Manifesting Reality in the Context of China's Cross-Cultural Encounter with Realism

王守仁 刘洋

Abstract：Chinese realist literature is both a product of cross-cultural translations and transaction，and of continued efforts by Chinese writers to find indigenous ways to write about reality．On the one hand，China's encounter with realism and its variations，socialist realism and Magical Realism，facilitates transformations and self-rejuvenation in response to foreign stimuli．On the other hand，Chinese realist literature is historically embedded in the course of China's pursuit of modernization in the past two centuries．Literary realism in China is conceived as manifestation of certain reality which amounts to underlying pattern or inner-truth，not mere representation of life as it appears to be．

Keywords：literary realism，Magical Realism，reality，socialist realism，mythorealism，Yan Lianke

Authors：Wang Shouren is a professor at School of Foreign Studies，Nanjing University，China．His research interests are literary history and Anglo-American fiction．Liu Yang is a PhD candidate at English Department，Nanjing University．His research interest is British literature．China's encounter with literary realism is a cross-cultural event，in the sense that etymologically，the term “realism”（现实主义）itself originated from other languages，and literary realism is an imported idea．In fact，the word “reality”（现实）itself did not appear in the Chinese vocabulary until the late 19^thcentury when it was first coined in the Japanese language and then travelled to China．Yet，the production，circulation and assessment of realist literature are historically embedded in the course of China's pursuit of modernization in the past two centuries．“Modern China has been the site of drastic contestations between indigenous innovations and foreign stimuli，radical provocations and conciliatory responses．”（Wang 1）Chinese realist literature is both a product of cross-cultural translations and transaction，and of continued efforts by Chinese writers to find indigenous ways to write about reality．

Chinese critics first used 写实主义，the English equivalent of naturalism，to describe the works by Tolstoy，Balzac and Dickens．写实主义 indicates a literal and unmediated representation of reality．In 1932，Qu Qiubai，the translator of Maxim Gorky's works and once the leader of the Communist Party of China（CPC），introduced the Russian novelist as the “greatest realist artist of the new era．”In the Foreword to Selected Essays by Maxim Gorky，Qu Qiubai observes that

Gorky shall never explain realism as “pure”objectivism．．．．He speaks no Chinese and shall therefore never understand the word literally from its Chinese translation ［写实主义］ as the description of reality．（Qu 2）

高尔基是新时代的最伟大的现实主义的艺术家。……他绝不会把写实主义解释成为“纯粹的”客观主义，他不懂得中国文，他不会从现实主义realism的中文译名上望文生义的了解到这是描写现实的“写实主义”。

——瞿秋白：《高尔基论文选集·写在前面》（1932）

Qu Qiubai proposes to replace the phrase 写实主义 with 现实主义．This change of one Chinese character from 写（writing）to 现（manifesting）is significant．There is a fundamental difference between the two concepts：realism is seen as not being confined to portraying the world as it actually is，but always seeks to transcend the actuality of the world．Qu Qiubai distinguishes between two kinds of reality：one is “dying，decaying and stinky，”the other is “newly born，wholesome and complete，grown out of the old ‘reality’，yet，negating the old ‘reality’．”（Qu 2）Literary realism in China is conceived as manifestation of certain reality which amounts to underlying pattern or hidden truth，not mere representation of life as it appears to be．As the following part of this essay will demonstrate，the succeeding writers of realism，in their response to socialist realism and Magical Realism introduced from outside China，make indigenous innovations by way of manifesting reality in the literary texts with the change of time．

1．Socialist Realism and The Golden Road

The first half of the 20^thcentury saw an influx of foreign literary works and terms from outside China．In 1928，Lu Xun wrote the following satire of “isms”in an essay，“The Tablet”［《匾》］：

The fearful thing about the Chinese literary scene is that everyone keeps introducing new terms without defining them．

And everyone interprets these terms as he pleases．To write a good deal about yourself is expressionism．To write largely about others is realism．To write poems on a girl's leg is Romanticism．To ban poems on a girl's leg is classicism．（Lu 74）

中国文艺界上可怕的现象，是在尽先输入名词，而并不绍介这名词的涵义。

于是各自以意为之。看见作品上多讲自己，便称之为表现主义；多讲别人，是写实主义；见女郎小腿肚作诗，是浪漫主义；见女郎小腿肚不准作诗，是古典主义。

What is worth noticing is the idea of distance that is inherent in the understanding of realism by the writers and critics in this era：realism is largely a kind of writing about “others．”The objective point of view that is required of a realist writer naturally assumes that the observer/writer should keep a considerable distance with the objects/literary subjects to be depicted．The metaphor that most loudly expresses this idea is perhaps from Stendhal's The Red and the Black：“A novel is a mirror going along a main road．Sometimes it reflects into your eyes the azure of the sky，sometimes the mud of the quagmires on the road．”（Stendhal 373）But the belief in the objective reflection of reality in literature was soon to be challenged by the recently introduced idea of socialist realism in the 1930s．In its original Soviet Union context，an official definition of “socialist realism”was given in the Constitution of the Union of Writers：

Socialist realism demands from the author a true and historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development．Moreover this true and historically concrete artistic depiction of reality must be combined with the task of educating the workers in the spirit of Communism．（James 88）

