Europe's New Chinese Literature

Europe’s New Chinese Literature Authors of Chinese Origin Writing in French and German A Comparative Analysis

Heidrun Hörner

A thesis submitted in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Literature

Approved Dissertation Committee

Prof. Dr. Immacolata Amodeo, Chair Jacobs University Bremen

Prof. Dr. Ludwig Pfeiﬀer Jacobs University Bremen

Prof. Dr. Nicola Spakowski Jacobs University Bremen

Prof. Dr. Günter Berger University of Bayreuth

Date of Defense: May 14, 2010 School of Humanities & Social Sciences

Statutory Declaration

Family Name, Given/First Name: Hörner, Heidrun Matriculation Number: 123456 Kind of Thesis Submitted: PhD Thesis

English: Declaration of Authorship

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March 17, 2010

Abstract

Europe’s New Chinese Literature deals with literature — poetry, theater and prose — by authors of Chinese origin using German or French as modes of expression. Only in the last decade the majority of their works was published and became visible to a larger audience, with Dai Sijie and Shan Sa in France and Luo Lingyuan in Germany. The thesis attempts the first comprehensive analysis of this literature using a comparative approach. It scrutinizes the discursive strategies with which the authors of this group position themselves in the literary field. The strategies differ insofar as the writers for example adopt Western stereotypes of China in their works or want to function as cultural ambassadors for China.

Contents

Statutory Declaration iii

Abstractv

Table of Contents vii

Introduction1

1 Overseas Chinese as a Field of Research7 1.1 Chinese Migration as a Global Phenomenon ...... 7 1.2 Chinese Migration to Germany ...... 12 1.3 Chinese Migration to France ...... 15

2 Literature, Migration and the Chinese 17 2.1 Chinese Writers Overseas ...... 17 2.2 German Situation After 1995 ...... 20 2.3 Recent Developments in Francophone Studies ...... 25 2.4 Studies on Chinese Writing in French ...... 31 2.5 Studies on Chinese Writing in German ...... 34

3 Coping with and Copying the Clichés 37 3.1 Orientalism ...... 37 3.2 Self-Orientalisation ...... 52 3.3 Occidentalism ...... 74

4 Communicating Chinese Culture and History 95 4.1 Staging authenticity ...... 98

vii 4.2 Narrating a Life Story ...... 110 4.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture ...... 124 4.3.1 Shanghai as an International City ...... 124 4.3.2 The Chinese Language and Naming ...... 129 4.3.3 Proverbs ...... 136 4.3.4 Food and Hospitality ...... 138 4.3.5 Political Movements and Their Depiction ...... 139

5 Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions 143 5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts ...... 143 5.1.1 Wounds Can Heal ...... 144 5.1.2 Nostalgic Recollections ...... 149 5.1.3 Atrocities and Violence ...... 158 5.2 On the Forefront of Chinese Migrant Writing ...... 164 5.2.1 Cheng Sheng ...... 165 5.2.2 François Cheng ...... 166 5.2.3 Gao Xingjian ...... 166 5.2.4 Ya Ding ...... 171 5.2.5 Other Authors ...... 171

Conclusion 173

Bibliography 181 Primary Sources ...... 181 Secondary Sources ...... 186

viii Introduction

When Goethe outlined the imminent era of Weltliteratur in his conversations with Eckermann, among other texts, it was a Chinese novel in French translation that he referred to as a symbol of this future age.1 Even today this book, most likely Iu- Kiao-Li ou Les deux cousines,2 can be found in the Herzogin Anna Amalia library in Weimar. Could Goethe have imagined that one hundred and ﬁfty years later some Chinese authors would write their literary texts in the language of Schiller and Kleist, of Diderot and Voltaire? In these cases there is no need for translation anymore. Europe’s New Chinese Literature : Authors of Chinese Origin Writing in French and German — A Comparative Analysis provides the ﬁrst comprehensive survey and analysis of works by authors originating from China, literate in Chinese, who choose to write their literary texts in French or German. This selection of authors has been made in order to show the as yet unexplored parts of Overseas Chinese writing. Academia has almost exclusively concentrated on the works of exiles from China writing in Chinese or — in the cases of North America and Australia — in English. So far texts written by authors of Chinese origin in languages other than Chinese or English have not been studied.3 Within

1Johann Peter Eckermann. Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens. Ed. by Regine Otto and Peter Wersig. Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 1987. The conversation between Goethe and Eckermann takes place mainly in early 1827. Further readings on the topic: Erich Auerbach. “Philologie der Weltliteratur.” In: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur romanischen Philologie. Francke, 1967, pp. 301–310.; Hendrik Birus. “The Goethean Concept of World Literature and Comparative Literature.” In: CLCWeb 2.4 (2000). url: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/ clcweb/vol2/iss4/7. 2Iu-kiao-li ou Les deux cousines. Trans. by Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat. Paris: Moutardier, 1826. 3An exception is for example Tamara Wagner’s work on Overseas Chinese writings in other Asian languages: Tamara S. Wagner. Occidentalism in Novels of Malaysia and Singapore, 1819-

1 Europe’s New Chinese Literature the last few decades, particularly around the turn of the 21st century, Chinese authors in Europe have started writing in the languages of their adopted countries. In Germany and France a signiﬁcant number of such writers has emerged and their visibility has consequently increased, most notably with Dai Sijie and Shan Sa in France and with Luo Lingyuan in Germany. The analysis of this larger group of authors is not in chronological order, but rather scrutinizes the literary strategies in a typological way, speciﬁcally the strategies writers use to establish themselves within the European literary contexts and circles while at the same time referring to their Chinese heritage and the imaginaries related to China in their interviews and/ or texts. Migrant writing has been extensively investigated in the German academic context over the last 20 to 25 years, while in France interest was aroused only recently, in the wake of the literary post-colonial discourse, as a tool of coming to terms with French colonial history. Despite some extensive research on migrant writing in general in Germany,4 Chinese writers have been neglected by German studies (Germanistik), Comparative Literature and Chinese studies (Sinologie), even though these writers were already included in the prominent literature anthologies of the early 1980s5 and kept publishing poetry, short stories and novels. For a long time in France the concept of Francophonie6 focused almost exclusively on the literature created in the former French colonies, including Quebec. Research on French as a language of literary expression for authors of non-French origin has started only very recently, despite the fact that a longstanding tradition ex-

2004. Colonial and Postcolonial Financial Straits and Literary Style. Lewiston, Queenstown, and Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2005. 4E.g. in Carmine Chiellino’s handbook on migrant writing in Germany, Ulrike Reeg condenses the information on authors from all over Asia in only ten pages, while in Immacolata Amodeo’s ‘Die Heimat heißt Babylon’ the reference to Chinese writing in Germany consists of only one subordinate clause, p. 49. 5Irmgard Ackermann, ed. Als Fremder in Deutschland. Berichte, Erzählungen, Gedichte von Ausländern. With a forew. by Harald Weinrich. With an afterw. by Dietrich Krusche. München: dtv, 1982.; Irmgard Ackermann, ed. In zwei Sprachen leben. Berichte, Erzählungen, Gedichte von Ausländern. With a forew. by Harald Weinrich. München: dtv, 1983. 6This is meant in the sense of the new Francophonie in contrast to the old one focusing on Switzerland and Belgium.

2 Introduction ists of non-French writers adopting French as their literary language (Giacomo Casanova, Samuel Beckett etc.) along with a consistent number of Francophone authors without a colonial connection or background. This thesis does not only focus on the relationship of literary texts to the target language, culture and country, but also takes into account the author’s original culture. In contrast to the common practice of using approaches from only one discipline, the comparative approach of this thesis encompasses all the relevant disciplines i.e. Chinese studies, French studies and German studies. While Europeans for varying reasons — including trading, missionary and later imperialistic interests — have been traveling to China since the Middle Ages, the contact between the Chinese and the Europeans was not reciprocal for a long time. This was changed in the middle of the 19th century when the imperial throne began dispatching Chinese delegates to Europe.7 China’s interest in the Other/ Foreign — namely, Japan, Europe and the US — was triggered by the intrusion of Western powers and their demonstration of military superiority as well as the fact that, for the ﬁrst time in Chinese history, the Western Other was perceived as cultured and as coming from a long cultural tradition. Around the turn of the 20th century, the growing interest in the Other was reﬂected in the large number of Chinese students who went abroad to Japan, Europe and the United States. The mobility of people and acceptance of Western culture manifested itself in the May Fourth Movement.8 The cultural aim of the movement to modernize (or, often synonymously used, Westernize) China in many aspects of life had its repercussions, but its foremost cultural outcome was the innovative use of 白话 (baihua, vernacular Chinese) instead of Classical Chinese, which resulted in the

7Jürgen Osterhammel. Die Entzauberung Asiens. Europa und die asiatischen Reiche im 18. Jahrhundert. München: C.H. Beck, 1998. And: Erich Gütinger. Die Geschichte der Chinesen in Deutschland. Ein Überblick über die ersten 100 Jahre seit 1822. Münster: Waxmann, 2004. 8For introductory reading on the cultural and political movement and its impact on 20th century Chinese writing see, for instance:Tse-tsung Chow. The May Fourth Movement. Intellectual Revolution in Modern China. Cambrige and London: Harvard University Press, 1960; Yingjin Zhang. “The Institutionalization of Modern Literary History in China, 1922-1980.” In: Modern China 20.3 (July 1994), pp. 347–377; Hung-Yok Ip, Tze-Ki Hon, and Chiu-Chun Lee. “The Plurality of Chinese Modernity. A Review of Recent Scholarship on the May Forth Movement.” Review. In: Modern China 29.4 (Oct. 2003), pp. 490–509.

3 Europe’s New Chinese Literature renewal of Chinese literature, rendering it understandable for a broader circle. The cultural fascination of Europe continued to persist in the mindset of many Chinese intellectuals, while the actual migration of Chinese population to Europe was first visible in the 1920s in the harbor cities. It was a migration of mostly males and was still limited to small numbers and specific European cities, such as Liverpool and Hamburg. In the second half of the twentieth century, however, the community of Overseas Chinese in Europe grew and became more diverse. By the 1990’s a multitude of new literary voices writing in German or French could be heard from the now permanently installed heterogeneous groups of Chi- nese in Germany and France. Early differences exist, the individual authors, for instance, belong to different times of migration (e.g. Cheng Sheng was a 留学生 (liuxuesheng, student abroad) who stayed on in France after World War I, François Cheng and Chow Chung-cheng left China after World War II, while others, like Y.C. Kuan or Chow Ching Lie left during or just after the Cultural Revolution). These Chinese authors are literate in Chinese and have gained knowledge of French or German either by university studies and/ or a stay abroad in the respective countries. Most of them have lived for a longer time in one of the two countries. A majority of them still lives there and almost exclusively uses the adopted language for literary production. This thesis is subdivided into six chapters including an introduction and a conclusion. It begins with an initiatory chapter narrowing down the field of research on Overseas Chinese. The third chapter starts with a topical research report on a diverse set of findings in several different disciplines of the Humanities related to the thesis topic. The fourth chapter Coping with and Copying the Clichés highlights the close connection between Orientalism and self-ascribed images, whereby the analysis follows examples from literary history and the contemporary context of production. The next chapter Communicating Chinese Culture and History deals with literary texts that have a seemingly intermediary function between the two cultures (i.e. Chinese-German and Chinese-French). The sixth chapter Conti- nuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions presents three dominant trends of Chinese literature and how they are readopted and revived in the German and French writings of Chinese authors overseas. In addition to these identified groups, works by certain individualistic poets, playwrights and novelists are por-

4 Introduction trayed as exemplaries. The conclusion locates the works of these authors in the discursive ﬁelds of (post-)modernity, “Chineseness” and literary studies. It discusses further the appropriateness of certain concepts and taxonomies used within academic disciplines and institutions. The following section gives an overview of research on Overseas Chinese from a general perspective by taking into account several academic disciplines from the Social Sciences and the Humanities.

Chapter 1

Overseas Chinese as a Field of Research

Scholarly research on Overseas Chinese is manifold and takes place in many fields of the Humanities and the Social Sciences. There are several terms that are discussed in the discourse on the movement and relocation of Chinese outside China, with the most common denominations being Overseas Chinese or Chinese Diaspora. Sometimes research on overseas Chinese is grouped with other Asian communities, as in Asian-American studies. Difficulties arise in drawing a demarcating line between national, ethnic, geographical, temporal and cultural aspects of Overseas Chinese. Moreover, the increasingly pertinent questions of what Chineseness is and how Chinese identity and culture can be defined are discussed constantly. While the scientific community has mainly focused on Chinese migration to Southeast Asia, North America, and Australia, the European situation has only recently become part of the research field.

1.1 Chinese Migration as a Global Phenomenon

Lynn Pan, scholar, novelist and journalist, undertook the first attempt to map Chinese diaspora as a global phenomenon in cooperation with other scholars. The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas1 can be considered as a comprehensive guide to the field. Organized topically, the encyclopedia is divided into five parts dealing

1Lynn Pan, ed. The Encyclopaedia of the Chinese Overseas. London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 1999.

7 1. Overseas Chinese as a Field of Research with (1) the origin of Chinese migrants, (2) facts and dates of the migration, (3) institutions formed abroad, (4) relations with China and non-Chinese and (5) the actual communities. The third chapter, “Relations”, the paragraph “Relations with Non-Chinese” lays special focus on modern Chinese identity as well as the relevant cultural products. It portrays “Overseas Chinese artists in the 20th century,” “Cross- cultural cinema” and “Contemporary émigré writers”, who are listed according to their choice of language. Other than Chinese, only those using Malay or English and located in USA, Canada or Britain are mentioned. Even though at this time writings in other languages existed, they are not mentioned here. In Chapter 5, “Communities”, the part on Europe covers only five countries, namely Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Russia. All other countries, despite their significant levels of Chinese immigration, are left out. The text on France begins with the chronology of migratory movements, spaces and places of settlement and moves on to the resulting characteristics of the Chinese community, its main economic occupations, associations and networks, as well as the level of integration and identification with the French state. While a special chapter is dedicated to the Work-Study Movement in 1919-21 led by Chinese students in Paris, none of the writers or artists living in France are mentioned. Laurence Ma and Carolyn Cartier’s The Chinese Diaspora. Space, Place, Mobil- ity, and Identity2 primarily considers the geographic aspects of Chinese migration. The book is divided into five parts, each of which contains several chapters. The contributing scholars portray widespread topics on the historical and contemporary diasporas, including Hong Kong and Taiwan as diasporic homelands, ethnicity, identity, and diaspora as home, migration and settlements in North America and transmigrants in Oceania. Once more the places of immigration are located in East Asia, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. The only exception is Maggi W. H. Leung’s3 article on “Notions of Home Among Diaspora Chinese in Germany”.

2Laurence J.C. Ma and Carolyn Cartier, eds. The Chinese Diaspora. Space, Place, Mobility, and Identity. Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littleﬁeld, 2003. 3Cf. Sub-chapter 1.2 Chinese Migration to Germany.

8 1.1 Chinese Migration as a Global Phenomenon

The omnibus Ungrounded Empires. The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Transnationalism4 edited by Aihwa Ong and Donald Nonini engages in “fruitful dialogues with cultural studies, history, sociology, and development studies.”5 Reflecting different implications of Chinese migration mostly in East Asia, topics circle around the question of seemingly distinct cultural characteristics among Chinese migrants like guanxi,6 family, space or transnational identities and nation- state regimes of truth and power throughout history. The editors claim that Chi- nese transnationalism, though being diverse, is creating an alternative modernity.7 Again Europe is considered as irrelevant in this regard. Other texts, as for example, Sun Wanning’s Leaving China. Media, Migra- tion, and Transnational Imagination8 deal with different aspects of diaspora but conclude with the question of Chinese identity in diaspora. Sun stresses the importance of media in (re)creating an ethnic and/ or cultural identity. Not moving according to the development of different media from the press and television to the internet, but moving from countryside to town, beyond the national border to the globalized cosmopolitan city, Sun argues that the “transformation of a transnational imagination”9 is manifested in the triad of media, mobility and power of the Chinese state. Again this study only relates to Chinese immigrants in East Asia, USA and Australia. Regarding the European context in general, the following works seem relevant:

4Aihwa Ong and Donald M. Nonini. Ungrounded Empires. The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Transnationalism. New York and London: Routledge, 1997. 5Ong and Nonini, Ungrounded Empires, p. vi. 6关系, guanxi means a particular network in the societal area, based on (mutual) favours or relationships (personal, blood, or locality). 7Cf. “The dynamic tension between the diversity of subjects, cultures, and identities, on the one hand, and the homogenizing ideologies of Chinese racial and cultural essences, on the Other, holds the key to our understanding of identity-making in the new Asia.” Ong and Nonini, Ungrounded Empires, p. 329. 8Sun Wanning. Leaving China. Media, Migration, and Transnational Imagination. Lanham et al.: Bowman and Littleﬁeld, 2002. 9Sun, Leaving China, p. 215.

9 1. Overseas Chinese as a Field of Research

Gregor Benton and Frank N. Pieke’s The Chinese in Europe,10 Flemming Chris- tiansen’s Chinatown, Europe. An Exploration of Overseas Chinese Identity in the 1990s,11 and a whole edition of the journal, International Migration from the same year.12 The Chinese in Europe, edited by Gregor Benton and Frank N. Pieke, is a collection of essays that constitutes an analytical framework to perceive patterns among the growing Chinese communities in Europe. The collection includes fifteen essays in four parts which cover Chinese associations and questions of identity all over Europe, the Chinese in Western and Central Europe (Britain, France, Nether- lands, Denmark, and Germany), Southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, and Italy) and Eastern Europe (Russia, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania). Many of these articles’ authors claim to write an initial outlook on the topic of Chinese migrations to Europe. The content and methods of the writings comprise of such different topics as interviews with the immigrants on their living situation, studies on the immigrants’ lives, to a statistics-based overview of the economic engagement of immigrants in Portugal. Despite the disparate set of findings, these groundbreak- ing studies are, as intended, a fruitful basis for further research. Consequently chapters on Germany and France by Live Yu-Sion “The Chinese Community in France: Immigration, Economic Activity, Cultural Organization and Representa- tions” and Erich Gütinger “A Sketch of the Chinese community in Germany: Past and Present” will be discussed later.13 Additionally, in the book Transnational Chinese. Fujianese Migrants in Eu- rope,14 Frank Pieke et al. present even broader circumstances and effects of Chi- nese migration including international migration, globalization and the European

10Gregor Benton and Frank Pieke, eds. The Chinese in Europe. Houndmills, Basingstoke, and Oxford: MacMillan, 1998. 11Flemming Christiansen. Chinatown, Europe. An Exploration of Overseas Chinese Identity in the 1990s. London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003. 12International Migration 41.3 (2003). 13Cf. Chapter 1.2 and 1.3 Chinese migration to Germany/ France respectively. 14Frank Pieke, Pál Nyiri, and Mette Thunøand Antonella Ceccagno. Transnational Chinese. Fujianese Migrants in Europe. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.

10 1.1 Chinese Migration as a Global Phenomenon situation. Dealing with the new Chinese (Fujianese)15 migration to Europe in particular (especially to the United Kingdom, Italy, and Hungary) Pieke states: “The heterogeneity and transnationalism of Chinese migration do not add up to an unequivocal picture. On closer inspection, the category of ‘Chinese migration’ gives way to a kaleidoscope of flows, biographies and ambitions.”16 Through his research, he develops suggestions for a European manual for dealing with the Chinese migration to Europe. Flemming Christiansen’s Chinatown, Europe on Chinese-European identity introduces the conditions of Overseas Chinese across the continent and seeks to identify the issues that unite and separate these groups. In this sociological account, Christiansen describes the different origins — both ethnic and geographic — of the Chinese as well as their actual locations and participation in everyday life and politics in Europe. Here Christiansen emphasizes, on one hand the orga- nizational level of exercising power as interest groups, and on the other hand the economic sector in which the ‘ethnic card’ is often played. Chapter six is dedicated to “European Chinese and Chinese Patriotism”. It deals with mainland China and Taiwan’s reactions towards Overseas Chinese communities and the Overseas Chi- nese relation towards patriotism, nationalism and ethnic identity.17 The September 2003 issue of the International Migration journal focuses on migration between China and Europe, assessing trends in Chinese migration to Europe, patterns of emigration from China and discussing the role of government policy in shaping migratory flows. Articles by Carine Guerassimoff and Karsten

15Fujian is a province in Southern China, a large number of the actual migrants from China originate from this place. 16Frank Pieke. “Chinese Globalization and Migration to Europe.” In: Working Paper 94 (2004). url: http://www.ccis-ucsd.org/PUBLICATIONS/wrkg94.pdf (visited on 07/11/2006). 17 Christiansen concludes: “It is, in my view, not useful to reduce Chinese identity to a practi- cal utility, or the claim, that Chinese culture is a shallow emblem used for business purpose. It is interesting to observe how the political economy of the ethnic boundary creates ingenious expressions of ethnic culture. The diversity and richness of overseas Chinese communities, the many historical origins, the histories of migration, the use of ethnic symbols to achieve political aims, and the many fascinating life stories of overseas Chinese indicate that a reducctionist refection of Chinese ethnicity would not be appropriate.” Christiansen, Chinatown, Europe, p. 179.

11 1. Overseas Chinese as a Field of Research

Giese are dedicated to France and Germany.18

1.2 Chinese Migration to Germany

Besides some articles dedicated to speciﬁc issues of Chinese migrants in Europe, such as German-Chinese marriages, Chinese in Germany during the Nazi Regime, or the whereabouts of Chinese students in Germany, the following articles, monographs and compilations,19 emerging only from the late 1990s, try to attain a more general view of the previous and present generations of Overseas Chinese in Germany. Erich Gütinger, a Chinese language teacher in Berlin, is one of the contributors to the above mentioned The Chinese in Europe. With his short essay, “A Sketch of the Chinese Community in Germany: Past and Present”,20 Gütinger provides the ﬁrst comprehensive outlook on Chinese migration to Germany. Later, in his Ph.D. thesis Die Geschichte der Chinesen in Deutschland. Ein Überblick über die ersten 100 Jahre seit 1822 21 (The History of Chinese in Germany. An Overview of the First Hundred Years Since 1822), Gütinger dates the starting point of Chinese travel and migration to Germany to 1822. This is essentially a sketch looking through the bare numbers of migrants from China — later PRC or Taiwan — to Germany. However, in the part dedicated to the Chinese communities in the 1990s, he refers to new groups of migrants, including bus-drivers, doctors, nurses, scientists, as well as exiled artists. He also mentions bilingual newspapers in Chinese and German printed for the community, Mandarin as the lingua franca of the group and its economic activities (mostly in catering and shipping).

18Cf. Chapter 1.2 and 1.3 Chinese migration to France/ Germany respectively. 19For example: Dagmar Yü-Dembski. “Verdrängte Jahre. Einige Fragen der deutsch- chinesischen Beziehungen während des Nationalsozialismus.” In: Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur. Studien zu den deutsch-chinesischen Beziehungen. Ed. by Mechthild Leutner. Vol. 31. Berliner China-Studien. Münster: LIT, 1996, pp. 329–347. 20Erich Gütinger. “A Sketch of the Chinese Community in Germany: Past and Present.” In: The Chinese in Europe. Ed. by Gregor Benton and Frank Pieke. Houndmills, Basingstoke, and Oxford: MacMillan, 1998, pp. 197–208. 21Gütinger, Geschichte der Chinesen in Deutschland.

12 1.2 Chinese Migration to Germany

In 2002 Karsten Giese published two articles in the Hamburg scientific journal China Aktuell, “Mobilität und Migration in China, Teil 4: Emigration. 30 Jahre diplomatische Beziehungen. 30 Jahre chinesische Migration nach Deutsch- land (I)”22 and “Mobilität und Migration in China, Teil 5: Emigration. 30 Jahre diplomatische Beziehungen. 30 Jahre chinesische Migration nach Deutschland (II)”23 as well as a more elaborate English version, “New Chinese Migration to Germany: Historical Consistencies and New Patterns of Diversification within a Globalized Migration Regime” in International Migration in 2003.24 Giese’s first two articles delineate the past and the present situation of Chinese migration to Germany. Contributing to the special focus on 30 years of diplomatic relations between the Peoples Republic of China and the Federal Republic of Germany in 2002, Giese highlights the increase in migration since 1972, the present situation and economic impact of Chinese immigrants. He also analyzes the heterogeneous group of Chinese in Germany, consisting of different social and regional layers, including students, ethnic businesses, integration, illegal migration and so on. In 2004 and 2005, for the first time, two scholarly volumes entirely dedicated to Chinese Migration in Germany appeared: Maggi Wai-Han Leung’s dissertation Chinese Migration In Germany. Making Home in Transnational Space,25 and the collection Migration und Integration der Auslandschinesen in Deutschland edited by Hui-wen Groeling-Che und Dagmar Yü-Dembski.26

22Karsten Giese. “Mobilität und Migration in China, Teil 4: Emigration. 30 Jahre diplomatische Beziehungen. 30 Jahre chinesische Migration nach Deutschland (I).” in: China Aktuell 31.8 (2002), pp. 897–909. 23Karsten Giese. “Mobilität und Migration in China, Teil 5: Emigration. 30 Jahre chinesische Migration nach Deutschland (II).” in: China Aktuell 31.9 (2002), pp. 1021–1033. 24Karsten Giese. “New Chinese Migration to Germany. Historical Consistencies and New Patterns of Diversiﬁcation within a Globalized Migration Regime.” In: International Migration 41.3 (2003), pp. 155–185. 25Maggi Wai-Han Leung. Chinese Migration In Germany. Making Home in Transnational Space. Frankfurt and London: IKO, 2004. Parts of her research where published throughout the period in miscellanies and journals, as in the above mentioned Laurence Ma and Carolyn Cartier’s The Chinese Diaspora. Space, Place, Mobility, and Identity. 26Groeling-Che, Hui-wen von and Dagmar Yü-Dembski, eds. Migration und Integration der Auslandschinesen in Deutschland. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag, 2005.

13 1. Overseas Chinese as a Field of Research

Maggi Leung was granted a stipend from the DAAD to conduct a comprehensive study on different aspects of Chinese migration to Germany from 1999 to 2002. Leung defines diaspora in the introductory chapter and describes it as a particular form of transnationalism.27 After summing up the history of Chinese migration in Germany she concentrates on the features of ‘home’, ‘being away from home’, ‘making a home’ and in the end ‘being at home’. She also observes the self localization of the ‘German’-Chinese and the extent to which they are being/ feeling/ accepted as Germans or Chinese in Germany. Chapters 5 to 9 deal with economic engagements and activities of the migrants. The epilogue and last chapter again conclude that the migrant groups of Chinese from Indonesia, PR China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are heterogeneous in their origins as well as attitudes towards being Overseas Chinese in Germany. These experiences are transposed to a literary mode in an unusual way by the US-American writer Maxine Hong Kingston in The Woman Warrior. Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts28 from 1975. The collection Migration und Integration der Auslandschinesen in Deutschland (Migration and Integration of Overseas Chinese in Germany) edited by Groeling- Che and Yü-Dembski, considers aspects of the social sciences, history, law, the scientific community and cooperation, Overseas Chinese literature and the migrants’ self-perceptions. The research reports preceding the articles represent the emerging research on Chinese migration to Germany in the 1990s and thus introduces this volume as the historical analysis of Chinese life in Germany is more thorough than the above mentioned and highlights the Third Reich period. To a certain degree Groeling-Che und Yü-Dembski’s article “Migrationserfahrungen: Thematik

27“As is generally accepted in the current discourse, diasporas are identified as a social form which is marked by a transnational, spatially and temporally sprawling network of people, who (or whose ancestors) have gone on journeys to settle down elsewhere, connected by special ties of history and geography, who continue to forge socio-cultural, economic and political linkages, creating and maintaining (often imagined) communities. The indistinct and unfixed boundaries of these transnational communities are sustained by real and/ or symbolic ties and an attachment to some original ‘homeland’, often identified as the genuine origin of their shared culture, which might be equivalent with common language, belief, values or symbols.” Leung, Chinese Migration In Germany, p. 20. 28Hong Kingston, Maxine. The Woman Warrior. Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghost. New York: Vintage Books, 1975. Semi-fictional text written by a second generation Chinese-American writer.

14 1.3 Chinese Migration to France und Bedeutung überseechinesischer Literatur”29 tackles the research topic of this thesis.

1.3 Chinese Migration to France

Similar remarks as those made on the German research are applicable to the published research regarding France for it was only at the end of the 20th century that the theme of Overseas Chinese attracted the scientific community. An early, representative study is the monograph, Asiatiques en France. Les expériences d’intégration locale30 by Le Huu Khoa in 1995. This sociological research portrays several larger Asian settlements in France and dedicates different studies on the specific situation and methods for their integration (with their own or imposed actions). No chapter is devoted exclusively to Chinese communities and references are essentially to the earlier immigration from Indochina by ethnic Chinese. As already mentioned, one comprehensive chapter dedicated to the Chinese population in France is Live Yu-Sion’s “The Chinese Community in France: Im- migration, Economic Activity, Cultural Organization and Representations”31 in Pieke and Benton’s collection, The Chinese in Europe from 1998. This presents a historical overview of the migration according to linguistic groups and countries of origin, as many migrants were from the Overseas Chinese settlement in Asia and so for the French colonies. Live accounts for the territorial concentration and economic specialization by separating them into the time frames of before and after 1975. The Overseas Chinese groups are again subdivided in Sino-French, Chinese from China, and to a larger extent Chinese from Southeast Asia. The last chapter contributes a survey of the French public opinion on Overseas Chinese. Live

29Cf. Chapter 2.5 Chinese writing in German. 30Le, Huu Khoa. L’immigration asiatique. Économie communautaire et stratégies professionnelles. Paris: C.H.E.A.M., 1995. 31Yu-Sion Live. “The Chinese Community in France. Immigration, Economic Activity, Cul- tural Organization and Representations.” In: The Chinese in Europe. Ed. by Gregor Benton and Frank Pieke. Houndmills, Basingstoke, and Oxford: MacMillan, 1998. Chap. The Chinese Community in France, pp. 96–124.

15 1. Overseas Chinese as a Field of Research states that the two groups of Chinese immigrants from China (Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) and from Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia etc.) can still be clearly distinguished. Thus Live sees a development towards “the emergence of a new Overseas Chinese identity”32 as a whole. In the 2003 autumn edition of International Migration that has also been mentioned above, Carine Guerassimoﬀ33 delivers a short overview of the present situation of Chinese migrants in France. She includes numbers and statistics of the distribution all over the country, the duration of their stay, regions of origin, social- economic status and activities and the new features of inter-European migration of Chinese overseas. In general however none of the articles dedicated to Chinese migration to France and her Chinese community consider the Chinese writers living and working in France. In conclusion, major foci can be established when looking at Overseas Chinese by focusing on it as a social phenomenon, philosophic discourse, or regarding its manifestation in literature. With reference to the actual movement of people, Eu- rope as a destination for Chinese migrants has only recently attracted the attention of the scientiﬁc research community. Concerning philosophical or literary studies, attention remains on East Asia and North America. Besides a study on Chinese migration to Germany in one article34 and the recognition of Chinese writing in other European languages in a study on Chinese Canadian writing in English,35 none of the above mentioned texts take notice of the existence of Chinese authors whether they write in France or Germany and use French or German.

32Live, “The Chinese Community in France,” p. 122. 33Carine Guerassimoﬀ. “The New Chinese Migrants in France.” In: International Migration 41.3 (2003), pp. 135–154. 34Hui-wen von Groeling-Che and Dagmar Yü-Dembski. “Migrationserfahrungen. Thematik und Bedeutung überseechinesischer Literatur.” In: Migration und Integration der Auslandschi- nesen in Deutschland. Ed. by Groeling-Che, Hui-wen von and Dagmar Yü-Dembski. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag, 2005, pp. 155–176. 35Tseen Khoo. “Introduction. Culture, Identity, Commodity: Testing Diasporic Literary Boundaries.” In: Culture, Identity, Commodity. Diasporic Chinese Literatures in English. Ed. by Tseen Khoo and Kam Louie. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2005, pp. 1–15.

16 Chapter 2

Literature, Migration and the Chinese : Two Decades of Scholarly Research

2.1 Chinese Writers Overseas — From General Overviews to Speciﬁc Analyses

As already indicated, the secondary literature on Chinese writers overseas is thorough and rather manifold regarding texts written in Chinese, English, Malay and other East Asian Languages. This is not the case with European languages and even the studies on authors writing in English concentrate mostly on the Ameri- can continent. Moreover these anthologies, monographs, conference volumes, and collections indiscriminately include such variable categories as dissident, exile, diasporic, or migrant writers. The studies usually refer to Chinese ethnicity or descent. In 2005 Wang Gungwu conceptualized his view on the diverse perspectives of Chinese Overseas’ literature in the newly founded Journal of Chinese Overseas.1 His article “Within and Without: Chinese Writers Overseas” discussed in a rather sophisticated way the multiple views on what it means to be a Chinese writer. His deﬁnition of the Chinese writer separates those who are living in or outside China, not according to whether they write in Chinese or another language but

1Chin-Keong Ng and Chee Beng Tan, eds. Journal of Chinese Overseas Vol. 1, No.1, Singa- pore University Press Singapore. 1.1 (2005). url: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_ of_chinese_overseas/toc/jco1.1.html.

17 2. Literature, Migration and the Chinese whether they are living and writing in or outside Chinese culture. He describes the multilingual situation in South East Asia, with literature by ethnic Chinese in Malay or Indonesian as well as Chinese, and adds to his description the bilingual situation in North America, where the writers use Chinese, English or both. In the last decades of the 20th century anthologies of North American and East Asian ‘Chinese’ short stories were published, giving an incentive to engage in literary studies regarding the topic. In comparison to the later studies, the monograph Beyond Silence. Chinese Canadian Literature in English2 by Lien Chao published in 1997 engages more speciﬁcally with the Canadian conditions of Sino-Canadian writings. The book tries to establish a distinctive Chinese-Canadian Literature in English as a literature with independent features. It does so ﬁrstly by placing emphasis on how Chinese-Canadian history was created and incorporated; in the texts; secondly, by extracting and analyzing major discursive strategies of the writings and thirdly by analyzing the literature according to genre (e.g. short stories, folklore, drama, prose, and poetry). In Winfried Siemerling’s 1999 volume Writing Ethnicity. Cross-Cultural Con- sciousness in Canadian and Quebecois Literature,3 the emphasis is put on cultural or ethnic heritage. However, Lien Chao states that in spite of 140 years of Chinese migration and communities in Canada, factual, literary production in English4 surfaced only in the 1970s as a reaction or feature of discrimination in Cana- dian society in a writers’ workshop, the Chinese Canadian authors’ “collective voice brings out a largely unrecorded Canadian experience and heritage that has

2Lien Chao. Beyond Silence. Chinese Canadian Literature in English. Toronto: TSAR, 1997. 3Winfried Siemerling, ed. Writing Ethnicity. Cross-Cultural Consciousness in Canadian and Québécois Literature. Oakville: ECW Press, 1999. 4Exceptions granted, two Eurasian sisters Edith Maud Eaton (pen name: Sui Sin Far) and Winnifred Eaton Reeve (pen name: Onoto Watanna) published in late nineteenth century. Lien Chao. “Anthologizing The Collective. The Epic Struggles to Establish Chinese Canadian Li- terature in English.” In: Writing Ethnicity. Cross-Cultural Consciousness in Canadian and Québécois Literature. Ed. by Winfried Siemerling. Oakville: ECW Press, 1999, pp. 145–170, p. 146.

18 2.1 Chinese Writers Overseas been excluded or misrepresented by the dominant media.”5 The main features are summed up by keywords like historical silence, marginality, the question of identity, loss of Chinese language, collective literature, and community-based literature. In the 2001 essay collection Aspects of Diaspora. Studies on North American Chinese Writers,6 Lucie Bernier elaborates on the novelty of this kind of research. The collection includes texts written in both English and French. Grouping them according to country of origin — either USA or Canada — the topics and books scrutinized seem similar to those just mentioned, namely collective history, self- awareness of different layers of alterity, gender, and defining identity. Published in 2005, Culture, Identity, Commodity. Diasporic Chinese Litera- tures in English7 edited by Tseen Khoo and Kam Louie offers one of the first comprehensive overviews of literary criticism on recent Chinese writing in English, mostly North American and Australian. The structure of the collection is geogra- phically — and not thematically — structured. The four different sections analyze firstly, the importance of ‘commodities’ in the texts, such as food, labor, and desire; secondly, the problems of diaspora itself, connected with the quest for identity and the problem of memory; thirdly, the gender issues; and fourthly, the multicultural relationships in the host countries. Recognizing texts written in languages other than English, they explain the stress on one language with the necessity of a “sharp focus, critically, and textually.”8 Apart from European languages, Tamara S. Wagner’s study, Occidentalism in Novels of Malaysia and Singapore, 1819-2004. Colonial and Postcolonial Finan- cial Straits and Literary Style,9 gives a very critical, analytic view of the self- Orientalization of Asian writers. In the introduction, Wagner summarizes the discourse on Occidentalism as a re-representation of ‘the West’ and shows how the

5Chao, “Anthologizing The Collective,” p. 147. 6Lucie Bernier, ed. Aspects of Diaspora. Studies on North American Chinese Writers. Bern and Berlin: Peter Lang, 2001. 7Tseen Khoo and Kam Louie, eds. Culture, Identity, Commodity. Diasporic Chinese Litera- tures in English. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2005. 8Khoo, “Introduction,” p. 2. 9T., Occidentalism in Novels of Malaysia and Singapore.

19 2. Literature, Migration and the Chinese features of this discourse are manifested in recent Malayan and Singaporean writing including texts by ethnic Chinese writers. She concludes that Occidentalism is more than a pure reversal of Orientalism, but typically divides Occidentalism’s ‘retaliatory strategies’ into emulative and revisionist Occidentalism.

2.2 German Situation After 1995

Research on recent migration to Germany has become diversified and specialized over the last decades. Among other facets, it tackles the origins and motivations of the migrants and sociological aspects. In the realm of literature, the focus has been on literary, linguistic or pedagogic studies. The modification in labels from Gastar- beiterliteratur (guest worker literature) or Ausländerliteratur (foreigner literature) to migrant or migration literature and literature of foreign writers in the Federal Republic of Germany is well documented in the works of Irmgard Ackermann, Immacolata Amodeo, Carmine Chiellino, and many more. With this, the academic discussion of German literature by foreign writers altered from the question of ‘Betroffenheit’ (dismay) and ‘Fremdheitserfahrung’ (experience of strangeness/ foreignness)10 to a question of multiple streams of language, of inclusion in or exclusion from the German literary canon, of inclusion and exclusion in general, of intercultural literature and even of a new, emerging world literature. This general overview of monographs and essay collections focuses on the last two decades, whereby the emphasis in my selection of texts is on questions regarding the canon and the canonization of the ‘new’ German literature. Immacolata Amodeo published her dissertation, ‘Die Heimat heißt Babylon’. Zur Literatur ausländischer Autoren in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in 1996.11 She sums up former attempts to describe and categorize literature by foreigners in Germany in the second chapter. In the third chapter, Amodeo introduces a way to organize the heterogeneous field of ‘foreign’ literature in Germany: Locating such

10For the reﬂections on early writing see: Ulrike Reeg. Schreiben in der Fremde. Literatur nationaler Minderheiten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Essen: Klartext Verlag, 1988. 11Immacolata Amodeo. ‘Die Heimat heißt Babylon’. Zur Literatur ausländischer Autoren in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1996.

20 2.2 German Situation After 1995 literature in the fringes (Randliteratur) Amodeo questions the existing national literary canon. Notably her study is written not to put forth new categories for this kind of literature but to describe the phenomenon from a new observational perspective. In the introduction to the 1996 conference collection Schreiben zwischen den Kulturen,12 Paul Michael Lützeler connects the literary developments in post-war Federal Republic to the multicultural debates in society and politics. The contributions include essays by so-called multicultural — and not only migrant — writers like Jurek Becker, Sten Nadolny, and Yüksel Pazarkaya on the perceptions of their living and writing conditions, the texts also consider the question or concept of multiculturalism. The part on analyses shows different aspects such as Arab-German (Iman O. Khalil), German-Jewish (Amy Colin), or Afro-German Literature (Leroy T. Hopkins), descriptions of the Other in migrant literature (Irmgard Ackermann) or the postcolonial view of German writers (Paul Michael Lützeler). In 1997 Samuel Beer and Franz Peter Künzel published the conference volume Sprachwechsel.13 The volume is split into three parts with the first one consisting of essays on recent developments in German migrant literature, the second containing actual literary texts, and the third comprising of feedback on the conference. In the first part, questions of ranking German literature written by foreigners (Irmgard Ackermann) arise anew, along with those on language and code switching in regard of Czech exile writing in Germany (Manfred Jähnischen) or multilingual regions in Rumania (Annemarie Podlipny-Hehn). In 1997 Mary Howard published another omnibus, Interkulturelle Konfigura- tionen, based on a congress.14 Even though the subtitle Zur Erzählliteratur von Autoren nichtdeutscher Herkunft is referring to a very heterogeneous field of literature, the essays and analyses mainly focus on Turkish-German authors like

12Paul Michael Lützeler, ed. Schreiben zwischen den Kulturen. Beiträge zur deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur. Frankfurt: Fischer Verlag, 1996. 13Samuel Beer and Franz Peter Künzel, eds. Sprachwechsel. Esslingen: Künstlergilde, 1997. 14Mary Howard, ed. Interkulturelle Konﬁgurationen. Zur Erzählliteratur von Autoren nichtdeutscher Herkunft. München: Judicium, 1997.

21 2. Literature, Migration and the Chinese

Aras Ören, Aysel Özakin and Emine Sevgi Özdamar. Here the problematic of self-image, mirror image and image of the Other is questioned in the context of interculturality and its outcomes in literary production. In 2000, the most comprehensive look at the heterogeneous field of migrant literature, Interkulturelle Literatur in Deutschland. Eine Handbuch,15 was edited by Carmine Chiellino. This book is divided into five parts. After a general section highlighting the post-war history of migration to Germany and its political, juridical, economic and social conditions, three main chapters focus on the artistic production in literature, theater, music, film as well as intercultural synergies. Chapter five contains an appendix dedicated to persons and institutes doing research in the field; the choice of media by the artists, and their curricula vitae. The part on literature is organized according to the country, groups of countries or continent of origin of the author. This choice reflects the actual migration to Germany and all of Asia, including Chinese writers, is portrayed in an article by Ulrike Reeg, the content of which will be discussed later. For qualifying this arrangement, Chiellino uses the term “Kulturraum” (cultural space) for creating apparent cultural or lingual homogeneity in geographical space (i.e. Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe or Asia) and moreover, she uses it for differentiating and separating vis-à-vis time and content the former and later culture, particularly the source (home country’s) language and the target (host country, Germany’s) language. In 2002 Alaia Blioumi edited the omnibus Migration und Interkulturalität in neueren literarischen Texten,16 wherein the texts elaborate the question of nationality, naturalization and find new spaces to locate these literatures. From the “Weltbürger” (citizen of the world, Gerhard Bauer) to the “Staatsbürger” (citizen, Immacolata Amodeo), from “being on the move” (Sarut Şölçün) to finding a “fatherland” (Mustafa Al-Slaiman), these studies on intercultural German literature and their many perspectives differ vastly (reflecting the diversity of the literature

15Carmine Chiellino, ed. Interkulturelle Literatur in Deutschland. Ein Handbuch. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2000. 16Aglaia Blioumi, ed. Migration und Interkulturalität in neueren literarischen Texten. München: Iudicium, 2002.

