China and the West

Yang, Zhouhan. Shashibiya ping lun xuan bian [ID D23943].
Yang, Zhouhan. Wen yi lun cong. In : Wen yi yan jiu ; 8, 1979. [So sprach Shakespeare].
He Qixin : The most common issues contemporary Chinese critics focus upon in their discussions are : For what class did Shakespeare write ? What are the major themes Shakespeare selected for his plays ? How did Shakespeare develop representative characters in his plays ? For Chinese critics, Shakespeare's purpose in writing is the most significant focus of their study of Shakespeare's plays. One critic states this common concern when he says, "Only with an accurate understanding of Shakespeare's purpose of writing, are we able to form correct judgment upon his plays and make a clarifying analysis of their theme, plot, characterization and dramatik skill". What, then, is Shakespeare's purpose ? The conclusion, resulting from the analysis of the age of Shakespeare, is that "Shakespeare was molding and guiding public opinion for the rising bourgeois class".

Fang, Ping. Lun Xialuoke. In : Wai guo wen xue yan jiu ji kan ; no 1 (1979).
Er schreibt über The merchant of Venice von William Shakespeare : "We should not sing the praises of Antonio, the merchant, as the incarnation of 'friendship' and 'love' ; nor should we, on the other hand, mix Shylock with the millions of poor Jews who were deeply oppressed in Europe, and treat him as a hero who seeks revenge for his nation".

Aufführung von Much ado about nothing von William Shakespeare in der Übersetzung von Zhu Shenghao durch die Shanghai qing nian hua ju tuan (Shanghai Youth Spoken Drama Company) unter der Regie von Hu Dao. Die Aufführung wird von der Shanghai Television übertragen.

Aufführung von Macbeth von William Shakespeare in Kantonesisch durch die Hong Kong Repertory Company.

Aufführung von Hamlet von William Shakespeare in Englisch und einer Simultanübersetzung mit Kopfhörern durch Ying Ruocheng in der Übersetzung von Bian Zhilin ; durch die die British Old Vic Company und das Beijing ren min yi shu ju yuan (Beijing People's Art Theatre), mit Derek Jacobi als Hamlet und Jane Wymark als Ophelia in Beijing und Shanghai unter der Regie von Toby Robertson.

National Conference on the Planning of Foreign Literature Research Works in Guangzhou (Guangdong).
Vortrag von Liu Mingjiu : Liu, Mingjiu. Xian dang dai zi chan jie ji wen xue ping lun de ji ge wen ti. In : Wai guo wen xue yan jiu ; vol. 1, no 2 (1979). [Several remarkable points in the evaluation of modern and contemporary capitalist literature].
现当代资产阶级文学评价的几个问题
He frequently mentioned Jean-Paul Sartre. He took him as an example and gave positive comments on the progressive trends of his thoughts from the aspects of his theory, literary creation and social activities.

Shi jie wen xue ; no 3 (1979), no 4 (1982), no 6 (1983).
Shi jie wen xue a fait un grand éloge d'Albert Camus. « En tant que penseur et activiste, Camus était un grand maître de la littérature française ; en tant qu'écrivain et philosophe, il a obtenu le Prix Nobel, et gagné ainsi une place éternelle dans la littérature mondiale. Par Le mythe de Sisyphe et Caligula, Camus a expliqué la philosophie de 'ma révolte, ma liberté et ma passion' résultant de l'absurdité de l'existence. Camus maintenait un point de vue très original à propos de l'idéologie marxiste et du non-colonialisme en Algérie. Retourner à nouveau vers Camus, c'est condamner l'Histoire. Selon Camus, la morale négligée par les communistes orthodoxes doit justifier le marxisme. Ce sur quoi Camus a beaucoup insisté. La peste montre que Camus s'approche de l'héroïsme collectif, mais respecte l'individu et éprouve un amour profond pour lui. Dans L'étranger, Mersault met en jugement son juge. Ce roman a un style hardi où vibre la sensibilité. Le style de Camus est élégant et ses descriptions sont pleines de charme. Il a parfaitement incarné la morale française : indépendance, grandeur, délicatesse, et un air plus ou moins hautain. Aux Etats-Unis, à partir des années 50, les écrivains les mieux accueillis sont Sartre et Camus. Ce dernier est une figure d'élite aux yeux de la jeunesse française de l'année 1978. De son vivant, Camus fut un homme d'actualité qui faisait fureur. Bien qu'après sa mort, son influence ait semblé décliner, L'année 1978 a vu s'ébranler les vieilles convictions de toutes sortes. Les Français ont redécouvert l'auteur de L'homme révolté. L'étranger et La peste sont devenus les lectures les mieux accueillies dans les universités françaises. Grâce à Caligula et Les justes les théâtres de Paris sont toujours combles. La biographie de Camus de Herbert R. Lottman est à la mode et fait l'objet de conversations dans les salons mondains. »

