Literary Route: China

Literary Route China

Literary Route Casa Asia - Media Library Palau Bar贸 de Quadras Av. Diagonal, 373 08008 Barcelona Tel.: 93 368 07 38 mediateca.bcn@casaasia.es

Centre Casa Asia-Madrid - Media Library Palacio de Miraflores Carrera de San Jer贸nimo, 15 28014 Madrid Tel.: 91 429 68 00 mediateca.madrid@casaasia.es

www.casaasia.es

Casa Asia Consortium:

China

Index 1.- General Introduction

11

2.- The Classics

13

· Confucius · Classic of Poetry · Daodejing · Zhuangzi · The Classics · Recommendations 3.- Tang Poetry

10

· Li Bai · Wang Wei · Du Fu · Tang Poetry · Recommendations 4.- The Great Novels · “Story of the three kingdoms” · “Journey to theWest” · The Mandarins · “Dream of the Red Chamber” · The Great Novels - Recommendations 5.- Modern Literature · Liu E · Lu Xun · Lao She · Ba Jin · Qian Zhongshu · Modern Literature - Recommendations

15 17 19 21 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 54 56 58 62

7

Index 6.- Contemporary Literature · Gao Xingjian · Han Shaogong · Ma Jian · Mo Yan · Yu Hua · Contemporary Literature · Recommendations 7.- Hybrid Literature

8

· Maxine Hong Kingston · Timothy Mo · Amy Tan · Dai Sijie · Ha Jin · Hybrid Literature · Recommendations

64 66 70 72 74 76 80 82 86 88 90 92 94 98

9

Literary Route General Introduction From its beginning, Chinese literature has evolved in a close relationship with a group of social, political and philosophical aspects of intellectuality. From its first period of splendour the classics of the Zhou Dynasty (12th – 13th Century BC) stand out such as the “Analects” of Confucius or the “Classic of Rites”, as well as works by Taoist thinkers such as Laozi or Zhuangzi.

The Tang Dynasty (7th – 10th Century) is considered the golden age within Chinese lyric poetry with great masters such as Wang Wei, Du Fu or Li Bai. At the same time, an important literary production of stories, fantasy stories and other genres that are original from the oral tradition and that culminate in great novels of the Ming Dynasties (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911), among which “Journey to the West”, “Dream in the Peony Pavilion” or “The Mandarines” stand out.

10

11

Bamboo Book

During the first decades of the 20th Century, modern literature is closely linked to a project of national modernization. Lu Xun is, without a doubt, one of its key figures, but not the only one: Other less politicized authors such as Qian Zhongshu managed to combine with audacity the modern and traditional elements in his works of the first half of the century. In the 80’s the literary production was diversified thanks to the talent of young avant-gardists such as Mo Yan, Han Shaogong orYu Hua. From the decade of the 90’s a strong commercialization has taken place of literature and a moderated reception of Chinese works abroad, thanks to phenomenon such as cinema and the awarding of the Nobel Literature Prize in 2000 to Gao Xingjian.

The recent geopolitical context has also made easier the production of a kind of hybrid literature with one foot in China and another in the West:Works written in English or French by Chinese authors or Chinese-origin authors that approach in some way the position of China in globalization.

Literary Route The Classics Traditional Chinese literature is a combination of many aspects and disciplines that we currently find quite independent. From the classics, the works do not outline borders in the fields of literature, language, through, politics, society, history or ethics. All these fields are made up of what historically have been considered literature in China in a broad sense.

Classics are, therefore, an unavoidable referent in this sense. If these works are more philosophical from a modern (and Western) point of view, they are very important in order to understand the history of Chinese literature.

The civilizing implications inherent in this literature panoramically understood turn it into –and turn the classics into, especially those with a Confucian side- an instrument to educate the people. In a world and a society initially immersed in chaos and disorder, the project of literature consists of contributing to spread order so the correct government of things and their people can exist.Therefore, literature contributes a suitable way of behaving, suitable for every occasion and circumstance. This literary utilitarianism has been one of the predominant features throughout the history of Chinese literature, from the classics to the end of the 20th Century.

12

Title:Yijing. El Libro de los cambios / With the comments of Wang Bi; translation, prologue and notes of the text

by Jordi Vilà; translation, prologue and notes of the comments of Wang Bi by Albert Galvany Publication: Girona · Atalanta, 2006 Description: 604 pages; 23 cm

13

Literary Route

The Classics Confucius Confucius (551-479 BC) has been one of the main figures of thought and of Chinese literature and of all the thought of East Asia. He was born in a fertile period for philosophical reflection (known as the Hundred Schools of Thought, in the Zhou Dynasty), Confucius had different jobs until he became an itinerant thinker that offered his services advising the different monarchs of the kingdoms where the China of the time was divided on how to govern the people.

For this reason, partly, his thought had a will of practical application.

The name of Confucius is associated to “Analects” (Lunyu). Even though he didn’t write them directly, it is a compilation of his teachings that his disciples made. They are aphorisms and reproductions of short dialogues that synthesis their philosophy.

Confucius pleaded for respect to hierarchy and social relations, moral values and justice, always after an optimum social working.

He tries to transmit his ideas through the example and a critical reflection from any anecdote or situation.

14

Confucius never specified a systematized thought. In the subsequent construction of what has been considered Confucianism contributed his disciples (Mencio and Xunzi, among the most famous) and the complicity between the ideology that could be extracted from the thought of Confucius and the political interests of governors, worried about maintaining hierarchies and social control.

Title: Los Cuatro libros / Confucius; translation, introduction and notes by Joaquín Pérez Arroyo Publication: Barcelona [etc.] · Paidós, 2002 Description: 455 pages; il., 1 map.; 22 cm

15

Literary Route

The Classics Classic of Poetry “Classic of Poetry” (Shijing) is one of the considered five classics of Confucianism, together with “The Book of Documents” (Shuking), a collection of speeches of the court; the “Classic of Changes” (Yijing), a divinatory handbook; the “Classic of Rites” (Lijing), a treaty about the protocols of social behaviour, and “Spring and Autumn” (Chunqiu), a historical chronicle.

It is a selection of more than 300 poems, hymns and songs that a group of messengers sent by the court of Zhou compiled among the people to make its governor receive the problems and concerns of the society of the time. Written in the 11th and 8th Centuries BC and supposedly edited by Confucius, maybe among other editors, these piece are heterogeneous regarding metrics, thematic and structure, for which it is speculated that some of them included a music accompaniment.

17

16

The pieces lively reflected the pictures of the everyday life of the society of the time: Their activities, conflicts and relations. At the same time, under this everyday life and trivial issues there is an important social and political criticism, polite and subtle. The allegory must be interpreted in the comprehension of these pieces: This is how they were interpreted at the time and how they have been interpreted in the Chinese history.

Title: Poesía popular de la China antigua / Compilation of poems, translation from Chinese, introduction and notes

by Gabriel García-Noblejas Publication: Madrid · Alianza, cop. 2008 Description: 455 pages; 24 cm

Regarding literature, beyond the quality of these poems, the “Classic of Poetry” is important because it legitimates lyric poetry as a form of literary expression within the combination of artistic, literary and political aspects of elite Chinese culture, which went through its apogee in the Tang and Song dynasties.

Literary Route

The Classics Daodejing In parallel to the Confucian classics, Taoism also includes a group of works that are considered classics: “Laozi” or “Daodejing” is one of them.

Attributed to Laozi himself (4th Century BC), enigmatic figure whose existence is doubted, “Daodejing” is a compilation of eighty chapters. Each chapter is a short proverb or aphorism that often seems paradoxical or contradictory. From a literary point of view, these paradoxes transmit the problems of the language and its philosophical reach. Its first chapter is important in this sense: “The course that can flow is not the permanent course.The name that can be named is not the permanent name”.1 From a philosophical perspective, his antithetic opposition to Confucian ideas is highlighted: The rejection of all knowledge, moral value, social imposition or political doctrine. It all consists on flowing, in non-action, from emptiness, far from any artificial construction made by human beings.

18

Despite the difficulty and opacity, “Daodejing” is, without a doubt, one of the pillars of Chinese thought and literature. And also despite that in the canonical official culture the Confucian classics have had an important place due to the close relationship with the government of society, “Daodejing” is a capital work.