22 2.2 German Situation After 1995 itself). In 2004 Manfred Durzak and Nilüfer Kuruyazici edited the proceedings of the 2003 Istanbuler Vortäge as Die andere deutsche Literatur.17 Like the conference, the volume is divided into three parts concerned with methodology and history, analyses of German-Turkish texts, and German minorities writing in the periphery, namely Eastern Europe. The methodological and historical overview deals mostly with the problematics of canonization. For instance Karl Esselborn18 writes on German minority literature in the realm of intercultural literary research influenced by cultural studies and Irmgard Ackermann19 discusses the Chamisso-Award and its influence on the literary canon. In the same year Klaus Schenk, Almut Todorow, and Milan Tvrdik edited the volume Migrationsliteratur. Schreibweisen einer interkuturellen Moderne.20 Be- sides general texts on the phenomenon of migrant literature, the more specific local area is the new writing originating from and in Eastern European countries. In the chapter “Abrenzungen — Eingrenzungen” (separation — isolation), the question of locating this kind of literature is asked yet again. Thus Alfrun Kliems21 focuses on the features of migration, exile, and post-colonialism and their implications on the debates on canonizing and categorizing literature, while Karl Esselborn22 again

17Manfred Durzak and Nilüfer Kuruyazici, eds. Die andere deutsche Literatur. Würzburg: Königshausen and Neumann, 2004. 18Karl Esselborn. “Deutschsprachige Minderheitenliteraturen als Gegenstand einer kulturwissenschaftlichorientieren ‘interkulturellen Literaturwissenschaft’.” In: Die andere deutsche Lite- ratur. Ed. by Manfred Durzak and Nilüfer Kuruyazici. Würzburg: Königshausen and Neumann, 2004, pp. 11–22. 19Irmgard Ackermann. “Der Chamisso-Preis und der Literaturkanon.” In: Die andere deutsche Literatur. Ed. by Manfred Durzak and Nilüfer Kuruyazici. Würzburg: Königshausen and Neu- mann, 2004, pp. 47–51. 20Klaus Schenk, Almut Todorow, and Milan Tvrdik, eds. Migrationsliteratur. Schreibweisen einer interkuturellen Moderne. Tübingen and Basel: A. Francke Verlag, 2004. 21Alfrun Kliems. “Migration – Exil – Postkolonialismus? Kanonisierung und Kategorisierung von Literatur.” In: Migrationsliteratur. Schreibweisen einer interkuturellen Moderne. Ed. by Klaus Schenk, Almut Todorow, and Milan Tvrdik. Tübingen and Basel: A. Francke Verlag, 2004, pp. 287–300. 22Karl Esselborn. “Der Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Preis und die Förderung der Migrationsliter- atur.” In: Migrationsliteratur. Schreibweisen einer interkuturellen Moderne. Ed. by Klaus

23 2. Literature, Migration and the Chinese takes up the importance of the Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Award and its impact on the advancement of migration literature. With his book ZwischenWeltenSchreiben. Literaturen ohne festen Wohnsitz,23 which appeared in 2005, Ottmar Ette describes the phenomenon of migrant literature on a broader, global scale:

Der Begriﬀ der Literatur ohne festen Wohnsitz darf nicht mit dem Be- griﬀ der ‘Migrationsliteratur’ oder (noch enger) dem der ‘Exilliteratur’ gleichgesetzt oder in diesen rückübersetzt werden. Denn die in diesem Band vorgestellten transarealen, transkulturellen und translingualen Dynamiken rücken im Zeichen eines ständigen und unabschließbaren Springens zwischen Orten und Zeiten, Gesellschaften und Kulturen eine Literatur ohne festen Wohnsitz in den Mittelpunkt, die — als querliegendes Konzept — weder in Kategorien wie ‘Nationalliteratur’ oder ‘Migratonsliteratur’ noch in solchen der ‘Weltliteratur’ gänzlich aufgeht oder adäquat beschrieben werden kann.24

With this definition for the literature discussed in his monograph, Ette enlarges the field to a broader, less specific arena, encompassing various authors as Reinaldo Arenas, V.S. Naipaul, José F.A. Oliver, and Derek Walcott. In his chapter “Oszillationen. Fremdschreiben in ZwischenWelten: Zur translingualen Fortschreibung deutschsprachiger Gegenwartsliteratur” (Oscillations. For- eign/ disloyal writing in in-between worlds. A translingual updating of Ger- manophone contemporary literature), Ette refers largely to the prolific writers Emine Sevgi Özdamar and Yoko Tawada, contrasting their works and contextual- izing them in the German post-war literary scene. This selection of texts mirrors the recent developments in examining “migration” literature written in the German language. Research is either carried out

Schenk, Almut Todorow, and Milan Tvrdik. Tübingen and Basel: A. Francke Verlag, 2004, pp. 317–325. 23Otmar Ette. ZwischenWeltenSchreiben. Literaturen ohne festen Wohnsitz. Berlin: Kadmos, 2005. 24Ette, ZwischenWeltenSchreiben, p. 14.

24 2.3 Recent Developments in Francophone Studies from a very general perspective, focusing on the linguistic aspects or acceptance of such literature, or from a very narrow one, focusing on one language group or nationality.

2.3 Recent Developments in Francophone Studies

In this chapter, developments in French literary studies shall be portrayed both in contrast to and as a complement of the aforementioned “German” situation. Traditionally, literature from Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec25 would be regarded as Francophone literature. The term “Francophonie,”26 in the sense it is used it in the following, was coined in the late 1970s and includes every country with French as one of the oﬃcial languages and thus encompasses a literary production beyond France. It was only in the last few decades that this “new” Francophone literature emerged at the so-called periphery.27 Research mainly focused — and continues to focus — on the literature created by authors originating from the former French and Belgian colonies in North Africa, Sub-Saharan African, or the Caribbean along with the traditional Francophone countries like Canada, Switzerland, and Belgium. Mainly in the last decade scholars came to the conclusion that the categories of French speaking countries, or former French or Belgian colonies did not hold any longer. They had to include authors that migrated to Francophone countries (mostly France and Canada) and eventually adopted French28 as their language of

25It is obvious that except France, all other countries are bi- or multilingual, yet this question is hardly ever targeted in any of the following texts. 26The official organization Organisation internationale de la Francophonie defines “Francopho- nie”, as follows: “La Francophonie consciente des liens que crée entre ses membres le partage de la langue française et de valeurs universelles, œuvre au service de la paix, de la coopération, de la sol- idarité et du développement durable. Les institutions de la Francophonie concourent, pour ce qui les concerne, à la réalisation de ces objectifs.” Cf. http://www.francophonie.org/oif/index.cfm, visited 02/20/2007. 27Here the term periphery refers to the cultural sphere. While French literature is considered as the center and the literature by authors from the former colonies has edged closer to it, the literature by “unrelated” writers still remains at the fringes. 28However only a few of the scholars put this into historical perspective, instead they regard these writers different, or apart from those like Giacomo Casanova or Samuel Beckett.

25 2. Literature, Migration and the Chinese expression.

To write in the French (or a French) language is to participate in la Francophonie, if the term is taken to mean the use of the French (or recognizably French) language by a writer who is not French, or by a writer who believes his or her identity is not French (even if he or she has become a French national). To describe a literary text as ‘Francophone’ is to distinguish it from a ‘French’ text and therefore to emphasize a certain diﬀerence.29

The articles and volumes listed below pay tribute to this latest development. For instance in her 1997 collection of interviews, L’écrivain Francophone à la croisée des langues, Lise Gauvin30 familiarizes the reader with a manifold group of Fran- cophone writers, including authors from former French colonies or other French- speaking countries as well as those who simply adopted French as their literary language. Her talks are guided by very speciﬁc questions concerning the biography and literary production of the respective author. In the introduction Gauvin reﬂects on the question of language and therefore identity itself:

Je crois en effet que le commun dénominateur des littératures dites émergentes, et notamment des littératures Francophones, est de pro- poser, au cœur de leur problématique identitaire, une réflexion sur la langue et sur la manière dont s’articulent les rapports langue/ littéra- tures dans des contextes différents. La complexité de ces rapports, les relations généralement conflictuelles — ou tout au moins concurren- tielles — qu’entretiennent entre elles une ou plusieurs langues, don- nent lieu à cette surconscience dont les écrivains ont rendu compte de diverses façons.31

29Belinda Jack. Francophone Literatures. An Introductory Survey. New York: Oxford Uni- versity Press, 1996. 30Lise Gauvin. L’écrivain francophone à la croisée des langues. Entretiens. Paris: Édition Karthala, 2006, ﬁrst edition 1997. 31Gauvin, L’écrivain francophone à la croisée des langues, p. 7.

26 2.3 Recent Developments in Francophone Studies

She includes Chinese writers, like the Francophone Chinese-Canadian Ying Chen and the exiled Yang Lian, both of whom reflect on specific dispositions of writing in a foreign language and culture. The joint venture of Charles Bonn, Xavier Garnier and Jacques Lecarme32 to publish a comprehensive overview of Francophone literature including “new” countries of origin led to a two volume edition of Littérature Francophone, with the first one from 1997 dedicated to the novel and the second one from 1999 to short stories, poetry and theater. The chapters are divided into geographical regions chronologically narrating the development of Francophone writing all over the world. In the chapter on Canadian writing, Ying Chen33 is introduced among the recent novelists, and in the introductory chapter to the part on theater, Gao Xingjian34 is only mentioned in passing. In the 1999 omnibus volume Francophonie et identités culturelles35 Christiane Albert defines Francophonie in a different way.

En effet, les différents modes d’appropriation du français par des hommes et des femmes dont ce n’était pas la langue maternelle ont permis l’émergence de littératures appartenant à des aires géographiques et culturelles différentes qui définissent une Francophonie plurielle.36

The chapter by Rosa de Diego, “L’identité multiculturelle au Québec,”37 acknowledges, for the Canadian situation, the possibility of immigrants who are not only from French-speaking countries by mentioning “des écrivains québécois de souche non Francophone qui écrivent et publient en français. Pour certains, la langue

32Charles Bonn, Xavier Garnier, and Jacques Lecarme, eds. Littérature francophone. Le roman. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Paris: Hatier, 1997; Charles Bonn and Xavier Garnier, eds. Littérature francophone. Récits courts, poésie, théâtre. Vol. 2. 2 vols. Paris: Hatier, 1999. 33Her name is misspelled through out the text as Yin Chen, in: Bonn, Garnier, and Lecarme, Littérature francophone, 84f. 34Bonn and Garnier, Littérature francophone, p. 229. 35Christiane Albert, ed. Francophonie et identités culturelles. Paris: Édition Karthala, 1999. 36Albert, Francophonie et identités culturelles, p. 5. 37Rosa de Diego. “L’identité multiculturelle au Québec.” In: Francophonie et identités culturelles. Édition Karthala, 1999, pp. 183–195.

27 2. Literature, Migration and the Chinese française peut être maternelle, mais pour d’autres c’est une langue, bien choisie, bien imposée.”38 In the 1999 monograph La Francophonie littéraire. Essai pour une théorie,39 Michel Beniamino remarks upon and emphasizes the existence of different Fran- cophonie discourses. In chapter three of part one, Beniamino portrays different typologies of Francophone literature. In the different chapters of part two he then highlights various aspects of Francophone literature, ranging from colonial to Fran- cophone writing, Francophonie and the choice of language to the broader concepts of literature and national identity. The books’ general conclusion discusses the relationship between the reader and readings of Francophone literature. Hence, this volume is one of the most comprehensive studies on different features and discussions of Francophonie. The 2001 conference volume Littératures postcoloniales et Francophonie40 edited by Jean Bessière and Jean-Marc Moura refers to the absence of the term postcolonial in Francophone studies so far. This volume incorporates the older discussion of Francophonie and nation state, literature of the overseas territories, literature edited or even written in France, transnational works or “World Fiction”41 with postcolonial issues in literature. In his article on literature and immigration in France, Charles Bonn42 defines the “new” Francophonie as follows: “Les littératures des pays anciennement colonisés par la France sont des littératures

38Diego, “L’identité multiculturelle au Québec,” p. 184. 39Michel Beniamino. La Francophonie littéraire. Essai pour une théorie. Montréal and Paris: L’Harmattan, 1999. 40Jean Bessière and Jean-Marc Moura, eds. Littératures postcoloniales et francophonie. Con- férences du séminaire de Littérature comparée de l’Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Paris: Honoré Champion Éditeur, 2001. 41This term has been introduced and attained prominence in French and Francophone Studies through Pascale Casanova. La république mondiale des lettres. Paris: Seuil, 1999. 42Charles Bonn. “Postcolonialisme et Reconnaissance littéraire des textes francophones émer- gents. L’exemple de la littérature maghrébine et de la littérature issue de l’immigration.” In: Littératures postcoloniales et francophonie. Conférences du séminaire de Littérature comparée de l’Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Ed. by Jean Bessière and Jean-Marc Moura. Paris: Honoré Champion Éditeur, 2001.

28 2.3 Recent Developments in Francophone Studies

émergentes, dans un contexte de décolonisation . . . .”43 Already the title of David Mendelson’s 2001 monograph, Émergence des Fran- cophonies,44 announces the plurality of new literatures surfacing in French. This study is one of the few exemplary ones since it locates the upcoming development in several spaces besides the former colonies, including the Middle East, Israel, and beyond. The volume also highlights the rich literary exchange between the Mediterranean cultures in the French language. The literary journal Présence Francophone45 issued in 2001 the volume, “Fran- cophonie, écritures et immigration,” which is exclusively dedicated to the multiple phenomena of migration in the Francophonie discourse/s. However the book does not go much further than providing observations on well known Francophone authors like Amadou Hampaté Bâ and regions such as the Caribbean or Northern Africa. Nevertheless, migration into the French language is discussed in the chapter on Nancy Houston, Régine Robin and Émile Ollivier. Anne Curién’s 2004 collection Écrire au présent46 features essays on the debate around French-Chinese literary exchange. Ying Chen,47 as an exiled Francophone writer in Canada, writes about her personal trial between the choice of Chinese and French as her language of writing. Yang Lian48 investigates the prototype of poetry in exile and undergoes a transition from Chinese writer (poète de Chine) to Chinese language writer (poète de langue chinoise) to only a writer in his own

43Bonn, “Postcolonialisme et Reconnaissance littéraire des textes francophones émergents,” p. 27. 44David Mendelson. Émergence des Francophonies. Israël, la méditerranée, le monde. Paris: Pulim, 2001. 45Dep. of Modern Languages and Literatures, College of the Holy Cross, ed. Francophonie, écritures et immigration. Présence Francophone 58 (2002). 46Annie Curién, ed. and forew. Écrire au présent. Débats littéraires franco-chinois. Paris: Fondation Maison des science de l’homme, 2004. 47Ying Chen. “La vie probable.” In: Écrire au présent. Débats littéraires franco-chinois. Ed. by Annie Curién. 51–55. Paris: Fondation Maison des science de l’homme, 2004. 48Yang Lian. “En quête d’un prototype de poésie étrangère.” In: Écrire au présent. Débats littéraires franco-chinois. Ed. by Annie Curién. Paris: Fondation Maison des science de l’homme, 2004, pp. 73–78.

29 2. Literature, Migration and the Chinese language (poète de langue yangaise).49 The omnibus L’entredire Francophone presented by Martine Mathieu-Job50 is structured in several chapters, with each looking at Francophonie from a different perspective, including the shift from traditional sources to multicultural approaches, variations of language, intertextuality, intermediality, autobiography, and colloquialism. In Martine Mathieu-Job’s introduction and foremost in Claude Filteau’s chapter,51 the new approach in connecting decolonization, multiculturalism and the emergence of Francophone literature in Canada is elucidated. The study Canon national et constructions identitaires edited by Isaac Bazié and Peter Klaus52 is again organized according to countries of origin. The focus is on the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan and Northern Africa, and Quebec or French Canada, whereby the Canadian chapters also refer to the important impact of literature by immigrants on the regional literary production. The title Migrances, diasporas et transculturalités Francophones53 only thematically refers to Francophone migration literature. In grosso modo the chapters target the reﬂection of the actual situations in the countries of immigration, France and Canada, and their literary outcome. This migration is seen as a natural one from the former colonies, as for example in Charles Bonn’s chapter54 on the visibility of emigration-immigration in maghrebinian, French and second generation

49Yang, “En quête d’un prototype de poésie étrangère,” p. 74. 50Martine Mathieu-Job, ed. L’entredire francophone. Pessac: Presses Universitaires de Bor- deaux, 2004. 51Claude Filteau. “Du discours sur la décolonisation au discours sur le multiculturalisme au Québec.” In: L’entredire francophone. Pessac: Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 2004, pp. 19– 33. 52Isaac Bazié and Peter Klaus, eds. Canon national et constructions identitaires. Les nouvelles littératures francophones. Berlin: Institut für Romanische Philologie der FU, 2005. 53Haﬁd Gafaïti, Lorcin, Patricia M. E., and Troyansky, David G., eds. Migrances, diasporas et transculturalités francophones. Littératures et cultures d’Afrique, des Caraïbes, d’Europe et du Québec. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006. 54Charles Bonn. “La visibilité de l’émigration-immigration dans les littératures maghrébine, francaise, et de la ‘seconde géneration’ de l’immigration. Quelle ‘scénographie postcoloinale’?” In: Migrances, diasporas et transculturalités francophones. Littératures et cultures d’Afrique, des Caraïbes, d’Europe et du Québec. Ed. by Haﬁd Gafaïti, Lorcin, Patricia M. E., and Troyansky, David G. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006, pp. 43–69.

30 2.4 Studies on Chinese Writing in French immigrants’ writing. Exceptional are the chapters by Anne Morelli55 on Italian Francophone migrant writers in Belgium, and Dannielle Dumontet on hybrid texts and the “écritures migrantes,” which once again focusses on Quebec.56 The monograph Les voleurs de langue is — as Jean-Louis Joubert57 describes it — a real traversal across the centuries and continents of Francophonie. The chapters are informative and produce the intended result of encouraging further readings. The question of literature by authors that migrated into the French language is not a major point, but hinted at now and than, as for example by including the Greek Francophone author Vassilis Alexakis. The above mentioned texts are only a selective choice of the actual, enormous body of research dedicated to Francophone literature. Nevertheless these assembled texts are representative of the attempts to describe the manifold heterogeneous ﬁeld of literature produced in French by non-French citizens. Literature scholars so far were more concerned with literature in Chinese, Malay, Indonesian and English, and countries in Asia, the Americas and Australia. How- ever the following two chapters sum up the published research on literature in French and German language written by Mainland Chinese.

2.4 Studies on Chinese Writing in French

One can generalize that mainly the French Canadian Chinese writers and foremost the Quebecoise writer, Ying Chen, are referred to. For instance, two very prominent authors living in France, Dai Sijie and Shan Sa, are not focused upon and

55Anne Morelli. “L’émergence dans la littérature fracophone de Belgique d’auteurs allochtones.” In: Migrances, diasporas et transculturalités francophones. Littératures et cultures d’Afrique, des Caraïbes, d’Europe et du Québec. Ed. by Hafid Gafaïti, Lorcin, Patricia M. E., and Troyansky, David G. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006, pp. 71–80. 56Danielle Dumontet. “Hybridité textuelle – Effets de texte – Hybridité linguistique. Effets de langue dans les textes des ‘écritures migrantes’ au Québec.” In: Migrances, diasporas et transcul- turalités francophones. Littératures et cultures d’Afrique, des Caraïbes, d’Europe et du Québec. Ed. by Hafid Gafaïti, Lorcin, Patricia M. E., and Troyansky, David G. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006, pp. 83–105. 57Jean-Louis Joubert. Les voleurs de langue. Traversée de la francophonie littéraire. Paris: Philippe Rey, 2006. Joubert also dedicated a radio broadcast on the topic of Chinese-French writing, downloadable at http://www.canalacademie.com/Les-ecrivains-chinois.html.

31 2. Literature, Migration and the Chinese the same is true for the acclaimed writer, translator, literary critic and member of the Académie française, François Cheng as well as the Nobel prize laureate, Gao Xingjian. In the 2002 published Écrire en langue étrangère, edited by Robert Dion, Hans- Jürgen Lüsebrink, and János Riesz,58 Véronique Porra59 is one of the first to review the newly surfaced wave of Chinese authors in the French language in the midst of other nationalities. She claims that the integration of foreign authors from an originally non-Francophone environment in the French book market makes them not only ‘passeurs de langue’ but ‘passeurs de culture.’ She outlines the approach to the French audience by authors by emphasizing on and explaining the Otherness or by making the cultural differences coherent, where she gives examples of the Chinese writers, as well. In the year 2004, when China was the honorary guest of the ‘Salon du livre’ in Paris, a special edition of the periodical Magazine littéraire dedicated to this event was published. In it, Muriel Détrie60 asks and answers in one article the question of whether a Chinese French language novel exists. According to Muriel Détrie this is a fact. In one of the fundamental articles for my research, ‘Existe-t-il un roman chinois Francophone?,’ she describes part of today’s variety of Sino-French Literature. Détrie claims that these Sino-French authors strive to surpass the borders of languages and cultures, of East and West.61 These authors, according to Détrie, can be divided into three different groups corresponding to the following aspects: “La valorisation de la culture française,

58Robert Dion, Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, and János Riesz, eds. Écrire en langue étrangère. Interférences de langues et de cultures dans le monde francophone. Nota Bene. Québec: IKO- Verlag, 2002. 59Véronique Porra. “Quand les ‘passeurs de langue’ deviennent ‘passeurs de culture’. Inté- gration des auteurs étrangers originares d’espaces non francophones en France.” In: Écrire en langue étrangère. Interférences de langues et de cultures dans le monde francophone. Ed. by Robert Dion, Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, and János Riesz. Nota Bene. Québec: IKO-Verlag, 2002, pp. 129–151. 60Mureil Détrie. “Existe-t-il un roman chinois francophone?” In: Magazine Littéraire 429 (2004), pp. 65–66. 61Existe-t-i, “Existe-t-il un roman chinois francophone?” P. 66.

32 2.4 Studies on Chinese Writing in French l’invention d’une Chine traditionnelle et la quête identitaire.”62 As a conclusion Détrie postulates the existence of a Francophone Chinese novel, incorporating the features mentioned above and the success of the novels Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise by Dai Sijie and La joueuse de go by Shan Sa in France and abroad. Notably, Détrie lists writers according to the used language and not the place of residence. Hence, she includes authors writing in France as well as other European countries and PR China e.g. François Cheng, Dai Sijie, Shan Sa, Shen Dali, Wei-Wei, and Ya Ding. Excluded by her is Gao Xingjian who, while still writing his prose in Chinese, has written several plays in French, which Détrie does not take into account.63 In the large volume from 2005, Transkulturalität und Hybridität edited by Jür- gen Erfurt,64 two chapters are on Francophone Chinese writers, namely Danielle Dumontet’s “Écrire en plusieurs langues. Le cas des écritures migrantes au Québec,”65 and Adelheid Hu’s “Chinesische Schriftsteller/innen in frankophonen Räumen. Reﬂexionen über Mehrsprachigkeit, Identitätsverortung und literarisches Schreiben.”66 Danielle Dumontet describes Francophonie to the reader as imbued with contact zones of multilingualism, and concentrates in one smaller chapter on those who are born to write in another language.67 She looks at several authors from this perspective, among them Nancy Houston, Aki Shimazaki, and especially Ying Chen.

62Existe-t-i, “Existe-t-il un roman chinois francophone?” P. 65. 63Gao Xingjian’s theater plays in French include: 1993: Au bord de la vie; 1995: Le somnambule; 1998: L’encre et la lumière; 1998: Quatre quatuors pour un week-end. 64Jürgen Erfurt, ed. Transkulturalität und Hybridität. L’espace francophone als Grenzerfahrung des Sprechens und Schreibens. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2005. 65Danielle Dumontet. “Écrire en plusieurs langues. Le cas des écritures migrantes au Québec.” In: Transkulturalität und Hybridität. L’espace francophone als Grenzerfahrung des Sprechens und Schreibens. Ed. by Jürgen Erfurt. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2005, pp. 81–100. 66Adelheid Hu. “Chinesische Schriftsteller/innen in frankophonen Räumen. Reﬂexionen über Mehrsprachigkeit, Identitätsverortung und literarisches Schreiben.” In: Transkulturalität und Hybridität. L’espace francophone als Grenzerfahrung des Sprechens und Schreibens. Ed. by Jürgen Erfurt. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2005, pp. 101–118. 67Cf. Dumontet, “Écrire en plusieurs langues,” p. 86.

33 2. Literature, Migration and the Chinese

Adelheid Hu explores the autobiographies and autobiographical writings of Chi- nese authors living in France or Francophone Canada, including the works by François Cheng, Ying Chen, and Gao Xingjian. The analyzed selections of texts reﬂect on language, linguistic-cultural identity, and above all literary writings.

2.5 Studies on Chinese Writing in German

Even though Chinese authors writing in German are much rarer than those writing in French, several scientific articles have already been dedicated to the phenomenon. So far, Ulrike Reeg gives the most comprehensive overview of Sino-German literature. The chapter “Autor/innen aus dem asiatischen Kulturraum” (Authors from the Asian cultural space)68 was published in the manual Interkulturelle Lite- ratur in Deutschland. Ein Handbuch, where Reeg introduces several authors and their works including Ce Shaozhen and his anecdotal narrative Flaneur im alten Peking, the short stories by Bei-Min, Nelly Ma, and Yiu Wubin69 and the provok- ing autobiographical novel, Ein Chinese in Bautzen II. 2675 Nächte im Würgegriff der Stasi by Kuo Xing-hu. Nevertheless, Reeg’s focus is on the more prolific and prominent Asian authors like Galsan Tschinag from Mongolia and Yoko Tawada from Japan. In the 2005 omnibus Migration und Integration der Auslandschinesen in Deutschland by Hui-wen von Groeling-Che and Dagmar Yü-Dembski, as mentioned above, the introduction and one more chapter bears witness to the Chinese literary production in Germany. In the introduction and the chapter, “Migrationserfahrungen — Thematik und Bedeutung überseechinesischer Literatur” (experiences of migration — theme and meaning of Overseas Chinese literature), Groeling-Che and Yü-Dembski70 examine

68Ulrike Reeg. “Autor/innen aus dem asiatischen Kulturraum.” In: Interkulturelle Literatur in Deutschland. Ein Handbuch. Ed. by Carmine Chiellino. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2000, pp. 263– 273. 69All of them are published either in the earl 1980s collections Als Fremder in Deutschland or In zwei Sprachen leben. 70Groeling-Che and Yü-Dembski, “Migrationserfahrungen.”

34 2.5 Studies on Chinese Writing in German this phenomenon from a European view point. With the 1990s as a starting point for the publishing of prose and poetry anthologies, Groeling-Che and Yü-Dembski mostly look at those texts written in Chinese. It is only in a footnote that the writer Zhou Chun with his autobiographical works in German is mentioned. Two more authors writing in German are featured: the poet Kan Yujing who portrays the relationship with her German husband in the volume Vergessen wider, and the poet Xu Pei’s numerous poetry volumes that are analyzed in greater detail. Groeling-Che and Yü-Dembski describe Xu Pei’s poems as a search for the essence of life. This handful of essays on Chinese Francophone and German-speaking authors, referring to questions of multilingualism, language choice, cultural identity, self- conception as a mediator of culture, and so on, can be seen as the inspirational source for the text at hand. As shown in the following chapter, the European image of China and the Chinese, conveyed by early travelogues, philosophical treatises, novels from an imperialist perspective, is of a rather persistent, rigid character.

Chapter 3

Coping with and Copying the Clichés

3.1 Orientalism — Tradition of German and French “China- Novels” and its Imaginary

When Marco Polo returned to Europe from his stay in Cathay at the turn of the 13th century, his accounts of a developed and cultured empire in the East were met with bewilderment and skepticism.1 Nevertheless in the following centuries China and its people were a source of fascination or irritation in the European imagination. In 1585 the ﬁrst comprehensive history of China, Historia de la cosas mas notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China2 was written by the Augustinian priest Juan González de Mendoza. Additional notable accounts of Chinese geography, history and institutions were given by Jesuit priests, among them Matteo Ricci, founder of the China mission, in 1615, and the Portuguese missionary, Alvaro Semedo in 1642. Constructing China and the Chinese society

1Marco Polo’s reception alters through the centuries, as for example during the 18th century, when some of his statements were conﬁrmed by early Jesuit reports from China. The earliest acknowledgment of the existence of an entity as China dates back to the ancient Romans. Cf. Colin Mackerras. Western Images of China. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 13–15 and Osterhammel, Entzauberung Asiens, p. 189. 2Mackerras, Western Images of China, 19f. Diﬀerent years of publication appear in the secondary literature, e.g. 1583. Mendoza based his historiography on the reports by Martín de Rada, Galeote Pereira, and Gaspar de Cruz. In the same decade translations into other European languages appeared — in 1586 the Italian, in 1588 the English and French, and in 1589 the German editions were published.

37 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés as an alternative version of Europe and the European society was recurrent during “le siècle des Lumières”. Books like the compilation of Jesuits’ letters sent to France, unpublished texts and translations from various Chinese sources, Déscrip- tion géographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l’empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise by Jean-Baptist du Halde, inﬂuenced the thinkers of the Enlightenment. Thus Johann Gottfried Herder, Immanuel Kant, Voltaire, and many others painted a picture of China based on reading rather than on experience, which was either driven by both repugnance or euphoria. Until the end of the 18th century Europeans in Asia regarded themselves largely as missionaries, explorers, diplomats, or armed merchants. At the same time Eu- ropean scholars refrained from judgment on the accumulated knowledge of China. Trade was to be established, along the coastline at ﬁrst, on the mainland later and this did not proceed without local concurrence and the necessity of an indigenous middleman. With the accumulation of knowledge on Asia and China, with the strengthening of military and commercial positions, and with the capi- talization of economy, a disenchantment of Asia took place. Here lies the paradox: The more Europeans knew about China, the more their fascination and respect declined. China was no longer the Cathay of unknown wealth but a place with resources to be exploited. Consequently, a shift in scholarly discourses was to be observed all over Europe. While during the 17th and 18th century, discourses of decline, stagnation and degeneration3 were produced and discussed, the new theories of civilization were identical in the belief that China’s development was not up to that of modern Europe, that it was stagnating on former highs and therefore behind. From the anticipation of a special role among the continents to the consciousness of superiority, late-Enlightenment theories materialized on a scale of civilization. Interpretations of this scale were dynamic, and in the later years of the 18th century the civilizing mission triumphed over principles of equality among civilizations and religions, acquiring legitimacy almost equal to that of political systems.

Die Zivilisation, die sich für die leistungsfähigste und humanste auf

3Cf. Osterhammel, Entzauberung Asiens, pp. 385–394.

38 3.1 Orientalism

der Welt hielt, wartete nicht, bis Asien sich für sie interessieren würde. Sie gab Asien ihre Gesetze. . . . Asien mußte regiert werden. Asien machte Arbeit. Das unbeschwerte Europa der Aufklärung trug fortan die selbstgeschulterte Bürde des weißen Mannes.4

As a result a new, value-laden dichotomy between East and West, Orient and Occident was established. And so with the emergence of imperialism and the partial colonization of China, the tone and images of the Middle Kingdom change.

Yet the whole tone of nineteenth-century writings on China shows that realistic attempts to take account of non-European, for example Chi- nese, standards grew fainter and rarer as the century wore on and the military, economic, political, and social impact of Western imperialism strengthened. This was the period when Edward Said’s ‘orientalist’ approach to China . . . reached its height, when Europe colonized not only parts of China, but also knowledge about it.5

This colonized knowledge, this imperialist gaze manifests itself not only in missionaries’ reports or travelogues and theoretical or philosophic treatises about China, but finds its way into 19th century popular literature. Enhanced through political issues and racial theories, the novels imagine the Other, as people that are soon to be subjected. The discovery of “new” continents was a widespread theme for all kinds of popular literature that started earlier in Britain with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe but was brought to its heights during the 19th century. These adventurous travel novels catapult the main character into a new and dangerous world. Usually he and his company have to master several life-endangering tests in order to res- cue a person or fulfill an honorable deed. These are generally narrated from the hero’s perspective, who incorporates the good, while fighting and defeating the evil. Whereas the (serialized) novels by Eugene Sue and Alexandre Dumas père take place in Europe, particularly in different parts of the society rather than the

4Osterhammel, Entzauberung Asiens, p. 403. 5Mackerras, Western Images of China, p. 40.

39 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés readership, Jules Verne and Karl May thrust the reader into foreign worlds and continents. Two works by Jules Verne and Karl May shall function as examples: In 1879 Jules Verne’s Les Tribulations d’un Chinois en Chine6 was issued and in 1888/89 Karl May successively published the novel Der blau-rothe Methusalem.7 One features a “happy student trip” to China, the other the education sentimentale of a spoiled, rich young Chinese facing ruin and death.8 Karl May narrates the journey of a group of Germans — later joined by a Dutch and several Chinese along the way — traveling from Canton to Ho-tsing- ting, in order to find a young German’s uncle. Head of the group is the student Degenfeld, who is called Methusalem because of the long duration of his studies. He is educated by his Chinese neighbor in Heidelberg on Chinese language, culture and customs. The other three Germans are: Gottfried, his valet, bearing a heavy Berlin accent; Richard Stein, the young man, in search of whose uncle the party starts off; and Turnerstick, a ship captain, who claims to know every language and ridicules himself by using an imaginary one. They are joined by a Dutch businessman, Aardappelenbosch, who is unfit or ingenuous in everyday life, but does know his job. The major Chinese characters appear in different situations, whereby most of the time Degenfeld is helping them out of impossible and dangerous circumstances. He and his group liberate two Chinese officials from a pirate ship, leaving both indebted to him. On the boat a young man, Liang-ssi, is discovered defecting to the “German” group, who is soon revealed as one of

6Jules Verne. Les tribulations d’un Chinois en Chine. Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 2000. First published in 1879. 7Karl May. Der blaurote Methusalem. Bamberg and Radebeul: Karl-May-Verlag, 1951. The book was published as Kong-Kheou, das Ehrenwort in the journal “Der gute Kamerad. Spemanns Illustrierter Knaben-Zeitung”. The book edition was released in 1892 under the title Der blau-rothe Methusalem. Eine lustige Studentenfahrt nach China. 8Further readings regarding the comparison of May and Verne see: Antje Streit. “Der ‘franzö- sische’ und der ‘deutsche’ Chinese. Eine vergleichende Studie zu den Chinaromanen Jules Vernes und Karl Mays.” In: Jahrbuch der Karl-May-Gesellschaft. Husum: Hansa, 1999. And: Milan V. Dimić. “Imperial Fictions of Travel. Images of China and the Chinese in European Popular Liteature (May, Salgari, and Verne).” In: Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 24.4 (1997), pp. 1007–1079.

40 3.1 Orientalism the Chinese neighbor’s sons. As Degenfeld prevents the goldsmith Hu-tsin from a wrong accusation and its dreadful legal consequences, his father-in-law, the beg- gar’s king, gives him important documents that can be used as a voucher or carte blanche in any problematic situation. This person is the only Chinese for whom at least some positive features can be claimed. While freeing Aardappelenbosch and Turnerstick from prison, Degenfeld and his companions overpower a watch- man, who in order not be made responsible for his disloyalty, becomes a part of the group and turns out to be the other son, Jin-tsian, of the Chinese neighbor in Heidelberg. On his way through China, Degenfeld not only finds the whole family and riches of his Chinese neighbor, but also manages to fulfill the task of locating the German landlady’s brother-in-law, liquidating his business and selling it profitably to Aardappelenbosch at the same time. Les tribulations d’un Chinois en Chine by Jules Verne deals with a Chinese hero and a larger set of Chinese characters, while other prominent characters are from the United States of America, including William J. Bidulph, head of an insurance company and his two agents Craig and Fry. The following main characters engage in the novel’s actions: Kin-Fo, a rather well-off young man, who inherited his money, Wang, his tutor and former Taiping,9 always referred to as the wise philosopher, and Soun, his valet. The story takes off after introducing the main characters around a luxurious dinner table, where the young man Kin-Fo becomes aware of the sudden loss of his fortune due to the collapse of the market in the United States. Kin-Fo acquires a life insurance from an American Company and the company’s manager William Bidulph allocates two employees to him. These two agents, Craig and Fry appear as comic relief through out the novel. Kin-Fo’s solution for the impending bankruptcy is to ask his mentor Wang to slaughter him in order to provide the family with enough money and not to live in poverty and shame. The mentor agrees. In a letter Kin-Fo explains the situation to his fiancée Lé-ou. Soon after taking all these measures he finds out that he is not bankrupt after all. But he cannot find Wang and fears for his life. He departs on a flight throughout Eastern China with a small entourage of valets and

9Follower of the Taiping Movement, a religious and political movement in mid-nineteenth century China.

41 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés bodyguards. Traveling by horse, foot, and boat, they pass several cities, among them Xi’an and Beijing, which are described in great detail. In the final section of the novel Kin-Fo is abducted and sure to confront a violent death, but everything resolves happily, as his execution is revealed as being staged as a moral lesson in cherishing higher ideals in life. Thus Kin-Fo finally embraces life and marries his fiancée. The quintessence of this analysis lies not only in distilling the traits with which Chinese people are described, but also the manner in which this portrayal is performed. Rather easily the following features of China and the Chinese can be marked out: The Chinese are a people of a highly developed civilization that is nonetheless inferior to Western civilizations;10 the Chinese are driven by instincts and strongly bound by superstition; fatalism and cowardice often go hand in hand in their actions, as they are by large not trustworthy and/ or criminal. The narrator appears as the friendly, ‘objective’ observer and describer to the reader by referring to the impressive achievements of the Chinese people. But it is with the same breath that qualitatively and quantitatively negative features are attributed to the Chinese vis-à-vis their physical appearance and dressing, their culture, and eventually their “national character”. May, as already referred to, constantly ascribes behavior patterns while introducing new characters.11 Even unimportant Chinese characters are casually labeled with negative adjectives and associations — their exterior is either dirty or comical, their gestures and actions are interpreted as greedy or obnoxious. There is a general disapproval regarding the cleanliness of the Chinese. “Der Chinese ist bekanntlich nicht wegen allzu großer Reinlichkeit berühmt. Die höheren Stände

10For example, Robert Fortune points out that the Chinese are considerably more advanced than Hindus, Malays or other nations. Cf. Mackerras, Western Images of China, p. 50. 11May resorts to diﬀerent sources and material. For further elaboration on the topic read: Walter Schinzel-Lang. “Fundierte Kenntnisse oder phantasievolle Ahnungslosigkeit? Die Ver- wendung der chinesischen Sprache durch Karl May.” In: Jahrbuch der Karl May Gesellschaft. Husum: Hansa, 1991, pp. 287–323; Karl Koppen. “Karl May und China.” In: Jahrbuch der Karl May Gesellschaft. Husum: Hansa, 1986, pp. 69–88; Walter Schinzel-Lang. “Karl Mays chinesische Vokabelliste – ein Kommentar.” In: Jahrbuch der Karl May Gesellschaft. Husum: Hansa, 1997, pp. 72–101.

42 3.1 Orientalism aber stehen allerdings in einem besseren Ruf.”12 Such factors form the rationale and repertoire behind his writings. Yet May seemingly attributes positive traits to the Chinese culture. According to him, the culture is old and diverse, different and beautiful.13 He grants China a high level of education,14 for even the children learn how to read and devote themselves patiently to it. This exemplary patience also finds expression in crafts- manship and the execution of visual and plastic arts.15 The realm of the family with its incredibly strong ties also contains slightly positive elements,16 especially the high estimation accorded to ancestors.17 This is understood by May as an essential feature of the Chinese society. May also describes the Chinese class system to a certain extend18 and gives a short insight in the nonexistent legal system of the empire.19 At first, only a difference in clothing is manifested. Karl May emphasizes on describing the differences between the novel’s characters according to their origin. Hence his main character Degenfeld would not think of dressing in a Chinese man’s customary clothes in China. Educated in Chinese languages and culture, Degenfeld has no reason to change clothes, whereas his company, which does not know Chinese at all, needs to put on Chinese costumes. This simple clothing question is linked to national pride.20

12May, Methusalem, p. 237. 13May, Methusalem, p. 216. 14May, Methusalem, p. 296. 15“Er erhielt eine jener Elfenbeinschnitzereien, die nur von der unendlichen Geduld eines Chi- nesen hergestellt werden können.” May, Methusalem, p. 298. May also refers to the art of kite making. May, Methusalem, p. 217. 16May, Methusalem, p. 372. 17May, Methusalem, 229f. 18May, Methusalem, p. 231. 19The novel’s main characters constantly keep oﬃcial and unoﬃcial letters that authorize them to any action or overrule existing laws. Cf. for example: May, Methusalem, p. 288. 20“‘Wollen sehen. Ich habe wenig Lust, aus reiner Angst meine deutsche Abstammung zu verleugnen.’ ‘Das ist sehr ehrenwert und sehr national gedacht, aber — hm, streng genommen haben Sie

43 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

Now and then another striking feature for the reader are the Chinese women’s bound feet. May deduces a connection between the monstrous deformation of the feet and the development of the mind:

Das beschwerliche, schmerzhafte Gehen ist nicht ohne Einﬂuß auf Kör- per und Geist. Es hängt beiden etwas Krüppelhaftes an. Ein Mensch, der nicht gehen, der sich nicht anmutig, frisch, gewandt und kräftig bewegen kann, wird gewiß gedrückten Gemüts oder Geistes sein.21

The comments of the narrator leave no option for the reader than to interpret the Other in a derogative way. What could have been commented with a smile in former times, as for example the equation of Chinese music with noise,22 or the Chinese conceptualization of the connection between beauty, wealth and bodily corpulence,23 is soon to sober up the contemporary reader as it reminds him of the easy conclusions that were made in former times. It is the bitter aftertaste of deducing the mentality or character of a whole people from perceptions deeply rooted in the “European” point of view. Cowardice is one of the most striking characteristics that is attributed to Chi- nese men. For example the aggressive and dominant manner and appearance of Degenfeld is enough to awe the surrounding Chinese and make them act according to his will,24 or as his valet argues:

“Wat die Chinesigen doch für pfiffige Jungens sind!” “Inwiefern?” freilich nicht unrecht. Denn selbst wenn Sie sich genau wie ein echter Chinese kleiden, wird man an Ihrer Unkenntnis der Sprache sofort den Ausländer erkennen, während ich für einen Eingeborenen gelten werde. Aber es ist trotzdem besser, wenn Sie sich den hiesigen Gebräuchen fügen.’ ‘Nun, was das betrifft, so ist es gar nicht ausgeschlossen, daß wir Drei uns auch nach Landessitte kleiden. Zunächst jedoch mag es so bleiben, wie es ist.’ ” May, Methusalem, p. 35. 21May, Methusalem, p. 262. 22“Einer chinesischen Musikantentruppe darf man keine europäische Kammermusik zu- muten.. . . Von einer Harmonie ist keine Rede, und wer das größte Getöse hervorbringt gilt als der beste Musikant.” May, Methusalem, 312f. 23E.g. May, Methusalem, pp. 263; 362. 24May, Methusalem, p. 429.

