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Literature: Historic and Contemporary
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Ma Yilun,
Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China.
HUANG PI-SHU—A UNIQUE RECEPTION OF SOVIET LITERATURE IN
MAINLAND CHINA
ХУАН ПИ-ШУ—УНИКАЛЬНЫЙ ПРИЕМ РЕЦЕПЦИИ СОВЕТСКОЙ
ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ В КИТАЕ
Abstract
This article is devoted to the research on Huang Pi-shu, the publication with restrictions from 1960s to 1970s, and its role as a unique reception of Soviet literature in mainland China. It reviews three stages of the Soviet literature reception in mainland China. Besides, it analyzes how Soviet literature was received in mainland China and why these restricted publications of Soviet literature enjoyed a great popularity in that historical period. Finally, the reception of Soviet literature through Huang Pi-shu had also an impact on the literary creation of Chinese contemporary literature. Huang Pi-shu cultivated the youth in 1960s and 1970s in the period of cultural desertification and enlightened the youths' self-consciousness and rebellion against official discourse.
Keywords: Huang Pi-shu, reception, Soviet literature, mainland China.
Introduction
The reception of Soviet literature in the second half of the 20th century in mainland China has experienced three stages: the "Honey-moon" period (from the end of the 1940s to 1950s), the period of alienation (from 1960s to 70s), and the period of deepening (from 1980s to 1990s), affected by the diplomatic relations between both countries. In the period of alienation, China and Soviet Union collided severely because of the disagreements in many areas and the political relationship between the two nations turns to the Sino-Soviet Split situation. From mid-1963 to mid-1964, Mao supervised the publication of nine anti-Soviet polemics, where the primary intention was to discredit the Soviet leadership further [6]. Since then, Soviet literature had no longer been the well-recognized and recommended foreign literature in mainland China. After 1964, the Soviet and Russian literature had almost disappeared from the public prints of mainland China. In comparison, during the "Honey-moon" period, based on the statistics from Chen Jianhua, from October 1949 to December 1958, the number of Russian literary works which had been translated into Chinese in mainland China was 3526 (translation works in
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newspapers and periodicals are not included here), with more than 82 million printed copies [2]. Besides, the literary studies for the foreign literature and comparative literature were "silent" from 60s to 70s last century, with "one obvious explanation for this is that the political situation in China during the time permitted no studies of Western literature... and the political exclusion of comparative literature was a consequence of Mao's cultural policy and an extension of the establishment of political uniformity in the domain of literary studies", pointed out by Xiaoyi Zhou and Q.S. Tong [11].
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From 1966 to 1976, it seems that there was nearly nothing of foreign literature published in mainland China compared to that of the 1950s. Besides, the literary production was silenced in the official discourse. The literary translation was directly intervened and highly manifested under the control of ideology and political power. At that time, the Cultural Revolution served as the context for the translation as a whole. However, the translation work into Chinese was in fact still active at that time and the reception of Soviet literature had not become stagnant, in whichHuang Pi-Shu served as a unique way. A series of Huang Pi-Shu, such as Ilya Ehrenburg's People, Years, Life,and The Thaw, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Yevgeny Yevtushenko's Yagodnyye Mesta and Babi Yar, Vasily Aksyonov's Ticket to the Stars, Konstantin Simonov's Living and Dead, Chyngyz Aitmatov's White Steamer, Yury Trifonov's House on the Embankment, Vsevolod Kochetov's What Do You Want Then? were translated into Chinese and published in the limited circle.
Pi-shu discussed here is a certain kind of publications with restrictions in mainland China which are named Hui Pi-shu or Huang Pi-shu in the 50s to 70s last century with simply gray or yellow book covers. One need mention that Pi-shu here does not refer to authoritative documents or reports, like the White Paper or the Beige Book, published by the government or organization in some areas to help understand an issue or analyze a problem. The series of Pi-shu, however, includes Western scholar's works on Socialism and Communism, dissidents' critical works on Stalinism and Stalin's autocracy, works of "revisionists" and "opportunists", like L.Trotsky and M.Bakunin. Besides, there were novels from European and American literature and the "revisionist" literary works from Soviet Union published as well.