La délégation des écrivains chinois venue à Paris à l'occasion de la sortie du roman Famille de Ba Jin apporta à Madame Romain Rolland les dernières contributions des traducteurs et des critiques chinois à l'oeuvre de Romain Rolland : la traduction de Colas Breugnon (1978), l'essai de Luo Dagang « Romain Rolland » (1978) et les extraits de la correspondance de Romain Rolland et Maxim Gorki (1978).
Ba Jin schreibt in seinem Tagebuch während seines Aufenthaltes in Paris : "C'est la dernière matinée avant mon départ. Du balcon du septième étage de mon hôtel dans le Quartier latin où résidaient Romain Rolland et Hemingway..., je porte un regard nostalgique sur le ciel de Paris Je n'arrêterai plus d'utiliser mon pinceau. Il allumera le feu pour me détruire. Quand bien même deviendrais-je cendres, mon amour et mes sentiments ne disparaîtraient pas de ce monde".

Davies, Gloria. Habermas in China [ID D24555].
In China, Jürgen Habermas is regularly described as a theorist of contemporary reason, an advocate of cultural pluralism and a defender of human rights. While many Chinese intellectuals regard Habermas as a prominent Leftist thinker and a 'descendant' of the Frankfurt School, they have nonetheless accorded to his repertoire of ideas a utility beyond the politics of Left and Right.
The work of Habermas first attracted the notice of mainland Chinese intellectuals during the initial phase of China's state-led transition from a planned to a market economy between 1979 and the early 1980s. By the early 1990s, Chinese intellectuals acquainted with Habermas's writings were already claiming that his concept of an ever-more inclusive public sphere was highly relevant to their own critical engagement with socio-economic and political injustices emerging out of China'makret reforms. Similarly, Habermas's theory of communicative rationality, originally conceived as a guiding principle for addressing essentially European ethical concerns withhin the multilateral framework of the present-day global exonomy, came to provide these intelleectuals with a handy paradigm for advocating inclusiveness as an ethical norm for Chinese critical inquiry.
Habermas's intellectual authority grew in China throughout the late 1990s as more accounts of different aspects of his work were published in the range of Chinese journals that appeared during this time. The diversity of topics addressed was often taken as a positive sign by Chinese intellectuals that mainland scholarship was on its way towards acquiring an international and professional standard. Tu put it in Sinophone terms, these publications on Habermas signaled to Chinese intellectuals that they were gaining strength in their production of 'xueshu' (methodical, systematic and properly referenced scholarship) and 'xueli' (academic theory) in addition to their already well-established capacity for 'sixiang' (thought of an expressive and independent nature).
At least three distinct approaches to Habermas can be discerned : one, Habermas is viewed as a 'theoretical resource' (lilu ziyuan for democracy via the concepts of the public sphere and communicative rationality ; two, he is a 'resource' for those who seek to defend and promote a uniquely Chinese modernity ; and three, he has served as theoretical legitimation for Pary ideology.

