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Masculinities and Minorities: Alienation in “Strange Tales from Strange Lands”*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Kam Louie
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Extract

This article uses the 14 stories from “Strange Tales from Strange Lands” (Yixiang yiwen) by Zheng Wanlong to discuss the problematic relationship between depictions of primitivism and the search for essential Chineseness within what has become known as “root-seeking literature” (xungen wenxue). It shows that the dichotomous relationship between primitivism and Han civilization presented by Zheng reflects an alienated notion of essential Chineseness and human existence. Since Mao's death, Chinese intellectuals have expressed concern about the emergence of a “faith crisis” and described younger people as the “lost generation.” The article reveals that one stream of root-seeking literature, in its attempts to mitigate this crisis, has instead reflected and indeed perpetuated it.

Type
Research Notes
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 132 , December 1992 , pp. 1119 - 1135
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1992

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References

1. See for example Honglin, Li, “‘Xinyang weiji’ shuomingle shenme?” (“What does the ‘faith crisis’ indicate?”), Renmin ribao (People's Daily), 11 11 1980.Google Scholar

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3. This includes several collections published in Taiwan. Yang, Bo (ed.), Laobangzi jiuguan (Old Stick's Wine Shop) (Taipei: Linbai chubanshe, 1988).Google Scholar At least one story from this series has already been translated and published in English; see “Clock,” in Tai, Jeanne (ed. and trans.), Spring Bamboo: A Collection of Contemporary Short Stories (New York: Random House, 1989), pp. 5–18.Google Scholar

4. In 1986, Beijing Literature organized a special forum devoted specifically to the discussion of “Strange Tales from Strange Lands.” A summary of the speeches made at this forum was later published in Beijing wenxue, No. 3, (1986), pp. 69–79.Google Scholar

5. I am referring here only to the official literature, that is, literature published by officially sanctioned publishers. In unofficial magazines and journals, experimentation thrived in the 1970s.

6. For example, starting from 1988, Wu Liang, Zhang Ping and Song Renfa have edited a series entitled Xin shiqi liupai xiaoshuo jingxuan congshu (A Series of Books on the Fiction of the Schools of the New Period) in which these schools are represented.

7. The controversies surrounding China's cultural heritage are not unique to the post-Mao period. It was a major political issue almost as soon as the People's Republic was established. See Louie, Kam, Inheriting Tradition: Interpretations of the Classical Philosophers in Communist China 1949–1966 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).Google Scholar

8. Beijing University, for example, established the International Academy of Chinese Culture in 1984. In the same year, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Fudan University jointly published Zhongguo wenhua (Chinese Culture), ajournai which is designed to revitalize the discussions on traditional Chinese culture.

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10. Ibid. p. 5.

11. The Oroqens are a very small national minority people living in the north-east of China and engaging mainly in hunting and mining. In the 1990 census their numbers were only 6,965.

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13. This concern is expressed in many forms, from the May Fourth intellectual type to the obedient Party soldiers of the Lei Feng variety.

14. The machismo displayed in these stories is again typical of many of the xungen writers. See discussion in Louie, Kam, “The macho eunuch: the politics of masculinity in Jia Pingwa's ‘Human Extremities’,” Modern China, Vol. 17, No. 2 (1991), pp. 163–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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24. Ibid. p. 3.

25. Ibid. p. 4.

26. Another good example is the swaggering young boy Liu Santai in “Old Stick's Wineshop.” By imitating the macho behaviour of the hero Chen Sanjiao, he is able to trample on the hapless Old Stick.

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35. For a discussion of Ah Cheng's relationship to Daoism, see Louie, Kam, “The short stories of Ah Cheng: Daoism, Confucianism and life,” Between Fact and Fiction: Essays on Post-Mao Chinese Literature and Society (Sydney: Wild Peony, 1989), pp. 76–90.Google Scholar

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