44 3.1 Orientalism

“Nun, dat ist doch leicht zu erkennen. Diese Soldaten brauchen nicht zu fechten und zu kämpfen; es ist jar nicht nötig, dat sie ihr edles Leben wagen. Sie brauchen nur auszureißen und dem Feind den Rücken zuzukehren. Dann liest er das schreckliche Wort ’Soldat’ und wendet vor Angst auch um und jeht von dannen. So wird durch eine alljemeine Flucht der glänzendste Sieg jewonnen.”25

The most interesting part is the one that deals with the description of Chinese children.26 Here one can ﬁnd almost all the negative images that existed throughout colonial times in a condensed section. As May claims you cannot understand a people better than by looking at their childhood. May is indirectly referring to the stagnation theory, which Osterhammel meticulously introduces in his work on Chinese society. May juxtaposes the healthy German — or even European in this case — to the senile Chinese. To illustrate the illogicality of May’s argumentation the following quote is considered:

China ist ein wunderbares Land. Seine Kultur hat sich in ganz anderer Richtung bewegt und ganz andere Formen angenommen als diejenige aller übrigen Nationen. Und diese Kultur ist hochbetagt, greisenhaft alt: die Adern sind verhärtet und die Nerven abgestumpft; der Leib ist verdorrt und die Seele vertrocknet.27

He then refers to the popular attribute of Chinese as cruel and emotionless, breed- ing their selﬁshness and slyness.

Ist es da ein Wunder, daß die Grausamkeit und Gefühllosigkeit des Chi- nesen als eine seiner hervorragendsten Eigenschaften bezeichnet werden muß? . . . Hier entspringt der große Eigennutz, die gewissenlose

25May, Methusalem, p. 403. 26“So spielt die Jugend fast nur, um die schlechten Eigenschaften zu entwickeln, die sich beim Erwachsenen ausgebildet haben. Spricht ein Fremder mit einem Knaben, so bekommt er keine lebhaften Antworten zu hören, kein freundlich lächelndes Gesicht zu sehen. Es ist ganz so, als ob er mit einem Alten spräche; alles greisenhaft.” May, Methusalem, p. 218. 27May, Methusalem, p. 216.

45 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

Schlauheit, die den Chinesen auszeichnet.28

The character portrayal continues with negative attributes, as for example the “known Chinese deceitfulness and maliciousness”29 are already detected among the youth. China has rejected all the alternations and innovations from the West and those changes, according to May’s main character, have to be imposed on them.

Die Neuerungen, welche die letzten Jahrzehnte dem Land gebracht haben, sind ihm entweder aufgezwungen worden, oder der Chinese hat sich zu ihnen nur aus Eigennutz, verstanden. Sie sind auch nur in Küstengegenden zu spüren, während das Landesinnere nach wie vor wie ein Igel die Stacheln gegen jede fremde Berührung sträubt.30

Already from the ﬁrst pages in the novel an opposition between the German and the Other (including the Chinese) is established. In Karl May’s text the ﬁnest dif- ferentiations according to the character’s nationality are made. Even the level of language skills indicates the character’s standing. Being ridiculous means speaking German with a strong dialect, speaking Dutch or trying to speak fancy Chinese. Being good and strong means speaking “Hochdeutsch” and/ or the mastery of Chinese including several local dialects. A typology can be found for the determi- nation of a nation. As a matter of fact the categorization of people is analogous to the distance between center and periphery, between Germany and China, German and Chinese. As an author, May does not hold back or hide behind rhetorics. He gives a personal opinion of China and the Chinese without scruples and also pities them for the necessity to bring them Christianity and Modernity by force.31

28May, Methusalem, p. 217. 29Cf. May, Methusalem, p. 218. 30May, Methusalem, p. 219. 31May is responsive to the diversiﬁed religious situation in China, but only through mentioning the Muslim population and giving them more prestige than the ordinary idolators of tin gods and bigotry: “Dies ist besonders in religiöser Beziehung der Fall, weshalb die christliche Mission in China noch gar keine nennenswerten Früchte getragen hat. Mag der Missionar die herrlichen

46 3.1 Orientalism

In contrast Jules Verne constructs a rather more elaborate framework: the main characters are Chinese, whereby the facial and corporal features model their character. The more European they look the better their character is, the more Chinese they look, the worse or ambiguous their characterization gets. The main character is described as follows: Kin-Fo était bien le type de ces Chinois du Nord, . . . . Grand, bien bâti, plutôt blanc que jaune, les sourcils tracés en droite ligne, les yeux disposés suivant l’horizontale et se relevant à peine vers les tempes, le nez droit, la face non aplatie, il eût été remarqué même auprès des plus beaux spécimens des populations de l’Occident.32 Also the description of the hero’s fiancée indicates a leaning towards certain ideals: C’était une charmante jeune femme que cette jeune Lé-ou. Jolie, même pour des yeux européens, blanche et non jaune, elle avait de doux yeux se relevant à peine vers les tempes, des cheveux noirs ornés de quelques fleurs de pêcher fixées par des épingles de jade vert, des dents petites et blanches, des sourcils à peine estompés d’une fine touche d’encre de Chine. Elle ne mettait ni crépi de miel et de blanc d’Espagne sur ses joues, ainsi que le font généralement les beautés du Céleste Empire, ni rond de carmin sur sa lèvre inférieure, ni petite raie verticale entre les deux yeux, ni aucune couche de ce fard, dont la cour impériale dépense annuellement pour dix millions de sapèques.33 The narrator of Verne’s novel even defines a typology of different Chinese races in concordance with the physiognomy.34 Though modes of behavior and characteristics are ascribed to the Chinese people as a whole, they are further divided into

Lehren des Christentums immerhin noch so eifrig und noch so begeistert entwickeln, der Chinese hört ihm ruhig zu, ohne ihn zu unterbrechen, denn das gebietet die Höﬂichkeit; aber am Schlusse wird er freundlich sagen: ‘Du hast sehr recht und ich habe auch recht. Put tun kiao, tun li; ni-men tschu hiung’, zu deutsch: ‘Die Religionen sind verschieden, die Vernunft ist nur eine; wir sind alle Brüder.’ ” May, Methusalem, 217f. 32Verne, Tribulations, p. 16. 33Verne, Tribulations, p. 49. 34Diﬀerent typologies arise e.g.: “. . . dont la race tend à se transformer, et qui ne se sont jamais

47 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

North and South Chinese. Here Verne frequently points out the diﬀerence between China and its people before and after the arrival of “Westerners” in the country. Chinese virtues or features that “astonish” the Western readers are repeatedly referred to, such as fatalism, tranquility in the eye of death, boldness, compassion, enterprise and even collectivism. Verne also talks about religion and philosophy in China. A remarkable part of the novel is dedicated to descriptions that are more or less accurate but never without judgment of Chinese cities, food, ﬂora, music, and history. Among the things highly praised by the narrator, the spotlight is on the food.

Le repas n’avait rien laissé à désirer. Qu’imaginer de plus délicat que cette cuisine à la fois propre et savante? Le Bignon de l’endroit, sachant qu’il s’adressait à des connaisseurs, s’était surpassé dans la confection des cent cinquante plats dont se composait le menu du dîner.35

The narrator later continues voicing his admiration: “Du riz et du thé, que faut-il de plus à un véritable Fils du Ciel!”36 Besides emphasizing the quality and taste, he uses these descriptions to point out, on one hand the opulence and luxury in which certain classes of the society live and on the other hand the simple-mindedness of the people. Thus the music, where the musicians are nice to look at, is likened to noise or even the quarreling of cats.37 This portrayal goes very well with the negative view ralliés aux Tartares. On n’eût pas rencontré son pareil dans les provinces du Sud, où les hautes et basses classes se sont plus intimement mélangées avec la race mantchoue. Kin-Fo, ni par son père ni par sa mère, dont les familles, depuis la conquête, se tenaient à l’écart, n’avait une goutte de sang tartare dans les veines. . . ” Verne, Tribulations, p. 16. 35Verne, Tribulations, p. 10. 36Verne, Tribulations, p. 112. 37“En eﬀet, une troupe de chanteuses et d’instrumentistes entra dans le salon. Les chanteuses étaient jeunes, jolies, de tenue modeste et décente. Mais quelle musique et quelle méthode! Des miaulements, des gloussements, sans mesure et sans tonalité, s’élevant en notes aiguës jusqu’aux dernières limites de perception du sens auditif! Quant aux instruments, violons dont les cordes s’enchevêtraient dans les ﬁls de l’archet, guitares recouvertes de peaux de serpent, clarinettes criardes, harmonicas ressemblant à de petits pianos portatifs, ils étaient dignes des chants et des chanteuses, qu’ils accompagnaient à grand fracas.” Verne, Tribulations, p. 11.

48 3.1 Orientalism of performing arts that was already expressed by Karl May. Verne uses the novel as a vehicle to introduce different Chinese cities and areas to the reader. Never getting tired of introducing new cities and wonders to the reader as Kin-Fo travels through China — among them Shanghai, Xi’an, Beijing, and the Great Wall — the narrator meticulously lists living quarters with their population, important buildings and so on, but does not forget to mention the impact of the “Westerners” on the location.38 Verne approaches the field of religion with comments on philosophy. Wang, the mentor of Kin-Fo, and former Taiping, has the label of philosopher attached to him. Nevertheless his philosophical skills remain only in name, he talks in platitudes and helps his pupil with his wisdom and advice. As in May’s Methusalem, the religious elements of the Taiping are completely left out. Verne also points out the pseudo- religious importance of ancestry and family ties.39 The Chinese religious situation is divided into Buddhism followed by the masses and Confucianism adopted by the higher ranks of society.40 All this only qualifies as background information, and Verne, like May, highlights Chinese superstition and fatalism as ways of life.41 This is closely linked with the Chinese “indifference” towards suicide.42 Such an attitude is exemplified in the insight and development of the main character Kin-Fo towards the end of the novel.

38Cf. descriptions of Shanghai and its specific semi-colonial status, Verne, Tribulations, 27ff, Tianjin and the military impact on the region by France, Verne, Tribulations, p. 168, Beijing as the imperial capital, Verne, Tribulations, 135ff and the Great Wall,Verne, Tribulations, p. 232. 39“En somme, le respect pour les morts fait le fond de la religion chinoise, et contribue à rendre plus étroits les liens de la famille.” Verne, Tribulations, p. 65. 40Verne, Tribulations, p. 140. 41“Un Occidental, un Français, un Anglais eût peut-être pris philosophiquement cette existence nouvelle et cherché à refaire sa vie dans le travail. Un Célestial devait se croire en droit de penser et d’agir tout autrement. C’était la mort volontaire que Kin-Fo, en véritable Chinois, allait, sans trouble de conscience, prendre comme moyen de se tirer d’affaire, et avec cette typique indifférence qui caractérise la race jaune. Le Chinois n’a qu’un courage passif, mais, ce courage, il le possède au plus haut degré. Son indifférence pour la mort est vraiment extraordinaire.” Verne, Tribulations, p. 64. 42“Ce qui est un crime dans les pays civilisés d’Occident, n’est plus qu’un acte légitime, pour ainsi dire, au milieu de cette civilisation bizarre de l’Asie orientale.” Verne, Tribulations, p. 65.

49 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

Il était vraiment heureux, maintenant, l’indiﬀérent d’autrefois, l’impassible élève du philosophe Wang! Deux mois de soucis, d’inquiétudes, de tra- cas, toute cette période mouvementée de son existence avait suﬃt à lui faire apprécier ce qu’est, ce que doit être, ce que peut être le bonheur ici-bas. Oui! le sage philosophe avait raison!43

But Kin-Fo is already, as we remember, a “progressive”44 Chinese: “Ce digne Chinois, d’une excellente famille du nord de l’Empire, possédait, comme ses com- patriotes, de remarquables aptitudes pour le commerce.”45 But business and its gainings are connected to the arrival of Western know-how. The narrator leaves out no opportunity to outline the importance and improvements that came to imperial China from the outside. Even when Verne criticizes Western influence at one point, namely the Opium Trade as an imposed crime on China, he simultaneously attributes complicity to the Chinese, foremost the mandarins.46 The West’s sovereignty is acknowledged and its benefits are adopted by the intelligent Chinese elite. Verne further links trade, to science, from military to government. “Kin-Fo avait-il eu quelque raison de penser que mieux vaut être gouverné à l’européenne qu’à la chinoise? On serait tenté de le croire.”47 Verne likes to juxtapose and contrast the now civilized “fils du ciel” with the still “barbaric” uneducated man.48 This education and progress comes undoubtedly from the West and France is only a nation among others, nevertheless her merits are mentioned at very prominent, sometimes unexpected, places. These two novels were selected firstly to have popular texts that were widely

43Verne, Tribulations, p. 149. 44“En eﬀet, Kin-Fo – on l’a dit et ses goûts le prouvent – était un homme de progrès. Aucune invention moderne des Occidentaux ne le trouvait réfractaire à leur importation. Il appartenait à la catégorie de ces Fils du Ciel, trop rares encore, que séduisent les sciences physiques et chimiques.” Verne, Tribulations, p. 39. 45Verne, Tribulations, p. 6. The wealth of the family is based on a macabre trade. According to Verne a custom obliges Chinese to be buried in the soil of their place of birth. So the family re-imports dead bodies from the United States to be interred in China. 46Verne, Tribulations, p. 34. 47Verne, Tribulations, p. 27. 48Verne, Tribulations, p. 39.

50 3.1 Orientalism spread and read, and secondly to show the rather diﬀerent manners of describing the Chinese, whereby both authors still remain in the framework of imperialistic ideology by proving Western superiority in one way or another. May generally uses more derogative adjectives and openly negative descriptions of the Chinese, and does not limit himself to this. While Verne seemingly takes no sides and just tells the story of an unfortunate Chinese man, he continuously drops here and there remarks highlighting the exotic and slightly negative, but mostly the ridiculous. Nevertheless both authors venture to introduce the Chinese language to the Western reader. Expressions or sometimes even whole phrases are used. As in May’s case they are translated immediately after uttering them, while Verne likes to paraphrase them or explain them in subsequent sentences. Although Verne already refers to the “Europeanized” Chinese,49 May still sends his protagonists to explore the inner, “real” China.50 And to use Verne’s words — “Il faut aller en Chine pour voir cela!”51 — in another context, one has to look at today’s Chinese writers to see how these very negative stereotypes are received and transformed one hundred years later in Europe.

49In the following quote the modes of acquaintance and acculturation of the late nineteenth century Chinese with Europe are described: “A la description du salon dans lequel ce repas a été donné, au menu exotique qui le composait, à l’habillement des convives, à leur manière de s’exprimer, peut-être aussi à la singularité de leurs théories, le lecteur a deviné qu’il s’agissait de Chinois, non de ces ‘Célestials’ qui semblent avoir été décollés d’un paravent ou être en rupture de potiche, mais de ces modernes habitants du Céleste Empire, déjà ‘européennisés’ par leurs études, leurs voyages, leurs fréquentes communications avec les civilisés de l’Occident.” Verne, Tribulations, p. 14. 50The accumulation of knowledge and objects from China nourished the wish for the main character Degenfeld to actually go to China: “‘Nach China!’ ‘Da sind wir ja schon!’ Er zeigte in dem Zimmer herum und hatte dabei nicht gar so unrecht; denn der Methusalem war infolge seiner mit dem Teehändler geschlossenen Freundschaft ein leidenschaftlicher Sammler chinesischer Erzeugnisse geworden. An den Wänden hingen und auf den Tischen lagen Geräte, Gefäße, Waﬀen, Musikinstrumente und eine ganze Menge ähnlicher Dinge, die aus dem ‘Reich der Mitte’ stammten. ‘Das ist Talmi-China; ich aber will das echte sehen,’ antwortete der Student.” May, Methusalem, p. 16. 51Verne, Tribulations, p. 244.

51 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

3.2 Self-Orientalisation

Surprisingly enough, the in most instances overwhelmingly negative view can be found only slightly changed and reintroduced into contemporary writings by Chi- nese.52 This is even more true if the authors switch the language. The one-sided paradigm of West over East has shifted and is now even implemented by writers of fiction from this fictive Orient, in this case China and its fictive counterpart, Europe. The literary texts in the following paragraphs show a continuation of “imperial”, “Western” images. Nevertheless, the fundamental change in opposition to colonial texts is the creation of a set of positive Chinese characters. Accordingly for the literary texts this signals a shift from Orientalism to its transformation into Occidentalism and self-Orientalisation. In the late 1970s with his study Orientalism,53 Edward Said highlighted a new aspect in the analysis of power relations between East and West of the last centuries. He investigated the works of Western scholars and authors that gathered knowledge about the Orient and written material that provided a filtered image of its object. Said points out the practices and procedures inherent to Orientalism as follows:

[One dogma] is the absolute and systematic diﬀerence between the West, which is rational, developed, humane, superior, and the Orient, which is aberrant, undeveloped, inferior. Another dogma is that abstractions about the Orient, particularly those based on texts representing a ‘classical’ Oriental civilization, are always preferable to direct evidence drawn from modern Oriental real- ities. A third dogma is that the Orient is eternal, uniform, and incapable

52Bo Yang. The Ugly Chinaman and the Crisis of Chine Culture. North Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1991; Barbara Mittler. “’My Older Brother is a Man-Eater’. Cannibalism Before and After May Fourth, 1919.” In: Zurück zur Freude. Studien zur chinesischen Literatur und Lebenswelt und ihrer Rezeption in Ost und West. Festschrift für Wolfgang Kubin. Ed. by Marc Hermann and Christian Schwermann. Sankt Augustin: Inst. Monumenta Serica, 2007, pp. 627– 655. 53Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

52 3.2 Self-Orientalisation

of defining itself; therefore it is assumed that a highly generalized and systematic vocabulary for describing the Orient form a Western standpoint is inevitable and even scientifically “objective”. A fourth dogma is that the Orient is at bottom something either to be feared (the Yellow Peril, the Mongol hordes, the brown dominions) or to be controlled (by pacification, research and development, outright occupation whenever possible).54

To some extent these “four dogmas” of Orientalism paraphrase the above introduced images of the Orient, which is exemplified here by China. The specific exegesis and application of these “dogmas”, which are still relevant, lead to the following set of questions regarding representation: How does someone represent another culture and what makes this culture distinct? What happens when representing one’s own culture in and to a foreign culture? Does this lead to self- alienation or even Self-Orientalisation? How do migrant writers deal with their audiences’ expectations about the writers’ original cultures? How do they modify the image and what cultural and narrative patterns do they use in respect to this? Orientalism in fiction, according to Said, has developed as a tool of intellectual imperialism,55 as shown by the examples, and as is evident in some of the literature dealt with below. The appropriation of ways of describing the Other/ the Chinese through the Western pen cannot be emphasized enough as a significant part of contemporary Chinese migrant writing. One of the first authors from this strain of writers reflecting on newer “Chinese” literature who comes to mind is Dai Sijie. He is known for his film work as well as for his novels. After moving from Beijing to Paris in 1984 and changing from art history to film studies, he realized three feature films before writing his first novel Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise in 2000,56 out of which the first examples

54Said, Orientalism, 301f. 55Arif Dirlik. “Chinese History and the Question of Orientalism.” In: History and Theory 35.4 (1996): Theme Issue 35. Chinese Historiography in Comparative Perspective, pp. 96–118, p. 98. 56Dai Sijie. Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise. Paris: Gallimard, 2000.

53 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés will be taken. Dai then wrote his second novel Le complexe de Di57 and was director and co-scriptwriter for the film version of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.58 In 2006 he finalized his fifth film, Les filles du botaniste.59 In 2007 the novel Par une nuit où la lune ne s’est pas levée60 and in 2009 L’acrobatie aérienne de Confucius61 was published. With his debut novel Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise, which was translated in over 20 languages and even issued as an edition for French high schools, Dai became a global success. This success was also shown in the film version of the novel that followed three years later under his artistic direction. The novel deals with two young men, Luo and the narrator Ma, who are sent during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to the countryside to be reeducated by the farmers and to do fatigue duty. They do not integrate in the village community but keep to themselves. They also do not associate closely with the Other who has been “sent down to the countryside” teenager Binoclard, the owner of forbidden books. Nevertheless they become friendly with the tailor’s daughter, the eponymous Little Seamstress. A love triangle between the three establishes and is lived out between Luo and the Little Seamstress. Educating the girl with their knowledge on the then forbidden Western literature, she undergoes development into an independent young woman, leaving the two men and the village. Throughout the novel Luo and the narrator are struggling with hard labor, confronting the village’s headman, and the overall climate of uncertainties, oppression, and fear. Culturally the village and main protagonists are moved by films and their narrations, by the transformation of rural traditional songs into political propaganda art, and by getting new, tailored clothes inspired by French nineteenth century novels. Luo and the narrator bring

57Dai Sijie. Le complexe de Di. Paris: Gallimard, 2003. 58Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress; France, China; orig. title: Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise; director: Dai Sijie; script: Dai Sjie and Nadine Perront; producer: Lise Fayolle; 2002. 59The Chinese Botanist’s Daughters; France, Canada; orig. title: Les ﬁlles du botaniste; director: Dai Sijie; script: Dai Sijie and Nadine Perront; producer: Lise Fayolle; 2006. 60Dai Sijie. Par une nuit où la lune ne s’est pas levée. Paris: Flammarion, 2007. 61Dai Sijie. L’acorbatie aérienne de Confucius. Paris: Flammarion, 2009.

54 3.2 Self-Orientalisation along Westernized culture in the form of a violin. They encounter more Western art in forbidden books, particularly nineteenth century French, British, and Russian literature. Even though the novel contains numerous elements of exotism and orientalism, the concentration lies on the construction of the Other in the descriptions of characters and objects on one hand and the impact of foreign knowledge, foremost in the guise of French literature, on the education and emancipation of the main characters. The “city youth” is shown as the bearer of advanced knowledge that exceeds the village’s imagination in numerous aspects of life, technically, scientifically and culturally. This knowledge is also strongly implicated in the setting of the novel, since the disclosure of the sources would be compromising for the main characters. The narrator forms a rapport with the reader and persuades her or him that the villagers, the true “uncultured” Chinese, are the Other. He does this in the opening scene of the novel as Dai demonstrates the villagers’ ignorance towards a musical instrument, a violin. “Dans les bagages des deux ‘garçon de la ville’ que Luo et moi représentions à leurs yeux, c’était le seul objet duquel semblait émaner une saveur étrangère, une odeur de civilisation, propre à éveiller les soupçons des villageois.”62 They do not know what this object is, they call it a toy — “C’est un jouet”, “un jouet de con”, “il faut le brûler!”63 The villagers are described as an ignorant and furious mass of people against these two town boys. Ignorance turns into the want of destruction and this is the point where intimacy with the reader is established. Luo tells the people in the room that the object is a music instrument and asks the narrator to play.

— Vous allez entendre une sonate de Mozart, chef, annonça Luo, aussi tranquille que tout à l’heure. Abasourdi, je le crus devenu fou: depuis quelques années, toutes les œuvres de Mozart, ou de n’importe quel musicien occidental, étaient

62Dai, Tailleuse, p. 9. 63Dai, Tailleuse, 10 and 11.

55 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

interdites dans notre pays.64

The narrator points out the audacity of the venture; both the instrument and the music are prohibited during the reigning political campagne. “— C’est quoi une sonate? me demanda le chef, méﬁant. / — Je ne sais pas, commençai-je à bafouiller. Un truc occidental.65 The technical term of “sonata” and the family name “Mozart” do not seem alienating within the French text, even though the words are in a Chinese context.66 However the narrator increments the unfamiliarity of the foreign-sounding words through the clear indication that not only the instrument but also the music is from abroad. Thus mistrust arises.

Illico, une vigilance de bon communiste réapparut dans les yeux du chef et sa voix se fit hostile: — Comment elle s’appelle, ta chanson? . . . — Mozart. . . , hésitai-je. — Mozart quoi? — Mozart pense au président Mao, continua Luo à ma place. Quelle audace! Mais elle fut efficace: comme s’il avait entendu quelque chose de miraculeux, le visage menaçant du chef s’adoucit. Ses yeux se plissèrent dans un large sourire de béatitude. — Mozart pense toujours à Mao, dit-il. — Oui, toujours, confirma Luo.67

With this straightforward lie the two young men convince the villagers that indeed someone in the West has written a piece of music for Chairman Mao and therefore it is worth listening to.

Lorsque je tendis les crins de mon archet, des applaudissement chaleu- reux retentirent soudain autour de moi, qui me ﬁrent presque peur. Mes

64Dai, Tailleuse, 11f. 65Dai, Tailleuse, p. 12. 66Mozart’s name and the term sonata are frequently used and even if the reader does not remember any speciﬁc musical piece by Mozart or know what a sonata is, the reader would be able to identify the piece as classical music of the 18th century. 67Dai, Tailleuse, 12f.

56 3.2 Self-Orientalisation

doigts engourdis commencèrent à parcourir les cordes, et les phrases de Mozart revinrent à mon esprit, tels des amis ﬁdèles. Les visages des paysans, si durs tout à l’heure, se ramollirent de minute en minute sous la joie limpide de Mozart, comme le sol desséché sous la pluie, puis, dans la lumière dansante de la lampe à pétrole, ils perdirent peu à peu leurs contours.68

It is the “superior” knowledge that allows Luo and Ma to dupe the villagers. The two main protagonists assume to share this knowledge with the reader. The narration makes the reader strongly aware of the setting in a foreign country and culture at a very specific period of time, where the mere “odeur” of civilization causes suspicion. Here being cultured means being criminal, for Dai describes the village headman rifling through Ma and Luo’s luggage as similar to a police officer looking for drugs. At this point the opposition generated by the protagonists is between city and village, between being Westernized (modernized, or cultured) and uncultured (only influenced by communist thought and ancient traditions). The village at the Mountain of the Phoenix of the Sky in Sichuan is movingly described in its beauties, nevertheless its remoteness is highlighted, with the nearest sign of civilization — like a car or a restaurant — a two day’s journey away. To illustrate this seclusion of the location the text mentions the only Occidental that was in the region, a French missionary on his way to Tibet.69 Next to the Western music and instrument another sign of civilization that Luo and Ma bring along is an alarm clock, as shown in the citation below:

Néanmoins, notre maison devint rapidement le centre du village: tout le monde y venait, y compris le chef, avec son œil gauche toujours maculé de trois gouttes du sang. Tout cela grâce à un autre “phénix”, tout petit, presque minuscule, plutôt terrestre, dont le maître était mon ami Luo. . . . Qu’il était petit, le réveil de Luo, avec son coq qui bougeait à chaque seconde! Avant nous, dans ce village, il n’y avait jamais eu ni réveil,

68Dai, Tailleuse, p. 13. 69According to Dai the visit took place in the 1940s. Dai, Tailleuse, p. 20.

57 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

ni montre, ni horloge. Les gens avaient toujours vécu en regardant le soleil se lever ou se coucher. Nous fûmes surpris de voir comment le réveil prit sur les paysans un véritable pouvoir, presque sacré. Tout le monde venait le consulter, comme si notre maison sur pilotis était un temple.70

Luo and Ma have acquired a certain power over the village and its people and do not hesitate to tamper with the clock in order to extend the nightly hours of rest. The emphasis then shifts from the universal achievements of progress manifested in technical accomplishments to the cultural aspect, specifically literature. It is the impact of literature as a whole that is referred to, encompassing the text itself, the reading, the reading aloud, the retelling. Even if the two teenagers expect the suitcase to be filled with forbidden Chinese classical novels,71 they are temporarily disappointed by the discovery of foreign literature due to their ignorance of occidental texts.72 After a first reading they soon find out that these texts not only have the potential to educate themselves but and the Little Seamstress as well. Luo and Ma experience the educational effects of the Bildungsroman, the first novel presented to them is a novel by Honoré de Balzac.

“Ba-er-za-ke”. Traduit en chinois, le nom de l’auteur français formait

70Dai, Tailleuse, 22f. 71“La vigilance accrue du Binoclard et sa méfiance à notre égard, en dépit de notre amitié, accréditaient l’hypothèse de Luo: la valise était sans doute remplie de livres interdits. Nous en parlions souvent, Luo et moi, sans parvenir à imaginer de quel genre de livres il s’agissait. (À l’époque, tous les livres étaient interdits, à l’exception de ceux de Mao et de ses partisans, et des ouvrages purement scientifiques.) Nous établîmes une longue liste de livres possibles: les romans classiques chinois, depuis Les Trois Royaumes combattants jusqu’au Rêve dans le Pavillon Rouge, en passant par le Jin Ping Mei, réputé pour être un livre érotique. Il y avait aussi la poésie des dynastie des Tang, des Song, des Ming, ou des Qing. . . ” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 64. 72“— Tu as déjà entendu parler de la littérature occidentale? me demanda un jour Luo. — Pas trop. . . — Je me souviens qu’elle m’avait lu quelques passages d’un livre qui s’appelait Don Quichotte, l’histoire d’un vieux chevalier assez marrant. — Et maintenant, où ils sont, ces livres? — Partis en fumée. Ils ont été confisqués par les Gardes rouges, qui les ont brûlés en public, sans aucune pitié, juste en bas de son immeuble.” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 65.

58 3.2 Self-Orientalisation

un mot de quatre idéogrammes. Quelle magie que la traduction! Sou- dain, la lourdeur des deux premières syllabes, la résonance guerrière et agressive dotée de ringardise de ce nom disparaissaient. Ces quatre caractères, très élégants, dont chacun se composait de peu de traits, s’assemblaient pour former une beauté inhabituelle, de laquelle émanait une saveur exotique, sensuelle, généreuse comme le parfum envoûtant d’un alcool conservé depuis des siècles dans une cave.73

More than one century after its ﬁrst publication in 1841 and several years after its translation into Chinese by Fu Lei in the 1950s, the “study of morals”, Ursule Mirouët by Balzac opens the minds of its readers and voices their innermost desires.

Imaginez un jeune puceau de dix-neuf ans, qui somnolait encore dans les limbes de l’adolescence, et n’avait jamais connu que les bla-bla révolutionnaires sur le patriotisme, le communisme, l’idéologie et la propagande. Brusquement, comme un intrus, ce petit livre me parlait de l’éveil du désir, des élans, des pulsions, de l’amour, de toutes ces choses sur lesquelles le monde était, pour moi, jusqu’alors demeuré meut. Malgré mon ignorance totale de ce pays nommé la France, l’histoire d’Ursule me parut aussi vraie que celle de mes voisins.74

The plot and the character description of Balzac’s novel appeal to the young men. They can ﬁnd in the texts a humanity they lack in their own lives, society and the literature they know.75 Both, Ma and Luo read the text. Then it is Luo who leaves

73Dai, Tailleuse, p. 71. 74Dai, Tailleuse, p. 72. 75“Cette histoire de littérature me déprimait à mort: nous n’avions pas de chance. À l’âge où nous avions enﬁn su lire couramment, il n’y avait déjà plus rien à lire. Pendant plusieurs années, au rayon “littérature occidentale” de toutes les librairies, il n’y eut que les Œuvres complètes du dirigeant communiste albanais Enver Hoxha, sur les couvertures dorées desquelles on voyait le portrait d’un vieil homme à cravate de couleurs criardes, avec des cheveux gris impeccablement peignés, qui rivait sur vous, sous ses paupières plissées, un œil gauche, moins marron et doté d’un iris rose pâle.” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 66.

59 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés the house to go to the tailor and his daughter’s dwelling in order to narrate or re-narrate the novel’s story. Luo’s role as a mediator and transmitter of stories is later reiterated in the task to narrate ﬁlms watched in the bigger city commissioned by the village chief. Ma even copies excerpts from Ursule Mirouët onto his leather vest. This piece of clothing becomes the source for their readings as the book had to be returned to Binoclard.

“Ce vieux Balzac, continua-t-il, est un véritable sorcier qui a posé une main invisible sur la tête de cette ﬁlle; elle était métamorphosée, rêveuse, a mis quelques instants avant de revenir à elle, les pieds sur terre. Elle a ﬁni par mettre ta foutue veste, ça ne lui allait pas mal d’ailleurs, et elle m’a dit que le contact des mots de Balzac sur sa peau lui apporterait bonheur et intelligence. . . 76

Impressed by the impact the text by Balzac had on the Little Seamstress, the two young men decide to steal the whole suitcase with the books in order to pursue and complete the education of the Little Seamstress.77 It is another moment of revelation when they ﬁnally have the suitcase ﬁlled with books in their possession, for the objects inside are to be worshiped:

Nous nous approchâmes de la valise. Elle était ﬁcelée par une grosse corde de paille tressée, nouée en croix. Nous la débarrassâmes de ses liens, et l’ouvrîmes silencieusement. À l’intérieur, des piles de

76Dai, Tailleuse, p. 78. Omissions in the text. 77As a subplot, Luo and the narrator Ma help Binoclard collect local mountain songs. First they help out translating the local mountain dweller’s dialect texts, then Binoclard transforms the bucolic content into a revolutionary communist one. These new texts feature as contributions for a revolutionary paper and are his ticket out of the re-education movement. Enraged over the transformation of original cultural material to propagandist writings, Ma becomes violent, finally knocking him out with a punch. Nevertheless this again emphasizes the importance of written words, and adduces the realm of literature, as illustrated by a conversation about Binoclard’s work between the Binoclard’s mother and Ma: “— Il a recueilli des chants, les a adapté, modifiés, et les paroles de ces magnifique chansons paysannes ont énormément plu au rédacteur en chef. / — C’est grâce à vous qu’il pu faire ce travail. Vous lui avez donné beaucoup de livres à lire. / — Oui, bien sûr. / Soudain, elle se tut, et me fixa d’un regard méfiant. / — Des livres? Jamais, me dit-elle froidement.” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 107.

60 3.2 Self-Orientalisation

livres s’illuminèrent sous notre torche électrique; les grands écrivains occidentaux nous accueillirent à bras ouverts: à leur tête, se tenait notre vieil ami Balzac, avec cinq ou six romans, suivi de Victor Hugo, Stendhal, Dumas, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Romain Rolland, Rousseau, Tolstoï, Gogol, Dostoïevski, et quelques Anglais: Dickens, Kipling, Emily Brontë. . . Quel éblouissement! J’avais l’impression de m’évanouir dans les brumes de l’ivresse. Je sortis les romans un par un de la valise, les ouvris, contemplai les portraits des auteurs, et les passai à Luo. De les toucher du bout des doigts, il me semblait que mes mains, devenues pâles, étaient en contact avec des vies humaines.78

These “bouquins interdits”, forbidden books are their bible; opposites of the available communist material, they are humanist tools of enlightenment and education. “Avec ces livres, je vais transformer la Petite Tailleuse. Elle ne sera plus jamais une simple montagnarde.”79 And this “belle mais inculte”80 young woman will transform herself precisely in this manner. But these books also teach the narrator and his friend Luo; through the literature they become familiar with the ways of the world. Dai describes the readings with very poignant words but always emphasizes the occidental origin of the texts. “Mystère du monde extérieur, surtout celui de la femme, de l’amour, du sexe, que les écrivains occidentaux nous réve- laient jour après jour, page après page, livre après livre.”81 Little later the narrator enumerates Western authors with whose works he has fallen in love. The example of Jean-Christophe by Romain Rolland has learnt the narrator the possibility of individual action in contrast to his prior general and political education. “Sans lui [Romain Rolland], je ne serais jamais parvenu à comprendre la splendeur et l’ampleur de l’individualisme.”82

78Dai, Tailleuse, 125f. Omissions in the text. 79Dai, Tailleuse, p. 127. 80Dai, Tailleuse, p. 135. 81Dai, Tailleuse, p. 135. 82Dai, Tailleuse, p. 137.

61 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

Literature, and as Dai puts it, occidental literature, pushes the three main characters and even the entire community further on the road to progress. A book by Balzac literally buys the Little Seamstress liberty and honorable social standing since it is the price for the abortion of Luo’s child. They do burn the books, their treasure in the end;83 as an act of farewell, when the Little Seamstress leaves the village, they simultaneously say goodbye to their source of knowledge and the object of education. The Little Seamstress makes the decision to go to town in silence, leaving everybody including her father, Luo and Ma in surprise. She got the courage from literature — “Elle m’a dit que Balzac lui a fait comprendre une chose: la beauté d’une femme est un trésor qui n’a pas de prix.84 The development that is triggered by the foreign literature is first and foremost a positive development towards self-determinism, personal liberty, and individualism. This is not only subtly indicated but — as is evident in the excerpts above — openly described and a causality is established: “Inévitablement, quelques fan- taisies, discrètes et spontanées, dues à l’influence du romancier français, com- mencèrent à apparaître dans les nouveaux vêtements des villageois, surtout des éléments marins.”85 The construction of the Other is most remarkably demonstrated in two other characters of the novel. The first is the village chief, who is the “natural” adversary to the two boys sent to the countryside. While the other, Binoclard, is surprisingly the owner of the books and shares the same destiny, he and his mother, are nevertheless, ascribed negative features. The village chief is a distrustful, authoritarian figure from the beginning. He is the one who assigns them work. It does not matter to the narrator and his friend that he becomes a slave of their alarm clock, and gives them the freer and more intellectual assignment to attend a film screening and re-narrate and perform the story of the motion picture. Already during their first meeting, he is introduced

83“Voilà. Le moment est venu de vous décrire l’image ﬁnale de cette histoire. Le temps de vous faire entendre le craquement de six allumettes par une nuit d’hiver.” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 218. 84Dai, Tailleuse, p. 229. 85Dai, Tailleuse, p. 158.

62 3.2 Self-Orientalisation as a physically scary figure with — three drops of blood in his left eye. One of the most intense paragraphs of the novel describes the physical appearance of the village chief, along with its psychological impact as well as how unreflected and unjustified his brutality against the narrator and Luo is. When the village chief returns to the hamlet from a party convention and an unsuccessful treatment at the dentist’s. “Il était d’autant plus furieux que l’hémorragie provoquée par l’extraction de sa dent saine l’empêchait de parler, de vociférer ce scandale, et le condamnait à le marmonner avec des mots à peine audibles.”86 All the distance and hate that is established between the narrator, Luo and the village headman is resolved in the scene that involves the medical help and treatment of the headmaster’s tooth and unmasks pleasure in torturing the headmaster.87 The other antagonistic character Binoclard is nevertheless introduced as a friend. He and the two main characters, the narrator Ma and Luo, have a common life, sharing food and their spare time. However, after a short while, the manners and behavior of Binoclard discomforts them. “Avec lui, tout prenait la couleur du danger.”88 He is physically handicapped, his ametropia forces him to wear glasses, leading to his nick name Binoclard (literally, bespectacled). His real name is never mentioned throughout the book. He is clumsy, distrustful towards other people, not willing to allow help from others, and easily enraged. He also develops a rude language. To sum up, the following sentence again demonstrates the emphasis Dai puts on

86Dai, Tailleuse, p. 148. 87“Soudain, comme une éruption volcanique, je sentis à mon insu surgir du plus profond de moi une pulsion sadique: je ralentis immédiatement le mouvement du pédalier, en mémoire de toutes les souﬀrances de la rééducation. Luo me jeta un regard complice. Je ralentis encore, pour me venger cette fois de ses menaces d’inculpation. . . . Je prenais un air, calme innocent. Mes yeux ne se réduisaient pas à deux fentes chargées de haine. Je faisais semblant de vériﬁer la poulie ou la courroie. Puis l’aiguille se remettait à tourner, à vriller lente- ment, comme si le cycliste grimpait péniblement une côte abrupte. L’aiguille s’était transformée en ciseau, en burin haineux qui creusait un trou dans la sombre roche préhistorique, en faisait jaillir de ridicules nuages de poudre de marbre, grasse, jaune et caséeuse. Je n’avais jamais vu aussi sadique que moi. Je vous l’assure. Un sadique débridé.” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 229. 88Dai, Tailleuse, p. 58.

63 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés the differences between education and non-education, between Western literature and French literature, and eventually between the French and the Chinese culture. “Je hais tous ceux qui nous ont interdit ces livres.”89 The narrator directs his wrath, his grudge towards the authorities and the communist ruler but here it is not about the prohibition of books in general, not “des livres” but “ces livres”, referring to the above mentioned imported cultural products. In the next example written by Hong Li Yuan, Die Tempelglocken von Shanghai, the differences are staged on another level. It is no longer the foreign culture that is superior, but the local, less assertive ones, on one side the traditional Buddhist philosophy and its manifestation in Qigong and on the other, less important side, the minority life of the Uyghurs and Kazakhs in Xinjiang. This is constantly contrasted with the political events of the second half of the 20th century, a childhood during the Cultural Revolution and youth in the army. The first person narrator is the main character, Chen, Da Lee (family and given names are separated with a comma throughout the text). Hong Li Yuan, born in 1957 in Shanghai, is a Taiji and Qigong Master. He studied Chinese and Western literature and came to Germany in 1992. He lives in Stuttgart, where he runs a Qigong school. He has written two textbooks on Qigong. Die Tempelglocken von Shanghai,90 published in 2002 was his first novel, while the sequel Der Meister aus Shanghai91 was published in 2008. Even though the whole repertoire of events shows and mirrors the atrocities of the communist reign in China, the narrator’s voice remains soft. He has a clear cut vision of what is wrong and what is right, but only in extreme situations. He does not seem to notice the discrepancy in the admiration of Buddhism with its pacifist teachings and joining the army as a soldier at the same time. While reading the novel one has the impression that Yuan only dares to criticize those things that are already officially criticized by the government. So the description of Mao changes throughout the text, from the rather harsh criticism during the

89Dai, Tailleuse, p. 126. 90Yuan Hong Li. Die Tempelglocken von Shanghai. München: Nymphenburger, 2002. 91Yuan Hong Li. Der Meister aus Shanghai. München: Langen/Müller, 2008.

64 3.2 Self-Orientalisation

Cultural Revolution to a somewhat forgiving attitude associated with his death and memory:

Wer seine Macht unterstützte, war sein Freund. Alle anderen waren Feinde, die vernichtet werden mussten. Wie konnte er seine Feinde im größten Land der Welt aufspüren? Mao wusste wie.92

The language Yuan uses evokes the oﬃcial statements of the Communist party during the Cultural Revolution and foremost chairman Mao’s quotations:

Die Kulturrevolution erfasste das ganze Land mit Körper und Seele. In China, dem Land mit den meisten Einwohnern, war jeder davon betroffen. Entweder man wurde von anderen kritisiert und angeklagt oder man kritisierte und klagte selbst andere an. In ganz China gab es keinen einzigen Menschen, der nicht davon beeinflusst wurde. Die Feuer der Revolution brannten überall. Unter den Losungen ‘Die Restauration des Kapitalismus verhüten’ und ‘Das Alte zerstören, das Neue schaffen’ war das Gefüge des Landes zerstört und die staatlichen Organe außer Kraft gesetzt worden. Arbeiter taten nichts mehr für ihre Produktion, Bauern gingen nicht mehr aufs Feld, Schüler nicht mehr zum Unterricht. Sie wollten nur Revolution machen. Die Land- wirtschaft war sofort am Ende. Es gab einen großen Nahrungsmangel. Ganz China war durcheinander.93

Yuan describes the disorder that evolved during the Revolution and declares the idea of performing miracles with the power of Marxism a fairy tale. The true motivation for the Revolution, argues the narrator, was Mao’s power play.94

92Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 11. 93Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 203. 94“Ein Mann lachte über das Ganze. Das war der Vorsitzende Mao, der Begründer der Kul- turrevolution. Warum wollte er diese Revolutionsbewegung machen? Dafür gab es viele oﬃzielle Erklärungen, doch sie waren alle nur Propaganda. In Wirklichkeit war es nur ein Kampf um die Macht. Das Wesentliche für den großen Politiker Mao war Macht. Ohne sie konnte er nicht leben. Dies hatte sich schon sehr viel früher gezeigt. Anfang der Sechzigerjahre war seine Macht in Gefahr gewesen. Erstaunlicherweise hat Mao nie begriﬀen, dass es schwieriger ist, ein Land aufzubauen, als es zu zerstören.” Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 82.

