LOSS IN CHEN JO-HSI'S FICTION

By

LILLIAN McCLANAGHAN

B.A., The University of British Columbia, 1982

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THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS

in

THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

Department of Asian Studies

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THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

September 1988

© Lillian McClanaghan, 1988 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission.

Department of M /fr/vf 5>Ttit>ii^S

The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada

Date 0<^' i>ln

DE-6 (2/88) Abstract

Chen Jo-hsi's two anthologies, Yin Xianzhanq (Mayor Yin) and Lao ren (Old Man) and her novel, Gui (Repatriates) depicts social and political conditions in China during the Cultural

Revolution. Chen shows the effect of Cultural Revolutionary turbulence on the individual by focusing on his experience of loss. This study examines Chen's use of irony, imagery and psychological profile to portray the various forms of emotional, spiritual and physical losses sustained by her protagonists.

Chen's fiction also reflects her seven year sojourn In

China during which she experienced disillusionment and a loss of faith in the Marxist dream. Based on Peter Marris' model on loss and grief as outlined in Loss and Change, Chen's work can be seen as a literary catharsis for the tension that arises from her experience of loss and her subsequent resolution of grief. Marris' theory posits that an individual successfully resolves his grief when he is able to abstract meaning from the lost relationship and reformulate it in terms of his changed circumstances. This grieving process helps to explain a change in Chen's fiction from social commentary to political polemic and a corresponding decline in literary quality.

In Mayor Yin she is content to merely document the losses sustained by her protagonists stemming from the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution. Essentially, her,fiction at this

i i stage shows her attempt to record and validate her China experience. Her restrained tone and skillful use of structural and situational irony, nature Imagery and psychological portraiture to portray her protagonist's response to loss distinguishes this anthology from Old Man and

Repatriates. As Chen's purpose of serving China is reformulated, her didactic style undermines the artistic integrity of her fiction. In Old Man Chen's compulsion to protest leads to intrusive commentary and manipulation of plot and character. Repatr iates which is an autobiographical document of Chen's journey towards the resolution of her loss also shows the effects of her renewed purpose. She resorts to using her fiction as a platform to protest against political oppression of the individual and to support basic human rights for the Chinese.

iii Contents

Abstract Ii

Introduction 1

Chapter One: Loss of Idealism 7

Biography 10

Chapter Two: Validation of the Past ...... 21

Chapter Three: Reformulation of Purpose 56

Chapter Four: Resolution 103

Conclusion 131

iv Introduction

After Chen Jo-hsi left China in 1973, she produced two anthologies of short stories entitled Yin Xianzhang (Mayor

Yin) and Lao ren (Old Man) as well as a novel called Gui

(Repatriates) between 1974 and 1978. These stories are set during the Cultural Revolution, one of the most turbulent periods in modern Chinese history. The predominant theme throughout this period of Chen's work is that of loss stemming from political upheaval. Chen details the misfortune of her protagonists who are victims of the political process.

Chen's fiction focuses on the losses sustained by her characters during the Cultural Revolution. Chen's protagonists suffer a range of spiritual and psychological losses in the areas of love and personal happiness, friendship, job fulfilment and social position, dignity of the individual and personal freedom. The protagonists also undergo an erosion of hope and faith, of ideals and sense of purpose; they lose their self-esteem and ultimately experience a loss of identity. In the extreme, Chen's characters also lose their lives because of political persecution.

Essentially, Chen's fiction is a psychological document of loss .

Much of the popular and critical attention that Chen's fiction has attracted is a result of its historical setting and its thematic content. Chen's literary technique is not particularly noteworthy, although there are several literary devices which she uses with proficiency. This thesis examines

1 these more interesting aspects of Chen's writing by analyzing

her use of structural and situational irony, nature imagery to symbolize a protagonist's emotions and state of mind, and

psychological portraiture to show the tragic effects of loss.

Insofar as Chen's fiction and personal experience during

the Cultural Revolution is dominated by the theme of loss, I have examined her material in light of sociological and

psychological studies of loss and grieving. Peter Marris' theory on loss and change provides an interesting insight into

the author and her preoccupation with the effects of the

Cultural Revolution. Essentially, Chen's fiction functions as a literary catharsis for the tension that arises from her own working through of grief.

For Chen, the pivotal development in this period of her

life was her disillusionment with China's political system.

Chen arrived as an enthusiastic repatriate in 1966 and left

China as a disillusioned intellectual in 1973. She subsequently devoted the next five years to writing fiction about the Cultural Revolution. When she was asked why she

left China, she stated: "Like a form.of religion, I lost my 1

faith in Marxism".

This thesis shows that Chen's work reflects her personal

grieving process by examining her treatment of loss in this body of fiction. Peter Marris discusses the psychological adjustment of loss which typically begins with validation of the past, often by dwelling on memories, to a gradual

reintegration, whereby the bereaved comes to accept new

2 circumstances with renewed purpose. Chen's literature during this period reflects the process outlined by Marris. In the first group of stories, Chen strictly documents loss, without her characters ever overcoming their adversities. In a sense, she is re-telling her observations of the Cultural Revolution.

Protagonists in Mayor Yin are cognizant of their loss to varying degrees but there is no resolution of their grief. In the second collection of stories, Old Man some of the characters respond to their predicament by resisting oppression. Their resistance, although limited, indicates partial resolution. Finally in Repatr iates the protagonists resolve their grief fully in the form of reformulated purpose and meaning in their lives. As Chen attains the objective of resolved grief which is renewal of purpose and meaning in life, this purpose becomes so overt that it undermines the artistic integrity of her work. Correspondingly, Chen's fiction which begins as social commentary ends up as polemic.

Chapter I consists of biographical information that is relevant to Chen's fiction. Although Chen's work is not strict autobiography it contains clues which are helpful in understanding the reasons for her grief. This chapter will also explain briefly a theory of grief proposed by Peter

Marr is.

Chapter II is a sequential analysis of the portrayal of loss in Chen's short stories in Mayor Yin. These stories are characterized by their function as social commentary and their tone of restraint and understatement. This chapter also looks

3 at protagonists such as Liu Xiangdong and Geng Er whose feelings of disillusionment and loss are symbolic of the author's own experience. The fact that Chen is unable to satisfactorily resolve the problems of these intellectual protagonists posed within the Mayor Yin stories is in itself evidence of her inability to resolve her personal experience of grief at this stage.

Chapter III is an analysis of Chen's technique in portraying loss in her short stories in Old Man. These stories are distinguished from Mayor Yin by Chen's increased criticism of China's political system. Evidence of authorial intrusion reflects Chen's new sense of mission. Her goal is no longer to document social conditions but more explicitly to criticize.

Chapter IV analyzes Repatr iates in terms of Chen's portrayal of the intellectual's experience of loss, his moral dilemma and his subsequent resolution of grief. Resolution of grief is indicated not only by declarative statements made by

Chen's protagonists about their purpose in life, but also by an interesting transition in Chen's use of Nature imagery to reflect her protagonists' resolved grief. Unlike the stories in Mayor Yin and Old Man where Chen concentrates mainly on the inimical forces of Nature to symbolize her character's psychological state, in Repatr iates she also portrays the benign and benificient aspect of natural elements to correspond to the protagonist's changed state of mind.

Repatriates documents the journey of the intellectual from

4 initial loss to full resolution of grief as shown by his sense of renewed purpose and meaning in life. Based on many similarities between Chen's personal history and the biographical details of her protagonist Xin Mei, Repatriates is a psychological record of Chen's journey towards resolution of her loss. As Chen's grief is resolved, her purpose in life manifests itself in her fiction. Chen uses her fiction to protest against oppression of the individual in China as well as to support basic human rights for the Chinese.

5 Notes to Introduction

1 Pai Hsien-yung, "Wutuobang de zhuixun yu huanmie" (Utopia: Quest and Disillusionment), in Yin Xianzhanq, p.30.

6 Chapter One

Loss of Idealism

In Chen Jo-hsi's preface to Mayor Yin (Yin Xianzhang), 1 she expresses regret and a sense of hollowness:

"In my seven-year stay on the mainland, I accomplished nothing, the land I tilled yielded far from enough even to feed myself. As for teaching, I joined merely in deceiving other people's children."

It is likely that when Chen Jo-hsi arrived in Hong Kong in

1973 after spending seven years in China, she was experiencing a sense of loss as well as diminished purpose. Not only had she "wasted" seven years of her life performing tasks that were of little benefit but her idealistic vision of serving

the motherland had helped only "in deceiving other people's children". Chen did not write during her seven years in China

from 1966 to 1973. Leo Lee suggests that writing for Chen

following that period became an "act of existential 2 validation" , an attempt to make sense of her China experience. Chen's struggle for validation produced the body of work being examined in this study: two short story anthologies entitled Mayor Yin and Old Man and her first novel called Repatr iates .

The recurring theme in Chen's fiction of a Chinese

intellectual who goes to China out of a sincere and patriotic desire to "build socialism" but becomes severely disillusioned

is representative of Chen's own experiences. Chen and her husband, Tuan Shih-yao arrived in Beijing in 1966 just as the

Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was being launched. The

7 reason for their repatriation was ideological zeal. C.T.

Hsia has stated that they were "intoxicated with what seemed to be an extremely noble and self-sacrificing idealism, and 3 this faith was absolutely unshakeable". Frederick Wakeman's assessment of Chen and her husband is that they were no different from other Taiwanese graduate students studying in the United States in the early 1960's. After their arrival in the United States and learning of China's achievements for the

first time, "their identification with the People's Republic, therefore was both militantly nationalist and radically socialist, both politically patriotic and socially A idealistic". Wakeman also states that Chen herself admitted that she and her husband worshipped Mao Zedong. They would read Chairman Mao's poems to each other at night and put his 5 book under their pillows before going to sleep.

Wakeman's description of political patriotism and social

idealism aptly describes the profile of Chen's intellectual protagonists. Liu Xiangdong in "Night Duty" (Zhi ye) returned to China because of his intense patriotic, idealistic and socialist views. Geng Er in "Geng Er in Beijing" (Geng Er zai

Beijing) had returned to China, "filled with hope for the

future, confident that he could find his niche in the new 6 society". Similarly, the protagonists Xin Mei and her husband Tao Xinsheng in Repatr iates decide to go to China because they are motivated by a patriotic spirit and a sincere 7 desire to participate in "national reconstruction".

After Chen Jo-hsi and her husband arrived in Beijing in

8 October 1966 she gave birth to her first son, named Tuan 8 Lien. For the next two years, Chen and her family lived in 9 the "Overseas Chinese Building" (Hua Qiao Da xia), waiting to be assigned to a work unit. Finally, they were sent to East

China Hydraulic Engineering College (Hua Dong Shuili Xueyuan) in Nanjing. Chen's husband had requested a teaching or research position in fluid mechanics, his field of specialty, but was assigned instead to the field of flood control. In response to his query about the assignment, the militant cultural revolutionaries that had assumed control of the unit in charge of Overseas Chinese replied, "water is a fluid, 10 isn't it?" When they arrived in Nanjing in February 1969, they discovered that the Hydraulic Engineering College, like other educational institutions had been closed by the Red

Guards. Chen's husband dug coal for the next three months.

Later, he was transferred to a "May Seventh Cadre School" in northern Jiangsu province to be "reeducated" in accordance with the directive that was issued based on Mao Zedong's belief that Intellectuals and those who had been educated before 1949 were tainted by "revisionist educational lines".

Intellectuals, along with cadres were sent to the countryside to be "purified" by learning from workers, peasants and 11 soliders. Chen remained at the College and took care of the 12 children whose parents had been sent to "May Seventh" farms.

Chen Jo-hsi had a second son, named Tuan Yuan in Nanjing.

During the May Seventh campaign, Chen and her husband were 13 separated for two years. In 1972 when the college reopened,

9 she taught English in the Foreign Language Department. That same year, Chen was sent to Workers' University (Gongren 14

Daxue) in Shanghai to learn from model teachers. She returned to the Hydraulic Engineering College just as her husband finished his period of labour reform. After his return, they decided in early 1973 to request permission to leave China. On November 14, 1973, Chen and her family arrived in Hong Kong. They lived there for one year before moving to Vancouver, British Columbia. Over the next five years, Chen Jo-hsi produced the body of fiction that is being examined in this thesis.

Biography

Biographical information on Chen Jo-hsi is given here to provide some background reference to her work. Chen Jo-hsi, the pen name of Chen Hsiu-mei was born in Taipei in 1938. She grew up in the countryside where both her father and grandfather had been carpenters. Chen's earliest fiction consists of short stories she wrote for Literary Magazine

(Wenxue zazhi) while she was an undergraduate student at

National Taiwan University. An English translation of these stories were published in an anthology called Spirit Calling:

Tales about Taiwan (Shou Hun) under her pseudonym of Lucy

Chen. Chen graduated in 1961 from National Taiwan University as an English literature major. She went to the United States in 1962 for advanced studies at Mount Holyoke College in

Baltimore. A year later, she transferred to Johns Hopkins

10 University and obtained an M.A. in Literature from Johns

Hopkins' Writing Seminars in 1965. She and her fiance, Tuan

Shih-yao, a Ph.D. student whom she had met in the United

States were married in 1964. Two years later, Chen and her husband embarked on their seven-year sojourn to China. Chen and her family lived in Beijing for two years before moving to

Nanjing where they lived until they left in 1973.

After Chen and her family arrived in Hong Kong in 1973, she taught English at a junior high school. It was during this time that Chen resumed writing upon the urging of C.T.

Hsia. Her short stories which were later compiled in the

Mayor Yin anthology first appeared in various Hong Kong newspapers between 1974 and 1975. In November 1974, Chen and her family left Hong Kong for Vancouver. Chen obtained a job as a bank teller while she lived in Vancouver, During this period, she wrote Old Man and Repatr iates.

She moved to California in the fall of 1979 where she did research on the political terminology of the Cultural

Revolution at the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California Berkeley. She has subsequently produced Yuan j ian, and Chenqli chenqwai (which deal with both Taiwanese immigrants and scholars from China who are living in the

United States), as well as Shenghuo suibi, Tu wei and Xingxing

Zhaoyao wo.

Harold Simonson in Strategies in Criticism quotes

Frederick Crewes, a psychological critic who states that "the literary work which is completely free from its biographical

11 15 determinants is not to be found". Although the theory of intentional fallacy supports a more intrinsic approach to the study of literature, it would be limiting to ignore the biographical elements with which Chen's fiction of this period is imbued. Simonson also goes on to say that an artist and his art are not mutually exclusive, that is, art does not spring from a vacuum but from "some inner necessity of the 16 artist". In a letter written to a friend just after Chen left China, she confides: "I believe that you already understand the reason for our leaving China. I want to speak of my experiences of these past few years but am unable to.

This thin sheet of letter paper cannot shoulder my heavy and complex feelings." The Mayor Yin stories, Chen's first stories after she resumed writing, evolved therefore from her necessity to express those "complex feelings". Chen has stated that she wrote these stories to dispel her feelings of 18 depression, in memory of her friends and also because she 19 was lonely. Simonson states also that "art is never so general that the person from whose mind and personality it 20 originated is refined out of existence". Personality at this point may be defined to include thoughts, dreams, ideals, beliefs and grief. Mayor Yin, Old Man and Repatriates therefore can be seen as a reflector of Chen's necessity to express her loss as well as to make sense of her seven-year experience in China.

Chen's experience of loss and its influence upon her fiction may be better understood using a theory of loss and

12 grief formulated by Peter Marris in Loss and Change. There are two reasons for invoking psychological theory in studying

Chen's work. First, Chen acknowledges that she experienced a loss of faith in Marxist ideology. Her reliance on the themes of disillusionment and loss of purpose of the intellectuals which appear again and again in her work suggests that they are important psychological issues to her. Second, Chen's stated motives for writing Mayor Yjjn, Old Man and Repatriates contain clues that indeed some inner compulsion was moulding the shape of her work. Marris1 theory provides an explanation for the curious change in Chen's fiction from social commentary characterized by unobtrusive narrative voice to polemic as indicated by lapses into strident, intrusive and authoritative commentary in the narrative.

Current literature on grief tends to examine this human response within the relatively narrow context of death and dying, although Freud's definition is much broader. Freud includes in his definition of mourning losses of abstraction which have taken the place of a person such as "one's country, 21 liberty, an ideal". Peter Marris in Loss and Change similarly defines grief in a wider context. He has drawn from his work on the effects of bereavement to construct a theory of grief that is also applicable to any situation where people experience loss, or "where the pattern of life has been 22 radically altered". Marris argues that the dynamic of grieving or internal struggle "appears again and again, in 23 transmuted form, in response to many kinds of loss".

13 The intrapersonal conflict which Marris believes grief always involves arises from its basically contradictory impulses. These impulses are: "to preserve what is important and meaningful from the past and, at the same time to re• establish a meaningful pattern of relationships in which the 24 loss is accepted" The second impulse is often blocked by reactions to the loss, such as the need to express the loss, to validate the past rather than dismiss it, and to achieve some sort of continuity in meaning between one's past and one's present and future. Successful resolution or working through of grief occurs when "a sense of purpose is gradually detached from the relationship which incorporated it, and so 25 reformulated that it can once again interpret events."

In Marris' analysis of the grieving of bereavement, he uses the example of widowhood as the clearest demonstration of the psychological adjustment to disruptive loss or change.

Resolution of grief involves restoring "a sense of continuity...by detaching the familiar meanings of life from the relationship in which they were embodied, and re- 26 establishing them independently of it." Marris states that in the beginning the widow is unable to separate her sense of purpose and meaning from the husband "who figured so centrally 27 in them". But as time goes on, she starts to "reformulate 28 life in terms which assimilate the fact of his death". The process of grieving or psychological adjustment to loss begins with the widow acting as if her husband was still with her; then she begins to imagine what he would have said and done;

14 next, she plans her future and the future of her children in terms of what he would have wished or expected; until finally she acts in accordance with her desires. Therefore, according to Marris, grief is resolved "not by ceasing to care for the dead, but by abstracting what was fundamentally important in 29 the relationship and rehabilitating it". Marris proposes that grief is evoked not only by death but by any disruptive loss in meaning hence his model of resolution of grief is applicable to a range of critical personal and social changes.

Marris' theory that "loss disrupts our ability to find meaning in experience and that grief represents the struggle to retrieve this sense of meaning when circumstances have 30 bewildered or betrayed it" is helpful as an aid to understanding the shape and characteristics of Chen's fiction.

Using Chen's portrayal of the intellectual protagonist and his response to loss as a guide, the influence of grief on her work can be detected.

The experiences of Chen's intellectual protagonists all fit into the same pattern. Typically, the intellectual arrives in China from the United States with an idealistic sense of mission, but discovers that he exists on the periphery of Chinese society as a political outsider. Due to

Cultural Revolutionary politics his hopes diminish as "the 31 status of intellectuals steadily deteriorates". Chen's intellectual protagonist becomes increasingly disappointed as he notes the discrepancy between his idealistic beliefs and the actual conditions 15 he observes. He experiences overwhelming despair which arises as much from the awareness of the gap between reality and his ideals as from his sense of betrayal -- both of his purpose and of his identity.

Marris states that once an individual "has set his heart on an attachment, a role in life, disappointment will arouse 32 grief". This is because:

"we organize our purposes as much about hopes for the future as about our present life, sometimes identifying with what we will become more meaningfully than with what we are. To fail a crucial examination, miss a coveted job, to be brought up to a position which the world no longer provides may all threaten the purposes and expectations about which the meaning of life has been constructed. They defeat assumptions about the future which have already become crucial to our identity. In such a situation people suffer a loss of identity, at least in prospect, even though the sense of bereavement may come from a gradual recognition of failure, rather than any definable event." 33

The loss of purpose in Chen's intellectual protagonist initiates the same response of grief as bereavement. As

Marris describes, loss causes despair, because a "crisis of discontinuity" ensues from the "discrediting of familiar assumptions". As the intellectual realizes that his perceived role in society as well as his previously held beliefs are invalid, he experiences a crisis of identity. Liu Xiangdong in "Night Duty", Geng Er in "Geng Er in Beijing", and Xin Mei and other intellectual protagonists in the novel Repatriates agonize over their predicament as they confront their loss of purpose. If they are to continue they must acquire new meaning in their circumstances. Their dilemma revolves around

16 how they can function in Chinese society and still live a life that is consistent with their ideals. This problem is not addressed in the stories in Mayor Yin or Old Man but becomes the main focus in Repatr iates.

