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Revolution and Its Narratives Revolution and Its Narratives CAI XIANG Revolution and Its Narratives China’s Socialist Literary and Cultural Imaginaries, 1949– 1966 edited and translated by Rebecca E. Karl and Xueping Zhong Duke University Press Durham and London 2016 © 2016 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ∞ Typeset in Arno Pro by Graphic Composition, Inc., Athens, GA Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data Cai, Xiang, [date] author. [880-01 Ge ming/ xu shu. English] Revolution and its narratives : China’s socialist literary and cultural imaginaries, 1949– 1966 / Cai Xiang ; edited and translated by Rebecca E. Karl and Xueping Zhong. pages cm “The Chinese edition was originally published by Peking University Press in 2010. This translation is published by arrangement with Peking University Press, Beijing, China.” Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-8223-6054-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) isbn 978-0-8223-6069-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn 978-0-8223-7461-9 (e- book) 1. Chinese literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Politics and culture—China. 3. Socialism in literature. I. Karl, Rebecca E., translator. II. Zhong, Xueping, [date] translator. III. Title. pl2303.c27913 2016 895.109'0051—dc23 2015029175 本作品原由北京大学出版社于2010 年出版。 英文翻译版经北京大学出版社授权于全球市场独家出版发行。 保留一切权利。未经书面许可，任何人不得复制、发行。 The Chinese edition was originally published by Peking University Press in 2010. This translation is published by arrangement with Peking University Press, Beijing, China. All rights reserved. No reproduction and distribution without permission. Cover texture: maxim ibragimov / Alamy. CONTENTS vii A Note on the Translation ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction to the English Translation Rebecca E. Karl and Xueping Zhong 1 Introduction Literature and Revolutionary China 27 Chapter 1 The National/ The Local: Conflict, Negotiation, and Capitulation in the Revolutionary Imagination 85 Chapter 2 The Mobilization Structure: The Masses, Cadres, and Intellectuals 145 Chapter 3 Youth, Love, “Natural Rights,” and Sex 189 Chapter 4 Renarrating the History of the Revolution: From Hero to Legend 251 Chapter 5 Narratives of Labor or Labor Utopias 307 Chapter 6 Technological Revolution and Narratives of Working- Class Subjectivity 357 Chapter 7 Cultural Politics, or Political Cultural Conflicts, in the 1960s 403 Conclusion The Crisis of Socialism and Efforts to Overcome It 433 Bibliography 447 Index A NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION Several issues that have occupied us during the translation process should be noted. First, because of the length of the book in Chinese and some of its discursive tangents, we have trimmed and edited passages, sections, and dis- cussions that seemed to us either too wordy or too specialized for the type of book we hope this to be in English. The outside readers for Duke University Press also urged us to trim passages cited from various literary texts. We have done as much pruning as we thought we could without depriving Cai Xiang’s book of its flavor and textual richness. Those capable of reading Chinese will probably want to consult Cai’s original alongside our translation. In the inter- est of readability and accessibility, we have not indicated in the text where we edited. Cai gave us total freedom to make these choices, and we took him at his word. No thematic material has been eliminated; what we have trimmed are repetitions and discussions of intricate plotpoints in and/or digressions about literary works that were not directly related to the discussion at hand. Some of this material has been summarized so as to provide appropriate segues, some has been paraphrased, and some simply has been eliminated. Second, we have provided some assistance in the form of annotations for readers who may not be familiar with Chinese history, literature, or the mul- tiple debates about them. Wherever in the text we deemed it necessary, we have added notes, with the notation “Tr.” indicating our additions. So as not to add to the bulk of the book, we have kept these to a minimum. We have also trimmed Cai’s notes, for the most part retaining only the information required for scholarly accountability. We would also like to mention here that a good number of the Chinese- language sources cited in Cai’s book were missing page numbers. Where possible, we have tracked those down; many have been elusive. We have indicated in relevant places where we do not have proper pagination. In addition, Romanization systems for Chinese changed in the 1970s; for English- language translations, we cite in the system used at the time of the translation. Third, again for the most part, we have not retranslated from Chinese back into English those passages that were originally written in English; nor have we retranslated other works whose original languages were not English, but which have already been translated into English. To the best of our ability, we have tracked down the existing English and dropped that into the