China and the West

Fang, Ping. Huan ying ni, Li'erwang [ID D24027].
Er schreibt : "The play teaches us a lesson about political struggle, in which we must learn how to differentiate friends from enemies, or how to differentiate the flattering, hypocritical Goneril and Regan from the honest and filial Cordelia. The play bridges the historical and cultural distance between an Occidental past and a Chinese present through a vivid characterization of King Lear as 'the highest ruler of a monarchy', who creates a chaotic world in which the loyal are punished and the treacherous are rewardes. Although our concept of love is different from that of the Renaissance humanist, we nevertheless need the same kind of beautiful soul, which is full of noble love, not just for our relatives and families, but also for our comrades, our motherland, and our glorious party. We should live as a poet, who loves everything that is beautiful."

Cheng, Baoyi [Cheng, François]. Faguo dang dai shi ren heng li Mixiu [ID D64068].
Liu Yang : Cheng affirme, que la peinture, l'écriture, le théâtre, la calligraphie et la philosophie chinois ont permis à Henri Michaux de dégager une nouvelle vision esthétique qui donnera un nouvel essor à ses oeuvres. Il signale qu'Henri Michaux et la Chine sont tellement liés qu'ils sont inséparables.
Dans son entretien avec François Cheng, Henri Michaux a certifié le lien entre lui et la Chine. Il a observé qu’il était allé en Chine, non pour chercher un certain exotisme, mais qu'il était poussé par un instinct intérieur, et que ce qu'il avait obtenu, ce n'étaient pas des sujets, mais une considération nouvelle et un langage nouveau. Il a marqué le changement de ses points de vue sur l'art. Il est allé en Chine au début des années trente et a contacté avec cette culture différente de la culture occidentale, ses idées inhérentes sont toutes ruinées, surtout dans l'art. Il a trouvé la possibilité des formes de l'art ainsi que les liens entre elles. Ce qui l'attirait, c'étaient la musique de Java, la danse de l'Inde et le théâtre chinois.

Wang, Yuanhua : "A propos de Jean-Christophe" von Romain Rolland. In : Wang, Yuanhua. Xiang zhe zhen shi. (Shanghai : Shanghai wen yi chu ban she, 1982). 向着真实 :
Er schreibt : "A l'époque... lorsque j'ai pris connaissance du parcours laborieux de Jean-Christophe, j'ai perçu qu'il poursuivait son chemin avec obstination, aussi terribles fussent les circonstances ; il n'avandonnait jamais son idéal et rien ne pouvait fléchir sa persévérance. 'Qui a le droit de se plaindre devant un tel exemple ?' En regard de la souffrance que Jean-Christophe a endurée, devons-nous vraiment faire cas de nos petites tribulations ? Je suis persuadé que si Jean-Christophe m'a aidé à reprendre confiance en la vie, beaucoup d'autres jeunes de mon âge ont également bénéficié de son soutien aussi puissant qu'un bras de géant, et de ce fait, ils ont évité de sombrer dans la folie."

Sun, Jiaxiu. Yibusheng he ta de xi ju [26258].
Sun Jiaxiu schreibt über Rosmersholm von Henrik Ibsen : "In this play, Ibsen uses the illusion of white horses as a symbol, which obviously goes together with the theme and the event. But in fact, the symbol has the play covered with the atmosphere of mysticism and decadent emotion. We feel that it damages the realistic quality of the play, and at the same time reflects a negative element in the writer's emotion."
Ibsen's last play When we dead awaken seems to Sun the most disappointing : "The play has achieved nothing so far as dramatic techniques are concerned. It lacks dramatic action and life. The characters are very abstract. We perhaps can see further how the limitations in his thinking and emotion have brought Ibsen sadness and disappointment."

