Europe's New Chinese Literature

Europe’s New Chinese LiteratureAuthors of Chinese Origin Writing in French and German

A Comparative Analysis

by

Heidrun Hörner

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophyin Literature

Approved Dissertation Committee

Prof. Dr. Immacolata Amodeo, ChairJacobs University Bremen

Prof. Dr. Ludwig PfeifferJacobs University Bremen

Prof. Dr. Nicola SpakowskiJacobs University Bremen

Prof. Dr. Günter BergerUniversity of Bayreuth

Date of Defense: May 14, 2010

School of Humanities & Social Sciences

Statutory Declaration

Family Name, Given/First Name: Hörner, HeidrunMatriculation Number: 123456Kind of Thesis Submitted: PhD Thesis

English: Declaration of Authorship

I hereby declare that the thesis submitted was created and written solely by myselfwithout any external support. Any sources, direct or indirect, are marked as such.I am aware of the fact that the contents of the thesis in digital form may be revisedwith regard to usage of unauthorized aid as well as whether the whole or partsof it may be identified as plagiarism. I do agree my work to be entered into adatabase for it to be compared with existing sources, where it will remain in orderto enable further comparisons with future theses. This does not grant any rightsof reproduction and usage, however.The Thesis has been written independently and has not been submitted at anyother university for the conferral of a PhD degree; neither has the thesis beenpreviously published in full.

German: Erklärung der Autorenschaft (Urheberschaft)

Ich erkläre hiermit, dass die vorliegende Arbeit ohne fremde Hilfe ausschließlichvon mir erstellt und geschrieben worden ist. Jedwede verwendeten Quellen, di-rekter oder indirekter Art, sind als solche kenntlich gemacht worden. Mir ist dieTatsache bewusst, dass der Inhalt der Thesis in digitaler Form geprüft werdenkann im Hinblick darauf, ob es sich ganz oder in Teilen um ein Plagiat handelt.Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass meine Arbeit in einer Datenbank eingegebenwerden kann, um mit bereits bestehenden Quellen verglichen zu werden und dortauch verbleibt, um mit zukünftigen Arbeiten verglichen werden zu können. Diesberechtigt jedoch nicht zur Verwendung oder Vervielfältigung.Diese Arbeit wurde in der vorliegenden Form weder einer anderen Prüfungsbehördevorgelegt noch wurde das Gesamtdokument bisher veröffentlicht.

March 17, 2010

Abstract

Europe’s New Chinese Literature deals with literature — poetry, theater and prose— by authors of Chinese origin using German or French as modes of expression.Only in the last decade the majority of their works was published and becamevisible to a larger audience, with Dai Sijie and Shan Sa in France and Luo Lingyuanin Germany. The thesis attempts the first comprehensive analysis of this literatureusing a comparative approach. It scrutinizes the discursive strategies with whichthe authors of this group position themselves in the literary field. The strategiesdiffer insofar as the writers for example adopt Western stereotypes of China intheir works or want to function as cultural ambassadors for China.

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Contents

Statutory Declaration iii

Abstract v

Table of Contents vii

Introduction 1

1 Overseas Chinese as a Field of Research 71.1 Chinese Migration as a Global Phenomenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.2 Chinese Migration to Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121.3 Chinese Migration to France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

2 Literature, Migration and the Chinese 172.1 Chinese Writers Overseas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172.2 German Situation After 1995 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202.3 Recent Developments in Francophone Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . 252.4 Studies on Chinese Writing in French . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312.5 Studies on Chinese Writing in German . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

3 Coping with and Copying the Clichés 373.1 Orientalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373.2 Self-Orientalisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523.3 Occidentalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

4 Communicating Chinese Culture and History 954.1 Staging authenticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

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4.2 Narrating a Life Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture . . . . . . . . . . . 124

4.3.1 Shanghai as an International City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1244.3.2 The Chinese Language and Naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1294.3.3 Proverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1364.3.4 Food and Hospitality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1384.3.5 Political Movements and Their Depiction . . . . . . . . . . . 139

5 Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions 1435.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

5.1.1 Wounds Can Heal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1445.1.2 Nostalgic Recollections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1495.1.3 Atrocities and Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

5.2 On the Forefront of Chinese Migrant Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1645.2.1 Cheng Sheng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1655.2.2 François Cheng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1665.2.3 Gao Xingjian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1665.2.4 Ya Ding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1715.2.5 Other Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Conclusion 173

Bibliography 181Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181Secondary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

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Introduction

When Goethe outlined the imminent era of Weltliteratur in his conversations withEckermann, among other texts, it was a Chinese novel in French translation thathe referred to as a symbol of this future age.1 Even today this book, most likely Iu-Kiao-Li ou Les deux cousines,2 can be found in the Herzogin Anna Amalia libraryin Weimar. Could Goethe have imagined that one hundred and fifty years latersome Chinese authors would write their literary texts in the language of Schillerand Kleist, of Diderot and Voltaire? In these cases there is no need for translationanymore. Europe’s New Chinese Literature : Authors of Chinese Origin Writing inFrench and German — A Comparative Analysis provides the first comprehensivesurvey and analysis of works by authors originating from China, literate in Chinese,who choose to write their literary texts in French or German.

This selection of authors has been made in order to show the as yet unexploredparts of Overseas Chinese writing. Academia has almost exclusively concentratedon the works of exiles from China writing in Chinese or — in the cases of NorthAmerica and Australia — in English. So far texts written by authors of Chineseorigin in languages other than Chinese or English have not been studied.3 Within

1Johann Peter Eckermann. Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens. Ed.by Regine Otto and Peter Wersig. Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 1987. The conversation betweenGoethe and Eckermann takes place mainly in early 1827. Further readings on the topic: ErichAuerbach. “Philologie der Weltliteratur.” In: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur romanischen Philologie.Francke, 1967, pp. 301–310.; Hendrik Birus. “The Goethean Concept of World Literature andComparative Literature.” In: CLCWeb 2.4 (2000). url: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol2/iss4/7.

2Iu-kiao-li ou Les deux cousines. Trans. by Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat. Paris: Moutardier,1826.

3An exception is for example Tamara Wagner’s work on Overseas Chinese writings in otherAsian languages: Tamara S. Wagner. Occidentalism in Novels of Malaysia and Singapore, 1819-

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http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol2/iss4/7


Europe’s New Chinese Literature

the last few decades, particularly around the turn of the 21st century, Chineseauthors in Europe have started writing in the languages of their adopted countries.In Germany and France a significant number of such writers has emerged and theirvisibility has consequently increased, most notably with Dai Sijie and Shan Sa inFrance and with Luo Lingyuan in Germany.

The analysis of this larger group of authors is not in chronological order, butrather scrutinizes the literary strategies in a typological way, specifically the strate-gies writers use to establish themselves within the European literary contexts andcircles while at the same time referring to their Chinese heritage and the imagi-naries related to China in their interviews and/ or texts.

Migrant writing has been extensively investigated in the German academic con-text over the last 20 to 25 years, while in France interest was aroused only recently,in the wake of the literary post-colonial discourse, as a tool of coming to termswith French colonial history. Despite some extensive research on migrant writingin general in Germany,4 Chinese writers have been neglected by German stud-ies (Germanistik), Comparative Literature and Chinese studies (Sinologie), eventhough these writers were already included in the prominent literature anthologiesof the early 1980s5 and kept publishing poetry, short stories and novels. For along time in France the concept of Francophonie6 focused almost exclusively onthe literature created in the former French colonies, including Quebec. Researchon French as a language of literary expression for authors of non-French originhas started only very recently, despite the fact that a longstanding tradition ex-

2004. Colonial and Postcolonial Financial Straits and Literary Style. Lewiston, Queenstown,and Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2005.

4E.g. in Carmine Chiellino’s handbook on migrant writing in Germany, Ulrike Reeg condensesthe information on authors from all over Asia in only ten pages, while in Immacolata Amodeo’s‘Die Heimat heißt Babylon’ the reference to Chinese writing in Germany consists of only onesubordinate clause, p. 49.

5Irmgard Ackermann, ed. Als Fremder in Deutschland. Berichte, Erzählungen, Gedichte vonAusländern. With a forew. by Harald Weinrich. With an afterw. by Dietrich Krusche. München:dtv, 1982.; Irmgard Ackermann, ed. In zwei Sprachen leben. Berichte, Erzählungen, Gedichtevon Ausländern. With a forew. by Harald Weinrich. München: dtv, 1983.

6This is meant in the sense of the new Francophonie in contrast to the old one focusing onSwitzerland and Belgium.

2

Introduction

ists of non-French writers adopting French as their literary language (GiacomoCasanova, Samuel Beckett etc.) along with a consistent number of Francophoneauthors without a colonial connection or background.

This thesis does not only focus on the relationship of literary texts to the targetlanguage, culture and country, but also takes into account the author’s originalculture. In contrast to the common practice of using approaches from only onediscipline, the comparative approach of this thesis encompasses all the relevantdisciplines i.e. Chinese studies, French studies and German studies.

While Europeans for varying reasons — including trading, missionary and laterimperialistic interests — have been traveling to China since the Middle Ages, thecontact between the Chinese and the Europeans was not reciprocal for a longtime. This was changed in the middle of the 19th century when the imperialthrone began dispatching Chinese delegates to Europe.7 China’s interest in theOther/ Foreign — namely, Japan, Europe and the US — was triggered by theintrusion of Western powers and their demonstration of military superiority aswell as the fact that, for the first time in Chinese history, the Western Other wasperceived as cultured and as coming from a long cultural tradition. Around theturn of the 20th century, the growing interest in the Other was reflected in the largenumber of Chinese students who went abroad to Japan, Europe and the UnitedStates. The mobility of people and acceptance of Western culture manifested itselfin the May Fourth Movement.8 The cultural aim of the movement to modernize(or, often synonymously used, Westernize) China in many aspects of life had itsrepercussions, but its foremost cultural outcome was the innovative use of 白话(baihua, vernacular Chinese) instead of Classical Chinese, which resulted in the

7Jürgen Osterhammel. Die Entzauberung Asiens. Europa und die asiatischen Reiche im 18.Jahrhundert. München: C.H. Beck, 1998. And: Erich Gütinger. Die Geschichte der Chinesenin Deutschland. Ein Überblick über die ersten 100 Jahre seit 1822. Münster: Waxmann, 2004.

8For introductory reading on the cultural and political movement and its impact on 20th cen-tury Chinese writing see, for instance:Tse-tsung Chow. The May Fourth Movement. IntellectualRevolution in Modern China. Cambrige and London: Harvard University Press, 1960; YingjinZhang. “The Institutionalization of Modern Literary History in China, 1922-1980.” In: ModernChina 20.3 (July 1994), pp. 347–377; Hung-Yok Ip, Tze-Ki Hon, and Chiu-Chun Lee. “ThePlurality of Chinese Modernity. A Review of Recent Scholarship on the May Forth Movement.”Review. In: Modern China 29.4 (Oct. 2003), pp. 490–509.

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renewal of Chinese literature, rendering it understandable for a broader circle.The cultural fascination of Europe continued to persist in the mindset of many

Chinese intellectuals, while the actual migration of Chinese population to Europewas first visible in the 1920s in the harbor cities. It was a migration of mostlymales and was still limited to small numbers and specific European cities, such asLiverpool and Hamburg. In the second half of the twentieth century, however, thecommunity of Overseas Chinese in Europe grew and became more diverse.

By the 1990’s a multitude of new literary voices writing in German or Frenchcould be heard from the now permanently installed heterogeneous groups of Chi-nese in Germany and France. Early differences exist, the individual authors, forinstance, belong to different times of migration (e.g. Cheng Sheng was a 留学生(liuxuesheng, student abroad) who stayed on in France after World War I, FrançoisCheng and Chow Chung-cheng left China after World War II, while others, likeY.C. Kuan or Chow Ching Lie left during or just after the Cultural Revolution).

These Chinese authors are literate in Chinese and have gained knowledge ofFrench or German either by university studies and/ or a stay abroad in the re-spective countries. Most of them have lived for a longer time in one of the twocountries. A majority of them still lives there and almost exclusively uses theadopted language for literary production.

This thesis is subdivided into six chapters including an introduction and a con-clusion. It begins with an initiatory chapter narrowing down the field of researchon Overseas Chinese. The third chapter starts with a topical research report on adiverse set of findings in several different disciplines of the Humanities related tothe thesis topic. The fourth chapter Coping with and Copying the Clichés high-lights the close connection between Orientalism and self-ascribed images, wherebythe analysis follows examples from literary history and the contemporary contextof production. The next chapter Communicating Chinese Culture and Historydeals with literary texts that have a seemingly intermediary function between thetwo cultures (i.e. Chinese-German and Chinese-French). The sixth chapter Conti-nuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions presents three dominanttrends of Chinese literature and how they are readopted and revived in the Germanand French writings of Chinese authors overseas. In addition to these identifiedgroups, works by certain individualistic poets, playwrights and novelists are por-

4

Introduction

trayed as exemplaries. The conclusion locates the works of these authors in thediscursive fields of (post-)modernity, “Chineseness” and literary studies. It dis-cusses further the appropriateness of certain concepts and taxonomies used withinacademic disciplines and institutions.

The following section gives an overview of research on Overseas Chinese froma general perspective by taking into account several academic disciplines from theSocial Sciences and the Humanities.

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Chapter 1

Overseas Chinese as a Field of Research

Scholarly research on Overseas Chinese is manifold and takes place in many fields ofthe Humanities and the Social Sciences. There are several terms that are discussedin the discourse on the movement and relocation of Chinese outside China, withthe most common denominations being Overseas Chinese or Chinese Diaspora.Sometimes research on overseas Chinese is grouped with other Asian communities,as in Asian-American studies. Difficulties arise in drawing a demarcating linebetween national, ethnic, geographical, temporal and cultural aspects of OverseasChinese. Moreover, the increasingly pertinent questions of what Chineseness isand how Chinese identity and culture can be defined are discussed constantly.

While the scientific community has mainly focused on Chinese migration toSoutheast Asia, North America, and Australia, the European situation has onlyrecently become part of the research field.

1.1 Chinese Migration as a Global Phenomenon

Lynn Pan, scholar, novelist and journalist, undertook the first attempt to mapChinese diaspora as a global phenomenon in cooperation with other scholars. TheEncyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas1 can be considered as a comprehensive guideto the field. Organized topically, the encyclopedia is divided into five parts dealing

1Lynn Pan, ed. The Encyclopaedia of the Chinese Overseas. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 1999.

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1. Overseas Chinese as a Field of Research

with (1) the origin of Chinese migrants, (2) facts and dates of the migration, (3)institutions formed abroad, (4) relations with China and non-Chinese and (5) theactual communities.

The third chapter, “Relations”, the paragraph “Relations with Non-Chinese”lays special focus on modern Chinese identity as well as the relevant culturalproducts. It portrays “Overseas Chinese artists in the 20th century,” “Cross-cultural cinema” and “Contemporary émigré writers”, who are listed according totheir choice of language. Other than Chinese, only those using Malay or Englishand located in USA, Canada or Britain are mentioned. Even though at this timewritings in other languages existed, they are not mentioned here.

In Chapter 5, “Communities”, the part on Europe covers only five countries,namely Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Russia. All other countries,despite their significant levels of Chinese immigration, are left out. The text onFrance begins with the chronology of migratory movements, spaces and places ofsettlement and moves on to the resulting characteristics of the Chinese community,its main economic occupations, associations and networks, as well as the level ofintegration and identification with the French state. While a special chapter isdedicated to the Work-Study Movement in 1919-21 led by Chinese students inParis, none of the writers or artists living in France are mentioned.

Laurence Ma and Carolyn Cartier’s The Chinese Diaspora. Space, Place, Mobil-ity, and Identity2 primarily considers the geographic aspects of Chinese migration.The book is divided into five parts, each of which contains several chapters. Thecontributing scholars portray widespread topics on the historical and contempo-rary diasporas, including Hong Kong and Taiwan as diasporic homelands, ethnic-ity, identity, and diaspora as home, migration and settlements in North Americaand transmigrants in Oceania. Once more the places of immigration are locatedin East Asia, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. The only exception isMaggi W. H. Leung’s3 article on “Notions of Home Among Diaspora Chinese inGermany”.

2Laurence J.C. Ma and Carolyn Cartier, eds. The Chinese Diaspora. Space, Place, Mobility,and Identity. Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.

3Cf. Sub-chapter 1.2 Chinese Migration to Germany.

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The omnibus Ungrounded Empires. The Cultural Politics of Modern ChineseTransnationalism4 edited by Aihwa Ong and Donald Nonini engages in “fruit-ful dialogues with cultural studies, history, sociology, and development studies.”5

Reflecting different implications of Chinese migration mostly in East Asia, top-ics circle around the question of seemingly distinct cultural characteristics amongChinese migrants like guanxi,6 family, space or transnational identities and nation-state regimes of truth and power throughout history. The editors claim that Chi-nese transnationalism, though being diverse, is creating an alternative modernity.7

Again Europe is considered as irrelevant in this regard.Other texts, as for example, Sun Wanning’s Leaving China. Media, Migra-

tion, and Transnational Imagination8 deal with different aspects of diaspora butconclude with the question of Chinese identity in diaspora. Sun stresses the im-portance of media in (re)creating an ethnic and/ or cultural identity. Not movingaccording to the development of different media from the press and television tothe internet, but moving from countryside to town, beyond the national border tothe globalized cosmopolitan city, Sun argues that the “transformation of a transna-tional imagination”9 is manifested in the triad of media, mobility and power of theChinese state. Again this study only relates to Chinese immigrants in East Asia,USA and Australia.

Regarding the European context in general, the following works seem relevant:

4Aihwa Ong and Donald M. Nonini. Ungrounded Empires. The Cultural Politics of ModernChinese Transnationalism. New York and London: Routledge, 1997.

5Ong and Nonini, Ungrounded Empires, p. vi.6关系, guanxi means a particular network in the societal area, based on (mutual) favours or

relationships (personal, blood, or locality).7Cf. “The dynamic tension between the diversity of subjects, cultures, and identities, on

the one hand, and the homogenizing ideologies of Chinese racial and cultural essences, on theOther, holds the key to our understanding of identity-making in the new Asia.” Ong and Nonini,Ungrounded Empires, p. 329.

8Sun Wanning. Leaving China. Media, Migration, and Transnational Imagination. Lanhamet al.: Bowman and Littlefield, 2002.

9Sun, Leaving China, p. 215.

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Gregor Benton and Frank N. Pieke’s The Chinese in Europe,10 Flemming Chris-tiansen’s Chinatown, Europe. An Exploration of Overseas Chinese Identity in the1990s,11 and a whole edition of the journal, International Migration from the sameyear.12

The Chinese in Europe, edited by Gregor Benton and Frank N. Pieke, is acollection of essays that constitutes an analytical framework to perceive patternsamong the growing Chinese communities in Europe. The collection includes fifteenessays in four parts which cover Chinese associations and questions of identity allover Europe, the Chinese in Western and Central Europe (Britain, France, Nether-lands, Denmark, and Germany), Southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, and Italy) andEastern Europe (Russia, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania). Many of thesearticles’ authors claim to write an initial outlook on the topic of Chinese migrationsto Europe. The content and methods of the writings comprise of such differenttopics as interviews with the immigrants on their living situation, studies on theimmigrants’ lives, to a statistics-based overview of the economic engagement ofimmigrants in Portugal. Despite the disparate set of findings, these groundbreak-ing studies are, as intended, a fruitful basis for further research. Consequentlychapters on Germany and France by Live Yu-Sion “The Chinese Community inFrance: Immigration, Economic Activity, Cultural Organization and Representa-tions” and Erich Gütinger “A Sketch of the Chinese community in Germany: Pastand Present” will be discussed later.13

Additionally, in the book Transnational Chinese. Fujianese Migrants in Eu-rope,14 Frank Pieke et al. present even broader circumstances and effects of Chi-nese migration including international migration, globalization and the European

10Gregor Benton and Frank Pieke, eds. The Chinese in Europe. Houndmills, Basingstoke, andOxford: MacMillan, 1998.

11Flemming Christiansen. Chinatown, Europe. An Exploration of Overseas Chinese Identityin the 1990s. London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003.

12International Migration 41.3 (2003).13Cf. Chapter 1.2 and 1.3 Chinese migration to Germany/ France respectively.14Frank Pieke, Pál Nyiri, and Mette Thunøand Antonella Ceccagno. Transnational Chinese.

Fujianese Migrants in Europe. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.

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situation. Dealing with the new Chinese (Fujianese)15 migration to Europe inparticular (especially to the United Kingdom, Italy, and Hungary) Pieke states:“The heterogeneity and transnationalism of Chinese migration do not add up toan unequivocal picture. On closer inspection, the category of ‘Chinese migra-tion’ gives way to a kaleidoscope of flows, biographies and ambitions.”16 Throughhis research, he develops suggestions for a European manual for dealing with theChinese migration to Europe.

Flemming Christiansen’s Chinatown, Europe on Chinese-European identity in-troduces the conditions of Overseas Chinese across the continent and seeks toidentify the issues that unite and separate these groups. In this sociological ac-count, Christiansen describes the different origins — both ethnic and geographic— of the Chinese as well as their actual locations and participation in everydaylife and politics in Europe. Here Christiansen emphasizes, on one hand the orga-nizational level of exercising power as interest groups, and on the other hand theeconomic sector in which the ‘ethnic card’ is often played. Chapter six is dedicatedto “European Chinese and Chinese Patriotism”. It deals with mainland China andTaiwan’s reactions towards Overseas Chinese communities and the Overseas Chi-nese relation towards patriotism, nationalism and ethnic identity.17

The September 2003 issue of the International Migration journal focuses onmigration between China and Europe, assessing trends in Chinese migration toEurope, patterns of emigration from China and discussing the role of governmentpolicy in shaping migratory flows. Articles by Carine Guerassimoff and Karsten

15Fujian is a province in Southern China, a large number of the actual migrants from Chinaoriginate from this place.

16Frank Pieke. “Chinese Globalization and Migration to Europe.” In: Working Paper 94(2004). url: http://www.ccis-ucsd.org/PUBLICATIONS/wrkg94.pdf (visited on 07/11/2006).