Title: Libro del curso y de la virtud = Dao de jing / Lao zi; prologue by François Jullien; edition and translation from Chinese by Anne-Hélène Suárez Publication: Madrid · Siruela, 1998 Description: 194 pages; 22 cm

1

Lao Zi. El libro del curso y de la virtud / Suárez, Anne-Hélène, edition and translation. Madrid · Siruela, 1998, p. 31.

19

The Classics

Literary Route Zhuangzi

“Zhuangzi”, written by Zhuangzi (369-286 BC) and maybe also by some of his disciples is a work that vindicates a spontaneous life, of contemplation (and without words, which consists of a paradox because “Zhuangzi” is, in fact, written and made up of words), far from the social constructions and rules from allegories, parodies and anecdotes of ironical tone. Cynicism and irony are the bases on which this work is fundamented.

Just like in “Daodejing”, in “Zhuangzi” the role of language and its relation with reality is also doubted. The famous paragraph that closes the Book II is important in this sense: One night Zhuang Zhou [Zhuangzi] dreamed about being a butterfly: A butterfly that flew, that went from one place to another happy with itself, completely unaware of being Zhou. It woke up at an odd time was surprised to see that it was Zhou. And, had Zhou dreamed that he was a butterfly?

Or was a butterfly now dreaming that it was Zhou? Between Zhou and the butterfly there was a difference without a doubt. This was called “the mutation of things”.2

20

Title: Los Capítulos interiores de Zhuang Zi / translation

by Pilar González España and Jean Claude Pastor-Ferrer Publication: Madrid · Trotta; [Paris]: Unesco, cop. 1998 Description: 148 pages; 20 cm

As it already happened in “Daodejing”, “Zhuangzi” had a literary value as well as its obvious philosophical value. These works are important because they open a kind of literary creation away from the official elitist culture: Before the order and certainties its more Confucian texts preached and their purpose to be applicable in the government of society, Taoist texts believe in –with vehement irony- an uncertainty and relativism that open a new horizon for Chinese literature. Despite of the aforementioned opposition, throughout the centuries a synthesis between both schools and spontaneity “Zhuangzi” proposes has been produced and has been combined with the most systematic rigor of Confucianism.

2

Zhuangzi. Maestro Chuang Tsé. Preciado, Iñaki, translation. Barcelona: Kairós, p. 53.

21

The Classics · Recommendations

Literary Route

Title: Cuatro lecturas sobre Zhuangzi / Jean François Billeter; translation by Anne-Hélène Suárez Girard Publication: Madrid · Siruela, cop. 2003 Description: 186 pages

Title: Tao te ching: los libros del Tao / Lao Tse; edition and translation from Chinese by Iñaki Preciado Idoeta Publication: Madrid · Trotta, cop. 2006 Description: 542 pages: il.; 24 cm

Title: Maestro Chuang Tsé / Zhuang Zi; translation, introduction and notes by Iñaki Preciado Ydoeta Publication: Barcelona · Kairós, 2001 Description: 478 pages; 20 cm

Title: Los Libros canónicos chinos: la religión y la filosofía más antiguas y la moral y la política más perfectas de la humanidad / translation, preliminary news and notes by Juan B. Bergua Publication: Madrid · Bergua, cop. 1969 Description: 635 pages; 17 cm

22

Title: The Taoist Classics / translation of Thomas Cleary’s collection Publication: Boston (Mass.) · Shambhala, 2003 Description: 4 volumes; 23 cm

Title: Lun yu: reflexiones y enseñanzas / Confucius (Master Kong); translation from Chinese, introduction and notes by Anne-Hélène Suárez Girard Publication: Barcelona · Kairós, 2002 Description: 193 pages; 20 cm

23

Literary Route Tang Poetry In Chinese poetry in general, poets normally express their feelings in a specific moment in time, inspired by anything: A public event, a social criticism, a meeting or farewell of a friend, a more metaphysical or existential reflection. Often poetry becomes a form of communication because dedicated poems also cause a response.

The Tang Dynasty is considered the Golden age of Chinese poetry with great masters such as Li Bai, Wang Wei or Du Fu. After the influence of works such as “Classic of Poetry” and centuries passing by, in the Tang dynasty what could be called the modern style poetry is begun, based on prosodic strict rules that bite into the musical and visual potential of Chinese language and writing.

The boom of poetry also has a political explanation: The poetic composition is added as part of the curriculum of access exams to public posts. The position of poetry within the canon and etiquette of elite is reinforced, not only as a social ability and of inter-relation with what’s private, but as a form of expression registered in what’s public. Poetry becomes, therefore, a necessary tool in the professional, social and personal sphere.

24

Title: Poesía clásica china / Edition by Guojian Chen; translation by Guojian Chen Publication: Madrid · Cátedra, cop. 2001 Description: 387 pages; 18 cm

At the end of the Tang dynasty a more musical poetry begins to show, as a result of the influences of Central Asia, especially in the courtesan melodies, that completely bloom during the Song dynasty.

Of the Song poets, “Su Dongpo” (or “Su Shi”; 1037-1101) stands out, humanist in a broad sense, exiled on repeated occasions of the imperialcourt and that in poetry stands out for a brilliant and original fusion of registers, thematic and influences.

25

The Classics · Tang Poetry

Literary Route Li Bai

Li Bai (701-762) was a bohemian and itinerant life character. He managed to enter without carrying out the protocol exams for the prestigious imperial Hanlin academy which, back then, was still a circle of poets close to the Emperor. He did not last long there: After two years he had to abandon the post and went on exile to south China. But he devoted so much time to banquettes and farewell celebrations on the way that he was amnestied without having reached his destination. Despite all this, many of his pieces –such as the following, translated by Anne-Hélène Suárez and Ramon Dachs— talk about exile and distance: Thinking, at night A ray of the moon reaches my bed; The floor seems to be covered with frost.

Raising my eyes, I see it shine: Dropping it I can see my hometown.3

26

Li Bai’s work shows a power of ancient style poetry, of less severe prosodic rules. This gives spontaneity to some poems that transmit passion and vitality, of the Taoist influence and its desire to make the most of every moment, in consonance with his temper and biography.

Title: Cien poemas / Li Po; selecció, traducció i pròleg de Chen Guojian Publication: Barcelona · Icaria, 2002 Description: 126 pages; 22 cm

Many of Li Bai’s poems describe the desire to runaway to a world of immortal Taoists, escapism frequently made easier by wine, something that contributed his fame of bohemian, like some anecdotes. The legend says, for example, that he was drown when he was completely drunk and tried to catch the reflection of the moon on the water. His bohemian character and singular trajectory have influenced his popularity in the West without a doubt.

3

Dachs, Ramon; Gregori, Josep Ramon; Suárez, Anne-Hélène, edition and translation. De la China a alAndalus: 39 jueju y 6 robaiyat (esplendor del cuarteto oriental). Barcelona · Azul, 2004, p. 49.

27

Literary Route

The Classics · Tang Poetry Wang Wei Wang Wei (701?-761) combined his positions as high government employee in the court with a humanist side in a broad sense: As well as poet, he was painter and musician. His political career was important, which is why his poems normally describe scenes of the social life of the court, such as banquettes or celebrations. At the same time, many of his pieces show delight for retired life, away from the noise of the capital and the court, like the following poem translated by Anne-Hélène Suárez: The Park of Deers In the empty mountain nobody can be seen, Only the echo of the voice can be heard.

The sun that returns is deepened in the frond And the green moss shines again.4 29

28

His work shows this tension between the political life and the retired life, two sides of the same coin for many literate employees.

Moreover, another key core of Wang Wei’s work is Buddhism. His Buddhist vision of existence impregnates also many of his pictures and poems. Often the landscape and contemplative observation of nature are a way to take part in peace and spiritual retire. Wang Wei is, therefore, one of the most select examples of the conjugation between the characteristic emotion and landscape of Chinese poetry.

Title: 99 cuartetos de Wang Wei y su círculo; translation

by Anne-Hélène Suárez Girard Publication: Madrid · Pre-Textos, 2000 Description: 239 pages; 22 cm

4

Suárez, Anne-Hélène, edition and translation. 99 cuartetos de Wang Wei y su círculo. Valencia: Pre-textos, 2000, p. 69.

The Classics · Tang Poetry

Literary Route Du Fu

Du Fu (712-770) was a character of marked Confucian values.