65 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

Er übernahm einfach die Theorien von Karl Marx, die dieser nie in der Praxis ausprobiert hatte. Mao glaubte das Märchen, dass man ein Wunder schaﬀen könne, wenn das Volk von der kommunistischen Idee durchdrungen sei.95

The imminent consequences of the Cultural Revolution are the end of civilization and radical changes in interpersonal relationships, but this is juxtaposed with the general, oﬃcial attitude towards the Revolution as a time of joy.96 With the death of Mao and the subsequent national and personal grief, Mao’s person bears diﬀerent nuances in retrospect. Again Yuan uses familiar language and images but then switches to direct criticism.

Die rote Sonne war untergegangen. . . . Leider hatte der arrogante Mann, das Bauernkind, sich für die Idee von Karl Marx entschieden. . . . Seine Machtsucht war so ausgeprägt, dass dafür einige Millionen Menschen geopfert werden mussten.97

The narrator connects this criticism of Mao’s adaptation of Marxism with Mao’s negation and repulsion of Confucianism. The following passage tries to link Con- fucianism with the dignity of the Chinese people.

Das chinesische Volk versuchte immer, Mao seine Sünden zu verzeihen, weil er zusammen mit seinen Genossen die Partei, die Armee und die Volksrepublik China gegründet hatte und weil er erfolgreich für die Er- hebung des chinesischen Volkes gekämpft hatte. Tausend Jahre konfuzianisches Denken mit Werken von ‘Menschlich- keit, Rechtschaﬀenheit und Tugend’ oder ‘Loyalität und Duldsamkeit’ waren im chinesischen Leben und in der chinesischen Seele tief ver- wurzelt. Man hatte früh gelernt, die guten Taten anderer im Kopf zu

95Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 83. 96“Durch die Kulturrevolution waren die Beziehungen zwischen den Menschen in wilde Zeiten zurückgefallen. Die Mehrheit dachte allerdings anders. Viele Leute freuten sich über die Revolu- tionszeit. ’Wenn man in der Zeit des Vorsitzenden Mao lebt, ist man in der Zeit des Vorsitzenden Mao lebt, ist man ein glücklicher Mensch.’ So hieß es damals.” Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 170. 97Yuan, Tempelglocken, 345f.

66 3.2 Self-Orientalisation

behalten und das Schlechte zu vergessen. Als ich ein Kind war, hatte meine Großmutter oft zu mir gesagt: ‘Da Lee, du sollst nie vergessen, wer dir geholfen und etwas Gutes für dich getan hat. Und wenn du später die Möglichkeit hast, sollst du es erwidern.’ In China nennt man das ‘hohe Tugend’. Der Vorsitzende Mao wollte zu Lebzeiten die traditionellen Ideen von Konfuzius zu Gunsten der marxistischen Ideale vernichten, doch war es gerade dieses traditionelle Denken, das seinen Ruf teilweise gerettet hat. Sein Bild hängt heute noch am Tor des himmlischen Friedens. Sein Foto wird sogar auf neue chinesische Geldscheine gedruckt. Das ist interessant, sehr interessant. Was allerdings seine Frau betraf, fand man keinen Grund zu verzeihen, weil sie fast nur Schlechtes getan hatte. Hunderttausende jubelten vor Freude auf den Straßen und freuten sich über die Festnahme Jiang, Quings [sic!]. Am Ende wurde sie zum Tod verurteilt mit Bewährung. Mit dem Tod Maos war auch die Kulturrevolution zu Ende. Man feierte es wie ein großes Fest. Fast überall sah ich lächelnde Gesichter, so als seien die Menschen nun befreit.98

Firstly the Chinese people scrupulously adhere to the rules and traditions originating in Confucianism. This is why they do forgive Mao Zedong’s actions. Meanwhile Mao tries to eliminate the traditional beliefs. Yet due to the fact that Mao also did good things for the people, Yuan argues, he is still worshiped in contrast to his wife Jiang Qing. She is condemned, because she only did bad deeds. The shift in personality and apprehension of the political situation, particularly the possibility to take sides, is blurred. No rationale is given for Chen, Da Lee’s insights or the motivations behind his actions. This is also shown in the hero’s weak characterization. Chen, Da Lee answers yes to any question about what he wants to do with his future life — yes, he says to the Qigong master and yes to his father. So on one hand he trains with the Qigong Master in order to eventually become a master himself and on the other hand joins the army to become a soldier.

98Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 357.

67 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

Nevertheless he refuses a posting in Shanghai and swaps with his housemaid’s son to go to Xinjiang near the abode of his master. Therefore it is more difficult to differentiate the construction of the Other here — it is not as simplified as in Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress or the other books. In this novel the Other exists on two levels — on one hand it is the young activists of the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards (although not the communists in general) and on the other hand, the Chinese minority of the Kazakhs. Nonetheless clear distinctions between evil and good can still be drawn along this line. Here the good have to take the disguise of the evil in order to survive. The following quotations originate from a section where the monks living at the Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai trick the Red Guards to save the temple and the holy objects in the monastery. Chen, Da Lee is enchanted by the beauty of the Buddha and has a vision. In order to protect the monastery and temple according to his vision, the monks glue propaganda writings onto the important religious items. The monks even remove their religious clothes. Mimicry helps surviving.

“Früher benutzten die Krieger auch diese Methode. Um sich zu schützen, schadeten sie sich anscheinend zunächst selbst und warteten dann auf eine Chance, um ihre Gegner zu besiegen,” sagte Meister Yun.99

The Red Guards enter the temple in order to destroy the religious objects and most zealously the Giant Jade Buddha, the most important and valuable religious statue of the temple. The monks take the Red Guards arguments to destroy the “four olds”100 and disguise themselves as Revolutionary communists. They cover all the statues and character tablets with propaganda slogans and wear diﬀerent clothes with red armbands. “Wir waren Mönche, doch jetzt sind wir keine mehr. Wir sind aufgestanden, jetzt sind wir Revolutionäre.” Er zeigte auf seine rote Armbinde.101

99Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 151. 100四旧, sijiu was generally speaking a slogan during the Cultural Revolution aiming at the destruction of the four olds: old customs, old habits, old ideas and old culture. 101Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 153.

68 3.2 Self-Orientalisation

The monk’s actions disarm the Red Guards; they have to leave the temple without fulﬁlling their intended demolition. The monks triumph and are therefore able to maintain their intellectual freedom and preserve the cultural objects.

Die Atmosphäre war sofort wieder harmonisch, man lachte und redete miteinander. Die Mönche hatten schon guten Tee in großen Gefäßen vorbereitet. Jetzt boten sie ihn den jungen Leuten an. Eine Stunde später ging die letzte Gruppe weg. Ihre Eisenstangen hinter sich herziehend, verschwanden sie. Dann war das Lachen auf der Seite der Mönche. Meister Yun und ich lachten so, wie schon lange nicht mehr.102

On another level, the cunning actions of the monks describe the opposition and hegemony of traditional values and rites over newly assumed political ideas. This line of opposition is extended to the relations between Eastern cities inhabited by Han Chinese and the Western countryside inhabited by the so-called minorities of predominantly Islamic faith. Typified by naivety but also amiability, the habitants of the West, let them be Uyghur or Kazakh, are described as savage, but beautiful in their uncivilized manners. Their culture is distinct on one side from the majority of the Han Chinese through different socialization and background, but foremost, religion. It is mostly the Muslim belief and it’s maintenance in the secular and communist People’s Republic that sets them apart. Yet in Yuan’s novel the characters are reduced to their physical appearance, temperament, and popular customs. This is evident in the following examples, one describing the beauty of a girl and the other portraying the connection between Kazakhs and their horses. Chen, Da Lee has difficulties in describing the girl’s appearance and character, but is helped by a friend. “So eine wilde, natürliche Schönheit,” Min Jiang half ihm. / “Ja richtig! Das fehlt den Shanghai-Mädchen.”103 The other quotation closely associates the ethnic minority with the characteristics of animals in order to demonstrate the extent of their ‘uncivilized human nature’. “Kasachen leben auf den Rücken ihrer Pferde. Sie sind sehr stolz, wie

102Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 153. 103Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 244.

69 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

Adler, und hart wie Eisen. In ihrem Vokabular ﬁndet man ein Wort nicht und das heißt: ‘schwach’.”104 The downside of this description is the sober portrayal of the coexisting naivety and passivity of the Kazahk villagers:

“Das ganze Dorf betete für sie. Zu fast allen Heiligen haben sie ge- betet, von Allah und Buddha zu Jesus bis hin zu Karl Marx und dem Vorsitzenden Mao. Doch ohne Erfolg. Die beiden Kinder würden bald sterben wie die anderen vor ihnen.”105

The efforts to help and cure the ill children remain limited to praying to whomever might bring betterment, but the Qigong master examines the children and eventually heals them. The novel presents neither reflections nor reasoning nor does it elaborate the included knowledge and facts for the reader. The plot is driven forward through actions and only these actions are commented upon. It is claimed that the novel and its sequel are written for either Qigong practitioners or people interested in the sport/ philosophy. Though present throughout the novel the power and sublimity of Qigong is not shown in the beginning. Alternative lifestyles like communism or the army go side by side and only much later in the novel after Chen’s misuse of his powers in a jealous dispute, is the wisdom and supremacy (healing several diseases including lung cancer, fulfilling the motto that the most beautiful is the most simple) of Qigong illustrated. The narration and afterword lead to the conclusion that this is not the last time the reader will witness the journey of Chen, Da Lee towards wisdom and the fulfillment of life with Qigong. This text and the sequel seek to promote Qigong and do so on a rather superficial level. Neither origins, learning possibilities, nor methods are explained. To the reader, who is not familiar with the subject matter, Qigong’s positive effects remain mostly in the land of wonders. Qigong is projected as a powerful means to lead an honest and decent life. The description of the communists, the army and the minorities is glossed over for Yuan only refers

104Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 260. 105Yuan, Tempelglocken, 266f.

70 3.2 Self-Orientalisation to folkloric images. The practice of Self-Orientalization is pushed to an extremity here. It is the old practice of Qigong, a martial art and meditation technique that is extremely exoticized and mystified. The Self-Orientalization lies in the main protagonist’s role as a follower and later master of Qigong, the wisdom of his master and the unquestioning trust of the narrator’s grandmother. The next novel Porte de la Paix céleste106 that is featured in the following passages is from one of the most prominent Sino-French writers, Shan Sa. She was born in 1972 in Beijing. From 1983 to 1989 she published four volumes of poetry in China. In 1990 she left for France to learn French and do her high school graduation. Later she studied philosophy in Paris. In 1994 she became a close collaborator of the painter Balthus, to whom she dedicates her first novel written in French, Porte de la Paix céleste. By 2008 she had published six novels including the international success, La joueuse de go107 in 2001, Impératrice108 in 2003, Les conspirateurs109 in 2005 and Alexandre & Alestria110 in 2006 as well as collections of poetry and books on painting. The novel Porte de la Paix céleste describes the story of Ayamei, an organizer of the 1989 manifestations on the Tian’anmen Square in Beijing. The text starts with the very end of the movement, when the armed police and the army start persecuting and killing the students and other demonstrators. Ayamei flees, while a friend of hers is killed. The van driver Wang rescues her, and takes her in, and later hides her with his parents in the countryside. Meanwhile lieutenant Zhao who was hurt during the revolt, gets the mandate to follow Ayamei and arrest her. As he starts investigating, he finds her diary. And so the reader gets information about the former life of Ayamei; a largely unhappy one, due to societal pressure and a love story which ends with the suicide of her youthful lover Min. As Wang’s

106Shan Sa. Porte de la Paix céleste. Paris: Gallimard, 2000. Originally published 1997. 107Shan Sa. La joueuse de go. Paris: Grasset, 2001. 108Shan Sa. Impératrice. Paris: Le livre de poche, 2003. 109Shan Sa. Les conspirateurs. Paris: Albin Michel, 2005. 110Shan Sa. Alexandre & Alestria. Paris: Albin Michel, 2006.

71 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés wife cracks under the interrogation, Zhao follows her to the seaside. But when he arrives, Ayamei has already disappeared into the woods. He finds her latest diary, reads it and learns more about her motivations. As he continues the hunt with the help of a local woodsman, he is no longer able to obey his orders and does not arrest her, even though he has the possibility to do it. The black and white description and designation of the characters divides the protagonists into either the supporting or the persecuting party of the democratic movement impersonated by Ayamei. It is the old juxtaposition of “Wu” and “Wen”, the military world against the world of letters. Ayamei’s counterpart is Zhao as a member of the armed forces, formed by military and communist training. The first quotation opposes different perspectives on the imperial buildings in Beijing. Shan Sa contrasts the beauties of the craftsman’s work with the political principles of the time. Le soleil embrasait une vaste étendue de tuiles dorées. Des pagodes peintes, des tours chargées de sculptures de dragons, la toiture gi- gantesque des palais au-dessus des hauts murs de la Cité interdite se profilaient avec majesté. Mais le lieutenant Zhao n’y verrait qu’une opulence fondée sur l’exploitation du peuple et, pour cette raison, il ne serait séduit ni par les perrons de marbre blanc, ni par les colonnes de santal sculpté. Il n’apprécierait ni les murs recouverts de fresque fantastique, ni les meubles incrustés d’or. Ni les draperies jadis brodées par les mains les plus habiles de Chine.111 Shan Sa portrays the soldiers as uneducated or, more accurately, as only educated in military actions and communist thought. The presence of the students moves the soldiers. L’armée demeura dans la banlieue sud de Pékin pendant quatre jours. Le premier groupe d’étudiants parti, un autre était venu, afin de propager dans l’armée ses idées politiques. Les soldats ne compre- naient pas ce que disaient les étudiants, mais leurs chants pleins de

111Shan Sa, Porte de la Paix céleste, 21f.

72 3.2 Self-Orientalisation

gaieté et leurs rires insouciants les attiraient. L’atmosphère hostile s’adoucissait.112

Longing for education113 and the emotional effect of Ayamei’s diaries exemplify the character development of the soldier Zhao. The supporting characters in the novel are represented by the 老百姓, (laobaix- ing) the ordinary people. They are neither dazzled nor corrupted by either “communist” or “educated” views of the world. Not only the Wang couple that helps Ayamei to flee the city but also their relatives in the fisherman’s village, demonstrate this. (Ayamei could not turn to family relations for help because the liability would then fall on the entire family and endanger them.) The couple is described as good-hearted, simple folk, who can form their own opinion upon right and wrong. As Wang’s wife explains in the following:

Ayamei, je suis une brute, un routier sans importance. Mais j’admire les gens comme toi, qui ont du courage et qui sont capables de grandes actions. Je n’entends rien à la politique, mais j’ai au moins le sens de la justice. Nos dirigeants on fait tirer sur des innocents, sur des hommes qui n’étaient pas armés. Je ne le leur pardonnerai jamais. Ce sont eux les criminels! les émeutiers! les conspirateurs!114

To bring the orientalizing inﬂuences to the surface it is necessary to concentrate on the above introduced themes of the key role played by education in Zhao’s character development, along with the inner diremption and despair of Ayamei, her actions and intentions, and her reﬂections on events in her diary. Revealing instances in Shan Sa’s novel include the necessity to cry at Mao’s death in public, not because of the feeling of loss, but her fear of compromising her family if she would not and the kindheartedness of the ordinary people with their clear perception of human and inhuman acts. All this, together with the open rather happy ending, refers

112Shan Sa, Porte de la Paix céleste, p. 31. 113Cf.“Les étudiants étaient gais, ils chantaient, récitaient des poèmes à haute voix. Leurs visages étaient purs, ﬁns, éclatants. Zhao éprouva malgré lui le regret de n’avoir jamais été à l’école.” Shan Sa, Porte de la Paix céleste, p. 30. 114Shan Sa, Porte de la Paix céleste, p. 46.

73 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés to ‘Western’ ideas and values. Although Marxism originated in the West, it does not endorse the idea of individualism and personal happiness. This opposition is understood in the same way that Dai Sijie openly introduces self-actualization as distinct from the predominant thought in China and which, therefore, has to be learned from the West.115

3.3 Occidentalism

In addition to the self-portrayal of the Chinese in literary texts, the West and the Westerner also play a revealing role; this backlash of the imposed and adopted Orientalism culminates in Occidentalism. The sight of the “inferior Oriental” in public and word, which is sometimes only a minimally altered reproduction by the “Oriental” him/herself, leads to the likewise unquestioned portrayal of the “superior Westerner”. This ultimately results in an unreﬂected imitation or stereotypical and topical depiction of foreigners, of non-Han-Chinese, as Chen Xiaomei points out:

Occidentalism, a discursive practice that, by constructing its West- ern Other, has allowed the Orient to participate actively and with indigenous creativity in the process of self-appropriation, even after being appropriated and constructed by Western Others. As a result of constantly revising and manipulating imposed Western theories and practices, the Chinese Orient has produced a new discourse, marked by a particular combination of the Western construction of China with the Chinese construction of the West, with both of these components interacting and interpenetrating each other.116

It is Occidentalism that engages Orientalism, while still being shaped within its

115This does not mean that those thoughts are absent or non-existing in China; it is merely refered to the staging of these immaterial goods at this point. 116Chen Xiaomei. Occidentalism. A Theory of Counter-Discourse in Post-Mao China. With an intro. by Dai Jinhua. Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littleﬁeld Publishers, 2002, p. 2. Chen is a professor of Chinese and Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at University of California Davis. Her research interest lies in Modern Chinese Literature, Drama and Comparative Literature.

74 3.3 Occidentalism legacy. Whereas the “Orient” is a discursive construct of imperialist and colo- nialist views within the Western culture, produced and reproduced in “Oriental” studies and beyond, Occidentalism cannot be traced back to a factual response on Orientalism, but is to be located and described as the “discursive signiﬁcance of the ‘West’ in politico-cultural practice in post-Mao China.”117 Occidentalism takes an external view of the Chinese society and consequently manages to detect the society’s intellectual trends and transformations: “The discourse of Orien- talism and of Occidentalism are, of course, intricately related to the problems of Eurocentrism and ethnocentrism.”118 Chen sets Occidentalism apart from the “Westernization” of the early twentieth-century, manifested for example during the May-Forth-Movement. The dilemma is that even as a counter-discourse due to its return on similar cultural resources, it becomes just another version of misreading.

[If] the true pursuit of émigré intellectuals ﬁnds them questioning the Western intellectual tradition and its standards, then they still must subject themselves to that tradition, or at the very least be intimately familiar with it.119

One should always bear in mind the cultural specificities that are evoked by the term “Chinese Occidentalism”. In Chen’s words it is a genuine Chinese discourse that is led by “various and competing groups within Chinese society for a variety of different ends, largely, though not exclusively, within domestic Chinese politics.”120 Hence Chen divides the discourse into two groups, the official and anti-official discourse. The official discourse reduces the West, interprets the Western Other through a Chinese point of view with the intention “to discipline, and ultimately to dominate, the Chinese Self at home.”121 The anti-official Occidentalism persists among various intellectual circles with different competing or opposing interests.

117Dai Jinhua. “Foreword.” In: Occidentalism. A Theory of Counter-Discourse in Post-Mao China. Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littleﬁeld Publishers, 2002, pp. ix–xxviii, p. xi. 118X., Occidentalism, p. 8. 119Dai J., “Foreword,” p. xvii. 120X., Occidentalism, p. 3. 121X., Occidentalism, p. 3.

75 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

[The] Western Other at least theoretically can and often does become a metaphor for political liberation against indigenous forms of ideological oppression. . . . But in China, the evocation of the West, as a counterpart of the indigenous culture, has more than once set in motion a kind of ‘dialogic imagination’ that in turn has become a dynamic and dialectical force in the making of modern Chinese history, both literary and political.122

The terminological distinction is only used in order to facilitate the identification of a rather fluctuating object shifting through different historical moments, within different groups of Chinese intellectuals and collaborating with other social entities confronting in some degree or other the prevailing ruling ideology. The outcome of Occidentalism is, as referred to earlier, as superficial and constructed as its “counterpart”, Orientalism. It is also found, even more surprisingly, in the works of Overseas Chinese writers. It is the contact with the foreign, the non-Chinese, that arouses curiosity and wonder. This can happen though confronting an Overseas Chinese with his Chinese homeland, or in person with one or more Westerners in China, or through considering the Chinese in Europe and their interaction with the Europeans. The texts referred to in the following again reduce the characters to stereotypes. Moreover they function as a paradigm of cross-cultural ‘mis’-communication. The examples chosen here derive from a rather similar set of tests and authors, including short stories written in German from the early 1980s. The text Die Tempelglocken von Shanghai by Hong Li Yuan that was introduced earlier rather paradigmaticaly describes the incident of a cultural misunderstanding and the incapability to solve the solution in other ways than by force. Here it is the different meaning or wrong translation for the word “Hungerstreik” (hunger strike) that leads to misunderstanding between a German professor and his student Chen, Da Lee the narrator. The term “hunger strike” is used to refer to the boycott of an on campus cafeteria due to overpriced and poor quality food. Other students and professors

122X., Occidentalism, p. 6.

76 3.3 Occidentalism understand the intended nature of the strike. The German professor Dr. Müller agrees with the student’s cause, joins in the protest and intends to stop eating. Chen, Da Lee tries to persuade the professor to go and eat at a diﬀerent place, but the professor refuses to leave. He is eventually dragged away by two other students. The dialogue unfolds as follows:

“Dr. Müller, gehen Sie bitte nicht in die Mensa. Wir machen einen Hungerstreik.” Als ich sah, dass er wieder auftauchte, ging ich sofort zu ihm. “Warum?” Er riss seine Augen hinter der Brille weit auf. “Das Essen ist schlecht und auch zu teuer,” erklärte ich ihm. “Ja, richtig. Ich bin auch dieser Ansicht. Ich mache mit!” “Gut! Dann gehen Sie in die Kantine.” . . . “Nein, ich gehe nicht essen. Ich mache beim Hungerstreik mit. Ich esse nicht.” “Das ist der Hungerstreik der chinesischen Studenten!” Damals konnte ich sehr wenig Deutsch und was ich konnte, hatte ich zum großen Teil von ihm gelernt. “Nein, wenn man einen Hungerstreik macht, soll man nichts essen.” “Gehen Sie ins Restaurant und essen Sie mit den Studenten zusammen.” “Nein, wenn man einen Hungerstreik macht, soll man nichts essen.” Er setzte sich einfach auf die Treppe und bewegte sich nicht mehr. Was konnte ich mit ihm machen? Dort störte er uns nur. “Bringt ihn von hier weg!,” sagte ich zum meinen Kollegen.123

Another example for linguistic problems is the story of a foreigner asking directions in a German city and causing confusion and even laughter. This event is described by Chen Daxing in “Gnädige Frau”,124 included in the collection of short stories and texts edited by Irmgard Ackermann, In zwei Sprachen leben. The miscommunica-

123Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 416. 124Chen Daxing, (Bei-Min). “‘Gnädige Frau’.” In: In zwei Sprachen leben. Berichte, Erzäh- lungen, Gedichte von Ausländern. Ed. by Irmgard Ackermann. München: dtv, 1983, p. 100.

77 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés tion is caused by the elevated, archaic level of the language used by the non-native speaker. The addressed woman is at first puzzled and bewildered by the foreigner’s language, but she pulls herself together and answers using the same, unusual level of language, in what she considers a witty manner. Nevertheless the humor and comedy evoked by the everyday street scene is neither positively described nor understood. The problem is shown as a culturally contrasting apprehension of the same instance. A worse example of this estrangement occurs in another short story, also written by Chen Daxing and titled “Nein, danke”.125 It features the dinner invitation of a Chinese exchange student to a German professor’s house. Unfamiliar with German customs and circumstances, the student not only arrives too early, but also refuses the first offer of drinks and food. Punctuality is referred to as a German virtue, while according to the Chinese tradition it is only polite to accept after two or more times of kind offering. “Darf ich Ihnen noch etwas geben?” fordert diesmal Herr Herz auf. “Ach . . . Nein, danke.” Lieber warte ich auf die zweite Aufforderung. “Schade. Sie essen das wohl nicht sehr gern, oder?” “Wie schade, daß Sie so wenig von all dem Essen!” schließt sich Frau Herz ihrem Mann an. . . . Halb hungrig, halb durstig habe ich mich nach Hause geschleppt. Aber ich bin doch froh, daß ich nichts Unhöfliches getan habe.126 This question of politeness during a domestic dinner scene, which is presented here as miscommunication, is staged not a question of not understanding the Others’ language, but the Others’ culture. For this, no solution can be found. The characters remain in their cultural framework. The short story as a momentary still is, like the above quoted excerpt, more of a paradigmatic cultural confrontation in a loss-loss situation. It is the narrator’s comment that so often in these stories in a final sentence or paragraph brings back the foreigner’s perspective, to reinforce

125Chen Daxing, (Bei-Min). “‘Nein, danke’.” In: In zwei Sprachen leben. Berichte, Erzäh- lungen, Gedichte von Ausländern. Ed. by Irmgard Ackermann. Munich: dtv, 1983, pp. 101– 102. 126Chen, “‘Nein, danke’,” p. 102.

78 3.3 Occidentalism the reader’s perception of the narrator or main character’s alienation and inability to function in a culturally different environment, which is also applicable to the German counterparts. Returning to a Chinese setting, the following two examples from texts by Dai Sijie and Shen Dali feature another mirror image to the Self-Orientalizing Chinese portrayed before. It is the familiarity with Western Culture that alienates and distances the protagonists from their “own” culture and intensifies the difficulties to find the appropriate referential framework. The 2003 award winning novel Le complexe de Di127 by Dai Sijie is introduced on the jacket as follows: “Avec Le Complexe de Di, Dai Sijie livre les tribulations d’un Don Quichotte, adepte de Freud, qui sillonne l’empire du Milieu à la recherche d’un remède singulier destiné au juge Di. Une romantique et rocambolesque quête racontée avec humour et finesse.”128 Muo, a French psychoanalyst, travels to his hometown Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, to free his “lover” Volcan de la Vieille Lune (Vulcan of the Old Moon) from jail. There, he drafts an agreement with the judge in charge, judge Di.129 If Muo can present him a virgin girl, the judge will release the woman. On his travels he encounters several young women that could be considered and offers the young women the opportunity to go back to France with him as retribution. In this novel the narrator as well as the main character strongly connect to the adopted language and culture on an intellectual, emotional, and even physical level. The affinity to, love for and incorporation of the French language and culture disables the “Chinese”, here the psychotherapist Muo, to interact with his cultural peers and transports him to the position of a foreigner in his own culture and country. It is not only that a temporal difference has been established between

127Prix Femina 2003. Dai, Le complexe de Di. 128Dai, Le complexe de Di, jacket. 129The name Judge Di is consciously incorporated as an allusion to the Chinese investigator Judge Di from the Tang dynasty. He was made popular in the West through the Sinologist Robert Van Gulick with a sequence of crime novels. Van Gulick relocates Di (named Tie in the Dutch original, Dee in English, Di in German and Ti in French) into the later Ming Dynasty. Nevertheless the works are mostly true to the original sources and narrations passed on in China over the centuries. Cf. Dai, Le complexe de Di, p. 85.

79 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés the China he left and his return decades later, but the eﬀect and aﬀectation of Eu- ropean culture has estranged him even more. The construction and reconstruction of his own homeland leads to a loss in reality, perception and interpretation. Muo’s description of the psychoanalytical profession in his own terms is misin- terpreted by the young girl he meets on a train and who later steals his belongings.

— Je suis psychanalyste. — C’est quoi ça, psychanalyste? Un métier? — Bien sûr. Il s’agit d’analyser. . . . Comment vous expliquer? Je ne travaille pas dans un hôpital, mais bientôt, j’aurai un cabinet privé. — Vous êtes médecin? — Non. J’interprète les rêves. Des gens qui souﬀrent me racontent leurs rêves et j’essaie de les aider à les comprendre. — Mon Dieu, ça ne se voit pas que vous êtes diseur de bonne aventure! — Qu’est-ce que vous dites? — Vous êtes diseur de bonne aventure! répète-t-elle.130

Dr. Muo cannot even explain his profession in his own words and does not con- tradict the girl’s “déﬁnition populaire.”131 While in the Little Chinese Seamstress the connection between “European” literature and education is drawn in many respects, in Le complexe de Di a direct connection between French language and sexuality is enforced. It is the mere reference to the French language and nothing more132 that evokes emotional, sensual

130Dai, Le complexe de Di, p. 29. 131Dai, Le complexe de Di, p. 29. 132There is reference to several languages other than French or Chinese in the text. Muo for example quotes Voltaire that “pour parler anglais, il faut se mordre le bout de la langue. Moi je suis trop âgé, j’ai perdu les miennes.” Dai, Le complexe de Di, p. 14. In a longer excursion he reflects on the advantages of knowing “exotic” languages in a conspira- torial, secret or illuminating way. “En écrivant ces mots sais-tu ce qui me vient à l’esprit et me submerge? Un vif regret, non pas d’avoir appris cette langue, mais de ne pas en savoir d’autres, plus difficiles, qu’encore moins de gens comprennent. Le vietnamien, par exemple. Je me suis initié à cette langue, à ses six tons, à sa grammaire pleine de confusions et de subtilités. Imag- ine, si je t’envoyais des lettres en vietnamien, même si le Juge Di était prêt à payer très cher un traducteur, il lui serait tout simplement impossible d’en trouver un, même à l’université du Sichuan. Ou une autre langue encore plus cabalistique, le catalan. Qui peut déchiffrer une lettre

80 3.3 Occidentalism or physical reactions. Not only that “le français est une langue dont tous les mots n’existent que pour plaire aux femmes”133 but even the very girl holding a French grammar book provokes an erection.134 After her acceptance to have sexual in- tercourse with Judge Di at the promise of moving to France later, the narrator describes Muo’s innermost thoughts, remembering, whispering and eventually kiss- ing.

— Merci, marmonne-t-il d’un ton paternel. Mille fois merci. Je t’apprendrai le français. Alors, des vers de Hugo, Verlaine et Baudelaire, qu’il avait depuis longtemps oubliés, lui viennent à la bouche et se bousculent sans qu’il puisse les retenir. Il les laisse franchir ses lèvres qui, à tâtons, courent de baisers les cheveux, les yeux, le nez de la jeune ﬁlle. Elle garde la tête baissée, dans le noir. Mais elle ne le repousse pas. Brusquement, il l’embrasse sur la bouche, fougueusement.135

An even more grotesque scene is presented when Muo’s “problematic” identity, insead of hindering, rescues him and his travel companion through a hold-up. Here again the ignorant and untaught are duped by the knowledge and shrewdness gained by Muo through his time abroad. Traveling through parts of central China by car, he gets attacked by criminals belonging to an ethnic minority, the Yi People or Lolo, as they are referred to in the text.136

— Pourquoi tu m’as frappé? Pourquoi tu bats un Français? C’était médiocre. Je le savais. Je me haïssais. Mais j’aurais pu dire en catalan dans notre province de cent cinquante millions d’habitants? Tu sais ce que je voudrais faire? Apprendre des langues connues pour leur ésotérisme, le tibétain, le mongol, le latin, le grec, l’hébreu, le sanscrit, les hiéroglyphes égyptiens. Je voudrais pénétrer dans ces sanctuaires clos, m’agenouiller avec trois bâtons d’encens allumés et prier pour nous deux dans ces langues du saint des saints.” Dai, Le complexe de Di, 306f. 133Dai, Le complexe de Di, p. 299. 134Dai, Le complexe de Di, 298f. 135Dai, Le complexe de Di, 302f. 136The term Lolo is derogative, not used anymore and derives from the formerly used Chinese word Luoluo.

81 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

n’importe quoi pour sauver ma peau. Une fois le mensonge entamé, je n’ai pu m’arrêter. — Je ne suis pas un Chinois d’outre-mer, mais un Français venu chercher sa ﬁlle adoptive.137

Muo threatens them with hell and prison but the argument goes on. He eventually shows his residence permit, nevertheless the greatest, decisive impression is made by his monthly ticket for public transportation.

— Qu’est-ce que c’est? — Ma carte orange. À Paris, ça sert à prendre le métro. Je la lui ai tendue. Ses yeux se sont allumés. C’était un roi du saut en train, ça se voyait. — Le métro, c’est un train qui roule sous la terre, dans des tunnels. — Que dans des tunnels. — Que dans des tunnels. Il m’a regardé comme si je venais d’un autre monde. — Jamais en plein air? — Que dans des tunnels. Des kilomètres et des kilomètres de tunnels creusés sous la terre. — C’est pas un pays pour nous, a-t-il conclu. Il ne manquait pas d’humour. Les autres, sûrement des virtuoses du saut en train eux aussi, ont éclaté de rire en l’approuvant. — Ça c’est sûr, c’est pas un pays pour les Lolos. Sont-ils vraiment les bandits féroces que le camionneur prétend qu’ils sont? Pas sûr. Au moins, une chose est certaine: ils n’attaquent pas les Occidentaux, même les faux qui n’ont ni les yeux bleus, ni les cheveux blonds, ni un grand nez. Les Lolos ont certaines vertus. Ils sont chevaleresques, à leur manière, mondialistes, mais aussi pru- dents; ils ne veulent pas courir de risque, sachant que la police chinoise ne plaisante pas avec la sécurité des touristes et que le moindre délit

137Dai, Le complexe de Di, 335f.

82 3.3 Occidentalism

entraîne la peine capitale.138

Only on few occasions is the “Western” inﬂuence attributed a negative quality. In this novel’s case, it is the judge’s superﬁcial approach to Western cuisine, which is described in a rather comic way; his actions and “corrupted” taste are ridiculed, while the dishes are only listed.

Quelques années plus tard, alors que sa vie resplendissait sous le soleil (pas celui de Mao, comme le dit la chanson la plus populaire qu’un milliard de Chinois ont chantée pendant un demi-siècle: “Le rouge se répand dans le ciel, à l’est. Le soleil se lève. C’est lui, Mao, notre président. . . ”, mais le soleil de l’Occident, celui du capitalisme à la communiste), il a endossé le costume de juge et, nimbé de l’aura du pouvoir, de l’argent, du charme indiscret de la bourgeoisie, il s’est initié à la gastronomie occidentale, une serviette blanche autour du cou, dans un cliquetis de fourchettes, de couteaux, de cuillers, d’assiettes changées d’innombrables fois, avec une scrupuleuse attention à la règle. Lapin chasseur, chou frisé à la duchesse, rognons sauce madère, saumon à la crème. . . Pour lui, cette cuisine exotique est un spectacle, du cinéma, un “show” (il a appris un peu d’anglais et adore le mot “show”, qu’il prononce “sou”, avec un fort accent dialectal).139

This approach to table manners and food is the negative image of Jules Verne’s appreciation for Chinese cuisine and coincides more with Karl May’s view. The passage goes on describing the orgiastic dimensions of the judge’s appetite for Western food. It is a very open recourse on Oriental debauchery. This appropriation of foreign meals and eating manners is portrayed by the narrator in an interpretative mode. Occidentalism is featured here in the new, adopted characteristics of the central protagonist. Muo openly attributes Western and Chinese traits to his character

138Dai, Le complexe de Di, 337f. 139Dai, Le complexe de Di, 362f.

83 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés and knowledge and uses his adopted abilities according to the situations. Muo’s behavior and actions single him out of the Chinese surroundings. His otherness can be easily identiﬁed and is ascribed to his stay and higher education in France (with the exception of his mannerisms). The 2004 novel Les amoureux du lac. Sous le soleil de Mao140 by Shen Dali, professor of literature at Peking University, refers to a love story between Sabine Rolland and Yi Mong and their familial and extended social surroundings. It spans over a time period covering the consequences of the anti-rightist movement141 of the late 1950s, the Cultural Revolution in the early 60s and the new opening policy that seems to change things on a personal level as well. The rapprochement of the two protagonists through the interest in literature, transforms into love. First it is the political situation that forces them to part, and when this is no longer an obstacle against their togetherness, it is the belonging to diﬀerent cultures that separates them. They cannot bridge or abandon their upbringing and cultural background, even though both have a deep understanding of the Other’s culture by being literary scholars and living in the country. The academic setting displays the close connection between freeing the textual interpretation from cultural and, in the case of China, also political interpretation. The discussion of cultural products such as nineteenth century French literature spreads from a simple opposition in understanding to personal consequences for the “wrong” interpretation. The implications of literary realism, romanticism and eroticism in the academic world of the People’s Republic of China surface through the views regarding nineteenth century French realism by Guy de Maupassant and Stendhal. Sabine Rolland’s “naive” defense of the erotic descriptions against the student body’s critic leaves Yi Mong questioning the quality of the translation of the term eroticism and praising her political openness and boldness. The dangers of taking on such a critical position by a Chinese scholar at that time and place are alluded to a few pages later:

140Shen Dali. Les amoureux du lac. Sous le solei de Mao. Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2004. 141One of several political movements of the 1950s aiming at the exclusion of so called “rightist” elements from the Communist party.

84 3.3 Occidentalism

Un lourd silence tomba. La réponse de Yi Mong étonna Lu Ping qui n’avait pas l’air de comprendre: comment se faisait-il que Yi Mong, enthousiasmé par l’édiﬁcation du socialisme dans son enfance, soit devenu sceptique? Sous cet angle, le Parti avait donc eu raison de mettre l’accent sur la critique du romantisme européen du XIXème siècle! Sous l’inﬂuence de ce courant, les jeunes Chinois risquaient d’attraper le mal du siècle de l’aristocratie décadente. Se pourrait-il que Yi Mong soit devenu vic- time de la lecture d’œuvre occidentales et surtout des romans français? Lu Ping se sentit tout d’un coup très déçue.142

The same set of problems occurs when the protagonist refers to the strengh of literature and the consequent failure of political reeducation:

“Yi Mong a toujours négligé la rééducation idéologique. Il a lu Le Rouge et le Noir et il a été gagné par l’esprit de révolte petit bourgeois de Julien Sorel; c’est évident, il ne peut que s’opposer à la dictature du prolétariat exercée par notre grand et glorieux Parti communiste.” “Figurez-vous, dit un autre, il joue du violon et son air préféré est ‘Airs bohémiens’. Il s’identiﬁe donc à un vagabond. Qu’est-ce que ça signiﬁe, sinon qu’il critique notre système! Il est plongé jusqu’au cou dans le bourbier antiparti, et il doit être exclu de la ligue de la Jeunesse.”143

In addition the misreading or diﬀerent interpretation of literary works is more often brought to a personal level. The problematic of clashing cultural oppositions in relationships inhibits a major part of the novel and is mostly referred to in topical conversations. The distinctness of the French and Chinese culture makes relationships between people of both nations diﬃcult, as the following conversation between Yi Mong and Sabine shows.

“A t’en croire, il existe bel et bien une frontière qui sépare la Chine de l’Occident, mais as-tu entendu parler des enfants eurasiens qui sont les

142Shen, Les amoureux, p. 34. 143Shen, Les amoureux, p. 39.

85 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

plus beaux fruits du monde?” “Il y a de très beaux fruits dont le goût est amer.” “Je suis pour ceux qui ont le courage de goûter aux fruits amers!” “Vous autres Français, vous aimez goûter aux fruits défendus. Et comme conséquence. . . ” “Tu veux dire que nous avons perdu le paradis?”144

The dialogue continues with Sabine declaring her love to Yi Mong. She does this using the Chinese language.

Sabine ﬁxa son regard sur Yi Mong et après bien des hésitations, elle prit le courage de lui dire en chinois: “Wo ai shang ni le!” “Je t’aime!” cette déclaration de feu jaillit du cœur de Sabine et ébranla profondément Yi Mong, qui ne s’attendait pas du tout à un aveu aussi direct.145

It is in discussions between Yi Mong’s sister Lou and her friend Lu Ying that the couple’s diﬃculties are explained through culture:

“A la réflexion, je pense que c’est la mentalité de ton frère qui provoque un malentendu, dit Lu Ying. Ton frère se confine dans une sorte de tour d’ivoire qui l’entretient dans l’illusion dont il a besoin. Alors que Sabine est une Occidentale qui cherche l’absolu et qui veut que l’amour aboutisse. Elle n’arrive pas à comprendre la passivité de ton frère d’autant moins qu’il est en France maintenant. C’est là, je crois, le nœud du problème.” “Il ne lui reste plus qu’un rêve: le rêve qui l’a soutenu dans ses épreuves et qui l’a rattaché à la vie. Il craint que ce souvenir amour ne soit fra- cassé par une réalité sacrilège.” ‘’Tu veux dire que ton frère pense avoir perdu tout ce qui est nécessaire pour être à la hauteur de leur idéal et que s’il la décevait, ce serait la fin de tout?”

144Shen, Les amoureux, p. 80. 145Shen, Les amoureux, p. 80.

86 3.3 Occidentalism

‘’Oui. En bref, il ne s’estime pas digne de Sabine. Et même s’il était encore jeune, il lui serait diﬃcile d’accepter un mariage avec une Occiden- tale. Une fois, il a plaisanté en disant: ’Si j’engendrais une progéniture aux cheveux blonds et aux yeux bleus, je me rendrais indigne de mes ancêtres!’ Tu vois, il est extrêmement conservateur sur ce plan-là.”146

But mostly it is Yi Mong’s personality that renders him unﬁt for the new times, the new area. He cannot cope with the changes in his own culture and fails to adapt to the life in France. At least this is the conclusion people around him come to.147 Sabine, while seeing the diﬃculties, is nevertheless convinced of the possibility of understanding the Other and his or her culture:

“Tu sais, Sabine, dans la littérature chinoise classique, on qualiﬁe toujours les femmes ’d’eau faible’. Faible, mais tenace.” “C’est très juste et très profond! Tu vois, tu peux comprendre l’art occidental à partir de la pensée chinoise. Le fait est que nous ressentons la même chose devant la vie et la mort.”148

Later Sabine is criticized for judging circumstances by reason and not being em- phatic enough to Yi Mong’s situation. There are no means for the people belonging to the two cultures to truly understand each other and, therefore, to live a life together.

Le sentiment de l’enfant était si pur, si naïf. C’est plus tard qu’il perd ses illusions. Comme tout Occidental, Sabine n’a pas compris le drame de ton frère. Elle était trop habituée à juger avec sa raison. Il lui était donc diﬃcile de saisir l’essence de la philosophie taoïste selon laquelle

146Shen, Les amoureux, p. 187. 147“Et ton frère, ce bêta, j’ai entendu parler de lui. Il n’est pas vraiment pas libre d’esprit. Autrefois, il ne voulait pas sortir de prison, et aujourd’hui, il reste prisonnier de principes dé- modés, de scrupules désuets. Quelle poire! Les temps changent et on n’est plus hier. Et puis, il faut se conformer aux usages du pays où l’on se trouve. Maintenant qu’on est en Occident, on doit s’occidentaliser. La survivance des plus aptes, voilà la loi la plus élémentaire de l’existence.” Shen, Les amoureux, p. 212. 148Shen, Les amoureux, p. 225.