17 Christiansen concludes: “It is, in my view, not useful to reduce Chinese identity to a practi-cal utility, or the claim, that Chinese culture is a shallow emblem used for business purpose. It isinteresting to observe how the political economy of the ethnic boundary creates ingenious expres-sions of ethnic culture. The diversity and richness of overseas Chinese communities, the manyhistorical origins, the histories of migration, the use of ethnic symbols to achieve political aims,and the many fascinating life stories of overseas Chinese indicate that a reducctionist refectionof Chinese ethnicity would not be appropriate.” Christiansen, Chinatown, Europe, p. 179.

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Giese are dedicated to France and Germany.18

1.2 Chinese Migration to Germany

Besides some articles dedicated to specific issues of Chinese migrants in Europe,such as German-Chinese marriages, Chinese in Germany during the Nazi Regime,or the whereabouts of Chinese students in Germany, the following articles, mono-graphs and compilations,19 emerging only from the late 1990s, try to attain amore general view of the previous and present generations of Overseas Chinese inGermany.

Erich Gütinger, a Chinese language teacher in Berlin, is one of the contributorsto the above mentioned The Chinese in Europe. With his short essay, “A Sketchof the Chinese Community in Germany: Past and Present”,20 Gütinger providesthe first comprehensive outlook on Chinese migration to Germany. Later, in hisPh.D. thesis Die Geschichte der Chinesen in Deutschland. Ein Überblick über dieersten 100 Jahre seit 1822 21 (The History of Chinese in Germany. An Overview ofthe First Hundred Years Since 1822), Gütinger dates the starting point of Chinesetravel and migration to Germany to 1822. This is essentially a sketch lookingthrough the bare numbers of migrants from China — later PRC or Taiwan —to Germany. However, in the part dedicated to the Chinese communities in the1990s, he refers to new groups of migrants, including bus-drivers, doctors, nurses,scientists, as well as exiled artists. He also mentions bilingual newspapers inChinese and German printed for the community, Mandarin as the lingua franca ofthe group and its economic activities (mostly in catering and shipping).

18Cf. Chapter 1.2 and 1.3 Chinese migration to France/ Germany respectively.19For example: Dagmar Yü-Dembski. “Verdrängte Jahre. Einige Fragen der deutsch-

chinesischen Beziehungen während des Nationalsozialismus.” In: Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur.Studien zu den deutsch-chinesischen Beziehungen. Ed. by Mechthild Leutner. Vol. 31. BerlinerChina-Studien. Münster: LIT, 1996, pp. 329–347.

20Erich Gütinger. “A Sketch of the Chinese Community in Germany: Past and Present.” In:The Chinese in Europe. Ed. by Gregor Benton and Frank Pieke. Houndmills, Basingstoke, andOxford: MacMillan, 1998, pp. 197–208.

21Gütinger, Geschichte der Chinesen in Deutschland.

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1.2 Chinese Migration to Germany

In 2002 Karsten Giese published two articles in the Hamburg scientific jour-nal China Aktuell, “Mobilität und Migration in China, Teil 4: Emigration. 30Jahre diplomatische Beziehungen. 30 Jahre chinesische Migration nach Deutsch-land (I)”22 and “Mobilität und Migration in China, Teil 5: Emigration. 30 Jahrediplomatische Beziehungen. 30 Jahre chinesische Migration nach Deutschland(II)”23 as well as a more elaborate English version, “New Chinese Migration toGermany: Historical Consistencies and New Patterns of Diversification within aGlobalized Migration Regime” in International Migration in 2003.24 Giese’s firsttwo articles delineate the past and the present situation of Chinese migration toGermany. Contributing to the special focus on 30 years of diplomatic relationsbetween the Peoples Republic of China and the Federal Republic of Germany in2002, Giese highlights the increase in migration since 1972, the present situationand economic impact of Chinese immigrants. He also analyzes the heterogeneousgroup of Chinese in Germany, consisting of different social and regional layers,including students, ethnic businesses, integration, illegal migration and so on.

In 2004 and 2005, for the first time, two scholarly volumes entirely dedicatedto Chinese Migration in Germany appeared: Maggi Wai-Han Leung’s dissertationChinese Migration In Germany. Making Home in Transnational Space,25 and thecollection Migration und Integration der Auslandschinesen in Deutschland editedby Hui-wen Groeling-Che und Dagmar Yü-Dembski.26

22Karsten Giese. “Mobilität und Migration in China, Teil 4: Emigration. 30 Jahre diplomatis-che Beziehungen. 30 Jahre chinesische Migration nach Deutschland (I).” in: China Aktuell 31.8(2002), pp. 897–909.

23Karsten Giese. “Mobilität und Migration in China, Teil 5: Emigration. 30 Jahre chinesischeMigration nach Deutschland (II).” in: China Aktuell 31.9 (2002), pp. 1021–1033.

24Karsten Giese. “New Chinese Migration to Germany. Historical Consistencies and NewPatterns of Diversification within a Globalized Migration Regime.” In: International Migration41.3 (2003), pp. 155–185.

25Maggi Wai-Han Leung. Chinese Migration In Germany. Making Home in TransnationalSpace. Frankfurt and London: IKO, 2004. Parts of her research where published throughoutthe period in miscellanies and journals, as in the above mentioned Laurence Ma and CarolynCartier’s The Chinese Diaspora. Space, Place, Mobility, and Identity.

26Groeling-Che, Hui-wen von and Dagmar Yü-Dembski, eds. Migration und Integration derAuslandschinesen in Deutschland. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag, 2005.

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Maggi Leung was granted a stipend from the DAAD to conduct a comprehen-sive study on different aspects of Chinese migration to Germany from 1999 to 2002.Leung defines diaspora in the introductory chapter and describes it as a particularform of transnationalism.27 After summing up the history of Chinese migrationin Germany she concentrates on the features of ‘home’, ‘being away from home’,‘making a home’ and in the end ‘being at home’. She also observes the self locali-zation of the ‘German’-Chinese and the extent to which they are being/ feeling/accepted as Germans or Chinese in Germany. Chapters 5 to 9 deal with economicengagements and activities of the migrants. The epilogue and last chapter againconclude that the migrant groups of Chinese from Indonesia, PR China, HongKong, and Taiwan are heterogeneous in their origins as well as attitudes towardsbeing Overseas Chinese in Germany. These experiences are transposed to a liter-ary mode in an unusual way by the US-American writer Maxine Hong Kingstonin The Woman Warrior. Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts28 from 1975.

The collection Migration und Integration der Auslandschinesen in Deutschland(Migration and Integration of Overseas Chinese in Germany) edited by Groeling-Che and Yü-Dembski, considers aspects of the social sciences, history, law, the sci-entific community and cooperation, Overseas Chinese literature and the migrants’self-perceptions. The research reports preceding the articles represent the emerg-ing research on Chinese migration to Germany in the 1990s and thus introducesthis volume as the historical analysis of Chinese life in Germany is more thoroughthan the above mentioned and highlights the Third Reich period. To a certain de-gree Groeling-Che und Yü-Dembski’s article “Migrationserfahrungen: Thematik

27“As is generally accepted in the current discourse, diasporas are identified as a social formwhich is marked by a transnational, spatially and temporally sprawling network of people, who(or whose ancestors) have gone on journeys to settle down elsewhere, connected by special tiesof history and geography, who continue to forge socio-cultural, economic and political linkages,creating and maintaining (often imagined) communities. The indistinct and unfixed boundariesof these transnational communities are sustained by real and/ or symbolic ties and an attachmentto some original ‘homeland’, often identified as the genuine origin of their shared culture, whichmight be equivalent with common language, belief, values or symbols.” Leung, Chinese MigrationIn Germany, p. 20.

28Hong Kingston, Maxine. The Woman Warrior. Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghost. NewYork: Vintage Books, 1975. Semi-fictional text written by a second generation Chinese-Americanwriter.

14

1.3 Chinese Migration to France

und Bedeutung überseechinesischer Literatur”29 tackles the research topic of thisthesis.

1.3 Chinese Migration to France

Similar remarks as those made on the German research are applicable to the pub-lished research regarding France for it was only at the end of the 20th century thatthe theme of Overseas Chinese attracted the scientific community.

An early, representative study is the monograph, Asiatiques en France. Lesexpériences d’intégration locale30 by Le Huu Khoa in 1995. This sociological re-search portrays several larger Asian settlements in France and dedicates differentstudies on the specific situation and methods for their integration (with their ownor imposed actions). No chapter is devoted exclusively to Chinese communitiesand references are essentially to the earlier immigration from Indochina by ethnicChinese.

As already mentioned, one comprehensive chapter dedicated to the Chinesepopulation in France is Live Yu-Sion’s “The Chinese Community in France: Im-migration, Economic Activity, Cultural Organization and Representations”31 inPieke and Benton’s collection, The Chinese in Europe from 1998. This presents ahistorical overview of the migration according to linguistic groups and countries oforigin, as many migrants were from the Overseas Chinese settlement in Asia andso for the French colonies. Live accounts for the territorial concentration and eco-nomic specialization by separating them into the time frames of before and after1975. The Overseas Chinese groups are again subdivided in Sino-French, Chinesefrom China, and to a larger extent Chinese from Southeast Asia. The last chap-ter contributes a survey of the French public opinion on Overseas Chinese. Live

29Cf. Chapter 2.5 Chinese writing in German.30Le, Huu Khoa. L’immigration asiatique. Économie communautaire et stratégies profession-

nelles. Paris: C.H.E.A.M., 1995.31Yu-Sion Live. “The Chinese Community in France. Immigration, Economic Activity, Cul-

tural Organization and Representations.” In: The Chinese in Europe. Ed. by Gregor Bentonand Frank Pieke. Houndmills, Basingstoke, and Oxford: MacMillan, 1998. Chap. The ChineseCommunity in France, pp. 96–124.

15


states that the two groups of Chinese immigrants from China (Mainland China,Hong Kong and Taiwan) and from Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodiaetc.) can still be clearly distinguished. Thus Live sees a development towards “theemergence of a new Overseas Chinese identity”32 as a whole.

In the 2003 autumn edition of International Migration that has also been men-tioned above, Carine Guerassimoff33 delivers a short overview of the present situ-ation of Chinese migrants in France. She includes numbers and statistics of thedistribution all over the country, the duration of their stay, regions of origin, social-economic status and activities and the new features of inter-European migrationof Chinese overseas.

In general however none of the articles dedicated to Chinese migration to Franceand her Chinese community consider the Chinese writers living and working inFrance.

In conclusion, major foci can be established when looking at Overseas Chineseby focusing on it as a social phenomenon, philosophic discourse, or regarding itsmanifestation in literature. With reference to the actual movement of people, Eu-rope as a destination for Chinese migrants has only recently attracted the attentionof the scientific research community. Concerning philosophical or literary studies,attention remains on East Asia and North America. Besides a study on Chinesemigration to Germany in one article34 and the recognition of Chinese writing inother European languages in a study on Chinese Canadian writing in English,35

none of the above mentioned texts take notice of the existence of Chinese authorswhether they write in France or Germany and use French or German.

32Live, “The Chinese Community in France,” p. 122.33Carine Guerassimoff. “The New Chinese Migrants in France.” In: International Migration

41.3 (2003), pp. 135–154.34Hui-wen von Groeling-Che and Dagmar Yü-Dembski. “Migrationserfahrungen. Thematik

und Bedeutung überseechinesischer Literatur.” In: Migration und Integration der Auslandschi-nesen in Deutschland. Ed. by Groeling-Che, Hui-wen von and Dagmar Yü-Dembski. Wiesbaden:Harrasowitz Verlag, 2005, pp. 155–176.

35Tseen Khoo. “Introduction. Culture, Identity, Commodity: Testing Diasporic LiteraryBoundaries.” In: Culture, Identity, Commodity. Diasporic Chinese Literatures in English. Ed.by Tseen Khoo and Kam Louie. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2005, pp. 1–15.

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Chapter 2

Literature, Migration and the Chinese : TwoDecades of Scholarly Research

2.1 Chinese Writers Overseas — From General Overviewsto Specific Analyses

As already indicated, the secondary literature on Chinese writers overseas is thor-ough and rather manifold regarding texts written in Chinese, English, Malay andother East Asian Languages. This is not the case with European languages andeven the studies on authors writing in English concentrate mostly on the Ameri-can continent. Moreover these anthologies, monographs, conference volumes, andcollections indiscriminately include such variable categories as dissident, exile, di-asporic, or migrant writers. The studies usually refer to Chinese ethnicity ordescent.

In 2005 Wang Gungwu conceptualized his view on the diverse perspectives ofChinese Overseas’ literature in the newly founded Journal of Chinese Overseas.1

His article “Within and Without: Chinese Writers Overseas” discussed in a rathersophisticated way the multiple views on what it means to be a Chinese writer.His definition of the Chinese writer separates those who are living in or outsideChina, not according to whether they write in Chinese or another language but

1Chin-Keong Ng and Chee Beng Tan, eds. Journal of Chinese Overseas Vol. 1, No.1, Singa-pore University Press Singapore. 1.1 (2005). url: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_chinese_overseas/toc/jco1.1.html.

17

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_chinese_overseas/toc/jco1.1.html


2. Literature, Migration and the Chinese

whether they are living and writing in or outside Chinese culture. He describesthe multilingual situation in South East Asia, with literature by ethnic Chinese inMalay or Indonesian as well as Chinese, and adds to his description the bilingualsituation in North America, where the writers use Chinese, English or both.

In the last decades of the 20th century anthologies of North American andEast Asian ‘Chinese’ short stories were published, giving an incentive to engage inliterary studies regarding the topic.

In comparison to the later studies, the monograph Beyond Silence. ChineseCanadian Literature in English2 by Lien Chao published in 1997 engages morespecifically with the Canadian conditions of Sino-Canadian writings. The booktries to establish a distinctive Chinese-Canadian Literature in English as a lite-rature with independent features. It does so firstly by placing emphasis on howChinese-Canadian history was created and incorporated; in the texts; secondly, byextracting and analyzing major discursive strategies of the writings and thirdlyby analyzing the literature according to genre (e.g. short stories, folklore, drama,prose, and poetry).

In Winfried Siemerling’s 1999 volume Writing Ethnicity. Cross-Cultural Con-sciousness in Canadian and Quebecois Literature,3 the emphasis is put on culturalor ethnic heritage. However, Lien Chao states that in spite of 140 years of Chinesemigration and communities in Canada, factual, literary production in English4

surfaced only in the 1970s as a reaction or feature of discrimination in Cana-dian society in a writers’ workshop, the Chinese Canadian authors’ “collectivevoice brings out a largely unrecorded Canadian experience and heritage that has

2Lien Chao. Beyond Silence. Chinese Canadian Literature in English. Toronto: TSAR, 1997.3Winfried Siemerling, ed. Writing Ethnicity. Cross-Cultural Consciousness in Canadian and

Québécois Literature. Oakville: ECW Press, 1999.4Exceptions granted, two Eurasian sisters Edith Maud Eaton (pen name: Sui Sin Far) and

Winnifred Eaton Reeve (pen name: Onoto Watanna) published in late nineteenth century. LienChao. “Anthologizing The Collective. The Epic Struggles to Establish Chinese Canadian Li-terature in English.” In: Writing Ethnicity. Cross-Cultural Consciousness in Canadian andQuébécois Literature. Ed. by Winfried Siemerling. Oakville: ECW Press, 1999, pp. 145–170,p. 146.

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2.1 Chinese Writers Overseas

been excluded or misrepresented by the dominant media.”5 The main features aresummed up by keywords like historical silence, marginality, the question of identity,loss of Chinese language, collective literature, and community-based literature.

In the 2001 essay collection Aspects of Diaspora. Studies on North AmericanChinese Writers,6 Lucie Bernier elaborates on the novelty of this kind of research.The collection includes texts written in both English and French. Grouping themaccording to country of origin — either USA or Canada — the topics and booksscrutinized seem similar to those just mentioned, namely collective history, self-awareness of different layers of alterity, gender, and defining identity.

Published in 2005, Culture, Identity, Commodity. Diasporic Chinese Litera-tures in English7 edited by Tseen Khoo and Kam Louie offers one of the firstcomprehensive overviews of literary criticism on recent Chinese writing in English,mostly North American and Australian. The structure of the collection is geogra-phically — and not thematically — structured. The four different sections analyzefirstly, the importance of ‘commodities’ in the texts, such as food, labor, and de-sire; secondly, the problems of diaspora itself, connected with the quest for identityand the problem of memory; thirdly, the gender issues; and fourthly, the multicul-tural relationships in the host countries. Recognizing texts written in languagesother than English, they explain the stress on one language with the necessity ofa “sharp focus, critically, and textually.”8

Apart from European languages, Tamara S. Wagner’s study, Occidentalism inNovels of Malaysia and Singapore, 1819-2004. Colonial and Postcolonial Finan-cial Straits and Literary Style,9 gives a very critical, analytic view of the self-Orientalization of Asian writers. In the introduction, Wagner summarizes thediscourse on Occidentalism as a re-representation of ‘the West’ and shows how the

5Chao, “Anthologizing The Collective,” p. 147.6Lucie Bernier, ed. Aspects of Diaspora. Studies on North American Chinese Writers. Bern

and Berlin: Peter Lang, 2001.7Tseen Khoo and Kam Louie, eds. Culture, Identity, Commodity. Diasporic Chinese Litera-

tures in English. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2005.8Khoo, “Introduction,” p. 2.9T., Occidentalism in Novels of Malaysia and Singapore.

19


features of this discourse are manifested in recent Malayan and Singaporean writ-ing including texts by ethnic Chinese writers. She concludes that Occidentalismis more than a pure reversal of Orientalism, but typically divides Occidentalism’s‘retaliatory strategies’ into emulative and revisionist Occidentalism.

2.2 German Situation After 1995

Research on recent migration to Germany has become diversified and specializedover the last decades. Among other facets, it tackles the origins and motivations ofthe migrants and sociological aspects. In the realm of literature, the focus has beenon literary, linguistic or pedagogic studies. The modification in labels from Gastar-beiterliteratur (guest worker literature) or Ausländerliteratur (foreigner literature)to migrant or migration literature and literature of foreign writers in the FederalRepublic of Germany is well documented in the works of Irmgard Ackermann,Immacolata Amodeo, Carmine Chiellino, and many more. With this, the aca-demic discussion of German literature by foreign writers altered from the questionof ‘Betroffenheit’ (dismay) and ‘Fremdheitserfahrung’ (experience of strangeness/foreignness)10 to a question of multiple streams of language, of inclusion in or ex-clusion from the German literary canon, of inclusion and exclusion in general, ofintercultural literature and even of a new, emerging world literature. This gen-eral overview of monographs and essay collections focuses on the last two decades,whereby the emphasis in my selection of texts is on questions regarding the canonand the canonization of the ‘new’ German literature.

Immacolata Amodeo published her dissertation, ‘Die Heimat heißt Babylon’.Zur Literatur ausländischer Autoren in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in 1996.11

She sums up former attempts to describe and categorize literature by foreigners inGermany in the second chapter. In the third chapter, Amodeo introduces a way toorganize the heterogeneous field of ‘foreign’ literature in Germany: Locating such

10For the reflections on early writing see: Ulrike Reeg. Schreiben in der Fremde. Literaturnationaler Minderheiten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Essen: Klartext Verlag, 1988.

11Immacolata Amodeo. ‘Die Heimat heißt Babylon’. Zur Literatur ausländischer Autoren inder Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1996.

20


literature in the fringes (Randliteratur) Amodeo questions the existing nationalliterary canon. Notably her study is written not to put forth new categories forthis kind of literature but to describe the phenomenon from a new observationalperspective.

In the introduction to the 1996 conference collection Schreiben zwischen denKulturen,12 Paul Michael Lützeler connects the literary developments in post-warFederal Republic to the multicultural debates in society and politics. The con-tributions include essays by so-called multicultural — and not only migrant —writers like Jurek Becker, Sten Nadolny, and Yüksel Pazarkaya on the percep-tions of their living and writing conditions, the texts also consider the questionor concept of multiculturalism. The part on analyses shows different aspects suchas Arab-German (Iman O. Khalil), German-Jewish (Amy Colin), or Afro-GermanLiterature (Leroy T. Hopkins), descriptions of the Other in migrant literature(Irmgard Ackermann) or the postcolonial view of German writers (Paul MichaelLützeler).

In 1997 Samuel Beer and Franz Peter Künzel published the conference volumeSprachwechsel.13 The volume is split into three parts with the first one consisting ofessays on recent developments in German migrant literature, the second containingactual literary texts, and the third comprising of feedback on the conference. In thefirst part, questions of ranking German literature written by foreigners (IrmgardAckermann) arise anew, along with those on language and code switching in regardof Czech exile writing in Germany (Manfred Jähnischen) or multilingual regionsin Rumania (Annemarie Podlipny-Hehn).

In 1997 Mary Howard published another omnibus, Interkulturelle Konfigura-tionen, based on a congress.14 Even though the subtitle Zur Erzählliteratur vonAutoren nichtdeutscher Herkunft is referring to a very heterogeneous field of li-terature, the essays and analyses mainly focus on Turkish-German authors like

12Paul Michael Lützeler, ed. Schreiben zwischen den Kulturen. Beiträge zur deutschsprachigenGegenwartsliteratur. Frankfurt: Fischer Verlag, 1996.

13Samuel Beer and Franz Peter Künzel, eds. Sprachwechsel. Esslingen: Künstlergilde, 1997.14Mary Howard, ed. Interkulturelle Konfigurationen. Zur Erzählliteratur von Autoren nicht-

deutscher Herkunft. München: Judicium, 1997.

21


Aras Ören, Aysel Özakin and Emine Sevgi Özdamar. Here the problematic ofself-image, mirror image and image of the Other is questioned in the context ofinterculturality and its outcomes in literary production.

In 2000, the most comprehensive look at the heterogeneous field of migrantliterature, Interkulturelle Literatur in Deutschland. Eine Handbuch,15 was editedby Carmine Chiellino. This book is divided into five parts. After a general sec-tion highlighting the post-war history of migration to Germany and its political,juridical, economic and social conditions, three main chapters focus on the artis-tic production in literature, theater, music, film as well as intercultural synergies.Chapter five contains an appendix dedicated to persons and institutes doing re-search in the field; the choice of media by the artists, and their curricula vitae.