Maybe due to his rectitude and responsibility, he failed in his official career and had an unlucky life and full of political and personal misfortunes. In this poems he criticised by of these injustices, as well as the horrors of the war and of a convulse period for the country and its people.This is the case of this poem in Anne-Hélène Suárez’s version.

Spring Perspective Annihilated country, there are still mountains and rivers.

Spring city, there are weeds and trees.

Emotion of the moment, the flowers begin to cry.

Pain of farewell, birds disturb the soul.

The fire has been burning for three months in beacon.

Ten thousand coins are worth the news of my house.

My white hair, thin of stroking it so much, Soon it won’t be strong enough to hold a hairpin.5

30

Du Fu writes in a modern style and gets by –this is one of the great merits from a literary point of view- brilliantly in the strict prosodic rules of the new poetry. He knows how to conjugate the more technical particularities with the description of the reality of his time: A country in a chaotic situation and a battered society, who he gives a political and poetic voice.

Title: Du Fu selected poems / Du Fu; translation by Rewi Alley Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 200-?

Description: 351 pages · 21 cm

5

Suárez, Anne-Hélène, anthology

31

Tang Poetry · Recommendations

Literary Route

Title: De la China a al-Andalus: 39 jueju y 6 robaiyat (esplendor del cuarteto oriental) / 39 jueju, translation from Chinese in collaboration with AnneHêlène Suárez; 6 robaiyat, translation from Arab in collaboration with Josep Ramon Gregori Publication: Barcelona · Azul, 2004 Description: 124 pages; 23 cm

Title: Copa en mano, pregunto a la luna: poemas / Li Bo; translation, introduction and notes by Chen Guojian Publication: Mexico City · El Colegio de México, 1982 Description: 85 pages; 20 cm

Title: Antología de poesía china / introduction, translation and notes by Juan Ignacio Preciado Idoeta Publication: Madrid · Gredos, 2003 Description: 263 pages; 20 cm

Title: Poemas del río Wang / Wang Wei and Pei Di; verses in Spanish and presentation by Clara Janés; translation from Chinese and preliminary by Juan Ignacio Preciado Idoeta Publication: Madrid · Ediciones del Oriente y del Mediterráneo, cop. 1999 Description: 87 pages; 21 cm

32

Title: El Silencio de la luna: introducción a la poesía china de la dinastía Tang (618-907) / Javier Martín Ríos Publication: Barcelona · Azul, 2003 Description: 133 pages; 23 cm

Title: El Vuelo oblicuo de las golondrinas / presentation by Clara Janés and Juan Ignacio Preciado Idoeta; translation from Chinese by Juan Ignacio Preciado Idoeta; verses in Spanish by Clara Janés Publication: Madrid · Ediciones del Oriente y del Mediterráneo, 2000 Description: 155 page; 18 cm

33

Literary Route The Great Novels The Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties are known as those of the Barth of the Chinese novel, that drinks from existing literary forms such as “chuanqi” (account of extraordinary phenomenon) and “biji” (heterogeneous personal notes) or new forms such as oral register short stories. The fertility of fiction narration and the circulation of topics, plots and motives between certain stories and others show the important inter-textuality that characterises the whole of Chinese literature.

One of the main authors that contributed to the settling of these narration works as a genre was Feng Menglong (1574-1646), author of “Three Words” (Sanyan)6, an anthology of three collections of stories, compiled by him or of his own creation that described anecdotes of everyday life often with a moralizing character. In short narration Pu Songling (1640-1715) also stood out, author of the “Stories of Liaozhai” (Liaozhai zhiyi), a work of almost 500 chuanqi about marvellous events, narrated in a humour tone, where all kinds of ghosts, fairies, monsters and demons were interposed in love relationships between characters.

34

Title: Los Viajes del buen doctor Can / Introduction by Juan José Ciruela and Javier Martín Ríos; translation and notes by Gabriel García-Noblejas Sánchez-Cendal Publication: Madrid · Cátedra, 2004 Description: 391 pages; 18 cm

As a result of the evolution of all the forms and topics of written and oral narrative of precedent centuries, the novel bloomed Turing the Ming and Qing dynasties. Andhe does it in those works addressed to a cult elite (generally original works and with more or less contrasted authorship) and in works addressed to a public able to read but that were not part of the cultural elite. The two most ancient novels are “Story of the Three Kingdoms” (Sanguo yanyi) and “On the shore of the water” (Shuihu zhuan). It is speculated that they are dated in the second half of the 14th century, even though the most ancient copies that have been kept –and that with all security include many revisions and changes- are of the 16th century.

6

Sanyan: una tria / Feng Menglong; translation from Chinese by Sílvia Fustegueres and Sara Rovira. Barcelona, University Autonomous of Barcelona, Publishing Service. Proa, 2002. 149 pages; 20 cm

35

The Great Novels

Literary Route “Story of the three kingdoms”

“Story of the three kingdoms” (Sanguo zhi yanyi), attributed to Luo Guanzhong (1330-1400) is based on previous oral accounts and narrates with all kinds of details the wars of the historical period between 184 and 280, when the division of the Han empire took place in three kingdoms (Wei, Shu and Wu), as well as the moral dilemmas that were proposed to the characters involved in the conflict.

Despite the fact that it is based on historical chronicles of the period, the novel changes the point of view of the canonical historiography. Towards the power of what’s literary, “Stories of the three kingdoms” modifies the official historical interpretation, which had always considered the Wei kingdom as a legitimate successor of the Han dynasty, and in its pages it turns to the Shu kingdom.

37

36

In the pages of the novel, every kingdom contender to succeed the Han presents in different political and ethical virtues that would influence their respective war strategies. The detail of the struggle and military action is what predominates in this work, with detailed descriptions of the techniques and strategies used in the battles, accompanied by multiple elements of fiction that would like to capture the attention of the reader.

Títol: Three Kingdoms / Luo Guanzhong; traducció de Moss Roberts Publicació: Pequín · Edicions en Llengües Estrangeres, 1993 Descripció: 4 volums

The battles, characters and anecdotes of “Stories of the three kingdoms” have been subsequently recovered in other artistic forms (painting, opera, literature) and have made up the popular imaginary and the colloquial expressions up to today. For all this, this novel is a wonderful example of the inter-textuality that is originated with a connection between the Chinese history and literature.

Literary Route

The Great Novels “Journey to the West” “Journey to the West” (Xiyouji), attributed to Wu Cheng’en (1500 – 1582), is without a doubt the best known fantasy novels that were relatively abundant during the Ming dynasty. The novel is based on stories and accounts about the peregrination of the Chinese monk Xuanzhang to India in search for Buddhist sutras during the years 629-645. This historical experience, source of many accounts and fantastic stories that had already orally circulated, is the base on which Wu Cheng’en builds an adventure novel that, at the same time, includes a high symbolic and allegorical content.

In “Journey to the West” the main character is not the monk Xuanzang, but one of the disciples, the monkey Sun Wukong, who thanks to his magic powers helps to successfully manage encounters with all kinds of monsters and fantastic creatures. Another two disciples join them Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing, as well as a horsedragon. The four companions of Xuanzang take part in the mission to expiate the sins committed in the past.

38

The hundred chapters of the novel hide, under satire and the emotion of the fantastic genre of adventures, an allegoric account of marked Buddhist influence about the difficulties to reach a goal –the trip itself- and the meanness and vices of the human condition that characterise its characters and originates many of the supernatural encounters that hold up the journey.

Title: Peregrinación al oeste / Wu Cheng'en; translation by Maria Lecea and Carlos Trigoso Sánchez Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 2004 Description: 4 volumes

The novel has originated many consequences and adaptations in different formats: From new novels, to pictorial works, operas and –more recently- comics, films and cartoon series, the most famous of which is, without a doubt, “Dragon Ball”.

39

Literary Route

The Great Novels The Mandarins Traditional Chinese literature sees how the Qing Dynasty reaches the summit of the novel genre with universally important works.

“The Scholars” (Rulin waishi)7, written by Wu Jingzi (1701-1754) and posthumously published is one of them. In this case, the authorship is already one of his most important characteristics: It is an original author work and not a compilation of oral or written anecdotes, as it had been usual until then.

The novel, which translated has also been known as “The Mandarins” stands out for an episodic and fragmented structure, with no defined plot, where characters –civil servants, aristocrats, Mandarins- appear, disappear and reappear from one chapter to another. This formal fragmentation gives sense to the content of the work: Through the disperse and impressionist narration of this collective character that is the Mandarins presents a satirical person of the aristocratic life of the China of the time –even though the author sets it in the previous dynasty, without a doubt in order to avoid censorship problems.