87 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

le poisson ne peut pas quitter ses eaux.149 It is the Orient’s dilemma, according to Shen, that the Westerner tries to understand the continent with his reason. An alternative for a better way of understanding or understanding at all is not given here. In a superficial conversation between two French women, Sabine and Marie, exotic and orientalistic stereotypes are revealed. It is with a wink that the common practice of Exotism and Orientalism in European films is adopted here in a Self- Orientalizing manner in a Parisian Chinese restaurant. “Les hommes, à Pékin, portent-ils toujours cette longue natte sur le dos?” demanda à mi-voix Marie. “Mais pas du tout. Tu sais, c’était dans les qui a renversé la dynastie des Qing, les hommes se sont fait couper leur natte. Dans sa nouvelle ‘La véritable histoire de Ah Q’, Lu Xun a décrit les scènes de la coupe des nattes.” “Et moi qui croyais que les Chinois s’habillaient encore comme lui,” dit Marie en pouffant de rire, “Mais souvent dans des films américains, ils portent une jaquette de mandarin avec une calotte et jouent le rôle de valets qui disent toujours ‘oui’ à un maître occidental. . . “Dans les films français aussi. Par exotisme probablement, les cinéastes nous montrent toujours une Chine rétro empêtrée dans l’ignorance, en retard sur notre époque.” “Ce patron cherche probablement à attirer la clientèle en suivant cette mode.” “Tout juste,” approuva Sabine. “Il se donne en spectacle et se rend ridicule. Pour gagner de l’argent, on fait n’importe quoi.” “Hélas, le monde est comme ça,” soupira Marie, “Heureusement que tu as rencontré un Chinois d’exception. Parle-moi un peu de ton Yi Mong! Il est comment?”150 If one follows the argument it is firstly the friend’s ignorant question about the long

149Shen, Les amoureux, p. 242. 150Shen, Les amoureux, 165f.

88 3.3 Occidentalism hair that is analyzed by a very prominent example of a modern Chinese short story. This is followed by reflections on film and its input and influence on the perception of the Chinese Other as being separated from the West in knowledge and time (development), and then moves briefly to the restaurant’s owner who is ridiculing himself by using the orientalizing decoration to make profit. But the Chinese Sabine is in love with proves to be the exception. This passage raises questions such as, why and what makes Sabine’s Chinese lover an exception, and whether there is no love affair, no kind of relationship possible with a less exceptional Chinese. The question of integration only crops up at the French end. During the period of time Yi Mong stays in Paris, he is constantly singled out as still in need of social adjustment. His inability to eat raw things or cheese and his table manners exceeding European standards lead to the statement: “Franchement, je crois qu’il est trop Chinois pour franchir ce seuil.”151 Shen Dali narrates a story of stark distinctions. While the French woman knowing the Chinese culture and literature does not need to integrate, the Chinese counterpart fails tragically (a similar construction of a love story can be found in Dai Sijies’s 2007 novel Par une nuit où la lune ne s’est pas levée).152 The bridging or reconciling attributes of culture are portrayed in the following story, “Und ruhig fließt der Rhein” by Yiu Wubin from the collection Als Fremder in Deutschland,153 which deals with the disclosure of a friend’s duty on a Rhine ship. A “yellow” passenger throws a small tin into the river and is interrogated by a crew member.154 He finds out that the Chinese is fulfilling his dead German literature professor’s wish to get purified in German waters, because in his first “Heimat” he was prosecuted for his affinity towards literature and culture, foremost

151Shen, Les amoureux, p. 192. 152Dai, Par une nuit. 153Yiu Wubing. “Und ruhig fließt der Rhein.” In: Als Fremder in Deutschland. Berichte, Erzählungen, Gedichte von Ausländern. Ed. by Irmgard Ackermann. Munich: dtv, 1982, pp. 183– 187. 154The racist remark is verbatim in the text, reproducing the words of a narrator who does not indulge in deeper deliberations regarding everyday verbal racism. “Da ließ ein Gelber unauffällig eine kleine Dose in den Strom gleiten.” Yiu, “Und ruhig fließt der Rhein,” p. 183.

89 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés the German one, during the Cultural Revolution. The small tin contained some hair from the late professor. Both the crew member and the student then wish the professor a peaceful rest. Hence the adoration of the Other’s culture guarantees redemption. The story does not only contain a multitude of intertextual references to the masterpieces of German literature and quotes several, among them the ﬁrst lines of Heinrich Heine’s poem Loreley: (“Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten”), but lets Heine’s poem be the referential point for the symbolic burial. Contact with the waters of the Rhein promises puriﬁcation:

“Du sollst einen Teil von meinen Haaren aufbewahren. Wenn es dir eines Tages gelingt, Deutschland zu besuchen, dann nimm diesen Teil von meinem Körper mit und senke ihn in den deutschen Rhein. Ich weiß, daß meine Leiche verbrannt wird, und niemand darf etwas von meiner Asche aufbewahren. Diesen kleinen Teil von meinem Körper soll das Rheinwasser ununterbrochen bespülen, dann wird aller ‘Schmutz’ abgewaschen, mit dem man mich jetzt beﬂeckt, dann bin ich wieder rein und ﬁnde die ewige Ruhe in meiner zweiten Heimat. Wenn du keine Gelegenheit dazu hast, sollst du es einem zuverlässigen ausländischen Freund anvertrauen, der meine letzten Wunsch zur Erfüllung bringen kann.”155

The “Winterreise” by Schubert is intonated and everyone chimes to the tune on the Linden tree.156 The music creates an atmosphere for ending the story on the high note of praising Germany as a country of culture and freedom, at least in opposition to the People’s Republic of China. The lyrics are picked up in the concluding sentence: “Ja, armer Alter, hier ﬁndest du deine Ruh! / Als Fremder — in Deutschland!”157

155Yiu, “Und ruhig fließt der Rhein,” p. 186. 156The text refers to two different songs of the cycle: “Der Leiermann” (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man) and “Der Lindenbaum” (The Linden Tree), whereby the latter is misquoted. 157Yiu, “Und ruhig fließt der Rhein,” p. 187.

90 3.3 Occidentalism

It is in Shan Sa’s 2005 novel Les conspirateurs158 in which the negotiation of cultural and national identity plays a major role. Not only does it unfold in a world of secret services and international politics, but it again contains descriptions and analogies on national or cultural stereotypes.159 The novel can be seen as a sequel to Porte de la Paix celeste. It pretends to feature the same main character Ayamei, the Chinese dissident and heroine of the Tian’anmen student’s revolt. The American Bill Caplan, a US-American spy using different pseudonyms throughout the novel, is assigned to investigate the real identity of Ayamei since several secret agencies suspect that she might be a Chinese agent who has changed her identity to get in touch with and incite the Chinese dissidents in the Western world. The whole set up is revealed step by step for the reader. Ayamei is not Ayamei, she is in fact a spy. Shan Sa tries to establish fascination and suspense in the novel via the question whether the two secret agents even through a multi-layered net of false identities can truly fall in love, which is tinted with more or less explicit sex scenes. The question is on what level do stereotypes, from Orientalism or Occidentalism, figure in this international mystery. Starting with the choice of tea that becomes culturally connoted — “Earl Grey? Thé vert? / — Thé vert, bien sûr, je suis chinoise.”160 — to the following flattering statement.

“— Vous avez raison. La Chine est un continent conﬁant en son avenir. La France est minuscule, plantée au centre de l’Europe. Il est normal que les Français aient un peu de complexes et beaucoup d’angoisse. J’ai mal formulé ma question. Je me demandais comment une Chinoise avait le courage de vivre loin de sa grande civilisation? Pourquoi avez- vous choisi notre petit pays?”161

158Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs. 159Most of the time, foreigners besides the Chinese, French or German do not play a bigger part in the texts. Shan Sa is one of the few exceptions as she not only includes a Japanese main character in La joueuse de go but keeps up the practice with her later works, such as the multinational spy novel Les conspirateurs or Alexandre & Alestria set in ancient Mongolia. 160Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs, p. 41. 161Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs, 30f.

91 3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

She replies that he is the foreigner among them, being dressed inappropriately and therefore standing out. The characters playfully deal with their stereotypical roles. They are aware of the behavior ascribed to their own persona. Nonetheless, neither the text nor the narrator gives them the chance to distance themselves from the imposed types. They may talk and reflect, but they cannot escape. The references to the literary achievements of the French culture are rather ironic: “Il y avait une flamme qui m’a fait penser à Julien Sorel, à Rubempré, à Rastignac qui m’a inspiré un élan romantique.162 At first sight Ayamei describes Bill’s look as a flame that reminds her of these literary heroes and ignites a romantic verve in her. She continues to quote this list of fiction characters as a line from execution to suicide and finally a happy ending for the novels’ protagonist. The possibility that the American might not know the authors or the characters, that they may only arouse helpless incomprehension is not considered. The level of contrast and confrontation is soon extended from a personal one to a comparison of entire cultures and nations. From very basic assumptions, pseudo-logical conclusions are drawn.

Après les attentas du 11 septembre, la chute des talibans, la guerre en Irak, le discours dont elle lui rebattait les oreilles lui parut soudain avoir un sens. La Chine sera la seule puissance capable de déﬁer les Etats-Unis. Armer la Chine, c’est aﬀaiblir les Etats-Unis. La France n’existera dans le monde qu’en s’inscrivant dans une histoire d’amour triangulaire avec la Chine et les Etats-Unis. La Chine est l’avenir de la France. La Chine est l’avenir de Philippe Matelot. Philippe Matelot travaille pour l’avenir de la France.163

With this logic whole nations and their people become pawns on a chessboard. As a ﬁnal thought the short story “Am Chinesischen Turm”164 by Nelly Ma

162Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs, p. 161. 163Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs, 140f. 164Ma, Nelly (Nai-Li Ma). “Am chinesischen Turm. Berichte, Erzählungen, Gedichte von

92 3.3 Occidentalism will be discussed. This is another example for the textual rendition of German- Chinese relations. The narrator is the observer of an everyday conversation in Munich, where two persons talk about their dogs. The location in Englischer Garten at the café near a tower resembling a Chinese pagoda (as indicated in the title) and the dialect situates the story. Except the title, nothing in the text is connected to China. It is only with the comment in the last line that the narrator revels herself as a foreigner in Germany with her home being elsewhere. “In meiner Heimat gibt es nicht viele Hunde, aber viele Kinder.”165 In the novels and short stories, mentioned earlier in this chapter, it seems to be rather inevitable for the authors and narrators to connect the story, characters or at least, like in the last example, the title to China.166 Nevertheless it is worthwhile noting that almost all the texts analyzed for this thesis show traces of Orientalism, Self-Orientalization and Occidentalism. The choice of a European language, in this case German or French, raises the question of the anticipated reader in those countries, who is generally unable to read Chi- nese and unfamiliar with Chinese culture and history. Hence, the author has to “explain” more. In the above mentioned cases she or he tries to satisfy expectations and conﬁrm already known facts for the reader. The upcoming chapter takes a closer look at those authors who try to elucidate Chinese culture and history with the means of autobiographical or biographical narrations. These texts implement even more descriptive and explanatory means: For instance not only do they mention the item in Chinese, but they also give its French or German translation and explain its use.

Ausländern.” In: Als Fremder in Deutschland. Berichte, Erzählungen, Gedichte von Ausländern. Ed. by Irmgard Ackermann. Munich: dtv, 1982, p. 65. 165Ma, Nelly (Nai-Li Ma), “Am chinesischen Turm,” p. 65. 166Shan Sa’s Alexandre & Alestria is so far the only novel that is not connected to China or the Chinese at all. Set in Mongolia it describes the encounter of Alexander the Great with Alestria queen of the amazons. (There exists an early Mongolian translation of the Alexander romance from the 13th century that would make the setting and the story a little more plausible to the reader.)

Chapter 4

Communicating Chinese Culture and History

Over the centuries communication between individuals belonging to diﬀerent cultures and not sharing a common language was carried out by interpreters and translators. It has been decisive to know the Other’s language and with that, the Other’s culture, in order to communicate and exchange, whether it be in the context of trade, religion, scholarly exchange or even war. The question of power relations between the two cultures is crucial to analyze the importance of linguistic and cultural translation. One has to think about cultural exchange in terms of contact and meeting between equal or unequal powers, strong or weak traditions of adopting other cultures, or the metropolitan regions and border lands. Nevertheless in the texts presented in this chapter culture itself is described as rather static and homogeneous. It is not in the analysis of the contact zones between cultures where meaning is negotiated, but in the transformation, transplantation, transcription, and translation of one culture into another. “[C]omparisons [between cultures] testify of course to the desire to grasp the unknown by means of the known, but they also contain a systematic and revealing distribution of values.”1 During the former “colonial” times diﬀerence was corrupted into inequality, equality into identity. The modern interpreters of culture are still subjected to the question of alterity, raising questions such as: If, how and where does a value

1Tzvetan Todorov. The Conquest of America. The Question of the Other. Norman: Univer- sity of Oklahoma Press, 1999, p. 128.

95 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History judgment of the others’ culture evolve? Will relations to the ‘other’ be bridged or distanced? How much knowledge or ignorance towards the other culture is assumed, manifested and demonstrated by the reader, author and editor, respectively? The writers and texts treated in the following do not glorify a mixture to the determinants of purity but take up the role of intermediary between the two groups. They adopt the “Other’s ideology” not in order to understand their own culture better, but to present their culture to the other. Like giving a present, everything is prepared, carefully chosen, and attractively wrapped. Everything is cut down to small doses, so that the content of culture and history is easy to digest for the anticipated reader, who is supposedly unfamiliar with the context. In the case of written translations, the task of the translator is reduced to an asymmetric, atemporal occupation, distancing the original author from the text and eventually the translator and the reader. The translator torn between faithfulness and freedom, between being just to the text or to the reader, as well as the identity of the translator becomes an immanent question of power relations. The standard problem — ‘is translation really interpretation’ — familiar to all translation theory becomes magniﬁed in the post-colonial. Who translates whom becomes a crucial issue. Questions of cultural familiarity, the implied construction of the audience, the problems of constructing the ‘other’ have particular relevance in this context.2 The authors who build the basis of this dissertation are, as creators of their own texts, simultaneously writers, translators and interpreters. This is not meant in the literal sense of translating their own texts from Chinese into German or French or vice versa, which only few of them do.3 With their texts, ranging from poetry, theater plays and short stories to novels, they interpret and translate their

2Bill Ashcroft. The Empire Writes Back. Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. London and New York: Routledge, 2002, p. 204. 3In her collection of short stories Nachtschwimmen im Rhein, translated from Chinese to German, Luo Lingyuan points out that she is not willing to fulﬁll the task of the translator, but prefers leaving this task in the hands of a faithful German translator. She only oversees and redacts the German versions of the texts. Luo Lingyuan. Nachtschwimmen im Rhein. Munich: dtv, 2008, pp. 175–178

96 culture of origin to the implied reader from the host country. Societal, cultural, and historical facts and givens, practices, matters of course, familiar to a Chinese readership, have to be explained to those who do not belong to the same cultural sphere i.e. the Western readers. As seen in the chapter before, the image and knowledge of China is still subjected to a critical selection process. Inherited conceptions and imaginations from the late nineteenth century are mixed with mediated information in the form of news and features. While the lay person’s scrutiny of China-related material or trips to China may increase, the majority would still have to rely on the profes- sional’s, journalist’s or scholar’s opinion and advice. On the other hand the Chinese become more and more visible in German and French society. Even though the Chinese migration to Europe dates back to the middle of the nineteenth century, it is only over the last few decades that the number of migrants in the form of students, workers, and businessmen has increased. With few exceptions, it is also from this time period of the late 1970s that Chinese authors adopted a language diﬀerent from Chinese to express themselves in Europe. Thus a distinct number of Chinese authors have a strong connection to the French or German culture, society, and language and choose to write and publish their literary works in the respective language. The set of writers includes Chow Ching Lie, Joseph Shieh, Ce Shaozhen, Chow Chung-cheng, Luo Lingyuan, Han Sen, Zhou Chun, Kuo Xing-hu and Y.C. Kuan. Their texts span from the 1950s to the early years of this century. The stories revolve mostly around their own family history, extending from the late 19th century of the imperial times to the present day. The narrations predominantly unfold in China, but are also marked by the narrator’s, or rather the author’s, traveling and staying outside China, usually France or Germany. This chapter is divided into three parts. Part one deals with the staging of the authenticity — both self-ascribed and attributed by others — that is assumed to be inherent in the authors’ Chinese identity. The second part focuses on the type of narration that is chosen by the authors, which includes biographic and ﬁctive texts mostly based on personal knowledge that seek to exemplify the Chinese society, history and culture. The last part takes a closer look at the strategies and mechanisms with which Chinese society, history and culture are communicated to

97 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History the “Western” reader along with the conveyed contents.

4.1 Staging authenticity

The authors’ nationality by birth and presumed Chinese identity is thrust into the limelight. Being Chinese, she or he possesses the “authentic” experience of living in China and insight into the culture that others cannot achieve. The texts mostly relate to the author’s personal lifespan including the communicated memories of parents and grandparents. With this aggregated cognizance the writers encounter an “other” culture that is “distant” to their own. It is this contact with and knowledge of the host country’s culture that “urges” them to narrate and explain their “own”, “original” culture. The accumulated special knowledge and cultural background is stated as a motivation by the author or the editor. And independently of them, the journalists and critics contribute to this assumption through their reviews and interview questions. At this point it should be stressed that very often the authors, even though they do longer write in Chinese or stay in China, are grouped with other Chinese writers: “Eine Kostprobe chinesischer Original-Literatur, nicht übersetzt sondern in deutscher Sprache geschrieben. Eine seltene Kostbarkeit aus einer anderen Welt.“4 The language shift does not seem to play a larger role for editors. In the case of some authors it is said on the cover that this text is written directly in French or German or in other cases that the editor/ co-author revised the text. Most of the time however it is not mentioned explicitly. To illustrate the changing attitudes and self-descriptions of the authors for presenting themselves and their texts, the author Chow Ching Lie, also called Julie, can be used as an example. “Et qui en eﬀet pourrait être pour nous une meilleure ambassadrice de cette civilisation qu’une artiste qui, depuis quarante ans, se partage entre la France et la Chine?”5 This is the way the editors of Il n’y a pas d’impasse sous le ciel wish the reader a good reading and introduce the writer

4Chow Chung-cheng. Aber ein Vogel gehört zum Himmel und ein Fisch gehört zum Wasser. Opladen: Argus Verlag, 1973, jacket. 5Chow Ching Lie. Il n’y a pas d’impasse sous le ciel. Paris: Édition Fischbacher, 2004, p. 7.

98 4.1 Staging authenticity and pianist Chow Ching Lie to her or him. Chow Ching Lie is one of the more prominent French authors of Chinese origin. Over the last 30 years she has published four books. In 1975 she released her life story under the title Le palanquin des larmes.6 The text witnessed an unexpected success and was translated into several languages including English and German. A film by Jacques Dorfmann with the same title was released in 1988. Due to her popularity, she wrote the sequel, Concerto du fleuve Jaune7 in 1979, covering her life in France. More than 20 years later in 2001 she recapitulates the events of her life in Dans la main de Bouddha.8 Structured by her memories instead of chronologically, the text begins with her first journey to the People’s Republic of China in 1973 after she has left the country and includes many stories of her family members and other Chinese acquaintances in France and China, the end of the Cultural Revolution and the production of the film version of Le palanquin des larmes. It ends in the year 2000 in Shanghai where her son explains how the Chinese culture survives. The opening quote taken from Il n’y a pas d’impasse sous le ciel precedes a text that consists of anecdotal remarks and showcases her Buddhist and Christian devotion. In Chow’s texts, particularly through the forewords and afterwords, a development can be traced. They sum up the French reader’s interest in and construction of China over three decades. The picture of China drawn by Chow Ching Lie is regarded by herself and others as rather dark. The following quote reappears in variations in most of the introductory remarks: “Je suis née dans la Chine de la misère et des larmes.”9

6Chow Ching Lie. Le palanquin des larmes. Dans la Chine de Mao, l’échappée d’une femme. Ed., with an afterw., by Georges Walter. With a forew. by Joseph Kessel. J’ai lu, 2005. 7Chow Ching Lie. Concerto du ﬂeuve Jaune. Paris: J’ai lu, 1985. 8Chow Ching Lie. Dans la main de Bouddha. Ed. by Isabelle Garnier. Paris: J’ai lu, 2004. 9Chow, Palanquin, p. 7. Continuing in her next book: “La Chine de mon enfance, il faut bien que je le redise, fut celle de la misère et des larmes.” Chow, Concerto, p. 5. And furthermore: “‘Je suis née, disait-elle, dans la Chine de la misère et des larmes’, cette Chine encore médiévale où rôdaient les famines, où l’on vendait des jeunes ﬁlles aux pieds bandagés, et où les provinces humiliées changeaient de joug dans des bains de sang.”Isabelle Garnier. “Introduction.” In: Dans la main de Bouddha. Paris: J’ai lu, 2004, pp. 8–9, p. 7.

99 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

Joseph Kessel, member of the Académie française, wrote the foreword for the first edition of Le palanquin des larmes. He recognizes Chow’s fate as remarkable and particular, and at the same time exemplary: “Parmi les livres, si nombreux, qui nous parlent aujourd’hui de la Chine, celui-ci me paraît unique.”10 He distinguishes her ability to tell an authentic story: “Sans le vouloir et sans le savoir, Julie — puisque c’est ainsi que s’appelle également Chow Ching Lie — nous donne la plus extraordinaire des chroniques avec la seule innocence ce son regard.”11 Chow has written her narration with the help of Georges Walter, a Hungarian-French writer, and it is to him that Kessel refers to in the following quote underlining the value of Chow’s account: “Qu’il ait exploré cette vie avec respect et fidélité explique sans doute la saveur, la force et la vérité de ce récit.”12 Functioning as an apt comparison at this point, very similar words were used for the characterization of Y.C. Kuan and the description of his work, this time made by Kuan’s friend and Chinese studies scholar Hans-Wilm Schütte: Der Lebensweg Y. C. Kuans ist einzigartig. . . . , ob seiner Seltenheit “der Chinese” schlechthin, in Hamburg, dieser Stadt mit traditionsre- icher Internationalität, zur Zeit seiner Ankunft — und wohl noch für einige Jahre länger — der einzige Chinese aus der VR China. Das Ungewöhnliche an seiner Biographie jedoch lässt das Allgemeine seines Schicksals umso deutlicher hervortreten.13 Ten years after the first edition of Chow’s Le palanquin des larmes, Georges Walter wrote an epilogue on the genesis of the text that is printed in the following editions, where he insists on the truth of the narration: “L’idée ne m’est jamais venue de romancer quoi que ce fût, je ne me serais jamais permis d’appuyer sur un trait, encore moins de broder.

10Joseph Kessel. “Préface.” In: Le palanquin des larmes. Dans la Chine de Mao, l’échappée d’une femme. Paris: J’ai lu, 2005, pp. 5–6, p. 5. 11Kessel, “Préface,” p. 6. 12Kessel, “Préface,” p. 6. 13Hans-Wilm Schütte. “Nachwort.” In: Mein Leben unter zwei Himmeln. Eine Lebens- geschichte zwischen Shanghai und Hamburg. Munich: Knaur-Taschenbuch, 2003, pp. 772–776, p. 227.

100 4.1 Staging authenticity

Pour quoi faire? Toute addition à la vérité n’est-elle pas une soustrac- tion? Le récit de Julie se suﬃt à lui-même.”14

She is therefore introduced as an authentic and reliable teller/ narrator of her own fate and the Chinese fate in general. “Mais c’est elle, Julie, qui demeure la figure centrale. Le drame est d’abord le sien: celui de la femme chinoise et de son asservissement séculaire.”15 Hence Kessel narrows the content down to a personal level and lays the ground for affinity between the author and reader. This book enables an emotional rapprochement to China, allowing us — the readers — to empathize with the stages of her story and the epoch. Chow Ching Lie’s Chinese name is dropped in a subordinated clause and the introduction continues with her French name. Walter also highlights that Chow Ching Lie reveals her pride as a Chinese overseas while possesing the great ability to bring out similarities in different cultures. “L’histoire de Julie — qui embrasse deux mondes — nous est familière et lointaine. Mais n’est-ce pas ce qu’ils ont de plus différent qui nous rend les autres plus proches?”16 The emphasis lies on Chow’s position between the two cultures and moreover between two nations. Valued as exceptional, this uniqueness is also stressed in the sequel Concerto du fleuve Jaune published in 1979 due to the worldwide success of Le palanquin des larmes. In the editorial no more help by a third person is acknowledged and she is granted a prologue and an epilogue by the editors. The editor only refers to the origins of the title — “Concerto du fleuve Jaune” was the musical piece Chow Ching Lie performed in Paris.

Créé par Shi Ching Haï en 1966, à Pékin, le Concerto du ﬂeuve Jaune a été joué pour la première fois en Europe, au Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, le 1er décembre 1973 par un premier prix de piano de l’Académie Marguerite Long nommé Chow Ching Lie, avec un orchestre de soixante-cinq musiciens. L’auteur a symboliquement

14Georges Walter. “Dis ans après.” In: Dans le palanquin des larmes. Dans la Chine de Mao, l’échappée d’une femme. Paris: J’ai lu, 2005, pp. 379–382, p. 381. 15Kessel, “Préface,” p. 6. 16Walter, “Dis ans après,” p. 381.

101 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

emprunté à ce concerto le titre de son livre parce qu’elle le considère comme ‘une très intéressante rencontre de la musique chinoise avec les 12 instruments occidentaux.’17 This piece of music establishes the connection between the Orient and the Occi- dent, as the editor’s quotation of Chow Ching Lie’s words declares. Chow puts her life story amongst the Chinese experiences of the 20th century: “Mon témoignage pourrait être celui de millions de Chinoises.”18 This China that she has left — even with its changes — will never be alien to her. Mais mon destin personnel n’est pas ce qui importe le plus: c’est plutôt l’extraordinaire transformation de mon pays que je voudrais évoquer à travers mes aventures — cette transformation dont je continue d’être le témoin, puisque j’ai le bonheur, habitant en France, de retourner souvent dans cette Chine où je suis née, et dont aucun malheur, aucun bonheur ne sauraient m’être jamais étrangers.19 The third book Dans la main de Bouddha is introduced by the journalist Isabelle Garnier, who wrote down the text. She also draws on creating an intimate connection between the reader and the narrator, as follows: “Elle s’appelle Chow Ching Lie. On l’appelle Julie.”20 With this step the editor is not only dropping the Chinese name, but also addressing the author with her first name. And the editor continues. “Son histoire, révélée, par un livre dont nul n’a oublié le titre, Le Palanquin des larmes, a ému des millions de lecteurs et passionné un immense public avec un film de même nom.”21 When Garnier wrote the editorial, more than 20 years had passed after the last publication of Le Palanquin des larmes and over a decade since the film adaptation was released in the French cinemas. Chow’s latest book, which initiated the premeditation on the subject of authenticity, highlights the connection between Chow as a person and her personal

17Chow, Concerto, p. 4. 18Chow, Concerto, 5f. 19Chow, Concerto, p. 6. 20Garnier, “Introduction,” p. 7. 21Garnier, “Introduction,” p. 7.

102 4.1 Staging authenticity background.

Dans ce dernier livre, elle illustre son parcours par des contes et maximes bouddhistes qui l’ont nourrie et lui ont donné sa force. Il n’y a pas d’impasse sous le ciel est ainsi une porte ouverte, simple et vivante, au cœur de la fascinante sagesse chinoise.22

With her innocent eyes, Chow Ching Lie, who is mainly addressed with her West- ern name Julie, becomes an intimate, familiar conversational partner for the reader. Chow is presented as a remarkable woman who was able to ﬂee the China of the “dark ages.”23 Her Western education, her aﬃnity towards music makes her, according to the text’s argumentation, a reliable transmitter of Chinese culture and history. Once this position of familiarity is established it is constantly referred to. Thus the reader is familiar with her and is able to trust in the authenticity of her accounts:

Dans cet ouvrage [Il n’y a pas d’impasse sous le ciel], elle raconte des épisodes marquants de sa vie tumultueuse, ses succès, ses joies, ses diﬃcultés et dévoile pour la première fois les secrets de son endurance, de sa spiritualité, de ce cœur tendre qui palpite au creux d’un caractère ﬁer, intrépide et indompté.24

Chow always refers to herself as being Chinese. She never backs away from “her cultural identity”. For Chow her mother symbolizes the Chinese tradition, while her father signiﬁes the future with Western education and culture.25 From her very

22Chow, Impasse, p. 7. 23The picture of China that is presented in the books is not a positive one. The editors or writers of introductions regularly refer to China as only recently passing through the middle ages or being at least 50 years behind European development. 24Chow, Impasse, p. 7. 25She dedicates Dans la main de Bouddha to her parents: “À mon père, Chow Wei Yi, qui m’a ouvert les yeux sur le monde de demain, et à ma mère, Tsong Haï, qui m’a transmis une tradition millénaire.”Chow, Bouddha, p. 5. After telling her and her immediate family’s life story, she moves to another set of persons and starts a ﬁctive narration and her last book only consists of anecdotes and religious wisdom that includes Buddhism and Christianity but concentrates on popular Asian art and Chinese calligraphy.

103 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

ﬁrst text, Chow describes her personal background, her education and upbringing in detail:

J’ai été élevée par un père qui m’a inculqué les principes de la morale chinoise traditionnelle tout en étant marqué lui-même par son éduca- tion à l’occidentale. Ma mère était une vraie paysanne chinoise, boud- dhiste fervente, mais j’ai fréquenté une école américaine où, petite ﬁlle, j’ai prié à la fois le Bouddha et Jésus-Christ.26

Chow’s upbringing is marked by a father who incorporates the “new China” with traditional Chinese morals and Western education, a mother representing the “old China” as a country girl who is a fervent Buddhist, and Chow’s own education at an American high school in Shanghai. Even though the quotation clearly shows the diﬀerent, multicultural inﬂuences of her personality, Chow only points out the fact that she and her children live in France and that she has a French passport. But she notes her experiences as an Overseas Chinese going back to Mainland China and how this changes over the years.

Partout, à l’aéroport, à l’hôtel, dans les magasins, dans la rue, j’avais beau tirer mes cheveux, emprunter les vêtements de mes sœurs, il avait sans doute dans mon allure quelque chose qui sentait l’Occident; et comme il est visible que je suis chinoise, je ne bénéﬁciais ni de la cour- toisie à laquelle les étrangers peuvent prétendre ni de la fraternité qui se manifeste entre Chinois. En outre, j’avais un passeport français. Quand je voulais me rendre avec mes parents dans un de ces magasins Amitié qui sont réservés aux étrangers, on me laissait entrer au vu de mes papiers, mais on chassait mes parents comme des chiens. Et quand je dis “comme des chiens”, je ne parle pas, bien entendu, des chiens cajolés et chouchoutés comme on les voit en France. Non. Mes parents étaient chassés comme de sales bêtes. Je ne supporte pas qu’on traite ainsi mes parents, et je me

26Chow, Palanquin, p. 5. This is only one of many possibles examples, which are particularly recurrent in La palanquin des larmes.

104 4.1 Staging authenticity

suis plus d’une fois fâchée très fort à cause de cela.27

The quote clearly shows the ambiguity with which foreigners, Overseas Chinese, Chinese intellectuals and others are treated over the years in the People’s Republic of China. However the editors and co-authors of her books, besides pointing out that she is Chinese, add that she is on one hand familiar with the French culture and on the other hand an Overseas Chinese.

Sans mépris aucun des étrangers, on sent chez elle une sorte de ﬁerté à parler de ce qui ne se fait pas en Chine, qui est accepté ailleurs mais n’est pas convenable ici. Non seulement cet attachement est commun à tous les Chinois qui vivent à l’extérieur — et chacun d’eux porte en soi son pays — mais il semble qu’il ait joué un rôle capital au début de ce siècle dans l’éveil du nationalisme chinois.28

Chow herself only feels this kind of affiliation in the one field she is dedicated to, in music. She wants to enforce musical practice among young people in China and acquire recognition in France. That is her task and obligation to her country.29 Dedication to China as the home country, not only as a cultural background, is expressed in many ways. The authors’ notes in the paratexts range from open or mild criticism of China and the communist regime to praising and defending the country. A very revealing example can be seen in Zhou Chun. For him the experience of being in Germany provided him with the very possibility of writing his fictionalized life story:

Aber es ist vielleicht gerade diese Trennung von meinem Volk zu verdanken, daß ich der deutschsprachigen Leserschaft diesen autobiographischen Roman bieten kann. Denn ein solches Buch hätte ich in

27Chow, Palanquin, p. 274. 28Walter, “Dis ans après,” 183f. 29Talking about her piano teacher. “Je dois bien cela à la mémoire du professeur Chen, qui m’a si généreusement aidée à mes débuts. Je dois cela aussi à mon pays, qui se relève d’une période eﬀroyable avec un courage et une énergie exemplaires.” Chow, Bouddha, 188f.

105 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

China nicht geschrieben.30

In his novel’s ﬁrst edition, Zhou points out that he plays the role of a cultural ambassador who transmits knowledge of China to the German audience.

Ich habe auch nicht erwartet, daß ich einen neuen Weg ﬁnden könnte, um, weit weg von China, meinem Land und meinem Volk zu dienen. Ich bin quasi ein “Volksbotschafter” geworden, wie mich der ehemalige Rektor der Universität Mannheim nannte.31

And it is in this spirit that he talks about his novel Ach, was für ein Leben! Changing publishing house for his next novel and reissuing his ﬁrst one, he writes a second epilogue for his debut novel where he harshens the tone and puts stronger emphasis on the patriotic duty to serve his people, which is fulﬁlled by explaining China to the Germans:

Ich ärgere mich, wenn man mein Land aus unausgesprochenen, niederträchti- gen Motiven angreift. Selbstverständlich kann jeder Mensch China kritisieren. Die Frage ist: Kritisiert man China als Freund, um ihm zu helfen, oder attackiert man China als Feind, um es zu vernichten? Wer versucht, China in den Schmutz zu ziehen, ist nicht mein Freund. Die Souveränität meines Landes und die Würde meiner Nation zu verteidigen, ist meine heilige Aufgabe im Ausland geworden.32

He claims that he is able to give a true depiction of China for a German audience, in contrast to the prevailing opinions and images transported by the German media:

Mein Glück liegt auch darin, daß ich einen Weg gefunden habe, meinem Land und meinem Volk weiter zu dienen. Als Schriftsteller, Journalist, Dozent und Vortragender verdiene ich nicht nur meinen Lebensunter- halt, sondern versuche auch, China den westlichen Menschen dadurch

30Zhou Chun. Ach, was für ein Leben! Berlin: Ute Schiller, 1992, p. 275. 31Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 275. 32Zhou Chun. Ach, was für ein Leben! Hamburg: Abera, 2001, p. 413.

106 4.1 Staging authenticity

näherzubringen, die entweder sehr wenig oder sogar falsch über China informiert sind. . . . Leider ist meine Arbeit mit viel Streß und Ärger verbunden, denn es gibt immer Menschen, auch in der Politik und in den Medien, die sich aus verschiedenen Gründen statt mir Glauben zu schenken lieber an ihr China-Bild klammern, das durch Unwissenheit, Mißverständnisse und Irrtümer, durch Klischees, Diskriminierung und Vorurteile völlig verzerrt ist.33

Producing an authentic, truthful image of his home country seems possible only through him. Zhou’s main aim lies in fostering international understanding, which he highlights with the following remarks preceding his second novel Die Tochter der Partei in 2002:

Ich hoﬀe, daß ich nach meinem autobiographischen Roman Ach, was für ein Leben! mit diesem zweiten Roman mein Land der Leserschaft noch näher bringen kann. Ich bin immer der Ansicht, daß Völkerver- ständigung die Voraussetzung des friedlichen Zusammenlebens ver- schiedener Völker ist.34

This extraordinary way of self description should be contrasted with the self introduction by Ce Shaozhen in the collection of anecdotal stories Flaneur im alten Peking. Ein Leben zwischen Kaiserreich und Revolution in 1990. The book is edited by Margit Miosga. Ce displays himself as a mere human being, trying to characterize himself as “ein Mensch schlechthin.”35 Although Ce introduces himself as the loyal, trustworthy narrator, he sees his shortcomings at the same time:

Die Geschichten, die Sie lesen werden, schreibt ein alter Mann, der manches erlebt hat: Begebenheiten, die vielen entfallen sind und an die andere nicht mehr gerne erinnert werden wollen. Er hat sich selbst erlebt oder kennt sie vom Hörensagen. Was er gehört hat, entspricht

33Zhou, Leben, 2nd edition, p. 413. 34Zhou Chun. Die Tochter der Partei. Hamburg: Abera, 2002, p. 9. 35Ce Shaozhen. Flaneur im alten Peking. Ein Leben zwischen Kaiserreich und Revolution. Ed. by Margit Miosga. Munich: dtv, 1990, p. 11.

107 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

vielleicht nicht immer den Tatsache, aber man hat es ihm so erzählt und er hält sich daran.36

He distances himself from the claim of authenticity and completeness. “Das Buch erhebt nicht den Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit, noch viel weniger will es eine wis- senschaftliche Abhandlung sein — Sinologen, lest dieses Buch nicht!”37 But this categorization as a simple, humble narrator only represents the minority of approaches, focusing on possibilities to develop a personality that is not constrained as being Chinese or bi-cultural: “Sein Lebensweg aber machte ihn zu einem wahren Weltbürger, dessen leben unter zwei Himmeln — dem seiner eigentlichen Heimat und dem seiner mit Mühe errungenen zweiten Heimat Deutschland — über beide Horizonte hinausreicht.”38 Co-authors and editors even “naturally” allude to the exotic looks of their writer. “Sie [Xiao Hui Wang] ﬁel mir sofort auf, als ich den Raum betrat. Sie stand aufmerksam da, wirkte zart und exotisch.”39 The approach to the Chinese culture by a Westerner and the representation by a Chinese unfolds on an emotional level.

Wir staunten, wie schnell wir uns nahe kamen, obwohl wir aus sehr verschiedenen Welten stammen. Ich genoss ihre östlichen Charme, ihre unvoreingenommenen Neugierde, mit der sie die Menschen ihrer neuen Umgebung gewann. Mit welcher Hingabe und Gründlichkeit stürzte sie sich in ihrer Arbeit, in ihr neues Leben. . . . Längst war mein Interesse für dieses geheimnisvolle, fernöstliche Land geweckt, das von westlicher Seite immer noch mit einer Fülle von Vorurteilen belastet ist. Ich begann mich in die chinesische Mentalität einzufühlen und lernte, im Fremden das Vertraute neu zu sehen.40

36Ce, Flaneur, p. 11. 37Ce, Flaneur, p. 11. 38Schütte, “Nachwort,” p. 776. 39Wang Xiao Hui and Monika Endres-Stamm. Töchter des halben Himmels. Sieben Frauen aus China. Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, 2004, p. 10. 40Wang and Endres, Töchter des halben Himmels, p. 11.

108 4.1 Staging authenticity

Third parties like journalists and critics largely concentrate on the author’s cultural background. Even from the critics’ side this static and objectifying allocation of identity is welcome. The reading for them showcases the Chinese situation, its present or past society and history. The following two newspaper articles show how the culturally mediating elements and not the literary aspects in Luo Lingyuan’s texts are pointed out:

Sonst arbeitet der Roman ﬂeißig mit sozialen, kommerziellen und politischen Typisierungen — Landes- und Menschenkunde in Ro- manform. . . . das ist hier kein phobisch zu registrierendes politisches oder ökonomisches, sondern erst einmal ein literarisches Studienpro- gramm.41

This is sustained in further reviews of Luo’s other texts as well. “In all ihren Erzählungen spielen Chinesen die Hauptrolle . . . . Mit ihren Büchern wolle sie nach und nach verschiedene Seiten Chinas darstellen und den Deutschen näher bringen.”42 These few examples could be easily multiplied. The procedure is usually the same: The author is identified as Chinese and therefore as a reliable representative of her or his culture and nation. The connection to the reader is not achieved in a scientific or journalistic tone but on a rather personal and intimate level, e.g. in Chow’s case, the usage of her adopted French first name. This is complemented by the claim that the author’s work gives an insight that cannot be achieved by another who might come from the outside. This logic is given as a reason to record the text in German or respectively in French by the authors. They want to tell their story in order to inform the German or French audience and correct the “distorted” image of China that is prevalent in Germany and France through the media. It is partly seen as an obligation to the fatherland and is often proclaimed to be an expression of strong love for the home country and culture of origin. Further motivations do not only draw on the au-

41Regarding Die chinesische Delegation. “Die Chinesen kommen.” In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Feb. 2007). 42For her short story collection Du ﬂiegst jetzt für meinen Sohn aus dem fünften Stock! of 2005 “Schockierende Einblicke. Autorin Luo schildert Willkür und Repression in China.” In: Süddeutsche Zeitung (Nov. 2007), R5.

109 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History thor’s identity, but lie in the inherent structure of the narration telling a life story as an exemplary possibility of illustrating and showing the “true” China. These statements and creations regarding the authors’ identity have to be seen in contrast to those writers who publicly deny that their sole purpose consists of explaining and representing Chinese cultures in their works, and emphasize on their individuality as an author.43

4.2 Narrating a Life Story

The sets of texts in this chapter differ within their degree of fictionality. Most of the texts revolve around the narration of a personal or family life story that is interrelated on a wider or narrower level with the author’s story or that of his or her family. This entails structuring experiences of your life and connecting them to events that happen around you in a not necessarily chronological but rather causal order that would make sense for the reader. Those reconstructions or constructions of a certain point in time, history or society build the platform for narrations that include to a large extent explanations of the previously mentioned situation besides the plot and character development. Those texts are obviously found at intersections. These texts intersect with autobiographical reports often published in the form of a book. Those “factual records” feature either a life that is similar to their peers or differs very much from theirs, either paradigmatically or exceptionally. These writings seem to sell well, as on both the French and the German sides a long list of authors and their successful texts exists. And this is not limited to authors with a Chinese background. Prominent writers of this kind include the above-introduced Chow Ching Lie and Ce Shaozhen at the intersection, Han Sen as a border case, Y.C. Kuan as an extraordinary example, and Kuo Xing-hu as an exceptional case due to the content. The authors Niu-Niu,

43Cf. The article by Adelheid Hu concerning Chinese authors in Francophone spaces: “Bei allen drei Autoren (François Cheng, Ying Chen, and Gao Xingjian) ist eine starke Abneigung gegen jede Form von kultureller Homogenisierung durch Klischees, Ideologien und anderen Sim- pliﬁzierungen jedweder Art oﬀensichtlich. Alle lehnen vehement ab, auf eine statische kulturelle Identität als Vertreter Chinas im Westen festgelegt zu werden und betonen ihre jeweils individu- elle Sicht der Welt, die sich aus vielerlei unterschiedlichen Quellen speist und nicht auf starre Muster reduzierbar ist.” Hu, “Chinesische Schriftsteller/innen in frankophonen Räumen,” p. 114.

110 4.2 Narrating a Life Story

Siao-ling Chow and Chow Chung-cheng shall be mentioned here, as they narrate their life-stories in one or several books but quite similar to Chow Chin Lie and Han Sen.44 But at the same time a certain number of authors insist on writing fiction while telling a truthful story that either involves their own life or is similar to their experiences. Among them are the already mentioned Zhou Chun as well as Mingxiang Chen and Luo Lingyuan. There is a long list of authors from abroad in France and in Germany who would seemingly benefit from their own biography by writing down accounts of the events of their life. For France the best know author, Chow Ching Lie retells her life story in several accounts, sometimes with the support of an intermediary. As mentioned above the retrospection of Chinese history spreads over more than a hundred years, narrating the changes from the imperial times to the communist reign. Her first book, Le planaquin des larmes stretches from her birth in 1936 to 1964 and includes her parents and grand parents lives as well; Concerto au fleuve Jaune continues with her life in France and her first trip back to China; Dans la main de Bouddha recreates the seventies in China and includes stories and happenings of China’s political history throughout the 20th century; Il n’y a pas d’impasse sous le ciel recapitulates her whole life between China and France in the form of short anecdotes. The book Le palanquin des larmes is subtitled Dans la Chine de Mao, l’échappée d’une femme. It promises an authentic insight into Chinese family life and traditions, foremost from the perspective of a young and oppressed woman.45

Parmi les livres, si nombreux, qui nous parlent aujourd’hui de la Chine, celui-ci me paraît unique. D’abord parce que Le palanquin des larmes, histoire de la vie de Chow Ching Lie et de la tragédie d’une enfant, nous introduit dans l’intimité d’une famille chinoise où cohabitent trois générations. Et, qu’il s’agisse des mœurs ou des croyances, des relations essentielles et immuable

44For title and issue dates see References. 45Chow, Palanquin, p. 5.

