han Shaogong and Mo Yan, on the otherhand, occasionally partake of a Lu Xun type of cultural iconoclasm in their examination ofChinese culture. Han’s fiction is marked by certain ambivalences; nonetheless, his “rootsof Chinese culture” point to an egregious and cyclical non-development of traditionalChinese culture which is harshly condemned in at least one of his fictional works. MoYan’s fiction, on the other hand, embraces a unique subjectivity, which is one and thesame with his retrieval of painful childhood memories. The conditions in Mo Yan’snightmarish rural world, based on the perceptions of an abused young child, areaggravated by the unfeeling and sometimes violent practices of rural Party cadres. Thereare many aspects of Mo Yan’s rural world which are despicable, yet the spirituality foundthere is enduring. In sum, the three xungen writers discussed in this chapter tackle certainfundamental issues of Chinese life which reemerged with the fading of Maoism in China.Besides the question of culture, Chinese fiction in the 1980s is characterized by anumber of stylistic features which make it unique in the history of modern Chineseliterature. One is its release, or “literary dissidence” in Leo Ou-fan Lee’s words,4 from thetyranny of traditional forms, especially May Fourth realism. Realism has tended to be thedominant mode of discourse governing Chinese fiction since May Fourth. This discoursehas tended to privilege content over form or technique and the nation over the individual orMo Yan’s real name is Guan Moye.See Leo Ou-fan Lee, “The Politics of Technique: Perspectives of Literary Dissidence in ContemporaryChinese Fiction,” in After Mao: Chinese Literature and Society, ed. Jeffrey C. Kinkley (Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press, 1985): 159-190.Nativism Chap. Six256gender issues and accounts for the general tone of clidacticism in much of modem Chineseliterature. As a result of the constraints imposed by the realist mode, modern Chineseliterature has tended to be umvocal and nationalistic and reflects Chinese writers’“obsession with China,” as C.T.Hsia so aptly put it. In the 1980s, however, Chinesewriters began to look elsewhere for models of non-realistic artistic inspiration. Thepresence in this literature of cultural symbols not traditionally Chinese is a second featureof the fiction of this period and is symptomatic of the fact that Chinese writers aresearching for, and finding, forms and metaphors beyond those in their own social andcultural spheres. For the first time since May Fourth, Chinese writers have been exposedto Western literary influences which began to flood into their nation in the wake of the fallof the Gang of Four (1978). These literary influences are very diverse and include anumber of avant-garde techniques which are collectively known as “Modernism”(xiandaizhuyi JJft ). Non-linear plot lines or plotless narratives, multiplenarrators, stream-of-consciousness, metafiction, magic realism, surrealism6and othertypes of techniques characterize this period of fiction-writing and reflect the increasingartistic innovation by which contemporary literature has come to be known.During the three decades of Chinese Communist rule, literature was heavilycircumscribed by government policy toward the arts; as a result, the only literatureofficially condoned during that period was the “worker-peasant-soldier” type of Chinesesocialist realism. The works of Zhao Shuli and Zhou Libo, popularly known as xiangtuwenxue, were inspired by the themes of socialist construction and fall into this literarycategory. From the fall of the Gang of Four to 1981-- a period also referred to as theSecond Hundred Flowers-- socialist realism gave way to a resurgence of a May FourthM.H. Abrams defines Modernism as the style of literature consisting in the experimentation with newliterary forms in order to render the immense panorama of disorder, futility and anarchy which is contemporaryhistory. A second characteristic is the examination of the traditional modes and assumptions underlyingsocial organization, morality and the conceptions of the human self. (Abrams 109.)6 Michael Duke 30.Nativism Chap. Six257type of realism. This was endorsed by the liberalized literary policies set in place by DengXiaoping and Zhou Yang in 1979 at the Fourth Congress of Writers and Artists. For thefirst time since 1949 Chinese literature and the other arts experienced a release from thedictates that literature serve the political needs of the Chinese Communist Party.7 The firstform of realism was the “literature of the wounded” (shanghen wenxue whichrecounted the excesses, pain and chaos of the Cultural Revolution years. This wasfollowed by an outpouring of critical realism which was again written according to theconventions of May Fourth realism.8 On the basis of this, one can conclude that the thirtyyears of Chinese Communist rule, including the ten chaotic years of the CulturalRevolution, did little to impair the staying power of realism. Its survival ability has beensummed up by Leo Ow-fan Lee who maintains that realism has traditionally beenconsidered the correct approach to literature. In Lee’s words realism constitutes a “kind ofpatriotic pan-moralism” governing all forms of creative writing.9During the year 1981 and again in the period from 1983 to 1984, writers sufferedgovernment interference in the form of the “spiritual pollution” campaign which included acampaign against Modernism. Western literary influences were disparaged by thegovernment and feared by critics who warned that Chinese literature would become the“tail of Western Modernism.” fJft 10 Nonetheless, the new intellectualtrends continued unabated with further promises of freedom in 1984 and 1985. These two‘ Michael S. Duke, Contemporary Chinese Litrature: An Anthology ofPost-Mao Fiction and Poetry4.8 Duke, “Reinventing China” 30.Lee 161.Li Tuo, “Introduction,” Mo Yan, Touming de hongloubo (Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe, 1986): 10.Compared with Taiwan’s Modernism of the decade of the 1950s China’s Modernism of this period issomewhat different although many of the techniques borrowed from the West are the same. Modernism inTaiwan came in the wake of a fifty-year period of deracination brought on by Japanese rule in which Taiwanwas virtually cut off from its historic and cultural mots. The fear of Western cultural imperialism implied inthis statement is relatively less justified in China, and this is borne Out by the literature.Nativism Chap. Six258years saw the greatest experimentation with aesthetic form and technique, and in thisatmosphere of relaxation the constraints of traditional forms diminished even further.While realism continued as a fundamental narrative mode, writers also dabbled in non-traditionalist modes such as those listed above. Freed from traditional narrative andideological constraints, the literature of this period foreshadows the increasing artistry andpluralism of modem Chinese fiction.Gao XiaoshengGao Xiaosheng is the supreme satirist of post-Mao China, a designation which arisesprimarily from his short story “Li Shunda Builds a House” (Li Shunda zao wu,1979).” Gao was also the author of a series of short stories which revolve around thecharacter Chen Huansheng. These stories, published between February 1979 and March1982, are less consistently ironic; nonetheless, they do continue, albeit to a somewhatlesser degree, the tone first established in “Li Shunda Builds a House.” Gao’s ironyconsists in letting loose a battery of satiric barbs aimed at the hopeless inefficiency of theChinese Communist Party. The Party’s inefficiency in Gao’s fiction derives from itswhirlwind shifts of policy, bureaucratic botchery and graft which create a nightmarishtangle in which the peasant is helplessly immeshed. This tangle is further exacerbated bythe peasants’ own belief system, built around the assumption that socialism is infallible.Thus, if something goes wrong the peasants are led to believe it is because they themselveshave fallen captive to the “wrong” kind of (revisionist or capitalist) thoughts. The illusionthat the socialist system and polices and the Party itself came into being with the peasants’best interests in mind lies at the very foundation of Gao’s satire and, this, for the peasant,creates a host of ontological problems. A basic one of these-- that the peasant has to strive11 Anthologized in Li Shunda zao wu (Taipei: Xindi wenxue chubanshe, 1989): 1-30.Nativism Chap. Six259to be worthy of socialism-- implies his/her redundancy within this system. On the premisethat Chinese Communism is a system for the people and by the people, the stage is set inGao Xiaosheng’s fiction for the brick-by-brick dismantling of the subtle myth-makingproperties of the Chinese Communist Party.As mentioned above, Gao Xiaosheng is known as a “peasant writer,” a designationwhich arose from the peasant fiction he wrote after 1983. These stories deal with thedeveloping tide of political and economic reforms in rural China which were put in place asthe result of the Fifth National People’s Congress of 1979. This Congress proclaimedeconomic modernization to be the national goal of the “new period of development,” and,at the village level, this was implemented in the form of village cottage industry. Thetheme of the onset of private industry in the village first appeared in Gao Xiaosheng’sChen Huansheng series, and it was subsequently expanded in his fiction after 1983.Though Gao Xiaosheng is classed as a “peasant writer,” I have included him in thisstudy of xiangtu wenxue because of his treatment of the countryside. This treatmentcomprises the fourth kind in the xiangtu wenxue typology beginning with Lu Xun andfurther developed by the xiangtu writers of the 1920s. This fourth type contrasts stronglyboth with Lu Xun’s antitraditionalism which Lu Xun conceived within the ruralist contextand with Taiwan’s xiangtu wenxue in which the countryside is the refuge from the forcesof modernization. Needless to say, it also differs radically from Shen Congwen’sromanticism. In this fourth type, the countryside is the locus for the examination of theinefficiency and corruption of the Chinese Communist Party, or, as the Chinese sourcesput it, “the reactionary nature of the leftist line.” ‘jI In this type,the peasant is caught up in the arbitrary winds of Communist practice and is buffeted aboutlike a hapless leaf. This depiction is the natural extension of the representation of thepeasant in the works of Zhao Shuli, and it is precisely for this reason that Gao Xiaosheng12 Li Xing, “Nongmin mingyun de yishu sikao: tan Gao Xiaosheng de si pian xiaoshuo,” Yanhe, 2 (1981): 67.Nativism Chap. Six260is referred to as the “living Zhao Shuli” 1 in the Chinese secondarysources.Unlike Zhao Shuli, Gao Xiaosheng does not hail from a peasant background nor washe equipped with first-hand understanding of the peasants from an early age. Instead, hewas born in 1928 in a village in Wujin county, Jiangsu province, in the family of a middleschool teacher. Though his father was frequently unemployed, and the family oftensuffered economic privation, Gao was ultimately able to attend the economics departmentof the Shanghai Law School.’4 Gao’s writing career began after 1949 with hispublication of a number of short stories, poems and plays. During the Hundred Flowerscampaign he was one of a number qf intellectuals involved in the publication of a journalentitled The Explorer (Tanqiuzhe The manifesto of this journal stemmed fromthe belief that literature must “boldly intervene in life” +and resulted in GaoXiaosheng being branded a Rightist in 1958.15 Gao was subsequently sent for more thantwenty years to the rural areas of Jiangsu province, and it was during this period that hewas first exposed to the countryside and began to learn about peasant life. In Jiangsu, Gaolived a peasant style of life and learned many of the skills involved in agriculturalcultivation. This prolonged experience ultimately forged his characteristic peasant stylewhich has been compared to that of the Cultural Revolution novelist Hao Ran.16 In part,Gao’s “peasant style” is one reason that this writer can be included in this discussion ofxiangtu wenxue.13 Michael S. Duke, Blooming and Contending (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985): 87.3m Yanyu, “Zhao Shuli yu Gao Xiaosheng: liangge jiaorong er you xiangyi de shijie,” Fujian luntan, 1(1988): 14.14 Decker 108.15 Ibid. 109.16 Lee 173.Nativism Chap. Six261In many ways, Gao Xiaosheng remains a traditionally realist writer. His style is acombination of elements from China’s oral storytelling tradition and techniques of satireand symbols through which he channels his dissenting views about Communism. It isalso enriched by elements of irony, allegory, metaphor, puns and proverbs, the latter twoof which endow it with the folksy quality reminiscent of the works of Zhao Shuli. “LiShunda Builds a House,” Gao’s best work of political satire, is basically a work of realismbut as a satire it is also comparable to the great works of satire from world literature, suchas the novels of the Russian political satirist, Mikhail Bulgakov. Both Gao and Bulgakovwrote under the political constraints of their respective countries which compelled them tomake use of forms which would provide a cover for their moral outrage and stridentcriticism.17 Bulgakov, however, is much less constrained by realism than Gao. In hismasterpiece, The Master and Margarita, for instance, the Russian writer makes extensiveuse of fable, satanic fantasy and slapstick comedy with which he creates “an ironic parableon power and its corruption, on good and evil, human frailty and the strength of love.”18“Li Shunda Builds a House,” on the other hand, is relatively more constrained by theChinese tradition of realism which had an impact even on the Chinese satiric mode.19 “LiShunda Builds a House” is accordingly less fantastical, and the narration is more linear andchronological than Bulgakov’s novel. Accordingly, it closely reflects the current politicalrealities of the time.17 Bulgakov wrote his novel during Stalinist Russia; it was subsequently suppressed for twenty-six years.Of the many different types and definitions of satire, that described by James W. Nichols is the closest inproximity to the type examined here. Nichols states that the “satirist may be actuated by a desire to reform,or to correct foolish or vicious sets of ideas of attitudes; however, he is also actuated by the pleasure ofemploying satiric devices and of evading the usual restrictions put on the expression of aggressive impulses.”