The part on literature is organized according to the country, groups of countriesor continent of origin of the author. This choice reflects the actual migration toGermany and all of Asia, including Chinese writers, is portrayed in an articleby Ulrike Reeg, the content of which will be discussed later. For qualifying thisarrangement, Chiellino uses the term “Kulturraum” (cultural space) for creatingapparent cultural or lingual homogeneity in geographical space (i.e. Sub-SaharanAfrica, Eastern Europe or Asia) and moreover, she uses it for differentiating andseparating vis-à-vis time and content the former and later culture, particularlythe source (home country’s) language and the target (host country, Germany’s)language.

In 2002 Alaia Blioumi edited the omnibus Migration und Interkulturalität inneueren literarischen Texten,16 wherein the texts elaborate the question of na-tionality, naturalization and find new spaces to locate these literatures. From the“Weltbürger” (citizen of the world, Gerhard Bauer) to the “Staatsbürger” (citizen,Immacolata Amodeo), from “being on the move” (Sarut Şölçün) to finding a “fa-therland” (Mustafa Al-Slaiman), these studies on intercultural German literatureand their many perspectives differ vastly (reflecting the diversity of the literature

15Carmine Chiellino, ed. Interkulturelle Literatur in Deutschland. Ein Handbuch. Stuttgart:Metzler, 2000.

16Aglaia Blioumi, ed. Migration und Interkulturalität in neueren literarischen Texten.München: Iudicium, 2002.

22


itself).In 2004 Manfred Durzak and Nilüfer Kuruyazici edited the proceedings of the

2003 Istanbuler Vortäge as Die andere deutsche Literatur.17 Like the conference,the volume is divided into three parts concerned with methodology and history,analyses of German-Turkish texts, and German minorities writing in the periphery,namely Eastern Europe. The methodological and historical overview deals mostlywith the problematics of canonization. For instance Karl Esselborn18 writes onGerman minority literature in the realm of intercultural literary research influencedby cultural studies and Irmgard Ackermann19 discusses the Chamisso-Award andits influence on the literary canon.

In the same year Klaus Schenk, Almut Todorow, and Milan Tvrdik edited thevolume Migrationsliteratur. Schreibweisen einer interkuturellen Moderne.20 Be-sides general texts on the phenomenon of migrant literature, the more specific localarea is the new writing originating from and in Eastern European countries. In thechapter “Abrenzungen — Eingrenzungen” (separation — isolation), the questionof locating this kind of literature is asked yet again. Thus Alfrun Kliems21 focuseson the features of migration, exile, and post-colonialism and their implications onthe debates on canonizing and categorizing literature, while Karl Esselborn22 again

17Manfred Durzak and Nilüfer Kuruyazici, eds. Die andere deutsche Literatur. Würzburg:Königshausen and Neumann, 2004.

18Karl Esselborn. “Deutschsprachige Minderheitenliteraturen als Gegenstand einer kulturwis-senschaftlichorientieren ‘interkulturellen Literaturwissenschaft’.” In: Die andere deutsche Lite-ratur. Ed. by Manfred Durzak and Nilüfer Kuruyazici. Würzburg: Königshausen and Neumann,2004, pp. 11–22.

19Irmgard Ackermann. “Der Chamisso-Preis und der Literaturkanon.” In: Die andere deutscheLiteratur. Ed. by Manfred Durzak and Nilüfer Kuruyazici. Würzburg: Königshausen and Neu-mann, 2004, pp. 47–51.

20Klaus Schenk, Almut Todorow, and Milan Tvrdik, eds. Migrationsliteratur. Schreibweiseneiner interkuturellen Moderne. Tübingen and Basel: A. Francke Verlag, 2004.

21Alfrun Kliems. “Migration – Exil – Postkolonialismus? Kanonisierung und Kategorisierungvon Literatur.” In: Migrationsliteratur. Schreibweisen einer interkuturellen Moderne. Ed. byKlaus Schenk, Almut Todorow, and Milan Tvrdik. Tübingen and Basel: A. Francke Verlag,2004, pp. 287–300.

22Karl Esselborn. “Der Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Preis und die Förderung der Migrationsliter-atur.” In: Migrationsliteratur. Schreibweisen einer interkuturellen Moderne. Ed. by Klaus

23


takes up the importance of the Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Award and its impact onthe advancement of migration literature.

With his book ZwischenWeltenSchreiben. Literaturen ohne festen Wohnsitz,23

which appeared in 2005, Ottmar Ette describes the phenomenon of migrant lite-rature on a broader, global scale:

Der Begriff der Literatur ohne festen Wohnsitz darf nicht mit dem Be-griff der ‘Migrationsliteratur’ oder (noch enger) dem der ‘Exilliteratur’gleichgesetzt oder in diesen rückübersetzt werden. Denn die in diesemBand vorgestellten transarealen, transkulturellen und translingualenDynamiken rücken im Zeichen eines ständigen und unabschließbarenSpringens zwischen Orten und Zeiten, Gesellschaften und Kultureneine Literatur ohne festen Wohnsitz in den Mittelpunkt, die — alsquerliegendes Konzept — weder in Kategorien wie ‘Nationalliteratur’oder ‘Migratonsliteratur’ noch in solchen der ‘Weltliteratur’ gänzlichaufgeht oder adäquat beschrieben werden kann.24

With this definition for the literature discussed in his monograph, Ette enlargesthe field to a broader, less specific arena, encompassing various authors as ReinaldoArenas, V.S. Naipaul, José F.A. Oliver, and Derek Walcott.

In his chapter “Oszillationen. Fremdschreiben in ZwischenWelten: Zur translin-gualen Fortschreibung deutschsprachiger Gegenwartsliteratur” (Oscillations. For-eign/ disloyal writing in in-between worlds. A translingual updating of Ger-manophone contemporary literature), Ette refers largely to the prolific writersEmine Sevgi Özdamar and Yoko Tawada, contrasting their works and contextual-izing them in the German post-war literary scene.

This selection of texts mirrors the recent developments in examining “migra-tion” literature written in the German language. Research is either carried out

Schenk, Almut Todorow, and Milan Tvrdik. Tübingen and Basel: A. Francke Verlag, 2004,pp. 317–325.

23Otmar Ette. ZwischenWeltenSchreiben. Literaturen ohne festen Wohnsitz. Berlin: Kadmos,2005.

24Ette, ZwischenWeltenSchreiben, p. 14.

24

2.3 Recent Developments in Francophone Studies

from a very general perspective, focusing on the linguistic aspects or acceptanceof such literature, or from a very narrow one, focusing on one language group ornationality.


In this chapter, developments in French literary studies shall be portrayed bothin contrast to and as a complement of the aforementioned “German” situation.Traditionally, literature from Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec25 would be regardedas Francophone literature. The term “Francophonie,”26 in the sense it is used it inthe following, was coined in the late 1970s and includes every country with Frenchas one of the official languages and thus encompasses a literary production beyondFrance. It was only in the last few decades that this “new” Francophone literatureemerged at the so-called periphery.27 Research mainly focused — and continues tofocus — on the literature created by authors originating from the former Frenchand Belgian colonies in North Africa, Sub-Saharan African, or the Caribbean alongwith the traditional Francophone countries like Canada, Switzerland, and Belgium.Mainly in the last decade scholars came to the conclusion that the categories ofFrench speaking countries, or former French or Belgian colonies did not hold anylonger. They had to include authors that migrated to Francophone countries(mostly France and Canada) and eventually adopted French28 as their language of

25It is obvious that except France, all other countries are bi- or multilingual, yet this questionis hardly ever targeted in any of the following texts.

26The official organization Organisation internationale de la Francophonie defines “Francopho-nie”, as follows: “La Francophonie consciente des liens que crée entre ses membres le partage de lalangue française et de valeurs universelles, œuvre au service de la paix, de la coopération, de la sol-idarité et du développement durable. Les institutions de la Francophonie concourent, pour ce quiles concerne, à la réalisation de ces objectifs.” Cf. http://www.francophonie.org/oif/index.cfm,visited 02/20/2007.

27Here the term periphery refers to the cultural sphere. While French literature is consideredas the center and the literature by authors from the former colonies has edged closer to it, theliterature by “unrelated” writers still remains at the fringes.

28However only a few of the scholars put this into historical perspective, instead they regardthese writers different, or apart from those like Giacomo Casanova or Samuel Beckett.

25


expression.

To write in the French (or a French) language is to participate in laFrancophonie, if the term is taken to mean the use of the French (orrecognizably French) language by a writer who is not French, or bya writer who believes his or her identity is not French (even if he orshe has become a French national). To describe a literary text as‘Francophone’ is to distinguish it from a ‘French’ text and therefore toemphasize a certain difference.29

The articles and volumes listed below pay tribute to this latest development. Forinstance in her 1997 collection of interviews, L’écrivain Francophone à la croiséedes langues, Lise Gauvin30 familiarizes the reader with a manifold group of Fran-cophone writers, including authors from former French colonies or other French-speaking countries as well as those who simply adopted French as their literarylanguage. Her talks are guided by very specific questions concerning the biogra-phy and literary production of the respective author. In the introduction Gauvinreflects on the question of language and therefore identity itself:

Je crois en effet que le commun dénominateur des littératures ditesémergentes, et notamment des littératures Francophones, est de pro-poser, au cœur de leur problématique identitaire, une réflexion sur lalangue et sur la manière dont s’articulent les rapports langue/ littéra-tures dans des contextes différents. La complexité de ces rapports, lesrelations généralement conflictuelles — ou tout au moins concurren-tielles — qu’entretiennent entre elles une ou plusieurs langues, don-nent lieu à cette surconscience dont les écrivains ont rendu compte dediverses façons.31

29Belinda Jack. Francophone Literatures. An Introductory Survey. New York: Oxford Uni-versity Press, 1996.

30Lise Gauvin. L’écrivain francophone à la croisée des langues. Entretiens. Paris: ÉditionKarthala, 2006, first edition 1997.

31Gauvin, L’écrivain francophone à la croisée des langues, p. 7.

26


She includes Chinese writers, like the Francophone Chinese-Canadian Ying Chenand the exiled Yang Lian, both of whom reflect on specific dispositions of writingin a foreign language and culture.

The joint venture of Charles Bonn, Xavier Garnier and Jacques Lecarme32

to publish a comprehensive overview of Francophone literature including “new”countries of origin led to a two volume edition of Littérature Francophone, withthe first one from 1997 dedicated to the novel and the second one from 1999to short stories, poetry and theater. The chapters are divided into geographicalregions chronologically narrating the development of Francophone writing all overthe world. In the chapter on Canadian writing, Ying Chen33 is introduced amongthe recent novelists, and in the introductory chapter to the part on theater, GaoXingjian34 is only mentioned in passing.

In the 1999 omnibus volume Francophonie et identités culturelles35 ChristianeAlbert defines Francophonie in a different way.

En effet, les différents modes d’appropriation du français par deshommes et des femmes dont ce n’était pas la langue maternelle ont per-mis l’émergence de littératures appartenant à des aires géographiqueset culturelles différentes qui définissent une Francophonie plurielle.36

The chapter by Rosa de Diego, “L’identité multiculturelle au Québec,”37 acknow-ledges, for the Canadian situation, the possibility of immigrants who are not onlyfrom French-speaking countries by mentioning “des écrivains québécois de souchenon Francophone qui écrivent et publient en français. Pour certains, la langue

32Charles Bonn, Xavier Garnier, and Jacques Lecarme, eds. Littérature francophone. Le ro-man. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Paris: Hatier, 1997; Charles Bonn and Xavier Garnier, eds. Littératurefrancophone. Récits courts, poésie, théâtre. Vol. 2. 2 vols. Paris: Hatier, 1999.

33Her name is misspelled through out the text as Yin Chen, in: Bonn, Garnier, and Lecarme,Littérature francophone, 84f.

34Bonn and Garnier, Littérature francophone, p. 229.35Christiane Albert, ed. Francophonie et identités culturelles. Paris: Édition Karthala, 1999.36Albert, Francophonie et identités culturelles, p. 5.37Rosa de Diego. “L’identité multiculturelle au Québec.” In: Francophonie et identités cul-

turelles. Édition Karthala, 1999, pp. 183–195.

27


française peut être maternelle, mais pour d’autres c’est une langue, bien choisie,bien imposée.”38

In the 1999 monograph La Francophonie littéraire. Essai pour une théorie,39

Michel Beniamino remarks upon and emphasizes the existence of different Fran-cophonie discourses. In chapter three of part one, Beniamino portrays differenttypologies of Francophone literature. In the different chapters of part two he thenhighlights various aspects of Francophone literature, ranging from colonial to Fran-cophone writing, Francophonie and the choice of language to the broader conceptsof literature and national identity. The books’ general conclusion discusses therelationship between the reader and readings of Francophone literature. Hence,this volume is one of the most comprehensive studies on different features anddiscussions of Francophonie.

The 2001 conference volume Littératures postcoloniales et Francophonie40 editedby Jean Bessière and Jean-Marc Moura refers to the absence of the term post-colonial in Francophone studies so far. This volume incorporates the older discus-sion of Francophonie and nation state, literature of the overseas territories, lite-rature edited or even written in France, transnational works or “World Fiction”41

with postcolonial issues in literature. In his article on literature and immigra-tion in France, Charles Bonn42 defines the “new” Francophonie as follows: “Leslittératures des pays anciennement colonisés par la France sont des littératures

38Diego, “L’identité multiculturelle au Québec,” p. 184.39Michel Beniamino. La Francophonie littéraire. Essai pour une théorie. Montréal and Paris:

L’Harmattan, 1999.40Jean Bessière and Jean-Marc Moura, eds. Littératures postcoloniales et francophonie. Con-

férences du séminaire de Littérature comparée de l’Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Paris:Honoré Champion Éditeur, 2001.

41This term has been introduced and attained prominence in French and Francophone Studiesthrough Pascale Casanova. La république mondiale des lettres. Paris: Seuil, 1999.

42Charles Bonn. “Postcolonialisme et Reconnaissance littéraire des textes francophones émer-gents. L’exemple de la littérature maghrébine et de la littérature issue de l’immigration.” In:Littératures postcoloniales et francophonie. Conférences du séminaire de Littérature comparéede l’Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. Ed. by Jean Bessière and Jean-Marc Moura. Paris:Honoré Champion Éditeur, 2001.

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émergentes, dans un contexte de décolonisation . . . .”43

Already the title of David Mendelson’s 2001 monograph, Émergence des Fran-cophonies,44 announces the plurality of new literatures surfacing in French. Thisstudy is one of the few exemplary ones since it locates the upcoming developmentin several spaces besides the former colonies, including the Middle East, Israel,and beyond. The volume also highlights the rich literary exchange between theMediterranean cultures in the French language.

The literary journal Présence Francophone45 issued in 2001 the volume, “Fran-cophonie, écritures et immigration,” which is exclusively dedicated to the multiplephenomena of migration in the Francophonie discourse/s. However the book doesnot go much further than providing observations on well known Francophone au-thors like Amadou Hampaté Bâ and regions such as the Caribbean or NorthernAfrica. Nevertheless, migration into the French language is discussed in the chap-ter on Nancy Houston, Régine Robin and Émile Ollivier.

Anne Curién’s 2004 collection Écrire au présent46 features essays on the debatearound French-Chinese literary exchange. Ying Chen,47 as an exiled Francophonewriter in Canada, writes about her personal trial between the choice of Chineseand French as her language of writing. Yang Lian48 investigates the prototype ofpoetry in exile and undergoes a transition from Chinese writer (poète de Chine)to Chinese language writer (poète de langue chinoise) to only a writer in his own

43Bonn, “Postcolonialisme et Reconnaissance littéraire des textes francophones émergents,”p. 27.

44David Mendelson. Émergence des Francophonies. Israël, la méditerranée, le monde. Paris:Pulim, 2001.

45Dep. of Modern Languages and Literatures, College of the Holy Cross, ed. Francophonie,écritures et immigration. Présence Francophone 58 (2002).

46Annie Curién, ed. and forew. Écrire au présent. Débats littéraires franco-chinois. Paris:Fondation Maison des science de l’homme, 2004.

47Ying Chen. “La vie probable.” In: Écrire au présent. Débats littéraires franco-chinois.Ed. by Annie Curién. 51–55. Paris: Fondation Maison des science de l’homme, 2004.

48Yang Lian. “En quête d’un prototype de poésie étrangère.” In: Écrire au présent. Débatslittéraires franco-chinois. Ed. by Annie Curién. Paris: Fondation Maison des science de l’homme,2004, pp. 73–78.

29


language (poète de langue yangaise).49

The omnibus L’entredire Francophone presented by Martine Mathieu-Job50 isstructured in several chapters, with each looking at Francophonie from a dif-ferent perspective, including the shift from traditional sources to multiculturalapproaches, variations of language, intertextuality, intermediality, autobiography,and colloquialism. In Martine Mathieu-Job’s introduction and foremost in ClaudeFilteau’s chapter,51 the new approach in connecting decolonization, multicultural-ism and the emergence of Francophone literature in Canada is elucidated.

The study Canon national et constructions identitaires edited by Isaac Baziéand Peter Klaus52 is again organized according to countries of origin. The focusis on the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan and Northern Africa, and Quebec or FrenchCanada, whereby the Canadian chapters also refer to the important impact ofliterature by immigrants on the regional literary production.

The title Migrances, diasporas et transculturalités Francophones53 only themat-ically refers to Francophone migration literature. In grosso modo the chapters tar-get the reflection of the actual situations in the countries of immigration, Franceand Canada, and their literary outcome. This migration is seen as a natural onefrom the former colonies, as for example in Charles Bonn’s chapter54 on the vis-ibility of emigration-immigration in maghrebinian, French and second generation

49Yang, “En quête d’un prototype de poésie étrangère,” p. 74.50Martine Mathieu-Job, ed. L’entredire francophone. Pessac: Presses Universitaires de Bor-

deaux, 2004.51Claude Filteau. “Du discours sur la décolonisation au discours sur le multiculturalisme au

Québec.” In: L’entredire francophone. Pessac: Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 2004, pp. 19–33.

52Isaac Bazié and Peter Klaus, eds. Canon national et constructions identitaires. Les nouvelleslittératures francophones. Berlin: Institut für Romanische Philologie der FU, 2005.

53Hafid Gafaïti, Lorcin, Patricia M. E., and Troyansky, David G., eds. Migrances, diasporas ettransculturalités francophones. Littératures et cultures d’Afrique, des Caraïbes, d’Europe et duQuébec. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006.

54Charles Bonn. “La visibilité de l’émigration-immigration dans les littératures maghrébine,francaise, et de la ‘seconde géneration’ de l’immigration. Quelle ‘scénographie postcoloinale’?”In: Migrances, diasporas et transculturalités francophones. Littératures et cultures d’Afrique, desCaraïbes, d’Europe et du Québec. Ed. by Hafid Gafaïti, Lorcin, Patricia M. E., and Troyansky,David G. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006, pp. 43–69.

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2.4 Studies on Chinese Writing in French

immigrants’ writing. Exceptional are the chapters by Anne Morelli55 on ItalianFrancophone migrant writers in Belgium, and Dannielle Dumontet on hybrid textsand the “écritures migrantes,” which once again focusses on Quebec.56

The monograph Les voleurs de langue is — as Jean-Louis Joubert57 describesit — a real traversal across the centuries and continents of Francophonie. Thechapters are informative and produce the intended result of encouraging furtherreadings. The question of literature by authors that migrated into the Frenchlanguage is not a major point, but hinted at now and than, as for example byincluding the Greek Francophone author Vassilis Alexakis.

The above mentioned texts are only a selective choice of the actual, enormousbody of research dedicated to Francophone literature. Nevertheless these assem-bled texts are representative of the attempts to describe the manifold heteroge-neous field of literature produced in French by non-French citizens.

Literature scholars so far were more concerned with literature in Chinese, Malay,Indonesian and English, and countries in Asia, the Americas and Australia. How-ever the following two chapters sum up the published research on literature inFrench and German language written by Mainland Chinese.


One can generalize that mainly the French Canadian Chinese writers and foremostthe Quebecoise writer, Ying Chen, are referred to. For instance, two very promi-nent authors living in France, Dai Sijie and Shan Sa, are not focused upon and

55Anne Morelli. “L’émergence dans la littérature fracophone de Belgique d’auteurs al-lochtones.” In: Migrances, diasporas et transculturalités francophones. Littératures et culturesd’Afrique, des Caraïbes, d’Europe et du Québec. Ed. by Hafid Gafaïti, Lorcin, Patricia M. E.,and Troyansky, David G. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006, pp. 71–80.

56Danielle Dumontet. “Hybridité textuelle – Effets de texte – Hybridité linguistique. Effets delangue dans les textes des ‘écritures migrantes’ au Québec.” In: Migrances, diasporas et transcul-turalités francophones. Littératures et cultures d’Afrique, des Caraïbes, d’Europe et du Québec.Ed. by Hafid Gafaïti, Lorcin, Patricia M. E., and Troyansky, David G. Paris: L’Harmattan,2006, pp. 83–105.

57Jean-Louis Joubert. Les voleurs de langue. Traversée de la francophonie littéraire. Paris:Philippe Rey, 2006. Joubert also dedicated a radio broadcast on the topic of Chinese-Frenchwriting, downloadable at http://www.canalacademie.com/Les-ecrivains-chinois.html.

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the same is true for the acclaimed writer, translator, literary critic and member ofthe Académie française, François Cheng as well as the Nobel prize laureate, GaoXingjian.

In the 2002 published Écrire en langue étrangère, edited by Robert Dion, Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, and János Riesz,58 Véronique Porra59 is one of the first to reviewthe newly surfaced wave of Chinese authors in the French language in the midstof other nationalities. She claims that the integration of foreign authors from anoriginally non-Francophone environment in the French book market makes themnot only ‘passeurs de langue’ but ‘passeurs de culture.’ She outlines the approachto the French audience by authors by emphasizing on and explaining the Othernessor by making the cultural differences coherent, where she gives examples of theChinese writers, as well.

In the year 2004, when China was the honorary guest of the ‘Salon du livre’ inParis, a special edition of the periodical Magazine littéraire dedicated to this eventwas published. In it, Muriel Détrie60 asks and answers in one article the questionof whether a Chinese French language novel exists.

