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The Short Story in the Cultural Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

D. E. Pollard
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Extract

The history of Chinese Communist literature up to this point has been one of ever-contracting boundaries, and all efforts on the ground to push back the frontiers or mark out reserves for tolerance have only fortified that trend, by defining what become yet other heresies to be avoided. The process had been uneven until the Cultural Revolution came along; then the presses shut down, the board was swept clean, and a unique opportunity offered itself to create a literature cleansed of historical impurities, impeccable in doctrine (given the new vetting procedures), and immaculate in conception (the lure of personal gain and fame being banished). Positively the new art had to guide it communist thought sharpened by the struggle between the two lines, negatively the treacherous ground has all been freshly sign-posted. It is the purpose of this paper to show what was made of this opportunity in the field of the short story. It will first be necessary to review briefly the central literary dogma and the interdictions established by case-law in the few years prior to the Cultural Revolution.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 73 , March 1978 , pp. 99 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1978

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References

* This paper was written after the “gang of four” fell, but before the literature produced under their patronage was subjected to systematic criticism. Rather than pretend to more insight than I had through revising the paper now, I have just added a postcript.

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68. I refer to Han-yü ch'eng-yü hsiao tz'u-tien (Short Dictionary of Chinese Set Phrases), Peking, 1958, 1962 and 1973.Google Scholar

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70. Chao-hsia (1975), No. 10.Google Scholar

71. “Li Ch'un” (personal name), Chao-hsia (1975), No. 12.Google Scholar

72. By Chou, Lin-fa, in Chao-hsia (1976), No. 3.Google Scholar

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76. Chu, Sui, “E-sha ke-ming wen-i te chiao-so” (“A noose to strangle revolutionary literature”), Jen-min wen-hsüeh (1977), No. 3.Google Scholar

77. Ibid. The full definition given here of the worker, peasant and soldier hero is: “a strapping, full-blown proletarian heroic type who encapsulates and sums up the outstanding qualities of the proletariat, has high awareness of the class struggle and the struggle over the Party line, and who ‘commands the wind and clouds’” (p. 87).

78. E.g. in Tu, Pin, “Chin-t'ien” (“Today”), Jen-min wen-hsüeh (1977), No. 8.Google Scholar