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China's Ethnic Frontiers in the Literary HARMONY & HETEROTOPIAS: CHINA’S ETHNIC FRONTIERS IN THE LITERARY IMAGINATION by YUQING YANG A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2013 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Yuqing Yang Title: Harmony & Heterotopias: China’s Ethnic Frontiers in the Literary Imagination This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures by: Alison Groppe Chairperson Maram Epstein Core Member Tze-Lan Sang Core Member Ina Asim Institutional Representative and Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research and Innovation; Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2013 ii © 2013 Yuqing Yang iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Yuqing Yang Doctor of Philosophy Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures June 2013 Title: Harmony & Heterotopias: China’s Ethnic Frontiers in the Literary Imagination My dissertation looks at the depiction of China’s ethnic frontiers in contemporary Chinese literature in order to examine a range of responses to the state-envisioned ideals of Harmony propagated throughout PRC history. The Confucian texts of Datong, or Great Harmony, are embedded in Maoist utopian visions for moulding the natural and human worlds in anticipation of socialist modernity; the contemporary revival of the Datong ideal expresses China’s desire to build a harmonious (hexie) society in the 21st century. In the world of fiction, China’s borderlands, home to ethnic minorities, are often conceived of as idyllic lands brimming with the type of harmony that is absent in the imperfect actuality of the political center. These depictions have emerged as either direct reactions to grand narratives of progress or as continued attempts to create an audience that grows attentive to the alternative models of a good society inherited from and preserved by the traditions of minorities. I borrow Foucault’s concept of “heterotopia” to analyze literary fantasies surrounding three minority regions — the wilderness of the Inner Mongolian steppe as the cradle of the wolf totem, the Tibetan areas associated with iv mythical Shangri-La, and the homeland of the matrilineal Mosuo, known as the Country of Women, in Southwest China. My dissertation formulates and develops the thesis that the featured writers set heterotopias at the geographical and social periphery in order to imagine and reconfigure China’s road to modernity in a fashion that paradoxically challenges and enriches the official discourse of utopianism. They withdraw from the grand schemes of Harmony by creating their own utopian visions. In the meantime, their quest for a spiritual asylum unveils the historical impact of socialist campaigns on minority regions and people. The textual construction of the three different minority areas both capitalizes on and revolutionizes the stereotypical image that has presented such places as backward and primitive. Instead, the texts my dissertation analyses offer a fantasy about how minority places deliver the spiritual, ecological, and gender-based harmony that complements and perhaps even surpasses the dominant political narrative, when describing the ideal interaction between individuals, society, and nature. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Yuqing Yang GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Nankai University, Tianjin, China DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, 2013, University of Oregon Master of Arts, 2008, University of Oregon Bachelor of Economics, 2000, Nankai University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature Ecocriticism PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, Asian Studies Program, University of Oregon, 2007-2008. Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Oregon, 2008-2013. Instructor, Chinese Flagship Program, University of Oregon, 2013. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I wish to express my appreciation to my committee for giving me freedom to pursue my research interests in China’s ethnic minorities. I am sincerely grateful to my chair, Professor Alison Groppe, for her persistent support. Her perceptive and thoughtful suggestions have had immediate and positive effects on many important details of my work. It is with great gratitude that I acknowledge the help of Professor Maram Epstein whose advice has shaped my dissertation into a meaningful form and thus made my writing a fulfilling journey. The graduate students in our department are lucky to have her, a sensible and critical reader who is always there for us. I owe my deep gratitude to Professor Ina Asim for introducing me to the world of academic research when I started as an ignorant master’s degree student years ago. Her patient mentoring, selfless guidance, and warm encouragement allowed me to build up my confidence in the path that I chose. It has also been an honor to have Professor Tze-Lan Sang in my committee, since her expertise and intelligence are valuable resources that I could count on to enhance my dissertation. Moreover, I share the credits of my work with Katherine Thompson whose insightful comments on various versions of my chapters have brought to my attention numerous issues that have sharpened the focus and accuracy of my writing. I am thankful to my friends and classmates in Eugene since their friendship has given me inspiration and impetus to work. Last but not least, I am indebted to my grandparents and parents for their unconditional love and understanding of a granddaughter and daughter who has vii been absent in their lives for long years without fulfilling her filial duty. This dissertation would also have been impossible without the support of my husband and the immense happiness that my son has brought into my life. viii To my parents ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 1．China’s Aspiration for Great Harmony............................................................ 3 2．Conceiving an Alternative Space Brimming with Harmony ........................... 14 3．Defining Heterotopia ....................................................................................... 20 4．Chapter Outline ................................................................................................ 24 II. WOLF TOTEM: A NATURE FAKER’S VISION OF HARMONY ...................... 32 1. The Vulnerable Eco-Harmony of the Grassland .............................................. 36 2. The Wolf Totem: A Constructed Philosophy .................................................. 48 3. The Indictment of a Nature Faker .................................................................... 70 4. An Unbalanced Harmony ................................................................................ 93 III. IN SEARCH OF FAITH: THE INDIGENIZATION OF THE SHANGRI-LA AND SHAMBHALA MYTHS.................................................................... 110 1. The Localization of Shangri-La ....................................................................... 114 2. Lost on the Way to Shambhala: “Tibet, a Soul Knotted on a Leather Thong” ............................................... 139 3. Full-Fledged Shambhala – The Tibet Code ..................................................... 161 x Chapter Page IV. LEAVING “THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN:” A REMOTE EDEN .................... 202 1. From “Representational Violence” to the Construction of a Harmonious Mosuo Land ................................................................................................. 206 2. Unrequited Love for the Remote Country of Women ..................................... 223 3. The Controversial Writing Career of a Mosuo Woman ................................... 259 V. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 293 REFERENCES CITED ................................................................................................ 297 xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The imagination of China’s Ethnic Frontiers in Contemporary Chinese literature constitutes an act that is loaded with the burden of political imperatives and utopian impulses. The history of the PRC is littered with cautionary examples of how the state’s utopian movements almost always draw to dystopian conclusions. The repercussions of totalitarian visions of utopia imbue intellectuals with desires to conceive of a different kind of world. China’s frontier land, home to ethnic minorities, is frequently the imaginative grounds of choice; it is a site where Chinese intellectuals reflect on and contest the grand narratives of utopia, drawing on fantasized images of the other to lament the failure of state-envisioned means of achieving a harmonious future. My dissertation concentrates on the literary imagination surrounding three specific minority regions in China’s borderlands — the wilderness of the Inner Mongolian steppe as the cradle of the wolf totem, the Tibetan areas associated with mythical Shangri-La, and the homeland of the matrilineal Mosuo, known as the Country of Women, in Southwest China.1 Products of a fascination with alternative social and/or natural
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