40

In the altarpiece Wu Jingzi masterly outlines, there are universal vices and bad arts such as corruption, pedantry and hypocrisy.

However, in spite of this ruthless social criticism easily extrapolated to any place and time, this novel cannot avoid being a Confucian vision of the world:The problem does not lie in the own organisation of society, but in the perversion of a corrupt system that, despite all, is still the ideal that must be searched for.

Title: Los Mandarines: Historia del bosque de los letrados / Wu Jingzi; presentation, translation from Chinese and notes by Laureano Ramírez Bellerín Publication: Barcelona · Seix Barral, 2007 Description: 717 pages, il.; 24 cm

7

Rúlin wàishi - Historia indiscreta del bosque de letrados / Wu Jingzi; portrait of the author and illustrations

by Cheng Shifa; translation by Chen Gensheng. Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 1993.

2 volumes; 18 cm.

41

Literary Route

The Great Novels “Dream of the Red Chamber” “Dream of the Red Chamber” (Hongloumeng) is probably the most important Chinese classic novel and it represents the summit of fiction during the Qing Dynasty. Written by Cao Xueqin (17151764), it was moved around in its manuscript version of 80 chapters during the life of the author and in 1792 it was published in a version of 120 chapters edited by Gao E –who seemed to be the author of the last 40 chapters.

“Dream of the Red Chamber” explains the life of an aristocratic family in economic decadency by means of the detailed description of all kinds of everyday events and tasks. Meetings, visits and family celebrations are an excuse to reveal the intrigues and plots of several of its members, at the same time they offer outings in several fields: From literature to gastronomy, going past medicine and social protocols. The novel is full of characters, always around the famous love triangle made up of the teenager Jia Baoyu and her two cousins Xue Baochai, with whom Baoyu must get married, and Lin Daiyu.

42

Title: Sueño en el Pabellón rojo: memorias de una roca / Cao Xueqin; translation by Zhao Zhenjiang and José Antonio García Sanchez Publication: Barcelona · Galaxia Gutenber: Círculo de lectores, 2009 Description: 2 volumes; 21 cm

Like every universal work, “Dream of the Red Chamber”offers several levels of reading. Even though it is normally interpreted from a love perspective (like a claim against the impossibility of young people to chose a partner, for example) or from the historical perspective (like a critical portrait of aristocratic society in decline), the main issue that surrounds all the possible readings of the novel is the perception of the reality of the world: Cao Xueqin suggests that life is not more than an illusion and that, before mirages and falseness (jia, “false” is precisely the surname of the main family), the main virtue to be promoted is the indifference to avoid the suffering of appearances and to become free from all ties.

43

Literary Route

The Great Novels · Recommendations

Title: Outlaws of the marsh / Shi Nai'an and Luo Guanzhong Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 1999 Description: 5 volumes; 24 cm

Title: Contes estranys del pavelló dels lleures / Pu Songling; translation by Chün Chin and Manel Ollé Publication: Barcelona · Quaderns Crema, 2001 Description: 160 pages; 21 cm

Title: Historia de la literatura clásica china / Wu Shoulin Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 2005 Description: 2 volumes; 26 cm

Title: Cuentos de Liao Zhai / Pu Sonling; translation, introduction and notes by Laura A. Rovetta i Laureano Ramírez Publication: Madrid · Alianza, 2004 Description: 440 pages, il.; 20 cm

44

45

Title: Breve historia de la novela china / Lu Xun; translation from original Chinese by Rosario Blanco Facal; edition by Alejandro Salas Publication: Barcelona · Azul, 2001 Description: 328 pages; 23 cm

Title: El Invitado tigre / P'u Sung-Ling; selection and prologue by Jorge Luis Borges; translation by Jorge Luis Borges and Isabel Cardona Publication: Madrid · Siruela, DL 1988 Description: 102 pages; 23 cm

Literary Route Modern Literature During the last decades of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the defeats before western powers and Japan deepened China into a questioning of its political and cultural fundaments. This sets the basis for the birth of what in China is considered modern literature: A literature that, before anything else, aims at modernizing the Chinese country and society.

At the end of the imperial period and during the republican period the number of translations of Japanese and western literature increases, the modernization of literary language is experimented and the publishing industry grows. All this with the purpose to achieve this historical modernization. Influential thinkers such as Liang Qichao (1873-1929) propose the use of fiction to education a village and carry out the modernization of the country, something that promotes development and critical consideration of fiction narrative.

46

During the decade of the 20’s these approaches were taken to extremes by the Movement for New Culture: Despite the fall of the imperial regime, China continued in a political situation of extreme disorder and was underdeveloped towards modernity.

Therefore, its society needed to be urgently “woken up”. It is the main purpose of Lu Xun, considered the father of modern literature, and the authors of the social realism of the twenties and thirties.

Title: History of modern Chinese literature / edited by Tang Tao Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 1993 Description: 517 pages; 21 cm

From the mid-twenties, a progressive politicization of literature was developed, from the works to literary circles and the publishing world. even so, there are some authors such as Qian Zhongshu, who with difficulties managed to make a work away from this politicised tendency.

47

Literary Route

Modern Literature Liu E Liu E (1857-1909) is one of the few writers of the period of the end of the Qing Dynasty that, until now, have been translated into western languages. This is a period of internal and external crisis: The fall of the Qing Empire and the invasions and conflicts with the western powers deepened China and its main intellectuals and writers in an important psychological trauma (such as Liang Qichao, Zeng Pu, Wu Jianren or Liu E himself): His country was not in the centre of the world anymore, like it had always been believed, and it was necessary to recover a central and suitable position for modern times.

These dilemmas are perfectly represented in Liu E’s best known work “The Travels of Lao Ts'an” (Lao Can youji), of 1903. Its main character travels around North China and is devoted to save the village from the wrong, unfairness and oppression. In this kind of road movie of the end of the Qing Dynasty, Doctor Can and his trips are not more than an excuse to offer us photogram after photogram the China of the time and especially the efforts of writers and intellectuals to report its most negative aspects.

48

Title: Los Viajes del buen doctor Can / Introduction by Juan José Ciruela and Javier Martín Ríos; translation and notes by Gabriel García-Noblejas Sánchez-Cendal Publication: Madrid · Cátedra, 2004 Description: 391 pages; 18 cm

In this sense, Dickens’ novels are the same model to be followed due to its social content: Through the description of all these miseries, the people (or at least those that were able to read them), should reflect and change their attitude rooted in tradition. That is where for writers such as Liu E, the power of fiction and utility of adventure, detective or science-fiction novels: Fiction literature is a key tool to educate the people, a purpose that, despite of the predicted renovation, is still Confucian.

49

Literary Route

Modern Literature Lu Xun Lu Xun (1881-1936) has been traditionally considered the father of Chinese modern literature partly because, after his death, the Chinese Communist Party canonized his work and his figure of a revitalizing iconoclast.

Born in a family of lawyers in decline, the young Lu Xun was influenced by what was around China of the end of the Qing: From the Chinese classics to the translations of western literature such as “Ivanhoe” or “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. After having received western education, Lu Xun moved to Japan where he lived more than six years: At the beginning his purpose was to study western medicine in Japan to modernize the medical science of China, but once he was in the country he decided to devote himself to literature.What the Chinese people really needed, he concluded, was a cure for its mind more than its body.

51

50

Title: Contar nuevo de historias viejas / Lu Xun; translation, introduction and appendix

by Laureano Ramírez Publication: Madrid · Hiperión, cop. 2001 Description: 211 pages; il., 1 fot.; 20 cm

Prolific writer in narrative, poetry and, especially, essay, the conjunction of his life and work offered thematic axles that allow to understand the evolution of Chinese literature: The tension between the enthusiasm and disappointment; the dialectic between an autochthonous tradition and progress imposed by the West; the alienation and maladjustment of the intellectual class; and especially an obsession about the future of China as a country and society.