111 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

entre les parents et les enfants, voire même des habitudes alimentaires ou des surprenants remèdes de la grand-mère, il n’est pas un détail de l’existence quotidienne qui ne nous intéresse, nous charme ou nous étonne.46

The book contains according to the preface a portrait of manners and morals in China and the relations between parents and children. There is not one detail of daily existence that does not interest, charm or surprise in its representation. The introduction includes the reader in this assumption by using the familiar “nous” (us). The text spans over a time period that is characterized by several upheavals within the Chinese nation. Kessel remarks that even without consciousness of doing so, Chow relates the chronicle of China with the innocence of her eyes:

La guerre sino-japonaise — qui naît avec elle — la guerre civile, la Libération, les Cent Fleurs, le Grand Bond en Avant, tantôt la concernent et tantôt ne la concernent pas: cette histoire est d’abord la sienne, même si, personnage d’un roman involontaire et passionné, elle aime et souﬀre au rythme des convulsions de la Chine.47

Chow’s account bore a certain totality of possibilities, the different layers of completeness for which were fulfilled by Georges Walter, at least for the first book:

C’est Georges Walter qui a recueilli ses propos, suscité la confession totale, provoqué les souvenirs qui, autrement, ne seraient peut-être pas sortis de leur sommeil. Il a déployé, en l’occurrence, celle des qualités de l’écrivain qui, à tort me semble-t-il, est le moins souvent mise en avant: la faculté d’écouter l’autre et de lui donner la parole.48

Walter underscores the extraordinary power of Chow’s ability as a narrator and the veracity and boldness of her own story:

46Kessel, “Préface,” p. 5. 47Chow, Palanquin, p. 6. 48Kessel, “Préface,” p. 6.

112 4.2 Narrating a Life Story

L’idée ne m’est jamais venue de romancer quoi que ce fût, je ne me serais jamais permis d’appuyer sur un trait, encore moins de broder. Pour quoi faire? Toute addition à la vérité n’est-elle pas une soustrac- tion? Le récit de Julie se suﬃt à lui-même.49

In her second book, Chow refers to the told story of Le palanquin des larmes as follows: “Mon témoignage pourrait être celui de millions de Chinoises.”50 She argues that she wrote Concerto du ﬂeuve Jaune as a response to readers who asked about her whereabouts and later life. “Mais tous me posaient la même question: tous me demandent encore ce qu’il est advenu, ensuite, de moi et de mes enfants.”51 More important, with this text from 1979 she could ﬁnally speak about certain events and circumstances due to political changes after the Cultural Revolution: “Ce que je n’ai pu dire dans Le palanquin des larmes pour ne pas aggraver la situation de ma famille, j’ai pu le dire, sans aucune crainte, dans ce nouveau livre.”52 Furthermore it is no longer her destiny that is important to her as China opens up politically as well as to foreigners. Again the country can be her and her family’s home53 and will never be alienated from her:

Mais mon destin personnel n’est pas ce qui importe le plus: c’est plutôt l’extraordinaire transformation de mon pays que je voudrais évoquer à travers mes aventures — cette transformation dont je continue d’être le témoin, puisque j’ai le bonheur, habitant en France, de retourner souvent dans cette Chine où je suis née, et dont aucun malheur, aucun

49Walter, “Dis ans après,” p. 381. 50Chow, Concerto, 5f. 51Chow, Concerto, p. 6. 52Chow, Concerto, p. 285. 53Chow speaks with relief of the family’s vindication and rehabilitation, see as follows. “Ce ‘ciel bleu’ a lavé notre honte, à nous qui vivions en baissant la tête: le titre infamant de droitiste, qui frappait mon frère et mon père au temps de la Révolution culturelle, condamnant toute la famille à une vie diminuée, a été levé, et ne laisse aucune trace fâcheuse. On ne me traite plus de ‘sale capitaliste’: au contraire, on est ﬁer, dans mon entourage, de ma réussite, que je dois à mon seul travail.” Chow, Concerto, p. 285.

113 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

bonheur ne sauraient m’être jamais étrangers.54

Twenty-two years later Chow writes down afresh her and her family’s story in- tertwined with historic events and developments in China. The editor Isabelle Garnier highlights Chow’s insight that is propelled by the constant traveling between China and France.

Elle peut donc, d’un regard lucide, observer l’“Histoire majuscule”, les grandes réformes de Mao, les horreurs commises par les gardes rouges, la chute de la “bande des Quatre”, le “règne” agité de Deng Xiaoping, et les métamorphoses de cette dernière décennie du XXe siècle. Et le réveil des énergies chez les jeunes dans l’élan d’économie libérale de la Chine d’aujourd’hui, celle de Jiang Zemin, celle où les enfants de Julie sont revenus faire leur vie, tandis qu’en ce tournant de siècle les petits-enfants s’épanouissent entre deux cultures, entre Orient et Occident.55

The originally much longer passage lists in short sequences the most important political and environmental events and changes in the society. It indicates that Chow’s book thus provides a comprehensive insight into Chinese history and society on a micro and macro level. It is her dedication to transmit the two cultures respectively that is also under- scored:

Le plus étonnant dans ces pages, où tout est vu et vécu au plus près, est, peut-être, que Julie ne se laisse pas happer par ce monde en mutation perpétuelle. Elle reste elle-même. Elle garde la même sincérité fort et naïve, pour conﬁer ses joies et ses peines. . . 56

Closely connecting to this point is the introduction written for the already brieﬂy mentioned sinologist and author Y.C. Kuan.57 Again the uniqueness and at the

54Chow, Concerto, p. 6. 55Garnier, “Introduction,” 8f. 56Garnier, “Introduction,” p. 9. 57Y.C. Kuan (Kuan Yuqian or Kuan Yu Chien) was born in 1931 in Guangzhou (Canton).

114 4.2 Narrating a Life Story same time signiﬁcance of his particular narration is brought out. “Der Lebensweg Y. C. Kuans ist einzigartig. . . . . Das Ungewöhnliche an seiner Biographie jedoch lässt das Allgemeine seines Schicksals umso deutlicher hervortreten.”58 Kuan has written his memories voluntarily. The idea dates back to the late 60s and was brought to life in the late 90s. The ﬁrst draft was written in Chinese after which, together with a former student, Kuan worked on the German version. There is no apologetic explanation in his words referring to the duty to explain to the German side or the obligation to the Chinese side. In the introductory note “Über das Erinnern” (Remembering) of Flaneur im alten Peking, Ce Shaozhen reasons out the motivation for collecting biographic and anecdotal remarks; Ce tries to recreate a gone social stratum, essentially Beijing’s high society. Again this features an extraordinary life story but also gives exceptional insights into divers aspects of the imperial Chinese society.59

Was will der Schreiber mit seinen Aufzeichnungen? Er hat allzuoft Leute getroﬀen — selbst junge Pekinger, von Ausländern ganz zu schweigen —, die vom damaligen Leben in Peking keine Ahnung hatten, die nicht wußten, daß Peking eine Stadtmauer besaß die nicht wußten, daß Schafe auf der Straße geschlachtet wurden, wie die Aus- länder hier lebten. . . . Warlords, Opiumraucher, Taxigirls, kaiserliche Hofdamen, exclusive Hotels und Übernachtungsplätze für Bettler, nichts dergleichen gibt es jetzt. Auch nicht mehr die Ausländer, die so stolz ihre “white man’s burden” trugen. Zusammen bildeten sie das Kaleidoskop des alten Peking, ein buntes Glaskaleidoskop, das nicht

58Schütte, “Nachwort,” p. 772. 59In cooperation with the journalist Margit Miosga, Ce reviews the already noted down episodes on Beijing’s high society and adds his background. “Als Ergebnis der zusammen ver- brachten Tage entstanden dann die in kursiver Schrift gesetzten biographischen Zwischenkapi- tel dieses Buches, die die Erzählungen des Flaneurs begleiten und in komprimierter Form das ungewöhnliche Leben eines ungewöhnlichen Mannes darstellen, eine Biographie, die unter sicher- lich nicht ganz gewöhnlichen Umständen zustande kam.” Margit Miosga. “Zu diesem Buch.” In: Flaneur im alten Peking. Ein Leben zwischen Kaiserreich und Revoution. Munich: dtv, 1990, pp. 9–10, p. 10.

115 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

mehr existiert, das einfach weggeschüttelt ist.60

Ce sees himself as the collector and preserver of memories. His own experiences are valuable, thus many people, Chinese and foreigners alike, should learn from him about Beijing’s past, for otherwise this would be forgotten. The memories are therefore written almost as a testimony for future generations in China and elsewhere.61 Han Sen’s case functions as a comparison to the ones mentioned before. Being born in Berlin to Chinese parents and speaking Chinese, he acknowledges German as his ﬁrst language in word and pen.62 After a childhood in Germany and Switzer- land he moved to China, to migrate to the USSR, and then to Ukraine in order to be closer to his home, Germany, and states that to his generation migration is nothing unusual. He conducts the writing of his autobiography as a journey not only back to the past but foremost back to his “Heimat” Germany and as a remedy for homesickness:

Manche hatten wie ich Schwierigkeiten, ihre Heimat zu vergessen, wenn man unter diesem Begriﬀ nicht das Land der Ahnen, sondern dasjenige versteht, in dem man aufgewachsen ist. Dennoch haben mich meine nostalgischen Gefühle nie daran gehindert, mein Leben dort zu meis- tern, wohin das Schicksal mich verschlug. Ganz im Gegenteil erinnerten sie mich in den elendsten Momenten an eine liebe Vergangenheit und stärkten meinen Glauben, dass es sich lohnte durchzuhalten: in der Hoﬀnung auf ein Wiedersehen mit zu Hause.63

Xing-Hu Kuo’s journalistic self-depiction as a political prisoner and the elucida-

60Ce, Flaneur, 11f. 61Miosga explains that Ce was asked by colleagues while working on the Chinese-German dictionary to write down what he remembered about his childhood and youth. Miosga, “Zu diesem Buch,” 9f. 62“‘Was heißt, in die Sowjetunion auswandern, das gibt’s doch gar nicht,’ meinte sie, ‘Russen leben in Russland, Chinesen in China. . . ’ Ich sagte, das stimme schon, aber Chinesen werden in China geboren und nicht in Berlin, weshalb sie besser Chinesisch sprechen und schreiben als Berliner.” Han Sen. Ein Chinese mit dem Kontrabass. Leipzig: List, 2003, p. 198. 63Han Sen, Ein Chinese, p. 327.

116 4.2 Narrating a Life Story tion of the crimes committed against political convicts in the German Democratic Republic function as witnesses for the “Aufklärung der Stasi-Verbrechen. Genau diesem Ziel dient das jetzt vorliegende Buch.”64 The allusions to China in this book bear the same adverseness directed at the political regime of the GDR; nonetheless they remain scarce. Writing down one’s own biography as a human being, a “Weltbürger”,65 a proud Chinese, a representative of the Chinese people or as a victim of time and society leads to rather similar motivations for writing stories — and foremost long parts — of a person’s or a family’s life in the People’s Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution. In the case of ﬁction writing, the instance that the narration transmits history and culture is argued on a more rational level. Luo Lingyuan for example feels a need to convey her memories and images of China to the German reader. It is the unrest and angst of her former existence in China that haunts her:

China, meine Heimat, mein vertrautes Land. Die ersten 26 Jahre meines Lebens habe ich in der Volksrepublik China verbracht. Das hat mich geprägt. Fünfzehn Jahre sind seither vergangen, aber die Erin- nerungen sind noch frisch und die Bilder in meinem Kopf sind noch klar. Sie versetzen mich in eine Welt, dich mich auch heute noch so unruhig macht, dass ich mich entschlossen habe, sie für die deutschen Leserinnen und Leser in einer Reihe von Erzählungen festzuhalten.66

The dark and negative mood of the short stories is countered by her novel Die chinesische Delegation. It includes positive, even humorous happenings, as well as ironic aspects, as in the portrayal of power relations during the communist regime personalized in the arrogance and masochism of the party’s functionary Wang, the more or less open critique of the main protagonist, the Chinese tour guide Song

64Accentuations in the text. Kuo Xing-Hu. Ein Chinese in Bautzen II. 2675 Nächte im Würge- griﬀ der Stasi. Böblingen: Tykve, 1990, p. 7. 65Schütte, “Nachwort,” p. 776. 66Luo Lingyuan. Du ﬂiegst jetzt für meinen Sohn aus dem fünften Stock! Munich: dtv, 2005, cover text.

117 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

Sanya living in Germany, and the disappearance and defection to the West by one of the tourist group’s members, She Ren. Luo was born in Gao’an, province Jiangxi in 1963 and studied computer science and journalism. She translated, among others, works of Elias Canetti into Chinese. She lives in Germany since 1990 and continues to write and publish in Chinese. Her first German language short stories were published in journals, one, for example, under the pseudonym Luo Pai Dao in the journal Neue deutsche Literatur.67 Since 2005 she has released two collections of short stories Du fliegst jetzt für meinen Sohn aus dem fünften Stock! in 2005 and Nachtschwimmen im Rhein 2008 and three novels (Die chinesische Delegation68 in 2007, Die Sterne von Shenzhen69 in 2008 and Wie eine Chinesin schwanger wird70 in 2009), all of them with Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. She has received numerous awards, among them the Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Förderpreis in 2007. In contrast, the literary scholar and author Zhou Chun accentuates the importance of fictionalizing the events of his life story (in Ach, was für eine Leben!) and that of his sister’s (in Die Tochter der Partei). As shown above, Zhou emphasizes on his obligation to engage in Völkerverständigung (international understanding) and to transmit his knowledge of China in order to give a more neutral, an unbiased view of the country. The reader should believe in him and his vision of China.71 “Die Welt hat von Chinas Erfindungen und Erfolgen profitiert; die Welt kann auch aus den Fehlern Chinas lernen.”72 By describing these errors committed in his home country China the anticipated reader therefore can, according to Zhou

67Luo Lingyuan. “Ein zarter Bambussproß.” In: Neue deutsche Literatur. Vol. 45. 3. Ham- burg and Berlin: Schwartzkopﬀ, 1997, pp. 119–123. published as Luo Pai Dao. 68Luo Lingyuan. Die chinesische Delegation. Munich: dtv, 2007. 69Luo Lingyuan. Die Sterne von Shenzhen. Munich: dtv, 2008. 70Luo Lingyuan. Wie eine Chinesin schwanger wird. Munich: dtv, 2009. 71As quoted before: “Leider ist meine Arbeit mit viel Streß und Ärger verbunden, denn es gibt immer Menschen, auch in der Politik und in den Medien, die sich aus verschiedenen Gründen statt mir Glauben zu schenken lieber an ihr China-Bild klammern, das durch Unwissenheit, Mißverständnisse und Irrtümer, durch Klischees, Diskriminierung und Vorurteile völlig verzerrt ist.” Zhou, Leben, 2nd edition, p. 413. 72Zhou, Tochter, p. 9.

118 4.2 Narrating a Life Story take lessons for the beneﬁt of Germany. Reacting to the criticism of his ambiguous representation of the Communist regime in China, Zhou explains his standpoint. He contrasts this with his fellow Chinese’s lives, paints his own as miserable, whereby he does not know who the originator of his vexations is. Later on the same page he describes himself as a victim of history but declares that does not seek a culprit.73 Zhou argues against common accusations he and his works are confronted with and explains his motivations.

Zwei Fragen, die man immer wieder an sich stellt: “Wie kann Zhou Chun sein Heimatland noch lieben, in dem außer Ablehnung nur noch Demütigung sein Schicksal war? Er hätte längst seinem Land den Rücken kehren und ein Dissident oder Regimekritiker werden sollen!” Oder: “Zhou Chun ist ein Feigling. Mao Zedong und die KP haben sein Leben ruiniert. Er hat nicht einmal den Mut sie zu hassen.” Sehr logisch — diese Fragen. Aber, läßt sich das Leben immer nur durch Logik erklären? Warum soll ich Mao und die KP hassen, wenn ich mich als Opfer der Geschichte fühle? Warum soll ich mein eigenes Leben nicht lieben, wenn ich mich trotz alledem als ein Kind meines Landes und ein Sohn meine Volkes fühle?74

Zhou’s statement reveals an unadulterated love for his fatherland, although Zhou stresses his suﬀering in China and his role as an innocent victim. Another reason for his reluctance to take sides and therefore writing “ﬁction” is found in the prologue to Tochter der Partei.

Nein, das ist nicht die Biographie meiner zwei Jahre jüngeren Schwester. “Ein Buch über mein Leben würde sich wie eine Anklage gegen die Partei lesen”, hat sie mir aus China geschrieben. “Ich will das nicht.

73“Ich aber trage überall eine schwere Last durch das Leben. Liegt es an den zahlreichen politischen Kampagnen unter Mao Zedong? Nein es liegt — es liegt an mir selber? Vielleicht.” Zhou, Leben, 2nd edition, p. 412. 74Zhou, Leben, 2nd edition, p. 412.

119 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

Die KP ist meine Partei. Ich darf sie kritisieren. Aber wenn andere Leute sie kritisieren, bin ich böse. Ich kann dir nicht verbieten, über mich zu schreiben, aber ich werde dein Buch nicht als Biographie anerkennen.” . . . . Also habe ich diesen Roman geschrieben. Die Thematik ist unverändert geblieben, aber der Name der Protagonistin nicht.75

Zhou apparently wants to safeguard himself and his family against any possible measures by the Chinese state or citizens that might lead to an accusation or even an honest and reflective debate on the happenings. This persists even in the confessional character of his novels. For example, the evaluation of the Communist Party after Ach, was für ein Leben! is circumlocuorily dealt with in the chapter on the protagonist’s joining the Communist Party and the Party’s misdeeds against him in Die Tochter der Partei. The chapter’s title starts with the exclamation “Ich will auch ein Parteimitglied werden!”76 It describes the futile application of the character Zhou Chun for a party membership in 1947. A superior at his university and his sister’s friend both ask him why he has not yet become a member of the communist party. In his answer he argues that he has not conquered all his flaws and weaknesses. Becoming a member at this moment would contaminate the holiness of the party. His superior encourages him that the party will help him overcome the faults and that it needs intellectual members. Zhou identifies the goodness of the party of that time as being a gem of harmony, equality, openness and solidarity. Zhou refrains from referring to temporal developments, and resorts to a generalization: “Diese gute Tradition ist heute in China zwar noch zu finden, aber leider nur noch selten. Diese harmonische Atmosphäre und die kameradschaftlichen Beziehungen sind oft zerstört. Macht verdirbt, glauben viele Leute.”77 He further speculates about the possible party membership of a fellow co-worker. This person, old Li, has to be a member because he is a good human being who is willing to make sacrifices and

75Zhou, Tochter, p. 9. 76Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 45. 77Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 46.

120 4.2 Narrating a Life Story be helpful. Zhou finally applies for party membership: “Ein Held war ich nicht, aber auch kein Feigling. Wenn ich mich vor mir selbst schämen mußte, so war das kein Leben mehr.”78 Nevertheless Zhou’s application, which is handed in secretly, is rejected. The party secretary delivers the message in person. It is his capitalist family background that prevents his acceptance. Zhou has not done enough to deserve being a party member. Boiling with rage he feels wronged. Reflecting on the happenings he accuses the absent party secretary of bias stemming from his poor, peasant background and scarce education. The secretary is ignorant of his action’s consequences, dogmatic and unable to acknowledge Zhou’s doings. Calming down after a while, Zhou switches to the present tense and confirms his devotion to the party and its struggle. The party becomes an abstract being that will understand him at a later moment.

Es war ziemlich spät, als ich den Strand verließ. Das Meer hat mich beruhigt. Man muß lernen, weitherzig wie das Meer zu leben. Abgelehnt oder aufgenommen, ich will weiter für die Revolution arbeiten. Mein Gewissen ist rein. Ich habe freiwillig alles aufgeopfert, um einem Land und meinem Volk zu dienen. Auch jetzt, nachdem die Partei mich abgelehnt hat, ist dieser Wille ungebrochen. Ich habe dem Rektor versprochen, auch sterben würde ich in den Befreiten Gebieten. Mitglied oder nicht Mitglied, das ist die Sache der Partei. Sie wird mich eines Tages verstehen.79

He cannot help but compare himself and his situation to that of the writer Lu Xun:

Jedenfalls fühle ich mich wie ein Kommunist, ‘Bolschewik außerhalb der Partei’ — diesen Ausdruck gibt es schon lange. Der große Denker und Schriftsteller Lu Xun ist ein glänzendes Vorbild. Warum kann ich und soll ich nicht wie er für mein Ideal kämpfen?80

78Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 49. 79Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 51. 80Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 51.

121 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

In Die Tochter der Partei the communist party urges the main protagonists to divorce, because she is an undoubtedly loyal member of the party and he is a reactionary journalist. Years after these happenings, the following evaluation of the situation is given:

Merkwürdig war Gongs zufälliges Zusammentreﬀen mit dem Sekretär Zhao in Peking. Inzwischen war er ganz hoch oben auf der Karri- ereleiter. Am Rande einer Sitzung sagte er: “Genossin Gong, es freut mich, dich wiederzusehen. Über deine Situ- ation bin ich relativ gut informiert. Tja, damals haben wir mit einem guten Herzen etwas Schlechtes getan.” Bevor Gong reagieren konnte, war er schon weg: Er war ein sehr gefragter Mann. “Etwas Schlechtes getan — ja,” meinte der Kleine Bruder, als er von dieser Bemerkung erfuhr. “Aber mit einem guten Herzen? Außerdem, wer ist für die ganze Tragödie verantwortlich?” Niemand. Niemand fühlte sich dafür verantwortlich. Die Tochter der Partei war einfach ein Opfer der Geschichte, wie viele Chinesen unter Mao Zedong — ganz normal.81

Again no explicit fault or wrong can be found in the still existing system. No open critique of the party can be found. In keeping with the general tendency in Zhou Chun’s writings, negative situations are introduced but never connected to a character’s political motivation or actions. In his debut novel Bittergurke Mingxiang Chen highlights the veracity of his account.82 It is a “record of facts” that he is writing, the story line follows true events and outlines the “normal” life of the Chinese people, while the author tries to elucidate the human side of Mao Zedong at the same time:

Das Buch ist ein Roman, ein “Tatsachenbericht”. Es handelt nicht vom Lebensweg einer einzelnen Person, sondern von dem einer ganzen Ge-

81Zhou, Tochter, p. 255. 82Mingxiang Chen. Bittergurke. Roman der chinesischen Jugend unter dem roten Kaiser Mao. Mannheim: Kolb, 2006.

122 4.2 Narrating a Life Story

neration, die fast alle politischen Aktionen unter Maos Führung durch- lebt und ihrer besten Jahre Maos Alleinherrschaft geopfert hat. Im Roman werden keine Sensationen geschildert, sondern das “normale” Leben der Millionen und Abermillionen Chinesen, vertreten durch ein paar junge Menschen, Schüler, Studenten und Angestellte, die hart arbeiteten, ganz “bescheiden” oder — genauer gesagt — menschenun- würdig lebten und über das eigenen Schicksal nicht selbst entscheiden konnten. Andererseits versuche ich Mao, den Anführer des kommunistischen Regimes, ans Tageslicht zu bringen. Die ganze Geschichte basiert auf wahren Ereignissen, nur die Namen, außer denen von Poli- tikern, sind frei erfunden.83

The novel tells the stories of young people who face calamities throughout the political movements of the communist regime without doing any wrong. Their friendships and relationships are tested, and some fail because of the political pressure. The book only ends after the death of Mao. In the last chapter the protagonists gather in Shanghai at the end of the 20th century and discuss the recent developments of their home country. The clariﬁcations on Mao Zedong’s life promised by Chen in the foreword are largely bedroom episodes, sometimes interconnected with decisive moments of daily politics. In these texts it is again necessary to create a pact with the reader, and assure him or her that authenticity is staged. It is the author as a person, voicing her or his own experiences, and therefore authentic. They want to give a faithful image and story of what has happened to them and project it as a showcase for the whole country. But the project does not limit itself to that, not only are history and customs explicated, but the explanations move on to very small details often concerning food and everyday living conditions. The question to what extent the creation of and emphasis on authenticity and a distinct national culture is necessary for the genre cannot be answered here.

83Chen, Bittergurke, p. 7.

123 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

4.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture

The authors of Chinese origin writing in French or German experience a difference in the general knowledge of their audience in comparison to the average knowledge of a Chinese person. Very often everyday objects as the 炕 (kang), a brick-made bed, or the 四合院 (siheyuan), a typical building formation in Beijing are explained. The authors’ intention to level out the different standards of knowledge is communicated in several ways. There is a simple version of using the Chinese term and giving the translation right after, either in brackets or separated by a comma, sometimes with the detour of a literal translation. The alternative version gives the meaning in footnotes. More skilled ways introduce the Chinese world first and mention the French or German equivalent in the subsequent sentences. When it comes to more complex Chinese particularities, some authors pause the narration and insert whole paragraphs to clarify the content. The examples chosen in the following show recurrent themes that appear in numerous texts. This could have been expanded to other topics like Chinese customs, food and anecdotal stories — such as the killing of the sparrows during Mao’s reign in the 1950s, which figure for example in Kuan’s record as memories before fleeing out of China.84

4.3.1 Shanghai as an International City

Location plays a crucial part in the works of Chinese migrant writers that write about China. To inform the “Western” reader about the country it is necessary to give a factual introduction to the local setting. These descriptions with “exotic places” follow diﬀerent levels of the same agenda to make the reader familiar with “unknown territory.” The texts take place in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, sometimes Chengdu or Harbin and rural areas such as the provinces of Sichuan, Xinjiang or Hei-

84Kuan Y.C. Mein Leben unter zwei Himmeln. Eine Lebensgeschichte zwischen Shanghai und Hamburg. Munich: Knaur-Taschenbuch, 2003, p. 599.

124 4.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture longjiang. Whereas the cities are rather defined and can easily be differentiated, the rural areas, despite their geographic and climatic specificities, can be easily exchanged. Exceptions are the descriptions of the “Long March” and the stay of the Communist Party and the Red Army in Yan’an as well as the more careful de- lineations by authors like Wei-Wei’s in Fleurs de Chine, which connects the stories of several women from different parts of the country. Taking the example of Shanghai, the many texts that fully or partly take place in that city, with their variety of approaches to present it through their narrators’ autobiographical or fictional texts in different social/ temporal settings, display a limited spectrum of vocabulary and images. The geographical data like the city’s location south of the river Yangzi, the division by the river Huangpu in the center with the Chinese Old Town, the In- ternational Concessions, particularly the Plane Alley of the French Concession, the Universities and the new district Pudong with the economic center resulting from the reform and opening policy of the late 1970s are repeatedly mentioned. Likewise the climatic conditions like the hot and humid weather during the sum- mer are often alluded to.85 Nevertheless, the focus is placed upon the man-made space. Depending upon the time period, the stories evolve around the Old Town with a poorer population, or the International Concession where the place of residence is usually the French Concession, and the leisure activities take place in the parks and shopping streets of the International Concession and in the hotels located at the waterfront, the Bund. Texts situated in today’s Shanghai like Luo Lingyuan’s short stories focus, as for example in “Im Ausländerviertel,”86 on private space that is more or less reserved for foreigners or, as in “Hochzeitsnacht im

85For example: “Im Juli in Shanghai war es heiß, oft sehr schwül. Die Luft war feucht und drückend. Tagsüber lag die Temperatur oft über dreißig, manchmal bis achtunddreißig oder sogar vierzig Grad. Nachts sank sie nicht viel. Man konnte nicht ruhig schlafen. Mehrmals musste man aufstehen, um eine Schüssel Wasser zu holen und sich zu erfrischen. Aber das Wasser aus der Leitung war lauwarm. Auf der Schilf- oder Bambusmatte zeichnete sich deutlich eine Körperspur vom Schweiß ab.” Chen, Bittergurke, p. 27. 86The foreigner’s quarter mentioned in the title can be found in the vicinity of a university in the northern parts of the city. Luo, Du ﬂiegst, pp. 70–89.

125 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

Jinmao-Tower,”87 in a hotel room that indicates the fortune of the bridal couple in Shanghai’s ﬁnancial district, Pudong. These stories echo the strict division between the people living in Shanghai and the spheres they circle in. Even though the way of introducing the city to the reader might be diﬀerent for every individual author and text, a recurrent theme dealing with the same places, topics and stories can be seen. This similarity extends even further, to a semantic level. Zhou Chun for example even list a number of given names. “Über das alte Shanghai der Kolonialzeit hat man vieles geschrieben: ‘Paradies der Abenteurer’, ‘Paris des Os- ten’. . . und über das berüchtigte Schild am Eingang des damaligen Bundgartens: ‘Für Chinesen und Hunde verboten’.”88 These expressions are found verbatim in other texts. For example Chow Ching Lie refers to the signpost: “. . . les jardins au bord du Wangpoos qui sont ‘interdits aux Chinois et aux chiens’. . . ‘Paris de l’Asie’.”89 Joseph Shieh includes the reference in the very title of his piece, Dans le jardin des aventuriers.90 Introductory sentences, such as the following are characteristic: “Shanghaï était une ville chinoise mais cosmopolite comme New York.”91 Or the following: “A Shanghai, nous n’avions guère l’occasion de nous frotter à la culture chinoise. Comme je l’ai déjà dit, Shanghai était une ville hybride, et la culture qu’elle produisait l’était tout autant.”92 This refers to the unique historical conditions of the late 19th and early 20th century. Three longer examples show the similarities.

Shanghaï représente alors toute la confusion de la Chine. Capitale de

87The Jinmao Tower is for now the highest building in Pudong, with the world’s highest hotel, where the wedding night takes place. Luo, Du ﬂiegst, pp. 90–100. 88The existence of the sign “Chinese and dogs are not allowed” outside the park on the Bund is often referred to. Nevertheless its existence is disputed. This does not interfere with the fact that then Chinese were not permitted to enter the park. Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 12. 89Chow, Concerto, p. 29. 90Joseph Shieh. Dans le jardin des aventuriers. Paris: Édition du Seuil, 1995. Avec Marie Holzman. 91Chow, Palanquin, p. 8. 92Shieh, Dans le jardin, p. 18.

126 4.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture

la corruption et de la prostitution, c’est le Chicago de l’orient avec mode européenne, manières occidentales, grosses et petites affaires, dans un tourbillon de plaisirs et d’insouciance. Au delà de ses buildings orgueilleux commençait les plaines et les montagnes de la Chine, les massacres et la faim, les grands fleuves généreux et meurtriers. . . . . [L]a concession internationale et la concession française où les étrangers détenaient leur autorité propre, avec leur police. Si bien qu’il y avait deux villes dans Shanghaï. Celle où les étrangers avaient commencé à construire, grâce à leurs profits énormes, des édifices impressionnants de dix et quinze étages semblables à ceux d’Amérique et d’Europe, et la ville chinoise. La première, vie sur les vices et la respectabilité, la seconde, tout autour de cet îlot de luxe, présentait des maisons serrées les unes contres les autres, des baraquements, et même des huttes de terre battue. . . . . C’est dans les années vint que Shanghaï devint la grande ville cosmopolite de l’Extrême-Orient.93

Zhou Chun titles the ﬁrst sub-chapter of his novel Ach, was für ein Leben! with the riddle that in Shanghai there where two republics in one street. He highlights the darker sides of that time.

Zwei Republiken auf einer Straße? — Rätsel? Nein, das war kein Rätsel. Das war Geschichte. Vor der Gründung der Volksrepublik China 1949 war Shanghai eine Stadt der Finsternis. In dieser Stadt bin ich 1926 geboren und in dieser Stadt bin ich aufgewachsen. Ich bin ein Teil der Geschichte von Shanghai und Shanghai ist ein Teil der Geschichte von China. Shanghai war vor dem Sieg im Antijapanischen Krieg 1945 eine geteilte Stadt, ähnlich wie Berlin nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg. Zwar war China eine souveränes Land und Shanghai eine chinesische Stadt, aber außer den Bezirken unter der Kontrolle der damaligen chinesischen nation- alistischen Regierung, zum Beispiel Nanshi, Südstadt, wo sich meine Grundschule befand, gab es noch eine internationale Niederlassung —

93Chow, Palanquin, pp. 9-12.

127 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

das International Settlement, vorwiegend unter britischer Kontrolle — und eine rein französische Konzession — die French Concession. Der Boulevard des Deux Républiques war die Grenze zwischen dem chinesischen Bezirk Nanshi und der French Concession.94

While this passage is rather descriptive, Zhou evaluates the situation on the next page.

Meine Erinnerungen an das alte Shanghai sind ﬁnster. Ich muß immer an die Sikhs, die Vietnamesen und die verbannten Russen denken, die als Polizisten im Dienste der Kolonialisten chinesische Rikschakulis grausam schlugen, an die japanischen Schildwachen, die chinesischen Vorübergehenden großzügig Ohrfeigen schenkten, an amerikanische Militärpolizisten, die in ihren Jeeps wie verrückt hin und her rasten. Ich muß immer an die zahlreichen Bettler, Prostituierten und Gauner denken und auch an die mehrere Millionen Einwohner, die in Armut und Angst lebten.95

For Jospeh Shieh the point of departure was diﬀerent. Being the grandchild of a British grandfather and a Chinese grandmother, he and his family moved in the otherwise unreachable societal layers. In his memoirs Dans le jardin des aventuriers he dedicates several pages on the history and present of Shanghai.

La ville de Shanghai, pourtant, concentrai tous les excès. Les plaisirs nobles étaient à la disposition des Européens et des riches: les meilleurs spectacles, les derniers ﬁlms, les plus célèbres acteurs du monde entier se pressaient à Shanghai pour s’y produire. On y trouvait aussi les plus habiles couturiers, coiﬀeurs, manucures, etc. Les tentations les plus diaboliques ruinaient les aventuriers et tuaient les pauvres: fu- miers d’opium, belles de nuit, tripots en tout genre, casinos, champs de courses proposaient leurs charmes troubles aux démunis comme aux milliardaires. Shanghai était alors le paradis des riches et l’enfer des

94Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 11. 95Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 12.

128 4.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture

pauvres. Surnommée à juste titre “le jardin des Aventuriers”, ma ville natale offrait généreusement asile aux princes russe désargentés comme aux politiciens détrônés, aux commerçants juifs comme aux filles de joie de toutes les couleurs, mais cette prospérité futile entraînait son lot de misères. Enlèvements, assassinats, trafics clandestins, règlements de comptes tissaient la trame sur laquelle venaient se dessiner les prémices de la révolution chinoise. J’ai vécu dans cet univers factice et violent. J’ai été ce sable que criblaient les flots amers de l’histoire tragique de la Chine.96

Shieh’s description of early 20th century Shanghai contains both the upsides and downsides of the cosmopolitan city.97 Shieh is one of the few authors that compares and comments negatively on the later developments: “Là où s’agitait autrefois une foule cosmopolite et élégante ne circulaient plus que des vélos et des passants habil- lés en bleus de chauffe ou en costumes Mao.”98 Chow Ching Lie for example refers to developments over the course of the 20th century without directly comparing them. For these texts as well as for their authors, Shanghai reflects the crucial influence of national and international politics and history, the development and changes China as a country has experienced over the last 200 years, all effects of which are to be found in this harbor city.

4.3.2 The Chinese Language and Naming

Chinese, being an ideogrammic language, has for a long time been presented as mysterious and diﬃcult to learn. The Chinese language and its particularities are communicated to the Western reader in forms of examples. The Chinese custom of naming is a recurrent feature. As the reader is told at the beginning of most biographical texts, in Chinese names the family name generally comes ﬁrst. Most

96Shieh, Dans le jardin, p. 14. 97In chapter 2 “Une bonne éducation jésuite”. He continues with the schooling system and the Christian religion in China. Shieh, Dans le jardin, pp. 15–30. 98Shieh, Dans le jardin, 10f.

129 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History of the time the name is given in the Pinyin romanization99 and no translation of the meaning is added. Sometimes the name is introduced with its actual meaning, as for example in Dai’s Le complexe de Di where the nickname Volcon de la Vieille Lune is explained.100 To exemplify the emphasis on accuracy and suﬃcient information, the following longer quote was selected.

Dennoch trug ich mindestens bis 1929 den Namen, den sie mir gegeben hatte: Anton Chen. Das geht aus der polizeilichen Abmeldung vom 5. April 1929 hervor, als das Kind Anton Chen, geboren am 6. März 1925, Geburtsort Berlin, Staatsangehörigkeit chinesisch, von Berlin in die Odenwaldschule bei Heppenheim umzog. Chen war der Familienname meiner Mutter. Später bekam ich von meinem Vater, der für einen Chinesen völlig untypisch ganz welliges Haar hatte, den Vornamen Han Sen, der aus zwei chinesischen Hieroglyphen besteht und ‘geboren in China’ bedeutet, dem Klang nach wahrscheinlich aber dem deutschen Namen Hans ähneln sollte. Standardnamen wie Fritz, Ruth, Hans usw., wie sie im Westen üblich sind, gibt es in China nicht. Dort denkt sich jeder für sein Kind einen einzigartigen Namen aus, der entweder aus einem oder aus zwei Hieroglyphen besteht und etwas Poetisches oder Originelles ausdrücken soll, eben so wie der Name ’geboren in

99Rarely the Chinese romanized version of Western names like ‘Baerzake’ for Balzac is given. Dai uses this tool only once to, on one hand, create an authentic situation when the young reader shouts the name out loud, but at the same time to remind the reader of the Chineseness of the protagonist. “‘Ba-er-za-ke’. Traduit en chinois, le nom de l’auteur français formait un mot de quatre idéogrammes. Quelle magie que la traduction! Soudain, la lourdeur des deux premières syllabes, la résonance guerrière et agressive dotée de ringardise de ce nom disparaissaient. Ces quatre caractères, très élégants, dont chacun se composait de peu de traits, s’assemblaient pour former une beauté inhabituelle, de laquelle émanait une saveur exotique, sensuelle, généreuse comme le parfum envoûtant d’un alcool conservé depuis des siècles dans une cave.” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 71. 100“C’était elle, H. C., sa camarade de classe, spécialisée elle aussi dans l’étude des textes classiques. (H. est son nom de famille, composé d’un idéogramme dont la partie gauche signiﬁe ‘ancien’ ou ‘vieux’, et la partie droite ‘lune’. Quant à son prénom, C., il est également constitué de deux parties, dont la gauche veut dire ‘feu’ et la droite ‘montagne’. jamais nom ne fut plus porteur de solitude: ‘Volcan de la Vielle Lune’, mais jamais no plus il ne le fut de tant de beauté graphique et de magie sonore. Jusqu’à aujourd’hui, Muo se dissout sitôt que sa bouche articule ces deux mots.) Dai, Le complexe de Di, 38f.

130 4.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture

China‘ für mich, der ich in Berlin das Licht der Welt erblickte. Da der Familienname meines Vaters Hsieh war, wurde aus mir Hsieh Han Sen. Familiennamen stehen bei den Chinesen in der Regel vor dem Vornamen.101

Han Sen only gained familiarity with the Chinese language at a later stage in his life. He vividly describes the diﬃculties in mastering the language:

So hat die chinesische Sprache beispielsweise vier Tonlagen, und es war für mich schon sehr schwierig, mir für die einzelnen Wortbedeutungen jeweils die richtige Tonlage zu merken. Sprach man das Wort in einer anderen Tonlage aus, bedeutete es auch gleich etwas anderes. Dies wiederum war meinen chinesischen Mitschülern oft Anlass zu Spott, auch wenn sie aus dem Kontext heraus verstanden, was ich eigentlich gemeint hatte.102

The diﬃculties do not stop with the articulation but continue with the written language where the homophony in Chinese causes problems for pupils confuse characters with similar intonations:

Schon achteinhalb Jahre war Yushan alt geworden. Er musste in die Schule gehen. Beim Aufnahmetest schrieb Yushan statt “Hand” “Kopf”, weil in der chinesischen Sprache der beiden Wörter den glei- chen Laut haben. Ursprünglich hatte der Junge sich nie “Hand” eingeprägt, sondern nur “Kopf”. Der alte Lehrer mit der schwarzen Brille zeigte irgendwie Verständnis dafür.103

The Chinese script, a combination of writing and painting, seems to be the “ﬁrst victim” of the language switch to German or French. The power of associations, the chains of images that a text in Chinese characters evokes appears to be lost

101Han Sen, Ein Chinese, 11f. 102Han Sen, Ein Chinese, 103f. 103(手 shou: hand; 首 shou: head.) Chen, Bittergurke, p. 18.

131 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History with the newly adopted language.104 Some of the authors venture to still use Chinese characters at striking spots in their texts, while others most of the time use transcriptions in the roman alphabet, — with pinyin being the most common — which is usually accompanied with the translation in a footnote or subsequent sentences. Many writers have attempted to reintroduce the beauty of the language in the German or French text by direct translations of Chinese words and idioms or by only introducing the imaginary of proverbs or names in the European languages. The fascination for those not knowing the Chinese script is one of the biggest reasons behind the interest in the language and culture using it.105 Though fascinating, Chinese characters are hardly used in Western language texts. Besides technical diﬃculties of combining and integrating two diﬀerent scripts in one print, the unintelligibility or broad unfamiliarity with these ‘signs’ urges for immediate translation or explanation. Shan Sa is the only author who includes complete sentences, an actual dialog, in her novel Les conspirateurs:

— 你好。我是 Christopher Lizard 张英先生约我见面。 (Bonjour, Christopher Lizard, J’ai rendez-vous avec M. Zhang Ying.) — 你好。我们马上张总秘书联系。请稍后。 (Bonjour, nous allons avertir le secrétariat du président. Veuillez pa- tienter.) L’une d’elles le conduit au coin-salon. Dix minutes plus tard, une porte laquée s’écarte. Une autre Chinoise en uniforme apparaît. — 您好。张总在等着您。 (Bonjour. Le président Zhang vous attend.) . . . — I’m Zhang Ying, dit-il spontanément en anglais. Nice to meet you.

104Regarding the long history of interpretation of Chinese characters by Western scholars and authors, with Ezra Pound and Victor Segalen being the best known among them, only one relatively recent reading can be suggested: Eric Hayot, Haun Saussy, and Steven G. Yao, eds. Sinographies. Writing China. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2008. 105Other cultures in Asia that are partially using the Chinese characters in their written language, as for example the Japanese and Korean cultures.