According to Muriel Détrie this is a fact. In one of the fundamental articlesfor my research, ‘Existe-t-il un roman chinois Francophone?,’ she describes partof today’s variety of Sino-French Literature. Détrie claims that these Sino-Frenchauthors strive to surpass the borders of languages and cultures, of East and West.61

These authors, according to Détrie, can be divided into three different groupscorresponding to the following aspects: “La valorisation de la culture française,

58Robert Dion, Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, and János Riesz, eds. Écrire en langue étrangère.Interférences de langues et de cultures dans le monde francophone. Nota Bene. Québec: IKO-Verlag, 2002.

59Véronique Porra. “Quand les ‘passeurs de langue’ deviennent ‘passeurs de culture’. Inté-gration des auteurs étrangers originares d’espaces non francophones en France.” In: Écrire enlangue étrangère. Interférences de langues et de cultures dans le monde francophone. Ed. byRobert Dion, Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, and János Riesz. Nota Bene. Québec: IKO-Verlag, 2002,pp. 129–151.

60Mureil Détrie. “Existe-t-il un roman chinois francophone?” In: Magazine Littéraire 429(2004), pp. 65–66.

61Existe-t-i, “Existe-t-il un roman chinois francophone?” P. 66.

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l’invention d’une Chine traditionnelle et la quête identitaire.”62 As a conclusionDétrie postulates the existence of a Francophone Chinese novel, incorporatingthe features mentioned above and the success of the novels Balzac et la PetiteTailleuse chinoise by Dai Sijie and La joueuse de go by Shan Sa in France andabroad. Notably, Détrie lists writers according to the used language and not theplace of residence. Hence, she includes authors writing in France as well as otherEuropean countries and PR China e.g. François Cheng, Dai Sijie, Shan Sa, ShenDali, Wei-Wei, and Ya Ding. Excluded by her is Gao Xingjian who, while stillwriting his prose in Chinese, has written several plays in French, which Détrie doesnot take into account.63

In the large volume from 2005, Transkulturalität und Hybridität edited by Jür-gen Erfurt,64 two chapters are on Francophone Chinese writers, namely DanielleDumontet’s “Écrire en plusieurs langues. Le cas des écritures migrantes auQuébec,”65 and Adelheid Hu’s “Chinesische Schriftsteller/innen in frankophonenRäumen. Reflexionen über Mehrsprachigkeit, Identitätsverortung und literarischesSchreiben.”66

Danielle Dumontet describes Francophonie to the reader as imbued with contactzones of multilingualism, and concentrates in one smaller chapter on those whoare born to write in another language.67 She looks at several authors from thisperspective, among them Nancy Houston, Aki Shimazaki, and especially YingChen.

62Existe-t-i, “Existe-t-il un roman chinois francophone?” P. 65.63Gao Xingjian’s theater plays in French include: 1993: Au bord de la vie; 1995: Le somnam-

bule; 1998: L’encre et la lumière; 1998: Quatre quatuors pour un week-end.64Jürgen Erfurt, ed. Transkulturalität und Hybridität. L’espace francophone als Grenzerfahrung

des Sprechens und Schreibens. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2005.65Danielle Dumontet. “Écrire en plusieurs langues. Le cas des écritures migrantes au Québec.”

In: Transkulturalität und Hybridität. L’espace francophone als Grenzerfahrung des Sprechens undSchreibens. Ed. by Jürgen Erfurt. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2005, pp. 81–100.

66Adelheid Hu. “Chinesische Schriftsteller/innen in frankophonen Räumen. Reflexionen überMehrsprachigkeit, Identitätsverortung und literarisches Schreiben.” In: Transkulturalität undHybridität. L’espace francophone als Grenzerfahrung des Sprechens und Schreibens. Ed. byJürgen Erfurt. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2005, pp. 101–118.

67Cf. Dumontet, “Écrire en plusieurs langues,” p. 86.

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Adelheid Hu explores the autobiographies and autobiographical writings of Chi-nese authors living in France or Francophone Canada, including the works byFrançois Cheng, Ying Chen, and Gao Xingjian. The analyzed selections of textsreflect on language, linguistic-cultural identity, and above all literary writings.

2.5 Studies on Chinese Writing in German

Even though Chinese authors writing in German are much rarer than those writ-ing in French, several scientific articles have already been dedicated to the phe-nomenon.

So far, Ulrike Reeg gives the most comprehensive overview of Sino-German li-terature. The chapter “Autor/innen aus dem asiatischen Kulturraum” (Authorsfrom the Asian cultural space)68 was published in the manual Interkulturelle Lite-ratur in Deutschland. Ein Handbuch, where Reeg introduces several authors andtheir works including Ce Shaozhen and his anecdotal narrative Flaneur im altenPeking, the short stories by Bei-Min, Nelly Ma, and Yiu Wubin69 and the provok-ing autobiographical novel, Ein Chinese in Bautzen II. 2675 Nächte im Würgegriffder Stasi by Kuo Xing-hu. Nevertheless, Reeg’s focus is on the more prolific andprominent Asian authors like Galsan Tschinag from Mongolia and Yoko Tawadafrom Japan.

In the 2005 omnibus Migration und Integration der Auslandschinesen inDeutschland by Hui-wen von Groeling-Che and Dagmar Yü-Dembski, as men-tioned above, the introduction and one more chapter bears witness to the Chineseliterary production in Germany.

In the introduction and the chapter, “Migrationserfahrungen — Thematik undBedeutung überseechinesischer Literatur” (experiences of migration — theme andmeaning of Overseas Chinese literature), Groeling-Che and Yü-Dembski70 examine

68Ulrike Reeg. “Autor/innen aus dem asiatischen Kulturraum.” In: Interkulturelle Literaturin Deutschland. Ein Handbuch. Ed. by Carmine Chiellino. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2000, pp. 263–273.

69All of them are published either in the earl 1980s collections Als Fremder in Deutschland orIn zwei Sprachen leben.

70Groeling-Che and Yü-Dembski, “Migrationserfahrungen.”

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2.5 Studies on Chinese Writing in German

this phenomenon from a European view point. With the 1990s as a starting pointfor the publishing of prose and poetry anthologies, Groeling-Che and Yü-Dembskimostly look at those texts written in Chinese. It is only in a footnote that thewriter Zhou Chun with his autobiographical works in German is mentioned. Twomore authors writing in German are featured: the poet Kan Yujing who portraysthe relationship with her German husband in the volume Vergessen wider, andthe poet Xu Pei’s numerous poetry volumes that are analyzed in greater detail.Groeling-Che and Yü-Dembski describe Xu Pei’s poems as a search for the essenceof life.

This handful of essays on Chinese Francophone and German-speaking authors,referring to questions of multilingualism, language choice, cultural identity, self-conception as a mediator of culture, and so on, can be seen as the inspirationalsource for the text at hand. As shown in the following chapter, the European imageof China and the Chinese, conveyed by early travelogues, philosophical treatises,novels from an imperialist perspective, is of a rather persistent, rigid character.

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Chapter 3

Coping with and Copying the Clichés

3.1 Orientalism—Tradition of German and French “China-Novels” and its Imaginary

When Marco Polo returned to Europe from his stay in Cathay at the turn of the13th century, his accounts of a developed and cultured empire in the East were metwith bewilderment and skepticism.1 Nevertheless in the following centuries Chinaand its people were a source of fascination or irritation in the European imag-ination. In 1585 the first comprehensive history of China, Historia de la cosasmas notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China2 was written by theAugustinian priest Juan González de Mendoza. Additional notable accounts ofChinese geography, history and institutions were given by Jesuit priests, amongthem Matteo Ricci, founder of the China mission, in 1615, and the Portuguesemissionary, Alvaro Semedo in 1642. Constructing China and the Chinese society

1Marco Polo’s reception alters through the centuries, as for example during the 18th century,when some of his statements were confirmed by early Jesuit reports from China. The earliestacknowledgment of the existence of an entity as China dates back to the ancient Romans. Cf.Colin Mackerras. Western Images of China. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 13–15and Osterhammel, Entzauberung Asiens, p. 189.

2Mackerras, Western Images of China, 19f. Different years of publication appear in thesecondary literature, e.g. 1583. Mendoza based his historiography on the reports by Martínde Rada, Galeote Pereira, and Gaspar de Cruz. In the same decade translations into otherEuropean languages appeared — in 1586 the Italian, in 1588 the English and French, and in1589 the German editions were published.

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3. Coping with and Copying the Clichés

as an alternative version of Europe and the European society was recurrent dur-ing “le siècle des Lumières”. Books like the compilation of Jesuits’ letters sent toFrance, unpublished texts and translations from various Chinese sources, Déscrip-tion géographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l’empire de laChine et de la Tartarie chinoise by Jean-Baptist du Halde, influenced the thinkersof the Enlightenment. Thus Johann Gottfried Herder, Immanuel Kant, Voltaire,and many others painted a picture of China based on reading rather than onexperience, which was either driven by both repugnance or euphoria.

Until the end of the 18th century Europeans in Asia regarded themselves largelyas missionaries, explorers, diplomats, or armed merchants. At the same time Eu-ropean scholars refrained from judgment on the accumulated knowledge of China.Trade was to be established, along the coastline at first, on the mainland laterand this did not proceed without local concurrence and the necessity of an in-digenous middleman. With the accumulation of knowledge on Asia and China,with the strengthening of military and commercial positions, and with the capi-talization of economy, a disenchantment of Asia took place. Here lies the paradox:The more Europeans knew about China, the more their fascination and respectdeclined. China was no longer the Cathay of unknown wealth but a place withresources to be exploited. Consequently, a shift in scholarly discourses was to beobserved all over Europe. While during the 17th and 18th century, discoursesof decline, stagnation and degeneration3 were produced and discussed, the newtheories of civilization were identical in the belief that China’s development wasnot up to that of modern Europe, that it was stagnating on former highs andtherefore behind. From the anticipation of a special role among the continentsto the consciousness of superiority, late-Enlightenment theories materialized on ascale of civilization. Interpretations of this scale were dynamic, and in the lateryears of the 18th century the civilizing mission triumphed over principles of equal-ity among civilizations and religions, acquiring legitimacy almost equal to that ofpolitical systems.

Die Zivilisation, die sich für die leistungsfähigste und humanste auf

3Cf. Osterhammel, Entzauberung Asiens, pp. 385–394.

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3.1 Orientalism

der Welt hielt, wartete nicht, bis Asien sich für sie interessieren würde.Sie gab Asien ihre Gesetze. . . . Asien mußte regiert werden. Asienmachte Arbeit. Das unbeschwerte Europa der Aufklärung trug fortandie selbstgeschulterte Bürde des weißen Mannes.4

As a result a new, value-laden dichotomy between East and West, Orient andOccident was established. And so with the emergence of imperialism and thepartial colonization of China, the tone and images of the Middle Kingdom change.

Yet the whole tone of nineteenth-century writings on China shows thatrealistic attempts to take account of non-European, for example Chi-nese, standards grew fainter and rarer as the century wore on and themilitary, economic, political, and social impact of Western imperialismstrengthened. This was the period when Edward Said’s ‘orientalist’approach to China . . . reached its height, when Europe colonized notonly parts of China, but also knowledge about it.5

This colonized knowledge, this imperialist gaze manifests itself not only in mission-aries’ reports or travelogues and theoretical or philosophic treatises about China,but finds its way into 19th century popular literature. Enhanced through politicalissues and racial theories, the novels imagine the Other, as people that are soonto be subjected.

The discovery of “new” continents was a widespread theme for all kinds of pop-ular literature that started earlier in Britain with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoebut was brought to its heights during the 19th century. These adventurous travelnovels catapult the main character into a new and dangerous world. Usually heand his company have to master several life-endangering tests in order to res-cue a person or fulfill an honorable deed. These are generally narrated from thehero’s perspective, who incorporates the good, while fighting and defeating theevil. Whereas the (serialized) novels by Eugene Sue and Alexandre Dumas pèretake place in Europe, particularly in different parts of the society rather than the

4Osterhammel, Entzauberung Asiens, p. 403.5Mackerras, Western Images of China, p. 40.

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readership, Jules Verne and Karl May thrust the reader into foreign worlds andcontinents.

Two works by Jules Verne and Karl May shall function as examples: In 1879Jules Verne’s Les Tribulations d’un Chinois en Chine6 was issued and in 1888/89Karl May successively published the novel Der blau-rothe Methusalem.7 One fea-tures a “happy student trip” to China, the other the education sentimentale of aspoiled, rich young Chinese facing ruin and death.8

Karl May narrates the journey of a group of Germans — later joined by aDutch and several Chinese along the way — traveling from Canton to Ho-tsing-ting, in order to find a young German’s uncle. Head of the group is the studentDegenfeld, who is called Methusalem because of the long duration of his studies.He is educated by his Chinese neighbor in Heidelberg on Chinese language, cul-ture and customs. The other three Germans are: Gottfried, his valet, bearinga heavy Berlin accent; Richard Stein, the young man, in search of whose unclethe party starts off; and Turnerstick, a ship captain, who claims to know everylanguage and ridicules himself by using an imaginary one. They are joined by aDutch businessman, Aardappelenbosch, who is unfit or ingenuous in everyday life,but does know his job. The major Chinese characters appear in different situa-tions, whereby most of the time Degenfeld is helping them out of impossible anddangerous circumstances. He and his group liberate two Chinese officials from apirate ship, leaving both indebted to him. On the boat a young man, Liang-ssi,is discovered defecting to the “German” group, who is soon revealed as one of

6Jules Verne. Les tribulations d’un Chinois en Chine. Paris: Librairie Générale Française,2000. First published in 1879.

7Karl May. Der blaurote Methusalem. Bamberg and Radebeul: Karl-May-Verlag, 1951.The book was published as Kong-Kheou, das Ehrenwort in the journal “Der gute Kamerad.Spemanns Illustrierter Knaben-Zeitung”. The book edition was released in 1892 under the titleDer blau-rothe Methusalem. Eine lustige Studentenfahrt nach China.

8Further readings regarding the comparison of May and Verne see: Antje Streit. “Der ‘franzö-sische’ und der ‘deutsche’ Chinese. Eine vergleichende Studie zu den Chinaromanen Jules Vernesund Karl Mays.” In: Jahrbuch der Karl-May-Gesellschaft. Husum: Hansa, 1999. And: Milan V.Dimić. “Imperial Fictions of Travel. Images of China and the Chinese in European PopularLiteature (May, Salgari, and Verne).” In: Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/RevueCanadienne de Littérature Comparée 24.4 (1997), pp. 1007–1079.

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3.1 Orientalism

the Chinese neighbor’s sons. As Degenfeld prevents the goldsmith Hu-tsin from awrong accusation and its dreadful legal consequences, his father-in-law, the beg-gar’s king, gives him important documents that can be used as a voucher or carteblanche in any problematic situation. This person is the only Chinese for whomat least some positive features can be claimed. While freeing Aardappelenboschand Turnerstick from prison, Degenfeld and his companions overpower a watch-man, who in order not be made responsible for his disloyalty, becomes a part ofthe group and turns out to be the other son, Jin-tsian, of the Chinese neighborin Heidelberg. On his way through China, Degenfeld not only finds the wholefamily and riches of his Chinese neighbor, but also manages to fulfill the task oflocating the German landlady’s brother-in-law, liquidating his business and sellingit profitably to Aardappelenbosch at the same time.

Les tribulations d’un Chinois en Chine by Jules Verne deals with a Chinese heroand a larger set of Chinese characters, while other prominent characters are fromthe United States of America, including William J. Bidulph, head of an insurancecompany and his two agents Craig and Fry.

The following main characters engage in the novel’s actions: Kin-Fo, a ratherwell-off young man, who inherited his money, Wang, his tutor and former Taiping,9

always referred to as the wise philosopher, and Soun, his valet. The story takesoff after introducing the main characters around a luxurious dinner table, wherethe young man Kin-Fo becomes aware of the sudden loss of his fortune due to thecollapse of the market in the United States. Kin-Fo acquires a life insurance froman American Company and the company’s manager William Bidulph allocates twoemployees to him. These two agents, Craig and Fry appear as comic relief throughout the novel. Kin-Fo’s solution for the impending bankruptcy is to ask his mentorWang to slaughter him in order to provide the family with enough money and notto live in poverty and shame. The mentor agrees. In a letter Kin-Fo explains thesituation to his fiancée Lé-ou. Soon after taking all these measures he finds outthat he is not bankrupt after all. But he cannot find Wang and fears for his life. Hedeparts on a flight throughout Eastern China with a small entourage of valets and

9Follower of the Taiping Movement, a religious and political movement in mid-nineteenthcentury China.

41


bodyguards. Traveling by horse, foot, and boat, they pass several cities, amongthem Xi’an and Beijing, which are described in great detail. In the final section ofthe novel Kin-Fo is abducted and sure to confront a violent death, but everythingresolves happily, as his execution is revealed as being staged as a moral lesson incherishing higher ideals in life. Thus Kin-Fo finally embraces life and marries hisfiancée.

The quintessence of this analysis lies not only in distilling the traits with whichChinese people are described, but also the manner in which this portrayal is per-formed. Rather easily the following features of China and the Chinese can bemarked out: The Chinese are a people of a highly developed civilization that isnonetheless inferior to Western civilizations;10 the Chinese are driven by instinctsand strongly bound by superstition; fatalism and cowardice often go hand in handin their actions, as they are by large not trustworthy and/ or criminal.

The narrator appears as the friendly, ‘objective’ observer and describer to thereader by referring to the impressive achievements of the Chinese people. But itis with the same breath that qualitatively and quantitatively negative features areattributed to the Chinese vis-à-vis their physical appearance and dressing, theirculture, and eventually their “national character”.

May, as already referred to, constantly ascribes behavior patterns while in-troducing new characters.11 Even unimportant Chinese characters are casuallylabeled with negative adjectives and associations — their exterior is either dirty orcomical, their gestures and actions are interpreted as greedy or obnoxious. Thereis a general disapproval regarding the cleanliness of the Chinese. “Der Chinese istbekanntlich nicht wegen allzu großer Reinlichkeit berühmt. Die höheren Stände

10For example, Robert Fortune points out that the Chinese are considerably more advancedthan Hindus, Malays or other nations. Cf. Mackerras, Western Images of China, p. 50.

11May resorts to different sources and material. For further elaboration on the topic read:Walter Schinzel-Lang. “Fundierte Kenntnisse oder phantasievolle Ahnungslosigkeit? Die Ver-wendung der chinesischen Sprache durch Karl May.” In: Jahrbuch der Karl May Gesellschaft.Husum: Hansa, 1991, pp. 287–323; Karl Koppen. “Karl May und China.” In: Jahrbuch derKarl May Gesellschaft. Husum: Hansa, 1986, pp. 69–88; Walter Schinzel-Lang. “Karl Mayschinesische Vokabelliste – ein Kommentar.” In: Jahrbuch der Karl May Gesellschaft. Husum:Hansa, 1997, pp. 72–101.

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3.1 Orientalism

aber stehen allerdings in einem besseren Ruf.”12 Such factors form the rationaleand repertoire behind his writings.

Yet May seemingly attributes positive traits to the Chinese culture. Accordingto him, the culture is old and diverse, different and beautiful.13 He grants Chinaa high level of education,14 for even the children learn how to read and devotethemselves patiently to it. This exemplary patience also finds expression in crafts-manship and the execution of visual and plastic arts.15 The realm of the familywith its incredibly strong ties also contains slightly positive elements,16 especiallythe high estimation accorded to ancestors.17 This is understood by May as an es-sential feature of the Chinese society. May also describes the Chinese class systemto a certain extend18 and gives a short insight in the nonexistent legal system ofthe empire.19

At first, only a difference in clothing is manifested. Karl May emphasizes ondescribing the differences between the novel’s characters according to their origin.Hence his main character Degenfeld would not think of dressing in a Chineseman’s customary clothes in China. Educated in Chinese languages and culture,Degenfeld has no reason to change clothes, whereas his company, which does notknow Chinese at all, needs to put on Chinese costumes. This simple clothingquestion is linked to national pride.20

12May, Methusalem, p. 237.13May, Methusalem, p. 216.14May, Methusalem, p. 296.15“Er erhielt eine jener Elfenbeinschnitzereien, die nur von der unendlichen Geduld eines Chi-

nesen hergestellt werden können.” May, Methusalem, p. 298. May also refers to the art of kitemaking. May, Methusalem, p. 217.

16May, Methusalem, p. 372.17May, Methusalem, 229f.18May, Methusalem, p. 231.19The novel’s main characters constantly keep official and unofficial letters that authorize them

to any action or overrule existing laws. Cf. for example: May, Methusalem, p. 288.20“‘Wollen sehen. Ich habe wenig Lust, aus reiner Angst meine deutsche Abstammung zu

verleugnen.’‘Das ist sehr ehrenwert und sehr national gedacht, aber — hm, streng genommen haben Sie

43


Now and then another striking feature for the reader are the Chinese women’sbound feet. May deduces a connection between the monstrous deformation of thefeet and the development of the mind:

Das beschwerliche, schmerzhafte Gehen ist nicht ohne Einfluß auf Kör-per und Geist. Es hängt beiden etwas Krüppelhaftes an. Ein Mensch,der nicht gehen, der sich nicht anmutig, frisch, gewandt und kräftigbewegen kann, wird gewiß gedrückten Gemüts oder Geistes sein.21

The comments of the narrator leave no option for the reader than to interpret theOther in a derogative way. What could have been commented with a smile informer times, as for example the equation of Chinese music with noise,22 or theChinese conceptualization of the connection between beauty, wealth and bodilycorpulence,23 is soon to sober up the contemporary reader as it reminds him ofthe easy conclusions that were made in former times. It is the bitter aftertasteof deducing the mentality or character of a whole people from perceptions deeplyrooted in the “European” point of view.

Cowardice is one of the most striking characteristics that is attributed to Chi-nese men. For example the aggressive and dominant manner and appearance ofDegenfeld is enough to awe the surrounding Chinese and make them act accordingto his will,24 or as his valet argues:

“Wat die Chinesigen doch für pfiffige Jungens sind!”“Inwiefern?”

freilich nicht unrecht. Denn selbst wenn Sie sich genau wie ein echter Chinese kleiden, wirdman an Ihrer Unkenntnis der Sprache sofort den Ausländer erkennen, während ich für einenEingeborenen gelten werde. Aber es ist trotzdem besser, wenn Sie sich den hiesigen Gebräuchenfügen.’‘Nun, was das betrifft, so ist es gar nicht ausgeschlossen, daß wir Drei uns auch nach Landessittekleiden. Zunächst jedoch mag es so bleiben, wie es ist.’ ” May, Methusalem, p. 35.

