Home » Opinion » Chinese Views
National reading spree stalls as money talks
By Zhao Lihong |
March 4, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE changes that have taken place in China in the last 30 years can be described as mind-boggling as well as shocking.
In today's China, there are the very rich and the very poor.
This gap between the rich and the poor has caused many social problems, which have become the subject of debate and discussion in literary works.
Although the Western world has been paying much attention to China's political and economic changes, little has been done to translate and understand Chinese literature.
Around 30 years ago, China had just emerged from a decade of turmoil that followed the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). It was a time when traditional Chinese culture and even Western culture was renounced and rejected.
Many things that were ruined in those 10 years needed rebuilding. There emerged a "new enlightenment movement," which called for a "down-to-earth" spirit: to acknowledge social underdevelopment, to promote reform and openness, and to respect the dignity of every "individual."
Enlightenment
With the "new enlightenment movement," new editions of classical works from home and abroad were getting published. Among them were the complete works of Shakespeare, novels of Victor Hugo, Balzac, Dickens and Hemingway, and selected poems of Lord Byron, Shelley, Pushkin, Walt Whitman, Yeats, Tagore, and many others.
Tens of thousands of these books were printed and reprinted to meet huge demand. People in their forties today will remember the chaotic scenes at bookstores and the libraries, pushing and shoving, just to read or get a book.
Later, books that had never been introduced, such as Joyce's "Ulysses" and Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past," were translated and published in more than one edition. Many works of German philosophers Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Heidegger, and Walter Benjamin started appearing on the bookshelves along with classical works of Chinese philosophy.
There were people lining up through the night at the gates of bookstores to get their hands on the newly released books because they sold out so fast.
That was an era when reading was not aimed at any specific purposes - it was just a conscious need of the soul. It seemed that the whole nation was on "a reading spree" at that time.
The early 80s was also a golden time for Chinese literature.
During that time, media channels and literary journals were few and far between, yet each of them had wide coverage and amazing influence among the readers.
Take the three Shanghai literary journals - Harvest, Shanghai Literature and Budding - for example. Each magazine had an annual circulation in the tens of thousands throughout the country, with one million copies at its peak time.
If anyone whose writing - be it a short story, prose or even a little poem - was published once by any of these publications, he would shoot to fame nationwide overnight.
In the mid-1980s, two trends emerged in Chinese literature: xungen (root-seeking) and xianfeng (avant-garde). Both of them mixed reality with magic and imagination.
Root-seeking
Root-seeking writers explored native cultural traits to deal with the issue of national cultural reconstruction.
When they lamented the lack of a national culture, their wish was to "go global."
In their opinion, contemporary Chinese literature had long been neglected by the Western world, which greatly hurt the Chinese writers' sense of national pride.
Xianfeng or avant-garde writers, on the other hand, cared more about experimenting with literature itself, such as the language, style or forms of narration. They placed much emphasis on fiction and imagination in the process of writing and tried to make literature a real art of "lying."
Compared with traditional novels, xianfeng literature, most of which explores the ideas of absurdity and death, has been regarded as having nothing to do with present-day reality.
By the time we arrived in the 90s, economic growth was the "hot topic" for everyone concerned in China. How to make more money was the No. 1 issue for most of the Chinese.
The national "reading spree" gradually became a thing of the past. Reading became old fashioned and many thought it a waste of time.
The social status of a writer has also fallen sharply. Writing as a profession is no longer considered by young people because writers make no money.
Many writers lost the enthusiasm to write during this period. They could no longer sit and write quietly in their studies. Some quit writing to join the majority doing business.
Xiahai, literally meaning plunging into the sea, but here referring to going into business, became the new trend.
I remember receiving British writer Doris Lessing when she visited Shanghai in the early 90s. She said there were more and more barbarians with high academic qualifications in Britain these days.
I asked her what she meant by "barbarians with high academic qualifications."
She said they were people with doctoral degrees, who know the most advanced science and technology and who could deal with the most exquisite machines, but they were indifferent and had no compassion because they didn't read literature.
Doris' words touched me deep in my heart. I think we shared the same opinion about that era. The indifference towards literature was not only a problem in China, but it seemed to be a phenomenon throughout the world as well.