132 4.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture

— 张总，谢谢您，能够在一星期六的下午抽出时间。 (Merci, monsieur le président, de me recevoir, surtout un samedi après- midi.) Ravi d’entendre un étranger parler sa langue, Zhang Ying esquisse un large sourire. Il continue en chinois: . . . .106

Although the multilingualism of the passage is eminent, the main texts and all explanations take place in French. As the novel contains the story of multiple identities in an espionage setting, a play with changed and hidden identities also takes place. The US-American agent Bill Kaplan impersonates Christopher Lizard. He has to play his part to a certain degree of perfection. While his own abilities in Chinese are impeccable, Christo- pher speaks rather well, but not fluently and with a Taiwanese accent. The scene takes place in a Beijing office; he wants to get more background information on his target Ayamei and to track down her true identity. These further comments are solely given to illustrate the ease and naturalness with which a non-native speaker masters the Chinese language. And it is with the same matter-of-courseness that Chinese characters are included in the textual body. Naturally, the passages are immediately translated into French. But they leave the reader without any command of Chinese indifferent, if not irritated. The ar- bitrariness, incoherence of sign, meaning and translation to the “Western” reader can not be absorbed by the text in Latin letters. The bewilderment is even aug- mented by the English phrases inserted to create a more realistic setting of the scene. It is needless to say that there is no translation or paraphrasing reference attached to the English passages,107 of which several can be found in the book. It is the Chinese who uses the foreigners’ language as a sign of welcome, nevertheless as mentioned before, the interlocutors keep speaking Chinese, even though the textual body switches back to French.

106Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs, 201ﬀ. 107For example: The implementation of English occurs in moments when English native speak- ers converse. But here as well the “other language” emerges and fades without any introduction, clue or translation. Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs, 200 and 217.

133 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

An even more puzzling example marks the novel La couleur du bonheur 108 by Wei-Wei. It is the first and third person narration about a woman’s fate during the second half of the 20th century in China. The first person narration that alternates with the third person narration, is headlined with the characters 美丽, the other with a sun wheel. The reader is left to his/ her own means for deciphering the characters and no explanations follow. It is five chapters or 50 pages later, that the female protagonist’s name is explained in the annotations. “Mei-Li, on m’a dit que vous êtes aussi jolie que votre nom*, . . . . *Mei-Li (美丽) signifie ‘beau’, ‘beauté’.”109 But the connection to the headline or the title is to be made by the attentive reader alone. It seems that Wei-Wei instigates a game of recognition with the reader here. Dai Sijie, however, tries to introduce the beauty of the written language with the example of the character, 日. This meaningful character is introduced as follows:

La prison est un bâtiment en briques noircies, construit dans la forme de l’idéogramme chinois ‘ri’ = 日 (le soleil, ou le jour). Les traits horizontaux du haut et du bas représentent les parties sud et nord du bâtiment.110

The author deprives the character of its meaning and reduces it to its form. There is no necessity for Dai to include the translation of this character; a simple drawing without allusions to the Chinese script would have been fully satisfactory. The most common usage of Chinese characters is reﬂected in the numbers. It is the simplicity of the ﬁrst three numbers (一，二，三) that enables even the reader who is not familiar with the Chinese language to understand the meaning of the sign without translation or clarifying annotations. This practice is regularly implemented by the authors Shan Sa and Ya Ding.

En eﬀet, tous deux conservent le système idéogrammatique pour numéroter leurs chapitres. Cela présente pour eux l’avantage d’ancrer

108Wei-Wei. La couleur du bonheur. La Tour d’Aigues: Éditions de l’aube, 2006. 109Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur, p. 54. 110Dai, Le complexe de Di, p. 343.

134 4.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture

leur production dans la tradition chinoise et de répondre aux attentes d’un public occidental toujours fasciné par le mystère de la calligraphie; pour autant, en vertu de sa fonction essentiellement symbolique, cet acte ne porte en rien atteinte à une compréhension de l’œuvre par le lecteur français, puisque ces idéogrammes ne sont pas intégrés comme facteurs d’opacité dans le sens général de l’œuvre.111

In my opinion, the utilization of Chinese numbers as chapter headings generates the sensation of exotism and, at least after the first three characters, the feeling of estrangement. The numbers four to ten (e.g. 四，五，六，七，八，九，十) reveal no greater connection to their meaning for the unfamiliar reader. If the novel consists of more than ten chapters, the reader has to go back to the table of contents and either count or decipher the system of numbers to deduce the actual chapter’s cipher. The usage of the Chinese script visibly establishes the Chinese language and culture and at the same time alludes to the enigmatic, exotic and inscrutable Other that is still distant from the French reader. Either the meaning of the character is emptied as in the example of Dai Sijie or it is not put into context as in the case of Shan Sa, whereas the other authors, in my opinion, try to create a decrytping game for the reader that is more or less supported by the writer. An exception to my opinion can be found in children’s books, which create a familiarity with the Chinese culture and offer a more thorough exposure to Chinese characters. For the reader, this comprehensibility imbues the culture and its language with a considerable degree of normality and reduces its otherness. The necessity to bring the reader closer to the Chinese script and language leads to a multiplicity of Latin alphabet transcriptions. They are frequently used in the texts, whereby the Pinyin variation has taken over recent literary production since its creation in 1982. The transitional possibilities of Chinese characters in European languages is represented by the various romanizations of the Chinese language. There exists a long history of competition and coexistence of different

111Porra, “Quand les ‘passeurs de langue’ deviennent ‘passeurs de culture’,” p. 134. Even though Véronique Porra refers to a Chinese tradition in numbering the chapters, naturally Chinese prose contains a multitude of options for forming a headline.

135 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History transcriptions based on diﬀerent European languages or Chinese dialects. Today the most common ones are the Hanyu Pinyin and Wade-Gilles, while for other Chinese languages and dialects, the Yale Romanization is used. The setting of Luo Linyuan’s novel Wie eine Chinesin schwanger wird is in Canton, but instead of using the Cantonese expressions for aspects like food or places, she uses those expressions that are common in German and if new words are need, the Pinyin transcription, which Luo uses in a way that creates a better understanding of the Pinyin transcription. “Kanton oder eigentlich Guangzhou, die Hauptstadt der südlichen Provinz Guangdong, . . . .”112 The Cantonese name would be Gwongzau. Another consequence of the characters’ transcription is that, in most of the cases, the tonal aspect of the language gets lost since hardly any reference to the terms’ tonal structure or pronunciation is to be found in the writings.

4.3.3 Proverbs

Proverbs and sayings play an important role in the Chinese language. A great number of Chengyus or poem verses are mentioned in the texts. Most of the time they are literally translated into French or German, which creates a sensation of alienation and distance. Han Sen elaborately explains a gesture he could not understand at ﬁrst and equates it with similar behavior and usage from the German context:

Hin und wieder piesackten sie mich auch, indem sie mir mit einer Hand über den Rücken strichen und einen leichten Buckel andeuteten. Dabei kringelten sie sich vor Lachen. Es dauerte einige Zeit, bis ich dem Grund ihrer Heiterkeit auf die Spur kam: Der angedeutete Rücken sollte den Panzer einer Schildkröte darstellen, und Schildkröten gelten in China als Inbegriﬀ der Dummheit. Wenn man dort als alte Schild- kröte bezeichnet wird, so ist dies ebenso abfällig gemeint wie in Europa ‘dummer Esel’ oder ‘blöder Hund’.113

112Luo, Wie eine Chinesin schwanger wird, p. 19. 113Han Sen, Ein Chinese, p. 104.

136 4.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture

Chow Ching Lie, for example, alters a Chinese saying for her account: “‘Palanquin de joie’, disait-on chez nous. Pour moi, palanquin des larmes.”114 The sedan of joy (喜轿 xijiao) as synonym for marriage and its happiness is reversed into a symbol of the horrors that the Western reader is assumed to associate with arranged and particularly forced marriages. An extraordinary example can be found in the novel La montagne de Jade by Xiaomin Giafferri-Huang.115 A “city youth” works on the rice fields in the country side. While working in the fields, sorting the weed from the rice, a political instructor picks on the quality of the protagonist’s work and highlights her errors:

Je vous demande donc de faire très attention. . . . Le président Mao l’a bien dit, ceux qui s’éloignent du travail manuel sont plus ignorants que les paysans; ils sont incapables de distinguer l’ivraie du bon plant. Nous pouvons constater que c’est absolument vrai!116

This quote refers to a common practice in the China of the Cultural Revolution. Quotations by Chairman Mao were learned by heart and inserted in conversation,to show the speaker’s devotion to the continuous revolution and/ or to end discussions because Mao’s word was true and could not be disputed. Giaﬀerri- Huang nevertheless incorporates an image from the bible, “to separate the wheat from the chaﬀ” (Matthew 3.12), whereas Mao’s images are taken from the steel industry. The following quote is from a French translation of Mao’s words:

Le commandant utilise tous les moyens d’informations recueillies sur l’ennemi, rejetant la balle pour conserver le grain, écartant ce qui est fallacieux pour garder que le vrai, procédant d’une chose à une autre, de l’externe à l’interne; puis, tenant compte de ses propres conditions, il fait une étude comparée de la situation des deux parties et de leurs relations mutuelles; alors ils forme son jugement, prend sa décision et

114Chow, Palanquin, p. 189. 115Giaﬀerri-Huang Xiaomin. La montagne de Jade. La Tour d’Aigues: Éditions de l’aube, 2004. 116Giaﬀerri-Huang, Jade, p. 82.

137 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History

établit ses plan.117

In contrast to the English translation,118 if one looks for the expression in a French, English or German to Chinese dictionary, an image from the realm of wine culti- vation usually appears: 取其精华，弃取糟粕 (quqijinghua, qiquzaopo; select the harvest (the elite), discard the useless pomace (worthless remains). The two four character quotes marked bold in the text and the translations can be found as signifying the saying, whereupon the first is an abbreviation of the term used in a Chinese to German, French or English dictionary. In the text the political instructor continues and describes the chaff and how it can be differentiated from the rice. Giafferri-Huang wrongly introduces the quote that has nothing to do with the work in the fields and thereby uses images of the bible qualified as Chinese and originating from Mao.

4.3.4 Food and Hospitality

The presence of food in the form of cooked dishes, fruits and drinks is another method for depicting everyday Chinese culture. Most of the time a proper French or German translation for the dishes and ingredients is given, which is sometimes accompanied by the original Chinese term. The example introduced here refers to a ‘mis’reading of a word by word translation from the Chinese to German. In the laudation for the awarding of the Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Förderpreis of the Robert Bosch Foundation to Luo Lingyuan in the year 2007, the author Michael Wildenhain refers to a particular Chinese food:

117And the Chinese original: “指挥员使用一切可能的必要的侦察手段，将侦察得来的敌方情况的各种材料加以去粗取华，去伪存真，由此及彼，由表及里的丝素，然后将自己方面自己情况加上去，研究双方的对比和相互关系，因而构成判断，定下决心，作出计划. . . ” Mao Zedong. Citations du Président Mao. Versions bilingue. Paris: You Feng, 1998, 328f. 118“He applies all possible and necessary methods of reconnaissance, and ponders on the information gathered about the enemy’s situation, discarding the drossand selecting the essential, eliminating the false and retaining the true, proceeding from the one to the other and from the outside to the inside; then, he takes the conditions on his own side into account, and makes a study of both sides and their interrelations, thereby forming his judgements, making up his mind and working out his plans.” Mao Zedong. Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung. Vol. III. Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1965, p. 326.

138 4.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture

Aber ich denke, diese Einzelheit, das Fünfduftei, hat sich nicht ohne Grund in meiner Erinnerung festgesetzt und trägt, obwohl ich bis heute nicht weiß, was man sich unter eine [sic!] solchen Speise genau vorzustellen hat, nicht nur zur Qualität der Erzählung bei, sondern ist auch ein Synonym für den besonderen Charakter jenes Textes und der Texte der Autorin überhaupt.119

In the text, the boiled egg is introduced while the young heroine is on a foot march to another city on a cold winter day:

Plötzlich liegt der Geruch von Fünfdufteiern in der Luft und zieht sie unwiderstehlich an. Sie muss nicht weit gehen, bis sie den Stand, an dem die Eier verkauft werden, ﬁndet. Sie kauft zwei davon und schlingt sie gierig hinunter.120

Luo Lingyuan refers to a variety of the “tea leaf egg”, a common snack sold by street vendors. She gives a word for word translation into German: 五香粉 (wuxi- angfen), the ﬁve scent powder is usually translated into German as “Fünf-Gewürze- Pulver” or shortened in English to “ﬁve spice” with the determinant, “the chicken egg”. The spice is very common in Chinese cuisine in China and overseas.

4.3.5 Political Movements and Their Depiction

Beside the mostly exact localization of the texts in China and elsewhere, the time frame of the narration is easy to identify. This is closely linked to the author’s self-image as “cultural ambassador”. The need to explore and explain the Chinese society is nowhere illustrated in greater detail as in the portrayal of the historic and political situation. Explaining the speciﬁcities and background of 20th century China occupies a large portion of the majority of the texts. This encompasses colonial rule in Shanghai, foreign powers in Beijing at the beginning of the 20th

119Michael Wildenhain. Laudatio von Michael Wildenhain zur Verleihung des Adelbert-von- Chamisso-Förderpreises der Robert Bosch Stiftung an Luo Lingyuan. 2007. url: http://www. bosch-stiftung.de/content/language1/downloads/laudatio_lingyuan.pdf. 120Luo, Du ﬂiegst, p. 8.

139 4. Communicating Chinese Culture and History century, the Japanese occupation and liberation, wars during the 1930s and 40s, the relationship between Nationalists and Communists and the liberation, and ﬁnally, the political campaigns of the Communist Government of the 50s, 60s and 70s and the democratic endeavors and economic liberation of the 80s and beyond. The focus in this section is upon the description of the Anti Rightist movements of the 50s and early 60s and occasionally the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. In the following, the ways in which they are implemented in the text and introduced to the reader, along with the particularities that are consequently highlighted are shown. The agenda of the narrations follow similar strategies. For instance, the protagonist becomes an “innocent victim” of the political campaign, as in the novels Ach, was für eine Leben! and Tochter der Partei by Zhou Chun. Another example of iniquity towards the protagonist arises when she or he defends a friend or a just cause against the political actors. A third variation is set in motion when the events of the time are portrayed through the eyes of an infant protagonist (who will most likely become an outcast because of his family’s background as “rightists” or bourgeois) as in Bittergurke by Mingxiang Chen. The cruelty in the main character’s humiliation and in many cases banishment into hard labor is most striking in the depiction of public sessions with open accusations and auto-critique.121 A typical example can be found in Zhou’s Die Tochter der Partei. Paradigmatically, the good-natured, honest man does not surrender to the forces of the politically agitated mob that pressurizes the person in the dock being questioned and humil- iated.122 As shown in these longer examples the Western reader is thought of as a

121Both measures of public accusation and public self-critique (检讨 jiantao) where common practices for showing the presence or absence of a revolutionary spirit for the so called struggle sessions (斗争会 douzhenghui). 122“Nein, ihr Li ließ sich nicht kleinkriegen. . . Sie wurden aufgefordert, Geständnisse über ihre ‘geschichtlichen Sünden’ abzulegen. . . Diese Zermürbungstaktik hatte wenigstens eine Funktion, sie machte den Mann ziemlich schnell geistig kaputt, so daß er bald mit gesenktem Kopf jeden Widerstand aufgab. Aber nicht so Li. Vor jeder solcher Sitzungen versäumte er nicht, sich sorgfältig zu rasieren und zu kämmen, einen frischen, gebügelten Mao-Anzug anzuziehen, seine Lederschuhe gründlich zu putzen. Erst dann erschien er vor ‘den breiten, revolutionären Massen’ mit seiner Ledermappe in der Hand, worin sein sorgfältig vorbereitetes Plädoyer lag. Er ließ sich weder von der Androhung einer strengen Strafe einschüchtern, noch von dem Versprechen einer milden Behandlung irreführen, sondern setzte sich immer selbstbeherrscht mit seinen Anklägern

140 4.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture tabula rasa, a blank page, to whom the author in his or her role (or understanding of the role) as “cultural ambassador” has to introduce and explain China. The necessary explanations reach from simple expressions to the description of complex historical conditions. Choosing to tell a life story to recapitulate the strange and moving experiences can certainly be found with other Chinese authors of the same generation. What is striking is the strong identiﬁcation of the author by him/ herself or by others as an individual Chinese, whereby the strive towards a factually correct version of the events is absent. Their writings bear more similarities with works by other Chinese authors outside the country than those who stayed on, for example to those who write in English e.g. Jung Chang’s Wild Swans.123 Many Overseas or exiled Chinese writers in general take the fact of being in the West as an opportunity to come to terms through the free form of writing. These authors also proﬁt from the possibility to refer to Western or Chinese analyses, for example of the Cultural Revolution.124 In the next chapter, the idea of a literary treatment of the past is resumed.

Punkt für Punkt auseinander. Schließlich wurde nicht er, sondern das Publikum zermürbt. Das letzte, was es mit ihm tun konnte, war ihn als einen unverbesserlichen geschichtlichen Konter- revolutionär einzustufen und ihn aus der Hauptstadt in den Nordosten in ein Erziehungslager an der chinesisch-sowjetischen Grenze zu verbannen.” Zhou, Tochter, p. 15. 123Jung Chang. Wild Swans. Three Daughters of China. Simon and Schuster, 1991. 124Monika Gänßbauer. Trauma der Vergangenheit. Die Rezeption der Kulturrevolution und der Schriftsteller Feng Jicai. Dortmund: Projekt Verlag, 1996, p. 373.

141

Chapter 5

Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Liter- ary Traditions

5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts

This sub-chapter discusses the idea that some works by Chinese writers in the French or German language maintain or adopt patterns that are prominently found in contemporary Chinese literature. As the twentieth century unfolded, Chinese literature moved away from the adoption of Western literature, a multiplicity of -isms after the post May-Fifth-Movement, resulted in politically motivated trends such as the Revolutionary Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism1 of the early People’s Republic and the more recent literary coming to terms with the past in “Scar or Wound Literature”, “Obscure Poetry” or a new form of realism and today’s “New Generation” female novelists. The writings of the authors introduced so far can be more or less easily distinguished from contemporary Chinese literature in Chinese language by the extreme use of older Western imaginaries and cultural parameters or by the strong explanatory character of their writing. The literary texts regarded in this chapter, from a third major group of Chinese writers in French and German, are chosen because

1Revolutionary Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism emphasize on idealism, the Marxist worldview of writers, the ideological utilitarianism of literature and art, and center around idealized, heroic characters. This kind of literature does not portray life as it is but as it should be.

143 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions of their similarity in style, characterization and plot to several contemporary Chi- nese authors and literary trends. Nevertheless the kind of literature these authors represent is more or less to be understood as a coming to terms with the past and the present of China. The author Han Chen with his text Le ﬁlet reminds the reader of the popular “Scar literature.” The name or label derives from the short story “Scar” by Lu Xinhua2 and is also given the alternate label of “Wound Literature”. In the text Han, as a member of the Lost Generation retrospectively negotiates the positive and negative aspects of his biography, which brings his writings in proximity to those of A Cheng and Feng Jicai. In Wei-Wei’s texts the cruelties and the hardship of the female protagonists’ lives is ameliorated by the nostalgic recollections of family and the small home town in Southern China. This emphasis on one hand on the female version of the past and on the other hand on the romanticizing of loss, restraint and renunciation can be found in works such as those by Su Tong and Wang Anyi. A third aspect is the depiction of violence and torment in the works of Luo Lingyuan. In her short stories, many shades of human suﬀering and horror are described. The intensity of the descriptions resembles those found for example in the short stories and novels of Yu Hua or Mo Yan.

5.1.1 Wounds Can Heal

During the Cultural Revolution, the literary production was even more constrained than during the early years of the People’s Republic.3 At the height of the Cul- tural Revolution in 1968 Jiang Qing, member of the politburo and the Central Cultural Revolution Group, reduced theatrical performances to eight Model The-

2Lu Xinhua. “The Wounded.” In: The Wounded. New Stories of the Cultural Revolution 77-78. Ed. by Xinhua Lu, Geremie Barmé, and Bennett Lee. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Company, 1979, pp. 9–24. 3Mao Zedong’s Talks at the Yan’an Conference on Literature and Art were ﬁrst published in 1942. They were to be followed as a guideline: “Life as reﬂected in works of literature and art compared with ordinary actual life, can and ought to be on a higher plane, more intense, more concentrated, more typical and more idealized, and therefore has greater universality.” Quoted from: Lan Yang. Chinese Fiction of the Cultural Revolution. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1998, p. 15.

144 5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts atrical Works including five Peking operas, two dance dramas and one symphony. The only possibility for literature, after the official ending of the Cultural Rev- olution in 1976 and the economy opening policies, was to diversify. Thus many different voices found their ways into publication. Literary treatments of the Cultural Revolution within the texts share the common feature of the movement as a decisive, life-changing topic. In addition the novelists may document their own life story to give history an individual face, give an account a the lost generation, demonstrate sympathy with the scapegoated ‘Red Guards’ and request an undogmatic view of the happenings. Some others paint an absurd image of the events and even generate laughter over the horror of the campaign through an ironic and distant handling of the time. Other authors vehemently describe the loss of human dignity and the destruction of human consciousness and elaborate on the individual and social consequences in their poetry and prose. The only positive aspect found in the texts is that the unreflected political activism led to emancipated participation.

To simplify somewhat, the ﬁrst was that the CR epitomized factional ‘chaos’ and anarchy, and must hence be ﬁrmly suppressed by the forces of order. The second was that the CR represented the victimization of the Chinese people by the forces of a centrally enforced radical ideological tyranny, which must therefore give way to an ‘emancipation of the mind’. The third was that the CR indeed represented victimization, but ‘we have seen the enemy and it is us’ — i.e. the culture in which we are all enmeshed is the enemy. For shorthand purposes we may refer to these three clusters of thematic emphasis as the ‘chaos’ focus, the ‘scar’ focus (after the ‘scar’ or ‘wound’ literature launched in the late 1970s and early 1980s), and the focus on cultural self-criticism.4

Similar to the authors in the previous chapter, the experience of the political movements inﬂuences the writings of many authors analysed in this chapter. The “Wound Literature” or “Scar Literature” refers to the wounds, physical as well

4Woei Lien Chong, ed. China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Master Narratives and Post-Mao Counternnartives. Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littleﬁeld Publishers, 2002, p. 8.

145 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions as psychic, which were caused during the Cultural Revolution, and acknowledges the devastating impact of the destruction of tradition and culture on the social structure and daily interaction with the family and other fellow human beings. The texts grouped under this term deal with the accelerating intrusion into the private sphere of the individual and the family. The capacity to act according to one’s own will became more and more confined, and in the end fear and disquietude commanded the actions, often in the form of political necessities. A plurality of texts deal with the rustication movement, often telling the writers’ own story or based on his or her experiences. Young people from the cities go voluntarily or are forcefully sent to the countryside to learn from and help the peasants. Another large number of texts reflect the life of the “intellectuals”, whereby the term may refer to many different groups including artists, journalists or teachers. Sometimes the stories only take place during the Cultural Revolution itself, but most of the narratives include the end of the period, when the protagonist is rehabilitated and can start a new life. Responsibility and guilt for the suffered injustices are usually attributed to the Gang of Four and others officially in charge. Personal guilt is hardly dealt with. The protagonists are mostly innocent victims of the political movements or history itself. The already introduced author Zhou Chun exemplifies this with the inability to pinpoint and denounce a particular culprit in the novel Die Tochter der Partei.5 Another promising comparison could be undertaken with Chen’s novel Bittergurke. In the following, the main focus will be on the novel Le filet6 by Han Chen. Han Chen works as translator and author in China. Le filet is the only text he has written directly in French. The novel is published with a small publishing house in Paris specialized on China related topics. The novel Le filet takes place in the early nineties in an unknown city. The events narrated in the text reach out to the early fifties in Shanghai, the Hundred Flower Movement and Cultural Revolution, as well as the economic modernization

5Cf.: “Niemand. Niemand fühlte sich dafür verantwortlich. / Die Tochter der Partei war einfach ein Opfer der Geschichte, wie viele Chinesen unter Mao Zedong — ganz normal.” Zhou, Tochter, p. 255. 6Han Chen. Le ﬁlet. Paris: You Feng, 1993.

146 5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts of the late 70s and early 80s. The third person narration relates the relationship between the nameless chief- editor of the poetry department of a literary journal and a younger colleague, Xiao Xiao. They get involved as they discuss the diﬀerent meanings of a poem, Le ﬁlet. The poem equals life with a net. He perceives the poem as a joke, while she can comprehend the two-word poem as a universal truth:

Depuis longtemps il s’est posé cette question: “Est ce que je suis un raté? Ai-je l’air d’un misérable?” Oui, il se peut que je le sois pour les jeunes, je suis un pauvre hère, une loque, un être pitoyable. . . Pourtant, je me suis mainte, fois dit qu’après tout, j’avais bien vécu, et que je pouvais faire davantage pour que la vie devienne encore plus pleine. . . ” Machinalement, il tend la main et prend le poème: LA VIE : Un filet Un frisson le parcourt, la feuille tombe. Xiao Xiao ramasse le poème et le regarde: “Oh, c’est génial! Il suffit de deux mots pour dire une grande vérité: la vie est un filet! Il faut se battre pour en finir avec, ou, au moins, je mérite un filet plus grand, plus confortable et plus spacieux!”7

Her reaction provokes him to tell her about his life: the rustication during the Cultural Revolution, his mother’s death, his father’s return from Taiwan via Hong Kong. In retelling the stories a sad and remorseful tone sets in. The past was not a happy one, could not be changed and therefore had to be accepted. The growing relationship with Xiao Xiao enables him to attend a party.8 At the party he is discovered by a foreign sinologist as a renowned scholar in the ﬁeld of Chinese poetry and especially on Li Qingzhao9 and is oﬃcially invited to a yearlong stay at a US-American university. Out of mischief and envy, his superior makes the

7Han, Le ﬁlet, 14f. 8The party is described as a modern Western invention, which has limited attractions because it consists of standing around with drinks instead of a traditional banquet with food in abundance. Cf. Han, Le ﬁlet, pp. 85–95. 9Song-Dynasty female author of poems (shi) and songs (ci), born in 1084 and died around 1152.

147 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions trip impossible for the first person narrator: He would be allowed to leave the country and keep his position at the publishing house, but lose his apartment. He balances the benefits for himself in contrast to the negative effects for his family and renounces the possibility to go abroad. Drunk, as a result of the rejected stay abroad, he remembers his love for a Eurasian girl in the early fifties. He even tries to take pleasure in his ’forced’ life and be content. The welfare of the many (of the family) is more important than that of the single human. He accepts this altruistic statement and lives in conformity with it. Xiao Xiao listens to his statements, but nevertheless takes the chance to leave for Shanghai and by implication “the net” of the title. There she will be able to start a self-decided life. Hence the omnipresent pressure of the communist system in China, in the face of political movements and party members is portrayed. But no direct blame is laid. The main character is described as a humble person, who at certain times is able to actively do things because of his family background with a father overseas or to altruistically think about his kin rather than about himself. This is contrasted with the younger generation which lacks the personal experience of the revolution, openly engages with foreigners and sees and uses possibilities to act and decide for itself, as Xiao Xiao gives up her work at the publishing house to follow her boyfriend to Shanghai. This discrepancy of attitudes between generations before and after the Cultural Revolution is pointed out several times in the text. Han puts himself in line with other writers from Mainland China, who are contributing to height of “Scar Literature” like A Cheng or Feng Jicai. For example Feng Jicai’s short novel 啊10 (Ah, English title: A Letter) takes place in the same milieu. Certain people in academia and more influential others in a publishing house along with family relations hinder the main character’s carrier and through unanticipated circumstances his life during the time is turned upside down. Even though his innocence is later re-established, he can never regain the same position in society. The stories of this phase of “Scar Literature” no longer have a secondary status. While others are still “[d]ramatizing the traumatic, [Scar Literature] parrots the

10Feng Jicai. “A Letter.” In: Chrysanthemums and Other Stories. Trans. by Susan Wilf Chen. San Diego, New York, and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985, pp. 96–164.

148 5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts oﬃcial indictment that holds the Gang of Four solely responsible for the socio- political disaster on the one hand, and reconstructs the myth of humanism on the other,”11 Han and others raise hitherto unasked questions. By showing the results of passivity and impotence during the communist regime and its consequences, they indirectly criticize the protagonists. But in contrast Han does not only hope for a better future that can be formed by the individual and is independent of political powers but shows through Xiao Xiao the possibility to act independently and determine the future as an individual or a family.

5.1.2 Nostalgic Recollections

While the aforementioned text describes the individual’s renunciation for the family’s good with a certain bitterness, the characters of Wei-Wei’s novels seek strategies that lead to contentment or even happiness in sacriﬁce. The literature of the late 1980s and early 1990s in China takes up the changes that are encountered in the country’s big cities. Places and spaces alter their appearances, adding to the devastating experiences of the cultural revolution the loss of a sense of family and belonging. This irreversible change is felt even more strongly by the Chinese who have left the country and return to a town or city that she or he is no longer able to recognize. Struggling for a balance in the strive towards modernization and commercialization, the 90s’ authors — who form such a diverse group encompassing Su Tong, Wang Anyi, Bi Feiyu and Ge Fei — fabricate a nostalgic narration of the past that evokes feelings of longing.12

No nostalgic writing can be considered a ‘re-creation of the original scene.’ Diﬀerent from a written record that calls up memories of yes-

11Howard Y.F. Choy. Remapping the Past. Fictions of History in Deng’s China, 1979-1997. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008, p. 8. 12The freedom incorporated in nostalgia, which is understood as a concept of projection, is evinced in the essays by Jinhua Dai and David Der-Wei Wang, who put the adjectives “imagined” and “imaginary” in front of the term. Dai Jinhua. “Imagined Nostalgia.” In: Postmodernism & China. Ed. by Arif Drilik and Zhang Xudong. Trans. by Judy T.H. Chen. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2000, pp. 205–221; David Der-Wei Wang. The Monster That is History. History, Violence, and Fictional Writing in Twentieth-Century China. Berkley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 2004.

149 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions

terday, nostalgia, as the fashion of contemporary China, uses the construction and embellishment of remembrance to assuage the present.13

The emergence of nostalgia reﬂects the need for a positive reconstruction of the present and the past. The wave of nostalgia became a recurrent mode of expression in the wake of the rather grim narrations. The nostalgia in the writing not only creates an imagined shelter with its positiveness but also ensures an alliance in making it possible to remember embracing the ongoing progress. The realm of nostalgia nevertheless opens up a space for imagination and consolation, while enabling a new stance of “regarding history and embracing historical culture.”14 Therefore, nostalgia is double-bound: “In terms of memory, nostalgia is less than the past; it loses the irrecoverable ‘facts’ from history. In terms of imagination, nostalgia is more than the past; it attaches excessive fantasies to history.”15 The protagonists’ stories are no longer exclusively linked with historical events, however the eﬀect of these events and the political measures is absorbed in the minds and families of the protagonists. Also the locality of the events is transformed. Beijing no longer features as the political center of China or as the main setting of the texts. The shift is towards the periphery. While the prominent literary movements of the 80s engage in either the minority discourse with locating the texts in Tibet or Xinjiang, for instance or describe the rusticated youth’s experience in the northern villages (as in 知青, zhiqing literature) or explore city-countryside family relations in for example Shandong or Hunan (as in the 寻根文学, xungen movement), the authors of the 90s seeking and expressing themselves in the nostalgic fashion move southwards in their texts. This part of China incorporates for Dai Jinhua “the delicate texture of the wilderness, . . . the fragile beauty of the old south, and . . . the mesmerizing yet corrupt Shanghai.”16 Even though Shanghai is mentioned, this refers to a sen- timental version of the city from the 1920s or 1930s and the movement is from the

13Dai J., “Imagined Nostalgia,” p. 207. 14Dai J., “Imagined Nostalgia,” p. 211. 15Choy, Remapping the Past, p. 135. 16Dai J., “Imagined Nostalgia,” p. 210.

150 5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts metropolis to provincial towns. Wei-Wei17 was born in the province of Guangxi in Southern China, where she studied French to become a translator and interpreter in Nanning. During the Cultural Revolution, like many of her peers, she was sent to the countryside to learn from the peasants. Starting in 1976 she worked as a language instructor for French at the National Minority Institute of Guangxi. She continued her studies at Peking University and received a stipend in 1987 for the Sorbonne in Paris. She lives in Manchester in the United Kingdom and continues to write in French. In her debut novel La couleur du bonheur 18 from 1996, the female protagonist Mei-Li gives an account of her family’s life as well as her own. In 1997 Wei-Wei published the travelogue Le Yangtsé sacrifié19 in which she recreates an earlier journey along the Jiangzi River. In Fleurs de Chine,20 ten women’s fates, all named after flowers, are mostly told by themselves to an eleventh woman. In Une fille Zhuang,21 an autobiographical novel, Wei-Wei describes the early stages of the life of a girl belonging to a Chinese minority from her childhood in the countryside to her studies at a university in Beijing. In 2007 Wei-Wei, contributed the chapter “Pondeuse de rêves” to the UNESCO’s The Alphabet of Hope Anthology,22 and explained the connection between literature and trauma in the article “Paroles des sans-voix”.23 Common topics in Wei-Wei’s works include women’s conditions, changes in the Chinese society, natural disasters, and political movements such

17Not to be confused with the 20th century Chinese writer of the same name, Wei Wei (1920– 2008). 18Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur. 19Wei-Wei indicates the genre of the text: “Ce livre est un récit de voyage. Les incidents racontés sont vrais, les lieux parcourus et les personnes rencontrées sont réels. Mais j’ai changé les noms des villages que j’ai visités, le nom de la petite rivière qui les baigne, et les noms des paysans qui m’ont reçue et parlé, de crainte que mon récit ne leur attire des ennuis — j’espère que le lecteur le comprendra.” Wei-Wei. Le Yangtsé sacriﬁé. Voyager autour du barrage des Trois-Gorges. Paris: Éditions Denoël, 1997, p. 237. 20Wei-Wei. Fleurs de Chine. La Tour d’Aigues: Éditions de l’aube, 2007. 21Wei-Wei. Une ﬁlle Zhuang. La Tour d’Aigues: Éditions de l’aube, 2006. 22Wei-Wei, Fleurs de Chine. 23Wei-Wei. “Paroles des sans-voix.” In: Les assises internationales du roman. ’Roman et réalité’. Paris: Christian Bourgois, 2007.

151 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions as the Hundred Flowers Campaign, the Cultural Revolution, and their concrete implications on the novels’ characters. At this point the 1996 novel La couleur du bonheur will be introduced as a counter-example to the above mentioned Le filet. The bitterness of a main protagonist resigned to helplessness is no longer prevalent. Instead a positive tone underlies the pragmatic actions of the female protagonists. The paratextual quote from Dream of the Red Chamber 24 sets the novel’s mood: “Le vrai devient la fiction lorsque la fiction est vraie; l’irréel devient le réel lorsque le réel est irréel. Chao Xue-Qin.”25 The narrative structure of the novel continues to draw the reader into the in-between of “realism” and “memories”. The novel alternates between two different narrators, who are identified by two symbols functioning as titles: two Chinese characters 美丽 (Mei-Li) signify the first person narrator’s name (which is only indirectly revealed at the end of the second chapter) whereas a sun wheel is associated with the third person narrator. The two narrations are connected by Mei-Li. The first person narration stretches form the 1920s to the early 50s, while the third person narration starts 21st of February 1953 and ends in spring 1984 the moment Mei-Li starts her narration to her granddaughter Fan-Fan. It is three generations of family in China, telling the stories of arranged marriage, adultery, war, political absurdities, the political movements and natural catastrophes. In the process of reading the novel, the relations between the two narratives and the protagonists in it are implicitly established. The true connection between the two narrations is only revealed at the very end of the novel: Mei-Li sourit. Elle tira une enveloppe de sa poche, la tendit à Fan-Fan. — Qu’est-ce que c’est? demanda Fan-Fan. — La lettre de ton grand-père.26 Since there is no direct correspondence between Taiwan and Mainland China at

24红楼梦 (Hongloumeng), Dream of the Red Chamber is one of the most important novels of the Qing Dynasty. The text involves a more generational family story including several love stories and is characterized by the inclusion of diﬀerent kinds of texts like poetry. 25Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur, p. 7. 26Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur, p. 339.

152 5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts that time, the letters go via Canada. Mei-Li soon reveals the true nature of Fan- Fan’s grandfather. Fan-Fan has more questions, and hence Mei-Li starts narrating the story:

— La lettre de ton grand-père. — Maman le savait? — Elle savait seulement qu’elle avait un autre père — son père naturel qu’elle n’a jamais vu et qu’elle rejette toujours. — Pourquoi? — Ça, c’est une très longue histoire. Il faut remonter au jour de mon mariage, il y a soixante-quatre ans. . . 27

These passages are at the very end of the novel, but in order to maintain the chronological order here the very beginning of the novel is quoted.

美丽 La date? C’est drôle mais je ne m’en souviens plus. . . Il y a de cela si longtemps. . . Soixante-quatre ans déjà. . . Et puis, l’ancien calendrier lunaire. . . Mais le printemps devait être avancé, car le jour se levait déjà très tôt et il faisait doux. En tout cas, c’était un jour faste que mon père et mes futurs beaux-parents avaient choisi après s’être penchés des heures sur les pages jaunies d’un gros bouquin poussiéreux.28

In the passages above, expressions like “trés longue histoire” and “il y a de cela si longtemps” emphasize the eﬀort to trace the nostalgic reminiscence back to a faraway time: Her happiness in this “jour faste” attributed to her upcoming wedding is represented in objects from the “old” Chinese culture, for example the decorations of an armchair:

Le fauteuil était fait de bois noir et le vernis était parti aux angles. Son dossier très ﬁnement sculpté représentait un cerf dansant dans les

27Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur, p. 340. 28Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur, p. 9.

153 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions

champs et ses bras, plusieurs chauves-souris en vol. Ah, ces motifs sont signiﬁcatifs comme tu t’en doutes bien: le mot “chauve-souris” (fu) est l’homonyme du mot “bonheur” et le mot “cerf” (lu) est l’homonyme de “carrière brillante”. Ce fauteuil était le siège sacré de mon père pour les cérémonies du Nouvel An. Il l’avait hérité de son père qui l’avait hérité de son grand-père qui l’avait hérité de son arrière-grand-père. Une antiquité, quoi.29

The wooden chair bears both the beauty of an old culture and the weight of family heritage. It represents continuity that the grandmother can only transfer by words to her granddaughter, because the object was lost in the course of time. Another example of the recreation or continuity of tradition and cultural values and the protagonists’ nostalgic longing is demonstrated in the following analysis of a longer passage in La couleur du bonheur. During the Cultural Revolution cultural products were treated with resentment and contempt including literary works such as classical Chinese poetry. Intellectuals including high school teachers took flight from the major cities and sought refuge in rural areas. Nevertheless in the text, the metropolitan area of Guanning is struck by chaos due to the armed conflicts between different groups of Red Guards.30 The group, which includes some of those intellectual fugitives hiding from the terrors of the Cultural Revolution, engages in a talk about classical Chinese literature with the accompanying high- school children. There is a striking discrepancy between the omnipresent threats to the protagonists’ physical and psychological well being and the tranquility and concentration with which they examine the flora of their surroundings and its metaphorical meaning in Chinese poetry. The first two paragraphs of the passage focus on the tangible contrast between the lurking dangers of the Cultural Revolution and a peaceful, calm and natural landscape.

29Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur, 9f. 30“Depuis le début du mois d’avril 1968, les conﬂits entre les diverses factions de gardes rouges devenaient de plus en plus fréquents et violents, les ‘combattants révolutionnaires’ ayant aban- donné leurs armes primitives tels que poings, pieds et bâtons, pour des armes à feu à l’eﬃcacité bien plus redoutable.” Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur, p. 127.

154 5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts

Les rues étaient désertes. L’impression de sommeil profond semblait d’autant plus irréelle que, dès le lever du soleil, la ville se réveillerait dans son cauchemar quotidien: le typhon de la haine ressusciterait et déchaînerait les ﬂammes de la guerre civile chaque jour plus meur- trières. À la sortie de la ville, les trois bicyclettes s’engagèrent sur une route goudronnée de cinq mètres de large, bordée d’une double rangée de jeunes manguiers. Derrière leurs feuilles luisantes de rosée s’étendaient jusqu’à l’horizon des rivières où les plants verts ondoyaient sous le vent léger du matin. Dans ce paysage paisible on avait l’impression d’être à mille lieues du sang et de la mort.31

In the third paragraph, those who for the moment escaped from it all, “the refugees,” sit down near the local university in the shades of a tree and have a picnic with “tasty” homemade snacks,32 in the middle of which, the name of a yellow ﬂowering tree next to them is asked. Neither the children nor the mathe- matics teacher can answer that question. But the Chinese literature professor, the grandmother Mei-Li and her daughter Bai-Lin know it.

— Quel est cet arbre à ﬂeurs jaunes? Demanda Fan-Fan à Oncle Wei assis à côté d’elle. — Je ne sais pas, je n’y connais rien en botanique, répondit oncle Wei. Hé, Vieux Zhong, sais-tu quel est le nom de cet arbre? — On l’appelle “arbre du mal d’amour”. — Joli nom! S’exclama oncle Wei. — Savez-vous pourquoi on l’appelle ainsi? Interrogea le professeur de chinois.

31Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur, p. 130. 32“Les réfugiés s’arrêtèrent à mi-chemin, près de l’entrée de l’université de Guang-Ning, afin de se dégourdir les jambes et de reprendre souffle. Le soleil commençait à taper. Ils s’assirent à l’ombre d’un arbre trapu dont les fleurs dorées riaient parmi de petites feuilles ovales d’un vert frais. Ils buvaient tour à tour à même le bidon, mordaient à belles dents dans des gâteaux ronds préparés par Mei-Li avec de la pâte de riz et du sucre de canne brun, délicatement parfumées par la feuille de bananier qui les enveloppait.” Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur, p. 131.

155 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions

Mei-Li et Bai-Lan échangèrent un sourire. Oncle Wei et les enfants secouèrent la tête.33

In his answer the former Peking University professor refers to a Chinese literature anthology, explains the background story of the plant and later the poem by a Tang Dynasty poet. As soon as he mentions the poem’s title “Le Mal d’amour” by Wang- Wei,34 he is interrupted by the children, who cannot suppress their knowledge, having been taught the poem by their grandmother.

— Connaissez-vous l’Histoire de la poésie des temps anciens aux temps modernes? Non? Alors, selon ce livre, il y a très longtemps un soldat mourut à la guerre loin de son pays natal. Sa jeune femme le pleura tous les jours au pied d’un arbre à petits pois rouges, jusqu’à ce qu’elle mourût de chagrin et d’épuisement. En souvenir de l’amour de la jeune femme pour son mari, on surnomma l’arbre ‘arbre du mal d’amour’. Et les petits pois rouges que donne cet arbre reçurent eux aussi le nom de ‘pois du mal d’amour’. Plus tard, sous la dynastie des Tang, un poète appelé Wang-Wei écrivit un poème, ‘Le Mal d’Amour’. . . — Ah, je connais ce poème, le coupa Ming-Ming. — Je le connais aussi, dit rapidement Fan-Fan, grand-mère nous l’a appris.35

Further explanations regarding the poem are cut oﬀ by the impact of a nearby

33Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur, p. 131.

相思（唐）王維紅豆生南國春來發幾枝勸君多採擷此物最相思

The poem is included in the poetry collection of 300 Tang poems. “One-hearted.”Three Hundred Poems of the T’ang Dynasty. 618 - 906. English transl. v. Chinese text ; a translation with notes and commentary for the study and appreciation of the Chinese poems. Trans. by Witter Bynner. Taipei: W˙en-hsing-shu-tien, 1966, p. 227. A literal translation of the title would be ‘mutual longing’. 35Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur, p. 131.