Feng, Guozhong. Bailun he Yingguo gu dian zhu yi chuan tong [ID D26477].
Chih Chih-yu : Feng's essay is one of the very few essays which treat the artistic aspects of Byron's work. Despite the traces of the Marxist viewpoint, his ideas and the basic approach to the subject are marked by the influence of modern Western scholarship, which was the first instance since the founding of socialist China. Byron's affiliation with the classicist poetics was reflected first of all in 'his carrying forward and developing the fine classicist tradition of portraying human nature and human society'. According to Feng, Byron's method of nature description conforms to classicist creative principles. He contended that Byron's real interest in nature description was human nature and human society.

Second annual meeting of the Chinese Society for the Study of Educational History.
They opened special panels on John Dewey and received enthusiastic responses from nay scholars. They proposed that the study of Dewey's educational theory should be conducted with a liberated mind and result in an honest, matter-of-fact evaluation.

Performance of Anna Christie by Eugene O'Neill by the Central Academy of Drama and the Changchun hua ju yuan (Changchun Drama Troupe).

Liang, Shiqiu. Shu ping qi ze [ID D28838].
"To judge whether a translation is good or bad, we must compare it with the source text. If it is not contradictory to the source text, and, at the same time, it is fluent and does not read like a translation, this is surely a first-class translation. If the translator only knows the general ideas of the source text, makes his own interpretation according to the context, and then translates in fluent native language - this is only sense translation. This method can be used in translating common articles, but it is not appropriate for translating literary works. The value of literary works lies, to a great extent, in their masterly use of words. Therefore, translators should consider the use of every word meticulously, and try to achieve equivalence to the source text."

Centennial of James Joyce in China.
Speech : "The fact that we are here commemorating the centenary of James Joyce is of great significance in the cultural life of the Chinese people. It is most fitting that we do so, for the true Marxist does not reject outright any cultural legacy whether ancient or modern, Chinese or foreign, but should study its historical significance and assimilate whatever is useful. Moreover, James Joyce as a master who has left a lasting mark in modern Western culture, calls for our serious study in terms of merits and demerits so that we can draw lessons from him.
If we compare Bloom living in the wilderness of the modern city with Robinson Crusoe who built a life for himself in the veritable wilderness of the desert island, it is not hard to perceive the progressive deterioration of the bourgeois hero in the novel. Bloom's world is shocking in its pettiness, obscenity, ugliness, and confusion. If, as is alleged, he reflected the decadence of the modern bourgeoisie, all the more reason he has an epistemological value for us."

Ginsberg, Allen ; Snyder, Gary. The selected letters of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder [ID D29191].
Letter from Allen Ginsberg to Gary Snyder ; Aug. 25 (1982).
I'm due for Chinese UCLA Conference Sept 21-23… I'll be in N.Y. till September 15. Aren't you due to attend this Mainland Chinese Lit. Conference also ?

Letter from Allen Ginsberg to Gary Snyder ; Sept. 10 (1982).
Probably see you next week in L.A. at mainland Chinese writers' meeting. Robert Rees the UCLA organizer said you were invited.

Letter from Gary Snyder to Allen Ginsberg ; Oct. 13 (1982)
How was Chinese Disneyland ? [Ginsberg had gone to Disneyland with a group of visiting Chinese writers]… China writers conference : I'm very glad I went, will be corresponding with Lin Bin-yan. Do hope there's a chance to visit there next year.

Letter from Allen Ginsberg to Gary Snyder ; Nov. 8 (1982).
Chinese spent all day at Disneyland – me too – Wu Qiang got lost, we found him 4:30 P.M. at exit gate where he waited.

Letter from Allen Ginsberg to Gary Snyder ; [ca. Febr. 24, 1983]
When China ? I'm committed now to fall '83 but will maybe maybe have five weeks free August 15-September 23, 1983. Tho that may be too short a time. Orvill Schell says he'd like to come along on the poets' trip to China. Have you written Peking yet ? Any plans formulated ? Maybe could do it after December '83 anytime – spring '84 ? I'll be free from then on.

