In-Person Panel PS2.7

Diverse Discourses: Contemporary Chinese Cultural Narratives

The Trauma Narrative in Wang Xiaobo’s Fiction: Body, Irony and Identity 

Anna Antong Chen 

Wang Xiaobo (1952-1997) is a well-known author in post-Mao Chinese literary history. His fiction has been extensively researched. But most of the research focus on his narrative techniques, black humour, and absurdity, with little attention given to his use of the trauma narrative. With focus on the trauma narrative in Wang Xiaobo’s fictional works, my study offers a new perspective on the literary and aesthetic value of Wang’s works and his contributions to Chinese literature and culture. The argument of my research is that Wang Xiaobo uses irony to alleviate the heavy sense of trauma narrative and presents trauma through memory as a way of expressing Chinese national identity during a rapidly changing era. This study has three core questions to address in developing its argument: how is trauma narrated in his fiction? What is the relationship between irony, memory and identity within the trauma narrative? How does the trauma narrative affect his writing? This is a modern and contemporary Chinese literature research project that involves textual analysis, narrative analysis, stylistic analysis, thematic analysis, content analysis and comparative analysis. The data for analysis is the trauma narrative in Wang’s fiction. The theoretical framework for this study is built mainly on Michel Foucault’s theory of biopolitics in respect of the relationship between knowledge and power and how they can be used to control a subject.

Embodied Metaphors: Representing Memory, Violence, and Trauma in Chinese Avant-Garde Fiction, 1980s-1990s 

Yi He 

The avant-garde fiction in the mid-1980s signified a pivotal juncture in the evolution of Chinese literary history, exemplified through the works of Ma Yuan, Su Tong, Yu Hua, and Can Xue. Despite the wealth of research focusing on the formal innovations within these novels, insufficient consideration has been devoted to the body and its interaction with the form. The bodily representations in the writing not only rebel against the dominant cultural ideology but also embody the life experience in post-Mao China. Grounded in the theories of body politics and post-colonialism, I propose categorizing the body representations as gendered, wounded, and diseased. The gendered body emphasizes gender performances within the context of urbanization and modernization, thereby contributing to the memory of the family and the nation. The wounded body underscores the historical violence, while the diseased body reveals the connection between illness and traumatic experiences. I specifically address the following pivotal inquiries: What narrative forms are utilized to represent the body? What significance do the embodied depictions in avant-garde fiction carry? How does the body serve as both form and content in these writings? It is hoped to explore the intricate experiences conveyed through the embodied representations and contribute to world literature studies.

Colonizing the West?: Gendered Imagination of Alternative History in Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction 

Yimin  Xu 

In this paper, I analyze two contemporary Chinese science fiction, The Red Ocean (Hongse Haiyang, 红色海洋) (2004) by Han Song 韩松 (b.1965) and The West (Xiyang, 西洋) (2001) by Liu Cixin 刘慈欣 (b.1963). Both take an alternative history approach to the 15th century China, when mariner Zheng He 郑和 (1371-1433) discovers the new continent of North America before Christopher Columbus does.  

Despite the same alternative-history approach, however, the two novels present opposite consequences. In The Red Ocean, Zheng He’s exploration does not change China's humiliating history in the late 19th century, but rather leads to Chinese racial extinction in an unknown dystopia future. In The West, however, Zheng He’s discovery heralds a new utopia and sees China’s military occupation of North America and Western Europe, especially the United Kingdoms in the late 19th century.  

I argue that these novels represent a literary revisit to China’s semi-colonization history in the late 19th century. More importantly, there emerges a new perspective to re-represent this history in science fiction texts – gender. In particular, in both novels, the weakening side, be it China or the West, takes on a feminized form whereas the more powerful side assumes a masculine representation. Furthermore, behind these gender expressions lie a burning question in contemporary Chinese post-colonialism discourse: why not us? Why can’t China colonize the West in the late 19th century?

The Criticisms of Taiwan’s Chinese Cultural Renaissance Movement (1966-1991) 

Kok Yin (Hercules) Chu 

The Chinese Cultural Renaissance Movement (1966-1991) was regarded as Taiwan's most extensive tailor-made mass campaign, covering the Kuomintang (KMT)-led government's second half of the martial governance. Though the official ideology promoted Confucianism and the Chinese culture towards the public and orthodoxy as representing “China,” there were always criticisms towards it, especially from the Dangwai Movements. Their concerns were mainly about the suppression of local Taiwanese culture, the over-emphasis of the linkage towards China, the limitation of the freedom of speech, etc. Their resistance shaped the oppositional forces and fostered the democratisation of Taiwan since the 1990s, equivalent to the “Third Wave of democratisation” proposed by Samuel P. Huntington that occurred to the world between 1974 and 1992. In this paper, we will use a historical approach to discuss the background of the diversified opposition and understand their reasons for going against the movements. Then, we will discuss it through archives and newspapers to know how they voiced their opinions and raised concerns to the public. We will finally show how their actions related to the democratisation movements in Taiwan and contributed to the relaxation of authoritarian governance by the KMT, as well as the shaping of Taiwanese identity nowadays.