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The Modern Chinese Writer: Literary Incomes and Best Sellers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Paul Bady
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Extract

Obviously, literature is a question of quality rather than quantity. In a speech given on 19 June 1961, which was only published in the Literary Gazette (Wenyi bao) in February 1979 as the cultural testament of the late premier, Zhou Enlai drew a crude parallel between literary and industrial outputs: “Certain laws governing material production also hold good for mental production. When pressed too far mental production will suffer, perhaps even more seriously. Quotas and pressures of time are vexing problems for mental workers. Take the writing of poetry as an example. Among our leading cadres, Comrade Chen Yi likes to write poems. He composes very quickly and is a prolific writer. He is a genius in this respect. But, it is different with Chairman Mao. He writes only after much deliberation. Though he writes less, he writes with such magnificence and vitality and produces extremely concentrated poems. We should not demand a poem a day from Chairman Mao, nor should we interfere with Comrade Chen Yi and ask him to write less. Mental work cannot be uniform.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 88 , December 1981 , pp. 645 - 657
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1981

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References

* First read as a paper at a workshop on Contemporary Chinese Literature and the Performing Arts, held at Harvard University in June 1979, under the sponsorship of the American Council of Learned Societies, the present article owes much to suggestions and comments made by, amongst other participants, E. Gunn, D. Holm, T. Huters, W. Jenner, B. McDougall and H. Mills.

1. Wenyi bao (WYB), No. 2 (1979) pp. 4–5, translated in Beijing Review (BR), No. 13, 30 March 1979, pp. 10–11.

2. Besides the different items referred to in the footnotes, one special mention should be made of Lars Ragvald's study, “Professionalism and amateur tendencies in post-revolutionary Chinese literature,” in Göran Malmqvist (ed), Modern Chinese Literature and its Social Context, Nobel Symposium 32, Stockholm, 1977, pp. 152–79.

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27. Lin Yutang, History of the Press, p. 152.

28. From a letter of Shi Zhecun to Dai Wangshu, 18 November 1932 in Kong Lingjing, Xiandai Zhongguo zuojia shuxin (Letters of Contemporary Chinese Writers) (Shanghai: Shenghuo shudian, 1936), p. 104.

29. Estimated by Lin Yutang, who edited Lunyu (The Analects) and Yuzhou feng (The Wind of the Universe), to 5,000 copies, p. 160.

30. See my study, “Lao She et l'art de la nouvelle,” Etudes d'Histoire et de Littérature Chinoises offertes au Professeur Jaroslav Průšek (Paris: Bibliothèque de l'lnstitut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises), Vol. XXIV (1976), p. 17.Google Scholar

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32. Letter of 2 July 1934, Ibid.. p. 124.

33. See, for instance, Lao She's complaining article: “Results are not good, but incomes are even worse” (“Chengji qian jia, shouru geng qian jie”), Tianxia wenzhang, Vol. I, No. 1(10 March 1943).

34. Lao She, “Eight years of storm” (“Bafang fengyu”), first published in Xin min bao in 1946, reprinted in Xin wenxue shiliao, No. 1 (1978), p. 29.

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37. See Hu Jinquan, “Lao She he tade zuopin” (“Lao She and his works”), Mingbao yuekan (MBYK), No. 112 (April 1975), p. 21.

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41. See a statement made by Zang Kejia and quoted by Roderick MacFarquhar, The Hundred Flowers, London, 1960, p. 177.

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44. According to L. Ragvald (“Professionalism and amateur tendencies,” p. 160), writers who belonged to the “literary rank” (wenyi ji) received a monthly salary of 200–300 yuan, until the system was abolished in December 1956.

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48. WYB, 15 November 1956. A reproduction of the cartoon is appended to Takeuchi Minoru, Gendai Chûgoku no bungaku (Chinese Contemporary Literature) (Tokyo: Kenkûyusha, 1973).

49. Lin Manshu, Zhongguo dangdai wenxue shi gao, pp. 26–27.

50. See Gu Zhengjian, Qiangu shangxin wenhuaren (Eternally Broken-hearted Writers and Artists) (Taibei, Baiyun wenhua, 1978).

51. On this subject, see my study: “L'intellectuel et les masses,” France-Asie, No. 3 (1974) pp. 123–55.

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53. “Kan, zui'ede xiu zhengzhuyi gaochou zhidu!” (“Look how criminal was the revisionist remuneration system!”), Fenglèr, No. 9 (9 June 1967), p. 4.

