Fools Mountain – another take on the China Nobel issue
It is worse for China. Chinese poet Beidao was among those nominated for the prize. I guess he will have to wait. On the map of world literature with Europe right at the center, Chinese literature is an island that is hidden somewhere, to be discovered and understood. We depend on the likes of sinologue Wolfgang Kubin to tell the rest of the world what our writing is about. Unfortunately, Kubin was disgusted with the majority of Chinese literature that has surfaced, especially the vulgar young authors who proclaim to be “writing with their bodies” instead of their minds and hearts. Such “body” authors receive better recognition than their more serious peers, thanks to the cultural reporters that care more about controversies than content. Many pop critics do not read much anyway.
Comments
My soul wilts when I read these proclamations from Sinologues grousing about the death of Chinese fiction. Has Wolfgang Kubin not read Yan Lianke, Ye Mi, Han Dong or Li Er? I name but four among hundreds of independent Chinese authors who are challenging our assumptions about what literature could and should be.
Of course it's only the flashiest Chinese authors who grab the most column-inches. Of course most of the books on Chinese best-seller lists are vulgar and unchallenging. It's the same in every country in the world. But the presence of vulgarity does not cancel out the possibility of brilliance.
An example from my own country, the good old U.S. of A. -
Dan Brown, Candace Bushnell and John Grisham sell a lot of books. Yet they do not negate David Foster Wallace, William Gaddis or Thomas Pynchon.
There's a book for every reader, and a reader for most every book. Contemporary Chinese fiction is just beginning to open up, to display its range.
Sure, most of what we hear are popular songs, pitched to the middle of the scale, but every once in a while, there comes that perfect note.
Not everyone can hit high-C over C.
cindy carter, October 10, 2009, 10:32p.m.
We depend on the likes of sinologue Wolfgang Kubin to tell the rest of the world what our writing is about. (from blog.foolsmountain above)
As is obvious from interviews over the years, Mr. Kubin is bored by and disdainful of most contemporary writing out of the PRC. That is his right; but I see no good reason why one should depend on him to "tell the rest of the world" what China is writing.
I look forward to seeing more excerpts and short essays and author interviews translated into English and appearing on this fine web site!
Bruce, October 11, 2009, 1:51a.m.
I seriously doubt that the Swedish Academy depends on Wolfgang Kubin to get information about Chinese literature. And I don't think that Western publishers do either. Chinese critics have too much faith in the influence of sinlogists.
Anna GC, October 12, 2009, 6:37a.m.
In April 2008, I interviewed Yu Hua for Rue89.com in Paris, and asked him his reactions to the statement of Kubin considering that chinese litterature is rubbish. What is interesting, he said, is not the statement which is ridiculous and should not even be discussed but the enormous over reaction of the chinese media;this shows a sort of inferiority complex which of course should not exist. Perhaps we have the same situation with the prize and a Nobel complex !
bertrand mialaret, October 12, 2009, 8:33a.m.
I might have exaggerated in saying that Chinese writers depend on sinologists like Kubin to be introduced to the world. Kubin did say that these writers totally depend on people like him to communicate with the outside world as the majority of contemporary writers don't speak a second language to be able to perceive how to write for a larger audience than the editors of a Chinese literary journal or magazine. I think Kubin does have a point there in spite of the way he puts it and the reaction Chinese media then had over his statements. The interview of Kubin can be found at: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/culture/c20061214_1.htm
I respect the work that you all do to introduce Chinese authors to the rest of the world. More of this should be done. I care less about whether Chinese authors win the Nobel Prize than them writing good literature in the first place. But when the Nobel Prize jury, the readers and the critics are all saying that Chinese literature is not in a good shape, something must have gone wrong. That's what I tried to say in this article.
Ask any Chinese readers those days and I am rather positive that the majority of them are dissatisfied with what's going on now in Chinese literature. They need a wake-up call.
Berlin, October 12, 2009, 4:45p.m.
Most of what can be said on this account has been said already. I only add that I have met Wolfgang Kubin, heard him speak on Chinese literature and philosophy (right around the time of his famous interview, too), and can say with confidence that he maintains a surprisingly Orientalist perspective on his subject matter. His lectures reveal a strong belief in West and East as Self and Other, with the Other continually judged according to the immediate standards of the Self. I can also say that his Chinese is painfully bad, a point I would not bring up if the man did not insist on being called an expert.
To speak generally but in earnest, he is a member of that now-obsolete group of Sinologists whose opinions carry much, much more weight than they deserve.
Canaan Morse, October 13, 2009, 9:41a.m.
I just hope that the newer generation of Chinese experts like you all will start change the world:-)
Berlin, October 13, 2009, 6:04p.m.
Berlin made a good point: many Chinese readers (and writers) are dissatisfied with the current state of mainland Chinese literature. I've talked to so many well-read, intelligent people who claim that they can't stand to read contemporary Chinese fiction, and much prefer the Chinese classics and foreign works of literature in Chinese translation. I've often wondered why this is. My feeling is that it's a combination of real-world problems (censorship and self-censorship, poor editing, an underdeveloped library system, limited access to books, etc), perceptual problems (the insecurity complex, which we see not just in Chinese literature, but in Chinese art and music as well) and one factor that isn't a problem at all: there are so many great foreign books being translated into Chinese - although the translation quality varies - that naturally readers are keen to catch up on the latest novels from Britian, France, Japan, Germany, Korea, India, Italy, Australia, South Africa, Canada and the U.S. There's a lot of pent-up demand for different voices, which I find encouraging.
cindy carter, October 13, 2009, 9:24p.m.
I can't get foolsmountain from where I am, but I think this debate does a pretty big disservice to Soul Mountain and Gao Xingjian. Insistence on national boundaries by excluding expatriate or exile writers from our concept of 'chineseness' serves nobody but the state, which plays a major role in limiting what can be said by writers and seen by readers.
Basically, there was a mainland Chinese writer given the Nobel Prize -- and deservedly so, as it's an excellent book. That nobody in China can or does read it is a travesty.
Wayne, October 15, 2009, 8:55a.m.
@ Wayne
Your comment comes out the blue, Wayne.
Who above (1-8) seeks to exclude "expatriate" Chinese writers?
I believe we are all interested in identifying and encouraging fiction writing in Chinese.
Bruce, October 15, 2009, 9:23a.m.
Hi Bruce.
I was talking generally about the fool's mountain excerpt, and the Kubin piece, instead of the community, which as you point out I don't know well. I would say, though, that comment (1) is kind of what I'm talking about. Why isn't Gao Xingjian on the list? I doubt it's intentional, but 'disservice' isn't really strong language.
I'm just saying that a Chinese writer (writing in Chinese, as you say, which he did) has won a Nobel prize in the last ten years. That's more recently than Spain, the US, Mexico, India, etc. etc. The 'complex' seems to be less about the Nobel and Chinese letters and literature and more about what happens to writers on the mainland.
Wayne, October 16, 2009, 5:59a.m.