Niu, Jingfan. Albert Camus in China [ID D24733].
Niu Jingfan : Albert Camus had to face his late arrival in modern China. For a China that was deeply mired in the domestic conflicts and foreign invasions in the first half of the last century and for the Chinese intellectuals struggling in a time out of joint, Camus's Sisyphus question that explored all the aspects of human existence in an age of peace and his sense of strangerness were too untimely.
There were two modes for the reception of Camus in mainland China. In philosophy, he was cited as a representative of existentialism and was introduced to the Chinese academia soon after Sartre. In literature, Camus as a Nobel Prize winner as well as a representative of absurdism, started to be widely admired by Chinese writers and scholars.
While the studies of Camus's philosophy and aesthetics is advancing in university education and research, a question that remains to be answered is whether his style and temperament have extended their substantial influence to contemporary Chinese literature. For this, no satisfactory answer seems to habe been found. Most of the writers, who are overhaunted by their motives of patricide in their writing or anxiety of influence, are unwilling to clarify the sources of their literary works. The ambiguity itself is understandable since authors always find themselves indebted to varied origins.
All in all, any influence or reception should be embodied by individual experiences. To influence someone is to inspire and stimulate him or her. Whether we have received Camus's existentialist philosophy and his rebellious spirit depends on our own action. In addition, there are two types of influence : explicit or implicit. Sometimes, we are unconsciously influenced and on some peculiar occasions, someone's words or their actions may suddenly flash into our mind and lead us to a vital decision. Choice and freedom, love and commitment, absurdity and struggle, existence and dignity – all are the universal Camusian questions that reflect upon the essence of life, and the paradoxes of existence that challenge people of different nations and generations. Therefore, it can be assumed that Camus will continue to gain his new vitality in the Chinese context.
The Sars crisis in 2003 reminded the masses of La peste and gave them a new opportunity to reread it and to re-understand the author. Shocked by what had insightfully been foretold in this fable, Chinese readers identified their affinity with Camus. Over the pas few years, search engines, personal blogs and online forums have gained increasing popularity with regard to the shared reading of the author and diversified our receptions of him. Although there is no exact estimation of his influence on our contemporary culture and our spiritual world, what can be affirmed is that he has participated in the construction of contemporary Chinese literature and continues to influence us. In one word, his journey in our country is still going on. His Chinese journey is still an ongoing process.

Aufführung von Macbeth = Shi jun ji von William Shakespeare durch das Hong Kong Repertory Theatre in der Übersetzung von Chow Yung Ping = Zhou Yongping und Butt Ho Ming = Bi Haoming ; unter der Regie von Chow Yung Ping = Zhou Yongping.
弒君記

I.A. Richards reist in China und gibt Vorlesungen.

Aufführung von Saint Joan von George Bernard Shaw im Hong Kong Repertory Theatre unter der Regie von James Mark.

Wai guo ming zuo jia zhuan. Zhang Yinglun zhu bian [ID D14449].
Zhu Hong praised Charlotte Brontë for creating a new type of heroine who is a low born orphan but capable of the most sincere, delicate, and passionate emotions utterly distinct from the affected bourgeois ladies in popular novel ; yet at the same time, she also criticized Jane's
Victory, all the faborable outcomes for her, and the coincidences in the latter half of the novel as utter clichés of vulgar bourgesois novels.

Film : Jane Eyre von Charlotte Brontë unter der Regie von Delbert Mann in China.
People were moved by the theme of love and humanity especially after they had long been taught to sacrifice their personal feeling fort he causes of proletariat revolution. Some influential newpapers and magazines published reader's reviews.