Chen has stated that "..I want to write about people and things that I am familiar with, (and I) strive for objectivity 34 and authenticity". The experiences of Chen's intellectual protagonists are more than likely representative of her own impressions in China. Chen had gone to China with an idealistic vision of serving the "motherland". When she lost her faith in Marxist ideology, she also lost her sense of purpose which was inextricably tied to "serving the people" in

China. According to Marris' theory, successful resolution of grief would necessitate that Chen be able to extricate what had been important in the past relationship and reformulate it in terms of her changed circumstances. What had been important to Chen was her idealistic belief in "serving the people" of her country. After Chen left China, like the widow who has lost her husband, she lost her point of reference in terms of purpose and meaning in life. As Chen resolves her grief, her purpose is extricated from the association with her physically being present in China to a new sense of mission outside the country. That sense of mission involves fusing her political 35 views with her fiction.

Chen's fiction reflects her grieving process in the transition from indeterminate purpose in Mayor Yin where Chen seems satisifed to simply describe her protagonist's loss, to 17 Old Man where beginnings of her compulsion to voice political dissent manifest itself in editorial commentary, to

Repatr iates in which renewed mission motivates her to use fiction as a means for critical protest of political conditions in China.

18 Notes to Chapter One

1 Chen Jo-hsi, Preface to Yin Xianzhang, p.43 as quoted in Leo Ou-fan Lee, "Dissent Literature from the Cultural Revolution", Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, vol.1, Jan.1979, p. 60. 2 Leo Ou-fan Lee, "Dissent Literature from the Cultural Revolution", Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, vol.1, Jan.1979, p.60. 3 C.T. Hsia, "Chen Jo-hsi de xiaoshuo" (Chen Jo-hsi's short stories), Chen Jo-hsi zl xuan j1 (Self-Selected Stories by Chen Jo-hsi), (Taipei:Yuan jing chu ban shi, 1976), p. 4. 4 Frederic Wakeman Jr., "The Real China", The New York Book Review of Books, 25, no.12, (July 20, 1978), p. 9. 5 Ibid., p. 9, Wakeman cites comments made by Chen Jo-hsi at the Berkeley Regional Seminar in Chinese Studies May 20, 1978. 6 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin and Other Stories from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, trans, by Nancy Ing and Howard Goldblatt, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), p. 168. (Hereafter, The Execution of Mayor Yin). 7 Chen Jo-hsi, Gui (Repatriates), (Taipei: Lian he bao she, 1978), p. 325. 8 Frederic Wakeman, p. 10. 9 Chen Jo-hsi, Shenghuo suibi (Jottings on Life), (Taipei: Shi bao wen hua chu ban shi, 1981), p. 114. 10 Frederic Wakeman, p. 10 cites Chen Jo-hsi's comments at the Berkeley Regional Seminar ln Chinese Studies. 11 Lowell Dittmer and Chen Jo-hsi, Ethics and Rhetor ic of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, (Berkeley: Center for Chinese Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1981), p. 58 12 Frederic Wakeman, p. 10. 13 C.T. Hsia, p. 23. 14 Frederic Wakeman, p. 13. 15 Harold P. Simonson, Strategies in Criticism, (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), p. 67.

19 16 ibid., p. 87. 17 C.T. Hsia, p. 5. 18 Chen Jo-hsi, Postscript to Chen Jo-hsi zi xuan ji (Self Selected Stories by Chen Jo-hsi), (Taipei: Lian jing chu ban shi, 1976), p. 235. 19 Chen Jo-hsi, Preface to Yin xlanzhang (Mayor Yin), (Taipei: Yuan jing chu ban shi, 1976), p. 43. 20 Harold P. Simonson, p. 81. 21 Sigmund Freud, "Mourning and Melancholia", The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol.14, (London: Hogarth Press, 1953), p. 243. 22 Peter Marris, Loss and Change (New York: Pantheon Books, 1974), p. 3. 23

Ibid. / p. 12. 24

Ibid. / p. 31. 25

Ibid. / p. 88 26

Ibid. / p. 34. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid. 29 Ibid. 30

/Ibid. / p. 147 31 Chen Jo-hsi, 32 Peter Marr is, 33 Ibid. 34 Chen Jo-hsi, Postscript to Chen Jo-hsi zi xuan j i, p. 234. 35 Chen Jo-hsi, "*Chengli chengwai' de jiufen" (The Dispute of "Fortress Beseiged'), Postscript to Chengli Chengwai (Fortress Beseiged), (Taipei: Shi bao chu ban gong si, 1981), p. 223.

20 Chapter Two

Validation of the Past

Chen has acknowledged that she left China because she lost her faith In Marxist ideology. As Marris states, loss of any kind especially when the pattern of life has been radically altered, will evoke grief. This response of grief in the individual initially consists of an impulse to preserve what Is significant and meaningful from the past. This also includes a desire to express the loss and to validate the past. Chen's Mayor Yin stories which were written from a 1

"sorrowful heart" attest to the intial impulse of her grieving process. Consequently, the stories reflect Chen's need to express her loss as well as her attempt to validate her China experience. As such, these stories are social commentary, documenting the calamitous effects of the Cultural

Revolution. Those effects are symbolized by the common theme of loss weaving through her stories. In Mayor Yin, Chen portrays a loss of ideals, hope, freedom and privacy, and in the most extreme case, a loss of life. At this stage of

Chen's grieving process her grief is unresolved — she has not reformulated meaning and new purpose in her changed circumstances. Chen's fiction parallels this stage of her grief. Correspondingly, her protagonists who are symbols of dispossession with which her own loss is identified, do not experience any resolution of their loss.

In this chapter, I will analyze each story in sequence in relation to the dominant theme of loss. Chen's technique of 21 developing this theme of loss, particularly her effective use of structural and situational irony, narrative voice and nature imagery are also examined. Key elements of loss will be discussed in relation to Marris' theory of grief. In addition, I will also comment on the results of Chen's personal grief as manifested in her fiction.

Chen has stated that she is often more interested in a story's irony in terms of its social background and reality of 2 life than in literary technique. Consequently, the shortcomings of these stories is that they are rarely embellished with complex details of plot. Chen often prefers to "tell" rather than "show" the story's message through descriptive narrative that is focused on a single incident or event. As a result, Chen's structurally simplistic stories are characterized by linear plot development. Chen does occasionally rely on flashback sequences to provide details of her protagonist's experiences but It Is used only as a means to link the character's past and present in the narrative consciousness. Chen's reliance on the theme of an intellectual protagonist who returns to China becomes repetitious. Either the narrative of a story is relayed from the viewpoint of a first-person narrator who is both a repatriate and an intellectual from abroad (as in "Jing-Jlng's Birthday", "Ren

Xlulan" and "Residency Check") or the narrative, told from an omniscient viewpoint concentrates on the fate of the

Intellectual who has returned to China (as in "Night Duty" and

"Geng Er in Beijing"). Chen's sorrow as initial impetus to her creativity results in the most successful story in this collection -- "Mayor Yin".

In terms of style and literary technique, this story best- demonstrates Chen's skillful approach to crystallizing the ironic nature of a story. Chen's use of structural and situational irony serves to create a cumulative sense of loss in the story's effect upon the reader. The mechanism of structural irony at work revolves around Chen's use of a narrator whose presence further emphasizes the tragic fate of

Mayor Yin, the protagonist. This emphasis is achieved through an ironic contrast between the narrator's emotional detachment and the horror of events he recounts.

Mayor Yin or Yin Feilong was a former Guomindang officer who defected to the Communist side upon a promise of safety for his soldiers and a chance to begin new lives. He was commended for meritorious service during the revolution and became the acting mayor of a small town called Xing An in

Shensi province. He has loyally followed directives during numerous political campaigns but, due to the characteristic twists and turns of these campaigns, he now finds himself a target of a local struggle in the most recent one, the

Cultural Revolution. Vague charges of having covered up his true background and shooting a Communist soldier are brought against him. The result is the Red Guards' demand that the 3

"blood debt be paid in blood". The story concludes with a description of Mayor Yin's execution told to the narrator by the cousin of Xiao Zhang, a Red Guard.

23 The theme of loss in this story is presented directly through its denouement -- the murder of Mayor Yin. The theme's impact however is maximized indirectly through the devices of situational and structural Irony. Situational irony exists ln the circumstances leading to Mayor Yin's arrest and execution. In the late 1940's Mayor Yin felt that his family's classification as "poor peasants" was not "being truthful to the Party" so he requested a change to that of

"rich peasant". This change is Ironically misinterpreted by his accusers twenty years later as an attempt to "masquerade as a radical" and conceal his true background. Despite Mayor

Yin's loyalty to the Party, he is condemned to death. The irony of his situation is heightened when he continues to profess his faith in the Party and Chairman Mao even as he Is being driven to the execution grounds. In order to stifle

Mayor Yin's shouts of "Long Live Chairman Mao", Xiao Zhang, a

Red Guard gags his relative's mouth with a handkerchief so that the executioners can shoot him. When a peasant asks the

Red Guard, "How could they shoot him when he was shouting 4

*Long Live Chairman Mao I' like that" , the youth is unable to answer.

Another example of situational irony which reinforces the sense of loss in the story lies in the fate of a Red Guard 5 named Xiao Zhang. Xiao Zhang, who is a distant relative of

Mayor Yin meets with an ironic fate as well. Xiao Zhang, who has flaunted his position in his meteoric rise to political power as a Red Guard, falls just as rapidly because of his involvement in factional disputes. Although Xiao Zhang may have believed that by denying any feelings of kinship for his relative, Mayor Yin and by taking the lead as one of his accusers, his loyalty to the campaign would then be proved, he himself becomes a victim of the Cultural Revolution. Wanted by the authorities for his involvement in violence and militant tactics, he is forced to go into hiding.

The story's theme of loss is also enhanced by Chen's effective use of structural irony. This covert form of irony which exists in the interplay between the detached and uninvolved narrator and the reader is very similar to the mechanism of irony at work in Lu Xun's story "New Year's 6

Sacrifice" (Zhu fu). In Patrick Hanan's discussion of the mechanism of irony present in Lu Xun's stories, he states that irony functions to raise something in the reader's estimation while appearing to lower it, or conversely of lowering something in the reader's assessment while appearing to raise

it. In "New Year's Sacrifice" the narrator's moral ambivalence and emotional detachment emphasize Xiang Lin Sao's tragic fate all the more because the irony present raises

Xiang Lin Sao's worth in the reader's eyes and at the same time lowers the narrator's worth.

Chen's narrator in "Mayor Yin" has a similar function in the mechanism of structural irony at play in the story. Like

Lu Xun's narrator in "New Year's Sacrifice" who is deemed by

Patrick Hanan to be slightly false because his sensitivity fails to measure up to the standard of moral integrity set by the implied author's conscience, Chen's narrator is also shown to be inadequate. The narrator's flaws are revealed when

Mayor Yin approaches him, the visitor from "outside" for his expert opinion. When Mayor Yin asks him, "Just why are we 7 having this Cultural Revolution?", the narrator can only parrot stock answers: "..at that moment I myself was unclear as to the actual significance and purpose of the Cultural

Revolution, I could only recite to him all the familiar statements that I had read ln the papers and heard in various 8 discuss ions".

Another example of the narrator's failure to live up to the implied author's standard of integrity occurs when Mayor

Yin, after hearing from the narrator that Liu Shaoqi's essay was considered "poison" because of his references to Confucius and Mencius, points out to the narrator that Chairman Mao had also quoted the two philosophers. The narrator skirts the issue by responding with "When Chairman Mao uses them that's different, of course.... But when other people use them it's with the ulterior motive of serving their counterrevolutionary 9 aims." The narrator's thought: "Since I wasn't much clearer 10 on this point than he, I hurriedly changed the subject" makes him seem unreliable and "slightly false" because he fails to admit to his lack of knowledge about the significance of recent political events. The narrator's worth is further undermined by the irony inherent in his remonstration to Mayor

Yin to "have faith in the policies of the Party and the people, and above all to believe in Chairman Mao's doctrine of

26 11 "criticizing severely but sentencing leniently"1. What ensues in the plot is that the "lenient" sentence that Mayor

Yin receives results in his execution. Once the reliability and moral integrity of the narrator is brought into question, the reader is forced to arrive at an independent assessment of the narrator instead of continuing to follow him as a guide to interpretating events. The gap that opens up between the reader and the narrator causes the reader to shift his sympathetic alliance from the narrator to the character of

Mayor Yin. This transfer of sympathy is doubly ensured when ironic contrast is presented between this impersonal and detached narrator and the horrible events he recounts. The narrator's emotional detachment from the news of Mayor Yin's death as well as his citing one of Mao Zedong's quotations that "people die all the time" when he hears of Lao Yin's death further isolates him from the reader.

The narrator's role in "Mayor Yin" is not just a device to isolate the reader from Mayor Yin thereby "achieving an 12 objective and sober result" as suggested by Pai Hsien-yung.

The narrator's function in "Mayor Yin" is to ensure a positive and sympathetic reaction to Mayor Yin as well as to lend emphasis to his grievous end. This is achieved through the mechanism of structural irony whereby the narrator's moral inadequacy raises Mayor Yin's worth in the reader's estimation while his own worth is lowered. At the same time, ironic contrast between the narrator's detached tone and the dreadful events he recounts further heightens the sense of loss

27 surrounding Mayor Yin's terrible fate.

In addition to Chen's use of irony in developing the theme of loss of life in "Mayor Yin", she also uses Nature imagery to reflect a corresponding mood of despondency. As

Wai-lim Yip points out, Chen relies on gradual changes in environmental conditions to reflect the gravity of events in 13 her story. After the narrator learns of Mayor Yin's execution, the sadness of the situation is reflected in his observation that "the sun had long been driven to some unknown 14 place, and the desolate sky was a sheet of yellow mist."

The association between the image of a "desolate" sky and the pathos of Mayor Yin's fate strengthens the mood of forlornness and dejection as the narrator learns the details of Mayor

Yin's death. In addition to using physical setting to create mood and to mirror a protagonist's emotional state, Chen uses physical setting as a portent of doom. For example, when the narrator returns to Xing An a second time, he learns that the investigation of Mayor Yin has intensified. While he is taking a walk, his perception of his surroundings appropriately reflects the more inimical aspects of Nature.

He notices that "the mountain wind was blowing and the night air was as cold as ice water" and that "a half moon hung over the mountains; the sombre, cloud-covered peaks looked like 15 crouching beasts waiting for the chance to pounce. The tactile and visual aspects of this image, contained in the combination of blowing wind , icy cold air and a half moon over the mountains creates a sense of foreboding. This sense

28 of foreboding adds to the scene's function as a portent of doom. The image of the mountains as "crouching beasts waiting for the chance to pounce" symbolizes the equally hostile political forces in Mayor Yin's environment. The "crouching beasts" represent the Red Guards who are lying in wait for their prey, Mayor Yin.

"Ren Xiulan" is another story that amplifies the theme of loss through the explicit event of death. Loss of life in this story as in "Mayor Yin" documents the irony and tragic outcome of "class struggles" which later became a "memory of terror 16 touched with absurdity". This story, based on a real 17 incident involves the grisly death of Ren Xiulan. The story, set in the summer of 1971 at the Hydraulic Engineering

College in Nanjing is told by a narrator-participant, Chen

Laoshi. She, along with two other women teachers have been assigned to look after those children at the College whose parents have been sent to May Seventh Cadre schools to undergo reform through labour. The plot consists of Chen Laoshi and her charges searching for Ren Xiulan, a Party Committee

Secretary at the college, who has escaped from her detention quarters. A Party veteran, Ren had been accused of leading a

May Sixteenth counterrevolutionary group that had been responsible for extreme leftist excesses at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, and had been locked up in a "study class" for the last year. The narrative line spans one week in which Chen Laoshi and her charges search the hillside for

Ren without success until several days later they find her

29 black, bloated body in a cesspool. The narrator becomes violently ill, faints and is sick for a week.

Unlike "Mayor Yin" where a sense of loss as well as sympathy for the protagonist is cultivated by ironic contrast between the emotionally detached narrator and the events he describes, loss in "Ren Xiulan" is revealed more simply through a reliable first-person narrative. The narrator in

"Ren Xiulan" has several functions. First, as narrator- participant, she provides authenticity to the incident she recounts. Since Chen does not distance the reader from this narrator by revealing her moral shortcomings, her reliability is never questioned. Second, as empathetic guide in the narrative, she directs our positive response to Ren Xiulan.

Third, because her psyche is delivered for blatant inspection, we experience vicariously the psychological impact of Ren

Xiulan's death.

The narrator's natural sensitivity and admiration for Ren

Xiulan ensures our sympathetic response to Ren Xiulan's fate.

When the narrator recounts that she had "looked at the short, 18 stocky figure with increased admiration" or remembers that the last time she saw her during a May Sixteenth Confession meeting she had walked in, "calm, her head held high, her lips curled slightly in the semblance of a smile as her eyes slowly 19 swept the hall with an unfaltering gaze" we are provided with a positive impression of Ren Xiulan. Our level of concern for Ren Xiulan is increased by the narrator's observation that she now appeared "much older; her face, no 30 longer round was wrinkled, and her hair was considerably 20 grayer. She was also much thinner...".

The third function of the narrator is that she ensures an

immediate response as well as maximum effect as we travel with her in her psychological reaction to the discovery of Ren Xiu•

lan's corpse. Shock and horror is conveyed in her emotional response: "I lay in bed not wanting to eat or drink, and every time I closed my eyes a black mass would float into my 21 mind and I would become nauseated." That the event has left a deep psychological impression on the narrator is revealed in her comments: "...I realized that my reaction was not a physical one. A strong emotional chain was wrapped around my 22 heart, and I would never in my life be able to unlock it" and "Her death has been like an iron weight in my heart, 23 sinking ever deeper". Thus, by delivering the narrator's psychological state for examination, thematic effect is maximized through the horror, shock and pain the narrator

feels in her reaction to Ren Xiulan's suicide.

In addition to developing the theme of loss through a

first-person narrative, Chen also increases a sense of loss through situational irony. The ending consists of a reversal of events in which the "May Sixteenth elements" are freed and declared innocent of all charges, while their accusers are

imprisoned and detained in "study classes" as suspected Lin

Biao supporters. The narrator's thoughts reveal the irony of the situation: "The wheel of class struggle rolled on, and very soon May Sixteenth became a historical note in Nanking, a 31 memory of terror touched with absurdity. No one mentioned the death of Ren Xiulan any more, her name appearing only on the historical record of struggles at the Hydraulic Engineering 24

College. But for me it is different...." The ironic ending heightens the sense of loss and futility in the story by

implying that in political movements the oppressors could just as easily become the oppressed.

In "Residency Check", there is no distinction between private and public concerns. This politically claustrophobic environment results in the individual's loss of dignity and privacy. The story of Peng Yulian, an attractive middle-aged woman suspected of sexual indiscretions while her husband is away at a May Seventh farm is told by a first-person narrator,

Mei Laoshi. She recounts the details of her acquaintance with

Peng Yulian and the efforts undertaken by the neighborhood committee to obtain evidence of Peng Yulian's adultery. Under the guise of a residency check the committee women plan to enter Peng Yulian's apartment and arrest the culprits.

The narrator's sympathy for Peng Yulian, the anti-heroine performs the same function as the narrator in "Ren Xiulan" of guiding the reader's response to the protagonist. In contrast to the view held by other women in the dormitory that

Peng Yulian is a "siren", a "shameless hussy" and "a piece of trash" the narrator's slightly admiring assessment of her is revealed in statements such as: "It takes a lot of nerve to 25 wear such bright colours, I thought" or "She had a joyous

32 look on her face, and she was composed, as usual. Her black, shiny eyes, even her dark skin, which was accentuated by her snowy white teeth, were attractive.... she didn't look all 26 puffy like everyone else, but rather delicate and lively..."

Even when the narrator is upset by the prospect of another residency check and by her insomnia over the Peng Yulian affair she remains fairly positive in her assessment of Peng

Yulian. This Is shown in her comment: "I grew more and more wakeful. That damned Peng YulianI After all that tossing about in bed I couldn't keep from cursing her. Everyone in the neighborhood had to lie awake nights because she got herself into trouble I But then I thought of how she had been in Imminent danger of being disgraced in front of everyone, 27 and I ended up by being glad for her". The narrator's favourable opinion of Peng Yulian suggests that not only does she admire Peng Yulian's daring, but she also envies her for her defiant acts of individualism. The narrator's sympathetic view of Peng Yulian satirizes the neighborhood committee's political ruse which covers their true concern — the sexual mores of Peng Yulian. The contrast between the neighborhood committee's actions and the narrator's opinion of Peng Yulian also underscores the issue of loss of privacy.

