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Lu Xun and Contemporary Chinese Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

John Chinnery
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Extract

In a famous article written in 1928 when the Left-wing writers of the Sun and Creation Societies were criticising Lu Xun for being behind the times, Qian Xingcun (A Ying) asserted that the age of Ah Q was already past. Fifty years later Chen Baichen's dramatization of Ah Q Zhengzhuan, which was staged in 1981 as part of the Lu Xun centenary celebrations, ends with the narrator declaring that although Ah Q had no women it was not true that he would have no descendants, because his line would continue for generations to come. It is, of course, possible to reconcile these two apparently contradictory statements. Qian Xingcun was referring to the fact that the peasant masses were becoming politically organized, having played an important role in the revolutionary movements of those years. He did not claim that people like Ah Q no longer existed. Chen Baichen, on the other hand, was referring to the Ah Q mentality which still lives on in people's minds, long after Ah Q himself has been executed. He did not see this mentality as the dominant force in society. Nevertheless there have been striking changes of attitude towards Ah Q in recent years. Since the end of the Cultural Revolution it has been generally recognized that the Ah Q mentality is still a force in China which is holding back attempts at modernization and that many other aspects of the Chinese traditional society and culture which Lu Xun criticized in his stories and essays have still not been eradicated 45 years after his death.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 91 , September 1982 , pp. 411 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1982

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References

1. Xingcu, Qian, “Siqu le de Ah Q shidai,” in Li Helin ed., Lu Xun lun, pp. 71–116.Google Scholar Qian's opinion was opposed by Qing Jian in the May 1929 issue of Yusi.

2. The text of Chen's play is published in Juben, No. 4 (1981), pp. 18–54. At the performance I attended these lines evoked noises of approval among the audience.

3. Local conferences were held in advance of the national conference which was held in Beijing from 17 to 24 September. Earlier in the summer of 1981 two regional conferences were held, one in Yangzhou to cover the south of China, and one in Dalian to cover the north. Fifty-eight papers were selected from these conferences to be read in Beijing. In addition to the conferences and the big commemorative meeting, many local meetings, conferences and dramatic performances were held in memory of Lu Xun. In Beijing these included two new huaju: Chen's play referred to above and Mei Qian's Xianheng jiudian, an amalgamation of the plots of several Lu Xun stories. There were also new local opera, ballet and musical versions of various of his works.

4. See Xun, Lu, “Mashang zhi riji” in Lu Xun quanji, Vol. III, 1957 ed., p. 240.Google Scholar

5. Liu Binyan baogao wenxue xuan (Beijing 1981), pp. 17–18.Google Scholar

6. Ibid. pp. 147–206.

7. Ibid. p. 23.

8. See Shouhuo, No. 4 (1980), pp. 109–47.

9. Ibid. p. 112.

10. Ibid. p. 23.

11. Lu Xun quanji, 1, p. 70.

12. Xun, Lu, Liang di shu, No. 10(04 1925), I.Google Scholar

13. See Bertolt Brechts Dreigroschenbuch, (Frankfurt am Main, 1960), pp. 22–23.Google Scholar Pirate-Jenny sings of the ship with eight sails and 50 cannon which will attack the town, and in which she will sail away after she has ordered the decapitations.

14. Beijing Xijubao, No. 36 (09 1981), p. 1.Google Scholar

15. Renmin ribao, 28 02 1980, p. 5.Google Scholar

16. See Xixiedai in Gao Xiaosheng qijui nian xiaoshuo ji, pp. 1–11.Google Scholar

17. See Gao Xiaosheng “On my story The river flows east,” in Chinese Literature, No. 3 (1980), pp. 69–73.Google Scholar For a brief biographical essay on Gao Xiaosheng see also Zhicheng, Ye: “The string that will never break” in Chinese Literaturè, No. 12 (1980), pp. 26–31.Google Scholar

18. The three stories are; “Loudou hu zhu” first published in Zhongshan (1979), 2Google Scholar, “Chen Huansheng shang cheng,” Renmin wenxue (1980), 2Google Scholar, and “Chen Huansheng zhuanye” in Yuhua (1981), 3.Google Scholar

19. See Chinese Literature, No. 12 (1980), pp. 9 and 11.Google Scholar Slight alterations have been made in the above version.

20. See Gao Xiaosheng qijiu nian xiaoshuoji, p. 45.

21. Ibid. pp. 12–36.