(James W. Nichols, Insinuation: The Tactics of English Satire [The Hague: Mouton and Co., 19711: 35.)18 Mikhail Bulgakov, Backjacket, The Master and Margarita, (New York: Grove Press, 1967).19 The close connection between satire and reality was stressed by Lu Xun when he stated, “The works of whatis called satire now are for the mostp reality”; and again, “The life of satire is reality; it need not be anactual event which once occurred, but it must be a possible situation.” (Lu Xun, “Lun fengci,” Lun Xunquanji, 6: 278-279, 368.)Nativism Chap. Six262The protagonist of “Li Shunda Builds a House” is a peasant whose dream is to buildfor himself a brick, three-room house. This dream has come to Li only since land reform;prior to 1949 this peasant had never even entertained the thought of buying himself an ox,let alone a house. The mythopoetic structure of the narrative is thus set in place early in thetext with the introduction of socialism as the symbol of the material betterment of the life ofthe peasants. This myth, however, is ultimately proved false in the story which reflects thenature of this narrative not only as a satire but also as an allegory. In this case, the allegoryreveals the truth about the operations of socialism in China which are spurious to say theleast. A few pages later in the text, the mythopoetic structure intensifies and comes intoclearer focus when the protagonist reflects that it is the Chinese Communist Party and thePeople’s Government which “allowed him to have what he thought was such a loftygoal.”2° The protagonist accordingly vows to be loyal to socialism and to “follow theParty all the way.”21 At the same time that he makes this vow, he castigates himself forhis self-doubts: perhaps his wish to forego an upstairs room and a telephone, both ofwhich symbolize the achievement of socialism in China, is evidence of his insufficient faithin socialism? Li Shunda’s cycle of self-doubts and subsequent vows to improve himself,which so tellingly reveal his psychology, not only foreshadows the increasing ontologicaldilemma of this poor, benighted peasant but also begs the question about whether socialismis worthy of such self-sacrifice. The answer to this, the narrator implies, is a rhetorical“no,” and the balance of this bitter satire is given over to the examination of this truth.For the next three decades, Li Shunda and his family scrimp and save; Li himselflabours as a trader in sugar and rags in order to procure the materials he needs with whichto build his house. Three times Li succeeds in obtaining the needed resources only to be20 Gao Xiaosheng, “Li Shunda Builds a House,” tr. Madelyn Ross, The Broken Bethrothal (Panda Books,1987): 28-29.21 Ibid. 29.Nativism Chap. Six263subsequently frustrated each time in true Sisyphean fashion. The first time occurs underthe forced collectivization of the Great Leap Forward when Li’s bricks are taken away inorder to construct an iron-smelting furnace. The second time occurs during the CulturalRevolution and the temporary victory of the rebel faction over the “capitalist-roaders” inwhich Li loses his accumulated savings of 217 yuan to the tough-guy rebel chairman of thecommune’s brick and tile factory. The third and final occasion arises when Li once againhas the funds in hand but the country is experiencing nation-wide shortages. This time, Liis unable to procure the bricks and other materials he needs for his house. In desperation,in the year 1977, Li “goes through the back door” and through this act ultimately realizeshis dreams. This act, however, merely reinforces the dubious nature of the peasants’existence within the operations of socialism.According to Gao Xiaosheng, Li Shunda is a victim not only of constantly shiftingParty policies but also of his own peasant character as a “true follower” (gengenpai). Gao explains that the character of the Chinese peasant is such that for thousands ofyears he/she has been searching for an object of worship. First there was the figure of theemperor which the peasants worshipped; this was followed by the Chinese CommunistParty which the peasants also worshipped even when the Party practised wrong lines ofpolicy.23 Accordingly, the peasants’ slave mentality has led them to thankfully worshipanything which has caused their lives to be even marginally better. For Li Shunda, thepeasant who has been transposed from real life to the world of fiction, any thought or actcontrary to this belief involves his fear of becoming a “black pan.” The black pan is apolitical euphemism for the Maoist concept of revisionism, and the naive and hapless Li22 The omniscient narrator of the story states about Li Shunda that “He was ready and willing to follow theParty all the way. Everything he did was testimony to that fact.” (Gao 29.)23 Gao Xiaosheng, “U Shunda zao wu’ shimo,” in Gao Xiaosheng yanjiu ziliao, ed. Lianyungang shi jiaoshijinxiu xueyuan (July 1981): 40.24 The original Chinese phrase for this expression is bei heiguo meaning to “blacklist.”Nativism Chap. Six264interprets this concept literally-- his fear of transformation even keeps him awake at night.Gao’s evaluation of the peasant may be justified; nonetheless, as he states later, the realcause of the peasants’ present and ongoing ignorance is the Chinese Communist Party.Gao reasons in a second statement that an equitable life for the peasants under the socialistideology is possible only if the Party realigns its priorities to serve the interests of those forwhom it originally claimed to came into power. Only then can socialism and the fourmodernizations be achieved. Gao’s statement is as follows: “Under the leadership of theCommunist Party, only if our country allows the nine hundred thousand peasants to havesufficient awareness, sufficient understanding of culture and science and sufficient modemcapabilities to take care of things and also causes them to have the idea of becoming themasters of the nation and the skills to do so can our socialist enterprise stand in anunbeatable position and the four modernizations advance quickly.”LJ{JItjJ, 1PJ J3*1PGao’s vision of this“master-type” of peasant appears in his stories of 1983 and later.After “Li Shunda Builds a House,” Gao Xiaosheng wrote the Chen Huanshengseries in which the peasants enjoy an improved material existence. The tone in this serieshas accordingly shifted from one of strident satire to one of gentle irony, a shift whichreflects the author’s relative approval of the systemic changes which were then underway.The improvement in the peasants’ lives in these stories reflects the economic changeswhich began to envelop the villages at the end of the 1970s and which were officially set inplace by the Fifth National People’s Congress in 1979. These stories revolve around theanti-heroic peasant character named Chen Huansheng who first makes his appearance in25 Yu hua, 7 (1980), quoted in Li Xing 69. (Original citation is incomplete.)Nativism Chap. Six265“Head of a Funnel Household” (Loudou hu zhu, 4n.d.).26 The term “funnelhousehold” was in common parlance before 1949, and during the Cultural Revolution itwas reappropriated and applied to peasant families forced by circumstance to accumulatedebts consisting of borrowed grain.27 These families were cursed by landlords, richpeasants and cadres as “funnels” that could never be filled.28 In the story, ChenHuansheng also has a grain debt which originally began when he procured a wife: at thetime of his marriage, his in-laws forgot to send along the girl’s grain allowance which wasthe initial factor launching him into debt. Shortly after, Chen Huansheng is faced withanother problem: he discovers that his new wife is ill with encephalitis and is unable tolabour in the fields to earn workpoints. The likelihood of paying off his debt diminishes,and, instead, his indebtedness is compounded. A third problem which aggravates thesituation stems from the birth of Chen Huansheng’s child which occurs in the first monthof the year. According to the current regulations, Chen and his family are forced to waituntil the following year before they can be awarded their grain allotment for this child.Things begin to look up in the story when the narrative relates that the hardworking ChenHuansheng may be able to clear his debt by the year 1971 because of the implementation ofa new national policy governing quotas. Unfortunately, however, the cadres decide forvarious reasons not to abide by the new regulation, leaving Chen Huansheng distraughtand cynical. Finally, the situation is rectified in 1978 with the fall of the Gang of Four.“Head of a Funnel Household” concludes with Chen Huansheng, staring intently with asceptical look on his face, as an increasingly large pile of grain is measured out before him.The tears stream down his face.26 Anthologized in Chen Huansheng, Huacheng congshu (Huacheng chubanshe, 1983): 1-16.27 Decker 113.28 Gao Xiaosheng, “Tantan you guan Chen Huansheng de jipian xiaoshuo,” Wenyi lilun yanjiu , 3 (1982): 25.Nativism Chap. Six266“Head of a Funnel Household” is followed by “Chen Huansheng Goes to Town”(Chen Huansheng shang cheng, 1980), “Chen Huansheng ChangesOccupation” (Chen Huansheng zhuanye, 1983), “Chen Huansheng Makes aProduction Contract” (Chen Huansheng baochang, 1982) and “HistoricalAnnals Outside the Story” (Shuwai chunqiu, sjfJ 1982)29 in which the protagonisthas put the “funnel” epithet behind him only to encounter other unimaginable adventuresand problems.In “Chen Huansheng Goes to the City,” Huansheng plays the role of the countrybumpkin who encounters the sophisticated world of the urban centre. As mentionedabove, the goal of economic modernization proclaimed nationally in 1979 resulted invarious aspects of village reform, including the emergence of private industry and theopportunity to engage in free market trade. The hero of the story capitalizes on thiswindow of opportunity by making dough fritters (yousheng in his spare time whichhe takes into the city to sell for a profit of three yuan. On this particular day, Huanshengalso decides to buy a hat as a means of defense against his bouts with the flu which havebeen increasing recently. He fmds one for two and one half yuan which he sets his hearton buying. However, he has brought no extra money with him this day and realizes thatthe stores will be closed by the time he has sold all his fritters and can finally purchase thehat. By the time evening arrives, Chen Huansheng also discovers that he has fallen victimto yet another bout of the flu, and, disheartened, he collapses on a bench in the railwaystation where he intends to spend the night. By chance, he is discovered there by Wu Chu,the secretary of the county Party committee with whom Chen Huansheng is acquainted.Wu takes pity on Chen and immediately chauffeurs him in his private car to a guest house29“Chen Huansheng Goes to Town” is anthologized in Chen Huansheng 40-53; “Chen Huangsheng ChangesOccupation” is anthologized in Chen Huansheng 54-89; “Chen Huansheng Makes a Production Contract” isanthoogized in Chen Huansheng 90-111; and “Historical Annals Outside the Story” is anthologized in ChenHuansheng 112-123.Nativism Chap. Six267where he is able to use his influence to get Huansheng a single, luxurious room. ChenHuansheng awakens the following morning only to discover that his bill of five dollars willdeprive him not only of his profits but also of the costs incurred by his previous day’sbusiness. Then, his stunned shock turns to pleasure as he fantasizes about how hisadventure in town will make him a celebrity back in his home village. Five yuan, hereasons in A Q-like fashion, is a small price to pay for such a “spiritual victory.” In thefinal analysis, it is this character’s ingenuousness which accounts for the success of thisstory. In the words of one critic, the author’s treatment of the motivations and attitudes ofthis peasant is “thoroughly believable” and, far from demeaning the peasant hero, hasresulted in a portrait of real people who are motivated more by their own irrational valuesthan ideology in their search for meaning and status.30On his return to his village, Chen Huansheng does indeed acquire great statusbecause of his encounter with Secretary Wu. In the next story of the series, “ChenHuansheng Changes Occupation,” this status is exploited to full advantage by the brigadecadres and the head of the new factory which is badly in need of scarce materials. Whenthese cadres learn of Chen Huansheng’s encounter with Secretary Wu, they press him toenlist Wu’s aid in procuring materials for the factory. In other words, they want ChenHuansheng to become their purchasing agent. Chen Huansheng is a little uneasy about hisassignment; nonetheless, he sets off, equipped with a bag of sweet potatoes and a hen asgifts, to find Secretary Wu. To his surprise, he is successful and returns home to reporthis good news. This simple, honest peasant is rewarded with six hundred yuan by hisbrigade for his troubles, but at this point he begins to entertain doubts about what he hasdone. In fact, in the next story, “Chen Huansheng Makes a Production Contract,” heundertakes the long and arduous return Irip back to agricultural production. Meanwhile,30 Jeannette L. Faurot, “Shoes that Fit -- The Stories of Gao Xiaosheng,” in Perspectives in ContemporaryChinese Literature, ed. Mason Y.H. Yang (University Centre, Michigan: Green River Press, 1983): 78, 82.Nativism Chap. Six268the family contract responsibility system has just been set in place. Under this system,each family is assigned a plot of land and is held responsible for meeting a grain quota; thesurplus amount is kept by the family. Chen Huansheng doubts that he can acquire theskills needed in order to survive under this system; at the same time, the cadres and thefactory head who have profited from his connections firmly reject his wish to step downfrom his position in the factory. In a chance meeting with a cousin, Chen Huanshengbecomes aware of the fact that he has been used by the cadres, and he is overcome byshame and mortification. Consequently, he is determined to set up a production contract.The last story in the series, “Historical Annals Outside the Story,” does not dealfurther with Chen Huansheng and his exploits. Instead, this story consists of a parody andsatiric refutation of the events and the characters which are involved in the ChenHuansheng series. This piece is a comment on the narrative process and is one of the firstexamples of Chinese metafiction. In