In the three stories which follow — "Jing Jing's

Birthday", "Night Duty" and "Geng Er in Beijing" — we see the emergence of Chen's prototypical disillusioned intellectual.

The intellectual protagonist in these stories is a repatriate

33 who has gone to China expecting to contribute to the building of. a socialist state. In each case, the protagonist Is unable to participate ln this process because of political oppression. The intellectual's reaction to this isolation is not only disappointment but a feeling of alienation and a sense of loss. The importance of this theme ln Chen's fiction is revealed by its frequent recurrence in her short stories, and by its dominance in her novel, Repatr iates.

The intellectual's sense of loss arises because of the discrepancy between his ideals and reality and from his acute awareness of his diminished role in society. As Pai Hsien-yung states, what is most painful to the intellectual in China is that "his knowledge cannot be used, his talent is not fully utilized, and he has no means of attaining his ideal of 28 national construction or zealous social reform."

Consequently, a loss of these ideals brings about a disintegration of meaning in his life. As Marris states, loss disrupts our ability to find meaning in experience, that is,

"...loss is usually threatening: the victims recognize that unless they learn to understand the situation and cope with

it, they will be helpless to secure a tolerable future. The disorientation of purpose Is therefore a source of profound 29 anxiety as well as desolation". For Chen's protagonists, their sense of loss leads to the "disorientation of purpose" that Marris describes. The frustration and disappointment of

Wen Laoshl and her husband ln "Jlng Jing's Birthday" is compounded by the implications of their son's innocent

34 utterances. Liu Xiangdong In "Night Duty" experiences increasing disillusionment as he comes face to face with glaring inconsistencies between his ideals and reality. Geng

Er in "Geng Er in Beijing" undergoes a similar process of disillusionment, but where Liu suffers from a loss of purpose and ideals, Geng Er's loss is linked to his failed romantic relationships. All of these protagonists exist as displaced intellectuals who can only observe from the sidelines since they do not have any real status or authority in society. The lack of a defined social role combined with attacks on the intelligentsia relegates them to the caste of political outsiders.

The primary focus in "Jing Jing's Birthday" is on the anxiety and concern of the narrator, Wen Laoshi for the family's political safety after her four year old son has uttered the "reactionary" slogan of "Chairman Mao is a rotten egg". But the underlying tone of disappointment and distress implicitly points to a crisis involving a loss of hope for the future experienced by the narrator and her husband. This loss of hope is linked not only to their future status but also to their son's, whose utterance if reported to the authorities could forever brand him as a "counter-revolutionary".

There are two aspects to the theme of loss. One aspect concerns the implication that Wen Laoshi and her husband have already experienced significant loss although the nature of that loss is not explicitly specified. The Implication that they have experienced personal and emotional setbacks is

35 revealed in the narrator's comment about her husband: "After travelling thousands of miles to come back to China, he had 30 met with so much personal frustration". The extent of their disappointment since their return is revealed also in her statement that her husband's "only hope (emphasis mine) was that his son, born and raised under the red flag, would grow up as an accepted member of the eight hundred million 31 people.." But now that "this humble hope was already in 32 danger of being dashed", she wonders, "How could my husband 33 bear such a blow?"

The second aspect of loss concerns the uncertainty of their hope for a tolerable future for their four year old son.

The fact that even this hope of a secure and "peaceful life 34 without the burden of any previous ideology" is threatened heightens the poignancy of their fate. The frustration experienced by Wen Laoshi and her husband as a result of loss is symbolic of the deprivations experienced by Chen's other intellectual protagonists. Although the nature of the loss sustained by the protagonists in this story is unspecified, loss is portrayed more overtly ln "Night Duty" and "Geng Er in

Beijing".

Another reason for the intellectual's frustration lies in the loss of status upon his return to China. His label as a 35

"ninth rotten one" separates him from the mainstream of

Chinese society. The intellectual's consciousness of his

"stigma" is portrayed in Wen Laoshi whose frustrations result from the Insinuation that because she is from abroad, she is 36 lacking in patriotic fervour and love for Chairman Mao. Her emotional state is effectively dramatized by repetition of the phrase "..not love Chairman Mao" in the first-person narrative: "Not love Chairman Mao? How could I begin to tell her I To start with, my husband had not wanted our child to be born in a foreign country, so we had rushed back to China so 36 he could be born here " or "Before he could even say

"Mama' he was crying out 'Maol Maol' How could anyone say that 37 he didn't love Chairman Mao?" as well as "How could anyone say that we did not love Chairman Mao? Why, in order to follow him we had abandoned our families and had come to 38

China, where we had neither friends nor relatives."

Chen's repetitious use of Chairman Mao's name in association with the theme of loss of hope is an implicit criticism that he is to blame for the intellectual's misfortunes. This is reinforced by a development in plot where it is implied that the stress of the incident causes the narrator to give birth prematurely to her second son.

Chen's story, "Night Duty" (Zhi ye) deals with the psychology of an intellectual who experiences painful loss due to his political environment. Loss in this story concentrates on the protagonist, Liu Xiangdong and his sense of betrayal-- of both his ideals and his purpose. As a result of his increasing awareness of his loss and the degree to which he has changed, he feels confused, helpless, dejected and alienated. This story which is the precursor for Chen's novel, Repatriates is primarily an encapsulation of the

37 intellectual's initial awareness of loss and the subsequent confusion and grief he experiences. Liu also grieves due to other losses that arise as a result of his loss of ideals.

These losses include his sense of purpose, his perceived role in society and his identity.

Unlike "Jing Jing's Birthday" where presentation of theme

is revealed through Wen Laoshi's narration primarily of scene,

"Night Duty" lays bare Liu Xiangdong's psychology through third-person narrative that details his mental process. Liu's state of mind and emotions are also emphasized by symbolic

Nature imagery as well as situational irony. Nature images involving desolate scenes dramatize Liu's feelings of confusion, loneliness, dejection and alienation which arise

from his loss of ideals. Situational irony directs attention to some of the causes for Liu's disappointment.

When the story begins, Liu Xiangdong, a mathematics teacher at a college in Nanjing has been undergoing

"reeducation" at a May Seventh farm. His previous three months

involving farm labour and Anti-Lin Biao campaigns and study sessions have just ended and he is scheduled to be transferred back to his college. On his last night he volunteers for the task of night watch. While he and his friend, Lao Fu are talking, they hear the cook's dog barking and decide to investigate. The denouement consists of Liu's discovery that the thief who has stolen from their kitchen is none other than the cynical, young peasant he met earlier in the cafeteria.

Perhaps, in sympathy or from the shock of his discovery, he

38 does not report the peasant but states that he only saw a

"black silhouette".

The story's documentation of Liu's disenchantment begins with his disappointing discovery that other teachers at the

May Seventh school discuss political ideology only for the sake of discussion and that "what they said and what they 39 thought in their hearts was not the same thing". Whenever he is engaged in group discussions, he is swept away by "the 40 ideal of a Utopian world" and the "future of Communism", but the others are not only ignorant of the concept, they fall asleep or they use "questions in order to pour out their own 41 frustrat ions".

Another troubling reality that contributes to Liu's gradual and cumulative disillusionment lies in the situation of his colleague, Lao Fu. Lao Fu had been a talented lecturer before the Cultural Revolution but during a purification campaign he was charged and jailed for being a suspected member of a Nationalist organization despite the lack of evidence. Lao Fu was subsequently sent to the May Seventh farm where he has been performing labour and in his spare time, making kerosene stoves. The pathos of Lao Fu's fate and the inherent waste of human potential is implied in his response to Liu's question whether he considers his tasks a waste of his talents: "..as for waste, you talk as though 42 there are only a few things being wasted". Another disturbing reality concerns the cynical and resentful peasant

Liu meets in the cafeteria, who is clearly the antithesis of

39 the model peasant as described by Mao Zedong. This fact is ironically underscored by the story's ending when the thief in their kitchen turns out to be the same peasant.

In addition, Liu is disheartened by his discovery of the psychological changes within himself. When he first arrived on the farm, he had been moved to tears by his colleagues' testimony of their successful "re-education" but now he cannot bring himself to be like the others: "fervent, eloquent, and 43 singing praises, just like performers in a fine play". Liu 44 also feels that he is "getting old before his time" and asks himself "How long was it since he and some close friends, all determined idealists, had stood facing the icy cliffs of the

Grand Tetons and recited Chairman Mao's poem "Snow"? Loudly and clearly they had sung the words, %For men of talent the 45 time is now'". In reminiscence, he recalls that when he was in the United States, "what supported him then was not only heartfelt patriotism but also a beautiful ideal, for which he stayed up nights to study the works of Lenin and Mao 46 Tse-tung" and that when he returned to China in 1973 "he had 47 been filled with an intense fighting spirit". But, now he 48 wonders "where this proud, brave spirit had disappeared to".

Liu's anguish arises not only from his awareness of the degree to which his personality has changed, but also from questions he poses to himself to which he has no answers.

When he speculates on how many people really believed in the theories of Marx, Lenin and Mao Zedong, "like so many other 49 questions, this one had no answer". Or when he asks himself

40 what the future of Chinese culture is if Mao Zedong is the only one who is allowed to read and collect books, "a whole string of other questions crowded his mind, until his head 50 felt like bursting, yet his heart felt unusually empty".

These difficult questions are compounded by Liu's concerns about his purpose and role in society. In Liu's case his "earnest determination to dedicate his energies to the 51 socialist fatherland" has not produced the desired results.

Although he did not mind the idea of teaching first-year mathematics after his completion of labour at the May Seventh farm, he is disappointed that all he will be teaching is

"decimal points and addition". Since his original purpose in returning to China has been invalidated by his marginal role in Chinese society, he is faced with the question: "what, after all, was the best possible way for overseas students to 52 make a contribution to their homeland".

Liu's distress, therefore is linked not only to his loss of faith in his ideals, but also to his feeling of being bereft of purpose. If Liu's self identity is a function of his role in society, then inevitably that identity will be cast Into doubt if his role is judged to be unworthy or

invalid. Liu's crisis of identity is apparent when he asks himself whether he is "guilty of being an immature leftist who

lacked dispassion, one whose strong patriotic emotions had 53 deteriorated into regret and disillusionment. According to Marris, when an individual has set his heart 54 on a role in life, disappointment arouses grief. For Liu> 41 his loss of ideals, purpose and identity results in a response of grief. He experiences feelings of alienation, helplessness and dejection. Marris states that in order for the individual to resolve his grief, he must be able to extricate whatever was meaningful In the past relationship and Incorporate it with the future. There is no evidence that Liu is able to resolve the internal conflict which arises from the loss of his ideals as well as from the invalidation of his purpose by

China's political policy towards intellectuals during the

Cultural Revolution.

Chen dramatizes Liu's emotional state by using Nature imagery to symbolize his solitary and depressed state of mind.

His disillusionment and feelings of despondency and loneliness are depicted In descriptions of his natural surroundings. The plains which are described as "vast", "all-encompassing",

"flat" and "spreading out endlessly" make him "feel infinitely small, to the point of helplessness". Liu's feelings of insignificance are suggested in the visual image of him looking up at the "vast and lofty" sky from which "a lone star 55 seemed to be staring mutely down at him".

This profile captures Liu's psychological state when his feelings of despondency and loss seem to be at their most overwhelming. The story's ironic ending suitably underscores

Liu's complete disillusionment. Just as the thief in the commune's kitchen has turned out to be the direct opposite of the model peasant as heralded by Mao Zedong, similarly, actual conditions in Chinese society have not borne out Liu's

42 expectations. The story ends without any resolution of Liu's loss.

"Geng Er in Beijing" (Geng Er zal Beijing) like "Night

Duty" Is also a psychological portrait of an intellectual who suffers painful and profound loss. While Liu Xiangdong in

"Night Duty" suffers great disappointment and grief due to his loss of ideals and purpose, Geng Er's grief arises primarily from losing the women he loves. But his dejection also results from experiencing a setback in his career which, coupled with his loss of love leads ultimately to an erosion of his faith and a loss of ideals. Geng Er's grief is effectively portrayed by Chen's use of time-shift sequences, a narrative that is sympathetic to Geng Er and situational irony.

The story's plot revolves around Geng Er, a forty-nine year old unmarried intellectual who returned to China from the

United States in 1964. The narrative focuses on his two failed romantic relationships. His first romance with a woman named Xiao Qing shortly after he returned to China, is ended indirectly due to the onset of the Cultural Revolution. Xiao

Qing loved and wanted to marry him but pressure from her superiors at work and her peers finally forced her to give him up. Political circumstances are again the reason for the failure of his subsequent romance with a woman named Xiao Jin.

In his first relationship, due to the opinion prevalent during the Cultural Revolution that intellectuals from the United 56 States were "secret agents or incorrigible capitalists" ,

43 Geng Er had been deemed unsuitable for Xiao Qing, a model worker with a proletarian family background. In his second relationship, there is an Ironic switch because Geng Er is considered by his superiors at work to be too good for Xiao

Jin, who is suspect because of her landlord family background and because of the uncertain political status of her former husband who had committed suicide during a political campaign.

Geng Er breaks off his relationship with Xiao Jin knowing that their plan to marry is hopeless because his work unit will not grant them permission. Two years later he is invited to his colleague's home to spend New Year's eve where he encounters

Xiao Jin again. He discovers that he still feels strongly for her and resolves to marry her. However, before he has a chance to raise the topic with her, she informs him that she has married an elderly cadre who needed someone to look after him.

In this portrait of a beaten and discouraged individual,

Geng Er's dejection begins with his loss of Xiao Qing. His loss is all the more devastating because his love for her had possessed all the intensity of first love; the "tenderness and affection in the depths of his heart were like the lava in an underground volcano, which seethed and flowed in search of the 57 opportunity to explode to the surface". In addition, he compares her, "this girl of New China, ardent and yet solemn, 58 gentle and yet strong" who was "so frank and open, so 59 artless — a simple, sincere and completely natural girl" with the girls he had known in the United States and decides that "there hadn't been a single girl who could match (her)

44 60 innocence, sincerity, and desirability." Geng Er is completely enthralled by Xiao Qing who "exerted a mysterious force upon him, drawing him to her like a magnet and holding 61 tightly against her."

Xiao Qing not only holds the key to Geng Er's future happiness, but she also represents to him, security, permanence and a sense of roots, acceptance in society and the prospect of a family. In his relationship with Xiao Qing, 62 "the greatest happiness he had ever known" he "not only was indescribably happy but he also felt as secure as Mount 63 Taishan". That his feeling of "coming home" is associated with his love for Xiao Qing becomes evident when he re• evaluates the time he spent in the United States as "those austere times, those years of deprivation that finally led to 64 a better life". Por after meeting Xiao Qing, he no longer "felt rootless and alone, as he had during all his years as a 65 drifter in a strange land". To Geng Er, the prospect of marriage to Xiao Qing also represents acceptance by China's

"new society". He considers himself a "petty bourgeois 66 intellectual", and believes that "a union with Xiao Qing who came from a long line of workers, would mean not only a complete turnaround in his thoughts but also that his children 67 would then inherit the noble blood of the working class...".

But more fundamentally, Geng Er's expectations regarding his future with Xiao Qing points to his need to belong and to have a family.

What makes Geng Er's loss of Xiao Qing so poignant is that by losing her he also loses those things that she represented to him: happiness, security, permanence and acceptance. Loss of Xiao Qing also indirectly initiates a loss of ideals. Since she had symbolized all the happiness and fulfilment Geng Er had hoped to find in China's new society, his hurt and grief stem as much from losing her as it does from the loss of his idealism. When he returned to China

"filled with hope for the future, he was confident that he 68 could find his niche in the new society". His meeting with

Xiao Qing fits into this pattern of happy expectation.

However, just as Xiao Qing who is a symbol of his potential happiness has rejected him, similarly the "new" China has also rejected him. Geng Er's loss of Xiao Qing may be considered allegorical for the repatriated intellectual's relationship with China. Despite Geng Er's efforts to find love, acceptance and happiness, he fails. Similarly, the intellectual's quest for a meaningful role in Chinese society comes to naught.

Geng Er's loss of love and setbacks in career further dishearten him. The fruitlessness of the time that he has spent in China is implied ln his thought that when he returned

"he was single and alone" and now ten years later, "he was 69 still single and alone". The waste of his time and potential is further implied when a university professor from abroad says to him that he has probably published many papers, but Geng Er is unable to inform him that he's had to change his field, and that "the program at the institute was 46 70

constantly shifting to suit the needs of the revolution". The depth of Geng Er's dejection is revealed indirectly

through another loss--this time of his faith. After the Lin

Biao affair is publicized Geng Er "was unclear as to just who was being victimized—he himself, Lin Biao or possibly

Chairman Mao. He felt that he had been deprived of his last

remaining shred of faith, and he was as helpless as a blind 71 man who has lost his cane".

As a result of the above losses, Geng Er suffers immense grief. The psychological and physical symptoms of Geng Er's grief is revealed in his constant reminiscences of Xiao Qing, his yearning for the past and his inability to forget her. It becomes clear that his sorrow from losing her is still unabated since whenever he thinks of her "his heart would throb". That his grief is unresolved is also revealed later when he meets Xiao Jin and tries to forget Xiao Qing but realized "that his efforts were in vain, and he could only hope that the shadow of his past would in no way affect his 72 marriage" to Xiao Jin. The narrative provides details of the gradual decline in

Geng Er's psychological state due to the failure of his relationship with Xiao Jin. He "tired easily... suffered from

insomnia, his mind often wandered..and even his memory began 73 to fail him". Geng Er's symptoms appear to fit Marris' description of the signs of grief which not only Include 74 physical but also psychological symptoms. In addition, Geng

Er's feelings of helplessness and the evidence of his

47 displaced anger point to the overwhelming trauma he experiences, of loss of a crucial relationship not just once but twice. After he breaks off with Xiao Jin, he does not give in to his expression of grief. The fact that he represses his emotions is revealed in: "Anger filled his 75 heart, but he remained silent..". or "He could only congratulate himself that he was old enough to keep his emotions under control. Rather than explode in rage, he 76 actually nodded his head very politely in agreement. Geng Er believes that he has been "seriously wronged" and yearns to 77 "find a place where he could give vent to his rage" but 78 unfortunately "no such place existed". According to Marris, inhibited grief leads to physical disorders or neurotic 79 conditions. In Geng Er's case, he is cognizant of his changed state although he does not seem aware of its origins nor its cause for "He knew without consulting a physician that he was suffering from a typical case of neurotic 80 depression..".

The extent of loss and its effects on Geng Er is effectively portrayed by Chen's use of flashback sequences, nature imagery and irony. The story's structure consists of two distinct sections of current time in Geng Er's consciousness. Within these two divisions, five separate reminisces by Geng Er into his past are interspersed.

Although Chen's use of flashbacks tends to create a "looseness 81 in tempo and rhythym" , time-shift sequences enhances the intensity and immediacy of Geng Er's emotions. Geng Er's

48 psychological states of past and present is delivered for contrast and comparison. The flashback sequences emphasizes the unresolved state of Geng Er's grief as well as its intensity which has not abated over time.

Thematic presentation is enhanced by the third-person narrative which creates a dramatically vivid protagonist. The narrative is structured from Geng Er's vantage point and as such heightens the significance of his experience of loss by imbuing complexity, depth and range of contrast to his mental state that would otherwise be limited by a first-person viewpoint.

Geng Er's pathetic situation is reinforced by the dramatization of his emotions and state of mind through Nature imagery. Contrast is provided between images at the beginning which symbolize the depth of his feeling for Xiao Qing and images at the end to show the extent of Geng Er's demorialization. When he falls in love with Xiao Qing, his love is likened to "a stream in winter that is deluged by a night of spring rain, suddenly so swollen it threatened to 82 overflow its banks". His love for her is also compared to the "lava in an underground volcano, which seethed and flowed 83 in search of the opportunity to explode to the surface". But after he experiences loss imagery correspondingly changes to more grim and sterile scenes. This is reflected in the metaphorical description of wine which "suddenly seemed to freeze into beads of ice, cold and hard, beating relentlesslsy 84 against his heart". The "cold" "hard" "icy" beads that beat

49 "relentlessly against his heart" symbolize the sterileness of his emotional state. He has repressed his emotions including grief to the point that he cannot feel anything except for pain whenever he reminisces about the past.