Letter from Gary Snyder to Allen Ginsberg ; Nov. 22 (1983).
Charles Leong wrote me and said you were coming but his emphysema would keep him from attending the meeting. He is old and frail now, but still writes a beautiful calligraphy, and very witty sharp letters on the evolution of Chinese communist culture and politics.

Letter from Allen Ginsberg to Gary Snyder ; Nov. 13 (1984).
Airplane Wuhan to Beijing
Successful trip Canton to Chungking. Poets there took me to cat at last in market shops, all different dishes, sweet and pork dumplings. Boat three days two nites comfortable two person cabin (charming basic lounge-windows at boat bow to see) (OK food too) and fourth and fifth class passengers sleeping on stairway landings, passageways, steerage and eight- and sixteen-person dorms. Yangtze Gorges vaster than Li River trip, and one magnificent hairpin bend of river around mountain – village hill-cliff – sharp mountain, a complete U-turn walled by immense peaks with grotesque mythic rock formations atop. River brown – then widened out on plains the last day. Inexpensive hotels, but was met and accompanied everywhere except for three days on river. Wuhan – fantastic hall of 500 life-size arhats intact. Your camera a blessing, thanks.

Letter from Allen Ginsberg to Gary Snyer ; Dec. 2 (1984) [Baoding]
I'm packing to leave Baoding and take trains to Shanghai (overnite sleeper). Enclosed 'Dagoba Brand' emblem for toilet paper – maybe that indicates industrial Marxist view of stupa. Baoding is 'real' China – non tourist town, no active temples open in all the 50,000,000 population of Hebei Province. Talked to some intelligent Christians and Allah followers who said they were all decimated during anti-rightist campaign beginning 1958. The later Cultural Revolution was deeper extension of that, like Ai Quing the poet was sent off in 1957-8 with a million others. Official figure for persecutions now. I heard, is 27,000,000 people plus their children's disgrace – other elder says twice that.
Enclose some random papers – the 35 years gives account of present views. Apparently the Great Leap Forward was also a fiasco that ruined industry by decentralizing it into the hands of loudmouth hippie patty hacks. Production of iron went up but quality down so unusable. During Cultural Revolution 80 % of machine tool industry was crippled – and other industry and professions – so said Chinese man I met on Yangtze River Gorge boat, who'd written history of machine tool industry in Modern China - 'O' [opium] production, all imports, in 1880-1890.
Students are terrifically affectionate and eager and shy. The cadre at 'Foreign Relations' branch of this university whom I paranoically thought a sour spy cop turned out tipsy at last nite's farewell banquet and revealed he was an old vaudeville trooper from Chinese opera, read a scene of old sage with beard, Li Po (Li Bai) poems about Yangtze Gorges and monkeys chattering, and ended with song of Mao. 'Show Covers all North China'…
I spent another afternoon leisurely at the temple - here's more info on it – Sixth Patriarch's place you photo'd.
Tho Buddhism seems stamped out, in talking with students and old Chinamen, the breath activity practice which seems officially OK is 'Ch'i Kung (Qigong) involving something parallel to 'Tso Chan' or belly-sitting- also involving the chakras. Do you know anything about the relationship between the 'Chan' and 'Ch'i Kung' styles of practice ? Maybe they got some kind of Zen here without anyone knowing it.
Students do practice wushu and varieties of exquisite tai chi chuan so there is some awareness practice, very sophisticated, without the dharma except as theoretic Marxism provides bodhisattva turnabout of energy.
Approaching Yangtze Gorges
Two hours down river from Yichang / The rooster in the gallery / Crows dawn.
Yangtze stopover at 7 P.M., boat waits till 3 A.M. and starts down the gorges to pass them in daylight. We ate the chicken that day I guess.

Letter from Allen Ginsberg to Gary Snyer ; Shanghai Dec. 10 (1984).
Our Writer's Association tour translator, Xu Ben, who met us in Süchow, came to listen to my lectures and brought me two copies of newspaper with your 'Maple Bridge' poem he'd translated, and a verse of mine I'd written for him but not kept copy. Enclosed the Süchow News. I'm slowly recovering from bronchitis by now, and getting active – visit Nanking this weekend, next weekend, Kunming I hope.
Lecturing on Whitman is fun.