this story, Chen Huansheng takes on material form,and, with a bellyful of requests and beefs, he sets out to find Gao Xiaosheng, a writer withthe same name as the real author who also happens to be closely acquainted with a peasantcalled Chen Huansheng. This theme is reminiscent of “Six Characters in Search of anAuthor” by the Italian writer Pirandello in which the characters also come to life. One ofChen Huansheng’s requests is rooted in his fear that the author’s inclusion of the businessof his selling dough fritters in the story might be used against him in some future campaignagainst capitalist tendencies. He is also resentful of the unflattering image given him in thetext. Ultimately, Chen Huansheng fails to meet with Gao Xiaosheng, but when the latterhears of the purpose of his visit, he is prompted to write to Gao Xiaosheng who is theauthor of the Chen Huansheng series and the narrator of this tale and to suggest that theyboth give up their names. The first Gao also gives the second Gao a tongue-in-cheekscolding for writing critical portraits of people who subsequently give him trouble. MostNativism Chap. Six269critics accept the narrator’s assertion that this work is, indeed, “outside the story” andunrelated to the Chen Huansheng series.31As mentioned above, after 1983 Gao Xiaosheng’s peasant stories are more directlyconcerned with village reform. “Muddy Feet” (Ni jiao, 1983), for example, concernsthe first phase of the village cottage industry; “Bees and Flowers” (Feng hua, 1983) isabout a young man called Miao Guocheng and his various attempts to raise bees; “TheWillow Branches on the Bank of the Desolate Pond are Green” (Huang chi anbian liuzhiqing, j 1984) gives a picture of the new village life after reform; and “AnExtremely Complicated Story” (Ji qi mafan de gushi, 1984)32 is about thebizarre events surrounding the attempts by a couple of peasants to establish their own travelservice. The peasants in these stories are mostly of the “master-type,” and they allencounter difficulties in one form or another stemming from the “obscurantist leftist line.”Only when this line is removed and China’s social and economic conditions are morefavourable, Gao Xiaosheng implies, will the “master-type” of peasant be able to realize amore ideal life. Whether or not this ideal can be achieved under the socialist system is,however, a debatable point.In conclusion, the successive development of Gao’s fiction from 1979 to 1983reflects the successive changes in Chinese socialism from the period of collectivization tothe post-1979 period of political and economic reforms. Accordingly, Gao’s fiction alsoundergoes a successive change in narrative tone from the bitter satire of “Li Shunda Buildsa House” and the gentle irony of the Chen Huansheng series to the mimetic realism of hispost-1983 peasant fiction. In short, this change in tone implies a gradual curb in the31 Decker 126.32“Muddy Feet” is anthologized in Gao Xiaosheng 1982 xiaoshuoji (Sichuan: Renmin chubanshe, 1983): 109-139; 1 am unable to locate where “Bees and Flowers” is antholotgized; “The Willow Branches on the Bank ofthe Desolate Pond are Green” is anthologized in Gao Xiaosheng 1982 xiaoshuoji 61-135; “An ExtremelyComplicated Story” is anthologized in Gao Xiaosheng 1982 xiaoshuoji 149-200.Nativism Chap. Six270battery of satiric barbs loosed against the Chinese Communist Party as the Party’s reformsmeet with a greater degree of this satirist’s critical approval. In all its variant literary forms,Gao Xiaosheng’s fiction focuses on one things: the livelihood of the peasants whoseinterests this writer has exclusively at heart and the abilities of the peasants to better theirlives once the system, whatever system this may be, adjusts to fit their needs. In thisrespect he is like Zhao Shuli, except that the latter writer was denied the freedom to saythis.Shi TieshengShi Tiesheng is a member of the Cultural Revolution generation. As a writer, muchof his fiction is based on his experiences of rustification during these tumultuous years.Like the works of Zhong Acheng, Liang Shaosheng and Wang Anyi, they thus fall into thecategory of “educated youth literature” (zhiqing wenxue Shi Tiesheng is anative of Beijing, and when he graduated from high school in 1967, he was sent to thecountryside in Shaanxi Province to do manual labour on a rural commune. While he wasthere, Shi contracted a rare disease which subsequently left him confined to a wheelchair.After Shi Tiesheng returned to Beijing, he worked in a factory prior to taking up fiction-writing.It is clear from Shi Tiesheng’s fiction that while he was in the countryside hedeveloped a special relationship with Chinese rural life. Instead of being repelled by thecountryside, as one might expect from an educated urbanite, he developed an attitude oftolerance, a sense of appreciation and even of identification. This attitude is projected intoShi’s most famous work, “My Faraway Qingpingwan” (Wode yaoyuan de Qingpingwan,1983) which is based on his experiences in rural Shaanxi and,Anthologized in XX, 2: 49 1-507.Nativism Chap. Six271more specifically, on his understanding and knowledge of the peasants and peasant life inthe rural commune of Qingpingwan. More importantly, however, this story examines byway of an empathetic narrator the nativist culture of Shaanbei and certain dimensions ofChinese traditional culture; thus, it also belongs to the xungen school of literature.“My Faraway Qingpingwan” is narrated by an “I”-narrator who has gone to labouron a rural commune in the village of Qingpingwan. Life is very harsh for the Shaanbeipeasants living on the northern bess plains, and their livelihood depends primarily onraising cattle. For the two years that he is there, the narrator is given the job of herdingcattle in the midst of the rugged northern landscape, and, as he does so, he recounts thevarious aspects of Shaanbei’s nativist culture: the local traditions, the outmoded methods ofproduction and the folksongs through which the local people express their hopes,yearnings and disappointments. Some of the narration is in diabogic form which takesplace between the “I”-narrator and a second herder, an ex-soldier from Suide by the nameof Old Bai (Po Laohan). This ex-soldier is the quintessential northern Chinese peasant,though his traits of fatalism and his tendency to abide by the old traditions are typical ofChinese peasants anywhere. Besides the symbolism of Old Bai, there are two othersymbolic aspects in “My Faraway Qingpingwan”: the first is the black bull who possessesa totemic-like significance representing the harsh northern culture, and the second is themorningstar lily which is the story’s only reference to politics. This lily symbolizes theimproving material life of the peasant and reflects the developing tide of political andeconomic reforms implemented in 1979.“My Faraway Qingpingwan” is written in a lyrical, essay-like style. It has no plotand no discernible allegorical meaning. In the words of the author, it narrates the“fragmented, commonplace” bits of life which comprise the lives of mostpeople.34 The significance of “My Faraway Qingpingwan” lies in its urbanized “I”-Shi Tiesheng, “Ji hui huimengli hui Yenan,” Xiaoshuo xuankan, 7 (1983), quoted in 3m Sheng, “Haodang deaihai: Shi Tiesheng pianlun,” Zhong shan, 1 (1986): 62.Nativism Chap. Six272narrator whose commentary on the ancient Shaanbei life amounts to a commentary on therural, traditional part of Chinese culture and life which have long since vanished from theurban mentality. He is an unobtrusive narrator, and this reflects his validation of hissurroundings and his desire to take a part of them back with him when he returns to urbanlife. In short, his sojourn in Qingpingwan has brought him to the roots of Chinese culture.Ten years pass in the story during which the narrator has returned to Beijing wherehe has been living. Old Bai’s daughter, Liuxiao’er, visits him, and these roots aretemporarily retrieved into conscious memory. The “I”-narrator is overcome by nostalgiawhich, in his case, is not for a rural home because he lived in Qingpingwan for a mere twoyears; instead, it is for a bygone life and culture which has faded and will fall completelyaway from the collective memory as the nation increasingly modernizes. For the timebeing, through the agent of the educated youth topic, this life and culture has beentemporarily retrieved, and in this story it is given a lasting validation.Shi Tiesheng’s “Blacky” l985), on the other hand, is different in bothconception and tone from “My Faraway Qingpingwan.” This story stems from the desireto exorcise the pernicious and ongoing effects of the Cultural Revolution which are thecharacteristics of “educated youth” literature and which are also foregrounded in this story.The first of these is the “I”-narrator who was branded a Rightist during the CulturalRevolution. At the time that this happened, his wife left him, taking their children withher. Distraught, empty and contemplating suicide, the narrator decides to return to his oldhome, from which he has been separated for many years, in order to take one last look.When he arrives, he discovers that his family cave dwelling was given to one Zhang Shanupon the death of his father; later, during the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Shan was taken35“Blacky (Heihei) is anthologized in Shi Tiesheng, Wo de yaoyuan de Qingpingwan (Beijing: Shiyue wenyichubanshe, 1985): 71-89.Nativism Chap. Six273away and killed. Only his loyal dog, Blacky, was left behind to stand guard over thefamily home. The remainder of the narrative is given over exclusively to Blacky whoseallegorical significance takes place on the level of symbolism and provides the meaning ofthe story. Her horrible privation symbolizes that of the Chinese people under the mistakeneconomic policies of the Communist regime; her loyalty to the “sacred altar” and “idols” ofher home symbolizes the loyalty to socialism on the part of the people and those like ZhangShan; fmally, her miserable death at the hands of the vengeful villagers symbolizes thereward bestowed by the Chinese Communist Party on those who embrace this loyalty.Her death also symbolizes the autocratic and ruthless power that the Party takes on foritself and the arbitrary execution of this power. The allegory in “Blacky” concludes bystating that the “dark age” described in the narrative is over but that in order to truly defeatit “we must first recognize it.”36In sum, Shi Tiesheng’s fiction is structured at the level of allegory and symbolism tomake certain statements about rural life, Chinese tradition and the Chinese CommunistParty. As a xungen writer, he positively affirms the value that traditional culture has formodem life, but at the same time, he implies that this culture must be nurtured. This, inshort, is not what the Chinese Communist Party is doing. Nonetheless, this writer is bothhopeful and optimistic; once things change for the better, he implies, rural life will beenhanced and can contribute positively to China’s search for modernity.Han Shaogong36 Shi Tiesheng 6.Nativism Chap. Six274Han Shaogong is another xungen writer. Of all these writers, Han’s style is perhapsthe most innovative and modem, and the thought and conception behind his works are alsothe most brilliant and philosophical. The most striking feature of Han Shaogong’s work isthe use of abnormal psychological states such as dreams, confusion and derangement in hisdescription of persons and events, not to mention the disruption of the time-space order inhis narratives. These are modernist techniques reminiscent of Latin American magicrealism which tend to “defamiiarize”37 the reader and make him or her re-think theirconceptions about Chinese culture. As a result, Han Shaogong’s works are among themost challenging and difficult to understand of all current fictional interpretations ofChina’s search for modernity.The philosophical basis of Han Shaogong’s fiction lies in his criticism of Chinesetraditional culture which is linked with the denial or acceptance of historical reality. Han’scriticism is the most problematic of all the xungen writers and is accompanied by certaincontradictions or ambiguities regarding his evaluation of Chinese tradition and Chinesetraditional and modem values. These ambiguities are heightened by the epistemologicaluncertainty in Han’s fiction about the future of Chinese culture. This is the case, forinstance, in “Bababa” (Bababa, 1985), Han’s harshest critique, whose conclusionimplies the circular and repetitive historical non-development of traditional Chineseculture.38 In “Return” (Guiqulai, 1985), there is also the problematical“Defamiiarization” is a technique devised by the Russian formalists where the intent is to make familiaraspects of reality seem strange. In Han’s case, he wished to affect a critical attitude on the part of his readersand to compel them to rethink familiar notions about Chinese culture. Han hoped that this would ultimatelylead to the “healing of the ailing [Chinese] body.” (Han Shaogong, “Xunzhao dongfang wenhua de siwei heshenmei yushi,” Wenxue yuebao, 6 [1986], quoted in Hu Zongjian, “Han Shaogong jinzuo sansi,” Wenxuepinglun, 2 [1987]:56.)38 Anthologized in Youhuo (Changsha: Hunan wenyi chubanshe, 1986): 155-99.Duke, “Reinventing China” 41.9 Anthologized in Shifie zhongwen xiaoshuoxuan: zhongguo wenxue de datong shijie, Liu Shaoming, MaHanmao, eds. (Taipei: Shibao wenhua chubanqiye youxiangongsi, 1987): 267-284.Nativism Chap. Six275position in the narrative of the urbanized narrator. This narrator is forced to contend withthe various problems and difficulties which arise from his attempts to recover in iraditionalculture something which has been lost from the Chinese urban consciousness. The storyconcludes with this retrieval; however, what he fmds is almost too much for him. Mydiscussion of Han Shaogong’s works focuses on these various points.In April, 1986, Han Shaogong published an article which subsequently became themanifesto of the xungen movement.’ In this article, he argued that the past culture andliterature of China must be plumbed as sources of cultural concepts and styles for writers;otherwise, writers would fall prey to the latest trends from the West.4’ For HanShaogong, his personal source of inspiration lay in the ancient culture of Chu located in theheart of West Hunan.42 More particularly, Han viewed Chu culture as a regional culture,one that was anthropologically defined as the religious beliefs, mores, songs and legends,material culture and the ancient Chu ethos.43 This concept of the culture of Chu echoesthat found in the work of Shen Congwen, but in contrast to Shen, Han Shaogong put littlefaith in Shen Congwen’s beautiful and positive myth which the latter used as the agent forhis criticism of Confucianism. On the contrary, a year after he published his manifesto,Han Shaogong elevated the concept of a regional culture into a negative national construct.He used this construct as an image for the whole of China and for his wish for the eventualreconstruction of a transnational Eastem culture.” Within this reconstruction Han hoped40 Han Shaogong, “Wenxue de ‘gen,’” Zuojia (1985): 2-5.Han maintained in this manifesto that searching for roots had nothing to do with Kang Youwei’s conceptof the “national essence” (guocui).41 Jeffrey Kinkley, “Shen Congwen and the Romance of Chu Culture: Their Legacy in ChineseLiterature of the 1980s” 42.42 Han Shaogong was born in Changsha. Han’s connection with West Hunan was through his parents who areboth from West Hunan and from a trip he made to West Hunan in 1985-86. Han’s rustication took place inChangle in the eastern part of the province.Kinldey 42.Nativism Chap. Six276to fmd the superiority of this culture and a signpost to guide him on his own personal questfor the roots of Chinese culture. Han Shaogong’s concept of an elusive future ideal,however, is tautological and casts a shadow on the philosophical basis of his thought. Inshort, the future of Chinese culture in his work remains uncertain.The criticism of Chinese culture in Han Shaogong’s fiction comes hard on the heelsof three decades of Maoism in China. However, Maoism, the Chinese Communist Partyand their myth-making properties are virtually eliminated in the body of his works,signifying that politics and ideology are of relatively less importance in Han’s inquiry intomodem society. In the majority of the xungen fiction, culture is reestablished both as thefundamental bond uniting Chinese society and also as the cause of the illnesses of thissociety; it has also been reestablished as the key link in the future development of thenation. In contrast to Lu Xun, however, Han’s inquiry into the nature of traditional culturereveals a bifurcation in the mind of this author which is ambiguous, though one which iscertainly not lacking in the works of other writers of xiangtu wenxue. One Chinese criticposits that Han Shaogong evinces a mentality of “embracing the old.”45 If this is true, thepresence of this concept would also account, in part, for the contradictions in his work.Han’s bifurcation can be seen in two of his more representative stories. In “Return,”for instance, the narrator evinces strong, positive feelings for traditional culture which, asis typical of xiangru wenxue, is conflated with the Chinese village. The village in thisstory is depicted as poor yet structured around a tightly-bound “primitive” communitywhich is tied together by strong bonds of of compassion, altruism and friendship. Thesebonds are extended to Huang Zhixian in the story who is showered with good will andhospitality when he makes a return visit to the village. In short, China’s cultural roots inthis story are given a strong, positive evaluation. “Bababa,” on the other hand, is HanHu Zengjian 49, 59.Wu Liang, “Han Shaogong de lixing fanchou,” Zuojia, 7 (1987): 73-74.Nativism Chap. Six277Shaogong’s condemnation of China’s traditional culture. This story is an allegory of themost egregious aspects of Chinese culture which are condemned not only through thevillage idiot, Bingzai, who represents the Chinese national character but also through themany superstitions, the shaman culture, village sadism and the village’s non-developmentalaspects which constitute the daily fabric of life. In sum, these two stories represent twoopposing assessments of Chinese traditional culture.A second area of ambivalence in Han’s fiction can be traced to his negativeassessment of both the traditional and modern values of China. This assessment is linkedto his concept of a negative national construct discussed above which stems from Han’sconceptions of Chinese culture as an instinctual, “primitive” mode of existence or as anightmare filled with superstitions, ignorance and strict obedience to elders and ancestors.The villagers of Jitouzhai (Chicken Head Stockade) in “Bababa,” for instance, areimmeshed in the nightmare of their distant, historical past. Their bondage is reinforcedboth by their religious beliefs and by their belief in certain erroneous concepts handeddown from their ancestors. This instinctual, “primitive” mode of existence, however, hasnot been totally superceded by modern life, at least according to Han.46 On the contrary,remnants of ignorance and darkness from this ancient, primitive life can also be found inthe modern mind and values. A second critic maintains that there is a sociological basis forthis continuum which derives from the preservation of the traditions of the farming villagein the mind and practices of the urban folk. In his words, the entire nation thus has thenature of a “rural society” (literally, “nativist society”) (xiangtu shehui±ili±!).47 This“nativization,” if Han Shaogong does indeed partake of this concept, would account for hisambivalent assessment of both traditional and modern values. This second area ofambivalence is established through Han Shaogong’s characterization.46 Kinkley43.Ji Hongzhen, “Youyu de tadi bu qu de jinghun: Mo Yan sanlun zhi yi,” Wenxue pinglun, 6 (1987): 28.Nativism Chap. Six278The characters in Han Shaogong’s fiction tend to be of two types: those whorepresent traditional values and those who represent modem. Both categories ofcharacterization, however, are composed of a range of generally abnormal types. Bingzai,for instance, represents the “idiocy of popular traditional values”-- he is repulsive to lookat, he dribbles saliva, and he is the target of sadistic treatment. The character Thong Manin the same story is also of this type and is given a similarly negative assessment. ZhongMan is the supreme representative of Jitouzhai’s ancestral traditions and culture; thus, he isendowed with an elitist status in the village. At the same time, this village patriarch is aslave to the ancestors and to his own sense of fihiality which makes him the agent for theunending cycle of village misery, pain and ignorance. Convinced that the Dao has beendefeated and that Jitouzhai will be destroyed in a feud, Zhong Man attempts suicide byimpaling himself on a wooden stake. To his way of thinking, this act is an expression ofhis filiality which will subsequently be recorded in clan records. Apparently, he is notaverse to inflicting pain on himself and on the others who follow his example. Zhong Manis also the perpetrator of an ancient Jamestown-like poison cult (gu ) whereby all the oldand weak in the village are killed off. Through the deaths of these villagers, he incidentallyprovides a retinue for himself when he eventually goes to the grave.49Zhong Man’s son, Shi Ren, on the other hand, is a representative of more modemvalues. The portrait of this character, however, is also generally negative. Shi Ren isequipped with a certain amount of new thought which he has acquired from his tripsoutside the village to the world beyond. His knowledge of this thought, however, issuperficial and is contaminated by fantasy. Shi Ren’s reformist urges are concentrated onevents or objects of no practical value, such as his voyeuristic preoccupation with watching48 Duke 41-42.‘9 The practice during the Shang period of kings being accompanied to the grave by a live retinue is recorded inthe Mengzi. The practice of the live retenue was superceded in later periods by the manufacture of clayimages accompanying the royal interment.Nativism Chap. Six279women bathe or with the acthrities of female animals. From the outside world he bringsback things of little use, such as “novel toys, a glass bottle, a broken lantern, a rubberband, an old newspaper, and a small photograph of some unknown image.”—1—tp,JjJ)5O These objects, like the coke bottle discovered in the desert sand by thePygmy in the movie “The Gods Must be Crazy,” inspire wonderment, but they areultimately ineffectual in promoting village change. Like his father, Shi Ren is also an agentfor ongoing village destruction and pain. Inspired by his father’s filiality, Shi Ren calls forthe escalation of village feuding which ends in terrible bloodshed. If Jitouzhai isvictorious, so he reasons, the nation and the spirits of the ancestors would both beappeased. The positive qualities of this character are thus overshadowed by destructive,selfish impulses. A second modern character, Lao Hei in “Three Women” (NU nU nu,1985)51 is also a representative of modern values and, in this case, the new,modern woman. The portrait of this character, however, is also problematical: she smokescigarettes, has questionable sexual morals and succumbs to a paralyzing mid-life crisiswhen her looks and attractiveness fade. This portrait is inspired by Chinese misogyny;nonetheless, Lao Hei, like Shi Ren, reflects Han’s problematical assessment of modernChinese values.Finally, the urbanized narrator in “Return” can also be considered as a factor in Han’sambivalence. Like other writers of xiangtu wenxue, Han is an urbanized intellectualattempting to make sense of the onslaught of confusion and tensions emanating from thetradition-modernity crisis. This crisis is all the more egregious because it emerged in thewake of a three-decade period in which Maoism was supposed to supply all the answers.Han and other Chinese intellectuals were led to ask not only fundamental questions such50 Han Shaogong, 166.51 Anthologized in Youhuo: 200-268.Nativism Chap. Six280as: How to resolve the tensions between Chinese traditional and modem values? And,what are the roots of Chinese culture? They were also led to ask questions such as: Whatis the extent to which traditional culture should be integrated into the modem life and mind?Which aspects of traditional culture are already part of the national and individual character,and do they account for contemporary social problems and malaise? If so, how do theyaccount for these problems? Han Shaogong and other xungen writers are young, educatedurbanites; thus these questions have particular relevance for them. This relevance stemsnot merely from the Western challenge in the urban centres in the decade of the 1980s butalso from of the necessity and the difficulty of resolving these question on the level of theindividual psyche. These are not abstract questions; on the contrary, they concern therediscovery in traditional culture of something vital which has been lost from the Chineseurban consciousness.To turn to Han Shaogong’s stories, “Return” is narrated by a traumatized urban “I”-narrator who returns to the village where he was “sent down” ten years previously. Thisreturn is related as a dream sequence and is accompanied by virtigo, dissociation andsymbolism which are conveyed through modernistic techniques reminiscent of magicrealism. The “I”-narrator, known to himself as Huang Zhixian, is addressed repeatedly bythe villagers as Ma Yanjing (Glasses Ma). Over and over, Huang denies to one and all thathe has ever been to the village, yet at the same time he is continuously teased by feelings ofunease and by a sense of deja vu. At first, he responds to the villagers by humouringthem, then almost imperceptibly, this game takes on a life of its own: anotherconsciousness emerges. This consciousness is privy to the past and to the knowledgepossessed by the Ma identity who was intimately involved in the events of ten years ago,including a murder and a love affair. In short, it is clear that the Huang and Ma identitieshave merged.Nativism Chap. Six281The epiphany in which this merging takes place occurs that night when theprotagonist is sitting in a hot, steamy bath.52 The protagonist suffers temporarydissociation from his body-- the kind associated with trauma-- and becomes aware of the“real me.” He taps into his personal, ancestral history and, metaphorically, a larger culturalhistory whose pain he had previously denied. The protagonist’s crisis is temporarily over,and he is now able to carry on in the Ma identity. He has a conversation with a deceasedold peasant; he also encounters Fourth Sister whose older sister he acknowledges lovingand abandoning. This older sister has turned into a parrot53 which admonishes him froma tree, and he vows to take the parrot back with him. He also promises to assist FourthSister in her studies. Eventually, the Huang-Ma protagonist escapes from the village of hispast and beds down in a room at an inn. He telephones a friend, and in the course of theconversation, this friend acknowledges his identity as Huang Zhixian. Once again theprotagonist is overwhelmed by the traumatic effects brought on by dissociation. Theknowledge which he has acquired about himself, about past historical events and about theroots of Chinese tradition is too much for him, and, too late at this point, he half-desires torelinquish it. The story ends with his complaint, “I am tired. I can never leave thisimmense being which is me.”54 His mystical, wandering quest is over; nonetheless, theburden of the “me” which he is forced to shoulder will, the reader assumes, take him on anew psychological and cultural quest which will endow his life with greater meaning. Inthe ultimate analysis, Huang has arrived at a greater understanding of himself only becausehe has acknowledged and accepted the facts of his own and the nation’s cultural andhistorical past.52 The motif of the hot, steamy bath accompanied by an epiphany also occur in “Three Women.” In this case,the female character, Yao Gu, undergoes a devolution into an animal form after emerging from the bath.Jeffrey Kinkley points out that that the parrot in the story evokes the bird motif of the ancient chu culturerecorded in the Chu ci. (Kinkley 47.)Han Shaogong, “Return,” tr. Alice Childs, Best Chinese Stories: 1949-1989 (Beijing: Panda Books, 1989):444.Nativism Chap. Six282“Bababa,” on the other hand, is different from “Return” and represents a completereversal of the haunting and beautiful myth of the ancient Chu culture. In brief, thisnarrative is a nightmarish ethnography and a horrifying allegory of the fossilized, mostbackward aspects of Chinese traditional culture. Jitouzhai, around which the work centres,is a primitive, communalized village society in the high mountains of Xiangxi. This villageis held together by bonds