The image at the end of the story combined with its inherent situational irony captures the pathos of Geng Er's situation. The closing scene in this story is similar to Lu

Xun's "New Year's Sacrifice". There is the same note of

ironic contrast between the festive sound of exploding firecrackers in the background and the actual mood of the protagonist in the foreground. In "New Year's Sacrifice" the narrator's doubts and feelings of misgiving over Xiang Lin Sao when he wakes up are sharply contrasted with the sound of

firecrackers. Similarly, Geng Er's feelings of despondency are juxtaposed with the festive sound of firecrackers. But unlike Lu Xun's narrator who is able to shake off his sadness,

Geng Er is left with crushing loneliness:

"Geng Er stared dully at the deserted street where she had walked. The sudden sound of firecrackers intermingled with the shouts of children brought him back to reality. Filled with loneliness, he turned his bicycle around. It was already very late and since he was very tired, he could only push his bicycle slowly towards home." 85

Both "Night Duty" and "Geng Er in Beijing" end with the protagonists being unable to resolve their loss of ideals, of purpose, of faith and of identity. Their fate reflects what

Pai Hslen-yung describes about the intellectuals In Chen's writings. They all suffer from a "kind of spiritual

50 86 dismemberment, a form of spiritual death".

In Mayor Yin Chen appears content to merely document the effects of loss in her protagonists' lives. In the cases of

Mayor Yin and Ren Xiulan who lose their lives due to political oppression, their loss is devastatingly final. For protagonists such as Wen Laoshi, Liu Xiangdong and Geng Er, their loss is spiritual and psychological and occurs as a result of irreconci1iable discrepancies between their expectations and reality. They had gone to China as idealists seeking to contribute to socialist construction, but due to the base status assigned to them during the Cultural

Revolution, and the denial of their perceived role in Chinese society, they experience loss and grief. They also are unable to resolve their experience of loss. This is significant because as symbols of Chen's own experience in China their lack of resolution mirrors Chen's own lack of reformulated purpose and meaning at this stage of her writing.

51 Notes to Chapter Two

1 Chen Jo-hsi, Shenqhuo Suibi (Jottings on Life), (Taipei: Shi bao wen hua chu ban shi, 1981), p.163. 2 Chen Jo-hsi, Preface to Lao Ren (Old Man), (Taipei: Lian jing chu ban shi, 1978), p. 2. 3 Chen Jo-hsi, Yin Xianzhanq (Mayor Yin), (Taipei: Yuan jing chu ban shi, 1976), p. 171. 4 ibid., p. 181. 5 I have referred to this character as Xiao Zhang as he appears in the original. He has been renamed Hsiao Wu in the translated version: "Mayor Yin" in The Execution of Mayor Yin and Other Stor ies from the Great Proletar ian Cultural Revolution. 6 Leo Lee states in "Dissent Literature" (p.64) that one "can almost be certain of Lu Hsun's inspiration in Chen Jo- hsi 's recent work when one recalls that, aside from Mao's writings, Lu Hsun's works provided the only literary fare available in China during the Cultural Revolution". Both "Mayor Yin" and "Zhu Fu" contain a passive narrator who stumbles upon the protagonist's story when he makes a journey to a small town, both contain an "envelopment", i.e., a story within a story, and both contain the same operative mechanism of structural irony. 7 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin and Other Stories from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, trans. by Nancy Ing and Howard Goldblatt, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), p. 18. (Hereafter, The Execution of Mayor Yin). 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid., p. 21. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid., p. 19. 12 Pai Hsien-yung, "Wutuobang de Zhuixun yu Huanmie" (Utopia: Quest and Disillusionment), Yin Xianzhanq, (Taipei: Yuan jing chu ban shi, 1976), p. 37. 13 Yip Wai-lim, "Chen Jo-hsi de lucheng" (The Journey of Chen Jo-hsi), Yin Xianzhanq (Mayor Yin), (Taipei: Yuan jing chu ban shi, 1976), p.18. 14 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 33.

52 15 Ibid., p. 29. 16 Ibid., p. 136. 17 Pai Hsien-yung, p. 33. 18 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 128. 19 Ibid. 20 Ibid., pp. 128-129. 21 Ibid., p. 135. 22 ibid. 23 Ibid., p. 136. 24 Ibid. 25 Ibid., p. 92. 26 Ibid., p. 103 27 Ibid., p. 111. 28 Pai Hsien-yung, p. 38. 29 Peter Marris, Loss and Change (New York: Pantheon Books, 1974), p. 149. 30 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 51. 31 ibid. 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid. 35 Lowell Dittmer and Chen Jo-hsi, Ethics and Rhetor ic of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, (Berkeley: Center for Chinese Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1981), p. 59. 36 Chen Jo-hsl, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 47. 37 Ibid., p. 48. 38 Ibid. 39 Chen Jo-hsi, Yin Xianzhanq (Mayor Yin), p. 39.

53 40 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 74. 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid., p. 83. 43 Chen Jo-hsi, Yin Xianzhanq (Mayor Yin), p. 38. 44 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 77. 45 Ibid., p. 78. 46 Ibid., p. 73. 47 Ibid., p. 78. 48 Ibid. 49 Chen Jo-hsi, Yin Xianzhanq (Mayor Yin), p. 39. 50 Ibid., p. 52. 51 Ibid., p. 36. 52 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 79. 53 Ibid., p. 78. 54 Marris, p. 108. 55 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 79. 56 Ibid., p. 158. 57 Ibid., p. 164. 58 Ibid., p. 168. 59 Ibid., p. 162. 60 Ibid., p. 166. 61 Ibid., p. 162. 62 Ibid., p. 168. 63 Chen Jo-hsi, Yin Xianzhanq (Mayor Yin), p. 109. 64 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 166 65 Ibid., p. 163. 66 Ibid., p. 168.

54 67 Ibid. 68 Ibid. 69 tbid., p. 155. 70 Ibid., p. 174. 71 Ibid., p. 188. 72 Ibid., p. 183. 73 tbid., p. 188. 74 Peter Marris states in Loss and Change (p.26) that typical signs of grief are: physical symptoms such as insomnia, restlessness, physical distress, worse health, exhuastion, lack of appetite, headaches, chest and digestive disorders and numbness. Psychological symptoms of grief include an Inability to surrender the past as manifested in the brooding over memories, an inability to comprehend the loss, feelings of unreality, withdrawal into apathy and hostility against others, fate or oneself. 75 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 186. 76 Ibid., p. 187. 77 Ibid., p. 188. 78 Ibid. 79 Marris, p. 27. 80 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 188. 81 Leo Ou-fan Lee, "Dissent Literature from the Cultural Revolution", Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, vol.1, Jan.1979, p. 65. 82 Chen Jo-hsi, Yin Xianzhang (Mayor Yin), p. 112. 83 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 164. 84 Ibid., p. 159. 85 Chen Jo-hsi, Yin Xianzhanq (Mayor Yin), p. 152. 86 Pai Hsien-yung, p. 39.

55 Chapter Three

Reformulation of Purpose

The stories in Old Man reflect Chen's new motive for writing. Unlike the stories in Mayor Yin which she wrote in order to dispel her loneliness as well as in remembrance of her friends on the mainland, Chen states that she chose to write Old Man because she could "never forget the kind of dread which is created by 'Tuchu zhengzhi' (giving prominence to politics) and which has seeped into the very bloodstream of 1 the people". Chen's new purpose in writing becomes increasingly more explicit in Old Man. She still feels the need to speak about the causes for the diminished quality of life in Chinese society. That diminution is symbolized by loss. Loss, which in these stories appears as a deprivation of personal freedom and individuality, of love and happiness, of hope, ideals and faith, and in two extreme cases, of life is attributed to political oppression and the dominance of politics in every aspect of life.

In addition to exposing social and political ills engendered by China's system, Chen feels compelled to voice protest directly through her fiction. Chen's need to protest in Old Man reflects a new stage in her grieving process. In

Mayor Yin Chen's documentation of loss is symbolic of her initial impulse of grief which was to express her own loss and to validate the past. As Marris states, if grief is to be successfully resolved, a sense of purpose must be detached from the original relationship which incorporated it and

56 gradually reintegrated with new circumstances. The stories in

Old Man are a result of the detachment of Chen's sense of purpose from the past and its subsequent reintegration with her present. Her former purpose had been to serve the

Chinese people by going to China. That purpose is rehabilitated and incorporated with Chen's new status as political emigre'. Her new sense of mission Involves "serving the people" through her writing. Thus, her work is intended both to expose the injustices perpetrated by China's political system, as well as to protest on behalf of the victims who cannot. Chen is no longer content to just document loss, she

is compelled to protest.

Evidence of Chen's renewed purpose is manifested in some of her protagonists' symbolic attempts at resistance. Chen's protagonists in Old Man can be distinguished from her characters in Mayor Yin by their budding acts of resistance.

Characters such as Geng Er, Liu Xiangdong and the various narrators in Mayor Yin are immobilized by their loss and subsequent feelings of frustration, despair, hopelessness and alienation. They are clearly unhappy about their situations but are unable to alter their predicament or exercise control over their fate. But protagonists such as Lao Ren, Ding Yun,

Ai Fen, Hong Shifu and the narrator in "Nikesen de jizhe tuan"

(Nixon's Press Corps) in Old Man exhibit signs of positive, albeit limited action. Lao Ren, the elderly cadre in "Old

Man" refuses to supply a written account of the Tiananmen

Incident that would implicate others; Ding Yun and Ai Fen

57 choose their spouses based on pragmatic issues; Hong Shifu and Li Mei take their own lives rather than become separated; and Xin Laoshi defiantly refuses to remove her clothes drying pole. The actions of each of these characters are symbolic because they represent a conscious effort on the part of the individual to regain control of his own fate within the tight constraints of his political environment. Yet despite the protagonists* symbolic efforts at resistance, the stories tend to conclude on a futile note without any clear resolution of their problem. That problem is life under a totalitarian regime.

The influence of Chen's renewed purpose on her writing is not only reflected in the portrayal of her protagonists but is also manifested in her literary technique. Her driving need to protest on behalf of China's "victims" leads to a decline in the quality of her work. Chen has stated herself that

China's political developments in 1976 so disheartened her 2 that she was "boiling with rage" and consequently "even her 3 written works were affected".. As her message becomes more explicit, credibility of characters, cohesiveness of plot, internal logic and structural integrity are diminished.

Pedantic passages in a story's narrative reveal Chen's indulgence in intrusive editorial, rhetoric, and verbal irony.

Unlike the Mayor Yin stories where Chen's thematic presentation is limited to one specific issue or incident, in

Old Man she directs attention to a myriad of themes in order to voice her disapproval. The lack of commonality between

58 some of these themes ln a particular story suggests that Chen chose her themes at random and then methodically worked them into a formulated framework to support her argument that life is intolerable in a repressive political climate. The inclusion of secondary themes that seem only remotely related to plot increases the impression that plot line is carefully orchestrated. The result is that attention is deflected from the main issue, thereby lessening the story's impact.

The stories in Old Man share some similarities with those in Mayor Yin in their structural simplicity, limited number of characters, and a single controlling consciousness in the narrative. But while Mayor Yin is characterized by restraint in tone and style, Old Man is marked by a more forceful and intrusive authorial voice. In Mayor Yin the tragic fate of the protagonist is heightened by its indirect portrayal through structural and situational irony. In Old Man Chen relies more on manipulation of plot and character rather than structural irony to emphasize tragedy. Manipulation of events in plot in "Unit 13" results in melodrama, while editorial statements uttered by protagonists such as Hong Shifu and Lao

Ren undermine their credibility. Chen's use of the first- person narrator in the Old Man stories is also less effective than in Mayor Yin primarily because the narrator is relegated to the role of uninvolved observer.

In terms of portraying her protagonist's reaction to loss in the stories in Old Man Chen continues to utilize nature imagery to represent his emotional landscape. She still uses

59 natural elements such as the sea, sky and wind to symbolize

inner states of mind. But she also resorts to direct descriptive narrative in revealing a character's emotions.

Descriptive narrative performs the task of conveying the character's inner state but it lacks the artistry of metaphorical representation that Chen used so skillfully in the Mayor Yin stories.

"Shisan Hao Danyuan" (Unit 13) exemplifies Chen's efforts to show the pernicious and destructive effects on China during a time when politics became society's central, if not sole concern. These catastrophic results are protrayed directly through the deaths by suicide of the story's protagonists, Lao

Song and his wife. As a vehicle of criticism, "Unit 13" is the least pedantic of Chen's stories in this anthology, although

it contains inherent weaknesses in terms of an ambiguous narrator, weak characterization, and manipulation of plot.

"Unit 13" revolves around the misfortunes of Lao Song and his wife, Song Ayi who endure one calamity after another during the Cultural Revolution. Lao Song is investigated and detained because of an alleged landlord background. Shortly after he is released from detention, he and his wife lose their only child, a four year old daughter. Their daughter,

Lian Lian Is accidentally killed when her playmate, Yao Wu throws a washboard at her. Hu Ayi, the pregnant mother of YdO

Wu offers her unborn child as compensation but later changes her mind. The Songs undergo further psychological decline

60 until one day Song Ayi is seen to have taken Yao Wu home with her. Hu Ayi goes to the Song apartment to demand the return of her son, but in the evening dusk, she accidentally falls and suffers a miscarriage. The neighbours then rally around 4 her and accuse the Song couple of desiring "class vengeance".

They send for the security section of their factory as well as the police to arrest the Song couple in their apartment. When the security men and police arrive, however, they discover after breaking down the door, that Lao Song and his wife have hung themselves.

The theme of loss in "Unit 13" as in "Mayor Yin" and "Ren

Xiulan" is portrayed directly through Lao Song and his wife's suicide. Loss of life is intended to symbolize the harmful effects of people's tendency during the Cultural Revolution to interpret any event or phenomenon in a political context. But the development of this theme is weakened by an unreliable narrator. "Unit 13" is recounted by a female narrator whose moral flaws makes her role ambiguous. Unlike "Ren Xiulan" and

"Mayor Yin", where the first-person narrative indirectly enhances a sense of tragedy and loss, the ambiguity of the narrator's role in "Unit 13" undermines the story's effectiveness. In "Ren Xiulan" the narrator guides our response to the death of Ren Xiulan through her psychological reactions to the events she describes. In "Mayor Yin" the ironic contrast provided by the narrator's emotional detachment from the events he describes further emphasizes the pathos of the main protagonist. But in "Unit 13" Chen fails

61 to use the narrator in either of these ways in order to amplify theme.

The narrator's ambivalence is revealed by the lack of change in her perception of the Song couple through the course of the story. Her biased assessment is clearly evident in her description of the Songs and in the value judgements she makes about them. Of Song Ayi, the narrator states: "All along, she did not talk about her past, I suppose that it could not have been glorious. She avoided any mention of her family background, without doubt it probably belonged to one of the 5

*five black elements'". A degree of censure, superiority and smugness on the part of the narrator is evident when she remarks that since "the factory did not have an obligation to assign a job to Song Ayi, she happily hid at home leading an 6 idle life", or that "The Song couple were certainly strange, 7 the longer they lived the more thin-skinned they became", and that "class struggle had been going on for twenty years, 8 everyone had tempered himself by becoming thick-skinned".

The narrator's narrow-mindedness and shallow understanding of the Song couple is alleviated somewhat by minor displays of sympathy yet she never completely demonstrates wholehearted empathy for them. Comments about Lao Song such as "If he dared to conceal and falsify his background, was there 9 anything that he wouldn't dare do", or "...on his face was an ingratiating smile, the kind of smile that concealed and 10 obscured his past" betray the narrator's slightly scornful attitude towards the Songs. Chen clearly reveals the

62 narrator's moral shortcomings yet the other variable required for structural irony to function properly in this story is missing. That missing element consists of a means for the reader to arrive at an assessment of Lao Song and his wife independent of the narrator's biased descriptions. We suspect that the narrator exaggerates the "eccentric" behaviour of Lao

Song and his wife, but we have no means of verification.

Instead we are left wondering whether the Songs are as peculiar as the narrator perceives them to be. In "Mayor Yin" structural irony serves to heighten the sense of tragedy and loss that is associated with Mayor Yin's death because the juxtaposition of the narrator's moral shortcomings with the true character of Mayor Yin serves to lower the narrator's worth while raising Mayor Yin's worth. In "Unit 13" this device of irony does not work due to missing information.

If the narrator's presence is intended to distance the reader from the Songs so that attention is directed more towards events in plot than on characterization, then the first-person narrative is marginally effective. If the narrator's role is confined solely to a satirical representation of her contemporaries and their moral values she is under-utilized. She could have been assigned the same role as the narrator in "Mayor Yin" whereby his moral shortcomings through structural irony acts as a foil to the central protagonist's tragic fate.

The narrator's ambivalence is also the basis for the problem of weak characterization. The portrayal of Lao Song

63 and his wife is entirely dependent on the narrator's observations but, due to her biases, they are prevented from becoming fully rounded and vibrant protagonists whose suicides elicit an automatic response of sympathy. This is due to the unfavourable impression created of Song Ayi by the narrator's descriptions. She states that Song Ayi had "a tall and skinny frame that resembled a branch of white poplar with its leaves 11 all fallen off" and that her face was "long and flat; her skin was so white that it seemed blue and so thin that it resembled the crescent moon appearing just after the sun had set. Her thin lips were as colourless as if they had received an electric shock; a smile was rarely on her face as if there 12 were many things weighing on her mind". Weak characterization also undermines Chen's intent to show how political campaigns destroyed people's will to live. One deduces that Lao Song and his wife commit suicide because of political and social oppression, but one cannot be absolutely certain. That uncertainty is increased by the narrator's views which unintentionally suggest that any abnormal behaviour of Lao Song and his wife may be inherent and not induced by their environment.

Another weakness in the story's structure is lack of cohesion in plot. Disjointedness arises because Chen feels compelled to describe the political background of the major characters and all its implications. In order to emphasize the point that people were politically hounded to death during the Cultural Revolution, Chen resorts to manipulation of plot.

64 Lian Lian, the daughter of Lao Song who has been labelled a counterrevolutionary is killed when Yao Wu (the son of a politically correct family - his mother is from a "three generation peasant family", while his father is a Party member) throws a washboard at her. Coincidentally, the unborn child of Yao Wu's mother, Hu Ayi is lost through miscarriage.

Finally, the denouement consists of the suicide of Lao Song and his wife. Due to the manipulated linking of deaths, plot seems not only sensationalized but melodramatic.

In order to present a convincing argument for the "dread" that is created by "giving prominence to politics" a host of minor themes are interwoven in the plot. Chen's narrator makes allusive associations between the number of the Song couple's apartment and Western superstition concerning the number thirteen. In addition, Chen attempts to create a mood of

foreboding and horror by using a narrator who begins the story by stating that she is not a superstitious person, but whenever she sees the vermilion coloured door of the apartment across from hers and the white cement ground below, her throat constricts.

The narrator's recounting of the gossip that circulates about Lao Song's marriage reveals the vestiges of traditional superstitious belief about marrying widows. Lao Song's neighbours believe that misfortune is bound to befall him after he marries Song Ayi because "if it was not a case of mourning for the husband it would be a case of grieving for 13 And indeed their predictions are proven correct

65 by the events In the plot with the death of Lao Song's only daughter and later Lao Song's suicide. The irony is that Song

Ayi also suffers an unfortunate end. By showing that traces of traditional supersitition still exist, Chen satirizes

China's "new society" for its failure to attain a truly new social order. However, the story's elements of superstition and the melodramatic events of plot belie its intent to seriously convey the horror of deaths which as the narrator 14 states "during that period were a common occurrence".

