In the early twenty-first century, the Chinese literary world saw an emergence of fictional works - dubbed as 'oppositional political novels' - that took political articulation as their major purpose and questioned the fundamental principles and intrinsic logic of the Chinese model.
Based on close readings of five representative oppositional Chinese political novels, Questioning the Chinese Model examines the sociopolitical connotations and epistemological values of these novels in the broad context of modern Chinese intellectual history and contemporary Chinese politics and society. Zhansui Yu provides a sketch of the social, political, and intellectual landscape of present-day China. He investigates the dialectic relationship between the arts and politics in the Chinese context, the mechanisms and dynamics of censorship in the age of the Internet and commercialization, and the ideological limitations of oppositional Chinese political novels. In the process of textual and social analysis, Yu extensively cites Western political philosophers, such as Hannah Arendt, Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault, and references well-regarded studies on Chinese literature, politics, society, and the Chinese intelligentsia. Examining oppositional Chinese political novels from multiple perspectives, Questioning the Chinese Model applies a broad range of knowledge beyond merely the literary field.
Show moreIn the early twenty-first century, the Chinese literary world saw an emergence of fictional works - dubbed as 'oppositional political novels' - that took political articulation as their major purpose and questioned the fundamental principles and intrinsic logic of the Chinese model.
Based on close readings of five representative oppositional Chinese political novels, Questioning the Chinese Model examines the sociopolitical connotations and epistemological values of these novels in the broad context of modern Chinese intellectual history and contemporary Chinese politics and society. Zhansui Yu provides a sketch of the social, political, and intellectual landscape of present-day China. He investigates the dialectic relationship between the arts and politics in the Chinese context, the mechanisms and dynamics of censorship in the age of the Internet and commercialization, and the ideological limitations of oppositional Chinese political novels. In the process of textual and social analysis, Yu extensively cites Western political philosophers, such as Hannah Arendt, Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault, and references well-regarded studies on Chinese literature, politics, society, and the Chinese intelligentsia. Examining oppositional Chinese political novels from multiple perspectives, Questioning the Chinese Model applies a broad range of knowledge beyond merely the literary field.
Show moreAcknowledgments
Introduction: Rise of Oppositional Chinese Political
Novels
Chinese Political Fiction in the Twentieth
Century
Sociopolitical Crisis and Re-politicization of Society in the New
Century
Propitious Circumstances for Political Articulation
Scope, Themes, Methodology, and Structure of the Book
1. Destruction of Communist Myths
Them
versus Us: Subversion of the Party-People Myth
From Critics to Servants: Changed Role of Chinese Intellectuals
after Tiananmen
Nationalism as State Ideology
Ideologization of Morality, Hedonism, and Political
Acquiescence
Summary
2. Wolf Totem: Paradoxical Eulogy to a
Culture
Wolf Totem and Mongolian Correlative Cosmology
Social Darwinism, Reverse Chauvinism, and Nationalism
A Wolf Destroyed by the “Wolf Logic”
Ideological Hegemony behind a Literary Sensation
Summary
3. Lenin’s Kisses: Absurdity, Dehumanization, and
Dilemma of the Chinese Utopia
Revolution as Nightmare
Contemporary Freak Show: Absurdity and Cruelty of the Biopolitics
of a Utopia
“With Money, Anything Is Possible”
Arbitrariness of Power, Sustainability of Dictatorship, and
Dead-End Future
Summary
4. Such Is This
World@sars.come: Dictatorship as a Fatal
Disease
“Lockdown” as Social Reality and Political Allegory
The Terrifying “Old Crone” behind the Screen
The Chinese Intelligentsia after Tiananmen: Cynicism and
Division
Two Faces of the Party: Ugliness behind a Lovely Mask
Summary
5. The Fat Years: Social Injustice, Forced Amnesia,
Distorted Mentality, and Fascism
Fake Paradise:
Darkness behind the Chinese “Miracle”
Falsified History and Forced Amnesia
Mental Distortion and Spiritual Agony
“Fascism? We Are Only in Its Early Stages!”
Summary
6. The Seventh Day: Dystopian Wasteland versus Modern
Peach Blossom Spring
Bloody Predation and Deceptive
Propaganda
Destruction of Sanctified Human Feelings
Banality of Evil: Callous Indifference and Moral Corruption
Peach Blossom Spring: Utopia of Truth, Love, and Happiness
Summary
Epilogue: Limits of Transgression and Mechanisms of
Counter-Censorship
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Zhansui Yu is an associate professor of Chinese in the World Languages and Cultures Department at Nazareth College
“Yu’s directness in bridging hard-hitting Chinese intellectual
poignancy and the country’s increasingly opaque political
development is a welcome effort in the mapping of politically
engaged intellectual expression in late reform-era China.”
*The China Quarterly*
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
