China, one of the oldest civilizations with the oldest literary tradition is experiencing a Chinese Renaissance that exceeds its economic awakening. Such writers as Jiang Bing, Yan Lianke, Jing Yi, Zhu Wen, Yu Hua, and Da Chen are revitalizing a culture held in abeyance under the hardline communist regime since WWII to the 1990s. Climate change in China means more than global warming, it means a resurgence of the literature of dissent, a rebirth of freedom of expression, and a recreation of a Chinese cultural identity.
Make no mistake, the Chinese government remains hostile to individual civil rights, open expression of opinions that run counter to the Party line, and creative expression that varies with official positions. All of the authors listed above have suffered personal prosecution by the Chinese government in some form, whether it be in denial of personal goals and ambition, outright censorship, or suppression of free access to an audience and curtailing of personal freedom.
While Arab countries are having their spring, Chinese writers have set out on their own Long March to full artistic autonomy. To a person, each of these literary giants of China recognizes that -- as in North Africa -- their season of thaw owes a great deal to the existence of the Internet.
Says Da Chen about this panel, "These are all extraordinary people, cultural All-Stars, admired by a billion and a half people. Not only do they write books, they expose society's ills and try to make sense of chaos. Each has written a book that's been banned.
"We are a humble people but we are also a noble people. I feel really excited and moved since they made the long journey across the ocean to be here. They are all social satirist and they are here tonight to share their views on the vibrant, sometimes contradictory, and most complex country on the planet."
Jiang Bing is the Secretary General of the China Novels Society, the most powerful position in the arena of Chinese letters; Yan Lianke is a retired People's Army officer and author of eight novels, and numerous novellas and essays, some of which have been banned in China; Jing Li is the principal of the Huaxia School of Traditional Culture in a country that has rigorously tried to eliminate such differences; Zhu Wen is one of the most influential writers and film directors in China; Yu Hua is the first Chinese writer to win the James Joyce Foundation Award for his novel, Brothers; Da Chen is a leading Chinese (now -American) memoirist and novelist and author of another novel titled Brothers. His next novel, My Last Empress will be published in 2012. MBFI Guide
Zhu Wen: I began my working life as an electrical engineer in Nanjing, but the work bored me and being an EE is hard work. So, I decided to become a poet. Then I found that writing books is hard work. My first published short work is a collection of stories titled "I Love Dollars," about which the critics said, it's a 'shameless and indecent novel of a hooligan.' For my third career, I became a movie director, and I found I can be lazy. My first movie was made in 2001, called Seafood. It's the story of a policeman who falls in love with a prostitute. Even though it won the Grand Jury Prize at the 58th Venice Film Festival, the critics said it was 'one of the most transgressive visions of China...ever witnessed.' [For more about Zhu Wen]
Professor Jiang Bing: As professor and Vice Dean at Guangdong University of Business Studies, I wear many hats. I'm an academic, scholar, and editor and author of books on post-1980s Chinese literature and one on Chinese costumes throughout history. I study the generation of writers since the 1980s the "after eighty" group that grew up with the Internet, knew life off the commune, and witnessed the dissolution of their parents' society. Today China is living through a time of big change -- change in fate, personality, and the environment.
I can tell you that the other presenters are very famous artists.
The young people in China today opened their eyes through the Internet, and affect produced on them beyond the articles published there. In China, a child doesn't speak up like an American child. A child who name-calls in China is labeled "bad." But we are witnessing that in this age, they have lost much of the traditional respect shown elders. Much of my research focuses on this new attitude.
Am I optimistic or pessimistic about China's future? Optimistic! We have been closed off for so long; we're now participating in globalization. We are a generation in transition.
Jing Yi: I have written two books, my autobiography, Daughter of the River and the one I'm most famous for, a novel, The Art of Love, an erotic book considered to be China's Lady Chatterley's Lover. I was born in 1962. I'm really curious about the poor people of China and their lives. So many people died during the Cultural Revolution. So many ethnic minorities.