At this time, the Soviet literary works were translated, edited, introduced and received by the Chinese readers through the means of Huang Pi-shu. Huang Pi-shu, a sort of restricted publication, emerged in the period of early 1960s and was fairly widely published twice in this period. The first time is at the beginning of 1960s during the Sino-Soviet Split and the second time is at the beginning of 1970s, when the "Four Olds Campaign" (Si Ren Bang) organized the journal "Zhai Yi" (Selected Translation), introducing western literary works (mostly European and American literature), scientific achievements of natural science and social science abroad as
materials for the negative example of Western capitalism and Soviet revisionism.
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In early 1960s, Huang Pi-shu was categorized as the internally distributed publications, which should not be advertised, displayed, exhibited or sold publicly and labeled "For Internal
Circulation Only" (Neibu Faxing). Before the Cultural Revolution, these Huang Pi-shu were sold only in the designated "internal bookstore"(Neibu Shudian) and should be purchased with the documents only for a limited number of high-ranking officials and elite intellectuals, in order to let them keep the pace of international ideological trends, not to be "poisoned" by the Soviet revisionists. In addition, the Communist Party attempted to maintain control over the reception of foreign literature. Western literary works were translated in the name of "introducing the evil capitalist society with critique". In the preface of these Huang Pi-shu, it shows that translating these literary works intended to reflect "the miserable life of Soviet people", "arbitrary and tyrannical Soviet cadres", "a bourgeois style of life in Soviet Union today", and the "decadent and depressed young generation in Soviet Union".
During the Cultural Revolution, the foreign literary works were treated as outcasts. In this sense, the translation of foreign literature was published and distributed only in an internal and restricted way, except for six Soviet novels, including Maxim Gorky's In the World (translated by Ru Long, Renmin Wenxue Press, 1975.10), Mother (translated by Xia Yan, Renmin Wenxue Press, 1973.5), January 9ih(translated by Cao Jinhua, Shaanxi Renmin Press, 1972.12), Alexander Fadeyev's The Young Guard (translated by Shui Fu, Renmin Wenxue Press, 1975.10), Nikolai Ostrovsky's How The Steel Was Tempered (translated by Mei Yi, Renmin Wenxue Press, 1976.10), Alexander Serafimovich's The Iron Flood (translated by Cao Jinhua, Renmin Wenxue Press, 1973.9). The theme of these literary works are mainly on the October Revolution, the Great Patriotic War and the socialist construction, being the reflex of socialist realism during the 1966-1976.
Although official literary publications were scarce in both quantitative and qualitative ways during the Cultural Revolution, many young people continued to read foreign literary works which was forbidden during the most censored period in the twentieth century. [8] The venue was Huang Pi-shu. It was unexpected by the official departments, that during the period of the Cultural Revolution, a number of Huang Pi-shu "flew" to the young Chinese, which had brought the idea of modernity to the young generation. Ironically, Huang Pi-shu which intended to serve as an opposite example of the decadent Europeans, Americans and Soviet revisionists, had become one of the most important ways in that historical period for dissemination of contemporary foreign literature in mainland China. Before the Cultural Revolution, there were a small number of people could get access to read the Huang Pi-shu and those books were merely circulated in the underground reading circles for intellectuals, mostly in Beijing. "Poets Club X" (X Shishe) and "Sun Brigade" (Taiyang Zongdui) are their representatives, where the spirits of humanism and didacticism are respected and admired.
During the Cultural Revolution, the "underground reading" had become popular at that time. Schools and colleges were closed and many Chinese youngsters found that they had a plenty of free time with nothing to do and realized their spiritual emptiness. In this sense, the manifested reading had whetted the desire for reading. Consequently, reading groups and salons were spontaneously set up and the dissemination of the restricted publications became wider, draw strength from the "heterogeneous civilization". By the means of group reading, many Huang Pi-shu or their handwritten copies were handed down on a large scale, especially among the senior
high and college students. In the 1970s, the "underground reading" was no longer only in Beijing, it had spread to other cities, like Shanghai, Xi'an, Changsha, Nanning, and even to the country sides where lived the educated youths (Zhiqin), since urban youths were sent to the countryside after 1968, leading to the new dissemination and circulation in even wider areas. By reading Huang Pi-shu, the young people with educated minds and intellectual doubts seem to have returnedto an ivory tower. Some of the books were even broken and lack of their covers, but the souls and minds of millions of Chinese young generations were delighted through these restricted publications. As the hidden bridge to the outsides world, Huang Pi-shu let the young realize how insane their society is. They tried to more rationally deliberate the reality and future destiny.