Interview : Zhang Shenfu and Vera Schwarcz about Bertrand Russell.
Zhang Shenfu : I believe I understand Russell. Maybe I am the only one in China who really does. Russell himself did not understand Confucius. But, in fact his thought is very close to Confucius. I see this similarity even if nobody else does. Even if Russell were to deny it. My philosophy brings them together. I am like a bridge (qiao liang), you might say. Among all philosophers I have read, and there have been so many, those two are the ones I respect and admire the most.
I did not invite Russell to China – Liang Qichao did. I did not translate his public lectures. Zhao Yuanren, an American-educated young man, did. I did not even translate Russell's lecture notes. A member of the New Tide Society, Sun Fuyuan did. I was not even involved in the founding of the Chinese 'Russell Society' in 1921. I had already gone to France. Your friend does not tell my story but that of others who stayed on in China after I left. I did something else, something maybe more important. I translated Russell's philosophy. I introduced him to Chinese readers as an important modern thinker. I think I set the stage for informed appreciation.
I was the first to translate most of Russell's key texts into Chinese. Others followed with longer books, more technical works. But I introduced all the key phrases, all the key themes. I was the first to notice and to emphasize what was new in Russell's thought. For example, I was the first to emphasize the concept of philosophy as 'the science of the possible' – though I am not sure where this concept appears in Russell's works. I was also the first to translate and interpret the logical concept of 'gui lun' – from the English 'falsification' – which is fundamental for all of logical analysis. I also translated the concept of 'analysis' very differently from all others. I used the Chinese term 'jie xi' instead of the more commonly used 'fen xi'. Why, you wonder ? Because I believe 'jie xi' is more logical. It also sounds more new somehow. 'Fen xi' suggests something being cut up. Scattered, severed – as if by one blow. 'Jie xi', by contrast is not so simple. How is it more complex, you ask ? I feel that there are many more steps involved in 'jie xi'. When something is subjected to logical analysis, it is a slow, systematic operation. 'Fen xi' was widely accepted as a synonym for 'analysis' when I began my work on Russell. But I did not think it conveys the full implications of Russell's thought. It was too simple. So I made an innovation through translation. Maybe this is my most important contribution to clarifying Russell's work in twentieth-century China.
But Russell, you see, ended up so one-sided in his philosophical outlook. His philosophy is useful in seeing only discrete parts of a problem. I wanted to think about the whole. In many ways Russell was biased. He opposed materialism. But materialism and idealism are just wo sides of the same coin. Materialism does not see the heart (or 'mind', xin) while idealism fails to appreciate outward realities. My own philosophy seeks for a more comprehensive view of experience, for a more thorough realism, for an expansive objectivity. So I went back to certain ideas in Chinese philosophy – especially to the Confucian notions of 'ren' (tolerance, humanism) and 'zhong' (the unprejudiced golden mean).

Huang, Zhen. My days in Washington. In : Beijing review ; no 4 (1979).
"I would like to end with a quote from the American poet Walt Whitman, who wrote in The song of the open road :
Allons !
The goal that was named
Cannot be countermanded.
Allons ! the road is before us.
We Chinese people and the American people will march on from generation to generation along this road of friendship !"

[Faulkner, William]. Fukena duan pian xiao shuo san pian [ID D30398].
Tao Jie : In the introductory notes Faulkner was called "a spokesman of the American South", and praised for his "experimentation with point of view and the dislocation of the time sequence". Zhao Jiabi's argument that Faulkner was a pessimist was refuted by quotations from hid Nobel prize acceptance speech to prove that "although Faulkner wrote largely about the ugliness of life and the crimes in society, he was not a pessimist but one who had firm belief in mankind".

Larkin, Philip : "I wouldn't mind seeing China if I could come back the same day." Novelists need to travel. Poets re-create the familiar.
Interview : Observer, 1979. In : Oxford treasury of sayings and quotations.

William Stanley Merwin : One evening I picked up Kenneth Rexroth's One hundred poems from the Chinese again, after several years, and read it through once more, at a sitting, with a great wave of gratitude, and a sense of its vividness and life – a book which I have known and read for so many years now.