Peer Gynt, Ah Q and the Loss of Self

1 Peer Gynt, Ah Q and the Loss of Self Chengzhou He, Nanjing University Peer Gynt in China Peer Gynt is one of the few Ibsen characters that have anything to do with China. He trades with China through exporting heathen images. When Ibsen was introduced to China in the beginning of the 20th century, his modern realistic plays, especially A Doll’s House, were most influential.1 His early verse dramas were largely ignored in China. Nevertheless, Peer Gynt caught the attention of some critics. To celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Ibsen’s birth, Yuan Zhenying, one of the most enthusiastic advocates of Ibsen in China at that time, wrote an article “Boergen (Peer Gynt) de Piping” (About Peer Gynt), in which he analysed Peer Gynt in contrast to Brand. Prais ing Brand as a strict moralist; he condemned Peer as “a daydreamer, a pleasure -seeker, and above all, a compromiser.” (Yuan 1928: 25). Peer Gynt was translated to Chinese for the first time in 1978. The first Chinese production of Peer Gynt took place in B eijing in 1983. Lun Xun and Ibsen Lu Xun, who wrote Ah Q Zhengchuan (The True Story of Ah Q) in 1921, is one of the great Chinese writers of the 20th century. He was the first Chinese to introduce Ibsen to China. In 1907, in the journal Henan (Nos. 2, 3 and 7), Lu Xun published two articles: “Wenhua Pianzhi Lun” (On Extremities of Culture) and “Moluo Shi Lishuo” (On the Power of Mara Poetry). In his articles, Lu Xun praised Ibsen for the exposure of social problems and for his dramatic realism. During the May 4 period, Lu Xun said: ”Rather than worship Confucius and Guan Gong (a well-known general from the period of Three Kingdoms) one should worship Darwin and Ibsen.”2 In 1923, Lu Xun delivered a lecture “Nala Zouhou Zenyang?” (What happens after Nora le aves home?), which aroused repeated vigorous discussions on Nora, Ibsen and Chinese feminism in the 1920s and 30s. In 1925, Lu Xun wrote a short story “Shang Shi” (Regret for the Past) to parody Nora’s decision of leaving home. Ibsen and Nora are directly referred to in the story. Following Nora’s footstep, the heroine Zijun leaves home. Echoing Nora’s claim that “I’m first and foremost a human being”, Zijun speaks, ”I am my own, no one has the right to interfere in my business” (Translation mine. Lu 1973: 278). Zijun gets married to the man she chooses for herself. But they fail to make a living on their own. In the end, Zijun has to return home to her parents and dies thereafter. Through this story, Lu Xun wanted to convey the message to his readers that women should first have economic independence in order to win freedom. In 1928, to mark the 100th anniversary of Ibsen’s birth, Lu Xun edited a group of articles, mainly translations, in his journal “Bengliu” (Running Water). 3 In contrast to his repeated discussions of Nora and Dr. Stockman, Lu Xun mentioned 2 Peer Gynt only once, in his essay Ah Jin 4, which however was published after he wrote The True Story of Ah Q (1921). Thus, it is difficult to know how much Lu Xun knew about Peer Gynt when he was workin g on The True Story of Ah Q. Given his enthusiasm for Ibsen, he might have read Peer Gynt and might have been impressed by it at the time he wrote The True Story of Ah Q. Whether or not he had read Peer Gynt prior to working Ah Q, nevertheless the intertextual relationships between the two are still worth our attention. An Introduction to Ah Q Ah Q has been frequently compared to Don Quixote, as has Peer Gynt. A comparison between Ah Q and Peer Gynt has, however, never been developed, except for one brief comment by Xiao Qian, who translated Peer Gynt to Chinese. In the preface to his translation, Xiao Qian said, “Some critics (such as Bjornson) think Peer Gynt was written primarily for the purpose of satirising, attacking the negative elements of the Norwegian national character, such as selfishness, irresponsibility, self-righteousness, indulged in illusion. In this sense, Peer Gynt is the Norwegian Ah Q” (Translation mine. Xiao, 1981: 75). Who is this Ah Q? The following is a brief synopsis of the story. In the village called Wei, Ah Q, having no home, lives in a temple and works for people as a day laborer. His personality is described, in a very sarcastic tone , as thoughtless and short-tempered. Ah Q is frequently humiliated by the villagers, but he somehow succeeds in transforming each humiliating experience into a victorious event in his own mind, and therefore is content. For