Take one witness and member of the underground reading group as an example. Pan Jin, a member of the reading circle "Gongchan Qinnian Xuehui", in her memorial article mentioned that, at that time some young people were crazily searching for the Hui Pi-shu and Huang Pi-shu. The father of her friend, a leader of the department for literature and art, had a collection of Huang Pi-shu at home. She remembered that the Huang Pi-shu that enlightened her most was the Ehrenburg's Lyudi, Gody, Zhizn and Yevtushenko's poems.[7] Being the carnival field for the young minds, the underground reading group had attempted to dispel mainstream ideology and formed the dialogues between ordinary people. The skeptical spirits and rational minds with a diversity of discourses had deconstructed the meta-narration of the Culture Revolution underground.
Huang Pi-shu had a great impact on both life and characteristics of the generation. Ticket to the Stars, the "Russian The Catcher in the Rye", was one of the most popular novels among Huang Pi-shu. Aksyonov's Ticket to the Star sand The Catcher in the Rye of J. Salinger were introduced to mainland China in the same period. Both of the novels had brought to the young readers a brand new reading experience, which is outside the official discourse, and let them step into the forbidden zone away from the public.Through the reading experience of these books, the young generation set eyes on the humanism and individualism, hoping to keep their own personality and lead the way of life of their own.
In the foreword of the Ticket to the Starstranslation of the Huang Pi-shu edition, it mentions that this novel describes a group of young hooligans after the graduation from school deserted their families and left home chasing for excitements, dreaming to lead a western decadent lifestyle. Besides, it is said that the author intended to advocate for the depraved western outlook on life and embellish the lifestyle of the Beat Generation in the capitalized world. However, contrary to the original intention of Huang Pi-shu, Ticket to the Stars, one of the so-called "Du-Cao" (poisonous weeds, meaning harmful speech, writing, etc.), become attractive to the Chinese youngsters in the 60s and 70s. Based on the memory of poet Duo Duo,Ticket to the Starsand The Catcher in the Rye were "two of the most fashionable books", which have brought "a new trend to the new generation of Beijing" [5:195].
Ticket to the Starshad set a beginning for young intellectuals' self-consciousness and critical thinking. Ren Zhiqiang said, when reading the books like Ticket to the Stars, he began to be suspicious about thesocialist system. He likes to read the novels of soviet writers, because the 76
questions, being raised in these books, had been also faced in mainland China during the period of Cultural Revolution.[9] In the novel, by depicting the runaway teenagers' rebellion, dreams and bewilderment of the youth-hood, the author conveyed the idea of anti-hero, showing an antiorthodox cultural tendency. Being the witnesses of the totalitarian regime, the "lost generation" of the youth experienced the constraining of human nature and the degeneration of humanity. It inspired the young to leave home and go out to see the outside world like the protagonist, showing the great desire of being independent and getting away from the adults' autocratic world. There is no doubt that this kind of reading would be an adventure of the young mind in that historical period. Reading the Ticket to the Starswas a special way to imagine the free youth life and the precious secrets of the teenagers, which was not permitted officially at that time in mainland China.
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With the lack of books and periodicals for introducing foreign literature for ten years, there was a great boom for the "thick literary journal" since 1978. "Shijie Wenxue" (World Literature), "Waiguo Wenxue" (Foreign Literature) and "Yi-lin" (Translations) were founded to introduce the contemporary foreign literature. Li Jingrui, the editor of literary journal "Yi-lin", mentioned that, in the first volume in November 1979, the translation of the novelDeath on the Nile came out, causing quite a stir to a majority of readers who had not been access to contemporary western literature. The first edition of 200,000 copies was soon exhausted. There were even black markets for the journal "Yi-lin", the price of which was 2 Yuan for each, compared to the original price for 1,2 Yuan. [4]
The reception of Huang Pi-shu through underground reading had an obvious influence on literary creation of writers and poets in mainland China. In the "reading desert", which was occupied by the political propaganda, Huang Pi-shu irrigated the cultural wasteland and filled the gap of foreign literature at that time, providing the Chinese young generation with those, which never exist at that time in the public literature, such as love, humanity and individual consciousness.
