Novelist Discusses Contemporary China

Novelist Discusses Contemporary China
BY DANA DURBIN
Rice News Staff
March 19, 1998

Novelist Wang Meng brought his view of contemporary life in China, which has
been shaped by political and cultural forces, to Rice University last week.

Wang, the guest speaker at the inaugural program of the Transnational China
Project of Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, told the audience
packed into the commons of Baker Hall that while he has had "many identities
in his life," he will always be a writer who will "serve as a witness
to life in contemporary China."

In his March 11 speech "Diverging Cultural Values in Contemporary China,"
Wang spoke about Chinese life in general and about a new trend in Chinese literary
culture.

Throughout his life and career,Wang said he has maintained his objectivity
toward Chinese life.

"I believe that I know China well and I have never been so sensitive or
angry that I lost my objectivity. I have never become so divided or so optimistic
that I believed that political or social change would come true immediately."

Wang, Minister of Culture from 1986-1989, is a member of the Chinese Communist
Party’s Central Committee and a vice chairman of the Writers’ Association. Wang
was prohibited from writing following the publication of "The Young Newcomer
in the Organization Department" in 1956, which was critical of the Chinese
government. He was allowed to publish again in 1978. His most recent work is
"The Stubborn Porridge."

Wang told the largely Chinese audience that he would not "try to tell
you everything is ok in China. We all know how hard it is accomplishing important
and good transformation in China." He added that writers are trying to
do their best as reforms continue.

Despite problems, he said that the present time is the best period in China
in the last century. Chinese people enjoy a reasonably free and peaceful existence
and a good quality of life, he said.

Wang discussed a radical new literary trend characterized by criticism of modernity
that has gained in popularity among Chinese intellectuals during the late 1990s.

Proponents of this trend believe that social evils in China come from the innate
contradictions of capitalism, not from the Soviet-style planned economy or residuals
of Marxism. They believe the Chinese should be more critical of the ideas of
intellectuals over the past century, such as modernization, democracy and emancipation
of the individual, and that the Chinese should demand a more correct evaluation
of the cultural revolution and Red Guard movement.

Many who follow this trend belong to the generation who grew up during the
cultural revolution, especially the writers among them, Wang said. Other proponents
are humanities scholars who returned to China after studying in Europe and the
United States. Wang said he used to be close to the young generation of writers
in China, but that is no longer the case: He is now considered outdated by many.

Wang’s speech was the first public event of the Transnational China Project.
Its mission is to develop innovative approaches to the study of contemporary
China through the use of advanced technologies and through personal and inter-institutional
collaboration. The research goal of the project is to understand the forces
shaping the rise of mass-media oriented consumer societies in the greater China
region&emdash;particularly the influence of the transnational circulation
of people, technologies, commodities and ideas.

For related information visit the following Web site:
Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy: http://riceinfo.rice.edu/projects/baker/index.html