The redeeming element in "Unit 13" lies in its documentation of the psychological trauma sustained by Lao

Song and his wife. After Lao Song is investigated in a

"Purification" campaign and is detained in a study class, his mental and physical decline is noted by the narrator who observes that "after he had been exposed as being one of the

five black elements, his triangular shaped face was so drawn that it was even more pointed than an oil funnel. No longer did he smile ingratiatingly; his expression resembled the gloominess of the sky that precedes the arrival of wind and rain. Now more reticent than ever, whenever he saw anyone

from afar, he would keep his head low and would be unwilling 15 to even utter a greeting". She also remarks that Lao Song had become slightly hunchbacked "as if the label of "landlord' had oppressed him to the extent that he couldn't even 16 straighten his waist". Lao Song's deterioration which is compounded by grief after his daughter's death is symbolized by the change In his physical appearance: "..the flesh of his 66 yellowish face was so slack that It hung as if he had become 17 so thin that only a layer of skin was left". The effects of bereavement on Song Ayi are also noted by the narrator who recounts that Song Ayi stayed indoors all day and went out only at night when no one was around. Not surprisingly, the behaviour of Song Ayi which Is already perceived by the narrator to be a little odd appears even more disturbed, for

Song Ayi would suddenly "...appear in the doorway, dressed completely in black, like an ominous spirit; her eyes would be riveted to the spot where Lian Lian was struck down, her body unmoving, as if she were absorbedly waiting for 18 something..".

Chen's portrayal of the theme of loss of life as an indictment of China's totalitarian regime also appears in "Di

Dao" (Tunnel). "Tunnel" which is a tragic love story that is set in Nanjing spans a period of one year from the summer of

1971 to 1972. The narrative is structured from the consciousness of Hong Shifu, a sixty-four year old retired 19 worker whose family possesses a totally "red" and therefore "good class" background. He is considered "red" by virtue of the fact that he has been a worker all his life and his eldest and youngest sons are a Party member and an

Army officer respectively. The plot consists of Hong Shifu meeting Li Mei when they are both recruited for the task of digging tunnels in response to Mao's directive to dig tunnels as air-raid shelters in the event of a Soviet bomb attack.

Hong Shifu falls in love with Li Mei, a middle-aged divorcee

67 and wants to marry her. But Hong Shlfu's family opposes the

marriage suspecting that Li Mei is being opportunistic and wishes to counter her status as a divorced woman by marrying

someone with an unimpeachable background. Hong Shifu is so ashamed by his inability to act against his children's wishes

that he stops seeing Li Mei and gives up all hope of happiness. During that winter he is severely depressed and

undergoes a psychological decline. Several months later, he accidentally bumps into her and begins seeing her again

secretly. They are unable to express their sexual love for

each other because "without a letter of introduction from the

unit where he worked there was no chance of getting a (hotel) 20 room". So during a heat wave in July, they decide to visit

a public park. Because of the lack of privacy in the park, they venture into a tunnel. The story ends on a climactic

note with Hong Shifu and Li Mei entering the tunnel: "They walked on hand in hand, leaning upon each other. The tunnel

echoed their footsteps but they did not hear it: they could

only hear the voice of their own hearts responding to each

other. At six o'clock sharp a keeper of the park came and

locked the gate. It was opened one day a week to air out the

tunnel and keep it dry. Another week would pass before it was 21

to be opened again."

Loss in "Tunnel" is presented directly through its

thematic focus on death. But thematic development is

indirectly enhanced by nature imagery to convey Hong Shifu's

psychological decline. Chen's effective use of seasonal

68 changes as well as nature images to symbolize Hong Shifu's emotional landscape heightens the pathos of Hong Shifu's fate.

After Hong Shifu's son opposes his plan to remarry, his subsequent spiritual and psychological decline is appropriately symbolized by the winter that "was unusually 22 cold". The bleakness of Hong Shifu's emotional landscape is represented in his lack of activity. He curls up "in his room 23 like a frozen snake, numb to all feelings". His feelings of dejection and loneliness are symbolized by the desolateness of his physical setting: "lying awake in the middle of the night, he couldn't help the cold loneliness weighing heavily on him. When it snowed he would stand there, hands in his sleeves, and gaze dumbly at the blank whiteness of the world 24 on the other side of the windowpane". Hong Shifu resumes his relationship with Li Mei during the Spring Festival (Lunar

New Year). But instead of following Nature's natural progression from rejuvenation of life to bountiful harvest,

Hong Shifu's relationship with Li Mei ends in tragedy. The fact that it is summer when they die underscores the pathos of their fate because their actions directly undercut the metaphor of summer as a symbol of fruition and fulfilment.

The narrative consciousness structured from Hong Shifu's vantage point creates a vigorous and fully rounded hero. Our sympathy towards his lonely state and thwarted plan of marriage is heightened by his characterization as an extremely

likable protagonist. Hong Shifu is described as a conscientious father, who had chosen to remain single after

69 his wife's death rather than risk his children's happiness with a stepmother. Hong Shifu is so well liked and admired in his neighbourhood that he is commended for being a "model old 25 man". This positive image of Hong Shifu arouses an even greater sense of shock and sympathy for his tragic end.

Despite the compelling theme of this story, there are some minor flaws such as editorial commentary and insufficient portent in plot that betray Chen's overwhelming need to express her critical opinion at the expense of artistic

integrity. The original version of this story ended with a gatekeeper discovering two corpses inside the tunnel and two lines of writing scrawled in blood on a cement wall that said: 26

"We love each other, we are not suicides". Chen explained that her reason for ending the story that way was due to the

Communists' condemnation of suicide as an act of "rejection of the people" and their fear of the act's consequences. But upon the advice of Pai Hsien-yung she revised the

"superfluous" ending; the altered version is the one that appears in Old Man. The ending in the original version like the events in "Unit 13" betray Chen's occasional leaning

towards melodrama. In "Unit 13" the plot consists of a series of seemingly contrived deaths which are intended to symbolize the results of political harassment and oppression.

Similarly, the melodramatic ending in the original version of

"Tunnel" belabors Chen's point that under China's political system individuals are never free; even in death.

Hong Shifu's credibility as a fully rounded hero is

70 lessened by his sometimes incisive and "intrusive" commentary.

His didactic comments only emphasizes the fact that he is being manipulated so that Chen can voice her own sentiments through him, for example:

"What he objected to was the toadyism of the rank and file of the Communist Party such as his son. It seemed so unjust to him that they should be ever-ready to accommodate themselves to Party politics while showing no sympathy whatever for an unfortunate and helpless woman like Li Mei...when he thought more about the matter, he realized that this double standard was typical of the Communists. Both Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi divorced their wives and remarried. Yet they would not permit the people to allude to it under the penalty of being charged with slandering the leaders and engaging in counter• revolutionary activity. They did not put much stock in their own marriage and divorce laws." 27

Other evidence of authorial intrusion occurs when Hong Shifu is described as accepting his son's explanation on faith because he is unable to follow his son's rationale for the exemption of university professors from mandatory retirement while ordinary workers like himself are forced to retire. But in the next sentence, Chen intrudes with verbal irony: "was he not a professor at the university and a fully accredited 28 member of the Communist Party? How could he be wrong?" A didactic comment such as "when the city government realized 29 that it was impossible to realize Mao Zedong's pipe dream"

(emphasis mine) further reveals Chen's heavyhanded manipulation.

Once again, in Chen's preoccupation with trying to symbolize the shortcomings of China's system through loss, which in this story as in "Ren Xiulan" and "Unit 13" involves

71 a death, structural integrity is made subordinate to the message. In Chen's haste to criticize China's system she also dwells on several minor themes in "Tunnel". These themes include the hypocritical behaviour of the leadership, inconsistencies in retirement policy, Mao"s ineffectual directives such as "Dig Tunnels and Store Grain", as well as the failure of China's "new society" which was was "still very tradition-bound; and gave no thought to the loneliness of the 30 elderly and their needs". The inclusion of these themes creates a hodgepodge effect in thematic cohesiveness.

31

"Da Qing Yu" (Big Black Fish) is another example of

Chen's emphasis on voicing her message at the expense of her craft. The plot consists of the attempts of Kuai Shifu, an

ironworker at the Nanjing Dockyard to buy a fish to stimulate the appetite of his ill wife. After enduring scornful looks from the stallkeeper for his deliberation over the cost and amount of fish he wishes to buy, he finally pays for it and is about to leave. But just as he is getting on his bicyle, he is stopped by a cadre who asks him to take the fish back because it isn't for sale. The cadre explains that if everything were sold there would be nothing to show the foreign visitors. Kuai Shifu looks on helplessly as "the fish, its huge tail swinging back and forth, disappeared into 32 the distance".

Chen's focus on this single incident emphasizes the shortage of material goods and how ordinary people like Kuai

Shifu are affected by the Chinese regime's desire to "put on a 72 good front". Kuai Shifu's disappointment at losing his fish is moving but he is not a compelling character. Chen's loyalty to and sympathy for Kuai Shifu is revealed in the third-person narrative which is structured from his viewpoint.

Yet even so, characterization is made subordinate to events.

Consequently, Kuai Shifu is a relatively flat character In comparison to Hong Shifu and Qi Laotou in "Spring is Late".

The next set of stories in this anthology can be distinguished from Chen's previous ones by her protagonists' reactions to loss and their budding attempts of resistance. Qi

Laotou's daughter Xiao Qun in "Chun Chi" (Spring is Late) and the narrator in "Nikesen de jizhe tuan" (Nixon's Press Corps) respond defiantly to the coercive pressure of their neighborhood committees. Ai Fen in "Nu you Ai Fen" (My Friend Ai Fen) and

Ding Yun in "Ding Yun" attempt to recover control of their fates by choosing a spouse based on practical issues. Lao Ren in "Lao

Ren" (Old Man) courageously refuses to submit a written account of everything he observed during the Tiananmen Incident.

These protagonists are clearly different from Chen's former characters in Mayor Yin who experience loss as a result of political and social oppression but are unable to resist.

In "Chun Chi" (Spring is Late) loss of individuality, personal freedom and vibrancy of life are depicted to show the inroads of political ideology on daily life as well as the inherent irony of life under a totalitarian regime. "Spring is Late" is stylistically the most successful in Old Man. The

73 story is effective because its plot is evenly paced, events are consistent with the story's internal logic, and the tone throughout is dispassionate and unmarred by authorial intrusion.

Nature imagery used to symbolize Qi Laotou's interior landscape also adds to the story's impact.

"Spring is Late", set in Nanjing during early spring, revolves around a seventy-year old protagonist, Qi Laotou who still possesses a capacity for life (as symbolized by his sexual interest). Qi Laotou is a retired worker and widower.

He lives with his daughter and her family in a dormitory on the campus of Nanjing University. During an early morning shopping expedition, he impulsively propositions a woman by 33 saying "Will you sleep with me?". He is apprehended and turned over to the neighborhood committee to be publicly criticized. After the struggle session is over, he is released into his daughter's care while an investigation of his political background is carried out. Qi Laotou declines psychologically and physically with the result that he takes to his bed and refuses to get up. The neighbourhood committee subsequently demands that Qi Laotou return to the countryside of his own volition, but the protests of his daughter effectively forestall that from occurring. After a few months the entire incident loses its importance. The story concludes ironically with Qi Laotou's study class asking him to attend meetings. When a year after the incident has passed, the event is completely forgotten with Qi Laotou becoming the

"most welcomed chatting companion in the group of elderly

74 34 grannies". Loss in this story, as in "Tunnel" is attributed to the failure of China's new society to accommodate the needs of the elderly. Unlike "Tunnel" where there are inconsistencies in

Hong Shifu's development, "Spring is Late" provides a credible and consistent profile of a vigorous protagonist who suffers from a diminished role in society. Qi Laotou's feelings of alienation are due to the nature of his society, "which aside from ^revolution' did not know he existed, where the joys and sorrows of the elderly were not in the least important, and where there was no place for him to even reluctantly express 35 36 his difficulties." Qi Laotou's "undissipated loneliness" 37 coupled with the "nameless oppression" that affects him from living on a university campus makes his life even duller. He realizes that his feelings of isolation have resulted from his sensitivity regarding his status as a "country bumpkin" and his suspicion that he is unwelcome in his study class. But even when he does attend study class, he finds that he has very little in common with the elderly men and women in his class who "seem lifeless, all appearing much older than their 38 real ages" while the "women, content with babysitting their grandchildren, prefer to spend the time with other women 39 chatting away the time, excluding the men".

The narrative which is essentially structured from Qi

Laotou's perspective not only effectively reveals his sexual vitality but also enhances our understanding of his impulsive action. Despite his age, "he secretly, still liked to look at

75 youthful women; he longed to exchange a few sentences with them and even hold their hand. Whenever he encountered a 40 woman with an enchanting posture, his legs would go numb."

Qi Laotou's awareness of his longings and the need to repress them is revealed in his thought that "he knew he could not tell these thoughts to another person, but he had no way of 41 eradicating them". The third-person narrative permits a deeper and more complex profile of Qi Laotou's psyche than if his personality had been filtered through a first-person narrator-observer.

Chen's effective portrayal of Qi Laotou's physical and spiritual deterioration while he is under investigation is enhanced by her use of nature to represent his inner state.

At the beginning of the story, his buoyant spirits are conveyed by his feelings of revitalization when he breathes in the warm spring air: "like a long abandoned machine that is 42 oiled, his joints began to limber up". His vitality is conveyed through his thought that spring "makes his step 43 lighter, and even his sense of smell is more sensitive".

But halfway through the story, spring and other symbols of nature, such as the birds and trees which began as symbols of rejuvenation, change to indicators of contrast. After Qi

Laotou's public denunciation, he goes into psychological withdrawal. His isolation is emphasized indirectly by the contrast between his state of mind and both the "locust tree outside his window that is completely covered by tender green 44 leaves" and the "magpies on its branches making noise at

76 45 sunrise". These images represent a world of brightness and activity that he dares not enter because of his feelings of guilt and self-recrimination. His diminished self-respect in addition to the threat of being transferred to the countryside to undergo labour reform is accompanied by a physical decline.

He feels weaker and "more and more fatigued as he watches the 46 sunlight getting brighter each day." He moves around less and less in his room while the periods of time that he sits staring into space lengthen, until one day he decides he simply cannot get out of bed. When he does get out of bed a month or two later, the severity of his mental ordeal is symbolized by his hair having turned completely white.

Chen's satiric portrayal of the neighborhood committee's 47 insistence that Qi Laotou's action is "premeditated" and 48 that it is "a brazen act of resisting a Central directive" demonstrates the extent to which politics dominated and

infiltrated even mundane aspects of life. The committee's commitment to finding a link between Qi Laotou's "crime" and his political background points to the politically oversensitized environment that characterized the Cultural

Revolution. The fact that every event or phenomenon was interpreted in a political context is further emphasized by a neighbour's comment that the woman Qi Laotou propositioned is no ordinary woman but a woman who works for the family of an army commander. Since members of the army were a "class above 49 everyone else, they couldn't just let anyone bump into her". The absurdity and uncertainty of life in a Communist

77 system is reinforced by situational irony in the story's conclusion. The unexpected rehabilitation of Qi Laotou points to the inherent irony of life under a system where as Ou

Yangzi points out, an "individual's fate is completely 50 unpredictable".

The significance of "Spring is Late" lies in the symbolic act of resistance by Qi Laotou's daughter, Xiao Qun. When the neighbourhood committee orders Qi Laotou to voluntarily go to the countryside, Xiao Qun uses Maoist rhetoric in defense of her father as well as in protest. Xiao Qun's resistance is indicative of a new stage in Chen's own grieving process.

Just as Chen has begun to reformulate her sense of purpose and identified herself with the need to speak out for China's people, correspondingly her protagonists exhibit signs of res istance.

In "Nikesen de ji zhe tuan" (Nixon's Press Corps), loss of individuality and personal freedom are the thematic issues.

These losses are attributed to social and political pressure on the individual to conform to the group, even at the most personal level of deciding to leave a clothes drying pole outside one's window. "Nixon's Press Corps" centers on the preparations taken by Xin Laoshi's school for the visit of some of Nixon's reporters to Nanjing. One of the directives issued by the neighbourhood committee is that all drying racks must be disassembled. Xin Laoshi refuses to take hers down and is subsequently harassed and pressured by the head of the

78 committee who implies that she is unwilling to "sacrifice for 51 the revolution". Although Xin Laoshi's neighbours all dismantle their drying racks, she defiantly leaves hers standing. The ironic outcome of the foreigners' visit is that aside from two reporters who visited a market, the rest of the press corps had gone directly to Hangzhou.

Technically, the story's focus on a single event, its use of a first-person narrator, and ironic ending categorizes it as another example of Chen's formulaic approach. However, the story's significance lies in its secondary themes of alienation and resistance. Xin Laoshi, like Liu Xiangdong and

Geng Er is an "overseas" Chinese repatriate. Her feeling of exclusion from Chinese society is similar to Geng Er's sentiment that intellectuals had "all become outcasts in the 52 new society". But unlike Geng Er who does not actively resist political pressure, Xin Laoshi's resistance is revealed when she says, "Since we're never trusted and we can't afford to protest, we can let an inanimate object like our drying 53 rack stand up for us." Her unconciliatory stance is further emphasized by her verbal confrontation with Gao Sao when she states emphatically that she will not remove her drying rack.

The portrayal of resistance, the indignant tone of the narrator's declarative statements in addition to editorial commentary such as "No one ever publicly questioned the contradictory statements or this about-face in Communist 54 policy" demonstrate the effects of Chen's grieving process on her literary work. Chen's fiction becomes Increasingly

79 imbued with a purpose that supersedes her original need to just document loss. Just as the drying rack is symbolic of

Xin Laoshl's only means of protest, similarly, Chen's stories are vehicles for her dissent.

The next two stories, "Nu you Ai Fen" (My Friend Al Fen)" and Ding Yun" (Ding Yun) focuses on the major issue of loss of true love and happiness due to the protagonists' political environment. But these stories also focus on secondary themes of loss of Idealism, of trust and faith, of individuality and of control over one's fate.

In "My Friend Ai Fen", the plot revolves around Ai Fen who is a doctor at a Beijing hospital. The narrator who is an intellectual repatriate meets Ai Fen in 1967 when she gives birth to her first child. As their friendship deepens, the narrator learns of Ai Fen's previous misfortunes in love and her current marital problems with her husband Xiao Fan. Ai

Fen's misfortunes Involved losing her first boyfriend with whom she was deeply in love to a girl whose father is a high- ranking cadre. She is bitterly hurt and disillusioned by the experience but later meets an artist named Xiao Fan and marries him. Their marital problems are exacerbated by their political environment. The possibility of being forced to accompany her husband in the event that he is sent to the countryside during the "Rustication Movement" (shangshan xiaxiang), combined with their incompatibility leads Ai Fen to divorce him. Although she and Xiao Fan continue to see each other after the divorce, she falls in love with and marries

80 Hao Guang, an opera performer. The story ends on a concerned note when the narrator learns after she had left China that

"model operas" had fallen alongside Jiang Qing's toppling and that Hao Guang had been rectified. The narrator cannot help 55 but "fear for Hao Guang and worry even more about Ai Fen".

Loss in this story emphasizes that personal matters such as love and marriage were inevitably affected by political

Issues during the Cultural Revolution. Al Fen loses her 56 boyfriend because he is concerned that with his "bad class" background he will be sent to a remote province. He rejects

Ai Fen for another girl who secures a position in Beijing for him. Ai Fen's subsequent marriage to Xiao Fan on the rebound results in martial discord. Their problems combined with the threat of being sent to the countryside undermine the success of their relationship. Like Geng Er's failed romances, the failure of AI Fen's relationships points to the harmful influence politics rendered on human relationships during the

Cultural Revolution era. The poignancy of Al Fen's situation is enhanced by the fact that she is not "keen on political 57 58 matters" and wishes only to "get along from day to day". She chooses to marry her second husband, Hao Guang based on her love for him as well as what she thought was a politically problem-free background. But it turns out that he too, and indirectly she as well, are not free from the political net.

The fate of Ai Fen is symbolic of her contemporaries who suffered similar kinds of losses. In addition to portraying a loss of romantic fulfilment and happiness, the story also

81 focuses on losses involving ideals, trust and faith and individualility. Both Ai Fen and Xiao Fan, her first husband experience bitter disillusionment. Al Fen's loss of belief in love is expressed when she states, "I used to believe in love and gave myself without reservations. I don't feel the same 59 way anymore". While the source of Ai Fen's unhappiness springs from her failed relationships, Xiao Fan's "resentful 60 cynicism" is linked to his discovery that "the Revolution 61 had done nothing for him aside from denying his own worth".

