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THE SPACIOUS grounds and first-class facilities of the Macau Institute for Tourism Studies was the very agreeable setting for the Macau Ricci Institute (MRI) symposium “The Individual and Society in Modern Chinese Literature” in November- December 2007. Thanks to the clear vision, meticulous planning and generous hospitality of the MRI, the symposium became the occasion for uniquely fascinating encounters between writers and scholars, facing challenges to China's spiritual, humanistic and literary values in the face of its deteriorating natural environment, social instability and political repression as well as economic progress and world engagement.
The academic programme consisted of more than twenty papers ranging from textual criticism of twentieth and twentyfirst century Chinese poetry, fiction and film to discourses on modern literary history, theoretical studies, translation and philosophy. The presenters included junior and senior scholars predominantly from mainland China, plus representation from Taiwan, Macao, Hong Kong and further abroad. Also taking part were writers from Hong Kong and abroad as well as figures from Macao's cultural, artistic and publishing circles.
As a foreign scholar now based in Hong Kong, I was particularly impressed by the organizers' attention to the literature and history of Hong Kong and Macao. For many of those present, this body of work would have been an almost unknown area. A paper on an historically significant but little-known strike in Macao in 1922 was accompanied by illustrations from past and present Macao that brought participants beyond the lecture theatre into the streets around us. Another paper intriguingly suggested that the literary culture of Macao could be traced through imaginative reconstructions of private libraries established by Macanese residents and subsequently bequeathed to public institutions.
The vitality of contemporary Macao culture was brilliantly demonstrated at a literary salon held one evening in the elegant surroundings of the famous Clube Militar de Macau. To the accompaniment of Chinese and Western music, Macao-based writers read aloud their works in Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Portuguese, sometimes but not always with translation alongside. The diversity, creativity and eloquence of these works were inspiring.
A paper on Christianity in modern Chinese poetry was among those that directly addressed the theme of new forms of spiritual expression, while a reflection on the reemergence of humanism in modern literature in the opening session set the tone for a recognition on the part of several speakers that humanistic concerns were far from being universally accepted in contemporary China. One of the more speculative papers re-evaluated a famous novel from the early twentieth century, Ye Shengtao's Ni Huanzhi. Usually regarded as a pioneering work of Western-style realism, Ye's novel was shown to be an acutely perceptive study of melancholy in the modern world.
Some of the papers proved controversial. A paper by a Taiwan scholar on Gao Xingjian's fiction argued that the defining feature of a literary work is the language in which it is written and its cultural affiliation, regardless of the present domicile or citizenship of its author. Another paper proposed a redefinition of ‘scar literature', embracing non-fictional works such as personal memoirs as well as underground poetry written and circulated during the Cultural Revolution. Discussions on such topics were lively and uninhibited.
Dissident and exile writing was represented in the person of the poet Bei Dao, who offered personal testimony on developments in Chinese literature in the past twenty years and his thoughts on its current problems. Although Bei Dao's poems and essays, especially his most recent work, are not readily available to mainland readers, the respect and admiration in which he is held in China—as a person, as a leading participant in the boldest literary movement of its kind, and as the foremost poet of his generation— were evident throughout the symposium.
The final keynote speech was by another controversial figure, Wolfgang Kubin. Widely known (and misrepresented) for his claim that “modern Chinese literature is rubbish”, Professor Kubin not only demonstrated his sympathetic understanding of the intricacies of reading and studying modern Chinese literature but also expressed with humility and regret his profound concern at an obsession in contemporary literary scholarship with the internal status of literature in China and the consequent neglect of the wider world of literary and academic culture. The enthusiasm shown by the participants for such genuine and heartfelt admonition was a striking testimony to the indispensable role of such symposia in promoting mutual understanding and reciprocity.
It was said, at the close of the symposium, that this event did not solve the problems of modern Chinese literature. Younger participants seemed distressingly uninformed about the recent past; their seniors still failed to address issues such as self-censorship. However, it is hardly the function of a symposium to solve problems (a workshop might try but not necessarily do better): in this case, its role was rather to identify, describe and highlight achievements as well as shortcomings in modern Chinese literature and literary scholarship, enhancing our appreciation of these achievements and providing conceptually provocative analyses of the problems. In these respects and as an occasion promoting cultural exchange and good fellowship among writers and scholars, the symposium was highly successful.
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Bonnie S. McDougall is Research Professor in the Department of Translation and Acting Director of the Research Centre for Translation at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor McDougall was born in Sydney, Australia. She studied Chinese first at Peking University (1958-1959), then at the University of Sydney (1961-1970). She has taught at the University of Sydney, Harvard University, and the University of Oslo, and from 1990 to 2005 she was Professor of Chinese at the University of Edinburgh (now Professor Emeritus). She also worked as a translator and editor at the Foreign Languages Press in Peking from 1980 to 1983. Her main research interests in modern Chinese literature cover translation, literary dissent, privacy literature, women's literature, and Hong Kong literature. Books include: The Introduction of Western Literary Theories into China, 1919-1925 (Tokyo, 1971); Popular Chinese Literature and Performing Arts in the People's Republic of China, 1949- 1979 (Berkeley, 1984); The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century, co-authored with Kam Louie (New Yorsk, 1997), Chinese Concepts of Privacy, co-edited with Anders Hansson (Leiden, 2002), Love-letters and Privacy in Modern China: The Intimate Lives of Lu Xun and Xu Guangping (Oxford, 2002); and Fictional Authors, Imaginary Audiences: Modern Chinese Literature in the Twentieth Century (Hong Kong, 2003). |
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Elections
in Russian Society
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