instance, when he is beaten, he assuages his indignation by slapping his own face, thereby convincing himself that he has avenged on those who bullied him. One day, without giving any thought to the consequences, he carelessly asks Wu-Ma, a servant at the richest home in the village, to sleep with him. Consequently, the whole village avoids him, and he is unable to find any work. Running out of money, out of food, out of anything to pawn, he goes to the city to make money. In the city, the democratic revolution is under way. Taking advantage of the chaotic situation, Ah Q manages to “earn” some money. After coming back to the Wei village, Ah Q resorts to the power of the word “revolution” to scare people and gain his fame. Ah Q knows nothing of the revolution, but pretends to be a member of the army. It happens that some thieves had robbed the rich families under the guise of the revolution. The city authorities, having tried in vain to arrest the robbers, finds Ah Q to be a ready representative of the robbers. Without even knowing why he has been arrested, Ah Q ends up losing his life by being decapitated. Ah Q Zhengchuan is Lu Xun's most celebrated story. It depicts an ignorant farm laborer, an everyman, who experiences, with an utter lack of self-awareness, a series of humiliations and who is finally executed during the chaos of the Republican revolution of 1911. Ah Q is conside red the personification of the negative traits of the Chinese national character. The term Ah Quism was coined to signify the Chinese penchant for calling defeat a “spiritual victory.” But Ah Q is not an altogether a bad 3 character. He has the peasant ’s simplicity. While revealing Ah Q’s weakness of will, the author also shows his deep sympathy for his character. Ah Quism versus the Gyntian While Ah Q’s so-called “spiritual victory” depicts one thoroughly negative aspect of “guo min xing” (Chinese national character), Gyntian escapism is said to “a general malaise of modern Western man”. Ah Q is the Chinese counterpart of Peer Gynt in that they both represent the negative character traits in the author himself and of the nation as a whole (Ibsen said that Peer Gynt was himself as the lowest moment). Together, they serve to illuminate common weaknesses of humanity. A further study of the two reveals that they bear resemblance to each other in many different ways. Beginning with a comparison of their physical likenesses, this paper will go on to develop affinities in their spiritual states. Peasant images As bankrupt peasants, Ah Q and Peer both look rather shabby. Each spends most of his time wandering in and around the village, although unlike Ah Q, Peer ha s a residence, with his mother. Peer and his mother are, according to John Northam, less than peasants, because they are unable to make a living out of the land. They become outsiders in their native village (Northam vii). Ah Q is in a similar, though even worse, situation. Owning no land, he lives on small odd jobs. Despised by their fellow villagers, Peer and Ah Q take pleasure in talking big and become in turn the laughing stock for the locals. “There’s always the laughing behind your back/and whispers that feel like they’re burning right through you,” says Peer (18). 5 Humiliated and disillusioned in the reality, they both indulge themselves in their dreams and seek comfort in their fantasies. When Ah Q was beaten, he would not admit it. Soon he would ima gine that it was not he, but someone else, who was beaten. The same thing occurred with Peer. He had a fight with the blacksmith of the village and was beaten by him. But in his account of that fight to his mother, he made himself the stronger, boasting how he beat the blacksmith. The way Ah Q and Peer Gynt deal with “humiliation and defeat’ seems universal. These two downtrodden losers, however, have the boldest dreams --Both dream to be emperors. “A recurrent feature in Peer ’s wishful thinking is the dream of one day becoming an emperor”, says Asbjorn Aarseth (279). For both Ah Q and Peer, dreams are their defensive shields against the intrusion of real life. Lack of principle Neither Peer nor Ah Q is able to think independently or to stick to moral values. Peer Gynt is compromiser. “It’s said, it’s true, man is no more than dust. Besides, one can always, as usual, adjust”, says Peer (45). In order to marry the daughter of the Dovre-king and get half of his “kingdom”, he agrees to have a tail installed on his backside.

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