of clan authority and the dictates of shamans and elders.Jitouzhai is poor and backward, primarily because of its isolation but also because of theinclement climate and perennially poor harvests. The decision is taken by the elders in thevillage to blast Jitou Feng, the mountain behind the village, and this leads to a resurgenceof the blood feud with the neighbouring village of Jiweizhai (Chicken Tail Stockade).Jitouzhai is defeated in the feud, and the young men and women of the village clan escapeby crossing the mountains, symbolizing the cyclical non-nondevelopment of traditionalChinese culture.Much of “Bababa” comprises an ethnographic account of local beliefs in animism,deity worship and superstitions. The villagers explain their perennially poor harveststhrough their belief in a chicken spirit which eats the grain in the fields. They also believethat it is only through the presence of this chicken spirit’s excrement that the fields remainfertile. Omens and taboos are also explained by way of a host of superstitious cause-and-effect beliefs. For example, the villagers believe that drinking the blood of a white ox candispel the effects of poison. A second belief, one which has been passed down tocontemporary Chinese society, is that red paper can act as a talisman to ward off evil.Even Bingzai’s birth is explained in this way: Bingzai’s mother accidently killed a greeneyed, red-bodied spider while she was pregnant which resulted in her baby’s son’scongenital retardation.55 These beliefs evoke a primitive, instinctive society, oneThis is probably Down’s Syndrome.Nativism Chap. Six283representative not only of the regional culture of West Hunan, but also of the whole ofChinese culture.Besides superstitions, the inhabitants of Jitouthai are also at the mercy of a shamanculture and their belief in deities, ancestors and elders, all of which exercise considerablepower over them. The shamans direct the blasting of Jitou Feng and the decapitation of anox which, they believe, can predict the outcome of the battle. This shaman culture alsoleads to the villagers’ deffication of Bingzai: to them, his moronic recitation of “bababa” isa sign that Bingzai is a transcendent (xian ftli). The deities also come into the picture when,in the mind of the villagers, the sacrifice of Bingzai can circumvent the rot on the seedlings.At the last minute, a crash of thunder is heard which is interpreted as the wrath of Heaven,and Bingzai is spared. The villagers are not only slaves to shamans and deities, they alsoblindly engage in ancestor worship. In this respect, Bingzai’s chanting of “bababa” issymbolic of the villagers’ blind obedience to the ancestors and to the dictates of Chinesetradition. The villagers’ compulsion to obey this tradition ultimately leads to the concoctingof the poisonous, death-inducing broth by the village elder, Zhong Man. The elder feedsthis broth unresistingly to the older and weaker among the village population in the wake ofJitouzhai’s defeat. This last horrifying detail, the communal eating of enemy flesh, theenforced suicides and pointless sacrifice and feuding, all combine to present a picture farremoved from the utopian myth of the ancient Chu culture. They are symptoms, instead,of a severe dystopian reality which has continued in some form in contemporary Chineselife.In conclusion, there are two main themes of “Bababa.” The first is centred aroundthe character of Bingzai and his hideous appearance, his child’s intelligence and his bizarrebehaviour such as playing with birdshit, all of which engender abuse from others. Thischaracter is a throw-back to a distant ancestry or antiquity, a motif which is symbolized byhis incessant chanting of “bababa.” Bingzai’s survival of the poison cult near theNativism Chap. Six284conclusion of the story reflects his life-form as only half human; it also symbolizes theignorance and misery of the Chinese people which relentlessly continue from onegeneration to the next.A second theme of “Bababa” concerns the cultural matrix surrounding andsuffocating the villagers of Jitouzhai and entrapping them in an ignorant and primordialstate reminiscent of Lu Xun’s iron house. One element of this matrix is nativist andcomprises the force behind old customs, old ways of thinking and an old philosophywhich makes the villagers stagnate and drives them toward defeat. A second element inthis cultural matrix is the villagers’ denial of their past history. The villagers lackknowledge about the real nature of their origins which were mythologized long ago, and,accordingly, they are led to beautify their ancestors who actually experienced a grim historyvery different from that recorded in their chants. As a consequence, when the villagersabandon their village, their song is about flowers and has no mention of blood. Thissymbolizes their repression of hardship and suffering and their willingness to reexperiencesuffering. In sum, the denial of history on the part of the villagers serves to preserve theirignorance intact and allows them to avoid reality; this is the key factor in the villagers’repetitive cultural non-development.MoYanMo Yan, another xungen writer, is best known for his experimentation with modernistforms and techniques, especially the magic realism reminiscent of Latin American literature. MoYan conveys a number of things through these forms such as the disorder and malaise ofcontemporary Chinese society and the oppressive nature of the rural society and culture ofShandong Province. More importantly, however, Mo Yan uses these techniques to convey hisown subjectivity which is a unique quality not found in the works of other xungen writers. InNativism Chap. Six285brief, Mo Yan’s subjectivity consists in the projection onto his narratives of his personalexperiences and his complex emotional life which are rooted in his childhood memories. Theconfusion and pain in Mo Yan’s fiction are all products of his relentless reexamination and retrievalof his childhood, and many of these memories are of violence, abuse and loneliness. Mo Yan’ssubjectivity is the reason that many critics maintain that this writer uses the external world todescribe his internal feelings.56 The nature of this subjectivity allows the reader an understandingof Mo Yan’s inner world and psyche; accordingly, one can also gain a greater understanding ofthe national psyche of the Chinese people which is so often assumed or mechanically reproducedin fiction.Like other writers of xiangtu wenxue, Mo Yan locates the world of his childhood deepwithin China’s rural world. Mo Yan journeyed from his impoverished farming village in Gaomi,Shandong Province,57 to the political and cultural centre of Beijing. In the city, however, heexperienced repression, conflict and anxiety which ultimately drew him back to the past life ofChina’s farming villages. Mo Yan’s rural world is less shocking than that of Han Shaogong;nonetheless, this world is also cruel, senseless, and irremediable. It is also characterized bybroken dreams, oppression and violence, which are testimony that the landscape of peasantexistence continues unchanged as the focal point for the bitter dynamics of Chinese culture andpolitics. It is a world in which the dynamics of human misery, more often than not, are alsoexacerbated by the unfeeling attitudes of rural Communist Party cadres. In sum, Mo Yanreexamines the rural society of his birthplace and the pain of his childhood within the shadows ofthe rural world; this constitutes the underlying narrative structure of “Crystal Carrot” (Touming dehongluobo, 1984) and “Dry River” (Ku he, jjiJ1985).5856 Chen Xinyuan, “Mo Yan de ganjue shijie,” Preface to Touming de hongluobo, Zhongzuo dalu zuojia wenxuedaxi 9: Mo Yanjuan, Bo Yang, ed. (Taipei: Lin bai chubanshe, 1989): 8.Mo Yan was raised in a family classified as “upper middle peasant.” During the Cultural Revolution, hereturned to his village home where he tended cattle and worked as a part-time labourer in a linseed-oil factory,an experience which reinfotced his knowledge and understanding of peasant life.58“Crystal Carrot” is anthologized in Touming de hongluobo (Beijing: zuojia chubanshe, 19886): 136-201;“Dry River” is anthologized in the same collection: 213-229.Nativism Chap. Six286Mo Yan’s rural home is located in Gaomi, Shandong. This is an impoverished rural village,and as Mo Yan grew up in this village, he learned all the elements of Chinas farming life. He alsointernalized the nativist culture of his home province, much of which he despised, and which heuses as the backdrop for his fiction. Shandong is traditionally the cradle of Chinese Confucianismand is governed by clan ties and the bonds of kinship ethics summed up in the Chinese term“lijiao” jjt. The geophysical aspects of this area historically lent themselves to battles, and,during the War of Resistance against Japan, Shandong served as the locus for the people’sstruggle against imperialism. When Mo Yan was a young child, his village also suffered the direagrarian policies of the Chinese Communist Party. China’s economy experienced severestagnation as a result of the Great Leap Forward, and the farming villages, in particular, sufferedduring these years. These conditions exacerbated the existing poverty and “feudal” privilege ofMo Yan’s native region and tended to mold the almost nihilistic outlook of this writer. One criticmaintains that the artistic achievement of Mo Yan’s fiction and his tendency to throw aside theburden of rationalism are the unique products of this cultural and historical background.59For Mo Yan, one tangible result of the historically regressive aspects of this period ofChinese history is his search among his grandparents’ generation for ideals of character andheroism. Red Sorghum (Hong gaoliang, 1987),60 for instance, is historically located inthe time of his grandparents and is filled with scenes of heroism and sacrifice undertaken duringthe War of Resistance against Japan. These scenes render his grandparents into a generation ofnational folk heroes who, driven by a primitive vitality, are hard-working, strong, passionate andcourageous. This generation is also depicted in Mo Yan’s fiction as struggling against China’straditional standards and the hypocrisy of Confucian culture. The generation of the narrator’s“Dry River” is about a young boy who commits suicide after being violently beaten by each member of hisfamily. The family tensions in the story are aggravated by its ranking by the Chinese Communist Party asupper-middle class peasants.Ji Hongzhen 23.60 Anthologized in Tourning de hongluobo, Mo Yan juan 191-282.Nativism Chap. Six287parents, on the other hand, stands in stark contrast to this generation. This later generationpersonifies weakness, ignorance and conservatism, characteristics which are also found in theenervated, corrupted urbanite who appears as the returned, urbanized narrator near the conclusionof Red Sorghum. This narrator, who has an “urbanized and foul-smelling” body reappears in hisrural village after an absence of nearly ten years.61 He visits his grandmother’s grave where hehas a vision of this woman admonishing him to purge himself in the Black River in order tocleanse himself of the modern urban filth clinging to his body.62 This narrator belongs to thethird generation which is caught in between the other two and suffers tremendously. In sum,Chinese generational ties and the bonds of kinship ethics constitute a kind of “psychological time”in Mo Yan’s fiction which persists from the past into the contemporary Chineseconsciousness of today. This concept echoes the idea of the “rural society” discussed earlier inconnection with Han Shaogong’s fiction which accounts for the interweaving of Chinese nativistculture in contemporary thought and life.Mo Yan’s “Crystal Carrot” is an exemplary instance of the fictional subjectivity ofthis writer. This subjective element is combined in the story with the narration of theprimitive, harsh and emotionally-explosive conditions of life in a rural construction teamduring the time of the Cultural Revolution. The peasants on this team are ground down bythe unreasonable demands of the rural Party cadres and are subjected to a deadening routine61 The motif of return in this novella echoes a statement made by Mo Yan in a discussion concerning his shortstory “Red Locusts” (Hong huang, 1987). Mo Yan stated that as he found friendship to be rare in the city, hereturned to the “imagination of my grandpfather’s generation.” (Mo Yan, “Zai chuanshuo zhong,” (pubi. infonot given), quoted from Duke, “Paradise County: Mo Yan’s Tiantang suantai zhi ge (1988) and its MayFourth Predecessors,” UBC draft ms: 17.)62 The return to the rural village in “Red Sorghum” is conflated with a return to an idealized past, tainted withnostalgia, and contains the shadow of a forgotten, transcendent China. This China, the text implies, existsspatially in the sanctity of rural life; thus, in order to seek it, one must throw off all the corrupting effects ofthe urban, modernized world. As an idealized world, this world has also happily lost its “feudal” connotationswhich are usually part and parcel of the Chinese rural context. Temporally, on the other hand, thistranscendent China, or Chinese culture, dwells in the imaginary world of the grandparents, at least accordingto Mo Yan, but its true time-frame is more likely a China that is prior to the West.63 Ji Hongzhen, “Shenhua shijie de renleixue kongjian: shi Mo Yan xiaoshuo de yuyi cengci,” Beijing wenxue,3 (1988): 70.Nativism Chap. Six288of continuous hard labour. Their lack of an inner world contrasts strongly with thefantasies and dream life of the young boy who comes to be known as Hei Hai (BlackChild) in the story. The fantasies of this child symbolize his desire to escape from theharsh realities of his world and China’s egregious rural life.“Crystal Carrot” is based on a dream that Mo Yan once had about a voluptuousyoung woman dressed in red who, just prior to dawn, entered a carrot patch equipped witha long fish hook. After catching a carrot with her hook, the woman disappeared in thedirection of the rising sun. In Mo Yan’s words, “[T]he carrot gleamed with an eery lightunder the rays of the sun, and that mysterious feeling stunned me.”The motif of physical abuse in“Crystal Carrot” is also garnered from personal experience, in this case, a beating theauthor once sustained as a child after pulling up a carrot while he was labouring in thefields.65 These experiential elements in “Crystal Carrot” are the major sources of thestory’s expressive subjectivism.