Letter from Allen Ginsberg to Gary Snyer ; Nov. 8 (1987).
Our Chinese project has been set for fall 1988 and I've been in touch with Wang Meng and the Writer's Union in Beijing, they've ok'd it – now for the final selection of poets. Any last months' suggestions ?

Letter from Gary Snyder to Allen Ginsberg ; Nov. 24 (1987).
Am going from Lhasa to Kashgar across Tibet next fall, as co-leader on a trip. David Padwa coming too.

Letter from Allen Gisberg to Gary Snyder ; Dec. 21 (1987).
Lhasa-Kashgar trip ! I don't know if I've physical stamina! My left knee healing tho weak, lost some thigh muscle, taking physiotherapy.

Hou, Guoliang. Shi lun Make Tuwen you mo de te se [ID D29606].
The writer of the article made a convincing analysis of Twain's continuation and remoulding of the traditions of folk literature. He also analysed the interaction of tragedy and comedy in Twain's humor, pointing out that it contains the beginnings of 'black humor'.

[Mansfield, Katherine]. Mansifei'erde duan pian xiao shuo ji [ID D30020].
Tang Baoxin schreibt im Vorwort : "… Katherine Mansfield's stories are much loved not because of any prominent figures in them, but because she is able to depict her ordinary characters and their setting with a sensitive brush. Her writing is like traditional Chinese realistic painting, neat and clear, but never dull and static like some sketches of still life. Characters under her pen are vivid and impressive, alive with human feelings and emotions. Her stories are all about minor occurrences in daily life, most of which are not noticed by other people. She notices them, however, and turns them into interesting stories, attracting, then gradually involving, the reader's attention. She is basically a realist in her approach towards writing, and in her simple writing she proves herself to be a compassionate writer of moral integrity who attacks evils in real life and expresses love and hatred accordingly. With remorseless irony she lays bare the hypocrisy and shallowness of the leisured class and their men of letters, giving a vividly detailed description of their absurd and meaningless lives and of the emptiness of their spiritual world… The main themes of Mansfield's stories are the life of the middle-class in New Zealand, human relationships, and, in particular, the psychology of women and children. Characters in her stories are completely different from each other in their ways of thinking and behaving, which, however good or bad, kind or cruel, are true to life… She is skilled at conveying her life experience and her thoughts and feelings through her characters… She exhibited her talent for creative expression in the course of representing the past. Some stories are written from the perspective of girls in their adolescence… Although her characters originate in real life, they are not identical with real persons. She cut and trimmed raw materials taken from actual life. Sometimes she exaggerated aspects of the original, and sometimes she constructed a single character out of two real persons… Mansfield spared no effort in perfecting her writing techniques. She believed that a genuine style came from attention to technique, and required total commitment if it was to be achieved. In her letters she spoke of the hard work that was involved in writing some of her stories… She has been praised for the beauty of her language. She not only paid attention to the length of her sentences, but also to the prosody of every word, so as to suit them to different places, occasions and characters… Some people say that Mansfield's greatest achievement is her invention of a new genre of story writing. She revealed a talent for sensitive characterization and accurate recording of dialogue, as well as for constructing plots which unfolded gradually…"

Zhou, Jueliang. Heman Meierweier. In : Wai guo wen xue [ID D30234]. [Herman Melville].
Zhou's ritical survey of Typee, Omoo, Mardi, Redburn, White-jacket, and Moby Dick affirms Melville's stance as a social critic and sees him as an artist who could be deftly realistic, symbolic, and allegorical at the same time. He argues that Moby Dick symbolizes a combination of virtue and vice, and its whiteness both innocence and terror.