For this reason, in his story anthologies, the recurrent topic is, precisely, the social reform to gather a modernity marked by the West. Emblematic stories with different styles such as "A Madman's Diary"8 (Kuangren riji; 1918) or "The True Story of Ah Q"9 (AQ zhengzhuan; 1921) "Old Tales Retold" (Gushi xinbian; 1936), a compilation that Lu Xun wrote in the twenties and thirties, establishes an interesting revision of the dichotomy between tradition and modernity through 8

Diari d'un boig i altres relats / Lu Xun; translation and edition by Carles Prado; Barcelona · Edicions de 1984, 2007. 215 pages; 21 cm 9 The True story of AH Q / Lu Xun; translation by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang. Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 200-?. 153 pages; 21 cm

Literary Route

Modern Literature

the rewriting of classical myths. Lu Xun also cultivated the lyrical field: “Wild Grass” (Yecao; 1927) approaches the topic of loneliness of the individual under a pessimistic tone with poetic images.

53

52

Title: Mala herba / Lu Xun; translation and prologue

by Seán Golden and Marisa Presas Publication: Barcelona · Edicions 62, 1994 Description: 156 pages; 20 cm

Literary Route

Modern Literature Lao She One of the most popular Chinese modern writers, Lao She (18991966) built his work from a triple peripheral condition: Ethnical, religious and geographic. Lao She was born in a Manchu ethnic family and converted to Christianity and lived in London for seven years as a Chinese teacher at the School of Oriental Studies. He began to write in the English capital, under the influence of the work of Dickens. He went back to his country having turned into a famous writer after having published three novels in China while he still lived in England: "The Philosophy of Old Zhang" (Lao Zhang zhexue), “Zhao Ziyue” (Zhao Ziyue) and “The two Ma” (Erma).

His most famous work, in China and internationally is, without a doubt, “Camel Xiangzi” (Luotuo Xiangzi). Published in parts in newspapers (as it was usual in the novels of the time) between 1936 and 1937, the novel comes from a lively characterization of the city of Beijing. That is where young Xiangzi arrives, who will try to earn a living as a rickshaw driver. In spite of placing a great effort in it, his purpose will be difficult to fulfil because of the society of the time and of his incapacity to manage his personal project. Thanks to the tension between morality and pesimism, “Camel Xiangzi” has been traditionally interpreted as an allegory of the China of the thirties, a country in an effort for renovation but at the same time within a depression for multiple internal and external reasons.

54

Title: Camel Xiangzi / Lao She; translation by Shi Xiaojing Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 200-?

Description: 541 pages; 21 cm

Lao She was a versatile author. Beyond narrative, in theatre for example, his most famous piece is “The Teahouse”10 (Chaguan; 1957).

He also wrote poetry, books for the traditional Beijing operas, comical dialogues and music pieces. Prolific and versatile author, Lao She was also known for this non-elitist identification with the people. Despite this, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution he was followed by the red guards and committed suicide in 1966.

10

Teahouse / Lao She; translation by John Howard-Gibbon. Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 200-?. 235 pages; 21 cm

55

Literary Route

Modern Literature Ba Jin He was one of the authors that for many years seemed to the first Chinese writer to receive the Nobel Literature Prize (1904-2005).

His works come from the form and structure of the popular literature of the twenties and thirties, but they add a more critical topic that approaches the problems and tensions among the traditional family, highly hierarchical, and on the other side, discordant elements such as its youngest members or modest social classes. This combination was the key of the success of the public and critic of a writer who always acknowledged his foreign influences, especially of anarchism (probably under the impact of his stay in Paris in 1927), as well as of social and cultural movements of the twenties in China.

“The Family” (Jia) is the best known novel by Ba Jin. Published as it was usual in periodical pieces in the media in 1931, the novel launched the author to the summit, and years later he wrote several pieces of the same work. “The Family” describes the conflicts and generational struggles of the Gao family, a family of rich aristocrats and officials. The plot of the novel is centred in the youngest members of the family and in his effort to vindicate an individual personality beyond the family hierarchy.

56

Title: La Familia / Ba Jin; translation from Chinese María Teresa Guzmán Publication: Barcelona · Bruguera, 1982 Description: 384 pages; 19 cm

The action occurs in a house of the Gao that had several generations of a family coexisting in the same housing. This shared physical space is precisely what offers a contact place where all the tensions that characterize the Chinese society in general can be more visible.

In this sense, the family of the novel was adopted by the reading public as a paradigmatic model of the struggle between modernity and tradition: Regarding family, but also in the social and national fields.

57

Literary Route

Modern Literature Qian Zhongshu If it isn’t excessive to consider Qian Zhongshu (1910-1999) as the most erudite of Chinese modern authors, it isn’t either to consider his masterpiece “Fortress Besieged” (Weicheng), as one of the most extraordinary Chinese modern novels and with a greater universal reach.

“Fortress Besieged” appeared in pieces in 1946 and even if it is risky to interpret it only autobiographically, Qian Zhongshu’s trajectory allows us to see the historical and social situation upon which it was built. He was born in a family of officials and he received a solid education. He studied in Oxford for two years and for one in Paris (1935-38). When he went back to Shanghai, China was in the middle of the war chaos and Qian contributed to the reduced current of literary florescence of the decade of the forties, far from the dominant political pamphletism imposed by the military conflicts: The war against Japan (1937-45) and the Civil War (1945-49).

58

In a similar way, “Fortress Besieged” accounts the incidents of its main character, Fang Hongqian, from the moment when he goes back to China after having spent four years in Europe, supposedly devoted to study. When he arrived in Shanghai all sorts of love and family incidents take place and force Fang to accept a position as teacher at a university of the interior of China. After a tortuous trip, Fang will live new adventures that will take him to marriage and to a new return to Shanghai, which closes the novel.

Title: La Fortaleza asediada / Qian Zhongshu; translation from Chinese by Taciana Fisac Publication: Barcelona · Anagrama, 2009 Description: 545 pages; 22 cm

“Fortress Besieged” reminds us of the dialectic between wanting (a relation, a job, an identity) and power, not always resolved dialectic. This is how the title of the novel synthesizes it. If in the first place, it refers to marriage (a place where those who are inside want to run away from but which, at the same time, those who are outside would like to enter) the besieged fortress symbolizes

59

Literary Route

Modern Literature

the cruel scenario of places such as a Shanghai or a China in war.

But, above all, the concept of besieged fortress undresses the human condition itself: It consists of a perpetual dissatisfaction to desire what we do not have. Through humour and satire, Qian Zhongshu colours in a true historical and human drama.

61

60

Qian Zhongshu

Modern Literature · Recommendations

Literary Route

Title: Call to arms / Lu Xun; translation by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 2000 Description: 443 pages; 21 cm

Title: Quatre générations sous un même toit / Lao She Publication: Paris · Mercure de France, cop. 1996-2000 Description: 3 volumes; 18 cm

Title: Mr. Ma & son: a sojourn in london / Lao She; translation

by Julie Jimmersons Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 200-?

Description: 589 pages; 21 cm

Title: Garden of repose / Ba Jin; translation by Jock Hoe Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 200-?

Description: 461 pages; 21 cm 63

62

Title: Masterpieces by modern chinese fiction writers / Lao She and other writers; translation by Sidney Shapiro and others Publication: Beijing · Editions in Foreign Languages, 200-?

Description: 573 pages; 21 cm

Title: Nuit glacée / Pa Kin; translation from Chinese M.-J. Lalitte; pròleg d’Étiemble Publication: Paris · Gallimard, 1989, cop. 1978 Description: 373 pages; 18 cm

Literary Route Contemporary Literature In China, contemporary literature is the one begun in Post-Maoism and the great cultural effervescence during the eighties and that reached the summit in the second half of the decade during the called cultural fever. After decades of extreme politicization of literature, with Maoism as its maximum expression, the main characteristic of the literature of the eighties is an extension of the literary range. Many proposals and projects of literary magnitude and social interest coexist: From the vague poetry by authors such as Bei Dao or Yang Lian and the efforts to revise the traumas of the Cultural Revolution of the literature of scars, to the identity reflections of literature in search for roots or the radical daring of avant-garde literature. Han Shaogong, Wang Anyi, Mo Yan or Yu Hua are highlighted as names of this period.

In 1989 the events of Tiananmen ended this period of renewal and marked a change of direction for contemporary literature: From creativity and experimentation to interest in the market and trading, in parallel with the socio-economic changes and the consumerist boom of the nineties. The literary scenario became dominated by media and controversial authors such as Wang Shuo and by “serious� writers of the eighties already redirected towards the market literature.