“Crystal Carrot” opens with Hei Hai and Xiao Shijiang (Young Stonemason) whojoin a production team in a rural worksite. The stonemason and the ten-year old Hei Hal,who is classed as a poor peasant, are transferred to a second site under the supervision ofthe commune deputy chairman, Liu. This rural Party worker is also referred to as LiuTaiyang who represents the whims and absurdities of Party policies and statements. Liuexplains to the team that their mandate consists in widening the locks in a local dike forirrigation purposes. More than two hundred people have been transferred from thecommune to complete this project, including two blacksmiths, Lao Tiejiang (OldBlacksmith) and Xiao Tiejiang (Young Blacksmith) who smelt steel into drills for theproject. There is also a team of women, one member of which is the female protagonist,64 Quot1 in Chen Xinyuan 8.65 Ibid.Nativism Chap. Six289Juzi (Chrysanthemum). These women are assigned the task of pounding rocks into graveland, initially, Hei Hal is also assigned to this team. Eventually, Hei Hal is transferred tothe blacksmiths’ site where he assists the blacksmiths in pumping the bellows for their fire.There, he is constantly ridiculed, abused and tormented by Xiao Tiejiang because he issmall and weak. At one point he is even instructed to pick up a burning-hot defective drillwhich he does so with his bare hands. Thenceforth at night he is plagued with the memoryof his burning hands until he fmally drops off to sleep. The abuse this child suffers andhis repression and psychological numbness result in his rich fantasy life which leads to hisvision of a crystal carrot. The image of the carrot lies at the heart of the philosophicalmeaning of the story.Other themes in “Crystal Carrot” involve the human kindness of Juzi who takes HeiHal under her wing and the love relationship that develops between her and Xiao Shijiang.This couple subsequently abandon their young friend and give themselves over to thepursuit of their passion. This love relationship aggravates Xiao Tiejiang whose bitter rage,frustration and jealousy symbolize the disorder and agonies of the Cultural Revolution.Xiao Tiejiang becomes even more abusive of Hei Hal but, ironically, the young blacksmitheventually supercedes the aging artisan blacksmith whose culture, patience and good willrepresent the bygone potential of the Chinese people and nation now superannuated.Eventually, Xiao Teijiang and Xiao Shijiang engage in a fistfight. This fight turns into agravel-throwing match during which Juzi loses an eye to a large stone.66 The coupledisappear, Xiao Tiejiang turns to drink and the story slowly draws to a close.“Crystal Carrot” is an account of the moral bankruptcy, violence and aberrance of theadult world as seen through the eyes of a child. It is also an account of narratorial angerand disaffection with this world. The coldness of this world is reinforced by the cold66 The motif of one blinded eye extends to Xiao Tiejiang in “Crystal Carrot” and is also found in the portrait ofthe young woman, Nuan, in the story “White Dog and the Swings” (Baigou qiuqian jia, 1985).Nativism Chap. Six290weather (Hei Hai is only semi-clad in the stoiy), the cold of the stone balustrades and thecold autumn wind which blows through the caves of the dyke where the team sleeps atnight. Hei Hai’s childhood perspective of this world is conditioned both by the sufferinghe experiences on the worksite and from that in his homelife: his father has abandoned himand his stepmother, neglected and abandoned herself, has turned to alcohol. Hersubsequent physical abuse of Hei Hm is the realization of the author’s conceptions of cruelkinship ties. Hei Hal copes with his vulnerability and anxieties in the only way he knowshow-- by becoming “dysfunctional,” that is, by withdrawing in autistic fashion from theworld and becoming mute.67 His retreat into his fantasy world is accompanied by hisstrong identification with nature, with the river, its fish and shrimp and with the hempfields and the birds in these fields which compensate for the coldness of the human world.Hei Hat endows nature with a magical function. At one point, for instance, he jumps intothe river to fetch water, climbs the dyke and senses that the willow trees on the top of thedyke make the little roadway twist and turn. It seems as though a magnet has been attachedto the branches of the willows, and this attracts the iron water buckets, making themswing. Nature’s fantastical qualities are also combined with hallucinatory alterations of thesensory perceptions described after the manner of magic realism. When Liu Taiyang isspeaking, for instance, a frog bumps into the yellow hemp leaves, making a loud sound.On another occasion, Juzi brings Hei Hal two northern steamed rolls in one of which ahuman hair is imbedded. Juzi disentangles it from the bread and flicks it to the ground.The sound of falling hair was “very loud, and Hei Hal heard it.” IJ368These sounds compensate for the silence Hei Hat has imposed on his relations with thehuman world. At other places in the text, nature comes into play in the red-green67 The mute motif reappears in other works by Mo Yan such as the portrait of the mute child, Xiaohu, in “DryRiver” and the mute husband and children of Nuan in “White Dog and the Swings.” The motif of the oneblinded eye and the mute motif reinfoite the violence and harsh conditions of China’s rural life.68 MoYan 166.Nativism Chap. Six291chromaticism which Mo Yan is known for, especially in Red Sorghum.69 The water of theriver, for instance, is made up of “a patch of red and a patch of green” achromaticism which originates in the primitive colours of China’s folk arts and alsoaccounts for the brilliant colour of the carrot. To the reader, however, these alterationsknock awiy our usual sensoiy expectations; we are thus “defamiiarized” and made toempathize with Hei Hal even more.Mo Yan’s delving into the misty realms of the human spirit has been termed by onecritic as a “psychological action model.” 1t71 The developmental processof this model begins with an emotional state which is taken to a peak and finally released.This emotional state in “Crystal Carrot” is Hei Hai’s loneliness, numb psychological stateand quest for meaning and love which are developed and brought to a final resolutionthrough the symbolic imagery of the carrot. This development begins one day when XiaoTiejiang incites Hei Hal to steal a number of sweet potatoes and carrots from the field of theneighbouring production team. Xiao Tiejiang, Juzi, Xiao Shijiang and Hei Hai wash andprepare the vegetables for baking in the stove. One carrot drops into the coal dust and isset aside on top of the anvil. This carrot subsequently becomes the subject of Hei Hai’sbeautiful vision which is as follows:A dark blue light emanated from the glossy anvil. Above this darkblue light floated a gold-coloured carrot. In shape and size it waslike a great pear. It trailed a long tail, the fine roots of which werelike gold-coloured lambswool. The carrot was crystal, transparentand delicate. Inside, the carrot’s transparent, gold-coloured skinnurtured a silver liquid bursting with life. The lines of the carrotwere smooth and graceful and emanated gold rays of light, some of69 This red and green chromatism has been artistically reproduced by the Fifth-Generation film-maker, ZhangYimou, in his filming of this novel.70 MoYan 147.71 Cheng Depei, “Bei jiyi chanrao de shijie: Mo Yan chuangzuozhong de tongnian shijiao,” Shanghai wenxue,4 (1986): 84-5.Nativism Chap. Six292which were long like wheat spikelets, others short like eyelashes.And all were a gold colour.... “72This image has overt phallic implications and, in part, represents Hei Hal’s desire to escapehis childhood torments through the means of sexual, and thus adult, knowledge. Moreimportantly, however, this vision represents a primal life force or a power which Hei Haldesires to reirieve for himself and through which he can gain empowerment. Personallyempowered, Hei Hal could thus do two things: counteract the systemic abuses of thepolitical and social system which ignores his childhood needs and continue hisdevelopmental process which, according to the text, terminated at age four or five.Hei Hai reaches for the carrot in his vision, but, in yet another act of torment, XiaoTiejiang throws the carrot into the river. The carrot describes a golden arc which Hei Haifollows with his eyes. In anguish, Hei Hai searches for his carrot in the river and returnsseveral more times to the carrot patch to steal more carrots. Finally, he goes one last timeto the carrot patch and, one by one, pulls up all the carrots and examines them by the lightof the autumn sun-- Hei Hai is searching for his special “crystal carrot,” and all itrepresents. Caught red-handed by the old man who guards the field, Hei Hai is taken tothe production team leader who gives him a rough interrogation. He strips him of hisclothes and sends him on his way, demanding that his father come and retrieve hisbelongings. Hei Hal then makes his way back into in the field of yellow hemp “like a fishswimming into the big sea.”—j3ç73Hei Hai’s search for and failure to find the means of his empowerment would seem tomake this story a tragedy. Within the tradition of Western literature, there is a paralleltheme of loss and search-- King Lear’s search for and loss of Cordelia, the daughter whowas the key to the king’s understanding of his flawed personality. Lear’s inability to72 MoYan 180.‘ Ibid. 201.Nativism Chap. Six293reunite with his daughter and her untimely death ultimately resulted in King Lear’s greatpersonal tragedy. Within the tradition of Chinese traditional literature, however, this themecan be interpreted slightly differently. The theme of loss of and search for a powerfultalisman is an important structural component of Story of the Stone. At the conclusion ofthis novel, Jia Baoyu came into repossession of his talisman-- his jade stone-- whichallowed him to return once more to the Truth or Greensickness Peak --the symbol of theBuddhist Nirvana in the story. Unlike Jia Baoyu, Hei Hal in the “Crystal Canot” failed torediscover his talisman, and yet the spirituality of the fish image implies a transformationsimilar to Baoyu’s. Regardless of where he has gone or whether he is alive, Hei Hai hashad an encounter with the truth, and this truth is one manifestation of the long roots ofChinese culture. These roots reach back to a source of the deepest spirituality of Chineseculture which has survived many political and dynastic changes and, it would appear, willsurvive for some time to come. The rediscovery of this spirituality in the decade of the1980s implies that it is a vital and intrinsic part of China’s search for modernity.ConclusionIn conclusion, the four writers discussed in this chapter are united by one featurewhich is typical of most of the xiangtu writers discussed in this dissertation, and this istheir concern for the fate and well-being of the mass of China’s peasants. This concern isexpressed on a number of levels, including economic, social, cultural and spiritual andcontinues the privileging of the nation mode which is characteristic of Chinese fiction sinceMay Fourth. The difference between May Fourth fiction and the fiction of the 1980s is thatthe latter is garbed in new, modernist forms which reflect these writers’ “dissidence” fromthe tyranny of traditional modes.Nativism Chap. Six294Among these four writers, Gao Xiaosheng is the most consistent about the source ofpeasant distress and suffering. Unlike the xungen writers, he does not concern himselfwith the cultural values of the common people which, according to some writers, are toblame for Chin&s present social crisis.74 In Gao’s fiction, the crisis of the rural areas is adirect result of the inefficiencies and corruption of the Chinese Communist Party, itsauthoritarian control and its total disregard of the lives and the well-being of the commonpeople. The peasant in this rural world is a hapless victim of shifting policy andbureaucratic botchery and is expected to cope the best he can. In his later fiction, Gaovisualizes a rural world in which the peasants are fmally able to create a more ideal lifeunder social and economic reforms.In the works of the xungen writers, on the other hand, culture is reestablished as theprimary factor in the material and emotional well-being or lack thereof of the Chinesepeasants. Among these writers, Shi Tiesheng evinces the greatest tolerance and evenidentification for traditional culture which he depicts as delicate yet capable of contributingin a meaningful way to the modern, urban world. The greatest threat to this rural world inShi’s fiction is not modern values; on the contrary, this threat derives from the evil andtotalitarian practices of the Chinese Communist Party which rewards loyalty with abuse,cruelty and death.Shi Tiesheng’s vision and empathy stand in strong contrast to the bifurcation towardtraditional culture found in the works of Han Shaogong and the ambivalence of this writerabout both the traditional and modern worlds. In “Return,” for instance, the urbanizednarrator is ambivalent about the urban world which he temporarily left behind and thetraditional values which he encounters in the village to which he returns. The greatestdifficulty this narrator encounters is not his acceptance of his personal history and thecultural history of the nation but in integrating these two sets of values. “Bababa,” on the‘ Duke 52.Nativism Chap. Six295other hand is a more consistently harsh condemnation of traditional culture in the manner ofthe cultural iconoclasm of Lu Xun. Modern values, however, are also rejected in this storywhich leaves the reader unclear about the future of Chinese culture and Han’s concept ofthe eventual reconstruction of a superior “Eastern culture.” Han’s quest for the roots ofChinese culture lies in a future ideal which remains uncertain and is beyond the reach of thecommon person.Mo Yan, the final writer discussed in this chapter is the most subjective and the mostsuccessful at unearthing the mystical and spiritual aspects of the roots of Chinese culture.Mo Yan’s world is not as grim and nightmarish as Han Shaogong’s; however, within thisworld, a young peasant boy uncovers a way to the truth which leads to his personalliberation from the horrible realities of his world. Mo Yan’s spiritual motif may derivefrom the Chinese Buddhist tradition which, the story implies, may ultimately be the solesource of well-being and comfort for