Huang Pi-shu and its underground literary reading had influenced the literary creation of the underground poetry, in particular the Baiyangdian poetry tribe (Baiyangdian Shiqun) and the development of the New poetry in mainland China. Baiyangdian poetry tribe was formed in 1960s to 1970s (from 1969 to 1976) in Baiyangdian, Hebei Province, where educated youths from Beijing, including Mang Ke, Gen Zi, Duo Duo, Fang Han, Lin Mang, Ma Jia, Yue Zhong etc., who were representative poets of the underground poetry during the Cultural Revolution. Baiyangdian poetry tribe has connected the tradition of modernity during the period of May the Fourth and the Misty poetry (Menglongshi) in 1980s. In their poetry in 1970s, it can be noticed that the artistic consciousness and individual traits were involved. "The subjectivity of the poems has been transferred and the dignity of human-being has been established. Never be departed from conscience. Never be the spiritual slaves of others." [5: 206] Huang Pi-shu has inspired many young poets to "run away", searching for their spiritual fulfillment through the literary creation and struggling to narrate the self through poetry.
Through the translation of Ehrenburg's People, Years, Life, a number of great novelists and poets were introduced to mainland China and were noticed by the Misty poets. Through the life-writing of these exiled poets in Soviet Russia, many young poets had found the spiritual resonance and let them understand the dignity of man. When reading People, Years, Life in 1972, the poet Duo Duo read about Russian poet M. Tsvetaeva and her collection of poems Remeslo (The Craft). Feeling great empathy for the poetess, the Chinese poet Duo Duo was inspired by Tsvetaeva and wrote his own poem with the same title, Shouyi— He Malina Ciweitayewa (Craft—After Marina Tsvetaeva). In his acceptance speech for the2010 Neustadt Prize, he said:
"Upon hearing the verses of Baudelaire, Lorca, Tsvetaeva, and Ehrenburg for the first time, a generation of Chinese poets was already grateful—for the transmission of creativity from hand to hand during those stark years. Words, in the hands of their receivers, had directly become destiny " [3]
Besides, the political lyric poetry of Chinese poet Bei Dao was enlightened by the Soviet writers and for example influenced by the poems of Yevgeny Yevtushenko. In the Bei Dao's poem Boat Ticket, the reading experience of Zvyozdny Bilet could also be found in it, which deployed the similar symbol of the ticket:
He doesn't have a boat ticket how can he go on board the clanking of the anchor chain disturbs the night here
time hasn't come to a stop
in the sunken boat the fire is being stoked
rekindling red coral flames
when the waves tower up
glittering indeterminately, the eyes of the dead
float up from the ocean depths
He doesn't have a boat ticket [1]
After the period of ten-years Cultural Revolution, the "Scar literature" (Shanghen Wenxue), a genre of Chinese literature, emerged in mainland China, which was unconsciously influenced by the restricted publications through 1960s to 1970s. The first literary work of this genre is Lu Xinhua's 1978 story "Scar", which attacked the official hypocrisy and corruption. After that, a lot of literary works came out, known as the "Introspective literature", which aims to rethink the problems in the society during and after the Cultural Revolution. The literary genre "Scar literature" and the "Introspective literature" are similar to the Thaw of Soviet literature, which began from the publication of Ehrenburg's "Thaw" (Ottepel'). The writers of both the "Scar literature" and the "Thaw literature" can be seen as the new settlers who had broken the forbidden area of literature. During the "Honey-moon" period of the Sino-Russian Relations, there was a popular and ambitious slogan: "Today in Soviet Union is the tomorrow in China",
however, it seems to be an irony throughout the history. The totalitarianism had brought extreme suffering for Soviet people, and the ten years of Cultural Revolution had led to the alienation of culture in mainland China and ruined the dignity of Chinese people. In the cultural wasteland, being shortage of books, Huang Pi-shu nourished the Chinese writers, who were forced to drop literary writing at that time, and meanwhile cultivated the new generation of contemporary Chinese writers and poets in 1980s, including Shu Ting, Wang Meng, Zhang Kangkang, Liang Xiaosheng, Lu Tianming, etc.