54. Nunn, G. Raymond (Publishing in Mainland China, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1966, pp. 11–12) made a similar, but less precise, observation: “The established rates of payment to authors were later considered excessive. In 1958, the leading publishing houses in Shanghai reduced their payments for articles in periodicals and newspapers and for books, and the houses in Peking followed their lead. The general rate for payment was cut in half, both for original writing and translation.”Google Scholar

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56. First published in 1937 by the Commercial Press, Fu Lei' translation was reprinted by the Renmin wenxue chubanshe in 1957.

57. Chinese Family and Society, London, 1946, p. 363.

58. Although his Luotuo Xiangzi was published by Renmin wenxue chubanshe in 1955, along with two collections of short stories in 1956 (Lao She duanpian xiaoshuo xuan) and 1959 (Yueyan).

59. Lin Manshu, Zhongguo dangdai wenxue shi gao, pp. 27–28.

60. In May 1977 by Renmin wenxue chubanshe.

61. In August 1977 by the same publishing house.

62. Hongqi pu (Keep the Red Flag Flying) was published in April 1978 by the Zhongguo qingnian chubanshe.

63. Sha Ting's Selected Short Stories (Sha Ting duanpian xiaoshuo xuari) were reprinted in November 1978 by Renmin wenxue chubanshe.

64. Respectively in December 1977 (2 vols.) and January-March 1978 by the Guangjiao jing chubanshe (Wide Angle Press).

65. See Qin' entry in the Dictionary of Chinese Writers (Zhongguo wenxuejia cidian), Vol. 1 (Modern), compiled by the Peking Languages Institute, unrevised edition, 1978, pp. 412–13.

66. See pictures published in Zhengming, 1 April 1979, p. 37.

67. See Du's recent Postscript, Renmin ribao (RMRB), 19 March 1979, p. 3.

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69. See Bel, Joël Lassen's Preface to Hao Ran, Ma plume au service du prolétariat (Paris: Alfred Eibel, 1976), p. 10.Google Scholar

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71. Le Monde des livres, Paris, 23 December 1978, p. 18.

72. During the meeting of the Wenlian, which was held in Beijing at the end of May and beginning of June 1978, see the reports in WYB, No. 1 (1978), pp. 8–43.

73. WYB, No. 4 (1978), p. 22.

74. The two volumes of the First Part (already published in 1963) were reprinted in July 1977 by the Zhongguo qingnian chubanshe.

75. Renmin huabao, No. 7 (1978), p. 36.

76. RMRB, 12 December 1978, p. 6.

77. GMRB, 19 December 1978, p. 1.

78. BR, No. 15, (13 April 1979), p. 29.

79. WYB, No. 2 (1979), p. 8, translated in BR, No. 13 (30 March 1979), p. 13.

80. On the subject, see an article by Zheng Wen, “Jiefang sixiang yu ‘zuojia yao xiaqu’” (“On the Liberation of thinking and the necessity for writers to go down), GMRB, 29 January 1979, p. 4.

81. See the report of the meeting, organized by the three main organs of the Writers Union (Wenyi bao, Renmin wenxue, and Shikan), GMRB, 24 November 1978, p. 1.

82. See Pickowicz, Paul, “Lu Xun through the eyes of Qu Qiubai: new perpectives on Chinese Marxist literary polemics of the 1930s,” Modern China, Vol. II, No. 3 (July 1976), pp. 327–68, and “Ch'ü Ch'iu-pai and the Chinese Marxist Conception of Revolutionary Popular Literature and Art,” The China Quarterly (CQ), No. 70 (June 1977), pp. 296–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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84. Shi ji. Chap. 76.

85. Among others, see the 30 January 1962 speech, lately published in RMRB, 1 July 1978, p. 1.

86. RMRB, 16 December 1971, p. 1.

87. David Pollard, “The short story in the Cultural Revolution,” CQ, No. 73 (March 1978), p. 99.

88. Lao niu po che, p. 6.

89. See the chapters devoted to these authors by Galik, Marian in The Genesis of Modern Chinese Literary Criticism, London & Bratislava, 1980.Google Scholar

90. “Women and literature” (Funü yu wenyi), Xiandai funü, Vol. I, No. 1 (1 January 1943), p. 19.Google Scholar

91. Opened on 4 November, the Congress was closed the 16th of the same month; RMRB, 17 November 1979, p. 1.

92. WYB.No. 8 (1979), p. 2.

93. Ibid.., Nos. 11–12(1979), p. 25.

94. Cahiers de la Chine Nouvelle (CCN), 5 November 1979, p. 20.

95. Lars Ragvald, “Professionalism and amateur tendencies,” p. 159.

96. CCN, 19 November 1979, p. 14.

97. WYB, Nos. 11–12 (1979), p. 5.