Faulkner, William. Shall not perish. In : Story ; vol. 23, no. 102 (July-August, 1943).
H.R. Stoneback : By the responses of Chinese readers, one of the most neglected of all Faulkner stories, Shall not perish evoked powerfully certain crucial Faulkner notions about place and community, about the dignity and pride of the country people or the peasantry in China. Some passages were singled out for elucidation and praise by Chinese readers.

["China letters" from Chinese correspondents in Beijing about William Faulkner.]
(1) I think you will be interested to hear that many Chinese students are enjoying Faulkner's works. I taught 'Spotted horses' and 'Pantaloon in black' to my students here last semester – they liked them very much. And they all think Faulkner is greater than Fitzgerald or Hemingway. These two stories have started them on their way to further readings. I have recommended The potable Faulkner and Light in August. I don't want them to feel frustrated after reading The sound and the fury. It is a bit too difficult for them at present.
(2) Last semester a Fulbright professor gave a Faulkner seminar at Beijing University. This semester another Fulbright professor is giving a seminar on Cather and Faulkner, and teaching The sound and the fury and Light in august in her novel course. She is also supervising graduate students working independently on Faulkner. I continue to work on my translations of the stories and teach various Faulkner stories in my classes.
(3) Faulkner's achievement in style is now highly acclaimed here and, as you know, there are many brave attempts to introduce him to the Chinese reader. Aside from all the translation, critical essays on him are coming out, too, on his style and his themes. Two graduate students at my university want to write about his technique and the initiation problem in his works. These are ambitious topics. They are young people full of original ideas and some of them very good. I've learned a lot from them. As for other American writers, I like some of Hemingway and Fitzgerald but I prefer Faulkner because he has more depth. My students feel the same way, too. Fitzgerald's prose is graceful and his stories are affecting and touching. But they are a bit shallow, and they are concerned with very trivial matters, maybe too personal. But Faulkner had a deep understanding of human beings with all their vice and virtue… Also, the collapse of a big family is a familiar and recurrent theme in Chinese literature. So is the burden of the past, though not racial problems or original sin, but the sin committed by one's ancestry…

Chen, Jia. A history of English literature = Yingguo wen xue shi [ID D23629].
"Jane Austen's fiction is flawed because she has entirely ignored the stirring scenes of growing contradictions and conflicts between the laboring people and the ruling classes in England and failed to make any representation of the social and political conflicts of the time."

Kirk A. Denton erhält den M.A. in Chinese language and literature der University of Toronto.

[James, Henry]. Hua sheng dun guang chang. Zhanmusi ; Hou Weirui yi. [ID D34510].
While deeply appreciative of James' writing, Hou comments, "The reason that the characters and the social aspects are somehow 'narrow and restricted' is that the author had relatively little social experience. James knew little about the difficult lives of people in society's lower strata. Nor did he know much about the rising social struggles at that period when capitalism was turning into imperialism". Hou seeks to balance a laudatory approach to James qua modernist with criticism of James' conservative aestheticism. This is a balancing act that is fairly common in Chinese introductions to works written by centrist or conservative American writers as the translator seeks to reconcile literary and political reputations. What is often missing, however, is the integration and reconciliation of these reputations. Hou introduces the plot of Washington Square with the observations that "American capitalism developed quickly in the middle of the nineteenth century…[and]…The generation of Americans born at that period did not hesitate to use every method to pursue material profits: wealth-hunting was the basis of their system of virtues". The introduction does not synthesize its socio-historical information with the novel's plot, nor does this substantial discussion treat the gender aspects of the 'woman as capital' dispute between Dr. Sloper and Morris Townsend. Failure to discuss gender issues significantly distanced Hou's introduction from the feminist discussions that characterized Washington Square elsewhere in the world in 1982.

Gao, Xingsheng. Ji qi zuo zhe Huosang. [ID D35035].
Gao is arguing that in Hawthorne's works the author focused on human nature, especially the relationship between good and evil. Hawthorne's view of human nature was of idealism.

Roberto Ciarla ist Direktor des Giuseppe Tucci National Museum of Oriental Art, Rom.