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Questioning the Chinese Model
Oppositional Political Novels in Early Twenty-First Century China
Zhansui Yu (Author)
9781487544348
Hardback, published 15 March 2023
266 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2 cm, 0.49 kg
"Yu’s directness in bridging hard-hitting Chinese intellectual poignancy and the country’s increasingly opaque political development is a welcome effort in the mapping of politically engaged intellectual expression in late reform-era China." - Peng Hai, University of Pittsburgh (The China Quarterly)
In the early twenty-first century, the Chinese literary world saw an emergence of fictional works – dubbed as "oppositional political novels" – that took political articulation as their major purpose and questioned the fundamental principles and intrinsic logic of the Chinese model. Based on close readings of five representative oppositional Chinese political novels, Questioning the Chinese Model examines the sociopolitical connotations and epistemological values of these novels in the broad context of modern Chinese intellectual history and contemporary Chinese politics and society. Zhansui Yu provides a sketch of the social, political, and intellectual landscape of present-day China. He investigates the dialectic relationship between the arts and politics in the Chinese context, the mechanisms and dynamics of censorship in the age of the Internet and commercialization, and the ideological limitations of oppositional Chinese political novels. In the process of textual and social analysis, Yu extensively cites Western political philosophers, such as Hannah Arendt, Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault, and references well-regarded studies on Chinese literature, politics, society, and the Chinese intelligentsia. Examining oppositional Chinese political novels from multiple perspectives, Questioning the Chinese Model applies a broad range of knowledge beyond merely the literary field.
Acknowledgments 1. Destruction of Communist Myths 2. Wolf Totem: Paradoxical Eulogy to a Culture 3. Lenin’s Kisses: Absurdity, Dehumanization, and Dilemma of the Chinese Utopia 4. Such Is This World@sars.come: Dictatorship as a Fatal Disease 5. The Fat Years: Social Injustice, Forced Amnesia, Distorted Mentality, and Fascism 6. The Seventh Day: Dystopian Wasteland versus Modern Peach Blossom Spring Epilogue: Limits of Transgression and Mechanisms of Counter-Censorship
Introduction: Rise of Oppositional Chinese Political Novels
Chinese Political Fiction in the Twentieth Century
Sociopolitical Crisis and Re-politicization of Society in the New Century
Propitious Circumstances for Political Articulation
Scope, Themes, Methodology, and Structure of the Book
Them versus Us: Subversion of the Party-People Myth
From Critics to Servants: Changed Role of Chinese Intellectuals after Tiananmen
Nationalism as State Ideology
Ideologization of Morality, Hedonism, and Political Acquiescence
Summary
Wolf Totem and Mongolian Correlative Cosmology
Social Darwinism, Reverse Chauvinism, and Nationalism
A Wolf Destroyed by the "Wolf Logic"
Ideological Hegemony behind a Literary Sensation
Summary
Revolution as Nightmare
Contemporary Freak Show: Absurdity and Cruelty of the Biopolitics of a Utopia
"With Money, Anything Is Possible"
Arbitrariness of Power, Sustainability of Dictatorship, and Dead-End Future
Summary
"Lockdown" as Social Reality and Political Allegory
The Terrifying "Old Crone" behind the Screen
The Chinese Intelligentsia after Tiananmen: Cynicism and Division
Two Faces of the Party: Ugliness behind a Lovely Mask
Summary
Fake Paradise: Darkness behind the Chinese "Miracle"
Falsified History and Forced Amnesia
Mental Distortion and Spiritual Agony
"Fascism? We Are Only in Its Early Stages!"
Summary
Bloody Predation and Deceptive Propaganda
Destruction of Sanctified Human Feelings
Banality of Evil: Callous Indifference and Moral Corruption
Peach Blossom Spring: Utopia of Truth, Love, and Happiness
Summary
Notes
Bibliography
Index