The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Duke reviews "The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century" by Bonnie S. McDougall and Kam Louie.

Bonnie S. McDougall, Kam Louie. The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century. New York. Columbia University Press. 1998 (C) 1997). vii + 504 pages. $35. ISBN 0-23111084-7.

Bonnie McDougall and Kam Louie have performed an invaluable service by producing the fine introductory survey The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century. Concentrating on the "canon" of modern Chinese literature as defined by a majority of Chinese intellectuals and its readers and writers-a body of work also frequently characterized as "serious," "realist," "ameliorative," "socially conscious," "westernized," and even "elitist"-they consciously exclude popular entertainments, urban commercial best sellers (pulp fiction), and poetry in classical Chinese. Their focus is still further narrowed by their stated attempt to cover particularly those works that are available in English translation. This emphasis, together with a select thirteen-page bibliography of translations and studies, makes the volume an excellent textbook for courses in modern Chinese literature in translation. A Chinese glossary, of all the texts mentioned is also extremely useful.

The introduction, chapters 2, 6, and 10, and the conclusion provide a brief sixty-two-page survey of modern Chinese literature in its social, political, cultural, and intellectual contexts. The eighty-nine years covered are periodized into three categories: "Towards a New Culture" (1900-37), "Return to Tradition" (1938-65), and "The Reassertion of Modernity" (1966-89). The bulk of the volume consists of an introductory sourcebook in which over a hundred writers are discussed chronologically under the headings of Poetry, Fiction, and Drama. Each entry contains a capsule biography followed by plot summaries of fictional and dramatic works and general characterizations of poetic styles, language, and themes. There is much important information here and even some insider gossip. There are also many very perceptive critical comments on the works reviewed.

The book's major weakness is related to one of its major strengths. The strength is that the authors have done all of us a great favor by reading, writing plot summaries of, and criticizing a large number of texts that are of very poor literary quality. More to their credit, they often frankly admit the low quality of the works involved. On page 284 they write apropos the poetry of 1938-65: "It is remarkable how many of the older generation . . . still chose to write at all... It is not hard to wonder if they ever considered the personal risk to themselves, or felt embarrassed at the rubbish that poured out." The weakness is that more space is often given to inferior writers, rendering them apparently more important than some of modern China's finest writers. For example, the short twopage discussion of Qian Zhongshu does little justice to his novel Fortress Besieged, not to mention his short fiction. A beginner would not, I'm afraid, understand that Qian is one of modern China's greatest writers. This contrasts starkly with the five full pages on Hao Ran. There is high praise for the language of Bright Sunny Skies, a deplorable novel written between 1960 and 1965, during the greatest famine in human history and embodying Hao Ran's paean to the policies that led to that famine. As for Qian Zhongshu's far more honest and innovative story and language, the authors laconically note that "Fortress Besieged has been highly praised bv critics for its elaborate structure and brilliant metaphorical flourishes." One believes that they surely agree with those unnamed scholars, but one wishes that they had given more space to China's finest writers and works and less to some of "the rubbish that poured out." Finally, on the dominant genre in twentieth-century China, McDougall and Louie's book cannot replace C. T. Hsia's History of Modern Chinese Fiction (Yale, 1971).

Michael S. Duke University of British Columbia