64

Bei Dao,Wang Shuo and WangAnyi

The awarding of the Literature Nobel Prize of 2000 to the playwright and novelist Gao Xingjian generated great controversy in China, because he is an exiled author in France who is nationalised as a French due to his political problems in the eighties. Controversial politics aside, the Nobel to Gao involved a shy promotion to the internationalization of current Chinese literature.

65

Literary Route

Contemporary Literature Gao Xingjian If the awarding of the Nobel Prize to the writer, painter and playwright Gao Xingjian (1941-) overwhelms the eagerness of a literature that had always desired this distinction, the political condition of Gao (auto-exiled in Paris and French citizen since 1997) arouse, obviously, great controversy in China.

Gao Xingjian was made known as an avant-garde playwright following modernism, surrealism and Beckett’s theatre of the absurd. These influences marked the general coordinates of his subsequent work, which combines the literary experimentation with the desire of individual expression. For all this, turned into the target of political campaigns, Gao decided to run away to Europe and settle in Paris in the mid-80’s.

66

Title: El Libro de un hombre solo / Gao Xingjian; translation by Xin Fei and José Luis Sánchez; epilogue

by Liu Zafiu Publication: Barcelona · Ediciones del Bronce, 2002 Description: 540 pages; 23 cm

“Soul Mountain” (Lingshan), published in 1990 in Taiwan is the novel that gave him the Nobel Prize. In an itinerant tour around lands of minority Chinese ethnic groups, a traveller observes and even takes part in the traditions and customs that he comes across.

The experience starts reflections about the position of human beings in nature and in society that act as a platform for individual expression and, therefore, do not stop having biographic echoes.

But the dominant characteristic of “Soul Mountain” is the stylistic experimentation: Through the use of different personal pronouns (I, you, him, her) the author explores the multiple angles of loneliness and personality.

Also experimental, but less disperse, is the work “One Man's Bible” (Yigeren de shengjing; 1998). Through a similar game of pronouns, the main character inserts the flashback of his experiences during the Cultural Revolution with the present of his return to Hong Kong, already a successful playwright. From the fusion of the past

67

Literary Route

Contemporary Literature

and the present reflections on memory, history, identity or the role of writing and literature bloom. Gao, again, places his biographic trajectory and complex historical plot to the service of literature and individual expression.

69

68

Title: La Monta帽a del alma / Gao Xingjian; translation

by Liao Yanping and Jos茅 Ram贸n Monreal Publication: Barcelona 路 Ediciones del Bronce, 2002 Description: 651 pages; 23 cm

Contemporary Literature

Literary Route Han Shaogong

Han Shaogong (1953-) had quite archetypical literary beginnings: After six years destined to a region of the interior of Hunan, his first stories were light criticisms to the Cultural Revolution, in the most pure style of the literature of the time that tried to stitch –in an innocent way- the scars of Maoism. But in 1985 in one of his essays, Han proposes a revision of this literary project. He defends a return to the Chinese ethnical roots to find an alternative to the Confucian model that has dominated the Chinese official, traditional and modern culture.

Moreover, his subsequent works are full of surprising characters that connect magic realism to the most avant-garde literature and act in a primitive, brutal and degenerated manner, far from the Confucian structural hierarchy. Han Shaogong proposes, therefore, a questioning of any value and turns to radical relativism, contemporary heritage of the most pure Zhuangzi. A good example of this is his work “Pa pa pa”11 (Ba ba ba; 1985). In this social satire we are told the story of Bing Zai, a retarded child that personifies the problems of a remote and decadent village, within a chaos that doubts the supposed contemporary scientific process.

70

Title: Diccionario de Maqiao/ Han Shaogong; translation by Claudio Molinari Publication: Madrid · Kailas, cop. 2006 Description: 444 pages; 22 cm

But Han’s project reaches its culmination with the novel “A Dictionary of Maqiao” (Maqiao cidian; 1996), one of the most ambitious, original and creative works of the Chinese narrative of the last years.

After an apparent organization in form of dictionary of local words and expressions of the region of Maqiao, the work weaves many accounts about stories, places, characters and customs of the place.

This original collage outlines a local fresco but that, thanks to the reflections of the problems of the language and culture that Han Shaogong adds has an authentic universal reach.

11

Pa Pa Pa / Han Shaogong; traducció de Yunqing Yao. Madrid · Kailas, cop. 2008. 100 pàgines; 21 cm.

71

Literary Route

Ma Jian

Contemporary Literature

Threatened by his dissidence and political problems with the government of Deng Xiaoping, in 1983 Ma Jian (1953-) decided to abandon his job and shelter in the inside of China. This first exile of more than two years inspired him to write “Stick OutYour Tongue”12 (Liangchu ni de shetai huo kongkongdangdang), a compilation of stories placed in Tibet where Ma combines the experimentation of modernist style with topics and descriptions of great toughness and primitivism.

After its publication, sponsored by Gao Xingjian, the controversy raised by the book caused a second exile, this time it was international: In 1987 Ma had to run away to Hong Kong. Subsequently, he moved to Germany and settled down in London, venue for his media projection as an exiled and committed author. From London, Ma has channelled his banishment with literature towards an opportunity for creativity, memory and moral dignity.

72

His last novel, “Beijing Coma” (Routu) evolves around the events of Tiananmen of 1989. It is not by chance that it was published in 2008 in English and in 2009 in Chinese, highly symbolic dates that reinforce its spirit of claim: Just after the Olympic Games of Beijing and on the 30th anniversary of the catastrophe.

Title: Beijing coma / Ma Jian; translation from Chinese

by Flora Drew Publication: London · Chatto & Windus, 2008 Description: 486 pages; 24 cm

Shown through the narration of a student who took part in the demonstrations of Tiananmen and was wounded and in coma, the novel is easily interpreted in an allegorical key: The coma of Dai Wei is, in fact, the coma of a society that after the events of 1989 has given in to wild capitalism and that only memory can awaken.The Chinese original title of the novel “Land of Meat” (rou du) evokes the toughness of the catastrophe and forecasts the detail of many of the descriptions and the reviews of the facts in its pages. Dai Wei did not only take part in the students’ movement, but he plays a role of critical observer of what happened in 1989 and of the subsequent consequences.

12

Treu la llengua saburrosa / Ma Jian; translation from Chinese by Sara Rovira Esteva; prologue by Patricia Schiafini Vedani. Andorra la Vella · Límits, 2002. 113 pages; 19 cm.

73

Literary Route

Contemporary Literature Mo Yan One of the Chinese writers that seems to maybe become the future Nobel Prize of Literature is Mo Yan (1956-). Supported by a long and ambicious career, his work has deserved the acknowledgement of the public and the critic, as well as the praises of international writers such as Kenzaburo Oe. The aspect that distinguishes MoYan’s work is probable the creation of a literary universe from its place of origin, the county of Gaomi in the province of Shandong.This already appears in “Red Sorghum” (Hong gaoliang; 1986), the novel that took him to the fame and was subsequently taken to the cinema by Zhang Yimou (1988).

“Red Sorghum” shows many characteristics that will also be visible in subsequent novels such as “The Garlic Ballads”13 (Tiantang suantai zhi ge; 1988), “Big Breasts & Wide Hips”14 (Fengru feitun; 1995) or “Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out” (Shengsi pilao; 2006).

75

74

In “Red Sorghum”, a voice in first person tells us the story of his grandparents, direct witnesses of the Japanese invasion in the thirties. Four decades later, the narrator relives with admiration the struggle and courage of his ancestors, as well as the many atrocities of the times. In a combination of mythical and historical elements, often of great cruelty and explicit violence, Mo Yan rewrites the formula of the traditional historical novel: In “Red Sorghum” and his subsequent novels, the characters are not (only) heroes, but complex beings whose heroism does not excuse them from falling in passions and serious mistakes.

Title: Sorgo rojo / Mo Yan; translation by Ana Poljak Publication: Barcelona · El Aleph, 2002 Description: 622 pages; 18 cm

This dialectica uses a game between reality and fiction that squeezes the virtues of literature facing literature. In this sense, the critic has seen in “Red Sorghum” the influence of magic realism and García Márquez, especially taking into account the great impact the translation into Chinese of “A hundred years of solitude” in 1982.

13

Las baladas del ajo / Mo Yan; translation by Carlos Ossés. Madrid · Kailas, 2008. 489 pages; 21 cm.