In the sequel to Daughter of the River that I'm working on now, I write about my journey to discover who is my real father, the Grand Famine, and the Cultural Revolution. When I was 18, I spent ten years on the road trying to learn how the common people's lives had been changed by those events. The poor in China are really poor. When my mother died in 2006, I discovered many family secrets. But this I know, when I grew up in my village there was only one public toilet for all the people. When I went back, nothing had changed. So, I want to expose this truth.
Yan Lianke: You should probably know I'm most famous for being the winner of China's top literary award and for being nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize for Dream of Ding Village.
. . .the story of town directors who open blood-plasma collection stations. The selling of the blood causes widespread death and an AIDS outbreak as the novel examines a lack of morality at the center of China's development. The story is based on true events. Christian Science Monitor
As the son of illiterate peasants, I had no means of going to university. So, I began my career in the Chinese Army as a propaganda writer; I realized that I was going nowhere in the Army, since the only people who advanced were related by blood or marriage. I was related to no one. So, I felt that the only way I could improve my lot was by writing novels.
In China, I'm most known for being a banned writer and for being forbidden a passport to travel abroad. Currently, I live in Beijing but I am worried because I am about to be evicted from my house. They are going to build a highway through it. Naturally, my neighbors are mad at me.
I just write for food, about our children and farmers' lives. I write about the people of Henan Province, some of the people there are very smart. Clever writers write clever books that suck up to the government. I'm just stupid. I enjoy writing books that are not approved. My first book, To Serve the People is about a love affair between the younger wife of an old and impotent army general who begins to seduce an even younger soldier assigned to do the domestic chores for the general. The title comes from a famous slogan of Mao Zedong's. Certain people thought it was not good. It was banned. And that made me famous.
Yu Hua: I've been told that I'm the Stephen King of China and am known for two books, To Live and Brothers, very funny political satires of post-socialist China, and for a book of essays, China in Ten Words, about observations on contemporary China, what is happening to the Chinese mind.
In my first career I was a dentist. My journey from dentist to writer is an old story that may be new to you. In the time when I came of age, you had no right to choose your job. I was assigned to be a dentist. For ten years I pulled teeth. Everyone opened their mouths to me. Then I got a job in a culture club where I just walked around. My goal was to find a new job. Even though I was late to work every day, I was the first person there. Even now, Chinese youth get little opportunities.
In the 1990s I came to America for the first time. It was chaotic -- I couldn't find a publisher. I went to Boston, then I returned to China. My second trip was to Los Angeles, where my book was translated, to give a speech about "Ten Words."
I have a very fast translator, Alan. I have to work very quickly because he translates very quickly. The last time I was in Miami, it was for Heat basketball. It was very difficult -- humid, hot, windy. Few taxis. I've been in the United States six months now.
All the writers acknowledged that in China censorship is very strict for movies and TV, even printed works. But for writers, it is comparatively better. Where China loses control most is over the Internet, which is the most open forum for youth to criticize the government where it otherwise wouldn't be allowed.
They agree that having had their works censored made some of them feel sometimes like giving up. But if they quit, they knew the country would be more impoverished. "A writer can write bad books and get put in prison," says Yan. "Then I can write whatever I want, even if I don't get published." The government can say that what we think is not right. But writing is a personal thing. Some writers use the fact that they could be censored as an excuse not to write. But the panelists don't let the threat of censorship affect them.
A questioner in the audience posited that China's biggest problem is integrating capitalism with communism in an attempt at liberalization. Will the Communist Party continue in power as this effort progresses?
The Answer: We can clearly see that economic reforms continue but continued political reforms ground to a halt after Tienanmen. The consensus among the panelists is that there are only two possibilities for China. Democratization or revolution. These days mass protests are taking place all over China. Rapid economic growth has led to social problems. Now the government is circulating a new slogan, "stability maintenance," in an effort to unite the people like Mao did when he used the metaphor about chopsticks. One chopstick snaps, a handful cannot. But now Mao's successors want to keep the chopsticks separated.
