Years active | 1978 Onwards |
---|---|
Location | Mainland China |
Major figures | Liu Xinwu Zhang Chengzhi |
Influences |
|
Scar literature | |
---|---|
Traditional Chinese | 傷痕文學 |
Simplified Chinese | 伤痕文学 |
Hanyu Pinyin | Shānghén wénxué |
Scar literature or literature of the wounded (Chinese :伤痕文学; pinyin :shānghén wénxué) is a genre of Chinese literature which emerged in the late 1970s during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period,soon after the death of Mao Zedong,portraying the sufferings of cadres and intellectuals during the experiences of the Cultural Revolution and the rule of the Gang of Four. [1]
During the Boluan Fanzheng period,the growth of scar literature corresponded with the Beijing Spring,a period of greater openness in Chinese society;scar literature has even been described as a "second Hundred Flowers Movement". [2] Though scar literature focuses on trauma and oppression,and has been described as largely negative,love and faith remained its major themes;its practitioners were typically not opposed to Communism,but on the converse retained faith in the ability of the Party to rectify past tragedies,and "embraced love as a key to solving social problems". [3] Regardless,though their writing was hailed as marking a revival of the tradition of socialist realism in the arts,it in fact represented a break from that tradition,as it was no longer subject to party control,and was not under an obligation to serve the purpose of political education for the masses. [4]
Unlike the mass revolutionary art of the Cultural Revolution,scar literature adopted a more individualist and market-driven literary style. [5]
The first exemplar of the genre is generally agreed to be Chen Ruoxi's 1974 short story "The Execution of Mayor Yin" (尹縣長). The story was first published in November 1974 on Mingpao Monthly (vol 107,pp.97-105). [6]
Another examplar is Lu Xinhua's 1978 story "Scar",which attacked official hypocrisy and corruption. [7] Liu Xinwu's 1977 short story "The Class Monitor" (班主任) has also been described as the pioneer of scar literature,though this assessment is disputed. [8]
Most of the representative authors were in their thirties and forties at the time;they worked as salaried writers and editors,and published their works in state-sponsored literary journals. [9] The moral outrage they expressed in their works resonated with the public,contributing to its popularity. [10]
Not all works by authors who lived through the Cultural Revolution can be classified as scar literature. Zhang Chengzhi in particular is notable for his idealism regarding his experiences during the Cultural Revolution;his works such as Black Steed and Rivers of the North have been described as rebuttals to the "negativism of scar literature". [11]
Scar literature did not entirely receive a free pass from the Party establishment;due to its criticisms of the Communist Party and of Mao himself,as well as its exposure of social problems,it came under attack by conservatives as early as 1979. Events such as the trial of Wei Jingsheng signalled writers that there were limits to the open discussion of the past errors of the Party,and after the end of the trial of the Gang of Four,the political climate chilled significantly. [12] Eventually,the government began to crack down on scar literature as part of a wider campaign against "bourgeois liberalism". [13] Deng Xiaoping himself provided major support for the campaign,even though his return to Chinese politics after his earlier disgrace and his political victory over rival Hua Guofeng relied heavily on the repudiation of Maoism inherent in scar literature,and its influence on public opinion. [2] [13] The campaign against scar literature was itself unusual in that,unlike earlier campaigns against liberalism,official criticisms were generally limited to attacks on its content,rather than denunciations of individuals. [14]
The Gang of Four was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes due to their responsibility for the excesses and failures in the Cultural Revolution. The gang's leading figure was Jiang Qing. The other members were Zhang Chunqiao,Yao Wenyuan,and Wang Hongwen.
Shen Dehong,best known by the pen name of Mao Dun,was a Chinese novelist,essayist,journalist,playwright,literary and cultural critic. He was highly celebrated for his realist novels,including Midnight,which depicts life in cosmopolitan Shanghai. Mao was one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party and participated in a number of left-wing cultural movements during the 1920s and 1930s. He was the editor-in-chief of Fiction Monthly and helped lead the League of Left-Wing Writers. He formed a strong friendship with fellow left-wing Chinese author Lu Xun. From 1949 to 1965,Mao served as the first Minister of Culture in the People's Republic of China.
New Youth or La Jeunesse was a Chinese literary magazine founded by Chen Duxiu and published between 1915 and 1926. It strongly influenced both the New Culture Movement and the later May Fourth Movement.
The history of Chinese literature extends thousands of years,and begins with the earliest recorded inscriptions,court archives,building to the major works of philosophy and history written during the Axial Age. The Han and Tang dynasties were considered golden ages of poetry,while the Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1271–1368) were notable for their lyrics (ci),essays,dramas,and plays. During the Ming and Qing,mature novels were written in written vernacular Chinese,an evolution from the preeminence of Literary Chinese patterned off the language of the Chinese classics. The introduction of widespread woodblock printing during the Tang and the invention of movable type printing by Bi Sheng (990–1051) during the Song rapidly spread written knowledge throughout China. Around the turn of the 20th century,the author Lu Xun (1881–1936) is considered an influential voice of vernacular Chinese literature.
The Beijing Spring refers to a brief period of political liberalization during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It began as the Democracy Wall movement in Beijing,which occurred in 1978 and 1979,right after the end of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The name is derived from "Prague Spring",an analogous event which occurred in Czechoslovakia in 1968.
The New Culture Movement was a progressive sociopolitical movement in China during the 1910s and 1920s. Participants criticized many aspects of traditional Chinese society,in favor of new formulations of Chinese culture informed by modern ideals of mass political participation. Arising out of disillusionment with traditional Chinese culture following the failure of the Republic of China to address China's problems,it featured scholars such as Chen Duxiu,Cai Yuanpei,Chen Hengzhe,Li Dazhao,Lu Xun,Zhou Zuoren,He Dong,Qian Xuantong,Liu Bannong,Bing Xin,and Hu Shih,many classically educated,who led a revolt against Confucianism. The movement was launched by the writers of New Youth magazine,where these intellectuals promoted a new society based on unconstrained individuals rather than the traditional Confucian system. In 1917,Mr. Hu Shih put forward the famous “Eight Principle”,that is,abandon the ancient traditional writing method and use vernacular.