Grandes pechos, amplias caderas / Mo Yan; translation by Mariano Peyrou. Madrid · Kailas, 2007. 836 pages; 21 cm.

14

Literary Route

Contemporary Literature Yu Hua És ben conegut que qui ha estat qualificat com l’escriptor xinès amb més talent de l’actualitat,Yu Hua, durant un temps va fer de dentista. Això, segons alguns crítics, va marcar el to violent i esborronador de la seva obra. La veritat és que Yu Hua va néixer el 1960 i va viure la Revolució Cultural de nen, per la qual cosa se’n va poder distanciar i —sota la influència d’autors com Kawabata, Borges, Kafka o del nouveau roman francès— va reubicar a la seva manera les narratives habituals de denúncia d’aquest període.

Des d’un punt de vista literari, les obres més interessants de Yu Hua són probablement les de la seva primera etapa d’avantguarda.

Durant la segona meitat dels vuitanta, Yu Hua (juntament amb altres autors com Can Xue, Su Tong o Ge Fei) irromp en l’escena literària xinesa amb relats exempts de significació política o social.

Després de diverses dècades de realisme socialista imposat, aquest buit constitueix un gest radicalment innovador: les absurditats violentes, les atmosferes oníriques o uns personatges maleables conformen una ambigüitat provocativa i, alhora, reivindiquen el paper de la literatura com a pura creació.

76

Títol: Brothers / Yu Hua; traducció d’Ana Poljak Publicació: Barcelona · Seix Barral Descripció: 870 pàgines; 23 cm

En la segona etapa, caracteritzada per un gir cap al realisme amb tocs de sàtira i d’humor,Yu Hua es converteix en escriptor popular gràcies a novel·les com ‘Viure’15 (Huozhe, 1992), que va portar al cinema Zhang Yimou el 1994; ‘El venedor de sang’ (Xu Sanguan mai xue ji, 1995), o el seu gran èxit Brothers (Xiongdi), publicada en dos volums el 2005 i el 2006.

Mentre que la primera part de Brothers, ambientada durant la Revolució Cultural, té un to que recorda l’etapa avantguardista de Yu Hua, la segona part se situa en les últimes dècades del segle XX i s’instal·la en un registre més realista. Les peripècies de dos 15

Vivir / Yu Hua, en curs

77

Literary Route

Contemporary Literature

germans, Li Guangtou i Song Gang, són l’excusa perquè Brothers construeixi una gran al·legoria de l’absurditat, el surrealisme, la crueltat i la desmesura de la Xina d’avui, a cavall entre les cicatrius d’un passat recent i les incerteses d’un present encara no digerit.

79

78

Title: Chronicle of a blood merchant: a novel / Yu Hua; translation by Andrew F. Jones Publication: New York · Anchor Books, 2004 Description: 263 pages; 21 cm

Literary Route

Contemporary Literature · Recommendations

Title: Después del diluvio / Gao Xingjian Publication: Barcelona · El Cobre, 2008 Description: 145 pages: il.; 28 cm

Title: Shifu, you'll do anything for a laugh / Mo Yan; translation from Chinese by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin Publication: London · Methuen, 2002 Description: 188 pages; 24 cm

Title: Una caña de pescar para el abuelo / Gao Xingjian; translation by Laureano Ramírez Publication: Barcelona · Ediciones del Bronce, 2003 Description: 110 pages; 22 cm

Title: La Vida y la muerte me están desgastando / Mo Yan; translation by Carlos Ossés Li-chun Lin Publication: Madrid · Kailas, cop. 2009 Description: 757 pages; 21 cm 81

80

Title: En torno a la literatura / Gao Xingjian; translation from Chinese by d Laureano Ramírez Bellerín Publication: Barcelona · El Cobre; Madrid / Editorial Complutense, 2003 Description: 119 pages; 22 cm

Title: Cries in the drizzle: a novel / Yu Hua; translation and prologue by Allan H. Barr Publication: New York · Anchor Books, 2007 Description: 304 pages; 21 cm

Literary Route Hybrid Literature The Chinese Diaspora throughout the last centuries and globalization in the last decades have caused the birth of a vibrant and interesting literature from different points of view. More than thirty million Chinese origin citizens live outside the borders of the People’s Republic, from southeast Asia to North America, from Europe to Australia. Within this group of first, second and third generation immigrants maintain, and change at the same time, their Chinese origin culture.

This hybrid literature shows phenomenons such as intercultural, racial or generational tensions and reinforms –or questions- visions and stereotypes previously established by society. Adapted to a new linguistic context, many of the mestizo authors do not write in Chinese, but they choose the language of the culture of adoption, which opens the doors to a different market and, often, characterized to predetermined expectations.

82

Many works of these authors describe their origins in China and recreated in an autobiographic manner, their memories of the time. The description of the new hybrid reality they live in now is also common. Generally, the identity topic and the exploration of what it is like to be Chinese in a global world is what predominate. In this sense, the geographic separation gives a distance perspective (not necessarily objective) in the vision of China and what’s Chinese.

Book Fair of Beijing

Moreover, these works question the etiquette of the Chinese literature. If we consider that literature is determined by the language it is written in, many of these works are not part of the Chinese literature stricto sensu, but of the English, French or North American literature. But at the same time, they come across features to be added to these other categories. In the English world hybrid concepts have appeared, such as Asian-American or

83

Literary Route

Hybrid Literature Sino-Western, which try to acknowledge the specific characteristics of these works, showing their complexities, but at the same time maintaining them in a border land.

85

84

From Chinatown to Manhattan

Literary Route

Hybrid Literature Maxine Hong Kingston Filla d’emigrants xinesos de primera generació, Maxine Hong Kingston va néixer a Califòrnia el 1940. La seva primera novel·la, ‘La dona guerrera’ (TheWomanWarrior), publicada el 1975, li va valer el reconeixement de públic i crítica als Estats Units. Aquí elabora els principals eixos sobre els quals Hong Kingston utilitzarà de suport en obres posteriors. Combinant la ficció amb els tints autobiogràfics, l’escriptora californiana denuncia els problemes racials i de gènere que comporta la condició sinoamericana: les dificultats de ser una dona d’origen xinès a Amèrica.

‘La dona guerrera’ inclou cinc relats independents protagonitzats per la narradora o per éssers que li són propers. Al llarg dels relats, la narració exerceix de testimoniatge directe o indirecte de les experiències traumàtiques i difícils de dones xineses o d’origen ètnic xinès: el suïcidi d’una tia perquè pareix un fill il·legítim; la seva pròpia infantesa intercultural; les dificultats de la mare a l’escola mèdica a la Xina; la crisi nerviosa de la tia després d’haver emigrat als Estats Units, o la seva pròpia experiència al sistema educatiu nord-americà.

86

Title: La Mujer guerrera: memorias de una adolescente entre fantasmas / Maxine Hong Kingston; translation by Begoña Simal Publication: Barcelona · El Cobre, 2009 Description: 322 pages; 22 cm

En aquesta i altres obres posteriors, Maxine Hong Kingston expressa la necessitat de relatar, de convertir les vivències humanes en literatura. La barreja de realitat autobiogràfica (personal i familiar) amb elements fantàstics, que beuen, entre altres fonts, de la literatura i la història xinesa tradicionals, és una de les seves característiques més destacables. Hong Kingston converteix en literatura la dificultat de viure, com a dona, a cavall entre dues cultures i dues generacions.

Aquest joc d’aire postmodern entre la descripció parcialment personal i, alhora, parcialment fictícia d’una realitat híbrida i dels conflictes identitaris que la caracteritzen, ha situat Maxine Hong Kingston en un lloc canònic de la literatura sinoamericana. Així mateix, la seva popularitat unida a un notable compromís polític l’han convertit en portaveu de diversos moviments socials de la Costa Oest dels Estats Units.

87

Literary Route

Hybrid Literature Timothy Mo Timothy Mo (1950-) was born in Hong Kong but his family –Chinese father and English mother– emigrated to England when he was ten. He studied History at the University of Oxford and subsequently his literary trajectory has gone in parallel with his job as a journalist. “Sour Sweet”, Mo's second novel, published in 1982, is without a doubt result of his triple facet as a historian, journalist and narrator. The novel, which was taken to cinema in 1988 by Mike Newell and with the script by Ian McEwan, describes with intensity the problems of emigration of of live between two cultures.