text instead, with proper citation to the English- language versions. The Chinese versions are not cited in translation, unless we have been unable to find the existing En- glish. We thank Xu Daoheng and Chen Xi for doing the bulk of that tedious but necessary work, as noted in the acknowledgments. Fourth, we have tracked down and dropped into the text as needed cita- tions from those originally cited works of fiction that have been translated into and published in English; these mostly include the Chinese novels of the 1950s. All other translations of Chinese works are our own. The translators have each gone over all the chapters, in Chinese and in English, to ensure accuracy and unity in usage. All errors and translational choices are of course ours, and we take full responsibility for them. viii | A NOTE ON the TRANSLATION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The translators thank Cai Xiang for being such a wonderful interlocutor and such a hands- off but helpful author through the translation process. We have talked much, eaten well, and drunk quantities of good tea together in the sev- eral years during which this project has come to fruition. Xueping and Rebecca also have each other to thank for an entirely enjoyable collaboration. The trust we all three had among ourselves made our endeavor one of comradely en- thusiasms and learning experiences. The translators are most grateful to Adrian Thieret for translating part of the conclusion for two different publications. We have completed the translation. As it appears in this volume, it is substantially different from its previously published form. We would like to note here, however, its previous incarna- tions: “The Crisis of Socialism and Efforts to Overcome It,” inCulture and Social Transformation: Theoretical Framework and Chinese Context, edited by Cao, Zhong, Liao, Wang (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 241– 62; and with the same title in Debating the Socialist Legacy and Capitalist Globalization in China, edited by Zhong and Wang (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 85– 108. We also are extremely grateful to Chen Xi at the University of Toronto and Xu Daoheng at Shanghai University for their editorial assistance. They tracked down cita- tions, page numbers, and passages from English-language originals, essential labor that can be tedious but quite necessary to the process of producing a translated manuscript. Their seriousness of purpose and careful work made the preparation of this text less painful than it otherwise might have been. In addition, Lorraine Chi- man Wong from the University of Otago put in a number of weeks of work to help prepare the manuscript for submission for publication; and Mengran Xu, a graduate student in the History Department at New York University, compiled the bibliography. Zhu Qian did the index. Thank you! Wang Ban andtwo anonymous readers for Duke University Press were helpful, appropriately critical, and careful in their reviews. We are grateful for their exemplary work. Ken Wissoker has demonstrated again that he is a most congenial and sup- portive editor, and we appreciate the entire crew at Duke University Press, a group that is as good as one can find and might hope for. The creative energy and intellectual acumen they all brought to this project have made it a plea- sure to work with them. We want particularly to thank our copyeditor, Jeanne Ferris, whose painstaking work saved us from a number of inconsistencies and blunders. We would like to add our appreciation for the cooperation dem- onstrated by Peking University Press, the original publishers of Cai Xiang’s book in Chinese, who provided speedy permission for the book’s translation and assisted us as needed. Finally, Xueping would like to thank the Faculty Research Awards Com- mittee at Tufts University for a timely financial contribution, and Rebecca would like to thank Tom Carew, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Joy Connolly, dean of humanities, at New York University for their matching contribution. These combined funds helped us hire the assistants mentioned above, whose work was so essential to the manuscript’s preparation. We are deeply appreciative. x | ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION Rebecca E. Karl and Xueping Zhong In 2010, Cai Xiang’s Revolution and Its Narratives [Geming/ Xushu] was pub- lished in China.1 It immediately garnered positive reviews (as well as a few po- litically motivated attacks) and became one of the most talked about schol- arly books of the year. Roundtables were organized to discuss its challenges to convential scholarship and workshops convened to explore its many strands of inquiry. The translators decided soon after that this was precisely the kind of book that is still quite rare in English-language scholarship on modern so- cialist Chinese literature. Its major topic—the relationship among Chinese narratives of revolution, modernity, and socialism in the Maoist period— generally has been dismissed in English-language studies of modern Chinese literature.
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