Chen Boda,was a Chinese Communist journalist,professor and political theorist who rose to power as the chief interpreter of Maoism in the first 20 years of the People's Republic of China. Chen became a close associate of Mao Zedong in Yan'an,during the late 1930s,drafting speeches and theoretical essays and directing propaganda.
Liu Xinwu is a Chinese author,and one of the earliest proponents of the post-Maoist wave of Chinese literature.
Cong Weixi,who also used the pen names Bi Zheng (碧征) and Cong Ying (从缨),was a Chinese novelist. Condemned as a "rightist" during the Anti-Rightist Campaign in 1957,he spent 20 years in the laogai camps. Following his release in 1978,he published China's first novel on laogai and founded the "High Wall Literature" genre that depicts the traumas suffered by political prisoners in the labor camps. Highly influential in the post-Cultural Revolution literary scene,his works have been translated into many languages.
Chen Ruoxi is a Taiwanese author. A graduate of National Taiwan University,she among others helped found the literary journal Xiandai wenxue.
The Execution of Mayor Yin is a 1978 collection of short stories by Chen Ruoxi,based on her experiences in Mainland China during the 1960s and 1970s before she came to Taiwan.
Howard Goldblatt is a literary translator of numerous works of contemporary Chinese fiction,including The Taste of Apples by Huang Chunming and The Execution of Mayor Yin by Chen Ruoxi. Goldblatt also translated works of Chinese novelist and 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Mo Yan,including six of Mo Yan's novels and collections of stories. He was a Research Professor of Chinese at the University of Notre Dame from 2002 to 2011.
People's Literature is the oldest continuously published literary magazine in China,and the first literary magazine published in Communist China. Established in 1949,the magazine is published by the People's Literature Publishing House and issued by the Chinese Writers Association. Its head office is located at 166 Chaonei Ave,Beijing. Its current director is Pan Kaixiong (潘凯雄) and its current editor-in-chief is Guan Shiguang (管士光).
Struggle sessions,or denunciation rallies or struggle meetings,were violent public spectacles in Maoist China where people accused of being "class enemies" were publicly humiliated,accused,beaten and tortured,sometimes to death,often by people with whom they were close. These public rallies were most popular in the mass campaigns immediately before and after the establishment of the People's Republic of China,and peaked during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976),when they were used to instill a crusading spirit among crowds to promote Maoist thought reform.
The Daoxian massacre,or Dao County massacre,was a massacre which took place during the Cultural Revolution in Dao County,Hunan as well as ten other nearby counties and cities. From August 13 to October 17,1967,a total of 7,696 people were killed while 1,397 people were forced to commit suicide. An additional 2,146 people were permanently injured and disabled. Most of the victims were labelled as "class enemies",belonging to the Five Black Categories,while at least 14,000 people participated in the massacre. The Daoxian massacre had a direct impact on the Shaoyang County Massacre in 1968.
Liu Shaoqi was a Chinese revolutionary and politician. He was the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 1954 to 1959,first-ranking vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1956 to 1966,and the chairman of the People's Republic of China,the head of state from 1959 to 1968. He was considered to be a possible successor to Mao Zedong,but was purged during the Cultural Revolution.
The Inner Mongolia incident,or the Inner Mongolia People's Revolutionary Party purge incident,was a massive political purge which occurred during the Cultural Revolution in Inner Mongolia. The purge was supported by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and was led by Teng Haiqing,a lieutenant general of the People's Liberation Army. It took place from 1967 to 1969 during which over a million people were categorized as members of the already-dissolved Inner Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (PRP),while lynching and direct massacre resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands,most of whom were Mongols.
The Zhao Jianmin Spy Case,or Zhao Jianmin Wrong Case,was a major fabricated spy case in Yunnan province during the Chinese Cultural Revolution,with more than 1.387 million people implicated and persecuted,which accounted for 6% of the total population in Yunnan at the time. From 1968–1969,more than 17,000 people died in a massacre while 61,000 people were crippled for life;in Kunming alone,1,473 people were killed and 9,661 people were left disabled as a result.
Boluan Fanzheng refers to a period of significant sociopolitical reforms starting with the accession of Deng Xiaoping to the paramount leadership in China,replacing Hua Guofeng,who had been appointed as Mao Zedong's successor before Mao's death in 1976. During this period,a far-reaching program of reforms was undertaken by Deng and his allies to "correct the mistakes of the Cultural Revolution",and restore order in the country. The start of the Boluan Fanzheng period is regarded as an inflection point in Chinese history,with its cultural adjustments later proven to be the bedrock upon which the parallel economic reform and opening up could take place. As such,aspects of market capitalism were successfully introduced to the Chinese economy,giving rise to a period of growth often characterized as one of the most impressive economic achievements in human history.
The Guangdong Cultural Revolution Massacre was a series of massacres that took place in Guangdong Province of China during the Cultural Revolution. There were 80 counties in Guangdong during the Cultural Revolution,and according to the 57 county annals which became available during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period,massacres occurred in 28 of the counties with six counties recording a death toll of over 1,000—the average death toll among all the 28 counties was 278. The massacre in Yangjiang was the most serious,with over 2,600 deaths in Yangchun County alone. In addition,massacres also occurred in some cities of Guangdong;in the capital city Guangzhou,for example,the massacre targeting the prisoners of Laogai resulted in the deaths of at least 187–197 people within a week of August 1967.