China’s benighted peasants. This motif reflects thestaying power of the most fundamental aspects of China’s traditional culture which hassurvived political chaos and three decades of attempts to destroy it.Nativism Conclusion296ConclusionThe discussion of xiangtu wenxue in this dissertation comprises a survey of the variousregional and temporal expressions of this literary subgenre. This survey makes one point veryclear and that is that even though xiangtu wenxue comprises a mere subgenre, there arenumerous, diverse types ofxiangtu wenxue within this subgenre which evolved under verydisparate circumstances. These different types are bound together by two major images or issues:the first is the image of the countryside which is the medium in this literature for revelations aboutcontemporary Chinese social and political life; the second is the issue of traditional Chinese culturewhich is conflated with or embedded in the countryside and carries the message these writers wishto convey about modernity, about urbanization and about themselves as participants in twentieth-century China. The issue of culture is represented in contrasting favourable and unfavourableways.The culture question has preoccupied Chinese intellectuals since the nineteenth century, and,in the twentieth, Chinese culture-- whether that found in the Confucian values in contemporary lifeor in the traditional values of the countryside-- remains the fundamental bond unifying Chineselife. Other factors, such as the breakdown of the imperial order associated with the 1920s, the riseof Chinese Communism or the impact of imperialist aggression, are also determinants in theconfiguration of twentieth century life, not to mention the growth of xiangtu wenxue. Thesefactors contributed, for instance, to the positivist literary mode of the 1920s, the programmaticfiction of the 1930s, Taiwanese colonial fiction of the 1920s and the works of China’sNortheastern writers, especially Xiao Jun and Duanmu Hongliang. Nonetheless, the question ofthe worth of Chinese culture in all the different periods of xiangtu wenxue indicates that culture,not Communism or China’s relations with the Other, is the most fundamental and permanent issuein China’s ongoing search for modernity.Nativism Conclusion297The issue of culture became the focal point of examination in the nineteenth century whenChina first encountered modernity. At that time, Chinese intellectuals began to examine theassumed universal validity of Chinese culture and to question the Confucian classics as therepository of morals and aesthetics for China’s rapidly changing society. Later, intellectuals suchas Kang Youwei, Chen Duxiu and Lu Xun conceived certain ambivalent theories about Chinesetraditional culture, specifically, that Chinese culture was responsible for China’s ongoing nationalills. They also maintained that the anachronistic culture of China was the cause for China’sinability to maintain parity with the West.1 These unfavourable views are present in the works ofcertain writers of xiangtu wenxue where they are sometimes depicted in an even more pronouncedway than they are in the fiction of Lu Xun. One or two Chinese writers ofxiangtu wenxue evenreject traditional culture outright and maintain that it has little of positive value to offer to modernlife.Lu Xun was the first writer of xiangtu wenxue to posit an unfavourable view of traditionalChinese culture. Lu Xun maintained that in order for the Chinese organism to achieve health andreform, it must undergo a total, fundamental break with the entire cultural and social order of thepast. Lu Xun’s view was the source for his holistic antitraditionalism and his cultural iconoclasmwhich served as a creative inspiration for the generation of writers of xiangtu wenxue of the1920s. Like Lu Xun, these writers of xiangtu wenxue formulated a number of motifs throughwhich they expressed their view that Chinese traditional culture tends to cripple the nationalconsciousness. This unfavourable view is also consistently maintained in the works of XiaoHong. In Xiao Hong’s Tales ofHulan River, for instance, tradition has made slaves of thepeasants who choose to remain so instead of initiating any change. This attitude on the part of thepeasants is a universal determinant in the cyclical non-development of Chinese tradition. In thisand other works by this author, traditional culture also accounts for the ongoing, oppressive1 Lin Yu-sheng, The Crisis of Chinese Consciousness 65.Nativism Conclusion298treatment of Chinese women whom outmoded customs and traditions have reduced to a state ofsocial bondage.In contrast to this unfavourable view, certain writers of xiangtu wenxue, such as thewriters on Taiwan and the xungen writer Shi Tiesheng, ascribe consistently positive values toChinese traditional culture. In the view of these writers, the countryside is the heart of an essentialChinese traditionalism which has value for modem life; it is also a positive element in the future ofthe Chinese nation. Needless to say, this favourable view contrasts strongly with the unfavourableone above and points to a bifurcation in, or a lack of a clear-cut, consistent view about, Chinesetraditional culture, whether on the part of Chin&s writers, its intellectuals or the Chinese commonpeople.The favourable view of Chinese culture parallels the populist, historical view of thecountryside and rural life. Historically, the countryside occupied a special place in the Chineseheart, and even urban-based intellectuals maintained strong ties with their rural homes.2 Ruralismwas traditionally regarded as a source of wisdom and virtue, and the contrast of rural purity withthe avowed immorality of the cities was pointed out in the seventeenth century by the imperialofficial, Gu Yanwu, and, in the twentieth, by Mao Zedong.3 In Taiwan in the 1960s and 1970s,rampant modernization forced Taiwanese writers ofxiangtu wenxue to recognize the fragility oftheir cultural traditions, to embrace them and to turn a blind eye to the rural bonds of oppression.2 Rhoads Murphey, The Fading of the Maoist Vision: City and Country in China’s Development. (NewYork: Methuen, 1980): 23.The attachment to the rural home is also a recurring and compelling motif in traditional literature. BoJuyi, for instance, wrote lyric verse in which he reminisced about his rural home after taking up office.Gu Yanwu’s sentiment is as follows:Goodness develops only in the village, evil in the city. The city is the place ofcommerce and trade. People relate to one another only with the aim of making profits.They are superficial and pretentious. As a result, the city is a sink of iniquities. Thevillage is different. There people are self-reliant and have deep emotional ties with eachother.(Quoted in Muiphey 24.)Nativism Conclusion299These writers ascribed a moral ascendency to Taiwan’s indigenous cultural forms-- symbolized asthe “Race of Generals” in Chen Yingzhen’s story by that name --and sought in rural Taiwan atranscendent China which predated the invasion by the West. The works of these writers manifesttheir rejection of modernity coupled with the desire to counteract foreign influence. This desire isreminiscent of local cultural responses to foreign invasion which occurred during differenthistorical periods. In the mid-l980s, SM Tiesheng similarly evinces nostalgia for a bygone lifeand culture which must be nurtured in order to contribute to modem life. In contrast to the writersof Taiwan, Shi Tiesheng’s validation of rural life grew out of his rustification experience. Wherethere is evil in the countryside in Shi’s works, this evil is attributed not to traditional culture per sebut, instead, to the cruel practices of rural Party elites.Finally, the third and largest group of writers of xiangtu wenxue evince both favourable andunfavourable views of traditional culture which reflects the bifurcation in their individual mode ofthought. Shen Congwen, for instance, romanticizes the peasant and the countryside in most of hisfiction. This tendency arose from his attitudes of Han paternalism, from Hunan’s regional decay,from his rejection of his cultural tradition and from his desire to subvert Han Confucianism. Otherworks by this author, however, such as “Xiaoxiao” and “Guisheng,” evince a type of holisticantitraditionalism which is reminiscent of Lu Xun’s. A second xungen writer, Han Shaogong,evinces the most extreme bifurcation which accounts for his two opposing representations oftraditional Chinese culture. The narrator in “Return,” for instance, evinces favourable feelings fortraditional culture which he uncovers in the rural mountain village. “Bababa,” on the other hand,is a harsh condemnation of Chinese culture which is blamed for China’s cyclical non-development.Mo Yan is similarly ambivalent. In some of his fiction, the horrors of the rural world are deeplyrooted in popular rural ways while in others these horrors are attributed to the rural Party elites. Inat least one story, on the other hand, the positive cultural symbols of the rural world representtraditional Chinese spirituality. The ambivalence and bifurcation of these writers stem from theirfailure to reconcile traditional Chinese values with the facts of Chinese modernity.NativismConclusion300In conclusion, I maintain that the contradictory, inconsistent representation of the countrysideand of Chinese traditional culture in xiangtu wenxue is rooted in the rapid, disorienting nature ofChina’s recent urbanization. Compared to the countries of the West, this urbanization is relativelynew and has been imposed on China by stronger international powers. The patterns of migrationfrom the country to the city in both China and Taiwan mirrors that in any newly industrializingcountry, but in both places it has determined the narrative configuration of these works. Themigration to the city involves the psychological metamorphosis of the individual from a ruralite toan urbanite. The majority of writers ofxiangtu wenxue-- from Wang Luyan in the 1920s to ChenYingzhen in the 1970s and Mo Yan in the 1980s-- experienced difficulty in bridging this transition.Accordingly, these writers are urbanized to varying degrees and none is able to fully integrate hisvision of the countryside into a larger vision of modernity. The conceptions of Chinese culturewhich these writers conceive within the context of the past are conditioned by their experiences inthe urban present and also by their degree of intimate, first-hand rural knowledge. In general, itappears that the more urbanized a writer is the greater his idealization of Chinese culture is. Thisidealization is accompanied by the rejection of all facets of modernity. Sometimes, as in the caseof Han Shaogong, it is accompaned by the rejection of tradition and his reservations aboutmodernity. This rejection reflects on China’s present social crisis; however, in Han Shaogong’scase, it also derives from this writer’s incomplete urban metamorphosis. In the final analysis, thissame incomplete metamorphosis characterizes the creativity of all these writers. Not until thisprocess of urbanization is complete will we see attitudes of ambivalence about Chinese traditionalculture disappear from modern Chinese fiction.Nativism Bibliography301BibliographyThis bibliography is divided into the two main categories of Chinese and Englishsources. These categories are subdivided into primary and secondary sources.Primary sources include stories, novels or novellas, collections and anthologies.Secondary sources are subdivided into critical works which include articles andbooks, prefaces to collections, interviews and dissertations, and reference works.Chinese Primary Sources(stories; novels; collections/anthologies)Chen Yingzhen. BI “Family of Generals” (Jiangjun zu 1964). Anthologized inChen Yingzhen, Jiangjunzu Yuanjing congkan 25. Taipei: Yuanjing chubanshe,1975): 99-118.. Huashengdun dalou• diyi bu: yun $1)çJ—:. Yuanjing congkan 200.Taipei: Yuanjing chuban shiye gongsi, 1983.. “Night Freight” (Yeh xing huoche n.d.). Anthologized in Ye xing huocheYuanjing congkan 154. Taipei: Yuanjing chubanshe, 1979: 233-289.. “One Day in the life of the Office Animal” (Shangbanzu de yi ii J: n.d.).Anthologized in Ye xing huoche 195-232.Duanmu Hongliang Korchin Plains (Ke’erqinqi caoyuan ,1939).Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe, 1956.. “Red Night” (Hongye L , 1943). Anthologized in Duanmu Hongliang xiaoshuoxuan. iJj. Hunan renmin chubanshe, 1982: 254-27 1.. “Torrential Muddy River” (Hunhe de jiiu iJfij 1936). Anthologized inDuanmu Hongliang xiaoshuoxuan 8 1-108.Gao Xiaosheng An Extremely Complicated Story” (Ji qi mafan de gushi., 1984). Anthologized in Gao Xiaosheng 1982 xiaoshuoji .j 1982 iJSichuan: Renmin chubanshe, 1983: 149-200.. Chen Huangsheng Changes Occupation” (Chen Huansheng zhuanye1983). Anthologized in Chen Huansheng Huacheng congshu. Huachengchubanshe, 1983: 54-89.Nativism Bibliography302. “Chen Huansheng Goes to Town” (Chen Huansheng shang cheng1980). Anthologized in Chen Huansheng 40-53.. “Chen Huansheng Makes a Production Contract” (Chen Huansheng baochang, 1982). Anthologized in ChenHuansheng 90-111.. “Head of a Funnel Household” (Loudou hu thu n.d.). Anthologized inChen Huansheng 1-16.. “Historical Annals Outside the Story” (Shuwai chunqiu 1982).Anthologized in Chen Huansheng 112-123.. “Li Shunda Builds a House” (Li Shunda zao wuJif*, 1979). Anthologized inLi Shunda zao wu Taipei: Xindi wenxue chubanshe, 1989: 1-30.. “Muddy Feet” (Ni jiao 1983). Anthologized in Gao Xiaosheng 1982 xiaoshuoji109- 139.. “The Willow Branches on the Bank of the Desolate Pond are Green” (Huang chianbian liuzhi qing JII JI,*, 1984). Anthologized in Gao Xiaosheng 1982xiaoshuoji 61-135.Han Shaogong J,”jJ. “Bababa” (Bababa 1985). Anthologized in Youhuo.Changsha: Hunan wenyi chubanshe, 1986: 155-99.. “Return” (Guiqulai 1985). Anthologized in Shijie zhongwen xiaoshuoxuan.zhongguo wenxue de datong shijie iJJj: LiuShaoming, Ma Hanmao, eds. Taipei: Shibao wenhua chubanqiye youxiangongsi, 1987:267-284.. “Three Women” (NU nü nU 1985). Anthologized in Youhuo: 200-268.He Jiquan, Xiao ChengangJjJ, eds. Zhongguo xiangtu xiaoshuo xuan(abbreviated as XX). Guizhou renmin chubanshe, 1986. 