21May, Methusalem, p. 262.22“Einer chinesischen Musikantentruppe darf man keine europäische Kammermusik zu-

muten.. . . Von einer Harmonie ist keine Rede, und wer das größte Getöse hervorbringt gilt alsder beste Musikant.” May, Methusalem, 312f.

23E.g. May, Methusalem, pp. 263; 362.24May, Methusalem, p. 429.

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3.1 Orientalism

“Nun, dat ist doch leicht zu erkennen. Diese Soldaten brauchen nichtzu fechten und zu kämpfen; es ist jar nicht nötig, dat sie ihr edlesLeben wagen. Sie brauchen nur auszureißen und dem Feind den Rückenzuzukehren. Dann liest er das schreckliche Wort ’Soldat’ und wendetvor Angst auch um und jeht von dannen. So wird durch eine alljemeineFlucht der glänzendste Sieg jewonnen.”25

The most interesting part is the one that deals with the description of Chinesechildren.26 Here one can find almost all the negative images that existed throughoutcolonial times in a condensed section. As May claims you cannot understand apeople better than by looking at their childhood. May is indirectly referring tothe stagnation theory, which Osterhammel meticulously introduces in his work onChinese society. May juxtaposes the healthy German — or even European in thiscase — to the senile Chinese. To illustrate the illogicality of May’s argumentationthe following quote is considered:

China ist ein wunderbares Land. Seine Kultur hat sich in ganz andererRichtung bewegt und ganz andere Formen angenommen als diejenigealler übrigen Nationen. Und diese Kultur ist hochbetagt, greisenhaftalt: die Adern sind verhärtet und die Nerven abgestumpft; der Leib istverdorrt und die Seele vertrocknet.27

He then refers to the popular attribute of Chinese as cruel and emotionless, breed-ing their selfishness and slyness.

Ist es da ein Wunder, daß die Grausamkeit und Gefühllosigkeit des Chi-nesen als eine seiner hervorragendsten Eigenschaften bezeichnet wer-den muß? . . . Hier entspringt der große Eigennutz, die gewissenlose

25May, Methusalem, p. 403.26“So spielt die Jugend fast nur, um die schlechten Eigenschaften zu entwickeln, die sich beim

Erwachsenen ausgebildet haben. Spricht ein Fremder mit einem Knaben, so bekommt er keinelebhaften Antworten zu hören, kein freundlich lächelndes Gesicht zu sehen. Es ist ganz so, alsob er mit einem Alten spräche; alles greisenhaft.” May, Methusalem, p. 218.

27May, Methusalem, p. 216.

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Schlauheit, die den Chinesen auszeichnet.28

The character portrayal continues with negative attributes, as for example the“known Chinese deceitfulness and maliciousness”29 are already detected amongthe youth. China has rejected all the alternations and innovations from the Westand those changes, according to May’s main character, have to be imposed onthem.

Die Neuerungen, welche die letzten Jahrzehnte dem Land gebrachthaben, sind ihm entweder aufgezwungen worden, oder der Chinese hatsich zu ihnen nur aus Eigennutz, verstanden. Sie sind auch nur inKüstengegenden zu spüren, während das Landesinnere nach wie vorwie ein Igel die Stacheln gegen jede fremde Berührung sträubt.30

Already from the first pages in the novel an opposition between the German andthe Other (including the Chinese) is established. In Karl May’s text the finest dif-ferentiations according to the character’s nationality are made. Even the level oflanguage skills indicates the character’s standing. Being ridiculous means speakingGerman with a strong dialect, speaking Dutch or trying to speak fancy Chinese.Being good and strong means speaking “Hochdeutsch” and/ or the mastery ofChinese including several local dialects. A typology can be found for the determi-nation of a nation. As a matter of fact the categorization of people is analogous tothe distance between center and periphery, between Germany and China, Germanand Chinese.

As an author, May does not hold back or hide behind rhetorics. He gives apersonal opinion of China and the Chinese without scruples and also pities themfor the necessity to bring them Christianity and Modernity by force.31

28May, Methusalem, p. 217.29Cf. May, Methusalem, p. 218.30May, Methusalem, p. 219.31May is responsive to the diversified religious situation in China, but only through mentioning

the Muslim population and giving them more prestige than the ordinary idolators of tin godsand bigotry: “Dies ist besonders in religiöser Beziehung der Fall, weshalb die christliche Missionin China noch gar keine nennenswerten Früchte getragen hat. Mag der Missionar die herrlichen

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3.1 Orientalism

In contrast Jules Verne constructs a rather more elaborate framework: themain characters are Chinese, whereby the facial and corporal features model theircharacter. The more European they look the better their character is, the moreChinese they look, the worse or ambiguous their characterization gets. The maincharacter is described as follows:

Kin-Fo était bien le type de ces Chinois du Nord, . . . . Grand, bienbâti, plutôt blanc que jaune, les sourcils tracés en droite ligne, les yeuxdisposés suivant l’horizontale et se relevant à peine vers les tempes, lenez droit, la face non aplatie, il eût été remarqué même auprès des plusbeaux spécimens des populations de l’Occident.32

Also the description of the hero’s fiancée indicates a leaning towards certain ideals:

C’était une charmante jeune femme que cette jeune Lé-ou. Jolie, mêmepour des yeux européens, blanche et non jaune, elle avait de doux yeuxse relevant à peine vers les tempes, des cheveux noirs ornés de quelquesfleurs de pêcher fixées par des épingles de jade vert, des dents petiteset blanches, des sourcils à peine estompés d’une fine touche d’encre deChine. Elle ne mettait ni crépi de miel et de blanc d’Espagne sur sesjoues, ainsi que le font généralement les beautés du Céleste Empire, nirond de carmin sur sa lèvre inférieure, ni petite raie verticale entre lesdeux yeux, ni aucune couche de ce fard, dont la cour impériale dépenseannuellement pour dix millions de sapèques.33

The narrator of Verne’s novel even defines a typology of different Chinese races inconcordance with the physiognomy.34 Though modes of behavior and characteris-tics are ascribed to the Chinese people as a whole, they are further divided into

Lehren des Christentums immerhin noch so eifrig und noch so begeistert entwickeln, der Chinesehört ihm ruhig zu, ohne ihn zu unterbrechen, denn das gebietet die Höflichkeit; aber am Schlussewird er freundlich sagen: ‘Du hast sehr recht und ich habe auch recht. Put tun kiao, tun li;ni-men tschu hiung’, zu deutsch: ‘Die Religionen sind verschieden, die Vernunft ist nur eine; wirsind alle Brüder.’ ” May, Methusalem, 217f.

32Verne, Tribulations, p. 16.33Verne, Tribulations, p. 49.34Different typologies arise e.g.: “. . . dont la race tend à se transformer, et qui ne se sont jamais

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North and South Chinese. Here Verne frequently points out the difference betweenChina and its people before and after the arrival of “Westerners” in the country.Chinese virtues or features that “astonish” the Western readers are repeatedly re-ferred to, such as fatalism, tranquility in the eye of death, boldness, compassion,enterprise and even collectivism. Verne also talks about religion and philosophyin China.

A remarkable part of the novel is dedicated to descriptions that are more orless accurate but never without judgment of Chinese cities, food, flora, music, andhistory. Among the things highly praised by the narrator, the spotlight is on thefood.

Le repas n’avait rien laissé à désirer. Qu’imaginer de plus délicat quecette cuisine à la fois propre et savante? Le Bignon de l’endroit, sachantqu’il s’adressait à des connaisseurs, s’était surpassé dans la confectiondes cent cinquante plats dont se composait le menu du dîner.35

The narrator later continues voicing his admiration: “Du riz et du thé, que faut-ilde plus à un véritable Fils du Ciel!”36 Besides emphasizing the quality and taste, heuses these descriptions to point out, on one hand the opulence and luxury in whichcertain classes of the society live and on the other hand the simple-mindedness ofthe people.

Thus the music, where the musicians are nice to look at, is likened to noise oreven the quarreling of cats.37 This portrayal goes very well with the negative view

ralliés aux Tartares. On n’eût pas rencontré son pareil dans les provinces du Sud, où les hauteset basses classes se sont plus intimement mélangées avec la race mantchoue. Kin-Fo, ni par sonpère ni par sa mère, dont les familles, depuis la conquête, se tenaient à l’écart, n’avait une gouttede sang tartare dans les veines. . . ” Verne, Tribulations, p. 16.

35Verne, Tribulations, p. 10.36Verne, Tribulations, p. 112.37“En effet, une troupe de chanteuses et d’instrumentistes entra dans le salon. Les chanteuses

étaient jeunes, jolies, de tenue modeste et décente. Mais quelle musique et quelle méthode! Desmiaulements, des gloussements, sans mesure et sans tonalité, s’élevant en notes aiguës jusqu’auxdernières limites de perception du sens auditif! Quant aux instruments, violons dont les cordess’enchevêtraient dans les fils de l’archet, guitares recouvertes de peaux de serpent, clarinettescriardes, harmonicas ressemblant à de petits pianos portatifs, ils étaient dignes des chants et deschanteuses, qu’ils accompagnaient à grand fracas.” Verne, Tribulations, p. 11.

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3.1 Orientalism

of performing arts that was already expressed by Karl May.Verne uses the novel as a vehicle to introduce different Chinese cities and areas

to the reader. Never getting tired of introducing new cities and wonders to thereader as Kin-Fo travels through China — among them Shanghai, Xi’an, Beijing,and the Great Wall — the narrator meticulously lists living quarters with theirpopulation, important buildings and so on, but does not forget to mention theimpact of the “Westerners” on the location.38

Verne approaches the field of religion with comments on philosophy. Wang, thementor of Kin-Fo, and former Taiping, has the label of philosopher attached to him.Nevertheless his philosophical skills remain only in name, he talks in platitudes andhelps his pupil with his wisdom and advice. As in May’s Methusalem, the religiouselements of the Taiping are completely left out. Verne also points out the pseudo-religious importance of ancestry and family ties.39 The Chinese religious situationis divided into Buddhism followed by the masses and Confucianism adopted bythe higher ranks of society.40 All this only qualifies as background information,and Verne, like May, highlights Chinese superstition and fatalism as ways of life.41

This is closely linked with the Chinese “indifference” towards suicide.42 Such anattitude is exemplified in the insight and development of the main character Kin-Fotowards the end of the novel.

38Cf. descriptions of Shanghai and its specific semi-colonial status, Verne, Tribulations, 27ff,Tianjin and the military impact on the region by France, Verne, Tribulations, p. 168, Beijing asthe imperial capital, Verne, Tribulations, 135ff and the Great Wall,Verne, Tribulations, p. 232.

39“En somme, le respect pour les morts fait le fond de la religion chinoise, et contribue à rendreplus étroits les liens de la famille.” Verne, Tribulations, p. 65.

40Verne, Tribulations, p. 140.41“Un Occidental, un Français, un Anglais eût peut-être pris philosophiquement cette existence

nouvelle et cherché à refaire sa vie dans le travail. Un Célestial devait se croire en droit de penseret d’agir tout autrement. C’était la mort volontaire que Kin-Fo, en véritable Chinois, allait,sans trouble de conscience, prendre comme moyen de se tirer d’affaire, et avec cette typiqueindifférence qui caractérise la race jaune. Le Chinois n’a qu’un courage passif, mais, ce courage,il le possède au plus haut degré. Son indifférence pour la mort est vraiment extraordinaire.”Verne, Tribulations, p. 64.

42“Ce qui est un crime dans les pays civilisés d’Occident, n’est plus qu’un acte légitime, pourainsi dire, au milieu de cette civilisation bizarre de l’Asie orientale.” Verne, Tribulations, p. 65.

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Il était vraiment heureux, maintenant, l’indifférent d’autrefois, l’impassibleélève du philosophe Wang! Deux mois de soucis, d’inquiétudes, de tra-cas, toute cette période mouvementée de son existence avait suffit à luifaire apprécier ce qu’est, ce que doit être, ce que peut être le bonheurici-bas. Oui! le sage philosophe avait raison!43

But Kin-Fo is already, as we remember, a “progressive”44 Chinese: “Ce digneChinois, d’une excellente famille du nord de l’Empire, possédait, comme ses com-patriotes, de remarquables aptitudes pour le commerce.”45 But business and itsgainings are connected to the arrival of Western know-how. The narrator leavesout no opportunity to outline the importance and improvements that came to im-perial China from the outside. Even when Verne criticizes Western influence atone point, namely the Opium Trade as an imposed crime on China, he simultane-ously attributes complicity to the Chinese, foremost the mandarins.46 The West’ssovereignty is acknowledged and its benefits are adopted by the intelligent Chineseelite. Verne further links trade, to science, from military to government. “Kin-Foavait-il eu quelque raison de penser que mieux vaut être gouverné à l’européennequ’à la chinoise? On serait tenté de le croire.”47 Verne likes to juxtapose and con-trast the now civilized “fils du ciel” with the still “barbaric” uneducated man.48

This education and progress comes undoubtedly from the West and France is onlya nation among others, nevertheless her merits are mentioned at very prominent,sometimes unexpected, places.

These two novels were selected firstly to have popular texts that were widely

43Verne, Tribulations, p. 149.44“En effet, Kin-Fo – on l’a dit et ses goûts le prouvent – était un homme de progrès. Aucune

invention moderne des Occidentaux ne le trouvait réfractaire à leur importation. Il appartenaità la catégorie de ces Fils du Ciel, trop rares encore, que séduisent les sciences physiques etchimiques.” Verne, Tribulations, p. 39.

45Verne, Tribulations, p. 6. The wealth of the family is based on a macabre trade. Accordingto Verne a custom obliges Chinese to be buried in the soil of their place of birth. So the familyre-imports dead bodies from the United States to be interred in China.

46Verne, Tribulations, p. 34.47Verne, Tribulations, p. 27.48Verne, Tribulations, p. 39.

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3.1 Orientalism

spread and read, and secondly to show the rather different manners of describingthe Chinese, whereby both authors still remain in the framework of imperialisticideology by proving Western superiority in one way or another. May generally usesmore derogative adjectives and openly negative descriptions of the Chinese, anddoes not limit himself to this. While Verne seemingly takes no sides and just tellsthe story of an unfortunate Chinese man, he continuously drops here and thereremarks highlighting the exotic and slightly negative, but mostly the ridiculous.

Nevertheless both authors venture to introduce the Chinese language to theWestern reader. Expressions or sometimes even whole phrases are used. As inMay’s case they are translated immediately after uttering them, while Verne likesto paraphrase them or explain them in subsequent sentences. Although Vernealready refers to the “Europeanized” Chinese,49 May still sends his protagoniststo explore the inner, “real” China.50 And to use Verne’s words — “Il faut aller enChine pour voir cela!”51 — in another context, one has to look at today’s Chinesewriters to see how these very negative stereotypes are received and transformedone hundred years later in Europe.

49In the following quote the modes of acquaintance and acculturation of the late nineteenthcentury Chinese with Europe are described: “A la description du salon dans lequel ce repas aété donné, au menu exotique qui le composait, à l’habillement des convives, à leur manière des’exprimer, peut-être aussi à la singularité de leurs théories, le lecteur a deviné qu’il s’agissait deChinois, non de ces ‘Célestials’ qui semblent avoir été décollés d’un paravent ou être en rupturede potiche, mais de ces modernes habitants du Céleste Empire, déjà ‘européennisés’ par leursétudes, leurs voyages, leurs fréquentes communications avec les civilisés de l’Occident.” Verne,Tribulations, p. 14.

50The accumulation of knowledge and objects from China nourished the wish for the maincharacter Degenfeld to actually go to China: “‘Nach China!’ ‘Da sind wir ja schon!’ Er zeigtein dem Zimmer herum und hatte dabei nicht gar so unrecht; denn der Methusalem war infolgeseiner mit dem Teehändler geschlossenen Freundschaft ein leidenschaftlicher Sammler chinesis-cher Erzeugnisse geworden. An den Wänden hingen und auf den Tischen lagen Geräte, Gefäße,Waffen, Musikinstrumente und eine ganze Menge ähnlicher Dinge, die aus dem ‘Reich der Mitte’stammten. ‘Das ist Talmi-China; ich aber will das echte sehen,’ antwortete der Student.” May,Methusalem, p. 16.

51Verne, Tribulations, p. 244.

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3.2 Self-Orientalisation

Surprisingly enough, the in most instances overwhelmingly negative view can befound only slightly changed and reintroduced into contemporary writings by Chi-nese.52 This is even more true if the authors switch the language. The one-sidedparadigm of West over East has shifted and is now even implemented by writersof fiction from this fictive Orient, in this case China and its fictive counterpart,Europe. The literary texts in the following paragraphs show a continuation of “im-perial”, “Western” images. Nevertheless, the fundamental change in opposition tocolonial texts is the creation of a set of positive Chinese characters.

Accordingly for the literary texts this signals a shift from Orientalism to itstransformation into Occidentalism and self-Orientalisation.

In the late 1970s with his study Orientalism,53 Edward Said highlighted a newaspect in the analysis of power relations between East and West of the last cen-turies. He investigated the works of Western scholars and authors that gatheredknowledge about the Orient and written material that provided a filtered imageof its object. Said points out the practices and procedures inherent to Orientalismas follows:

[One dogma] is the absolute and systematic difference between theWest, which is rational, developed, humane, superior, and the Orient,which is aberrant, undeveloped, inferior.Another dogma is that abstractions about the Orient, particularlythose based on texts representing a ‘classical’ Oriental civilization, arealways preferable to direct evidence drawn from modern Oriental real-ities.A third dogma is that the Orient is eternal, uniform, and incapable

52Bo Yang. The Ugly Chinaman and the Crisis of Chine Culture. North Sydney: Allen& Unwin, 1991; Barbara Mittler. “’My Older Brother is a Man-Eater’. Cannibalism Beforeand After May Fourth, 1919.” In: Zurück zur Freude. Studien zur chinesischen Literatur undLebenswelt und ihrer Rezeption in Ost und West. Festschrift für Wolfgang Kubin. Ed. by MarcHermann and Christian Schwermann. Sankt Augustin: Inst. Monumenta Serica, 2007, pp. 627–655.

53Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

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of defining itself; therefore it is assumed that a highly generalized andsystematic vocabulary for describing the Orient form a Western stand-point is inevitable and even scientifically “objective”.A fourth dogma is that the Orient is at bottom something either to befeared (the Yellow Peril, the Mongol hordes, the brown dominions) orto be controlled (by pacification, research and development, outrightoccupation whenever possible).54

To some extent these “four dogmas” of Orientalism paraphrase the above intro-duced images of the Orient, which is exemplified here by China. The specificexegesis and application of these “dogmas”, which are still relevant, lead to thefollowing set of questions regarding representation: How does someone representanother culture and what makes this culture distinct? What happens when rep-resenting one’s own culture in and to a foreign culture? Does this lead to self-alienation or even Self-Orientalisation? How do migrant writers deal with theiraudiences’ expectations about the writers’ original cultures? How do they modifythe image and what cultural and narrative patterns do they use in respect to this?

Orientalism in fiction, according to Said, has developed as a tool of intellectualimperialism,55 as shown by the examples, and as is evident in some of the literaturedealt with below. The appropriation of ways of describing the Other/ the Chinesethrough the Western pen cannot be emphasized enough as a significant part ofcontemporary Chinese migrant writing.

One of the first authors from this strain of writers reflecting on newer “Chinese”literature who comes to mind is Dai Sijie. He is known for his film work as well asfor his novels. After moving from Beijing to Paris in 1984 and changing from arthistory to film studies, he realized three feature films before writing his first novelBalzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise in 2000,56 out of which the first examples

54Said, Orientalism, 301f.55Arif Dirlik. “Chinese History and the Question of Orientalism.” In: History and Theory

35.4 (1996): Theme Issue 35. Chinese Historiography in Comparative Perspective, pp. 96–118,p. 98.

56Dai Sijie. Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise. Paris: Gallimard, 2000.

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will be taken. Dai then wrote his second novel Le complexe de Di57 and wasdirector and co-scriptwriter for the film version of Balzac and the Little ChineseSeamstress.58 In 2006 he finalized his fifth film, Les filles du botaniste.59 In 2007the novel Par une nuit où la lune ne s’est pas levée60 and in 2009 L’acrobatieaérienne de Confucius61 was published.

With his debut novel Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise, which was translatedin over 20 languages and even issued as an edition for French high schools, Daibecame a global success. This success was also shown in the film version of thenovel that followed three years later under his artistic direction. The novel dealswith two young men, Luo and the narrator Ma, who are sent during the GreatProletarian Cultural Revolution to the countryside to be reeducated by the farmersand to do fatigue duty. They do not integrate in the village community but keepto themselves. They also do not associate closely with the Other who has been“sent down to the countryside” teenager Binoclard, the owner of forbidden books.Nevertheless they become friendly with the tailor’s daughter, the eponymous LittleSeamstress. A love triangle between the three establishes and is lived out betweenLuo and the Little Seamstress. Educating the girl with their knowledge on thethen forbidden Western literature, she undergoes development into an independentyoung woman, leaving the two men and the village. Throughout the novel Luo andthe narrator are struggling with hard labor, confronting the village’s headman, andthe overall climate of uncertainties, oppression, and fear. Culturally the village andmain protagonists are moved by films and their narrations, by the transformationof rural traditional songs into political propaganda art, and by getting new, tailoredclothes inspired by French nineteenth century novels. Luo and the narrator bring

57Dai Sijie. Le complexe de Di. Paris: Gallimard, 2003.58Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress; France, China; orig. title: Balzac et la Petite

Tailleuse chinoise; director: Dai Sijie; script: Dai Sjie and Nadine Perront; producer: LiseFayolle; 2002.

59The Chinese Botanist’s Daughters; France, Canada; orig. title: Les filles du botaniste;director: Dai Sijie; script: Dai Sijie and Nadine Perront; producer: Lise Fayolle; 2006.

60Dai Sijie. Par une nuit où la lune ne s’est pas levée. Paris: Flammarion, 2007.61Dai Sijie. L’acorbatie aérienne de Confucius. Paris: Flammarion, 2009.