(The author is vice president of Shanghai Writers Association. Shanghai Daily condensed the article. Part two will be published tomorrow.)
In today's China, there are the very rich and the very poor.
This gap between the rich and the poor has caused many social problems, which have become the subject of debate and discussion in literary works.
Although the Western world has been paying much attention to China's political and economic changes, little has been done to translate and understand Chinese literature.
Around 30 years ago, China had just emerged from a decade of turmoil that followed the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). It was a time when traditional Chinese culture and even Western culture was renounced and rejected.
Many things that were ruined in those 10 years needed rebuilding. There emerged a "new enlightenment movement," which called for a "down-to-earth" spirit: to acknowledge social underdevelopment, to promote reform and openness, and to respect the dignity of every "individual."
Enlightenment
With the "new enlightenment movement," new editions of classical works from home and abroad were getting published. Among them were the complete works of Shakespeare, novels of Victor Hugo, Balzac, Dickens and Hemingway, and selected poems of Lord Byron, Shelley, Pushkin, Walt Whitman, Yeats, Tagore, and many others.
Tens of thousands of these books were printed and reprinted to meet huge demand. People in their forties today will remember the chaotic scenes at bookstores and the libraries, pushing and shoving, just to read or get a book.
Later, books that had never been introduced, such as Joyce's "Ulysses" and Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past," were translated and published in more than one edition. Many works of German philosophers Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Heidegger, and Walter Benjamin started appearing on the bookshelves along with classical works of Chinese philosophy.
There were people lining up through the night at the gates of bookstores to get their hands on the newly released books because they sold out so fast.
That was an era when reading was not aimed at any specific purposes - it was just a conscious need of the soul. It seemed that the whole nation was on "a reading spree" at that time.
The early 80s was also a golden time for Chinese literature.
During that time, media channels and literary journals were few and far between, yet each of them had wide coverage and amazing influence among the readers.
Take the three Shanghai literary journals - Harvest, Shanghai Literature and Budding - for example. Each magazine had an annual circulation in the tens of thousands throughout the country, with one million copies at its peak time.
If anyone whose writing - be it a short story, prose or even a little poem - was published once by any of these publications, he would shoot to fame nationwide overnight.
In the mid-1980s, two trends emerged in Chinese literature: xungen (root-seeking) and xianfeng (avant-garde). Both of them mixed reality with magic and imagination.
Root-seeking
Root-seeking writers explored native cultural traits to deal with the issue of national cultural reconstruction.
When they lamented the lack of a national culture, their wish was to "go global."
In their opinion, contemporary Chinese literature had long been neglected by the Western world, which greatly hurt the Chinese writers' sense of national pride.
Xianfeng or avant-garde writers, on the other hand, cared more about experimenting with literature itself, such as the language, style or forms of narration. They placed much emphasis on fiction and imagination in the process of writing and tried to make literature a real art of "lying."
Compared with traditional novels, xianfeng literature, most of which explores the ideas of absurdity and death, has been regarded as having nothing to do with present-day reality.
By the time we arrived in the 90s, economic growth was the "hot topic" for everyone concerned in China. How to make more money was the No. 1 issue for most of the Chinese.
The national "reading spree" gradually became a thing of the past. Reading became old fashioned and many thought it a waste of time.
The social status of a writer has also fallen sharply. Writing as a profession is no longer considered by young people because writers make no money.
Many writers lost the enthusiasm to write during this period. They could no longer sit and write quietly in their studies. Some quit writing to join the majority doing business.
Xiahai, literally meaning plunging into the sea, but here referring to going into business, became the new trend.
I remember receiving British writer Doris Lessing when she visited Shanghai in the early 90s. She said there were more and more barbarians with high academic qualifications in Britain these days.
I asked her what she meant by "barbarians with high academic qualifications."
She said they were people with doctoral degrees, who know the most advanced science and technology and who could deal with the most exquisite machines, but they were indifferent and had no compassion because they didn't read literature.
Doris' words touched me deep in my heart. I think we shared the same opinion about that era. The indifference towards literature was not only a problem in China, but it seemed to be a phenomenon throughout the world as well.
(The author is vice president of Shanghai Writers Association. Shanghai Daily condensed the article. Part two will be published tomorrow.)
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