As an artist, he has had to suppress his individuality and creativity by painting propaganda posters. The cause for his discouragement is clearly attributed to the Cultural

Revolution which "had not only (broken his life's routine, but 62 had also shattered his aspirations". The result is that "except for drowning his sorrows in liquor, Xiao Fan did not 63 know how to allay his sense of bitter disappointment".

Chen's portrayal of Ai Fen, Xiao Fan and Hao Guang points to the uncertainty of life in a totalitarian regime. Ai Fen's statement that "You may escape this time, but you won't the 64 next" captures the general feeling of dread which as Chen states, "had seeped into the very bloodstream of the 65 people". The ironic ending further reinforces the futility and pathos of Ai Fen's political caution. Her lament that "we 66 just don't have any control over our fates!" poignantly captures the individual's powerlessness to determine his own future.

82 The Issue of personal happiness and marriage reduced to

its most pragmatic level because of political implications is also the basis of Chen's story, "Ding Yun". The narrator, an

educated youth sent to work on a farm in Hellongjiang due to the "Rustication Movement" recounts the story of her friend,

Ding Yun. The plot involves the narrator paying a visit to

Ding Yun's parents' home during the Spring Festival where she

learns the details of her friend's recent marriage to the son

of a high-ranking military cadre. The narrator discovers that

Ding Yun had taken the initiative in sending photographs of

herself to her father's doctor who was acting as matchmaker.

When the other party had expressed interest in her she quickly

returned from Heilongjiang on the pretext of a family

emergency. The couple become engaged a week after their

meeting and are married two months later. Due to Ding Yun's

new status as a wife of an Army member, she is transferred

from her commune in Heilongjiang to Shanghai to be with her

husband. The narrator notices that due to Ding Yun's marriage,

the living standards of Ding Yun's family have improved

remarkably with a new apartment and an abundance of superior

quality goods and foodstuffs that are unavailable to the average

person.

Essentially, Chen's portrayal of the pragmatic attitude

of Ding Yun towards love and marriage is a criticism of

China's new society. Just as women in pre-Revolutionary China

often married for financial reasons, women like Ding Yun under

China's new social order consider marriage partners in terms

83 of political influence and indirectly, economic security. The cynical remark overheard by the narrator as she is walking home: "These days, it's best to have a father with influence, 67 but short of that a good sister will do" combined with her observation of the material prosperity experienced by Ding

Yun's family is a revealing attack on inequities created by

China's socio-political order. Ding Yun is symbolic of those who are not only forced to deny their true selves in trying to retain a modicum of control of their own lives, but who resort to using "back-doors" in order to achieve their aims.

In addition to the story's thematic focus on marriage based on mutual benefit, the story also deals with the experience of loss, of both political innocence and youth. The disillusionment of Ding Yun and the narrator is symbolic of a similar loss of ideals and betrayal of faith experienced by an entire generation of young intellectuals during the Cultural

Revolution. The moving plight of their generation is captured in Ding Yun's question to the narrator, "...what crimes have we committed that we should be exiled here so far away from 68 home?" This question underscores the irony of their banishment. They have been sent to the countryside not because they are guilty of any crime but because they believed wholeheartedly in Mao Zedong and in his dictum that it was

"correct to rebel". A sense of their disillusionment and betrayal is conveyed in the narrator's comment that during the

Cultural Revolution she and Ding Yun were "rudely awakened to 69 the same harsh realities" Their feelings of dejection,

84 alienation and bewilderment Is symbolised ln the narrator's description of Ding Yun's smile which was a smile that

"reflected the feeling of helplessness of the young 70 intellectuals of our generation."

Chen ensures our sympathetic response to Ding Yun in her choice of a first-person narrator who guides our reactions to the details she recounts about Ding Yun. The narrator's impartial attitude towards Ding Yun's marriage is sharply contrasted with her observation that other "...girls, being catty, laughed at the idea of a former Red Guard and active rebel ending up in a marriage arranged through matchmakers, though in truth there was hardly one who did not envy her for having married the son of a high-level cadre and thus 71 achieving instant xsalvation"'. This contrast increases the narrator's reliability as guide and interpreter of events.

The narrator's role as guide is also linked to thematic development by providing moral contrast to Ding Yun's chosen course of action. The fact that the narrator, who as a symbol of moral rectitude is still stranded in Heilongjiang points to the inherent irony in China's system. The intellectual who maintains his moral values and honor ironically exists in a state of physical and spiritual exile.

In terms of literary technique, "My Friend Ai Fen" and

"Ding Yun" are fairly similar. They both utilize an uninvolved narrator whose reminiscences form the basis of the story, progress linearly in plot development, and rely on descriptive narrative to convey a protagonist's emotional

85 state rather than nature imagery. The biggest flaw in "Ding

Yun" according to Cheng Yung-hsiao is that the narrator's reminiscences are unconnected to her visit and do not enhance 72 character development as in "Old Man". Cheng fails to take into consideration that the narrator's reminisces about Ding

Yun's situation in Heilongjiang enhances the reader's understanding of Ding Yun's decision to marry for reasons other than love.

Unlike Chen's other stories in this anthology, these two stories are relatively restrained in tone and style without any strident and intrusive editorial comments inserted into the text. However, the straightforward style that Chen employs in these two stories without any twists in plot or any alternative viewpoint to the narrative consciousness does result in what Cheng Yung-hsiao calls "reportage that 73 resembles a daily accounting". The simplistic structure of these two stories again attests to the importance Chen places on a story's message than on literary technique.

"Lao Ren" (Old Man) Is another example of the change in

Chen's portrayal of her. protagonists from a more passive intellectual to one who attempts to exercise active control over his fate. Just as the narrator's refusal to remove her drying rack becomes a symbolic act of protest against political oppression in "Nixon's Press Corps", similarly the refusal of

Lao Ren in "Old Man" to supply a written record of his activities on the day of the Tiananmen Incident becomes an active stance of dissent. These symbolic acts of protest mirror

86 Chen's newly rehabilitated purpose in life. Her sense of mission leads her to reveal and protest against the flaws in

China's political system. The system causes her protagonist to suffer a loss of: ideals, hope of reunification, faith in the

Communist Party, and personal freedom.

Chen's reformulated purpose as the endpoint in her grieving process also leads her to the vociferous expression of her views in her fiction. Consequently, "Old Man" is marred by didactic passages, and editorial commentary. As the longest story in the collection, it is the least artistic because It is intended to be more of a diatribe than an expose of an

individual tragically caught in a rigid system.

"Old Man" is the clearest example of the degree to which 7 4

Chen's "boiling rage" pervades her fiction. The story is a

literary vessel moulded as a container for Chen's personal views and her reactions to the direction Chinese politics was taking in 1976. The story's focal point is centered on the 75 event of the Tiananmen Incident of April 5, 1976. The reactions of Lao Ren to the Tiananmen Incident is used by Chen to show her support for spontaneous political protest as well as to reveal the psychology of Lao Ren, a veteran Party cadre now in his seventies who has weathered one purge after another. The story's simplistic plot consists of Lao Ren being pressured by his neighbourhood committee to supply a written account of his activities and the activities of others in relation to the Tiananmen riot. Superimposed on this one event in plot are Lao Ren's reminiscences which reveal the 87 calamities that he has experienced since he left his wife and daughter in Taiwan in the 1940's to join the revolution on the mainland.

The similarity "Old Man" shares with previous stories such as "Ding Yun", "My Friend Ai Fen", "Night Duty", "Geng Er in Beijing" and "Jing Jing's Birthday" is the theme of disillusionment and loss of faith in the Communist Party. The earliest indication of Lao Ren's moral dilemma occurs in his reminiscence about the transfer of his stepson to Inner

Mongolia during the "Rustication Movement". He had felt that as a Party member "he had to support this "Rustication

Movement' in principle and fully recognize its great 76 significance". However, it had been difficult for him to wholeheartedly endorse a measure that not only brought such grief to his wife but also "lacked an overall plan which in addition to corrupt bureaucrats, had resulted in widespread 77 complaints". Lao Ren's loss of ideals and faith in the Party

is also revealed indirectly by his present discouragement over his neighbour's inability to discern between truth and political dogma. In Lao Ren's eyes, his neighbour, a primary school teacher is "typical of young people at present, extremely confident with the attitude that 'the world is 78 ours'." Lao Ren is dismayed by this "young person who harboured utter innocence in his Idealistic pursuit, but was blind. In the teachings transmitted to him, he was full of superstition about the Party and leadership; he was able to accept handed-down explanations concerning the conflict

88 79 between ideals and reality, ' never losing hope". Lao Ren's

negative impression of this young intellectual is superimposed

on the reminiscence of his own youth when as a "foreign student in Japan, and a member of the Communist Party; his

entire head was filled with ideas of 'Recover Taiwan, Liberate

China* even to the extent of including the lofty and 80

idealistic aspiration of 'liberating all people'." This

comparison between the teacher's unquestioning idealism and

complete political indoctrination with the idealistic self of

Lao Ren's youth implies that the teacher will similarly suffer

a loss of ideals. Just as Lao Ren has become cynical from his bitter experience of betrayal by the Communist Party, the

implication exists that the teacher's blind idealism will lead to similar disillusionment. The degree of Lao Ren's disillusionment is thus indirectly emphasized by the

comparison between the teacher's undiscerning faith in the

Communist Party and Lao Ren's political ardour of his youth.

Other factors contributing to Lao Ren's disillusionment

are emphasized through details in flashback sequences of his mistreatment by the political system. Despite his years of

loyal service to the Party which began with his incarceration by the Japanese in the 19 40's when he was doing underground

work, and included his personal sacrifice in which he left his wife and daughter to join the "Revolution" and his dedicated

service as a Party cadre, he had been labelled a "rightist" during a purification campaign and sent to a May Seventh cadre

89 school in Heilongjlang for reform through labour. The

injustice of the political system's treatment of Lao Ren is

reinforced by the long history of his political misfortunes

and by the fact that he again is the target of the recent

investigation of the Tiananmen Incident. His opinion that detention in a "study class" had become more "ordinary than a 81

casual meal at home" poignantly emphasizes the numerous

times that he had been detained during various political

campa igns.

Another reason for Lao Ren's eroded faith in the

Communist Party lies in the harmful effect the Party's

policies had on his family. Its policies not only affected

him, but also brought unhappiness and grief to the family he

acquired in China when he married again. During the Cultural

Revolution, his stepson who had borne the burden of his

natural father's "counterrevolutionary" label, now had to

break off his relationship with his stepfather who was accused 82 of being "thoroughly perverse" and "absolutely 83 unrepentent" in addition to a long list of other crimes. His stepson could only "volunteer" to resettle in Inner

Mongolia during the "Rustication Movement". His wife also

suffered so much psychological stress that her "entire head of 84 black hair turned white" and although "she was not quite fifty years of age, her back had already become stooped, 85

completely resembling an old woman".

The influence of Chen's resolved grief upon her fiction

is evident not only in her thematic development of loss which

90 includes portraying a protagonist's attempts at resistance, but also in her editorial commentary. Chen's need to voice her criticism also results in lack of authorial objectivity as well as character manipulation. Structural cohesiveness also becomes a problem as she places more emphasis on her message than on her style.

Authorial intrusion contributes to the story's structural weakness. The third-person narrative which is intended to convey a free flowing account of thought and emotion through

interior monologue is destroyed by didactic passages which are inconsistent in tone with the rest of the story. These pedantic and intrusive comments are redundant since Chen's message is pointedly clear from the story's focus itself. Yet

Chen feels feels compelled to list the reasons for Lao Ren's loss of faith in the Communist Party in explicit, strident passages scattered throughout the narrative. These vehement denunciations lessen the credibility of Lao Ren's characterization because he is imbued with knowledge that is extraneous to his character. Not only does the obtrusive quality of these passages detract from the general tone of the story, it also creates the impression that the entire story is purposely layered with successive arguments to support Chen's opinion that China's system is a failure. For example, Lao

Ren's grievous tone in his pointed criticism appears more of a reflection of the author:

"Mao Zedong had declared that 'Power comes out of the barrel of a gun', but once he had a gun in his hand he forgot the millions of underground workers who

91 were unarmed. He was fully aware that without these Party members who were in and out of jail, he would have been unable to enter the city of Beijing, yet many years after the event, in the settling of accounts he blamed them for being unable to "die for a righteous cause'." 86

Similarly, Lao Ren's critical assessment of the Tiananmen riot betrays knowledge of the event that only the author could possess as she is writing about the incident in hindsight, for example:

"Clearly, it was an isolated act, (but they) stubbornly asserted that it was planned, moreover the people that had requested democracy and freedom were identified as rebellious counter-revolutionaries. In order to prop up Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong did not hesitate to strike down and completely destroy his comrades-in-arms. This originally was the trick of "You can always think up a charge if you are intent on condemning someone'. This handy pretense of democracy was as ludicrous as a seasoned courtesan coveting an archway to commemorate her virtue. Was there a single day in the dozens of years that the Communist Party had proclaimed "Believe in the masses, depend on the masses' that they didn't consider the masses simpleminded." 87

Another problem that arises from Chen's emphasis on her message over technique is structural incoherence and disjointedness. The story's structure appears disjointed because its time frame spans a twenty-four hour period in the life of Lao Ren but that one day is spliced with at least five alternations in Chen's use of flashback sequences to cover over forty years of his personal history. The constant and abrupt shifts in time gives the structure a fragmented quality. Unlike the time-shift sequences in "Geng Er in

Beijing" which enhance the immediacy of Geng Er's emotions and his reactions to loss because they focus on his inner state,

92 flashbacks in "Old Man" lack cohesiveness between segments because they are intended primarily to supply details of all the interrogations, torture, jailings, purges, struggle sessions, detentions in study classes, and physical illnesses that Lao Ren has endured.

Thus, Chen's need to fuse her political opinion with her fiction results in her use of "Lao Ren" as a symbol of her protest. Chen's compulsion to protest leads to editorializing.

In addition, the omniscient quality of Lao Ren's criticism betrays Chen's weakness for putting words into her character's mouth. Authorial intrusion in the form of didactic passages also weakens the story's structure which is already weighed down by cumbersome flashbacks, pedantic tone and a predictable conclusion.

In sections of the text that are free from intrusive editorial commentary, Chen's skillful use of imagery to dramatize Lao Ren's emotional state partially offsets other structural weaknesses. Images of the sea and the wind representing Lao Ren's interior landscape are interspersed throughout the text in order to create a sense of loss.

Whenever Lao Ren thinks of the wife and daughter he left in

Taiwan, his loneliness and longing is poignantly conveyed through powerful and vivid images of ocean waves. In his reminiscence he remembers staring out of his airplane window at the sea below. As he looks down at the sea below with its 88

"blue waves resembling a mirror", the depth of his loneliness and dejection is revealed in the dual function of

93 this scene. At one level, the sea is likened to "a mirror" which reflects Lao Ren's emotional state; thus, as he looks at the waves he cannot help but admit to himself his feelings of

loneliness and dejection. At another level, the sea is a 89 metaphor for his fathomless "feelings of homesickness" which 90 "in that moment... resembled the roaring waves..".

Imagery also builds a cumulative sense of loss in the story's emotional setting as layer upon layer of Lao Ren's

feelings are peeled away to reveal a core of despondency.

Whenever Lao Ren recalls his previous hope of being reunited with his family in Taiwan, that hope is associated with memories of the physical symptoms of his gastric ulcer. Lao

Ren's loss of hope and feelings of futility is vividly conveyed in this image: "Looking at each mouthful of fresh blood turning black on the floor, he felt that his hope was 91

identical to this darkening, congealing blood".

Visual impact of scene again emphasizes the poignancy of

Lao Ren's wasted years. The result of his forty years in China has resulted only in disappointed ideals, failed dreams and unrealized hopes. The passage of time and tragic waste of Lao

Ren's life is powerfully conveyed through the "urgent" sound

of the clock on Lao Ren's dresser. The fact that Lao Ren's longing for his home in Taiwan has remained with him after all

these years forcefully emphasizes the pathos of his situation.

The ticking of the clock, Lao Ren's longing for home and his

nostalgic memories all add to the the sense of loss that is conveyed in the final scene:

94 "Some time ago, the wind outside his window had started up again; a blast that whistled by destroyed the stillness of the night. After the sound of the wind had died down, the 'tick tock1 of the clock on the dresser seemed especially clear and urgent in the silence. As Lao Ren listened attentively, he gradually became aware of a rare and compact feeling. He felt that this kind of a solitary and peaceful night could not be used to create some senseless political nonsense. This night was best suited to reminiscing -- for remembering far-away friends and for reliving the former dreams of youth. It was most suited for closing his eyes, and letting his thoughts fly, far far away floating over oceans and seas to be with his family". 92

Imagery, in addition to symbolizing Lao Ren's emotional

state also conveys his degraded status. The degree to which his dignity has been eroded is vividly captured in the visual and olfactory impact of the graphic image of cleaning toilets.

In the course of several political purges, during which he had been investigated and then assigned to clean toilets, his

eroded dignity and status is vividly depicted by the association of his self-worth with "a rock at the bottom of a 93

latrine, both foul and hard". The image of toilets in addition to its metaphorical function also acts as a structural linking device between Lao Ren's past and his

present. When the story begins, Lao Ren remembers that it is his turn to clean the public toilet in his compound. The association of toilets in Lao Ren's mind with the past is a device that allows details of Lao Ren's history to be woven

into the narrative. He had cleaned toilets during his

imprisonment by the Japanese; he had cleaned them during the

Cultural Revolution when he was sent to the countryside for

95 labour reform; now he is still cleaning them.

The stories in both Mayor Yin and Old Man are

characterized by the common theme of devastating physical, psychological and spiritual losses which individuals

experienced as a result of political chaos brought on by the

Cultural Revolution. However, these two anthologies can be

distinguished on the basis of the different stages they

represent in Chen's grieving process. The stories in Mayor

Yin reflect Chen's initial impulses of grief which include

documentation of her loss and validation of the past. The Old

Man stories reflect Chen's reformulated purpose or resolved

grief. Hence, there is a corresponding change in Chen's

writing.

The result of Chen's compulsion to protest through her

fiction is that her work's artistic integrity is undermined

because literary technique is made subordinate to her

principal message. Consequently, the quality of the stories

in Old Man does not match the level of skill found in the

stories in Mayor Yin.

The stories in Old Man as a reflection of Chen's newly

reformulated purpose are characterized by the protagonist's

token symbol of protest that is associated with his reaction

to loss. This resistance however is only a partial solution

to the problem, which lies with the system Itself. The dismal

tone in a story's ending In addition to the lack of a clear

solution to the protagonist's problem reveals Chen's

underlying message which is that as long as an individual is

96 forced to comply with a rigid totalitarian system, he will continue to live a life of curtailed freedom that is characterized by loss.

97 Notes to Chapter Three

1 Chen Jo-hsi, Preface to Lao ren (Old Man), (Taipei: Lian jing chu ban shi, 1978), p. 3. 2 Chen Jo-hsi, "Dao nian Lin Tongqi jiao shou" (Mourning over Professor Lin Tongqi", Shenghuo suibi (Jottings on Life), (Taipei: shi bao wen hua chu ban shi, 1981), p. 163. 3 Ibid. 4 Chen Jo-hsi, Lao ren (Old Man), (Taipei: Lian he bao she, 1978), p. 153. 5 Ibid., p. 137. (During the Cultural Revolution, an Individual's family background was classified as either "red", and therefore "good" or "black" and therefore "bad". "Red" categories usually referred to revolutionary martyrs and cadres, soldiers, industrial workers, poor peasants, and lower middle peasants. "Black" categories included capitalists, pre- liberation rich peasants, landlords, rightists and counter- revolutionaries . ) 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid., P- 141. 8 Ibid., P- 140. 9 Ibid., P- 139 . 10 Ibid., P- 138. 11 Ibid., P- 136. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid., P- 140. 16 Ibid., P- 141. 17 Ibid., P- 147. 18 Ibid. 19 See footnote number five.