For Zhou Yang，who quickly adopted the socialist understanding of realism after his return from Japan as a student，the belief in “mirror reflection”is nothing more than a mimetic fallacy．Assuming a Lukacian stance，he insists that realistic writers inevitably belong to a social class and are conditional upon that class．（Zhou，Works 60）Zhou Yang highlights the “correct world view”which is key to grasping the “essence of reality”．（Zhou，Works 157）

Zhou Yang later became the Head of the Propaganda Department of the CPC．His belief that new realism “should be based on modern world view”（Zhou，Works 156）involves taking sides，thus eliciting a question：what is the writer's stance/place in writing about reality in literary texts？This question was rarely contemplated by writers embracing the more traditional European realism；even if it did come to their mind，the answer would undoubtedly be that the writers should not have a stance in order that the point of view is objective．With the introduction of the socialist realism theories and works，the question was gradually pushed into the foreground．In his article，“On ‘Socialist Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism’”（1933），Zhou Yang qoutes from Kirpotin to argue that reality is only represented in the works of proletarian literature，and by those writers who are turning to the working class．He affirms the “necessity for writers of being combined with working class through real social practice，and turning the worldview of working class into their own．”（Zhou，Works 105）On account of his refusal of the mirror reflection metaphor，Zhou Yang believes that reality in socialist realism dwells not in the details，but in what is “essential”and “typical．”It is，therefore，not the adding-up of facts，but a selection of the “typical”facts．（Zhou，Works 109）

The problem of stance was ultimately solved by Mao Zedong in his “Speech at the Yan'an Forum of Literature and Art”（1942）which “laid theoretical foundations for Chinese revolutionary literature and art．”（Chen 15）In his own words，“the purpose of our meeting today is precisely to ensure that literature and art fit well into the whole revolutionary machine as a component part，that they operate as powerful weapons for uniting and educating the people，and for attacking and destroying the enemy．”（Mao 2）He addresses four problems that must be solved to achieve the objective：the problem of class stance，attitude，audience and study．Mao Zedong asserts that the stance of “our”writers should be undoubtedly “that of the proletariat and the masses．”“The audience for our literature and art consists of workers，peasants and soldiers and of their cadres”（Mao 4）．With the demands of the audience in mind，the writers should finally become one of them．He illustrates the point with his own experience of the transformation from a student（intellectual）to one of the masses of workers and peasants to argue that “the thoughts and feelings of our writers and artists should be fused with those of the masses of workers，peasants and soldiers．To achieve this fusion，they should conscientiously learn the language of the masses．”（Mao 5）Whilst he modestly said in the end，“I am merely raising these problems by way of introduction，”（Mao 7）such introduction became immediately the guiding principle of literary production and the theoretical framework of socialist realism in China．It was at this time that the principle was finally settled：to be a realist writer in China meant not only that the subjects should be the suffering peasants and workers who lived in the lowest sphere of the social hierarchy，but also that the writer him/herself should be one of them，and a member of the proletarian group．

Mao Zedong's “Speech”advocates a kind of literature and art that are intended for the people，the masses of workers，peasants and soldiers who are engaged in the struggle for liberation．The speech gave rise to “revolutionary realism，”a variation of socialist realism．In fact，Mao's speech ushered in “revolutionary realism which became the mainstream direction of Chinese literature．”（Chen 15-16）Works such as The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River（1948）by Ding Ling，The Storm（1948）by Zhou Libo，and The Song of Youth（1958）by Yang Mo embody the qualities of revolutionary realism．The Song of Youth provides a good example in this regard．Set in the 1930s，this female bildungsroman recounts the heroine's transformation from melancholic intellectual to devoted revolutionary．Upon reading Marxist theory，she embraces socialism：“From these books，she saw the future of the development of human society．From these books she saw the brilliant rays of truth and the road that she as an individual should take．”As realism of manifestation，these literary works successfully perform the task of educating the people by revealing the truth behind the historical process and illuminating the road to socialism．

The decade after the birth of the People's Republic of China（PRC）also saw Chinese socialist realist writers' influence reaching out to the entire Socialist Bloc．The People's Daily reported on March 18，1952 that Ding Ling and Zhou Libo，two influential Chinese writers，were awarded the Stalin Prize，the equivalent of the Nobel Prize amongst the socialist countries．The affirmation of Ding Ling and Zhou Libo's outstanding socialist realist works（the above-mentioned The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River and The Storm）to some extent marked China's success in assimilating the literary model that was introduced from the Soviet Union into the local context．When Ding Ling was in Moscow for the prize，she learned that her book had sold 500，000 copies there，much more than it had in China．On the other hand，China at this time had also a large readership of Russian novels．Statistically，during the years from 1949 to 1958，3526 Russian books were translated into Chinese，and over 82 million copies were printed．How the Steel Was Tempered（1932），a typical socialist realist novel by Nikolai Ostrovsky，was popular in the 1950s and 1960s．One version of its Chinese translation had 25 prints within 17 years，and its sales totaled one million copies．（Shen and Wang 15-16）The acceptance of Russian literature in China，and in return the recognition of Chinese socialist realist writers in the Soviet Union is evidence that socialist realism became a transnational enterprise．