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along Westernized culture in the form of a violin. They encounter more Western artin forbidden books, particularly nineteenth century French, British, and Russianliterature.

Even though the novel contains numerous elements of exotism and orientalism,the concentration lies on the construction of the Other in the descriptions of char-acters and objects on one hand and the impact of foreign knowledge, foremostin the guise of French literature, on the education and emancipation of the maincharacters. The “city youth” is shown as the bearer of advanced knowledge thatexceeds the village’s imagination in numerous aspects of life, technically, scientif-ically and culturally. This knowledge is also strongly implicated in the setting ofthe novel, since the disclosure of the sources would be compromising for the maincharacters.

The narrator forms a rapport with the reader and persuades her or him thatthe villagers, the true “uncultured” Chinese, are the Other. He does this in theopening scene of the novel as Dai demonstrates the villagers’ ignorance towards amusical instrument, a violin. “Dans les bagages des deux ‘garçon de la ville’ queLuo et moi représentions à leurs yeux, c’était le seul objet duquel semblait émanerune saveur étrangère, une odeur de civilisation, propre à éveiller les soupçons desvillageois.”62 They do not know what this object is, they call it a toy — “C’est unjouet”, “un jouet de con”, “il faut le brûler!”63

The villagers are described as an ignorant and furious mass of people againstthese two town boys. Ignorance turns into the want of destruction and this is thepoint where intimacy with the reader is established. Luo tells the people in theroom that the object is a music instrument and asks the narrator to play.

— Vous allez entendre une sonate de Mozart, chef, annonça Luo, aussitranquille que tout à l’heure.Abasourdi, je le crus devenu fou: depuis quelques années, toutes lesœuvres de Mozart, ou de n’importe quel musicien occidental, étaient

62Dai, Tailleuse, p. 9.63Dai, Tailleuse, 10 and 11.

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interdites dans notre pays.64

The narrator points out the audacity of the venture; both the instrument andthe music are prohibited during the reigning political campagne. “— C’est quoiune sonate? me demanda le chef, méfiant. / — Je ne sais pas, commençai-je àbafouiller. Un truc occidental.65 The technical term of “sonata” and the familyname “Mozart” do not seem alienating within the French text, even though thewords are in a Chinese context.66 However the narrator increments the unfamil-iarity of the foreign-sounding words through the clear indication that not only theinstrument but also the music is from abroad. Thus mistrust arises.

Illico, une vigilance de bon communiste réapparut dans les yeux duchef et sa voix se fit hostile:— Comment elle s’appelle, ta chanson? . . .— Mozart. . . , hésitai-je.— Mozart quoi?— Mozart pense au président Mao, continua Luo à ma place.Quelle audace! Mais elle fut efficace: comme s’il avait entendu quelquechose de miraculeux, le visage menaçant du chef s’adoucit. Ses yeux seplissèrent dans un large sourire de béatitude.— Mozart pense toujours à Mao, dit-il.— Oui, toujours, confirma Luo.67

With this straightforward lie the two young men convince the villagers that indeedsomeone in the West has written a piece of music for Chairman Mao and thereforeit is worth listening to.

Lorsque je tendis les crins de mon archet, des applaudissement chaleu-reux retentirent soudain autour de moi, qui me firent presque peur. Mes

64Dai, Tailleuse, 11f.65Dai, Tailleuse, p. 12.66Mozart’s name and the term sonata are frequently used and even if the reader does not

remember any specific musical piece by Mozart or know what a sonata is, the reader would beable to identify the piece as classical music of the 18th century.

67Dai, Tailleuse, 12f.

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doigts engourdis commencèrent à parcourir les cordes, et les phrasesde Mozart revinrent à mon esprit, tels des amis fidèles. Les visages despaysans, si durs tout à l’heure, se ramollirent de minute en minute sousla joie limpide de Mozart, comme le sol desséché sous la pluie, puis,dans la lumière dansante de la lampe à pétrole, ils perdirent peu à peuleurs contours.68

It is the “superior” knowledge that allows Luo and Ma to dupe the villagers.The two main protagonists assume to share this knowledge with the reader. Thenarration makes the reader strongly aware of the setting in a foreign country andculture at a very specific period of time, where the mere “odeur” of civilizationcauses suspicion. Here being cultured means being criminal, for Dai describes thevillage headman rifling through Ma and Luo’s luggage as similar to a police officerlooking for drugs. At this point the opposition generated by the protagonists isbetween city and village, between being Westernized (modernized, or cultured) anduncultured (only influenced by communist thought and ancient traditions). Thevillage at the Mountain of the Phoenix of the Sky in Sichuan is movingly describedin its beauties, nevertheless its remoteness is highlighted, with the nearest sign ofcivilization — like a car or a restaurant — a two day’s journey away. To illustratethis seclusion of the location the text mentions the only Occidental that was in theregion, a French missionary on his way to Tibet.69 Next to the Western music andinstrument another sign of civilization that Luo and Ma bring along is an alarmclock, as shown in the citation below:

Néanmoins, notre maison devint rapidement le centre du village: toutle monde y venait, y compris le chef, avec son œil gauche toujoursmaculé de trois gouttes du sang.Tout cela grâce à un autre “phénix”, tout petit, presque minuscule,plutôt terrestre, dont le maître était mon ami Luo. . . .Qu’il était petit, le réveil de Luo, avec son coq qui bougeait à chaqueseconde! Avant nous, dans ce village, il n’y avait jamais eu ni réveil,

68Dai, Tailleuse, p. 13.69According to Dai the visit took place in the 1940s. Dai, Tailleuse, p. 20.

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ni montre, ni horloge. Les gens avaient toujours vécu en regardant lesoleil se lever ou se coucher.Nous fûmes surpris de voir comment le réveil prit sur les paysans unvéritable pouvoir, presque sacré. Tout le monde venait le consulter,comme si notre maison sur pilotis était un temple.70

Luo and Ma have acquired a certain power over the village and its people and donot hesitate to tamper with the clock in order to extend the nightly hours of rest.The emphasis then shifts from the universal achievements of progress manifestedin technical accomplishments to the cultural aspect, specifically literature. It isthe impact of literature as a whole that is referred to, encompassing the text itself,the reading, the reading aloud, the retelling.

Even if the two teenagers expect the suitcase to be filled with forbidden Chineseclassical novels,71 they are temporarily disappointed by the discovery of foreignliterature due to their ignorance of occidental texts.72 After a first reading theysoon find out that these texts not only have the potential to educate themselves butand the Little Seamstress as well. Luo and Ma experience the educational effectsof the Bildungsroman, the first novel presented to them is a novel by Honoré deBalzac.

“Ba-er-za-ke”. Traduit en chinois, le nom de l’auteur français formait

70Dai, Tailleuse, 22f.71“La vigilance accrue du Binoclard et sa méfiance à notre égard, en dépit de notre amitié,

accréditaient l’hypothèse de Luo: la valise était sans doute remplie de livres interdits. Nous enparlions souvent, Luo et moi, sans parvenir à imaginer de quel genre de livres il s’agissait. (Àl’époque, tous les livres étaient interdits, à l’exception de ceux de Mao et de ses partisans, et desouvrages purement scientifiques.) Nous établîmes une longue liste de livres possibles: les romansclassiques chinois, depuis Les Trois Royaumes combattants jusqu’au Rêve dans le Pavillon Rouge,en passant par le Jin Ping Mei, réputé pour être un livre érotique. Il y avait aussi la poésie desdynastie des Tang, des Song, des Ming, ou des Qing. . . ” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 64.

72“— Tu as déjà entendu parler de la littérature occidentale? me demanda un jour Luo.— Pas trop. . .— Je me souviens qu’elle m’avait lu quelques passages d’un livre qui s’appelait Don Quichotte,l’histoire d’un vieux chevalier assez marrant.— Et maintenant, où ils sont, ces livres?— Partis en fumée. Ils ont été confisqués par les Gardes rouges, qui les ont brûlés en public,sans aucune pitié, juste en bas de son immeuble.” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 65.

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un mot de quatre idéogrammes. Quelle magie que la traduction! Sou-dain, la lourdeur des deux premières syllabes, la résonance guerrièreet agressive dotée de ringardise de ce nom disparaissaient. Ces quatrecaractères, très élégants, dont chacun se composait de peu de traits,s’assemblaient pour former une beauté inhabituelle, de laquelle émanaitune saveur exotique, sensuelle, généreuse comme le parfum envoûtantd’un alcool conservé depuis des siècles dans une cave.73

More than one century after its first publication in 1841 and several years afterits translation into Chinese by Fu Lei in the 1950s, the “study of morals”, UrsuleMirouët by Balzac opens the minds of its readers and voices their innermost desires.

Imaginez un jeune puceau de dix-neuf ans, qui somnolait encore dansles limbes de l’adolescence, et n’avait jamais connu que les bla-blarévolutionnaires sur le patriotisme, le communisme, l’idéologie et lapropagande. Brusquement, comme un intrus, ce petit livre me parlaitde l’éveil du désir, des élans, des pulsions, de l’amour, de toutes ceschoses sur lesquelles le monde était, pour moi, jusqu’alors demeurémeut.Malgré mon ignorance totale de ce pays nommé la France, l’histoired’Ursule me parut aussi vraie que celle de mes voisins.74

The plot and the character description of Balzac’s novel appeal to the young men.They can find in the texts a humanity they lack in their own lives, society and theliterature they know.75 Both, Ma and Luo read the text. Then it is Luo who leaves

73Dai, Tailleuse, p. 71.74Dai, Tailleuse, p. 72.75“Cette histoire de littérature me déprimait à mort: nous n’avions pas de chance. À l’âge où

nous avions enfin su lire couramment, il n’y avait déjà plus rien à lire. Pendant plusieurs années,au rayon “littérature occidentale” de toutes les librairies, il n’y eut que les Œuvres complètes dudirigeant communiste albanais Enver Hoxha, sur les couvertures dorées desquelles on voyait leportrait d’un vieil homme à cravate de couleurs criardes, avec des cheveux gris impeccablementpeignés, qui rivait sur vous, sous ses paupières plissées, un œil gauche, moins marron et dotéd’un iris rose pâle.” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 66.

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the house to go to the tailor and his daughter’s dwelling in order to narrate orre-narrate the novel’s story. Luo’s role as a mediator and transmitter of stories islater reiterated in the task to narrate films watched in the bigger city commissionedby the village chief.

Ma even copies excerpts from Ursule Mirouët onto his leather vest. This pieceof clothing becomes the source for their readings as the book had to be returnedto Binoclard.

“Ce vieux Balzac, continua-t-il, est un véritable sorcier qui a poséune main invisible sur la tête de cette fille; elle était métamorphosée,rêveuse, a mis quelques instants avant de revenir à elle, les pieds surterre. Elle a fini par mettre ta foutue veste, ça ne lui allait pas mald’ailleurs, et elle m’a dit que le contact des mots de Balzac sur sa peaului apporterait bonheur et intelligence. . . 76

Impressed by the impact the text by Balzac had on the Little Seamstress, the twoyoung men decide to steal the whole suitcase with the books in order to pursueand complete the education of the Little Seamstress.77 It is another moment ofrevelation when they finally have the suitcase filled with books in their possession,for the objects inside are to be worshiped:

Nous nous approchâmes de la valise. Elle était ficelée par une grossecorde de paille tressée, nouée en croix. Nous la débarrassâmes deses liens, et l’ouvrîmes silencieusement. À l’intérieur, des piles de

76Dai, Tailleuse, p. 78. Omissions in the text.77As a subplot, Luo and the narrator Ma help Binoclard collect local mountain songs. First

they help out translating the local mountain dweller’s dialect texts, then Binoclard transformsthe bucolic content into a revolutionary communist one. These new texts feature as contributionsfor a revolutionary paper and are his ticket out of the re-education movement. Enraged over thetransformation of original cultural material to propagandist writings, Ma becomes violent, finallyknocking him out with a punch. Nevertheless this again emphasizes the importance of writtenwords, and adduces the realm of literature, as illustrated by a conversation about Binoclard’swork between the Binoclard’s mother and Ma: “— Il a recueilli des chants, les a adapté, modifiés,et les paroles de ces magnifique chansons paysannes ont énormément plu au rédacteur en chef./ — C’est grâce à vous qu’il pu faire ce travail. Vous lui avez donné beaucoup de livres à lire. /— Oui, bien sûr. / Soudain, elle se tut, et me fixa d’un regard méfiant. / — Des livres? Jamais,me dit-elle froidement.” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 107.

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livres s’illuminèrent sous notre torche électrique; les grands écrivainsoccidentaux nous accueillirent à bras ouverts: à leur tête, se tenaitnotre vieil ami Balzac, avec cinq ou six romans, suivi de Victor Hugo,Stendhal, Dumas, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Romain Rolland, Rousseau,Tolstoï, Gogol, Dostoïevski, et quelques Anglais: Dickens, Kipling,Emily Brontë. . .Quel éblouissement! J’avais l’impression de m’évanouir dans lesbrumes de l’ivresse. Je sortis les romans un par un de la valise,les ouvris, contemplai les portraits des auteurs, et les passai à Luo. Deles toucher du bout des doigts, il me semblait que mes mains, devenuespâles, étaient en contact avec des vies humaines.78

These “bouquins interdits”, forbidden books are their bible; opposites of the avail-able communist material, they are humanist tools of enlightenment and education.“Avec ces livres, je vais transformer la Petite Tailleuse. Elle ne sera plus jamais unesimple montagnarde.”79 And this “belle mais inculte”80 young woman will trans-form herself precisely in this manner. But these books also teach the narratorand his friend Luo; through the literature they become familiar with the ways ofthe world. Dai describes the readings with very poignant words but always em-phasizes the occidental origin of the texts. “Mystère du monde extérieur, surtoutcelui de la femme, de l’amour, du sexe, que les écrivains occidentaux nous réve-laient jour après jour, page après page, livre après livre.”81 Little later the narratorenumerates Western authors with whose works he has fallen in love. The exampleof Jean-Christophe by Romain Rolland has learnt the narrator the possibility ofindividual action in contrast to his prior general and political education. “Sanslui [Romain Rolland], je ne serais jamais parvenu à comprendre la splendeur etl’ampleur de l’individualisme.”82

78Dai, Tailleuse, 125f. Omissions in the text.79Dai, Tailleuse, p. 127.80Dai, Tailleuse, p. 135.81Dai, Tailleuse, p. 135.82Dai, Tailleuse, p. 137.

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Literature, and as Dai puts it, occidental literature, pushes the three maincharacters and even the entire community further on the road to progress. A bookby Balzac literally buys the Little Seamstress liberty and honorable social standingsince it is the price for the abortion of Luo’s child.

They do burn the books, their treasure in the end;83 as an act of farewell, whenthe Little Seamstress leaves the village, they simultaneously say goodbye to theirsource of knowledge and the object of education. The Little Seamstress makes thedecision to go to town in silence, leaving everybody including her father, Luo andMa in surprise. She got the courage from literature — “Elle m’a dit que Balzaclui a fait comprendre une chose: la beauté d’une femme est un trésor qui n’a pasde prix.84

The development that is triggered by the foreign literature is first and foremosta positive development towards self-determinism, personal liberty, and individual-ism. This is not only subtly indicated but — as is evident in the excerpts above— openly described and a causality is established: “Inévitablement, quelques fan-taisies, discrètes et spontanées, dues à l’influence du romancier français, com-mencèrent à apparaître dans les nouveaux vêtements des villageois, surtout deséléments marins.”85

The construction of the Other is most remarkably demonstrated in two othercharacters of the novel. The first is the village chief, who is the “natural” adversaryto the two boys sent to the countryside. While the other, Binoclard, is surpris-ingly the owner of the books and shares the same destiny, he and his mother, arenevertheless, ascribed negative features.

The village chief is a distrustful, authoritarian figure from the beginning. He isthe one who assigns them work. It does not matter to the narrator and his friendthat he becomes a slave of their alarm clock, and gives them the freer and moreintellectual assignment to attend a film screening and re-narrate and perform thestory of the motion picture. Already during their first meeting, he is introduced

83“Voilà. Le moment est venu de vous décrire l’image finale de cette histoire. Le temps devous faire entendre le craquement de six allumettes par une nuit d’hiver.” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 218.

84Dai, Tailleuse, p. 229.85Dai, Tailleuse, p. 158.

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as a physically scary figure with — three drops of blood in his left eye. Oneof the most intense paragraphs of the novel describes the physical appearance ofthe village chief, along with its psychological impact as well as how unreflectedand unjustified his brutality against the narrator and Luo is. When the villagechief returns to the hamlet from a party convention and an unsuccessful treatmentat the dentist’s. “Il était d’autant plus furieux que l’hémorragie provoquée parl’extraction de sa dent saine l’empêchait de parler, de vociférer ce scandale, et lecondamnait à le marmonner avec des mots à peine audibles.”86

All the distance and hate that is established between the narrator, Luo andthe village headman is resolved in the scene that involves the medical help andtreatment of the headmaster’s tooth and unmasks pleasure in torturing the head-master.87

The other antagonistic character Binoclard is nevertheless introduced as afriend. He and the two main characters, the narrator Ma and Luo, have a commonlife, sharing food and their spare time. However, after a short while, the mannersand behavior of Binoclard discomforts them. “Avec lui, tout prenait la couleur dudanger.”88 He is physically handicapped, his ametropia forces him to wear glasses,leading to his nick name Binoclard (literally, bespectacled). His real name is nevermentioned throughout the book. He is clumsy, distrustful towards other people,not willing to allow help from others, and easily enraged. He also develops a rudelanguage.

To sum up, the following sentence again demonstrates the emphasis Dai puts on

86Dai, Tailleuse, p. 148.87“Soudain, comme une éruption volcanique, je sentis à mon insu surgir du plus profond de

moi une pulsion sadique: je ralentis immédiatement le mouvement du pédalier, en mémoire detoutes les souffrances de la rééducation.Luo me jeta un regard complice.Je ralentis encore, pour me venger cette fois de ses menaces d’inculpation. . . . Je prenais unair, calme innocent. Mes yeux ne se réduisaient pas à deux fentes chargées de haine. Je faisaissemblant de vérifier la poulie ou la courroie. Puis l’aiguille se remettait à tourner, à vriller lente-ment, comme si le cycliste grimpait péniblement une côte abrupte. L’aiguille s’était transforméeen ciseau, en burin haineux qui creusait un trou dans la sombre roche préhistorique, en faisaitjaillir de ridicules nuages de poudre de marbre, grasse, jaune et caséeuse. Je n’avais jamais vuaussi sadique que moi. Je vous l’assure. Un sadique débridé.” Dai, Tailleuse, p. 229.

88Dai, Tailleuse, p. 58.

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the differences between education and non-education, between Western literatureand French literature, and eventually between the French and the Chinese culture.“Je hais tous ceux qui nous ont interdit ces livres.”89 The narrator directs hiswrath, his grudge towards the authorities and the communist ruler but here it isnot about the prohibition of books in general, not “des livres” but “ces livres”,referring to the above mentioned imported cultural products.

In the next example written by Hong Li Yuan, Die Tempelglocken von Shanghai,the differences are staged on another level. It is no longer the foreign culture thatis superior, but the local, less assertive ones, on one side the traditional Buddhistphilosophy and its manifestation in Qigong and on the other, less important side,the minority life of the Uyghurs and Kazakhs in Xinjiang. This is constantly con-trasted with the political events of the second half of the 20th century, a childhoodduring the Cultural Revolution and youth in the army. The first person narratoris the main character, Chen, Da Lee (family and given names are separated witha comma throughout the text).

Hong Li Yuan, born in 1957 in Shanghai, is a Taiji and Qigong Master. Hestudied Chinese and Western literature and came to Germany in 1992. He livesin Stuttgart, where he runs a Qigong school. He has written two textbooks onQigong. Die Tempelglocken von Shanghai,90 published in 2002 was his first novel,while the sequel Der Meister aus Shanghai91 was published in 2008.

Even though the whole repertoire of events shows and mirrors the atrocities ofthe communist reign in China, the narrator’s voice remains soft. He has a clearcut vision of what is wrong and what is right, but only in extreme situations.He does not seem to notice the discrepancy in the admiration of Buddhism withits pacifist teachings and joining the army as a soldier at the same time. Whilereading the novel one has the impression that Yuan only dares to criticize thosethings that are already officially criticized by the government. So the descriptionof Mao changes throughout the text, from the rather harsh criticism during the

89Dai, Tailleuse, p. 126.90Yuan Hong Li. Die Tempelglocken von Shanghai. München: Nymphenburger, 2002.91Yuan Hong Li. Der Meister aus Shanghai. München: Langen/Müller, 2008.

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Cultural Revolution to a somewhat forgiving attitude associated with his deathand memory:

Wer seine Macht unterstützte, war sein Freund. Alle anderen warenFeinde, die vernichtet werden mussten. Wie konnte er seine Feinde imgrößten Land der Welt aufspüren? Mao wusste wie.92

The language Yuan uses evokes the official statements of the Communist partyduring the Cultural Revolution and foremost chairman Mao’s quotations:

Die Kulturrevolution erfasste das ganze Land mit Körper und Seele.In China, dem Land mit den meisten Einwohnern, war jeder davonbetroffen. Entweder man wurde von anderen kritisiert und angeklagtoder man kritisierte und klagte selbst andere an. In ganz China gabes keinen einzigen Menschen, der nicht davon beeinflusst wurde. DieFeuer der Revolution brannten überall. Unter den Losungen ‘DieRestauration des Kapitalismus verhüten’ und ‘Das Alte zerstören, dasNeue schaffen’ war das Gefüge des Landes zerstört und die staatlichenOrgane außer Kraft gesetzt worden. Arbeiter taten nichts mehr fürihre Produktion, Bauern gingen nicht mehr aufs Feld, Schüler nichtmehr zum Unterricht. Sie wollten nur Revolution machen. Die Land-wirtschaft war sofort am Ende. Es gab einen großen Nahrungsmangel.Ganz China war durcheinander.93

Yuan describes the disorder that evolved during the Revolution and declares theidea of performing miracles with the power of Marxism a fairy tale. The truemotivation for the Revolution, argues the narrator, was Mao’s power play.94

92Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 11.93Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 203.94“Ein Mann lachte über das Ganze. Das war der Vorsitzende Mao, der Begründer der Kul-

turrevolution. Warum wollte er diese Revolutionsbewegung machen? Dafür gab es viele offizielleErklärungen, doch sie waren alle nur Propaganda. In Wirklichkeit war es nur ein Kampf umdie Macht. Das Wesentliche für den großen Politiker Mao war Macht. Ohne sie konnte er nichtleben. Dies hatte sich schon sehr viel früher gezeigt. Anfang der Sechzigerjahre war seine Machtin Gefahr gewesen. Erstaunlicherweise hat Mao nie begriffen, dass es schwieriger ist, ein Landaufzubauen, als es zu zerstören.” Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 82.