Because of the similar experiences, the Huang Pi-shu of Soviet literature had struck a responsive chord in the hearts of general Chinese readers. The young generation who suffered in the Cultural Revolution found the similarities between their minds in those novels. They tend to be suspicious, depressed and to rethink after the madness of idol worship and collapse of the traditional moral beliefs. As it is mentioned by Shuyu Kong, the urban youths of the early 1970s, especially those from Beijing, who once served in the Red Guard, but exiled to the remote countryside, found echoes in their spiritual minds of alienation[10]. The series of Huang Pi-shu influenced not only the literary creations, but a whole generation. "Huang Pi-shu" is often mentioned in the memoir articles. An ordinary reader said that although after 30 years since reading the Ticket to the Stars, he has forgotten what the plot of that novel is, but it recalls him of
his reading experience when he was young. In addition, a reader was attracted by the book-
Trifonov's House on the Embankment, from which he got to know what the "little person" is like in the Stalin era, and obviously it is the character that is different from the one in the official grand narrative of the Soviet literature.
Conclusion
In conclusion, during the dark days from 60s to 70s last century, the Huang Pi-shu were spreading through the underground reading circles, leading to a unique reception of Soviet literature in the cultural desertification. The translation of Soviet literature by the publications of Huang Pi-shu was the beacon of the generation from 1960s to 1970s, which set up the light for the Chinese intelligentsia and confused youths in that benighted cultural "bleak winter". Ticket to the Stars, as well as other Huang Pi-shu, were reprinted and republished in 1990s and the beginning of the new century, becoming surface from the underground and back to the spotlight of foreign literature in mainland China.
References:
1. Bei Dao. The August Sleep Walker Poetry. Trans. B.Mcdougall. New York: New Directions Publishing, 1990.
2. Chen Jianhua. Ershi Shiji Zhong'e Wenxue Guanxi (Literary Relationship between China and Russia in 20th Century). Shanghai: Xue Lin Press, 1998, p.184.
3. Duo Duo. The 2010 Neustadt Prize Lecture, acceptance speech. [EB/OL]. [2016-03]. (http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2011/march/2010-neustadt-prize-lecture-acceptance-speech).
4. Li Jingrui. Waiguo Wenxue Chuban de Yiduan Bozhe(A Period of Twists and Turns for the Foreign Literature Publications). Chuban Shiliao, 2005(02), p.28.
5. Liao Yiwu. Chenlun de Shengdian: Zhongguo Ershi Shiji Qishi Niandai Dixia Shige Yizhao (Destruction of the Temple: A Portrait of the Deceased for the Underground Poems in 1970s), Xinjiang Qinnian Press, 1999.
6. Lüthi, L. M..The Sino-Soviet Split: Cold War in the Communist World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, p.273.
7. Pan Jin. Xinlu Licheng-"Wenge " zhong de Sifengxin (Journey of the Heart-Four
Letters in Cultural Revolution). Zhongguo Zuojia, 1994(06), p.176.
8. Perry Link, "Hand-Copied Entertainment Fiction from the Cultural Revolution" in Perry Link, Richard P. Madsen, and Paul G. Pickowicz, eds., Unofficial China: Popular Culture and Thought in Socialist China. Boulder: Westview Press, 1989, pp.17-36.
9. Ren Zhiqiang, Liu Xiaoguang, Wang Wei. Yuedu Fengfu Rensheng: Zhognguo Jinrong Bowuguan Dushuhui.[EB/OL]. [2011-07-13].
(http://view.news.qq.com/a/20110714/000055.htm).
10.Shuyu Kong, "For Reference Only: Restricted Publication and Circulation of Foreign Literature During the Cultural Revolution". Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Vol. 2 (Summer, 2002), p.83.
11.Xiaoyi Zhou and Q.S. Tong. Comparative Literature in China. Comparative Literature and Culture, Article 9, Issue 4, Volume 2, 2000, p.5.
Information about the author
Yi un (Beijing, China) - Phd Student, Faculty of Russian Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China. (No. 2 Xisanhuanbei Road, Haidian District, 100089, Beijing, P.R.China)
E-mail: [email protected]