Set in Chinatown in London in the sixties, “Sour Sweet” accounts the experiences of the family Chen, immigrants that leave Hong Kong to settle in this city in the English capital. Beyond describing, with a certain comical tone, the problems of adoptation to the London life, “Sour Sweet” reveals what is hidden behind the restaurants and the Chinese shops of the capital. The novel is centred, especially, in mafias that impact the family life of the father of Chen.

88

Title: Agridulce / Timothy Mo; translation by Maribel de Juan Publication: Barcelona · Anagrama, cop. 1995 Description: 387 pages; 22 cm

The merit of Mo is to go beyond the simple journalistic account in a literary manner, beyond the simple documentary. The two families, the Chen and the mafia, interweave in the chapters, the same way the intercultural and intracultural representations and reflections: Between Chinese and English people and between Chinese and Chinese people. “Sour Sweet” shows us, in a radically literary way, that the Chinese identity is not uniform, in China or in the diaspora. Story of misunderstandings and prejudices, silences and internal and external borders with the culture itself, the work of Mo turns to change and the adaptation as features for survival.

89

Literary Route

Hybrid Literature Amy Tan Chinese origin Chinese, Amy Tan (1952-) became famous thanks to "The Joy Luck Club”, published in English in 1989. Four years later, the novel was adapted to cinema by Wayne Wang. The success of the public of the film contributed to increase the fame of Tan in the international literary field and he role in a media manner that has taken her to combine literature with journalism and media.

“The Joy Luck Club” takes us to the periodical meetings that several friends, mothers and daughters, of Chinese origin have. As well as betting on majiang, the typical Chinese domino, the players use the meetings to tell stories of their everyday lives. In this novel, Tan uses some of the coordinates of her subsequent work: The recovery of memory, the gender topic in a female key, the generational conflicts and certain exoticism as an intercultural claim.

In “The Bonesetter’s Daughter”16 Tan follows this line and explores the relationships between mothers and daughters and intergenerational, historical and intercultural conflicts, marked by the migratory process: Often the characters of her novels show the tensions between mothers (born in China and emigrated) and daughters (born on the other side of the Pacific).

90

Title: El Club de la Buena Estrella / Amy Tan; translation by Miguel García Solá Publication: Barcelona · Plaza & Janés · Debolsillo, 2002 Description: 363 pages; 18 cm

One of her last novels is “Saving Fish From Drowning”17. The novel accounts the experiences of a dozen US tourists who disappear in the forest of Burma through an interesting narrative resource: The voice of who the guide must have been, Bibi Chen, but who died before the trip. In this work, Amy Tan moves away from the matriarchal conflict without forgetting her critical accent, placed this time on the inequalities and hipocresia of a media and global society.

16

La hija del curandero / Amy Tan; translation by Mª Eugenia Ciocchini. Barcelona · Plaza & Janés, 2001.

430 pages; 26 cm.

17 Un lugar llamado nada / Amy Tan; translation by Claudia Conde. Barcelona · Planeta, 2006. 475 pages; 22 cm.

91

Literary Route

Hybrid Literature Dai Sijie If there is a Chinese topic novel that has recently had a trae sale success in the West, this is “Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise” by Dai Sijie, originally published in French in 2000. His popularity in France was initially promoted by the television critic Bernard Pivot in one of his influential programmes about books. The plot of the novel, as well as its reading in an autobiographic key, were also keys as a claim in the international market. Born in 1954, Dai Sijie lived the Cultural Revolution as a teenager and experimented situations that he recreated in his literary and cinematographic work. Dai studies cinematography in France in the eighties and has continued living in the French country, due to the difficulty of shooting films in China.

“Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise” accounts the experiences of two young people, who during the Cultural Revolution, are sent to a rural area of the interior of China, close to Tibet, to be “reeducated”.

Written in an ironic key, with condescend sense of humour, the novel is built from a superposition of two looks more or less critical with the Cultural Revolution:Young intellectual Chinese people and of western readers, who are who receive the story. Both perspectives share certain condescension towards a rural stereotypical and belated China, but at the same time innocent and beautiful, embodied with the young sewer of the title.

92

Title: Balzac y la joven costurera china / Dai Sijie; translation by Miguel García Solá Publication: Barcelona · Salamandra, cop. 2002 Description: 267 pages; 18 cm

The plot unchains when the young people discover several banned French novels by Balzac and other authors. From there, Dai recreates the contrast between literary enjoy (and everything that is associated to it: Freedom, aesthetic beauty, the role of the West as a freer) and political impositions (from the banning of books and other everyday aspects to the motive for which the young stars are being “reeducated”).

93

Literary Route

Hybrid Literature Ha Jin In repeated interviews and public presentations, Ha Jin (1956-) has commented his choice of English as the language of creation.

For someone like him, who was born in China and lived there almost thirty years, it is not a desertion or a betray to his mother tongue, like some have wanted to imply, but an issue of vital survival, a way to channel his creative energy in a new context to achieve a whole existence.

During the Cultural Revolution, Ha Jin joined the People's Liberation Army. After finishing his university studies in China, in 1984 he moved to the United States to course a PhD in English literature. His idea was to subsequently go back to his country, but as it happened to many Chinese citizens who were abroad in 1989, the events of Tiananmen made him change his mind. After Tiananmen, Ha Jin decided to consolidate his condition of emigrant and is currently teacher of English literature in a North American university.

94

As a writer, he has worked on poetry and narrative. His works have achieved the respect of the critic and several awards, the National Book Award for “Waiting”, probably his best known work, and the PEN/Faulkner Award for “War Trash”, among others.

Title: La Espera / Ha Jin; translation by Jordi Fibla Publication: Barcelona · Tusquets, 2001 Description: 338 pages; 21 cm

The waiting of the title is about the waiting of Lin Kong, a doctor who lives between two worlds and two wives: His wife Shuyu, modest and traditional woman who lives in a village of rural China and whom he married when he was very young for the decision of the family; and Manna Wu, a modern woman who he has been in love with for years. The background of a society in transition from tradition to modernity, which Ha Jin describes with every detail, makes the waiting of Lin Kong be highly symbolic and local.

95

Literary Route

Hybrid Literature

But at the same time, its topic and feeling of passions make its reach be totally universal.

97

96

Title: Despojos de guerra/ Ha Jin; translation by Noemí Sobrequés Publication: Barcelona · Tusquets, 2007 Description: 382 pages; 21 cm

Hybrid Literature · Recommendations

Literary Route

Title: China Men / Maxine Hong Kingston Publication: London · Picador, 1981 Description: 300 pages; 20 cm

Title: The Redundancy of courage / Timothy Mo Publication: London · Paddleless, 2002 Description: 408 pages; 20 cm

Title: An Insular possession / Timothy Mo Publication: London · Paddleless, 2002 Description: 733 pages; 20 cm

Title: Los Cien sentidos secretos / Amy Tan; translation by Jordi Fibla Publication: Barcelona · Tusquets, 1996 Description: 386 pages; 23 cm 99

98

Title: The Monkey king / Timothy Mo Publication: London · Vintage, 1993 Description: 215 pages; 20 cm

Title: La Dona del déu de la cuina / Amy Tan; translation by Mireia Porta and Arnau Publication: Barcelona · Muchnik, cop. 1992 Description: 518 pages; 21 cm

Hybrid Literature · Recommendations

Ruta literària

Title: La Esposa del dios del fuego / Amy Tan; translation by Jordi Fibla Publication: Barcelona · Tusquets, 1992 Description: 376 pages; 23 cm

Title: En el estanque / Ha Jin Publication: Barcelona · Tusquets, 2002 Description: 213 pages; 20 cm

Title: Contra el destí: un llibre de reflexions / Amy Tan; translation by Joan Puntí and Esther Roig Publication: Barcelona · Edicions 62, 2004 Description: 350 pages; 23 cm

Title: Sombras del pasado / Ha Jin; translation by Jordi Fibla Publication: Barcelona · Tusquets, 2005 Description: 339 pages; 21 cm 101

100

Title: El Complejo de Di / Dai Sijie Publication: Barcelona · Salamandra, cop. 2005 Description: 318 pages; 22 cm

Title: Yang, el boig / Ha Jin; translation by Ramon Folch and Camarasa Publication: Barcelona · La Campana, 2005 Description: 402 pages; 22 cm