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Er übernahm einfach die Theorien von Karl Marx, die dieser nie inder Praxis ausprobiert hatte. Mao glaubte das Märchen, dass man einWunder schaffen könne, wenn das Volk von der kommunistischen Ideedurchdrungen sei.95

The imminent consequences of the Cultural Revolution are the end of civilizationand radical changes in interpersonal relationships, but this is juxtaposed with thegeneral, official attitude towards the Revolution as a time of joy.96

With the death of Mao and the subsequent national and personal grief, Mao’sperson bears different nuances in retrospect. Again Yuan uses familiar languageand images but then switches to direct criticism.

Die rote Sonne war untergegangen. . . . Leider hatte der arroganteMann, das Bauernkind, sich für die Idee von Karl Marx entschieden.. . . Seine Machtsucht war so ausgeprägt, dass dafür einige MillionenMenschen geopfert werden mussten.97

The narrator connects this criticism of Mao’s adaptation of Marxism with Mao’snegation and repulsion of Confucianism. The following passage tries to link Con-fucianism with the dignity of the Chinese people.

Das chinesische Volk versuchte immer, Mao seine Sünden zu verzeihen,weil er zusammen mit seinen Genossen die Partei, die Armee und dieVolksrepublik China gegründet hatte und weil er erfolgreich für die Er-hebung des chinesischen Volkes gekämpft hatte.Tausend Jahre konfuzianisches Denken mit Werken von ‘Menschlich-keit, Rechtschaffenheit und Tugend’ oder ‘Loyalität und Duldsamkeit’waren im chinesischen Leben und in der chinesischen Seele tief ver-wurzelt. Man hatte früh gelernt, die guten Taten anderer im Kopf zu

95Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 83.96“Durch die Kulturrevolution waren die Beziehungen zwischen den Menschen in wilde Zeiten

zurückgefallen. Die Mehrheit dachte allerdings anders. Viele Leute freuten sich über die Revolu-tionszeit. ’Wenn man in der Zeit des Vorsitzenden Mao lebt, ist man in der Zeit des VorsitzendenMao lebt, ist man ein glücklicher Mensch.’ So hieß es damals.” Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 170.

97Yuan, Tempelglocken, 345f.

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behalten und das Schlechte zu vergessen. Als ich ein Kind war, hattemeine Großmutter oft zu mir gesagt: ‘Da Lee, du sollst nie vergessen,wer dir geholfen und etwas Gutes für dich getan hat. Und wenn duspäter die Möglichkeit hast, sollst du es erwidern.’ In China nennt mandas ‘hohe Tugend’.Der Vorsitzende Mao wollte zu Lebzeiten die traditionellen Ideen vonKonfuzius zu Gunsten der marxistischen Ideale vernichten, doch wares gerade dieses traditionelle Denken, das seinen Ruf teilweise gerettethat. Sein Bild hängt heute noch am Tor des himmlischen Friedens.Sein Foto wird sogar auf neue chinesische Geldscheine gedruckt. Dasist interessant, sehr interessant.Was allerdings seine Frau betraf, fand man keinen Grund zu verzeihen,weil sie fast nur Schlechtes getan hatte. Hunderttausende jubelten vorFreude auf den Straßen und freuten sich über die Festnahme Jiang,Quings [sic!]. Am Ende wurde sie zum Tod verurteilt mit Bewährung.Mit dem Tod Maos war auch die Kulturrevolution zu Ende. Man feiertees wie ein großes Fest. Fast überall sah ich lächelnde Gesichter, so alsseien die Menschen nun befreit.98

Firstly the Chinese people scrupulously adhere to the rules and traditions originat-ing in Confucianism. This is why they do forgive Mao Zedong’s actions. MeanwhileMao tries to eliminate the traditional beliefs. Yet due to the fact that Mao alsodid good things for the people, Yuan argues, he is still worshiped in contrast tohis wife Jiang Qing. She is condemned, because she only did bad deeds.

The shift in personality and apprehension of the political situation, particularlythe possibility to take sides, is blurred. No rationale is given for Chen, Da Lee’sinsights or the motivations behind his actions. This is also shown in the hero’sweak characterization. Chen, Da Lee answers yes to any question about what hewants to do with his future life — yes, he says to the Qigong master and yes to hisfather. So on one hand he trains with the Qigong Master in order to eventuallybecome a master himself and on the other hand joins the army to become a soldier.

98Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 357.

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Nevertheless he refuses a posting in Shanghai and swaps with his housemaid’s sonto go to Xinjiang near the abode of his master.

Therefore it is more difficult to differentiate the construction of the Other here— it is not as simplified as in Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstressor the other books. In this novel the Other exists on two levels — on one hand itis the young activists of the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards (although notthe communists in general) and on the other hand, the Chinese minority of theKazakhs. Nonetheless clear distinctions between evil and good can still be drawnalong this line.

Here the good have to take the disguise of the evil in order to survive. Thefollowing quotations originate from a section where the monks living at the JadeBuddha Temple in Shanghai trick the Red Guards to save the temple and the holyobjects in the monastery. Chen, Da Lee is enchanted by the beauty of the Buddhaand has a vision. In order to protect the monastery and temple according to hisvision, the monks glue propaganda writings onto the important religious items.The monks even remove their religious clothes. Mimicry helps surviving.

“Früher benutzten die Krieger auch diese Methode. Um sich zuschützen, schadeten sie sich anscheinend zunächst selbst und wartetendann auf eine Chance, um ihre Gegner zu besiegen,” sagte MeisterYun.99

The Red Guards enter the temple in order to destroy the religious objects and mostzealously the Giant Jade Buddha, the most important and valuable religious statueof the temple. The monks take the Red Guards arguments to destroy the “fourolds”100 and disguise themselves as Revolutionary communists. They cover all thestatues and character tablets with propaganda slogans and wear different clotheswith red armbands. “Wir waren Mönche, doch jetzt sind wir keine mehr. Wir sindaufgestanden, jetzt sind wir Revolutionäre.” Er zeigte auf seine rote Armbinde.101

99Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 151.100四旧, sijiu was generally speaking a slogan during the Cultural Revolution aiming at the

destruction of the four olds: old customs, old habits, old ideas and old culture.101Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 153.

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The monk’s actions disarm the Red Guards; they have to leave the temple withoutfulfilling their intended demolition. The monks triumph and are therefore able tomaintain their intellectual freedom and preserve the cultural objects.

Die Atmosphäre war sofort wieder harmonisch, man lachte und redetemiteinander. Die Mönche hatten schon guten Tee in großen Gefäßenvorbereitet. Jetzt boten sie ihn den jungen Leuten an. Eine Stundespäter ging die letzte Gruppe weg. Ihre Eisenstangen hinter sichherziehend, verschwanden sie. Dann war das Lachen auf der Seiteder Mönche. Meister Yun und ich lachten so, wie schon lange nichtmehr.102

On another level, the cunning actions of the monks describe the opposition andhegemony of traditional values and rites over newly assumed political ideas. Thisline of opposition is extended to the relations between Eastern cities inhabited byHan Chinese and the Western countryside inhabited by the so-called minoritiesof predominantly Islamic faith. Typified by naivety but also amiability, the habi-tants of the West, let them be Uyghur or Kazakh, are described as savage, butbeautiful in their uncivilized manners. Their culture is distinct on one side fromthe majority of the Han Chinese through different socialization and background,but foremost, religion. It is mostly the Muslim belief and it’s maintenance in thesecular and communist People’s Republic that sets them apart. Yet in Yuan’snovel the characters are reduced to their physical appearance, temperament, andpopular customs. This is evident in the following examples, one describing thebeauty of a girl and the other portraying the connection between Kazakhs andtheir horses. Chen, Da Lee has difficulties in describing the girl’s appearance andcharacter, but is helped by a friend. “So eine wilde, natürliche Schönheit,” MinJiang half ihm. / “Ja richtig! Das fehlt den Shanghai-Mädchen.”103

The other quotation closely associates the ethnic minority with the character-istics of animals in order to demonstrate the extent of their ‘uncivilized humannature’. “Kasachen leben auf den Rücken ihrer Pferde. Sie sind sehr stolz, wie

102Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 153.103Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 244.

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Adler, und hart wie Eisen. In ihrem Vokabular findet man ein Wort nicht und dasheißt: ‘schwach’.”104

The downside of this description is the sober portrayal of the coexisting naivetyand passivity of the Kazahk villagers:

“Das ganze Dorf betete für sie. Zu fast allen Heiligen haben sie ge-betet, von Allah und Buddha zu Jesus bis hin zu Karl Marx und demVorsitzenden Mao. Doch ohne Erfolg. Die beiden Kinder würden baldsterben wie die anderen vor ihnen.”105

The efforts to help and cure the ill children remain limited to praying to whomevermight bring betterment, but the Qigong master examines the children and even-tually heals them.

The novel presents neither reflections nor reasoning nor does it elaborate theincluded knowledge and facts for the reader. The plot is driven forward throughactions and only these actions are commented upon. It is claimed that the noveland its sequel are written for either Qigong practitioners or people interested in thesport/ philosophy. Though present throughout the novel the power and sublimityof Qigong is not shown in the beginning. Alternative lifestyles like communismor the army go side by side and only much later in the novel after Chen’s misuseof his powers in a jealous dispute, is the wisdom and supremacy (healing severaldiseases including lung cancer, fulfilling the motto that the most beautiful is themost simple) of Qigong illustrated.

The narration and afterword lead to the conclusion that this is not the lasttime the reader will witness the journey of Chen, Da Lee towards wisdom and thefulfillment of life with Qigong. This text and the sequel seek to promote Qigongand do so on a rather superficial level. Neither origins, learning possibilities,nor methods are explained. To the reader, who is not familiar with the subjectmatter, Qigong’s positive effects remain mostly in the land of wonders. Qigong isprojected as a powerful means to lead an honest and decent life. The descriptionof the communists, the army and the minorities is glossed over for Yuan only refers

104Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 260.105Yuan, Tempelglocken, 266f.

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to folkloric images.The practice of Self-Orientalization is pushed to an extremity here. It is the

old practice of Qigong, a martial art and meditation technique that is extremelyexoticized and mystified. The Self-Orientalization lies in the main protagonist’srole as a follower and later master of Qigong, the wisdom of his master and theunquestioning trust of the narrator’s grandmother.

The next novel Porte de la Paix céleste106 that is featured in the followingpassages is from one of the most prominent Sino-French writers, Shan Sa. Shewas born in 1972 in Beijing. From 1983 to 1989 she published four volumes ofpoetry in China. In 1990 she left for France to learn French and do her highschool graduation. Later she studied philosophy in Paris. In 1994 she became aclose collaborator of the painter Balthus, to whom she dedicates her first novelwritten in French, Porte de la Paix céleste. By 2008 she had published six novelsincluding the international success, La joueuse de go107 in 2001, Impératrice108 in2003, Les conspirateurs109 in 2005 and Alexandre & Alestria110 in 2006 as well ascollections of poetry and books on painting.

The novel Porte de la Paix céleste describes the story of Ayamei, an organizerof the 1989 manifestations on the Tian’anmen Square in Beijing. The text startswith the very end of the movement, when the armed police and the army startpersecuting and killing the students and other demonstrators. Ayamei flees, whilea friend of hers is killed. The van driver Wang rescues her, and takes her in, andlater hides her with his parents in the countryside. Meanwhile lieutenant Zhaowho was hurt during the revolt, gets the mandate to follow Ayamei and arrest her.As he starts investigating, he finds her diary. And so the reader gets informationabout the former life of Ayamei; a largely unhappy one, due to societal pressureand a love story which ends with the suicide of her youthful lover Min. As Wang’s

106Shan Sa. Porte de la Paix céleste. Paris: Gallimard, 2000. Originally published 1997.107Shan Sa. La joueuse de go. Paris: Grasset, 2001.108Shan Sa. Impératrice. Paris: Le livre de poche, 2003.109Shan Sa. Les conspirateurs. Paris: Albin Michel, 2005.110Shan Sa. Alexandre & Alestria. Paris: Albin Michel, 2006.

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wife cracks under the interrogation, Zhao follows her to the seaside. But when hearrives, Ayamei has already disappeared into the woods. He finds her latest diary,reads it and learns more about her motivations. As he continues the hunt withthe help of a local woodsman, he is no longer able to obey his orders and does notarrest her, even though he has the possibility to do it.

The black and white description and designation of the characters divides theprotagonists into either the supporting or the persecuting party of the demo-cratic movement impersonated by Ayamei. It is the old juxtaposition of “Wu”and “Wen”, the military world against the world of letters. Ayamei’s counter-part is Zhao as a member of the armed forces, formed by military and communisttraining.

The first quotation opposes different perspectives on the imperial buildings inBeijing. Shan Sa contrasts the beauties of the craftsman’s work with the politicalprinciples of the time.

Le soleil embrasait une vaste étendue de tuiles dorées. Des pagodespeintes, des tours chargées de sculptures de dragons, la toiture gi-gantesque des palais au-dessus des hauts murs de la Cité interdite seprofilaient avec majesté. Mais le lieutenant Zhao n’y verrait qu’uneopulence fondée sur l’exploitation du peuple et, pour cette raison, ilne serait séduit ni par les perrons de marbre blanc, ni par les colonnesde santal sculpté. Il n’apprécierait ni les murs recouverts de fresquefantastique, ni les meubles incrustés d’or. Ni les draperies jadis brodéespar les mains les plus habiles de Chine.111

Shan Sa portrays the soldiers as uneducated or, more accurately, as only educatedin military actions and communist thought. The presence of the students movesthe soldiers.

L’armée demeura dans la banlieue sud de Pékin pendant quatre jours.Le premier groupe d’étudiants parti, un autre était venu, afin depropager dans l’armée ses idées politiques. Les soldats ne compre-naient pas ce que disaient les étudiants, mais leurs chants pleins de

111Shan Sa, Porte de la Paix céleste, 21f.

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gaieté et leurs rires insouciants les attiraient. L’atmosphère hostiles’adoucissait.112

Longing for education113 and the emotional effect of Ayamei’s diaries exemplifythe character development of the soldier Zhao.

The supporting characters in the novel are represented by the老百姓, (laobaix-ing) the ordinary people. They are neither dazzled nor corrupted by either “com-munist” or “educated” views of the world. Not only the Wang couple that helpsAyamei to flee the city but also their relatives in the fisherman’s village, demon-strate this. (Ayamei could not turn to family relations for help because the liabilitywould then fall on the entire family and endanger them.) The couple is describedas good-hearted, simple folk, who can form their own opinion upon right andwrong. As Wang’s wife explains in the following:

Ayamei, je suis une brute, un routier sans importance. Mais j’admireles gens comme toi, qui ont du courage et qui sont capables de grandesactions. Je n’entends rien à la politique, mais j’ai au moins le sens de lajustice. Nos dirigeants on fait tirer sur des innocents, sur des hommesqui n’étaient pas armés. Je ne le leur pardonnerai jamais. Ce sont euxles criminels! les émeutiers! les conspirateurs!114

To bring the orientalizing influences to the surface it is necessary to concentrate onthe above introduced themes of the key role played by education in Zhao’s characterdevelopment, along with the inner diremption and despair of Ayamei, her actionsand intentions, and her reflections on events in her diary. Revealing instances inShan Sa’s novel include the necessity to cry at Mao’s death in public, not becauseof the feeling of loss, but her fear of compromising her family if she would not andthe kindheartedness of the ordinary people with their clear perception of humanand inhuman acts. All this, together with the open rather happy ending, refers

112Shan Sa, Porte de la Paix céleste, p. 31.113Cf.“Les étudiants étaient gais, ils chantaient, récitaient des poèmes à haute voix. Leurs

visages étaient purs, fins, éclatants. Zhao éprouva malgré lui le regret de n’avoir jamais été àl’école.” Shan Sa, Porte de la Paix céleste, p. 30.

114Shan Sa, Porte de la Paix céleste, p. 46.

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to ‘Western’ ideas and values. Although Marxism originated in the West, it doesnot endorse the idea of individualism and personal happiness. This opposition isunderstood in the same way that Dai Sijie openly introduces self-actualization asdistinct from the predominant thought in China and which, therefore, has to belearned from the West.115

3.3 Occidentalism

In addition to the self-portrayal of the Chinese in literary texts, the West and theWesterner also play a revealing role; this backlash of the imposed and adoptedOrientalism culminates in Occidentalism. The sight of the “inferior Oriental”in public and word, which is sometimes only a minimally altered reproductionby the “Oriental” him/herself, leads to the likewise unquestioned portrayal ofthe “superior Westerner”. This ultimately results in an unreflected imitation orstereotypical and topical depiction of foreigners, of non-Han-Chinese, as ChenXiaomei points out:

Occidentalism, a discursive practice that, by constructing its West-ern Other, has allowed the Orient to participate actively and withindigenous creativity in the process of self-appropriation, even afterbeing appropriated and constructed by Western Others. As a resultof constantly revising and manipulating imposed Western theories andpractices, the Chinese Orient has produced a new discourse, markedby a particular combination of the Western construction of China withthe Chinese construction of the West, with both of these componentsinteracting and interpenetrating each other.116

It is Occidentalism that engages Orientalism, while still being shaped within its

115This does not mean that those thoughts are absent or non-existing in China; it is merelyrefered to the staging of these immaterial goods at this point.

116Chen Xiaomei. Occidentalism. A Theory of Counter-Discourse in Post-Mao China. Withan intro. by Dai Jinhua. Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002, p. 2. Chen isa professor of Chinese and Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures atUniversity of California Davis. Her research interest lies in Modern Chinese Literature, Dramaand Comparative Literature.

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3.3 Occidentalism

legacy. Whereas the “Orient” is a discursive construct of imperialist and colo-nialist views within the Western culture, produced and reproduced in “Oriental”studies and beyond, Occidentalism cannot be traced back to a factual responseon Orientalism, but is to be located and described as the “discursive significanceof the ‘West’ in politico-cultural practice in post-Mao China.”117 Occidentalismtakes an external view of the Chinese society and consequently manages to detectthe society’s intellectual trends and transformations: “The discourse of Orien-talism and of Occidentalism are, of course, intricately related to the problemsof Eurocentrism and ethnocentrism.”118 Chen sets Occidentalism apart from the“Westernization” of the early twentieth-century, manifested for example during theMay-Forth-Movement. The dilemma is that even as a counter-discourse due to itsreturn on similar cultural resources, it becomes just another version of misreading.

[If] the true pursuit of émigré intellectuals finds them questioning theWestern intellectual tradition and its standards, then they still mustsubject themselves to that tradition, or at the very least be intimatelyfamiliar with it.119

One should always bear in mind the cultural specificities that are evoked by theterm “Chinese Occidentalism”. In Chen’s words it is a genuine Chinese discoursethat is led by “various and competing groups within Chinese society for a variety ofdifferent ends, largely, though not exclusively, within domestic Chinese politics.”120

Hence Chen divides the discourse into two groups, the official and anti-officialdiscourse. The official discourse reduces the West, interprets the Western Otherthrough a Chinese point of view with the intention “to discipline, and ultimatelyto dominate, the Chinese Self at home.”121 The anti-official Occidentalism persistsamong various intellectual circles with different competing or opposing interests.

117Dai Jinhua. “Foreword.” In: Occidentalism. A Theory of Counter-Discourse in Post-MaoChina. Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002, pp. ix–xxviii, p. xi.

118X., Occidentalism, p. 8.119Dai J., “Foreword,” p. xvii.120X., Occidentalism, p. 3.121X., Occidentalism, p. 3.

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[The] Western Other at least theoretically can and often does become ametaphor for political liberation against indigenous forms of ideologicaloppression. . . . But in China, the evocation of the West, as a counter-part of the indigenous culture, has more than once set in motion akind of ‘dialogic imagination’ that in turn has become a dynamic anddialectical force in the making of modern Chinese history, both literaryand political.122

The terminological distinction is only used in order to facilitate the identificationof a rather fluctuating object shifting through different historical moments, withindifferent groups of Chinese intellectuals and collaborating with other social entitiesconfronting in some degree or other the prevailing ruling ideology.

The outcome of Occidentalism is, as referred to earlier, as superficial and con-structed as its “counterpart”, Orientalism. It is also found, even more surprisingly,in the works of Overseas Chinese writers. It is the contact with the foreign, thenon-Chinese, that arouses curiosity and wonder. This can happen though con-fronting an Overseas Chinese with his Chinese homeland, or in person with oneor more Westerners in China, or through considering the Chinese in Europe andtheir interaction with the Europeans. The texts referred to in the following againreduce the characters to stereotypes. Moreover they function as a paradigm ofcross-cultural ‘mis’-communication.

The examples chosen here derive from a rather similar set of tests and authors,including short stories written in German from the early 1980s. The text DieTempelglocken von Shanghai by Hong Li Yuan that was introduced earlier ratherparadigmaticaly describes the incident of a cultural misunderstanding and theincapability to solve the solution in other ways than by force. Here it is thedifferent meaning or wrong translation for the word “Hungerstreik” (hunger strike)that leads to misunderstanding between a German professor and his student Chen,Da Lee the narrator.

The term “hunger strike” is used to refer to the boycott of an on campuscafeteria due to overpriced and poor quality food. Other students and professors

122X., Occidentalism, p. 6.