Later, Yu Hua spoke more extensively about the conditions and political climate in China.
"During the Arab Spring/Jasmine Revolution I had a friend who has a radio show tell me that the government banned his theme music, an old Chinese folk ballad, Jasmine Flower, from the broadcast and even on the Internet. He tried to replace it with a song about peonies, but the government officials told him, 'No flowers.'
"At the beginning of OWS here in America, the Chinese government was very pleased as they saw it as a way to criticize the US capitalistic system. But when the movement spread worldwide October 15th, a number of Chinese thought it was a good time to protest at the state bank in Beijing. The government immediately realized such an events were likely to trigger massive protests throughout the country. So, today in China, all news about OWS is suppressed.
"Conditions in the country are ripe for revolt, but also to increase democratization. Leaders dislike the latter, but more fear the former. Mubarak and Qaddafi were a lesson to them. Revolution involves the letting of blood. Democratization is a more abstract process. If democracy persists, then the families of the leaders can preserve their gains. In a democracy they can hire tough lawyers to protect their vested interests."
Still later Yan Lianke spoke at length. Careful, his wit is razor sharp!
"I'm very disappointed. It took me 16 hours to come here. I thought since I am famous in China, I would be welcomed like President Obama. I thought I'd have millions of readers asking me to sign books. But I went to a bookstore and there were no copies of my novels. Still, I would like to invite all my fans here today to Beijing and I will buy you dinner. It will bankrupt me. Of course, the people who didn't come to my presentation will be disappointed.
"Now I'll spill some secrets about China. You probably think that China is closed, that authors don't have the freedom to write. But you are mistaken. We Chinese don't have the most strict censorship. True, we don't have as much freedom as you, but we're much better off than the North Koreans.
"After ten years of an open door policy, only one window has been opened. In thirty years, I expect they will open the other. In my opinion the government is not a monster. The bigger monster is censorship in the mind of the writer. Self-censorship. This is both wisdom and tragedy. Now, we writers can use wisdom to figure out what can be published. This can take a lifetime. But we'll be better writers than you Americans. After we open the door, we'll surpass you.
"It's not important to get rid of government censorship, but to open the doors of writers' minds. Censorship of ideology is not as bad as self-censorship. Liberalize the self and you can liberalize your readers. So, the challenge facing Chinese writers is to do this.
"We must write from the soul. I am delighted to tell you that such writing is happening now. Every story we have in China is better than the story you have in the US. Like you, we surf the Internet, talk with friends, at the table after dinner. Everything that happens in China is more exciting than what has been written about it. Our task is to reveal what is happening in China now, which will be the greatest literature in the world.
"You have to believe what happens in China is very simple. There are a lot of garbage books in which too much is description that covers up what is happening behind the scenes. What we want to do is tell you that it's foggy, shrouded in mystery. But when some of us shine a light, were controversial, even banned. But what I cannot put in my books today, I may be able to put in them tomorrow.
"Personally I'm very optimistic about China's future. But we must write the truth, even if we can't publish it now.
"How can we write this kind of work? You know how different birds make different sounds. You don't hear a peacock chirp like a sparrow, and vice versa. One is one, not the other. So, it is different between writers. If you are a tiger or lion, you should behave like that. Unfortunately, most Chinese writers try to be peacocks, not themselves. We must use our own voice, sing one song.
“I wish some sparrows would fly into the People’s Hall in China. If this happens, there will be a great symphony. My goal is to sing like a sparrow, to sing my own song.
“When I return to Beijing and prepare for your arrival, I’ll have to give you Peking duck. No rooster or peacock for me.”
I immediately accepted Yan's invitation and am dreaming of my first meal of Peking duck in Beijing, China, where I hope the other guests will be a reprise of this most interesting panel of important writers. And I learned this: How could anyone not understand that the best stories are the ones telling the truth about a people's struggle for freedom, even when they are stacked up against the stories written by writers who are already free?