156 5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts explosion and the “petite band” cycles away.36 As in the example of the wooden chair, Wei-Wei withdraws from the historical reality of the surroundings through the means of nature’s beauty, good food and the heartwarming, educating effects of Classical Chinese literature. Hence in the re-construction of China, Wei-Wei’s protagonists maintain a life- affirming, positive attitude. Although the characters are subjected to a life full of hardship, Wei-Wei never forgets to portray them with dignity and humanity. Her heroines “always” do the right thing; they know how to differentiate between good and evil and make the “right” decision. They do this in accordance with the Confucian or largely Chinese tradition, but are nevertheless modern women in terms of emancipation. As shown in the analysis of the narrative construction of La couleur du bonheur and the two examples, Wei-Wei emphasizes not only on a female perspective but also highlights the value of family, which deserves personal sacrifice, the quality of Chinese food, crafts, art and culture in itself. She contrasts this with the destructiveness of a male-dominated political class, the tussle between an ancient and modern China against personal development and happiness and the above mentioned positively depicted elements of society and culture. Wei-Wei’s choice of setting the novel in southern China, her selection of imaginaries and her narrative style bring her novels close to the nostalgic writings of the 1980s and 90s by Chinese writers like Su Tong and Wang Anyi:

The wave of nostalgia brings new representations of history, making history the “presence in absentia” that emits a ray of hope on the Chinese people’s confused and frenzied frailty. A kind of familiar yet strange representation of history, a long repressed memory emerging from the horizon of history, through the repeated identiﬁcation of contemporary Chinese history, allows people to receive consolation and gain a holistic,

36“— Je m’en doute bien, Fan-Fan, reprit oncle Zhong en faisant un clin d’œil à Mei-Li. C’est grâce à ce poème que l’arbre aux petits pois rouges est devenu le symbole du mal d’amour dans notre littérature et. . . À cet instant, trois explosions de forte puissance ﬁrent tressaillir le sol sous leurs pieds. Une fumée noire s’échappa d’une fenêtre du bâtiment de la chimie qu’on apercevait derrière une haie de ketmies. La petite bande se précipita sur les vélos et se sauva à toutes pédales. Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur, p. 132.

157 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions

imagined picture of modernized China. In this picture, modernization is no longer the miracle of the 1979 reform of an old China in decline but an always integral part of the history of China. The diﬃculty of life is undoubtedly an incontrovertible fact, as is the impossibility of annihilating the pressures of the inner anxieties of reality. Neverthe- less, the mesmerizing allure of the picture is that it rebuilds a kind of imagined link between the individual and society, between history and the present reality, in order to provide a rationale for our contemporary struggle and to impart to us some sense of comfort and stability.37

A critical reading of Wei-Wei’s texts discusses the connections between writing a “saga féministe”,38 i.e. “conveying . . . sordid happenings [in China’s past] with deft yet painterly daubed details”,39 and the possibility of happiness. Here nostalgic representation becomes a substitute for historical consciousness.40

5.1.3 Atrocities and Violence

In contemporary Chinese literature the graphic depiction of violence came to the forefront of story telling.41 Violence and crime have been constant companions to Chinese prose since the Ming Dynasty.42 In the vernacular Chinese writings of that

37Dai J., “Imagined Nostalgia,” p. 219. 38Claire Devarrieux. “Le langage des ﬂeurs.” In: Libération (Apr. 2001). 39Bettina Knapp. “Wei-Wei ‘Fleur de Chine’.” In: World Literature Today 76.1 (Winter 2002), pp. 131–132. 40Cf. Dai J., “Imagined Nostalgia,” particularly p. 209f. 41For further readings on violence and speciﬁc accentuations of it, like cannibalism in Chinese literature: online bibliography by Barend J. ter Haar of the University of Leiden http://website.leidenuniv.nl/ haarbjter/violencetext.htm; Wang, The Monster That is History; and Thilo Diefenbach. Kontexte der Gewalt in moderner chinesischer Literatur. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag, 2004. 42Thomas Zimmer. “Zur Ästhetik von Mord und Gewalt in der chinesischen Literatur. Die Tradition und zwei Beispiel aus der Romankunst der Gegenwart.” In: Zurück zur Freude. Studien zur chinesischen Literatur und Lebenswelt und ihrer Rezeption in Ost und West. Festschrift für Wolfgang Kubin. Ed. by Marc Hermann and Christian Schwermann. Sankt Augustin: Inst. Monumenta Serica, 2007, pp. 353–369, p. 354.

158 5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts time and all through the Qing Dynasty the breach of norms was rather morally than juridically driven:

Die frühe Kriminalliteratur weist aber noch eine andere Besonderheit auf, die wichtig ist für die Darstellungen von Gewalt und Mord in der Moderne: es herrscht in der Regel eine Schuldauﬀassung vor, nach der Schuld weniger als Übertretung von Verhaltensnormen, die durch kodiﬁzierte Gesetze vermittelt sind, verstanden wird, sondern eher als moralische Schuld. Diese wiederum gründet nicht primär in der Tat und in der Handlung des Täters, sondern im durch das Verbrechen sichtbaren Leiden des Opfers.43

The unambiguous painting of guilt and justice is broadened to the polarized de- pictions of the innocent victim, noble prosecutor, the one-dimensional villain and the always-resolved crime. Despite some more crucial examination of traditional Chinese society in itself, the depiction of crime in Chinese novels, following Diefen- bach’s argumentation, was often propelled by and reacted to the surrounding political situation, as for example in the middle of the 19th century when the nationality or ethnicity of the protagonist decided his or her character or during the ﬁrst half of the 20th century where any violent action against “evil” — which depending on the author’s political standpoint could be against warlords, Communists, Nationalists, Japanese or Americans — was justiﬁed. In the late 20th century the horrors of the Cultural Revolution have ruptured the simple relation between power, politics and violence. For many writers of post-78 literature from Mainland China as well as Taiwan the moral framework crumbles away.44

43Zimmer, “Zur Ästhetik von Mord und Gewalt in der chinesischen Literatur,” p. 355. 44This statement clearly takes into account the variety of canons regarding Chinese literature in respect to the literary critics’ point of origin in Greater China and beyond. In her 1983 novel The Butcher’s Wife Li Ang describes the eponymous character’s immanent murder of her husband, while Mo Yan’s The Republic of Wine investigates cannibalism, and the brutality of revolting farmers is delineated in The Garlic Ballads. Cf. Wang, The Monster That is History, p. 9: “The twentieth century saw a China in constant shift among political, historical, and literary entities, each reciting its own self-narrative and pursuing its own idea of (post) modernity. As a result of this historical fragmentation and dispersal, writers have come to interpret the Chinese

159 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions

Violence with all its horror is described in detail and graphically, often as an un- stoppable chain of events that spins into a vicious circle destroying the victim and revealing the unscrupulous actions of the culprit. This brutality can be triggered by an accident but is most of the time due to the circumstances of a hopelessly distorted social and political environment. Frequently used examples for the portrayal of violence in contemporary Chinese literature are the novels and short stories of Yu Hua. The short story “One Kind of Reality” narrates in a matter of fact style the tragic events that happen to an extended family of three generations after a four year old boy accidentally drops his baby cousin and thereby kills him. While terrorizing the infant, the child Pipi imitates his father hitting his mother. He continuously and aggravatingly strikes and throttles the child in order to hear the infant cry. He takes the baby out of the cradle to show him the rain and drops the “slab of meat” without remorse or feelings because the baby was too heavy. Being home alone with only the grandmother present in another room, the baby dies on the floor. After the family finds out, they quarrel, the two brothers Shanfeng and Shangang fight, they settle for a financial compensation and penalize Pipi to lick the baby’s blood from the ground. While doing so Pipi is kicked by Shanfeng and dies. Money as a solution is now out of the question and Shangang decides to take revenge on Shanfeng’s wife. Shanfeng substitutes his wife and is tortured to death with the help of a stray dog. Shangang ties the sitting Shanfeng to a tree and coats his brother’s feet with a savory meat mash, which the dog licks off the feet. The tickling sensation forces Shanfeng to laugh to the extent that he is unable to breath and suffocates after a while. Shangang runs away, but his escape is unsuccessful. He is arrested and publicly executed. His sister-in- law pretends to be his wife at the authorities and Shangang’s body is left for medical use and transplantation. While the family shows no emotional bonds, the state’s representatives treat their “subjects” with contempt and mischief. The lack of compassion, the actions of revenge and retaliation are seemingly driven experience in ways that could never have been marshaled into a stifling unity. While the canon of one community is the taboo of another, apparently antagonistic discourses may share an uncannily similar premise.”

160 5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts emotionlessly. Guilt and its psychological consequences are superseded by the matter-of-course language and the familiarity of the readership with “this kind of violence”.45 This consequently allows the story to be read rather as a journalistic report than a fictitious story: [D]er Autor [Yu Hua] macht klar, daß die Gewalt für ihn eben die entscheidende Kraft der Inspiration zu künstlerischer Kreativität ist und daß der Zivilisation und überhaupt der menschlichen Ordnung nur eine ornamentale Rolle zukommt.46 The description of violence becomes a performative act in the texts. This style and the coolness of the omniscient narrator are mirrored in Luo Lingyuan’s short story collection, Du fliegst jetzt für meinen Sohn aus dem fünften Stock! The stories of Luo Lingyuan, like those of Yu Hua, start with the individual situation of a couple or family. Luo depicts a China where social coherence and responsibility decline together with the most basic human relations. With a “realistic” voice Luo’s narrations focus on the downside of the society and locate her stories in both the center and periphery of today’s China. She mostly delineates violence against the innocent and weak and thereby accuses the individual of loosing humanity and the political system and their representatives of corruption. The eponymous story “Du fliegst jetzt für meinen Sohn aus dem fünften Stock!” (“You Are Going to Fly Out of the Fifth Floor For My Son Now!”) shows the direct impact of the one-child policy in China. In a village Wang Mang, a father of two daughters is visited by Zhao, member of the regional family planning commission. The farmer’s wife is pregnant and hides from the authorities in a secret room inside their house. The husband is threatened with fines and forced abortion even in the later states of pregnancy. Though warned by the village chief, Wang and his family do not go away from the village. Comrade Zhao returns to the village and tears down the house of Wang with his wife, their new-born son and the sick grand-father inside. All of them die. Wang Mang leaves the village and his two

45David Der-Wei Wang. “Chinese Fiction for the Nineties.” In: Running Wild. New Chinese Writers. Ed. by David Der-Wei Wang. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994, pp. 238– 258. especially pp. 243–248. especially 243–248. 46Zimmer, “Zur Ästhetik von Mord und Gewalt in der chinesischen Literatur,” p. 359.

161 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions daughters behind, travels to the city, enters the state building and throws the responsible comrade Zhao as well as two other civil servants out of the window. The interaction between “ordinary people” and authorities is also depicted in Luo’s short story “Das Liebespaar, die Polizisten und der Einbrecherkönig” (“The Lovers, the Policemen and the Burglar-King”). A chance meeting between two students and two policemen with a detained criminal ends with the death of a student and the escape of the captive burglar due to the incompetence and brutality of the law enforcement officers. The story opens with two students Su San and Ma Sai walking along the shores of the West Lake in Hangzhou. Two police officers Kang Zhengqi and Dong Penglin have just arrested the infamous burglar You Long who was violently resisting his detention. The students try to evade a meeting with them and turn around. Getting suspicious by this the policemen immediately start harassing the students. Su is able to run away while her friend is hit and eventually shot to death after the policemen find out that the convict has meanwhile escaped. In the official report it is stated that the student helped the criminal to escape and was killed doing so. As the student’s family and his friend Su file charges against the police officers, nothing happens because the policemen’s testimony cannot be challenged. They approach the press, but only the local paper takes up the story. “Die Behörden reagieren prompt.”47 The editor- in-chief looses his job, and the next day an article emphasizing the diligent and successful work of the police is posted. The mechanisms of the system affect the individual on every level. Luo often focuses in her stories on the patriarchal structure of the Chinese society. In her stories the female gender — usually represented by young girls — is often victimized and powerless. The story “Ein Geburtstags-Ei” (“A Birthday-Egg”) narrates the tale of the seven year old girl Feifei who is beaten to death by her parents. The family originating from Shanghai, continues to lives in the countryside of the province Jiangxi even six years after the Cultural Revolution. The parents are teachers and very proud of their four year old son. Nevertheless, they neglect and abuse

47Luo, Du ﬂiegst, p. 107.

162 5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts their daughter who is consequently physically and psychologically marked. While a neighbor only interferes halfheartedly to interrupt the daily beating of Feifei, the girl befriends the society’s outcast, a homeless woman. Though Feifei maintains the house, she is not allowed to participate in the family meals. One day the mother ﬁnds out that Feifei has blackened the female bodies and stained the male ones in a hidden, blacklisted book on sexuality and as a punishment beats her so severely that the child dies. The cruelty and hopelessness of the girl’s experience of life vibrates in the last two sentences of the short story: “Nun aber liegt sie krumm da, krumm wie ein Tier. Sie wird sich nie wieder ein bemaltes Ei wünschen.”48 In another story, which has already mentioned before, “Ein zarter Bam- busspross" ("A Tender Bamboo Sprout"), the young girl Bai from the countryside wants to visit her aunt in the city. As her aunt is away on holiday, she is dependent on the kindness of strangers. Her naivety is rewarded by her abduction, rape and forced marriage to an older man, who scars her cheek with a knife to mark her as his wife. “Du bist jetzt meine Frau, mein Kätzchen.”49 He does not treat her as a human being but more so as a piece of property, or an animal. Luo obliterates every possibility of a happy life. The “most” uplifting story, “Das ist es doch, was wir wollen” (“Isn’t this what we want”) ends with the disappearance of fear that had pervaded the daily existence of a family threatened from the surroundings. Luo recreates disturbing images in a rather dry and sarcastic tone and leaves the reader with these desperate situations and destroyed lives. She emphasizes that these images and stories are what she brought from China and wants to make available to her German readers.50 The above mentioned features of post-Mao Chinese literature are assembled most prominently in Wei-Wei’s novel, Fleurs du Chine. In episodes focusing on the living conditions in the second half of the twentieth century in China, Wei-Wei recreates a nostalgic ﬂashback. She begins the “root seeking” elements with the

48Luo, Du ﬂiegst, p. 34. 49Luo, Du ﬂiegst, p. 11. 50See chapter 4 for further information on the attitude of Chinese overseas writers towards their texts and German and French readers respectively.

163 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions trail of the Red Guards moving away from the center to the countryside where they were sent during political campaigns. Telling through a first-person narrator about the simple life, the incredible hardships and horrors that women lived through — and thus recalling the so-called “Scar literature” — she does not spare the reader the images and thoughts of suffering and intolerable violence. What cannot be found as a major theme in Chinese migrant writing is the topic of “root seeking” or more so of “Chinese minority literature”. The “root seeking” (xungen) movement is in search for a new Chinese identity different on one hand from the Han majority and on the other hand from the wielders of power in China. Thus the literature takes place in rural China and very often among farmers belonging to a minority. For instance some of the texts already introduced in earlier chapters refer to the Uyghures in Xinjiang, as in Yuan’s Die Tempelglocken von Shanghai, or the Yi as in Dai’s Le complexe de Di. Here the minorities are mostly used as an especially exotic backdrop of a more intact social world or backward customs. A more interesting account of the countryside can be found in Ya Ding’s La jeune fille Tong51 where he mixes the exoticism of a village that is almost impossible to find with popular belief and magic.

5.2 On the Forefront of Chinese Migrant Writing

The texts introduced and reviewed so far mostly consist of novels and to some extent short stories. They follow more or less three schemes: from imitations of already molded paradigms about China (i.e. Occidentalism and Orientalism) to actively promoting the Chinese culture and history as ambassadors (see chapter 4) to partaking in the contemporary topics and styles of mainland China’s literature (i.e. scar literature, idealization and violence). The intention of this sub-chapter is to shortly introduce those Chinese-French and Chinese-German writers who deviate to a smaller or larger degree from those “mainstream” groups. Hence this sub-chapter is dedicated to those writers who choose a diﬀerent genre and individual modes of expression in poetry, theater or radio plays; at the same time they explore diﬀerent topics dissociating themselves

51Ya Ding. La jeune ﬁlle Tong. Paris: Mercure de France, 1994.

164 5.2 On the Forefront of Chinese Migrant Writing not only from exoticism (and to some extent from Orientalism) but also from the three mainstream tendencies just mentioned. These authors are going to be introduced in a chronological order by year of birth and their main works.

5.2.1 Cheng Sheng

Cheng Sheng is the first52 Chinese author to write poems in French, whereby one series was written as sonnets.53 Cheng Sheng (Tcheng Cheng) was born in 1899 and died in 1996. He is known foremost for the two volumes entitled Ma mère and Ma mère et moi.54 Dans ces deux volumes, je fais tout mon possible pour montrer la figure chinoise — telle qu’elle est — à tous les points de vue. Je ne veux ni l’embellir, ni l’enlaidir.55 The two volumes collect autobiographical and historical accounts taking place during the late 19th and early 20th century. His poetry is strongly influenced by modern European literature. It is not without reason that Paul Valéry has written the preface for his book, stating that: “La Chine fort longtemps nous fût une planète séparée. Nous la peuplions d’un peuple de fantaisie, car il n’est rien de plus naturel que de réduire les autres à ce qu’ils offrent de bizarre à nos regards.”56 Moreover his poetry resorts to images used in Asian and European epics and includes political ideas and thoughts of his own time. “Je suis un Chinois eu-

52Chen Jitong (1851-1905), who has written essays in French, was sent to Europe by the Chinese emperor in the late nineteenth century. An older alternative spelling of his name is Tcheng Ki-Tong. For example: Chen Jitong. Les Chinois peints par eux-mêmes. Paris: Calmann- Lévy, 1884; Chen Jitong. Les Parisienne peint par un Chinois. Paris: Charpentier, 1891. 53Cheng Sheng. Poèmes 1966-1979. Castelnau-le-Lez: Climats, 1995. 54Cheng Sheng. Ma mère. With a forew. by Paul Valéry. Vol. 1. Vers l’unité. Paris: Éd. Victor Attinger, 1928. (16 editions in 6 languages, among them English, German, Dutch.) Cheng Sheng. Ma mère et moi à travers la révolution chinoise. Paris: Éd. Victor Attinger, 1929 and together Cheng Sheng. Ma mère et moi à travers la première révolution chinose. Paris: Édition Entent, 1975. 55Cheng Sheng, Ma mère et moi à travers la révolution chinoise, p. 31. 56Paul Valéry. “Préface.” In: Ma mère. Éd. Victor Attinger, 1928, pp. 11–26, p. 12.

165 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions ropéanisé, un Oriental occidentalisé. / Mais je suis opposé à une imitation aveugle et exagérée de l’Europe.”57 His life story resembles these words.

5.2.2 François Cheng

François Cheng (* 1929) was the first Chinese-born intellectual to be elected to the Academie Française in 2002. His achievements belong to the field of Chinese literary studies and in translations from Chinese to French. His own literary works consist of poetry and novels. Among his writings are Le dit de Tianyi58 from 1998 and L’éternité n’est pas trop59 from 2002, both of which were issued by Albin Michel in Paris. Recently a collection of his earlier poetry À l’orient de tout60 was published by Gallimard Paris. He has also published extensively on why he chose to write in French, namely Le Dialogue. Une passion pour la langue française61 and declares: “Je ne crois pas qu’il y ait de différence entre Orient et Occident.”62

5.2.3 Gao Xingjian

Born in 1940 in Ganzhou in the Jiangxi Province, Gao Xingjian spent his youth in Nanjing. He studied French at a Beijing university in the late 50s and worked as a translator. He was sent to the countryside — to the provinces of Jiangxi and Anhui — for reeducation during the Cultural Revolution. He soon resumed his work as a translator and interpreter, which enabled him to travel abroad as soon as 1979. He has translated, among others, Eugène Ionesco and Jacques Prévert into Chinese. Although written earlier he started publishing his literary work in 1980. He then emerged as an eminent ﬁgure of the Beijing theater scene in the

57Cheng Sheng, Ma mère, p. 128. 58François Cheng. Le dit de Tianyi. Paris: Albin Michel, 1998. 59François Cheng. L’éternité n’est pas trop. Paris: Albin Michel, 2002. 60François Cheng. À l’orient de tout. Œuvres poétiques. Paris: Gallimard, 2005. 61Cheng, L’éternité n’est pas trop. 62François Cheng. “Le cas du chinois.” In: Du bilinguisme. Ed. by Bennani et al. Paris: Éditions Denoel, 1985, pp. 227–242, p. 242.

166 5.2 On the Forefront of Chinese Migrant Writing early eighties, gaining a distinct reputation with his first plays, 对信号 (“Signal Alarm”), 车站 (“Bus Stop”) and 野人 (“The Wildman”). His innovative use of the “Theater of the Absurd” created considerable uproar in Beijing and further performances and stagings of his plays were prohibited. Invited by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), he moved to Europe where he earned his living mostly by painting. He kept up writing theater plays and prose texts. While he continues to write in Chinese until today, he also began creating theater plays in French and has published four plays in French so far. In the year 2000, Gao was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his seminal novel 灵山 (“Soul Mountain”) of 1990. He published the novel 一个人的圣经 (“One Man’s Bible”) in 1999 and the short story collection 给我老爷买鱼竿 (“A Fishing Rod for My Grandpa”) in 1989. His writings, including theoretical texts on literature, theater and art were first published in Taiwan and after the award of the Nobel Prize, have been translated into many European and Asian languages. Gao’s first play in French Au bord de la vie was written in March 1991 in Paris and was originally published by Lansman in the Collection Théâtre à Vif in 1993. Quotes used here are taken from the collection of theater plays Gao Xingjian, Théâtre 1 (2000), which includes other pieces written during his early years in France. The play is a monologue with three actors, a woman named ELLE narrating her life in the third-person, a dancer expressing her emotions and feelings, and an actor miming the roles of a man, demon and old man. They are all dressed in black. An excerpt from the stage directions reads as follows:

2. On recherchera une expression moderne de jeu des comédiens qui s’inspirera de la forme traditionnelle de l’opéra chinois. On ne visera pas à représenter la réalité, mais plutôt à souligner la théâtralité. 3. La pièce est à la fois tragédie, comédie et farce, sans exclure l’acrobatie, la danse et la prestidigitation. La pureté de sa forme réside dans la seule narration. 4. La narratrice ne cherchera pas à s’identiﬁer à son rôle.63

63Gao Xingjian. Au bord de la vie. Théâtre à vif. Carnières: Éditions Lansman, 1993, p. 60.

167 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions

The woman narrates a self-deprecating depiction of herself, evoking, for example the question of her own existence:

N’aurait-ELLE jamais vécu? Peut-être n’est-ELLE que l’ombre de quelqu’un d’autre? Son existence aussi serait-elle une illusion? Mais non, ELLE s’en souvient, ELLE a eu une enfance comme tout le monde. Chacun a la sienne: ELLE aussi!64

She hysterically looks back at her love affairs and relationships, her childhood and former happiness. The play ends with questions. First the narrator questions the genre of the play (whether it is a story, fable, comedy or moral lesson, whether it is more prosaic or lyrical) and then moves on to scrutinize its levels of reality (being imaginary while containing notions of wrong and right or being a nightmare or an illusion without reasoning). She continues to challenge the protagonists of the play, including him, her, you, herself or ELLE, the main character. The last question is negated, and no identification with any of the characters is possible. So the questioning goes further to ask about the “soi”, the self being talked about and impossible to locate. The play ends with the following line: “Qu’est-ce que ce soi-disant ‘soi’? Et de tous ces mots, que reste-t-il?”65 The mute old man totters offstage, the woman breathes loudly, secludes herself devoutly and lies down. The play ends with the deafening noise of cars as the blackening stage backdrop swallows the silhouette of the actress. His second play in French Le somnambule was first published in 1995, and is subdivided into three scenes taking place in a train compartment and a nightmare. All of the actors have two different roles in the play; there are no role names, only attributes or types. A “Voyager” turns into the eponymous “Som- nambulist”, a “Bearded Old Man” into the “Homeless person”, a “Young Man” into the “Nighthawk”, a “Young Woman” into the “Prostitute”, a “Sir” into the “Guy”, the “Train Conductor” into the “Man Without A Face”. They change after being checked by the conductor, whereby none of them has a proper ticket. In the following situation where the conducter asks a bearded foreigner for his ticket, the

64Gao, Au bord, p. 70. 65Gao, Au bord, p. 76.

168 5.2 On the Forefront of Chinese Migrant Writing misspellings in the English sentences are from the original text:

Le contrôleur (s’adressant au vieux barbu): Monsieur, votre billet s’il vous plaît. Le vieux (continuant à rouler son tabac, sans lever la tête): Sorry, I have not. Le contrôleur: Vous n’avez pas non plus d’argent, je suppose? Le vieux: No, no money. Le contrôleur: Où êtes-vous monté? Et quelle est votre destination? Le vieux (articulant avec un accent bizarre): Je suis un étranger volontaire. Le contrôleur: Do you speak english? Le vieux: A little. Le contrôleur: Well, where are you going? Le vieux: Maastricht. Le contrôleur: This train don’t go to Maastricht. Do you understand? Le vieux: O.K. Le contrôleur: Do you have a passeport? Le vieux: Yes. (Il fouille ses poches et en sort un passeport) Le contrôleur (regardant le passeport): Vous habitez Paris? Le vieux: My brother lives in Paris. Le contrôleur: Ce n’est pas votre passeport, alors? Le vieux: Why? Le contrôleur: Vous n’avez-vous pas d’adresse permanente? Un domi- cile ﬁxe? Vraiment pas? (Le vieux le regarde sans mot dire. Le contrôleur prend quelques notes et lui rend le passeport.)66

Drifting into the nightmare, the language gets even worse, the absurdity of the diﬀerent excuses for traveling without tickets becomes darker. People talk to each other, the prostitute gets violated, nobody acts, social feelings like empathy are

66Gao Xingjian. Le somnambule. Collection Beaumarchais. Carnières: Éditions Lansman, 1995, p. 6.

169 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions totally neglected and existentialist philosophy is brought to the forefront. Chrono- logical or sequential narration is undone as the actions and plot become reversible e.g. the Prostitute who was violated and died, later reappears alive and well. The following quote illustrates the manner of storytelling and the vocabulary used:

La prostituée: Tu l’as tuée dans ton imagination. Tu t’es joué d’elle et tu as mis fin à sa vie. Les hommes sont comme ça, et tu n’es pas différent des autres. . . . La prostituée: Ta conscience a été étouffée. Il ne te reste que la faiblesse. La faiblesse et la peur, voilà la différence entre toi et eux.67

While clearly rich in traits of absurdity, Gao notes in the stage directions at the end of the play that the play investigating a nightmare is not necessarily absurd but divulging the psychology of reality instead. Thus the actors have to act out their roles naturally (not naturalistically) and keep the two parts separate. The playwright gives further advice regarding the dialogues, the props and the stage, from which the most interesting remark is to be found in the referential frame for the embodiment of a particular role. Here Gao diﬀerentiates between performances in the Chinese and occidental languages.

Dans une mise en scène en langue chinoise, le sans-abri ne devra pas être représenté comme un Dieu ou un clochard, mais plutôt par un personnage à l’image du Maître Ji qui peut servir de référence (bonze magicien dans les légendes populaires de Chine). Le mec sera un chef de bande, le noctambule un gredin. La prostituée ne portera surtout pas la robe chinoise, de même que le mec ne portera pas de cravate. S’il s’agit d’une production dans une langue occidentale, ces contraintes n’existent pas.68

Gao’s latest plays are titled Quatre quatours pour un week-end in 199869 and Le

67Gao, Somnambule, p. 44. 68Gao, Somnambule, p. 58. 69Gao Xingjian. Quatre quatuors pour un week-end. Carnières: Éditions Lansman, 1998.

170 5.2 On the Forefront of Chinese Migrant Writing quêteur de la mort in 2004.70

5.2.4 Ya Ding

Ya Ding (*1956) has worked as a journalist and written several novels. Le sorgho rouge71 can be regarded as his most prominent text and is not to be mixed with Mo Yan’s 红高粱家族, which is translated in English as Red Sorghum. Even though the story of Le sorgho rouge takes place during the Cultural Revolution in rural China and describes the shift in the power relations of a village, the narration does not resort to the simple black-and-white rendition of the characters and story line, but rather includes a sensitive coming of age story and a debate on Catholicism and politics. Ya Ding published further novels such as Héritiers des sept royaumes in 1988,72 Jeu de l’eau et du feu in 1990,73 along with Cercle du petit ciel74 and La jeune ﬁlle Tong in 1994.

5.2.5 Other Authors

Among the youngest generation of authors75 those deserving particular mention include the journalist Shi Ming (*1957), who also publishes radio plays and short stories;76 the author Ling Xi (*1972), who wrote the science-ﬁction story Été

70Gao Xingjian. Le quêteur de la mort. Paris: Seuil, 2004. 71Ya Ding. Le sorgho rouge. Paris: Stock, 1987. 72Ya Ding. Les héritiers des sept royaumes. Paris: Stock, 1988. 73Ya Ding. Le jeu de l’eau et du feu. Paris: Flammarion, 1990. 74Ya Ding. Le Cercle du Petit Ciel. Éditions Denoel, 1992. 75More diﬃcult to ﬁnd are those authors who only publish in larger anthologies, journals and/ or newspapers, (e.g. Jianguang Chen. “Die Strohpuppe.” In: Nationalbibliothek des deutschsprachigen Gedichts. Ausgewählte Werke VI. Munich: Realis, 2003, p. 630). 76Shi Ming. “Das Briefritual.” Erzählung. In: Betreten eines fremden Landes. Schriftsteller im deutschen Exil. Stuttgart: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg, 1998, pp. 19–25; Shi Ming. “Die Trauerrede.” Erzählung. In: Betreten eines fremden Landes. Schrift- steller im deutschen Exil. Stuttgart: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg, 1998, pp. 26–32.

171 5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions strident imagining China in a parallel universe in the future;77 Lin Jun (*1973), who recently published the novel Mein deutscher Geliebter 78 that is one of the ﬁrst to take on the style of Wei Hui’s Shanghai Baby and Mian Mian’s Candy; the Chinese teacher Yujing Kan (1960), who writes primarily in Chinese, with only one collection of poems in German;79 and the literary scholar Xu Pei (*1966) with several poetry collections illustrated i.e. by Georg Baselitz.80

77Ling Xi. Été strident. Arles: Actes Sud, 2006. 78Lin Jun. Mein deutscher Geliebter. Munich: Droemer, 2009. 79Yujing Kan. Vergessen wider. Gedichte. Berlin: BONsai – typART, 1998. 80For example: Xu Pei. Lotosfüße. Gedichte. Düsseldorf: Grupello Verlag, 2001.

172 Conclusion

Chinese migrant literature with its usage of different languages and distinct cultural imaginaries moves between several academic fields. At the same time this kind of literature links those fields together and thus presents new ways of tackling cross-national and cross-cultural literature. The overlapping interest of comparative literature scholars, German or French literature scholars and Chinese studies scholars is inevitable, even if they investigate with different starting points and foci. German migration literature studies and Francophonie studies see Chinese overseas writings as an emerging field within their respective philological spheres. Only a small number of literary scholars from these disciplines highlight the task of this kind of literature to display the Otherness of the author and his or her work regarding the author’s culture and the transportation transmission of images from China. As Véronique Porra among others puts it: “Quand les ‘passeurs de langue’ deviennent ‘passeurs de culture’.”81 The authors and texts are referred to as being simultaneously ’originals’ and ’translations’.82 This describes the paradox of being and writing about “the Chinese” for a French or German audience while using the language and the known images of the host country. The identification and equation of the author with his or her country of origin results in assumptions by

81Porra, “Quand les ‘passeurs de langue’ deviennent ‘passeurs de culture’.” 82“Like Dai Sijie’s Balzac, François Cheng’s novel (Le Dit de Tianyi) deconstructs literary boundaries not only by its mere existence as a French-language novel by a writer of Chinese origin. It also does so as the explicit French-language translation of Chinese-language discourse both oral and written, both ‘original’ and ‘translated,’ in French and other Western literatures.” Karen L. Thornber. “French Discourse in Chinese, in Chinese Discourse in French. Paradoxes of Chinese Francophone Émigré Writing.” In: Contemporary French and Francophone Studies 13.2 (Mar. 2009), pp. 223–232, p. 230.

173 Europe’s New Chinese Literature some editors, journalists and readers that the life reports, novels and short stories can be taken as a truthful reproduction of a real China. The denotation of being authentic, being an original, experienced and educated in China has to be examined carefully by literary scholars. As discussed in this study, the imagined identities are manifold. Chinese studies scholars, however, tend to regard the authors of Chinese origin and their works in a broader perspective. They link these persons and works to the question of Chinese culture, to what belongs to it, and to how this manifests itself. Tu Wei-Ming83 suggests that the creation of a ‘cultural’ China must come to the foreground, from the “periphery” to the “center”, including not only Chinese in China but also Chinese from overseas.

In terms of Chinese societies, the center-periphery distinction suggests that ‘Cultural China’ is to be created by the transformation of the centers of power by intellectuals from the margins with little or no power, as this is the conﬁguration of power that the center-periphery model usually suggest.84

Another common approach by Chinese studies scholars looks at the level of modernization and its impact on Chinese literature. They refer to contemporary Chi- nese literature as being highly cross-cultural,85 and the debate stretches out to the point of how or whether Overseas Chinese literature can be part of the discourse.86

83Tu Wei-Ming. “Cultural China. The Periphery as the Center.” In: Daedalus 120.2 (Spring 1991), pp. 1–32. 84Dirlik, “Chinese History and the Question of Orientalism,” p. 115. 85“‘Diasporic Chinese’, to the extent that they are successful in a global economy or culture, then become the agents for changing China. . . . the assertion of ‘Chineseness’ against this un- certainty seeks to contain the very dispersal of a so-called ‘Chinese culture’ into numerous local cultures which more than ever makes it impossible to deﬁne a Chinese national culture. This strategy of containment is the other side of the coin to the pursuit of a ‘Chinese’ identity in a global culture.” Dirlik, “Chinese History and the Question of Orientalism,” p. 116. 86“The works (a ﬁlm, a work of plastic art and an essay) are thus ‘Chinese’ not just because they are by Chinese artists and writers and ‘from China’ but because they also bear witness to cultural and intellectual imaginations both by the Chinese themselves and about China in an era of

174 Conclusion

Wang Gungwu distinguishes Chinese authors who are living in or outside China, but by this he means living and writing in or outside the Chinese culture, not writing in Chinese or another language. He describes the multilingual situation in South East Asia, with literature written for example in Malay or Indonesian besides Chinese, and adds to his description the bilingual situation in North America with Chinese and English.87 In contrast to this statement, Chen Xiaomei draws the line along the language choice, whereby only texts in Chinese are included: . . . these stories were written in the Chinese language – some by overseas students themselves – for an audience at home who shared their vision of a troubled and yet hopeful China. Situated in the native circumstances, these narratives provide a dialogic space that transforms geographic regions into diverse cultural conceptions of the Self and Other. As these authors search for their own identities in a cross- cultural context, they inevitably express their own subjectivities – either in terms of ‘Chinese’ or ‘non-Chinese’ or everything else in between – against multifaceted nationalist and imperialist backgrounds.88 These thoughts by Chinese studies scholars on whether Chinese Overseas literature belongs to Chinese literature, even if it is written in a language other than Chinese, mostly regard works written in English. This thesis is the first comprehensive attempt to bring together the multitude of authors that have the Chinese language and origin in common but choose to write in a different language, as shown here in the case of German and French. As elucidated in the first two chapters, the field of Chinese Overseas writers writing either in French or German has only marginally been explored. Regarding border-crossing. They constitute, in that sense, part and parcel of an interactive reconstruction of the meaning of ‘Chineseness’ in our time.” Wen-hsin Yeh. Cross-Cultural Readings of Chinesness. Naratives, Images and Interpretations of the 1990s. Institute of East Asian Studies, 2000, p. 1. 87Wang Gungwu. “Within and Without. Chinese Writers Overseas.” In: Journal of Chinese Overseas 1.1 (2005). Ed. by Chin-Keong Ng and Tan, Chee Beng. url: http://muse.jhu. edu/journals/journal_of_chinese_overseas/v001/1.1ng.html. 88Cf. Especially the chapter: “China Writes Back. Reading Stories of the Chinese Diaspora”. X., Occidentalism, pp. 139–176, p. 129.

175 Europe’s New Chinese Literature

Chinese Studies, German Studies, French Studies and Comparative Literature only a few, very short, incomplete surveys were conducted and only prominent figures like Gao Xingjian (after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature) and François Cheng have received some attention form the scholarly world. We are now entering into a phase when a new interest is emerging, particularly in the French context as revealed by/ and manifesting itself in occasional, short publications. Being classified to a larger extent by critics and readers as being part of a cultural China and with their origin authorizing them to give an authentic testimony of what is Chinese, the authors adopt different strategies to either fulfill these assumptions or get rid of the imposed perception as “the Chinese”. Chapter 3 has shown that the imaginaries of China created in the 19th century by foreign thinkers and authors influenced the writings of Chinese intellectuals back then. The “Western” point of view has been adopted by Chinese intellectuals and can be found almost unchanged today in some of the works of Chinese Overseas authors in French and German. The persistent strength of Orientalism and its fascination found in the books still reveals a degrading view of the Chinese protagonists familiar with Western values and techniques vis-à-vis the “uncivilized” Chinese in the texts. This parallels, for example, the main protagonist Kin-Fo in Jules Verne’s novel Les tribulations d’un chinois en Chine, as the educated, civilized Chinese who escapes superstition and the pressures of tradition. Likewise the main protagonists of Dai Sijie’s novel Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise are urbanized people familiar with Western culture and thus superior to the country folks. The other side of this discursive strategy to implement Western thoughts and literary trends is the idealization and re-evaluation of Western thoughts and ways of life. The texts mirror with this the recreation of both an Occident and an Orient as fictive places and its people as described by Said in his seminal work, Orientalism. The Occidentalism displayed in the texts oscillates between the Westerner aware of and familiar with the Chinese language, traditions and history and the totally ignorant Westerner; but in the end both kinds of people can never truly understand and connect to a Chinese person as shown in several, unhappy love stories like Shen Dali’s Les amoureux du lac, Shan Sa’s Les Conspirateurs and Luo Lingyuan’s Die chinesische Delegation. It is acknowledged as a fact that the Westerner can never

176 Conclusion overcome his or her individualism and thus cannot establish a close relationship with a Chinese person. This literature reproduces for the intended reader an already known imaginary and by doing so reinforces an exoticised vision of a ﬁctive China. Chapter 4 demonstrates a more explanatory approach of migrant Chinese literature towards transporting and transmitting what China and being Chinese means in the recent past and today. The authors and their texts "function as cultural ambassadors". This label is either self-ascribed or assigned by the publishers and critics. The writers’ origin grants authenticity. Working as cultural ambassadors with the impetus to give an accurate and unbiased view on China, both authors and texts claim to operate as mediators between the two cultures. They are able to describe what is distinctive about Chinese culture and how it is generally apart from Western culture. The “ordinary reader’s” assumed knowledge on China is rather little. The units of explanation are structured in a simple manner. The textual units mentioning Chinese expressions referring to a person, place, historical event or food are closely followed by an explanation. This can happen, as demonstrated before, on diﬀerent levels, ranging from footnote annotations to a subsequent sentence that takes up the expression, as in the following explication for “kang”: “Je berce le petit frère sur le kang, grand lit en adobes, en regardant maman repriser un pantalon de papa.”89 In many other texts, objects, places and historical events are broken down to little pieces and explained one by one, using either the German/ French equivalent or describing the content at length. These explanations are rather exact. However when it comes to more complicated issues, they simplify and do not presuppose any knowledge on Chinese geography, society, culture and history. This clearly shows that the anticipated “European” reader for the authors is supposedly ignorant of any facts regarding China besides the media-mediated images that are either exoticized and or rather bleak or optimistic stereotypical descriptions of everyday China. The examination of everyday China as a topic is also to be found within the next group of texts described in this thesis. Certain parts of society and its actions

89Wei-Wei, Fleurs de Chine, p. 9.

177 Europe’s New Chinese Literature are examined carefully and brought to the attention of the reader. A large number of authors focus on the Cultural Revolution and with this topic, highlight the consequences and psychological and physical damages caused by the movement: the recovery from it is found in the “Scar literature”, the romanticizing view of nostalgic recollections and the drastic turn to violence as a symptom of the disso- lution of societal and human bonds. These three tendencies can be identified in certain German- and French-language texts by Overseas Chinese in general and predominantly in the literary production of authors from Greater China. In the case of many other writers living in Germany and France, the presence of these topics is due to the fact that these authors had been marked by the political movements of the second half of the twentieth century, especially the Cultural Revolution, before they decided to leave for Europe. It is important to point out that the authors differ from those introduced in chapter five in the sense that these writers analyzed under the topic “Adopting the mainstream concepts”, do not intended to transmit and explain anything to an audience unfamiliar with Chinese culture and history but try to come to terms with China and understand it. One group of authors portrayed in this thesis does not correspond to any of the typological groups presented before. They do not consciously form a group since each of them follow individual interests both vis-à-vis topics and styles. They can be defined as ‘renegades’ in the sense that many of them are not interested in writing about China and those who still are adopt a very different way of dealing with it and the notion of being Chinese in comparison to other authors. They chose to do so in many different genres, whereas the authors introduced before mainly write prose. One of the differences is that these ‘renegades’ often focus on other time periods and incidents in Chinese history. For example, François Cheng writes about the Ming-Dynasty while most of Gao Xingjian’s plays written in French do not make use of any historic-deictic setting, and this is also the case for Xu Pei’s poetry. While Ya Ding writes about rural places with a strong tendency to add religious aspects and/ or magic to his stories, Ling Xi’s writings transcend into the genre of science-fiction. Cheng Sheng is the earliest representative of the Francophone authors, and has written about the Chinese struggle for unity in the early 20th century and later, poetry. Shi Ming and Yujing Kan negotiate, in their

178 Conclusion short stories and poems respectively, the conditions of being abroad and are two of the surprisingly few authors that deal with homesickness, which is a recurrent topic for example in the 1980s German-Italian and German-Turkish migrant writings. Overseas Chinese writers, even though they switch language, are included by Chinese studies scholars in the discourse of what modernity, post-modernity and Chineseness mean. On one hand the writers themselves claim to be part of “Chi- nese” literature and consequently participate in the construction of “Chineseness,” but on the other hand, from the perspective of reception, literary scholars, cultural studies professors, philosophers, social scientists, critics and journalists instrumen- talize the authors as being “culturally Chinese” even though they live abroad and write in languages other than Chinese. Another approach, again from the side of both authors and scholars, is the following: Some writers reject any kind of cultural aﬃliation towards China, and academia in Chinese studies inside and outside of China completely neglects those authors because they use a diﬀerent language, because they do not write in Chinese or English. Research on Overseas Chinese authors who have chosen French and German as their mode of expression shows the challenges and new tasks of Comparative literature today. The question of what kind of academic discipline feels responsible for a writer like François Cheng or Luo Lingyuan seems irrelevant because their works can neither be regarded as only French, German or Chinese, nor can this literature be analyzed and understood from one side only. Literature at the turn of the 21st century proves to be global in one respect and very local in the Other.

179

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