98 20 Chen Jo-hsi, "The Tunnel" (Di dao), trans, by Chi-Chen Wang in Two Writers and the Cultural Revolution: Lao She and Chen Jo-hsi, ed. George Kao, (Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong Press, 1980), p. 149. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid., p. 147. 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid., p. 148. 25 Ibid., p. 141. 26 The original version was published in the Literary supplement of the United Daily News, Taipei, November 11, 1977 as cited in George Kao, ed. Two Writers and the Cultural Revolution, (Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press, 1980), p. 149. 27 Chen Jo-hsi, "The Tunnel", trans, by Chi-chen Wang, p. 147. 28 Ibid., p. 142. 29 Ibid., p. 145. 30 Ibid., p. 147. 31 This story belongs to Chen Jo-hsi zi xuan ji (Self- Selected Stories of Chen Jo-hsi), (Taipei: Lian jing chu ban shi ye gong si, 1976) but has been included here because of its thematic focus and because of its inclusion in the English translation of The Execution of Mayor Yin. 32 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, trans, by Nancy Ing and Howard Goldblatt, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), p. 149. 33 Chen Jo-hsi, Lao Ren, p. 92. 34 Ibid., p. 107. 35 Ibid., p. 98. 36 Ibid. 37 Ibid. 38 Ibid. 39 Ibid.

99 40 Ibid., p. 97. 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid., p. 90. 43 Ibid. 44 Ibid., p. 103. 45 Ibid. 46 Ibid. 47 Ibid., p.95. 48 Ibid. 49 Ibid., p. 100. 50 Ou Yangzi, "Mantan Chen Jo-hsi de 'Chun Chi'"(An Informal Discussion of Chen Jo-hsi's 'Spring is Late'" in Chen Jo-hsi, Lao Ren (Old Man), p. 204. 51 Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, p. 219. 52 Ibid., p. 171. 53 Ibid., p. 216. 54 Ibid., p. 209. 55 Chen Jo-hsi, "My Friend Ai Fen" (Nu you Ai Fen) trans, by Richard Kent and Vivian Hsu in Born of the Same Roots, ed. Vivian Hsu, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981), p. 302. 56 Ibid., p. 282. 57 Ibid., p. 278. 58 Ibid. 59 Ibid., p. 286. 60 Ibid., p. 279. 61 Ibid., pp. 280-281. 62 Ibid., p. 280. 63 Ibid. 64 Ibid., p. 286.

100 65 Chen Jo-hsi, Preface to Lao Ren, p. 3. 66 Chen Jo-hsi, "My Friend Ai Fen", p. 286. 67 Chen Jo-hsi, "Ding Yun" (Ding Yun) trans, by Chi-Chen Wang in Two Writers and the Cultural Revolution: Lao She and Chen Jo-shi, ed. George Kao, (Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong Press, 1980), p. 140. 68 Ibid., p. 140. 69 Ibid., p. 133. 70 Ibid., p. 139. 71 Ibid., p. 133. 72 Cheng Yung-hsiao, "Ping jie Chen Jo-hsi de Lao Ren" (A Review of Chen Jo-hsi's Old Man, Shu ping shu mu (Book Review and Bibliography), no.65, 1978, p. 44. 73 Ibid., p. 45. 74 Chen Jo-hsi, "Shenghuo suibi" (Jottings on Life), p. 163. 75 After the death of Premier Zhou Enlai in January, 1976 the struggle between Jiang Qing and her allies and supporters of Deng Xiaoping intensified. During the Qing Ming Festival (a traditional day for remembering the dead), on April 4, 1976 thousands of people laid floral wreaths in Tiananmen Square at the base of the Revolutionary Martyr's Memorial in memory of Zhou Enlai. In addition to wreaths, written eulogies symbolizing their indirect support of Deng Xiaoping were also circulated in the square. On April 5th, the square was cordoned off and security forces were brought in to disperse demonstrators. A violent clash ensued where hundreds of demonstrators were arrested and some were reportedly killed. On April 7th, the Tiananmen Incident or later to be called the April Fifth Incident was officially denounced as counter• revolutionary. Deng Xiaoping was blamed for the event, criticized for his "revisionist" policies" and subsequently removed from all his posts. 76 Chen Jo-hsi, Lao Ren, p. 29. 77 Ibid., p. 30. 78 Ibid., p. 4. 79 Ibid., p. 5. 80 Ibid., p. 5 .

101 81 Ibid. r P- 7. 82 Ibid. t P- 27 83 Ibid. 84 Ibid. i P- 29 85 Ibid. 86 Ibid. t P- 28 87 Ibid. r P- 19 88

Ibid. / P- 40 89 Ibid. 90 Ibid. 91 Ibid. 92

Ibid. / P- 50 93

Ibid. / P- 27 Chapter Four

Resolution

Repatriates is linked to Chen's two anthologies by the common theme of loss. This chapter discusses Its significance as an autobiographical chronicle of Chen's experience of grief. By chronicling loss, her novel demonstrates her reformulated purpose to speak out about Chinese conditions.

This novel is a literary catharsis for the tension that arises

from her guilt over leaving China. Chen's barely disguised zeal of mission looms throughout this novel rendering this work a polemic. I will look at the method in which she develops her argument, namely her use of imagery, rhetoric, declarative statements, event of plot and characterization in enhancing theme. In addition, I will discuss the novel's denouement where the inconsistency in tone and characterization jeopardizes the novel's structural integrity.

As outlined by Marris in his grieving theory, resolution of grief involves restoring a thread of continuity in the meaning of life by detaching it from the relationship which

incorporated it and re-establishing it independently of that relationship. The thread of meaning that is retrieved from

Chen's China experience — to serve China by being in the country — is reformulated to serving her "motherland" from abroad. The search by Chen's protagonists for meaning and purpose in life is a fictional representation of her own struggle to resolve the inherent conflicts of grief.

The most significant element in Repatriates is that Chen

103 answers the question she restates from "Night Duty" regarding the best method for the repatriate to serve China. This answer is contained in the dialogue between the novel's main protagonist, Xin Mei and her friend, Li Ya-nan who is also a repatriate. The nature of their debate sets the starting point for Chen's premise that the intellectual's role in a totalitarian society is severely diminished. As Li Ya-nan, who is Chen's alter ego states:

"The expression of critical opinions is an intellectual tradition from our past, if we are 'yes- men', what kind of intellectuals are we?" 1

Since the intellectual cannot fulfil his moral duty of voicing his critical views while he is in China, the logical solution is as Li Ya-nan states: "In this kind of 'one party' society, where there is no leeway for the intellectual to speak out, 2 why not speak forthrightly outside the country." This view of the intellectual's moral responsibility to criticize is repeated later in Xin Mei's exhortation to her friend, Wei

Ming, an Overseas Chinese visiting from the United States :

"Wei Ming, a moment ago you said that there were flaws in China and that mistakes are being made...Then you and people like you ought to stand up and publicly point them out..." 3

Repatriates is Chen's method of "publicly" pointing out the weaknesses in China's political regime. As she even acknowledged in her postscript to another anthology: "With regard to both sides of the strait, the late seventies without

104 exception were troubled times. I felt relatively sentimental about my home country. Whenever something happened I would be easily agitated; often I couldn't stand it and had to publish my views. (These) were unsatisfactory and since I couldn't write political commentary, I could only fuse my opinions with my short stories. Thereupon, I who had all along opposed literature in the service of politics, in the end had 4 unconsciously been practicising it in earnest." This fusion of Chen's fiction with her belief that she must voice critical protest is evidence of her reformulated purpose.

In addition to the novel's function as a medium of protest, it is also a literary catharsis for Chen's residual guilt over leaving China. Chen attempts to resolve that guilt by imbuing her protagonists with the elements of her emotional struggle. It becomes obvious that Xin Mei's inner turmoil revolving around her desire to leave China is a fictive record of Chen's own guilt and vacillation in reaching her decision to leave. Just as Xin Mei feels torn in two, with one half of 5 her "wishing to resist" while the other half "reproaches 6 herself for being a deserter" , similarly this conflict stayed with Chen after she arrived in the West. The projection of this conflict is manifested in the different solutions of Xin

Mei and Li Ya-nan to their identical dilemma. Li Ya-nan's solution is to leave China; Xin Mei's solution is to stay.

Although Chen, like Li Ya-nan found that political inconsistencies made it impossible for her to stay, she was still emotionally attached to the belief that she should have

105 7 remained in China. The discrepancy between Chen's belief and the reality of her departure results in extreme psychological tension. This tension is only alleviated when Chen imbues her protagonist, Xin Mei with a course of action that she, in real life could not follow.

Chen also justifies her personal decision to leave China by explaining why the intellectual becomes disillusioned. The core of Chen's rationalization is embodied in Li Ya-nan's statement: "I do not think that this sacrifice that is without value is a patriotic act. Even if we were born at the wrong time and should sacrifice ourselves, it's not worthwhile sacrificing our children too. I think that in order to repay the kindness of our motherland, I will have to find a more 8 effective method." Chen's "more effective method" lies in her fiction.

Chen felt guilty not only over her departure from China, but also over what she perceives as a failing in her moral duty to speak out in protest while she was in China. Her remorse and distress is evident ln her essay written in 1978 about China's legal system. She states:

"When the Mao-Lin Constitution was drawn up, I was still on the mainland and clearly knew that it was ludicrous. But I dared not refuse to join in the acclamation of it. This kind of obstructive and apathetic state of mind, still makes me feel sad and ashamed today." 9

Chen's fiction is also an attempt to redeem herself for not having spoken out in protest while she was in China.

Chen's reformulated purpose of protest involves characterizing

106 Chinese totalitarian society by a series of spiritual, psychological, and physical losses. To convey her thesis Chen uses several methods, the first of which is nature imagery to create ambience as well as to represent her protagonist's psychological landscape. Her second method consists of rhetoric to reinforce the strength of her argument. Her third method consists of declarative statements made by her protagonists in dialogue with one another. The fourth method

Chen uses to solidify her case is by event in plot and characterization.

Images involving elements of Nature in Repatr iates as in

Chen's previous short stories perform two functions. Nature imagery contributes to the story's ambience by matching the downward spiralling effect in mood. Nature imagery also reflects the protagonist's state of demoralization as a result of the loss he observes or experiences.

In Chen's short stories, she uses metaphorical description that dwells on the more threatening aspects of natural forces to foreshadow tragic events, to emphasize disorder in the protagonist's political environment and to accentuate the protagonist's symptoms of psychological trauma.

In "Mayor Yin", threatening and imposing descriptions of the mountain and the moon function as a portent of doom and as a symbol of the hostile forces in Mayor Yin's political environment. Nature images in "Night Duty", "Ding Yun", "Old

Man" and "Tunnel" create an ambience of desolation that reflects the protagonist's state of dejection. In "Night

107 Duty" Liu Xiangdong's feelings of powerlessness and alienation are symbolized by the description of his overwhelming surroundings that make him feel helpless and isolated. In

"Ding Yun", the sense of alienation that arises from being stranded on a farm in a remote place like Heilongjiang is captured in the narrator's comment that she is "overwhelmed by the vast loneliness of the place". In "Old Man", Lao Ren's state of physical and mental distress is mirrored in descriptions of chilly weather. In "Tunnel", Hong Shifu's withdrawal into apathy and depression is reflected in the description of winter's harshness.

Similarly, Chen uses images of water, the moon and the sun in Repatr iates to mirror Xin Mei's reaction to loss and to symbolize the capriciousness of her political environment.

Chen's belief that such political vagaries are the chief reason for her protagonists' experience of loss is indirectly shown by nature images. Images of natural elements enhance the sense of loss that arises from either the actual experience of loss or from the protagonist's reaction to the events around him.

The novel's chronicle of Xin Mei's search for an answer to the dilemma that is faced, by her and other intellectuals includes using images of the sea to symbolize her inner turmoil. After Xin Mei learns that Su Tao, an intellectual who was born and raised in China and nurtured "on the milk of 10 the Party" is learning to swim in order to escape to

freedom, the implication of Su Tao's decision causes Xin Mei

108 to feel great distress. Her distress is indirectly represented by the images that spring to her mind whenever she thinks of

Su Tao. Xin Mei involuntarily thinks of Su Tao "struggling in the terrifying billows of the sea — in front of her the opposite shore was not visible, while behind her were sharks 11 with open, basin-sized sanguinous mouths." This powerful image in Xin Mei's mind of Su Tao struggling in the torrential waves symbolizes the predicament of the intellectual in China.

Like Su Tao, the intellectual is tossed amidst the turbulent waves of political movements. Su Tao's uncertain future points to the equally unpredictable fate of the intellectual, who like Su Tao, is in danger from the "sharks" or hostile political forces in his environment.

Su Tao's tragic circumstances only reinforces Xin Mei's doubts about her own future. If Su Tao, who possessed an

impeccable proletarian background, could be labelled a

"counter-revolutionary" and get sent to the countryside for reform, what was the future for herself, an intellectual that was tainted by western "bourgeois influences". Xin Mei's apprehensions after she hears of Su Tao's escape is vividly revealed in her nightmare in which she dreams that Su Tao is "hanging on to a piece of shipwrecked boat (and) struggling in 12 the water". The combination of Xin Mei's questions of "Is 13 there truly no hope for such a large country" and "Why did 14

Ah Tao (Su Tao) take this route?" with these images of

"hidden dangers" transforms the questions into rhetoric. This kind of rhetoric reinforces Chen's message that the only

109 logical solution to the intellectual's dilemma is for him to leave China.

The first subtle indicator of Xin Mei's dissatisfaction with her present circumstances (which eventually leads to her desire to leave China) is given in the symbolic association of her longing for her home in Taiwan with the image of the Chang

Jiang (Yangtze River) "flowing towards the sea, flowing 15 towards the ocean and flowing towards (her) old home." The sea in this scene as in "Old Man" functions as a reflector of psychological state. While Xin Mei looks at the water, she is forced to acknowledge her real feelings. Her disappointment

is revealed in the contrast between the daydreams of her student days in Taiwan and her present emotions. In the past she had fantasized that like Li Bai (Li Po) she would also drift idyllically on the Chang Jiang and wander around with a book of poems in hand. Xin Mei's feelings which "are a 16 complex mixture of joy and sadness" while she is travelling on the Jiang reveal the disappointment of unmet expectations.

Xin Mei's boat trip marks the beginning of her search for a solution to her diminished role and degraded status in Chinese society. As she watches the spray from the boat which "curled 17 up and fell again, unveering in its course toward the east" she feels "a similar impulse to flee toward the sea in search 18 of her home".

Another layer of meaning can be derived in Xin Mei's comparison of Li Bai with herself. Li Bai had wandered on the

Chang Jiang by choice. In contrast, the Image of Xin Mei's 110 "wandering" symbolizing her diminished role has come about as a result o£ political policies towards intellectuals and repatriates,

When Xin Mei finally acknowledges that she wants to leave

China, that desire is mixed with feelings of guilt and uncertainty due to her husband's adamant refusal. Xin Mei's inner turmoil is reflected In the dreariness of her physical setting. The fact that it is winter reinforces the bleakness of Xin Mei's emotional landscape:

"Outside the window, the snow fell thickly; snowflakes also drifted noiselessly on to the window like cat's paws. The only light in the room was from the small lamp on top of the desk, its feeble rays casting a drowsy chilliness in the room." 19

Xin Mei's hope of leaving is symbolized by the "feeble rays" of the lamp. The likelihood of that hope being fulfilled is equally dim.

After Xin Mei's husband, Tao Xinsheng becomes the target of an investigation and is required to submit a written self- criticism, Xin Mei's doubts about her family's future are confirmed. Despite her husband's firm refusal to leave China,

Xin Mei tries to contact his former schoolmate who is visiting from abroad. The image of her physical surroundings accentuate the low point in her emotional state:

"She did not know what time it was, but it was quiet in the vicinity of the dormitory; many people had already extinguished their lights, those windows that were lit up were covered by heavy curtains and were completely silent. The sky above which did not have a moon or any stars, formed a bottomless pit." 20

111 Similar to "Old Man" where Lao Ren's loneliness is metaphorically represented by the "fathomless sea", Xin Mei's depression is equated to a "bottomless pit". As she sets out in search of her husband's friend, the image of the "feeble 21 light" from the street lamp which lights her way, symbolizes her hope of a change in her husband's decision to stay. After

Xin Mei fails to locate her husband's friend, the extinguishing of even this faint hope is symbolized by the absence of any light in a scene that is almost exactly the same as the one above: "The completely dark sky that was without a moon or any stars was like a bottomless pit that engulfed her. It was as if Xin Mei was walking in the darkness and could not see a single ray of light. Though the north wind could not be heard, it noiselessly increased the grim and deathly stillness of the night..." 22

Again, imagery reveals the extent of Xin Mei's despondency through metaphorical representation.

Imagery also enhances the novel's depressed mood in parallel with development of events in plot. Xin Mei's morale is diminished when her husband's good friend, Li Yongzhong is investigated and detained, and her husband is required to write a self-criticism. The mood of despondency at this part of the novel is effectively enhanced by the contrast between

Xin Mei's present misery and her reminiscence of a former, happier New Year's eve when she was a child in Taiwan and her present misery. The sombre mood is strengthened by the description of the wind which "in the darkness of the night,

112 the sound of its gusts one after another like a sob as well as a shout, especially grated on the ear; it shook the windows so 23 violently that they were also swaying." In "Geng Er in

Beijing" the contrast between the joyous sound of firecrackers and the protagonist's inner state emphasizes his dejection. A similar contrast in the following scene emphasizes the degree of Xin Mei's depression and loneliness:

"Suddenly, the sound of a lone firecracker, solitary and desolate from far away further reminded her of the endless night ahead of her, as well as all her humuliations of the evening. Just then, two trails of tears slowly trickled down her cheeks, slipping coldly down her neck. She missed her old home, her parents, and even the trivial things of the past. She didn't want to think about this melancholy festival; but she was even more afraid that it would be representative of the days to come." 2 4

A dramatic shift in nature imagery at the conclusion of

Repatr iates coincides with a transformation of Xin Mei's state of mind. The sudden beneficence of Xin Mei's surroundings which is in sharp contrast to the hostile forces previously portrayed symbolizes both Xin Mei's resolution of grief from her bereavement as well as the resolution of her moral dilemma concerning whether she should remain in China or leave.

Consequently, there is a repetition of benign scenes of weather from "the sky (which was) the colour of egg white

The wind was still and as a result the warmth and 25 moistness of early summer could be smelled in the air". The mystical and restorative powers of nature is symbolized by the association of sunlight and the shadow it casts on Xin Mei's 26 sleeve "like a band of black cloth worn in mourning" with 113 the description of the sun's heat which "like waves engulf and 27 penetrates" her. The association of the image of a black band with the sun's heat reinforces the idea that Xin Mei's grief will be healed by the natural passage of time.

Chen's thesis that excesses in the political system makes life in China intolerable for the intellectual is also dramatized through the rhetorical questions and declarative statements uttered by her protagonists. Chen's portrayal of her protagonists' responses to their experiences of loss reveals her personal indictment of China's system.

Chen's belief that the repatriate had to leave China is shown through her protagonists' reactions to the events around them. Her protagonists' denunciations of the system which in their perception has brought them disappointment, disillusionment and anguish reinforces her point that political policies were directly responsible for people's diminished lives. Due to the system's emphasis on the dilineation of social class based solely on the individual's family's political background, all kinds of lawless political injustices such as purges, denunciations, and political coercion could be justlfably carried out in the name of "class struggle". Chen's condemnation of "class struggle" is expressed through the declarative statements and rhetorical questions of Xin Mei and other characters.

After Xin Mei learns that the authorities have assigned

Li Yongzhong's best friend, Si Tuqing the onerous task of keeping him under twenty-four hour surveillance while he is

114 under detention, her outrage and sympathy for the men is evident in her statement to her husband:

"Si Tuqing! Isn't this a mockery? He and Xiao Li have been long-standing classmates, comrades-in-arms and roommates. Now that they've given him this assignment, what a quandary." 27a

Xin Mei's husband can only respond resignedly, "This then is class struggle — a person being compelled to turn against his 28 friend".

Chen's invective is also voiced by her characters. When

Xin Mei learns that her husband's family's Guomindang background is the focus of an investigation against him. Xin

Mei's indignant and angry criticism reveals the pain of betrayal and disillusionment:

"You earnestly wanted to come back for national reconstruction, not to carry the cross of your parents; moreover it's an intangible cross. As I see it, it's not you who has failed the test, it's the Communist Party that has failed. It's their promise of letting bygones be bygones that has not passed the test, it's their bankrupt policy..." 29

Chen's condemnation of the Communist Party also occurs in Fang

Zheng's allegorical statement to Tao Xinsheng after Tao

Xinsheng expresses a desire to see a steel factory at closer range. Fang Zheng's personal feelings of betrayal is contained in his statement: "...it looks attractive only when viewed from afar. It's the same as the distant vision of

Communism — it's within sight but not within reach; that's 30 what confuses people."

