Modern Chinese Literature - Essay Example

of the World Literature of the Concerned 26 November Modern Chinese Literature- Seeking Human Relevance in Fast Shifting Ideological Contexts In the Chinese context it would be apt to say that the literature and the politics happen to be intricately intertwined. Under the rule of Mao Zedong the role of literature in the Chinese society and politics was promptly defined. However, with the reinvention of China under the following regimes the literary creativity also evinced a mark shift of focus. In that sense it would not be wrong to say that the contemporary Chinese literature is strongly influenced by two salient factors that are the imminent social changes and the reinterpretation of the Chinese history and secondly the great changes in the environment and the context in which the writers are required to work. It goes without saying that with the reforms that followed the end of Mao the social thought trends describing the Chinese society and culture changed from revolving around personality revolution to more of a social revolution. The contemporary Chinese literature is a problem literature in the sense that it tries to grapple with the fact as to where will China go from here? There is no denying the fact that the works of modern Chinese writers are it Diary of a Madman and other Stories by Lu Xun, Rickshaw by Lao She or Waiting by Ha Jin, tend to focus on human’s individual relevance, the significance and importance of life and the investigation of social nature in the contemporary Chinese society, thereby trying to grapple with a range of ideologies that defined China in a sequential manner and their imminent impact on the individual and mass consciousness. Diary of a Madman by Lu Xun tries to present the reality of modern China from the perspective of an individual who is considered to be mad by the people around him, thereby bitterly criticizing the contemporary China for being an “iron house” that the traditional Confucian values and ideals had made it. In Diary of a Madman, Lu Xun warns his countrymen against their own heritage and culture as he says, “Does the force of habit blind a man to what’s wrong (Xun 14).” Thereby, the predominant intention of the writer in Diary of a Madman seems to be to encourage his readers to work a new individual and national identity, by altering their ways and putting in efforts and hard work for the creation of a new China that has to deal with the realities impinged on it by a modern world. In this text, Lu Xun correlates the traditional Confucian values that defined China for a very long time to abject cannibalism as he says, “If you don’t change, you may all be eaten by each other (Xun 27).” The madman in the story is perpetually haunted by the idea that everybody around him is planning to eat him, even innocent children. In a quest for self identification he pursues a research in the history of cannibalism to be halted by redundant words like “Confucian Virtue and Morality.” Thereby the eventual objective that Lu Xun intends to achieve by juxtaposing the needs of cannibalism against morality and virtue is to unravel the sterility and inertia inherent in the traditional Confucian values that have the potential to obliterate the modern Chinese society, unless it was not urgently corrected and reformed. In that context the madman in this piece of fiction may be questioned by the apprehensive reader, who is considered to be mentally ill by the people around him. Yet, the irony is that it is only this madman that is able to watch and confront the immediate reality that is the unnerving impact of the Confucian values on an emerging China, a reality which his contemporaries are trying hard to avoid. Hence, it would not be erroneous to say that in Diary of a Madman, it is Lu Xun who has well grasped the relevance of a forceful individual voice and identity in a lethargic culture that had vehemently resisted the progressive Western values since centuries. The things is that the readers know right from the start that the madman had chosen to conform to the traditional social values by going blind and ignoring the cannibalism rampant around him. Sadly, in this narrative it is the system that eventually overtakes the sole individual voice of dissent. This quest for national identity and individual relevance could also readily be traced in Lao She’s Rickshaw. In Rickshaw the writer Lao She tends to bemoan the corrupting influence that the Western ideology had on a fast modernizing China, which has polarized the individual identity, thereby severing it from the social and cultural sources of revival and social rejuvenation. Lao She intends to focus the readers’ attention to the fact that in panache for shifting towards capitalist values, the nation is utterly ignoring that a large section of the Chinese society simply lacks the resources for basic survival. Hence, Lao She builds up on this theme by making the plot revolve around the situation of a menial Rickshaw puller Hsiang Tzu, who is born in a society that is increasingly going individualist, and is eventually annihilated by it. The degrading straits of Hsiang Tzu who is made to work as a carrier of ceremonial items required in the funeral services, the very fact that Hsiang Tzu is made to seek sustenance by working at utterly inauspicious places, brings home the point that Hsiang Tzu who is a representative of a large chunk of the Chinese society is now eking out sustenance from “these vestigial ceremonies and customs.” The very fact that Hsiang Tzu is required to work by the dead is symbolic of the reality that a shift towards capitalism has indeed ossified the ambitions and scruples of the marginalized sections of the society in a fast modernizing China. Thereby Hsiang Tzu is made to earn a living in an individualist society by working in the cadaverous ceremonies that happen to be the sole remnants of the collectivist culture of the yore. This gets clear as Lao She says, “He Didn’t rejoice, he didn’t wail, he was there solely for the sake of ten or so pennies (She 72).” In Waiting, Ha Jin sheds light on the Chinese society during and after the Chinese Revolution and the commensurate exploration of the human emotions and aspirations in the backdrop of the Party influence. Waiting is the story of a couple, a doctor and the women he intended to marry after divorcing his first wife, who had to wait for a period of two decades to solemnize their relationship. It goes without saying that in Waiting, the entire framework of the plot painstakingly supports a world with complete revelatory details, that verve around the hopes, passions and longings of the two people in love in the backdrop of a state that virtually stands over their head. The delicate private dramas and yearnings for self actualization and identification are enacted in the backdrop of the Party ideology, which is as stifling and limiting as the values and traditions of the yore. The focus of the book is not the actual love affair of the two central characters, but the plethora of social and political influences that pulled them in all directions. Thereby these three works of Chinese literature are primarily about the basic human aspirations pertaining to self realization and the quest for identity, in the backdrop of the imminent politico-cultural influences that exert a strong impact on the characters. They are about the issues and aspirations concerning the individuals and the Chinese society at large. Works Cited She, Lao. Rickshaw. New York: Vintage Books, 1999. Print. Xun, Lu. Diary of a Madman and other Stories. Tr. by William A Lyell. New York: University of Hawaii Press, 1990. Print. Read More