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Lu Xun: A Prince in the Literary Kingdom
Ah Q, the humble, ignorant but stubborn and defiant peasant, has maintained his allure to writers for 79 years since his creation by Lu Xun (1881-1936) in his novel, "The True Story of Ah Q."
Trying to piece together the puzzle as to why the peasant has remained an immortal figure in the history of 20th century Chinese literature, they have tried to follow Lu Xun's steps and create their own characters who could achieve the same footing as Ah Q.
Although a few writers have created protagonists who bear special features of their own, few fictional figures have inspired as much thought as Ah Q. Furthermore, no writer has come closer to the truth and depth of 20th century literature as Lu Xun did while writing his "The True Story of Ah Q."
Put simply, Lu Xun blazed a new trail in writing.
This brand new approach and new way of thinking characterize 20th century world literature, which is in part also represented by Franz Kafka and Marcel Proust.
Writer Yu Hua points out in his essay, "Works of Hypocrisy," that Lu Xun, like Kafka and Proust, departed from conventional descriptions of characters' appearance and the surrounding environment and turned to the inner heart and consciousness of human beings.
In "The True Story of Ah Q," the sketchy description of the peasant's hometown, Weizhuang, and his clothing help project his spiritual and inner world. This led to the phrase "Ah Qism" being added to the modern Chinese language as a term characterizing the Chinese tendency to rationalize defeat as a "spiritual victory."
Conventional writers are often content at describing a protagonist's general features, from their open-mindedness and cunning, to their kindness and sullenness. Yu Hua believes that doing this often prevents writers from digging deeper into the complexity of the human mind.
Unlike those writers, Lu Xun got inside Ah Q's consciousness and created a peasant who always wants to be a winner, but constantly meets with defeat and frustration. He enjoys a certain spiritual victory, which has won him the same prominence in the literary world as Don Quixote and Hamlet.
While trying to understand Ah Q, Yu Hua and many contemporary writers have also attempted to give birth to their own thought-provoking figures.
Gao Xiaosheng (1928-99), a writer based in Jiangsu Province, created Chen Huansheng, a farmer full of humour, tenacity and "spiritual satisfaction" in "Chen Huansheng Goes to Town." However, Chen Huansheng lacks the philosophical insight of Ah Q.
In his novel "To Live," Yu Hua has also depicted Fu Gui. In a way, Fu Gui inherits Ah Q's optimism; it is this optimism that helps him to deal with all the suffering and hardship.
In his third novel "Xu Sanguan Sells Blood," Yu further exposes and criticizes the way many Chinese cope with difficulty. Instead of fighting for and creating a new life, they withdraw into their own make-believe world and cook up a whole range of reasons for claiming a spiritual victory.
In this story, Xu starts to sell blood to support his family during the years of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).
His tragedy is gradually revealed when he continues to sell blood instead of seeking a new way of living when the booming market economy starts to offer a wide range of choices. He becomes increasingly frustrated and angry when he sees everyone else becoming better off.
Xu was satisfied when his life was in shambles and when the lives of others were poor as well. He didn't mind whether his life was good or not; he just couldn't bear seeing others doing better than him.
Among the impressive multi-faceted characters created over the years, Jin Gou, a farmer-turned-editor in Jia Pingwa's "Restlessness," published more than 10 years ago, is one that should win attention. All his life he tries to free himself from the mindset of his fellow peasants. However, when he is set free following a criminal case, Jin Gou decides to return to his village and become a farmer again.
Wang Qiushe, in Gu Hua's "Hibiscus Town," is an impressive negative character. Coming from the same unclear background as Ah Q, Wang has had much better chances than him. And like him, Wang becomes a "revolutionary" because he follows only what he wants and who he likes.
Wang Meng, in his novel "Transformation," asks a number of rhetorical questions about his protagonist Ni Wucheng's character: Is he "an intellectual, a cheat, a mad man, a fool, a good man?..." In this way, Wang shows that a single word cannot describe the complex human character.
Although none of the figures match Ah Q in philosophical depth - and all of them still bear stereotypical features - they follow Lu Xun's motto that "human characters come first" in writing literature.
Unfortunately, not all writers believe in this motto.
In fact, in the last few years some writers have indulged themselves in "narrative first." As a result, few works have achieved as much literary success as Yu Hua's "Xu Sanguan Sells Blood."
Take Han Shaogong's "Maqiao Dictionary" for example. Since the 1990s, Han has been trying to develop a new writing style. He did achieve his goal with "Maqiao," but he lost readers because he failed to establish a memorable characters.
Jia Pingwa has also been successful in improving his narrative style in the past few years with his novels "Wasted Capital" and "Gaolaozhuang Village." But they do not offer the readers a character who could stir the readers as much as Jin Gou.
In his interview with Yu Hua in 1995, Philip Picquier, a French publisher, said he believed Chinese literature should not "entertain French readers with indigenous folk customs and local flavours, nor should they try to lure readers with their political dissent.
"That time has passed. Chinese writers must create true Chinese people."
Most of the writing that represents the new literary movement of recent years has various personalities. Like Balzac's Eugiene Grante, it seems they'll be best remembered as time goes on.
The author is a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
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