2 Vols.Hwang Chun-ming R.. “Drowning of an Old Cat” (Nisi yizhi lao maon.d.). Anthologized in Hwang Chun-ming, Xiao Guafu iJ iE. Yuangjing congkan 11.Yuanjing chubanshe, 1975: 17-39.. “Flower in a Rainy Night” (Kan hai de rizi 1967). Anthologized inSayonara. zaijian Yuanjing congkan 2. Taipei: Yuanjingchubanshe, 1974: 59-126.. Little Widow (Xiao GuafuiJ JI, 1975). Anthologized in Xiao guafu 93-213.Nativism Bibliography303. “My Son’s Big Doll” (Erzi de da wanou n.d.). Anthologized in Luo. Yuanjing congkan 1. Taipei: Yuanjing chubanshe, 1974: 33-62.. “Sayonara. Good-bye” (Sayonara. zaijian 1973). Anthologizedin Sayonara . zaijian 127-190.. “Taste of Apples” (Pingguo de ziwei n.d.). Anthologized in Sayonara.zaijian: 27-57.. “The Gong” (Luo , 1968). Anthologized in Luo. 107-194.Jian Xian’ai Z. “Water Funeral” (Shui zang 1926). Anthologized in XX, 1: 103-108.Lai He U]. “Steelyard” (Yi gan chengzi— 4 1926). Yi gan chengzi: Guangfu qianTaiwan wenxue quanji — Eds. Ye Shitao, ZhongZhaozheng. Yuanjing congkan 126. Taipei: Yuanjing, 1979, 1: 57-70.Liu Shaotang Puliu renjia Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1985.Long Yingzong “Village of Papaya Trees” (Zhi you muguashu de xiao zhenfj )J, 1937). Anthologized in Zhi you mugua shu de xiao zhen: Guangfu qian Taiwanwenxue quanji jjj(4j iJ: 7:5-63.LU Heruo “Oxcart” (Niu che 1935). Anthologized in Niu che: Guangfu qianTaiwan wenxue quanji 1: 5:5-43.Ma Feng )9• “My First Superior” (Wode di yige shangji IJj, 1959).Anthologized in Ma Feng xiaoshuoxuan )J. Chengdu: Sichuan renminchubanshe, 1983): 237-254.Mo Yan “Crystal Carrot” (Touming de hongluobo 1984). Anthologized inTouming de hongluobo Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe, 1986: 136-201.. “Dry River” (Ku he 1985). Anthologized in Touining de hongluobo: 213-229.. Red Sorghum (Hong gaoliang 1987). Anthologized in Touming dehongluobo Zhongzuo dalu zuojia wenxue daxi 9: Mo YanjuanBo Yang, ed. Taipei: Lin bai chubanshe, 1989, 191-282.Pan Xun “Rural Heart” (Xiang xin j,1922). Anthologized in Zhongguo xinwenxueda xi 4’ (Abbreviated as Da xi). Xianggang wenxue yanjiushe, 1935, 3:272-283.Nativism Bibliography304Peng Jiahuang “Instigation” (Songyong n.d.). Anthologized in Da xi, 3: 482-498.Shen Congwen “At the Butcher’s Block” (Tuzhuo bian 1925). Anthologizedin Shen Congwen wenji Hong Kong: Huacheng chubanshe, 1982, 2: 60-66.. “Baizi” (Baizi i1i 1928). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 2: 96-103.. Border Town (Bian cheng 1934). Anthologized in Shen Congwenxiaoshuoxuan Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1982, 2: 207-293.. “Dai gou” (Dai gou It , n.d.). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 1: 19-22.. “Events Gone By” (Wang shi t4 $, n.d.). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 1:5-9.. “Guisheng” (Guisheng [name] ft, 1937). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 6:338-61.. “Huiming” (Huiming [name] !B, 1929). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 3:269-281.. “Long Zhu” (Long Zhu [name] 1928). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji,2: 362-383.. “Meijin, Baozi and the White Kid” (Meijin, Baozi, yu na yang, jIJ4--,1929). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 2: 392-404.. “New Year’s Congee” (Laba zhou 1925). Anthologized in Shen Congwenwenji, 1: 23-27.. Phoenix (Fengzi [name] 1933). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 5: 302-390.. “Qiaoxiu and Dongsheng” (Qiaoxiu he Dongsheng I514, 1947). Anthologizedin Shen Congwen wenji, 7: 363-8 1.. “Sansan” (Sansan [name] 1931). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 4: 120-48.. “The Husband” (Zhangfu 1930). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 5: 2-22.. “The Lamp” (Deng , 1929). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 5: 23-45.Nativism Bibliography305. “Three Men and One Woman” (San ge nanren he yige nüren E1Jjf]—ILJ\,1930). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 6: 25-49.. Under the Moonlight” (Yuexia xiaojing fl ])J, 1932). Anthologized in ShenCongwen wenji, 4: 44-57.. Xiang xing San fi ‘41ti Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1936.. “Xiaoxiao” (Xiaoxiao [name] 1930). Anthologized in Shen Congwen wenji, 6:220-35.Shi Tiesheng “Blacky (Heihei 1985). Anthologized in Shi Tiesheng, Wo deyaoyuan de Qingpingwan (Beijing: Shiyue wenyi chubanshe, 1985):7 1-89.. “My Faraway Qingpingwan” (Wode yaoyuan de Qingpingwan1983). Anthologized in XX, 2: 49 1-507.Sun Li “Lotus Creek” (Hehuadian 1944). Anthologized in Baiyangdianjishi ABeijing: Zhongguo qingnian chubanshe, 1962: 250-257.. “Parting Advice” (Zhu fu O [Jj, 1946). Anthologized in Baiyangdianjishi 204-213.. “Recollections of the Hill Country” (Shandi huiyi 1949). Anthologized inBaiyangdian jishi 40-47.. Stormy Years (Fengyun chuji 1962). Anthologized in Sun Li wenjiTianjin: Baihua wenyi chubanshe, 1981, 2: 5-410.. The Blacksmith and the Carpenter (Tiemu qianzhuan 1956). Anthologizedin Sun Li wenji, 1: 387-452.. “The Reed Marshes” (Luhua dang 1945). Anthologized in Baiyangdianjishi243-249.Tai Jingnong “Candle Flame” (Zhuyan 1926). Anthologized in Tai Jingnong, Dizhi zi,jiantazhe Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1984: 42-48.. “New Grave” (Xin fen 1926). Anthologized in Da xi, 4: 428-433.. “Tian Brother Number Two” (Tian er ge z-J, 1926). Anthologized in Da xi, 4:417-421.. “Worms” (Qiuyinmeitft!j, 1926). Anthologized in Da xi, 4: 434-440.Nativism Bibliography306Wang Luyan j. “Fishing” (Diao yu , n.d.). Anthologized in Luyan xuanji. Hong Kong: Wenxue chubanshe, 1957:32-43.. “Gold” (Huangjin 1927). Anthologized in XX, 1: 113-129.. “Little Heart” (Xiaoxiao de xin )JjJj,’, n.d.). Anthologized in Luyan duanpianxiaoshuoji Shanghai: Kaiming shudian, 1947: 369-388.. “Marriage” (Chujia n.d.). Anthologized in Luyan duanpian xiaoshuoji 205-2 15.. “On the Bridge” (Qiaoshang iJn.d.). Anthologized in Luyan duanpian xiaoshuoji345-366.. “Pomelo” (Youzi 44 -, n.d.). Anthologized in Luyan xuanji 13-2 1.Wang Renshu I1jlJ. “The Exhausted One” (Pibeizhe 1925). Anthologized in XX, I:84-94.Wang Sidian. “Paralysis” (Pianku 1922). Anthologized in Da xi, 3: 304-308.Wang Tuo “A Young Country Doctor” (Yige nianqing de xiangxia yishengT 1974). Anthologized in Jinshui shen J(i. Taipei: Xiangcaoshan chubangongsi, 1976: 165-187.. “A Young Middle School Teacher” (Yige nianqing de zhongxue jiaoyuan1977). Anthologized in Wang jun zao gui. Yuanjing congkan 78.Taipei: Yuanjing chubanshe, 1977: 119-176.. “Aunt Jinshui” (Jinshui Shen )Jçj, 1975). Anthologized in Jinshui shen. 189-256.. “Awaiting your Return” (Wang jun zao guiES-, 1977). Anthologized in Wangjun zao gui 189-246.. “The Explosion” (Zha 9, 1973). Anthologized in Jinshui shen 129-164.Wang Zhenhe “Dowry--One Oxcart” (Jiazhuang yi niuche ii 1967).Anthologized in Wang Zhenhe, Jiazhuang yi niuche ]i Yuanjing congkan 13.Taipei: Yuanjing chubanshe, 1975: 71-97.. “Little Lin Comes to Taipei” (Xiao Lin lai Taipei 1Jj(MI), 1973). Anthologized inJiazhuang yi niuche 219-249.Xi Rong “Sister-in-Law Lai” (Lai Dasao 1962). Anthologized in Xi Rong, SongLao Da jin cheng Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1980: 65-80.Nativism Bibliography307Xiao Hong Field ofLife and Death (Shengsichang i, 1935). Shanghai: Nulishe,1938.. “Hands” (Shou .-, 1936). Anthologized in Xiao Hong xuanji Zhongguoxiandai wenxuan congshu. Hong Kong: Xiang kang wenxue yanjiushe, 1980: 86-103.. Ma Bole (Ma Bole [name] 1940). Hong Kong: Chuangzuo shushe, 1975.. Market Street (Shangshi jie 1936).On the Oxcart” (Niucheshang 4 .J, 1936). Anthologized in Xiao Hong xuanji 104-115.. Tales ofHulan River (Hulan he zhuan Hong Kong: Xinyi chubanshe,1958.. “The Death of Wang Asao” (Wang Asao de si 1933). Anthologized in Bashe #4J. Guangzhou: Huachengchubanshe, 1983: 98-108.Xiao Jun . “Fellow Traveller” (Tongxingzhe JJfj, 1936). Anthologized in JiangshangiJ:. Kunming: Yunnan renmin chubanshe, 1982: 134-164.. “On the River” (Jiangshang I±, 1936). Anthologized in Jiangshang 95-133.. Sheep (Yang , 1935). Hong Kong: Wenhua shenghuo chubanshe, 1952.. “Story of Horses” (Made gushi 1935). Anthologized in Jiangshang 76-94.. Third Generation (Di san dai ft, 1937).Village in August (Bayue de xiangcun )1 1935). Beijing: Renmin wenxuechubanshe, 1954.. “Widower” (Guanfu , 1935). Anthologized in Jiangshang 1-75.Xu Jie4,. “Gloomy Fog” (Can wu 1924). Anthologized in XX, 1: 25-59.. “The Luck of the Gambler” (Dutu jishun 1925). Anthologized in Da xi, 3:422-446.•;i. ,, I’—Xu Qinwen-j- j y. Mad Woman (Feng fu J jp,, 1923). Anthologized in XuQinwenxiaoshuoji 4 Hangzhou: Zhejiang wenyi chubanshe, 1984: 52-58.Nativism Bibliography308. “My Father’s Garden” (Fuqin de huayuan , 1923). Anthologized in Da xi,4: 265-267.Xu Yu’nuo “An Old, Worn-out Shoe” (Yi zhi po xie—‘1 , 1924). Anthologized inXX, 1: 60-83.. “My Grandfather’s Story” (Zufu de gushi $, 1923). Anthologized in Da xi,3: 350-358.. Xiao shi )j. Xiaoshuo yuebao, 14: 6 (1923).Yang Km “Paperboy” (Songbaofu 1932). Anthologized in Yang, Kui, E mamachujiajEjWjI. Taipei: Huagu shucheng, 1978:77-135.Yang Qingchu “Born of the Same Root” (Tong gen sheng JJ± 1970).Anthologized in Lu yuan de huanghun Beijing: Zhongguo youyi chubangongsi, 1987: 7 1-80.. Factory Workers (Gongchang ren 1975). Kaoxiung: Dunli chubanshe, 1975.. “Our Chinese Boss” (Ziji de jingli 1977). Anthologized in Gongchangnü’er quan Duanli congkan 16. Kaohsiung: Dunli chubanshe, 1978: 145-161.. “Promotion” (Sheng,1971). Anthologized in Lu yuan de huanghun 117-135.. “Twilight in the Fields” (LU yuan de huanghun 1972). Anthologized inLu yuan de huanghun 246-260.. “Zhaoyu’s Youth” (Zhaoyu de qingchun 1976). Anthologized inGongchang nü’er quan 25-50.. “The Tortoise Climbs the Wall and the Mountain is Levelled by Water” (Gui pa biyu shui beng shan jji Jcjj, 1976). Anthologized in Gongchang nü’er quan 93-130.Zeng Xinyi “I Love the Professor” (Wo ai Boshi, ± 1976). Anthologized inWo ai boshi.Yuanjing congkan 80. Yuanjing chubanshe, 1977: 157-202.. “Women of the Tower” (Gelouli de nUrenJJ n.d.). Anthologized in Woai boshi 79-94.. “Xu Wei in the Bar” (Jiubajian de Xu Wei [1F4i$ n.d.). Anthologized in Woai boshi. 17-40.Nativism Bibliography309Thao Shuli . “Blacky Gets Married” (Xiao Er Hei jiehun)Ji, 1943).Anthologized in Zhao Shuli wenji Beijing: Gongwen chubanshe, 1980, 1:1-16.. Changes in Li Village (Lijiazhuang de bianqian , 1946). Anthologizedin Zha,o Shuli wenji, 1: 7 1-194.. “Record” (Dengji 1950). Anthologized in Zhao Shuli wenji, 1: 301-329.. Rhymes ofLi Youcai (Li Youcai banhua 1943). Anthologized in ZhaoShuli wenji, 1: 17-61.. “Shi Bulan Drives a Cart” (Shi Bulan gan che 1959). Anthologized inZhao Shuli wenji, 3: 1261-1296.. Three Mile Village (Sanliwan EiJ, 1955). Anthologized in Zhao Shuli wenji, 2:337-542.. “Training, Training” (Duanlian duanlian 1958). Anthologized in Zhao Shuliwenji, 2: 763-785.Zhou Libo Great changes in a Mountain Village (Shanxiang jubian 1959).Anthologized in Zhou Libo wenji Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 1981 3: 3-660.. Hurricane (Baofeng zhouyu , 1948). Anthologized in Zhou Libo wenji,1: 5-514.Chinese Secondary SourcesCritical Works(Critical articles on writers and/or fictional works; articles on historical or other topics;prefaces to collections; interviews)Chen Juan “Zhao Shuli yu shanyaodan pal.” Yuwen xuexi, 4 (1987):41-44.Chen Xinyuan Preface, “Mo Yan de ganjue shijie.” Touming dehongluobo, Mo Yanjuan 7-10.Chen Yingzhen Introduction, Huashengdun dalou, di yi bu: yunmci—:Nativism Bibliography310Cheng Depei “Beijiyi chanrao de shijie: Mo Yan chuangzuozhong de tongnian shijiao.”frI* jTShanghai wenxue, 4(1986): 80-85, 79.Dai Guangzhong “Qiaoyuzhe de huailian: Lüe lun ershi niandai de ‘xiangtu wenxue.”JZ±*It 1±“Tianjin shida xuebao, 1 (1986): 64-69,5.Dong Dazhong f*J. “Zhao Shuli he tade “Duanlian duanlian.” 1tfij “.f’Dangdai wenxue, 1(1981): 88-92.Fang Bi )j [Mao Dun “Wang Luyan lun.” Xiaoshuo yuebao, 19:1(1928):168- 172.Fu Hu I3. “Wenzi di xia de xielei gushi: fang lao zuojia Duanmu Hongliang.” Tiii.7Jçj’Kangzhan wenyi yanjiu, 2 (1984): 121-124.Gao Xiaosheng jD. “Li Shunda zao wu’ shimo.” “JIIc ‘JIn Gao Xiaoshengyanjiu ziliao. Ed. Lianyungang shi jiaoshi jinxiu xueyuan (July 1981).. “Tantan you guan Chen Huansheng de jipian xiaoshuo.”Wenyi lilun yanjiu, 3 (1982): 24-30.Han Shaogong jjJ. “Wenxue de ‘gen.” “j” Zuojia (1985): 2-5.Hu Lingzhi “Wang Luyan yu xiangtu wenxue.” K± Wenxuepinglun,3 (1986): 139-140.Hu Wenbin “Fang zuojia Duanmu Hongliang.” IJ Bafang xiandaiwenxue shiliao, 1 (1981): 100-102.Hu Zongjian “Han Shaogong jinzuo sansi.” ‘IJflEE Wenxue pinglun, 2(1987): 56-63.Hua Ming$. “Lun Xiao Hong de wenxue daolu.” Lianning shiyuanxuebao, 4 (1981): 10-17.Huang Huilin fti. “Shanhua nongyu yong bu diao: lun ‘Xiao Er Hei jiehun.”c--“iJZ)j” Mingzuo xinshang, 6 (1982): 15-17, 27.Huang Wanhua “Lunxian guotushang de minzu beige: lun Dongbei lunxian shiqi dexiangtu wenxue chuangzuo.” 3 1&iIJKangzhan wenyi yanjiu, 4 (1986): 40-50.Nativism Bibliography311Huang Zhongwen fL7. “Huafu chang liu tiandijian: du Sun Li duanpian xiaoshuo zhaji.” t3I19--r Jt]kLf,Jianan xuebao, 3 (1986): 102-109.Ji Hongthen “Shenhua shijie de renleixue kongjian: shi Mo Yan xiaoshuo de yuyicengci.” : ij JBejing wenxue, 3 (1988):67-74, 59.. “Youyu de tudi bu qu dejinghun: Mo Yan sanlun zhi yi.” i±ItJftt—Wenxuepinglun, 6 (1987): 20-29.Jiang Xun . Introduction, “Taiwan xieshi wenxuezhong xinqi de daode liliang.”j jJWang Tuo, Wang jun zao guei.Jiatofu “Lun Ma Feng de chuangzuo daolu.” Tr. Song Shaoxiang.Pipingjia, 1: 3 (August 1985): 64-67.Jin Mei “Shuqing, zheli he xianshi shenghuo de youji ronghe: Sun Li xiaoshuo yishu tanzhi yi.”xueyuan xuebao, 2 (1986): 63-67.3m Sheng . “Haodang de aihai: Shi Tiesheng pianlun.”shan, 1 (1986): 62-68.Jin Yanyu “Zhao Shuli yu Gao Xiaosheng: lianggejiaorong er you xiangyi de shijie.”Fujian luntan, 1 (1988): 13-18, 60.Kang Zhuo. “Zhao Shuli wenji ba” (Postscript) Zhao Shuli wenji.Beijing: Gongwen chubanshe, 1980, 4: 1961-1965.Katô Miyuki 1JDE . “Guanyu Santiwan de pingjia.” Tr. Gao Jie.Shanxi daxue xuebao, 2 (1987): 93-96.Li Dazhao “Qingnian yu xiangcun.” **JI[ Chen bao, 2 (1919). Rpt. in LiDazhao xuanji. Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1959: 146-150.Li Tuo. Xu J (Introduction).” Mo Yan, Touming de hongloubo. Beijing: Zuojiachubanshe, 1986.Li Xing “Nongmin mingyun de yishu sikao: tan Gao Xiaosheng de si pian xiaoshuo.”Yanhe, 2(1981): 66-71.Li Yongshengç.. “Neizai ziyou de huode: Sun Li xiaoshuo dui nUxing xingxiang shijie deyishu bawo.” FIj: iJ 2:2(1986): 56-60.Nativism Bibliography312Li Yukun “Jianlun ershi niandai de xiangtu wenxue.” ftHebei shfan daxue xuebao (supplementary issue 1986): 60-64.. “Lu Xun-- xiangtu wenxue de dianjizhe.” I--$± gHebei shifandaxue xuebao, 3 (1986): 60-64.Liao Yuwen J4ç. “Taiwan wenzi gaige yundong shilue.” Rpt. inWenxian ziliao xuanji. Rijuxia Taiwan xin wenxue: Mingji, 5.5. Ed. Li Nanheng. 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