115 Similarly, Chen's premise that the system destroys lives is explicitly contained in Dr. He's condemnation: "I'm now convinced, Chairman Mao's May Seventh's policy kills 31 people". Chen also indicts the system for its flaws through

Xin Mei's reactions to the comments made by a visiting friend from abroad. In their dialogue concerning the lack of a legal system, democracy and human rights, Xin Mei is incensed by her friend's inference that the Chinese have not had these rights for thousands of years and are therefore "undeserving of 32 freedom and democracy". Xin Mei's anger revealingly affirms

Chen's own position regarding these issues.

Chen intensifies the novel's theme through the implied censure in Li Ya-nan's questions to Xin Mei. While Xin Mei is trying to persuade Li Ya-nan to reconsider her decision to

leave China, Li Ya-nan asks her how she can bear "this kind of 33 long-term political repression" and the terrifying "nameless 34 fear that bores into people's minds like an insect" Chen's recounting of loss in Repatr iates is aimed primarily at directing the reader to the same conclusion as Li

Ya-nan's concerning "the most effective method of serving the 35 motherland". The plot which unfolds in a linear progression of successive scenes of misfortune builds a cumulative sense of loss. Chen's novel is basically an expanded restatement of her short stories.

The themes in Repatriates reiterate Chen's previous stories of "Jing Jing's Birthday", and "Residency Check" where she describes the strain of enforced separations on married

116 couples, and the anxiety of parents over their children's potential "political errors". Just as Wen Laoshi in "Jing

Jlng's Birthday" has to cope with the heavy burden of work, child-rearing and political responsibilities because her husband is away at a May Seventh school, similarly Xin Mei and her friends, Dr. He and Zhao Laoshi cope as "single parents".

The effects of long-term separation on a marital relationship is poignantly revealed in Zhao Laoshi's somewhat bitter statement: "...we're an old married couple that have been separated for over ten years; we lost the intensity of that fiery feeling long ago. To be transferred so that we can be together is actually more of a convenience. When a couple

is separated, the greatest hardship is the raising of the 36 children." Chen's portrayal of Zhao Laoshi's situation

reveals her belief that the system did irreparable damage to the family unit. Zhao Laoshi and her husband were separated because he had been forced to transfer with his work unit, when it moved to Sichuan province. Although Zhao Laoshi's college had promised that it would later find a way to reunite her with her husband after it turned down her request for a similar transfer, due to bureaucratic delays and the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, after ten years, the couple are

still apart.

Chen's portrayal of the effect on families due to the atmosphere of fear, anxiety, and suspicion engendered by the

Cultural Revolution is revealed in Xin Mei's anxiety and vigilant monitoring of her sons' activities. Just as Wen

117 Laoshi in "Jing Jing's Birthday" becomes cautious after learning of Xiao Hong's political error of saying "Chairman

Mao is a rotten egg", similarly Xin Mei is concerned about her own sons when she learns of the disaster brought on Dr. He's

family by her five year old son's comment. The little boy had

inadvertently remarked to his nursery school teacher that his

father fell asleep whenever he read Mao Zedong's writings.

His father who already bore the stigma of his family's

Guomindang background is subsequently dragged on to a stage, publicly denounced and sent to a May Seventh farm. The child's innocent remark brings his father political calamity and affects him through his mother's stern reprimands and subsequent feelings of guilt. Ultimately he withdraws emotionally, becoming permanently morose and isolated.

Chen's detailed and rambling chronicling of losses experienced by her protagonists includes the inhibition of people's normal social interaction with each other due to their political setting. The negative results of "class struggle" and political movements in which people were expected to routinely inform on and denounce each other were

their residual fears, anxiety and mistrust of one another.

Although Xin Mei believes that she can rely on her sons'

nanny, she is still hesitant to freely reveal her views since 37

in the end, the nanny was "still an outsider".

The political setting which bred an atmosphere of suspicion and cautious behaviour also affected the manner in which friends dealt with each other. Xin Mei is genuinely

118 concerned about her friend, Li Yongzhong after he becomes a target of attack for allegedly aiding Su Tao's escape, but she feigns indifference because of her fear of being implicated.

Xin Mei's anxiety and fear of someone discovering that he had visited her shortly before his misfortune leads her to 38

"pretend to neither hear nor ask questions" whenever talk about Li Yongzhong arises.

Chen also iterates the theme of loss of career, job fulfilment and wasted potential in Repatriates. Like Geng Er in "Geng Er in Beijing" whose institute was constantly changing its focus to suit the revolution, Liu Xiangdong and

Lao Fu in "Night Duty" whose talents are under-utilized and potential wasted, and Ai-Fen's artist husband in "My Friend Ai

Fen" who is relegated to a soy sauce factory, the characters in Repatr iates are frustrated by the lack of meaningful careers and the diminishment of their roles. After Tao

Xinsheng's return to China he is assigned to work in the area of flood control rather than his specialty of fluid mechanics.

Similarly, Li Ya-nan and Fang Zheng who hold doctorate degrees in mathematics are assigned to an insignificant teacher's college in Wuhan to teach rudimentary arithmetic. The most dramatic waste of an intellectual's talents is Dr. He's husband, a leading researcher who is sent to a farm to tend pigs.

Chen devotes a great deal of attention to the loss of love and personal happiness. This issue is the focus in "Geng

Er in Beijing", "Tunnel", "My Friend Ai Fen" and "Ding Yun".

119 In Repatr iates this theme is contained in the tragic love story of Li Yongzhong and Su Tao. The cause of destruction of a crucial relationship and subsequent spiritual anguish in the above stories as well as in this novel is attributed to the system's insistence of merging political concerns with the individual's personal private issues such as love and marriage. Like Geng Er and Xiao Qing, Li Yongzhong and Su Tao have no future together because their political classifications become incompatible after she is charged with membership in a counterrevolutionary faction. Li Yongzhong's tragic situation is lent more pathos because he is forced to choose between his love for Su Tao and his own political safety. He chooses the latter because he believes that his defense of Su Tao would lead only to the incrimination of others as well as meaningless self-sacrifice. Chen's portrayal of Li Yongzhong's subsequent anguish, guilt and torment over repudiating the woman he loves, again underscores the system's pernicious effect on social relationships. As a result of Li Yongzhong's denial of Su Tao, he is wracked by immense grief and remorse. Li Yongzhong's torment and pain is exacerbated by his knowledge that he has not only betrayed Su

Tao but himself. His action leads to self-recrimination for as he confides to Tao Xinsheng, "this is the first time that 39

I've ever play-acted in my entire life". In denying Su Tao,

Li Yongzhong has denied his own feelings and the truth and beauty of his love for her. Just as Geng Er is deluged by grief after he chooses to end his relationship with Xiao Jin,

120 similarly Li Yongzhong's repudiation of Su Tao results in extreme anguish. His acute pain and sharp distress is evident in his comment: "I stood on the stage and shouted slogans but inside my heart I was shedding tears. No, I was 40 shedding blood|" The destruction of their relationship as in the love affair between Geng Er and Xiao Qing is due solely to their political environment.

In Repatr iates Chen also repeats the theme of loss of personal choice and freedom that appeared in "Old Man", and

"Residency Check". In "Old Man", Lao Ren's lack of personal freedom is emphasized through pressure placed on him by his neighborhood committee to report his activities on the day of the Tiananmen Incident. In "Residency Check", Peng Yulian's personal freedom and right to privacy is infringed upon by the members of her neighborhood committee as they conspire to obtain evidence of her sexual misconduct. In Repatriates, the individual's loss of his personal freedom is portrayed through the restriction of Xin Mei's and Tao Xinsheng's physical mobility. Xin Mel's request to travel during her summer vacation to join her husband who has been posted in Changsha on assignment is refused by the school authorities ostensibly because the journey at the height of summer would be hazardous and a strain on her health. Similarly, after Tao Xinsheng expresses a desire to move to his native province of Sichuan his letter of request to Premier Zhou Enlai is Intercepted by the public security bureau.

Chen's lengthy chronicling of tragic losses sustained by

121 her intellectual protagonists leads to the conclusion that the natural consequence for the repatriate who stays in China is 41 as Li Ya-nan states, "a sacrifice that is without value".

Events of plot support the insight of Li Yanan's statement.

All the protagonists suffer loss either directly or indirectly due to political policy. Xin Mei not only endures the pain of disillusionment but also suffers bereavement at the end. Su

Tao is repudiated by the man she loves because of her

"counter-revolutionary" political activities. Li Yongzhong not only suffers spiritual torment from denying Su Tao, but he becomes a target of a political investigation. Dr. He's husband dies from liver cancer because while he is at a May

Seventh farm, he delays seeking medical attention until it's too late. The tragic fates of Chen's protagonists confirm the reality of Dr. He's statement that Mao Zedong's policy killed people. The extrapolation of this statement superimposed on the intellectual's experience of degradation and spiritual suffering in Chen's novel serves to castigate the system for its failure.

Chen shows the negative effects of the Cultural

Revolution on the individual by providing psychological insight to her characters. As Marris states, when an individual has placed high hopes on a particular role or attachment the disappointment of that expectation results in grief. In the case of Chen's protagonists, the intellectual repatriate suffers primarily from devastating disillusionment and loss of his role and purpose In Chinese society. The pain

122 and grief experienced by Liu Xiangdong, Geng Er, the narrators

in "Ren Xiulan" and "Nixon's Press Corps" are the basis of

commonality between them and Xin Mei and Tao Xinsheng in this novel.

Chen concentrates primarily on the psyches of Xin Mei and

Tao Xinsheng to chronicle their loss of ideals and to show the effects of that loss. Their loss of Ideals, diminished role, and reduced meaning results in despair and a sense of alienation.

Chen's documentation of Tao Xinsheng's psychological deterioration is an effective indictment of China's political system. The character of Tao Xinsheng is an extrapolation of

Liu Xiangdong in "Night Duty". The state of Tao Xinsheng's mind state at the beginning of the novel is similar to Liu

Xiangdong's at the end of "Night Duty". The fact that Tao

Xinsheng has experienced devastating loss is evident when Xin

Mei compares her husband's present personality with the man that he was before coming to China. In the United States, he had been so zealous that he would debate all night long defending his idealistic stance on China. But after his return to China, although he would try to rationalize its policies to Xin Mei, as time went on "objective facts would 42

leave him short on words". These contradictions lead him to compromise his values and create an intolerable tension that eventually results in his suicide. In Wuhan, Xin Mei notes that he has resumed his "taciturn and morose temperament, only listening to everything and wrinkling his brow when he heard

123 43 something not to his liking". The pathos o£ Tao Xinsheng's disillusionment is all the more powerful as a result of Li

Yongzhong's comment to Xin Mei:

"Lao Tao is too innocent and sincere. It's best if you counsel him. He worships the nation, doctrine and the leadership as if they were a religion; In our society this kind of patriotism means banging one's head until it bleeds." 43a

Chen's portrayal of Tao Xinsheng as a fervently patriotic

idealist shows the tragic outcome of his loss of ideals. It

is because of the depth of Tao Xinsheng's naiive belief and

faith in the system that his disillusionment is all the more devastating. Unable to cope with the contradiction between his

ideals and political realities his unresolved grief leads to his suicide.

As Marris states, the individual who suffers disappointment when he has set his heart on a certain role or attachment in life will feel grief. This grief arises because a crisis of discontinuity ensues from his assumptions being discredited. The discrediting of such assumptions which have become crucial to one's identity leads to a loss of self. Xin

Mei's loss of identity is poignantly revealed when Li Yanan points out to her how she has compromised her beliefs. Li

Yanan believes that Xin Mei and Tao Xinsheng have become "Mao 44 Zedong's domesticated tools" and asks Xin Mei, "..when he dies, will you be transformed again into another idol's 45 domesticated instrument?" Li Ya-nan's belief that Xin Mei's rationalization and compromise of her beliefs has led to an

124 even more tragic loss is revealed in her rhetorical question 46 to Xin Mei: "Do your true selves still exist?"

The significance of Chen's novel lies in Its projection of her struggle to recover purpose and meaning in her grieving process. This struggle is represented in Xin Mei's journey of self discovery as she ponders over her lost ideals, her lost sense of purpose and direction in life. What these losses prove is that, at least for the intellectual repatriate he cannot be true to himself, his ideals and his beliefs If he remains in China. If he stays in China, the system cannot guarantee that he will be able to live his role as he perceives it. He cannot voice his critical opinions without fear of reprisal. Yet, he feels a moral obligation to stay in

China, because as Geng Er states: "In the final analysis I am

Chinese... how I feel is my own business, but defending the 47 national image is a moral obligation". A similar feeling of moral duty is expressed by Xin Mei when she learns of Li Ya- nan's decision to leave China. She states to Li Ya-nan: "You returned because of love for the country; to leave is to deal 48 a blow to the nation's prestige". Hence lies the intellectual's dilemma.

Chen's novel fulfils two functions. First, it provides a convincing argument for her belief that the Chinese political system violates the individual of his right to freedom, dignity and truth. She does this by portraying loss.

Secondly, Chen's portrayal of Xin Mei's search for meaning is a documentation of her own journey towards renewed purpose and 125 meaning in which her reformulated purpose is stated directly through her characters.

I suggested earlier in this chapter that Chen resolves her feelings of guilt over leaving China by imbuing her chief protagonist, Xin Mei with the decision to remain. But this conclusion in Repatr iates is problematic within the context of her Cultural Revolution stories. Throughout the entire body of fiction discussed in this thesis, Chen consistently, if not excessively documents the shortcomings of the Chinese political system. The theme of loss and the repatriates' circumscribed existence justifies Xin Mei's initial desire to

leave China. Without the aid of foreshadowing or any transition, Xin Mei, after talking to Li Yongzhong, resolves

to stay for "the sake of her children, for the sake of 49 life.."

The denouement of Repatr iates creates thematic

incoherence that is not only difficult to reconcile but draws attention to flaws in the novel's structural integrity. The circumstances of China's political environment in 1973 are not

convincingly detailed to provide a reason for the

ideological rejuvenation of either Xin Mei or Li Yongzhong.

This unexplained transformation in Li Yongzhong underscores the improbability of his character. He, who had experienced devastating emotional and psychological losses and been so traumatized by his political detention that his hair had

turned white, still manages to express an invincible faith and optimism. It becomes evident that Chen again resorts to heavy-

126 handed manipulation of character as she writes in hindsight to express her views. That Chen has designated Li Yongzhong as seer is clear from his comment such as "The day that Deng

Xiaoping is formerly in power, that will be the day that Mao 50

Zedong Thought will lose its influence." and his admonition to Xin Mei: "It doesn't matter what it is now, just wait and see. Before long that day will come, when the universe with 51 one wipe of its face, will bring an amazing change."

The uncharacteristically optimistic ending of Repatr iates represents an only temporary lull in Chen's critical voice.

Subsequent to Repatriates she again used her fiction such as

Yuan Jian and other stories to encase her indictment of the lack of human rights, democracy, freedom and due process

in China.

127 Notes to Chapter Four 1 Chen Jo-hsi, Gui (Repatriates), (Taipei: Lian he bao she, 1978), p. 201. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid., p. 362. 4 Chen Jo-hsi, Postscript to Chenqli Chenqwai (Fortress Beseiged), (Taipei: Shi bao chu ban gong si, 1981), p. 223. 5 Chen Jo-hsi, Gui, p. 284. 6 Ibid. 7 I am indebted to Prof. Michael Duke for raising this idea in discussion. 8 Chen Jo-hsi, Gui, p. 201. 9 Chen Jo-hsi, "He Shang Da San: Tan zhong gong mu qian de fa lu"(Buddhist priest putting up an umbrella: A discussion of China's present legal system) in Shenghuo Suibi (Jottings on Life), (Taipei: Shi bao wen hua chu ban shi, 1981), p. 179. 10 Chen Jo-hsi, Gui, p. 11

Ibid. / P- 238 . 12

Ibid. / P- 273 . 13

Ibid. / P- 239 . 14 Ibid. f P- 273. 15 Ibid. f P- 81. 16 Ibid. t P- 80. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. t PP . 80-81. 19

Ibid. / P- 284 . 20

Ibid. / P- 327 . 21 Ibid. 22

Ibid. / P- 329 . 23 Ibid. r P- 336 .

128 24 Ibid. 25

Ibid. / pp. 401 26 Ibid. r P- 403 . 27 Ibid. 27a Ibid . / P- 272 . 28 Ibid. 29 Ibid. / P- 325. 30 Ibid. / P- 173. 31 Ibid. / P- 297 . 32 Ibid. / P- 362 . 33 Ibid. / P- 200 . 34 Ibid. 35 Ibid. r P- 202. 36 Ibid. r P- 52. 37 Ibid. f P- 226. 38 Ibid. i P- 273 . 39 Ibid. r P- 230 . 40 Ibid. 41 Ibid. * P- 201. 42 Ibid. t P- 123. 43 Ibid. 43a Ibid / P- 224 44 Ibid. P- 201. 45 Ibid. 46 Ibid. 47 Chen Jo-hsi, Yin Xianzhanq (Mayor Yin), (Taipei: Yuan jing chu ban shi, 1976), p. 120.

129 48 Chen Jo-hsi, Gui, p. 201. 49 Ibid., p. 404. 50 Ibid., p. 411. 51 Ibid., p. 416.

130 Conclus ion

Chen's fiction about the Cultural Revolution reflects her seven year experience in China during which she suffered disillusionment and a loss of faith in the Marxist dream. The predominant theme throughout this body of work is the losses sustained by her protagonists. These losses seem to occur in all aspects of life including love and personal happiness, career, job fulfilment and status, dignity of the individual, and personal freedom. Throughout Chen's fiction her protagonists suffer disillusionment, a loss of ideals and a diminished sense of purpose.

The theme of loss in Chen's fiction is a metaphor for the tragedy of the Cultural Revolution. The recurrent theme of disillusionment and loss suggests that these issues are Chen's central concern. Her numerous potrayals of displaced intellectuals suffering profound disappointment and regret is symbolic of her personal experience. Just as her characters grapple with their misfortune, similarly Chen's fiction demonstrates her efforts to comprehend her Cultural

Revolutionary experience. An analysis of her work using the paradigm outlined in the study by Peter Marris on loss and grieving reveals a coherent pattern in her fiction. Chen uses the writing process as a catharsis for the tension that arises from the resolution of her grief. In Marris' model, the grieving process involves the transition from an expression of loss to the abstraction and reformulation of purpose and meaning. Chen's works correspond to these stages in the following way. During the initial stage of her grief, she expresses her loss and validates her China experience in Mayor

Yin. These stories are essentially documentary in nature. In

Chen's later works, namely the short stories in Old Man and the novel Repatr iates, her personal resolution of grief is reflected in that body of fiction. She is compelled to assess her experience and to protest against the political causes of loss. This shift in emphasis and purpose in Chen's fiction may be charted not only by increasingly more active stance of resistance shown by her protagonists but also by the degree of

intrusive and explicit rhetoric in her fiction. Finally, just as Xin Mei in Repatr iates acquires a sense of renewed purpose which is to speak out against oppression and fight for human rights, Chen achieves the same goals by using her fiction to

"speak out" on behalf of the Chinese.

In Repatr iates Chen goes beyond strident reiteration of the themes of loss detailed in previous stories. In heavy- handed literary style, the novel posits the answer to the intellectual's chief concern: what is his role within the context of Chinese society. In supplying her solution to that question, Chen combines the conventional Chinese view of the intellectual as moral vigilant of the political system with the observation that he is more effective criticizing the system from abroad than within China.

Chen's perception of her mission to serve China consists

of using a literary medium to support democracy, freedom and human rights and to denounce injustices perpetrated by China's

132 political system. ironically, as this purpose becomes more overt in Chen's work it compromises the artistic integrity of her fiction. Her fiction which begins as social documentary ends up as political polemic.

In summary, Mayor Yin, Old Man and Repatriates reflects

Chen's effort to make sense of the seven years she spent in

China. To borrow Simon Leys' assessment (who also chronicled the excesses of the Cultural Revolution), Chen's fiction is an effort to "redeem through literature a heart-breaking 1 experiment in human wastefulness".

133 Notes to Conclusion

1 Simon Leys, "Introduction by Simon Leys" in Chen Jo-hsi, The Execution of Mayor Yin, trans. by Nancy Ing and Howard Goldblatt, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), p. xi ii.

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138