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3.3 Occidentalism

understand the intended nature of the strike. The German professor Dr. Mülleragrees with the student’s cause, joins in the protest and intends to stop eating.Chen, Da Lee tries to persuade the professor to go and eat at a different place,but the professor refuses to leave. He is eventually dragged away by two otherstudents. The dialogue unfolds as follows:

“Dr. Müller, gehen Sie bitte nicht in die Mensa. Wir machen einenHungerstreik.” Als ich sah, dass er wieder auftauchte, ging ich sofortzu ihm.“Warum?” Er riss seine Augen hinter der Brille weit auf.“Das Essen ist schlecht und auch zu teuer,” erklärte ich ihm.“Ja, richtig. Ich bin auch dieser Ansicht. Ich mache mit!”“Gut! Dann gehen Sie in die Kantine.” . . .“Nein, ich gehe nicht essen. Ich mache beim Hungerstreik mit. Ich essenicht.”“Das ist der Hungerstreik der chinesischen Studenten!” Damals konnteich sehr wenig Deutsch und was ich konnte, hatte ich zum großen Teilvon ihm gelernt.“Nein, wenn man einen Hungerstreik macht, soll man nichts essen.”“Gehen Sie ins Restaurant und essen Sie mit den Studenten zusam-men.”“Nein, wenn man einen Hungerstreik macht, soll man nichts essen.” Ersetzte sich einfach auf die Treppe und bewegte sich nicht mehr.Was konnte ich mit ihm machen? Dort störte er uns nur. “Bringt ihnvon hier weg!,” sagte ich zum meinen Kollegen.123

Another example for linguistic problems is the story of a foreigner asking directionsin a German city and causing confusion and even laughter. This event is describedby Chen Daxing in “Gnädige Frau”,124 included in the collection of short stories andtexts edited by Irmgard Ackermann, In zwei Sprachen leben. The miscommunica-

123Yuan, Tempelglocken, p. 416.124Chen Daxing, (Bei-Min). “‘Gnädige Frau’.” In: In zwei Sprachen leben. Berichte, Erzäh-

lungen, Gedichte von Ausländern. Ed. by Irmgard Ackermann. München: dtv, 1983, p. 100.

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tion is caused by the elevated, archaic level of the language used by the non-nativespeaker. The addressed woman is at first puzzled and bewildered by the foreigner’slanguage, but she pulls herself together and answers using the same, unusual levelof language, in what she considers a witty manner. Nevertheless the humor andcomedy evoked by the everyday street scene is neither positively described norunderstood. The problem is shown as a culturally contrasting apprehension of thesame instance.

A worse example of this estrangement occurs in another short story, also writtenby Chen Daxing and titled “Nein, danke”.125 It features the dinner invitation of aChinese exchange student to a German professor’s house. Unfamiliar with Germancustoms and circumstances, the student not only arrives too early, but also refusesthe first offer of drinks and food. Punctuality is referred to as a German virtue,while according to the Chinese tradition it is only polite to accept after two ormore times of kind offering.

“Darf ich Ihnen noch etwas geben?” fordert diesmal Herr Herz auf.“Ach . . . Nein, danke.” Lieber warte ich auf die zweite Aufforderung.“Schade. Sie essen das wohl nicht sehr gern, oder?”“Wie schade, daß Sie so wenig von all dem Essen!” schließt sich FrauHerz ihrem Mann an. . . .Halb hungrig, halb durstig habe ich mich nach Hause geschleppt. Aberich bin doch froh, daß ich nichts Unhöfliches getan habe.126

This question of politeness during a domestic dinner scene, which is presentedhere as miscommunication, is staged not a question of not understanding theOthers’ language, but the Others’ culture. For this, no solution can be found. Thecharacters remain in their cultural framework. The short story as a momentary stillis, like the above quoted excerpt, more of a paradigmatic cultural confrontation ina loss-loss situation. It is the narrator’s comment that so often in these stories ina final sentence or paragraph brings back the foreigner’s perspective, to reinforce

125Chen Daxing, (Bei-Min). “‘Nein, danke’.” In: In zwei Sprachen leben. Berichte, Erzäh-lungen, Gedichte von Ausländern. Ed. by Irmgard Ackermann. Munich: dtv, 1983, pp. 101–102.

126Chen, “‘Nein, danke’,” p. 102.

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3.3 Occidentalism

the reader’s perception of the narrator or main character’s alienation and inabilityto function in a culturally different environment, which is also applicable to theGerman counterparts.

Returning to a Chinese setting, the following two examples from texts by DaiSijie and Shen Dali feature another mirror image to the Self-Orientalizing Chineseportrayed before. It is the familiarity with Western Culture that alienates anddistances the protagonists from their “own” culture and intensifies the difficultiesto find the appropriate referential framework.

The 2003 award winning novel Le complexe de Di127 by Dai Sijie is introducedon the jacket as follows: “Avec Le Complexe de Di, Dai Sijie livre les tribulationsd’un Don Quichotte, adepte de Freud, qui sillonne l’empire du Milieu à la recherched’un remède singulier destiné au juge Di. Une romantique et rocambolesque quêteracontée avec humour et finesse.”128 Muo, a French psychoanalyst, travels to hishometown Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, to free his “lover” Volcan de la VieilleLune (Vulcan of the Old Moon) from jail. There, he drafts an agreement with thejudge in charge, judge Di.129 If Muo can present him a virgin girl, the judge willrelease the woman. On his travels he encounters several young women that couldbe considered and offers the young women the opportunity to go back to Francewith him as retribution.

In this novel the narrator as well as the main character strongly connect tothe adopted language and culture on an intellectual, emotional, and even physi-cal level. The affinity to, love for and incorporation of the French language andculture disables the “Chinese”, here the psychotherapist Muo, to interact with hiscultural peers and transports him to the position of a foreigner in his own cultureand country. It is not only that a temporal difference has been established between

127Prix Femina 2003. Dai, Le complexe de Di.128Dai, Le complexe de Di, jacket.129The name Judge Di is consciously incorporated as an allusion to the Chinese investigator

Judge Di from the Tang dynasty. He was made popular in the West through the SinologistRobert Van Gulick with a sequence of crime novels. Van Gulick relocates Di (named Tie in theDutch original, Dee in English, Di in German and Ti in French) into the later Ming Dynasty.Nevertheless the works are mostly true to the original sources and narrations passed on in Chinaover the centuries. Cf. Dai, Le complexe de Di, p. 85.

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the China he left and his return decades later, but the effect and affectation of Eu-ropean culture has estranged him even more. The construction and reconstructionof his own homeland leads to a loss in reality, perception and interpretation.

Muo’s description of the psychoanalytical profession in his own terms is misin-terpreted by the young girl he meets on a train and who later steals his belongings.

— Je suis psychanalyste.— C’est quoi ça, psychanalyste? Un métier?— Bien sûr. Il s’agit d’analyser. . . . Comment vous expliquer? Je netravaille pas dans un hôpital, mais bientôt, j’aurai un cabinet privé.— Vous êtes médecin?— Non. J’interprète les rêves. Des gens qui souffrent me racontentleurs rêves et j’essaie de les aider à les comprendre.— Mon Dieu, ça ne se voit pas que vous êtes diseur de bonne aventure!— Qu’est-ce que vous dites?— Vous êtes diseur de bonne aventure! répète-t-elle.130

Dr. Muo cannot even explain his profession in his own words and does not con-tradict the girl’s “définition populaire.”131

While in the Little Chinese Seamstress the connection between “European” li-terature and education is drawn in many respects, in Le complexe de Di a directconnection between French language and sexuality is enforced. It is the mere ref-erence to the French language and nothing more132 that evokes emotional, sensual

130Dai, Le complexe de Di, p. 29.131Dai, Le complexe de Di, p. 29.132There is reference to several languages other than French or Chinese in the text. Muo for

example quotes Voltaire that “pour parler anglais, il faut se mordre le bout de la langue. Moi jesuis trop âgé, j’ai perdu les miennes.” Dai, Le complexe de Di, p. 14.In a longer excursion he reflects on the advantages of knowing “exotic” languages in a conspira-torial, secret or illuminating way. “En écrivant ces mots sais-tu ce qui me vient à l’esprit et mesubmerge? Un vif regret, non pas d’avoir appris cette langue, mais de ne pas en savoir d’autres,plus difficiles, qu’encore moins de gens comprennent. Le vietnamien, par exemple. Je me suisinitié à cette langue, à ses six tons, à sa grammaire pleine de confusions et de subtilités. Imag-ine, si je t’envoyais des lettres en vietnamien, même si le Juge Di était prêt à payer très cherun traducteur, il lui serait tout simplement impossible d’en trouver un, même à l’université duSichuan. Ou une autre langue encore plus cabalistique, le catalan. Qui peut déchiffrer une lettre

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3.3 Occidentalism

or physical reactions. Not only that “le français est une langue dont tous les motsn’existent que pour plaire aux femmes”133 but even the very girl holding a Frenchgrammar book provokes an erection.134 After her acceptance to have sexual in-tercourse with Judge Di at the promise of moving to France later, the narratordescribes Muo’s innermost thoughts, remembering, whispering and eventually kiss-ing.

— Merci, marmonne-t-il d’un ton paternel. Mille fois merci. Jet’apprendrai le français.Alors, des vers de Hugo, Verlaine et Baudelaire, qu’il avait depuislongtemps oubliés, lui viennent à la bouche et se bousculent sans qu’ilpuisse les retenir. Il les laisse franchir ses lèvres qui, à tâtons, courentde baisers les cheveux, les yeux, le nez de la jeune fille. Elle garde latête baissée, dans le noir. Mais elle ne le repousse pas. Brusquement,il l’embrasse sur la bouche, fougueusement.135

An even more grotesque scene is presented when Muo’s “problematic” identity,insead of hindering, rescues him and his travel companion through a hold-up.Here again the ignorant and untaught are duped by the knowledge and shrewdnessgained by Muo through his time abroad. Traveling through parts of central Chinaby car, he gets attacked by criminals belonging to an ethnic minority, the Yi Peopleor Lolo, as they are referred to in the text.136

— Pourquoi tu m’as frappé? Pourquoi tu bats un Français?C’était médiocre. Je le savais. Je me haïssais. Mais j’aurais pu dire

en catalan dans notre province de cent cinquante millions d’habitants? Tu sais ce que je voudraisfaire? Apprendre des langues connues pour leur ésotérisme, le tibétain, le mongol, le latin, legrec, l’hébreu, le sanscrit, les hiéroglyphes égyptiens. Je voudrais pénétrer dans ces sanctuairesclos, m’agenouiller avec trois bâtons d’encens allumés et prier pour nous deux dans ces languesdu saint des saints.” Dai, Le complexe de Di, 306f.

133Dai, Le complexe de Di, p. 299.134Dai, Le complexe de Di, 298f.135Dai, Le complexe de Di, 302f.136The term Lolo is derogative, not used anymore and derives from the formerly used Chinese

word Luoluo.

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n’importe quoi pour sauver ma peau. Une fois le mensonge entamé, jen’ai pu m’arrêter.— Je ne suis pas un Chinois d’outre-mer, mais un Français venuchercher sa fille adoptive.137

Muo threatens them with hell and prison but the argument goes on. He eventuallyshows his residence permit, nevertheless the greatest, decisive impression is madeby his monthly ticket for public transportation.

— Qu’est-ce que c’est?— Ma carte orange. À Paris, ça sert à prendre le métro.Je la lui ai tendue. Ses yeux se sont allumés. C’était un roi du saut entrain, ça se voyait.— Le métro, c’est un train qui roule sous la terre, dans des tunnels.— Que dans des tunnels.— Que dans des tunnels.Il m’a regardé comme si je venais d’un autre monde.— Jamais en plein air?— Que dans des tunnels. Des kilomètres et des kilomètres de tunnelscreusés sous la terre.— C’est pas un pays pour nous, a-t-il conclu.Il ne manquait pas d’humour.Les autres, sûrement des virtuoses du saut en train eux aussi, ont éclatéde rire en l’approuvant.— Ça c’est sûr, c’est pas un pays pour les Lolos.Sont-ils vraiment les bandits féroces que le camionneur prétend qu’ilssont? Pas sûr. Au moins, une chose est certaine: ils n’attaquentpas les Occidentaux, même les faux qui n’ont ni les yeux bleus, niles cheveux blonds, ni un grand nez. Les Lolos ont certaines vertus.Ils sont chevaleresques, à leur manière, mondialistes, mais aussi pru-dents; ils ne veulent pas courir de risque, sachant que la police chinoisene plaisante pas avec la sécurité des touristes et que le moindre délit

137Dai, Le complexe de Di, 335f.

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entraîne la peine capitale.138

Only on few occasions is the “Western” influence attributed a negative quality. Inthis novel’s case, it is the judge’s superficial approach to Western cuisine, which isdescribed in a rather comic way; his actions and “corrupted” taste are ridiculed,while the dishes are only listed.

Quelques années plus tard, alors que sa vie resplendissait sous le soleil(pas celui de Mao, comme le dit la chanson la plus populaire qu’unmilliard de Chinois ont chantée pendant un demi-siècle: “Le rouge serépand dans le ciel, à l’est. Le soleil se lève. C’est lui, Mao, notreprésident. . . ”, mais le soleil de l’Occident, celui du capitalisme à lacommuniste), il a endossé le costume de juge et, nimbé de l’aura dupouvoir, de l’argent, du charme indiscret de la bourgeoisie, il s’estinitié à la gastronomie occidentale, une serviette blanche autour du cou,dans un cliquetis de fourchettes, de couteaux, de cuillers, d’assietteschangées d’innombrables fois, avec une scrupuleuse attention à la règle.Lapin chasseur, chou frisé à la duchesse, rognons sauce madère, saumonà la crème. . .Pour lui, cette cuisine exotique est un spectacle, du cinéma, un “show”(il a appris un peu d’anglais et adore le mot “show”, qu’il prononce“sou”, avec un fort accent dialectal).139

This approach to table manners and food is the negative image of Jules Verne’sappreciation for Chinese cuisine and coincides more with Karl May’s view. Thepassage goes on describing the orgiastic dimensions of the judge’s appetite forWestern food. It is a very open recourse on Oriental debauchery. This appro-priation of foreign meals and eating manners is portrayed by the narrator in aninterpretative mode.

Occidentalism is featured here in the new, adopted characteristics of the centralprotagonist. Muo openly attributes Western and Chinese traits to his character

138Dai, Le complexe de Di, 337f.139Dai, Le complexe de Di, 362f.

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and knowledge and uses his adopted abilities according to the situations. Muo’sbehavior and actions single him out of the Chinese surroundings. His othernesscan be easily identified and is ascribed to his stay and higher education in France(with the exception of his mannerisms).

The 2004 novel Les amoureux du lac. Sous le soleil de Mao140 by Shen Dali,professor of literature at Peking University, refers to a love story between SabineRolland and Yi Mong and their familial and extended social surroundings. It spansover a time period covering the consequences of the anti-rightist movement141 ofthe late 1950s, the Cultural Revolution in the early 60s and the new opening policythat seems to change things on a personal level as well. The rapprochement of thetwo protagonists through the interest in literature, transforms into love. First itis the political situation that forces them to part, and when this is no longer anobstacle against their togetherness, it is the belonging to different cultures thatseparates them. They cannot bridge or abandon their upbringing and culturalbackground, even though both have a deep understanding of the Other’s cultureby being literary scholars and living in the country.

The academic setting displays the close connection between freeing the textualinterpretation from cultural and, in the case of China, also political interpretation.The discussion of cultural products such as nineteenth century French literaturespreads from a simple opposition in understanding to personal consequences forthe “wrong” interpretation. The implications of literary realism, romanticism anderoticism in the academic world of the People’s Republic of China surface throughthe views regarding nineteenth century French realism by Guy de Maupassant andStendhal. Sabine Rolland’s “naive” defense of the erotic descriptions against thestudent body’s critic leaves Yi Mong questioning the quality of the translation ofthe term eroticism and praising her political openness and boldness.

The dangers of taking on such a critical position by a Chinese scholar at thattime and place are alluded to a few pages later:

140Shen Dali. Les amoureux du lac. Sous le solei de Mao. Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2004.141One of several political movements of the 1950s aiming at the exclusion of so called “rightist”

elements from the Communist party.

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Un lourd silence tomba. La réponse de Yi Mong étonna Lu Ping quin’avait pas l’air de comprendre: comment se faisait-il que Yi Mong,enthousiasmé par l’édification du socialisme dans son enfance, soit de-venu sceptique?Sous cet angle, le Parti avait donc eu raison de mettre l’accent sur lacritique du romantisme européen du XIXème siècle! Sous l’influencede ce courant, les jeunes Chinois risquaient d’attraper le mal du sièclede l’aristocratie décadente. Se pourrait-il que Yi Mong soit devenu vic-time de la lecture d’œuvre occidentales et surtout des romans français?Lu Ping se sentit tout d’un coup très déçue.142

The same set of problems occurs when the protagonist refers to the strengh ofliterature and the consequent failure of political reeducation:

“Yi Mong a toujours négligé la rééducation idéologique. Il a lu Le Rougeet le Noir et il a été gagné par l’esprit de révolte petit bourgeois deJulien Sorel; c’est évident, il ne peut que s’opposer à la dictature duprolétariat exercée par notre grand et glorieux Parti communiste.”“Figurez-vous, dit un autre, il joue du violon et son air préféré est ‘Airsbohémiens’. Il s’identifie donc à un vagabond. Qu’est-ce que ça signifie,sinon qu’il critique notre système! Il est plongé jusqu’au cou dans lebourbier antiparti, et il doit être exclu de la ligue de la Jeunesse.”143

In addition the misreading or different interpretation of literary works is moreoften brought to a personal level. The problematic of clashing cultural oppositionsin relationships inhibits a major part of the novel and is mostly referred to intopical conversations. The distinctness of the French and Chinese culture makesrelationships between people of both nations difficult, as the following conversationbetween Yi Mong and Sabine shows.

“A t’en croire, il existe bel et bien une frontière qui sépare la Chine del’Occident, mais as-tu entendu parler des enfants eurasiens qui sont les

142Shen, Les amoureux, p. 34.143Shen, Les amoureux, p. 39.

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plus beaux fruits du monde?”“Il y a de très beaux fruits dont le goût est amer.”“Je suis pour ceux qui ont le courage de goûter aux fruits amers!”“Vous autres Français, vous aimez goûter aux fruits défendus. Etcomme conséquence. . . ”“Tu veux dire que nous avons perdu le paradis?”144

The dialogue continues with Sabine declaring her love to Yi Mong. She does thisusing the Chinese language.

Sabine fixa son regard sur Yi Mong et après bien des hésitations, elleprit le courage de lui dire en chinois: “Wo ai shang ni le!”“Je t’aime!” cette déclaration de feu jaillit du cœur de Sabine et ébranlaprofondément Yi Mong, qui ne s’attendait pas du tout à un aveu aussidirect.145

It is in discussions between Yi Mong’s sister Lou and her friend Lu Ying that thecouple’s difficulties are explained through culture:

“A la réflexion, je pense que c’est la mentalité de ton frère qui provoqueun malentendu, dit Lu Ying. Ton frère se confine dans une sorte detour d’ivoire qui l’entretient dans l’illusion dont il a besoin. Alorsque Sabine est une Occidentale qui cherche l’absolu et qui veut quel’amour aboutisse. Elle n’arrive pas à comprendre la passivité de tonfrère d’autant moins qu’il est en France maintenant. C’est là, je crois,le nœud du problème.”“Il ne lui reste plus qu’un rêve: le rêve qui l’a soutenu dans ses épreuveset qui l’a rattaché à la vie. Il craint que ce souvenir amour ne soit fra-cassé par une réalité sacrilège.”‘’Tu veux dire que ton frère pense avoir perdu tout ce qui est nécessairepour être à la hauteur de leur idéal et que s’il la décevait, ce serait lafin de tout?”

144Shen, Les amoureux, p. 80.145Shen, Les amoureux, p. 80.

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‘’Oui. En bref, il ne s’estime pas digne de Sabine. Et même s’il était en-core jeune, il lui serait difficile d’accepter un mariage avec une Occiden-tale. Une fois, il a plaisanté en disant: ’Si j’engendrais une progénitureaux cheveux blonds et aux yeux bleus, je me rendrais indigne de mesancêtres!’ Tu vois, il est extrêmement conservateur sur ce plan-là.”146

But mostly it is Yi Mong’s personality that renders him unfit for the new times,the new area. He cannot cope with the changes in his own culture and fails toadapt to the life in France. At least this is the conclusion people around himcome to.147 Sabine, while seeing the difficulties, is nevertheless convinced of thepossibility of understanding the Other and his or her culture:

“Tu sais, Sabine, dans la littérature chinoise classique, on qualifie tou-jours les femmes ’d’eau faible’. Faible, mais tenace.”“C’est très juste et très profond! Tu vois, tu peux comprendre l’art oc-cidental à partir de la pensée chinoise. Le fait est que nous ressentonsla même chose devant la vie et la mort.”148

Later Sabine is criticized for judging circumstances by reason and not being em-phatic enough to Yi Mong’s situation. There are no means for the people belongingto the two cultures to truly understand each other and, therefore, to live a life to-gether.

Le sentiment de l’enfant était si pur, si naïf. C’est plus tard qu’il perdses illusions. Comme tout Occidental, Sabine n’a pas compris le dramede ton frère. Elle était trop habituée à juger avec sa raison. Il lui étaitdonc difficile de saisir l’essence de la philosophie taoïste selon laquelle

146Shen, Les amoureux, p. 187.147“Et ton frère, ce bêta, j’ai entendu parler de lui. Il n’est pas vraiment pas libre d’esprit.

Autrefois, il ne voulait pas sortir de prison, et aujourd’hui, il reste prisonnier de principes dé-modés, de scrupules désuets. Quelle poire! Les temps changent et on n’est plus hier. Et puis, ilfaut se conformer aux usages du pays où l’on se trouve. Maintenant qu’on est en Occident, ondoit s’occidentaliser. La survivance des plus aptes, voilà la loi la plus élémentaire de l’existence.”Shen, Les amoureux, p. 212.

148Shen, Les amoureux, p. 225.

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le poisson ne peut pas quitter ses eaux.149

It is the Orient’s dilemma, according to Shen, that the Westerner tries to under-stand the continent with his reason. An alternative for a better way of under-standing or understanding at all is not given here.

In a superficial conversation between two French women, Sabine and Marie,exotic and orientalistic stereotypes are revealed. It is with a wink that the commonpractice of Exotism and Orientalism in European films is adopted here in a Self-Orientalizing manner in a Parisian Chinese restaurant.

“Les hommes, à Pékin, portent-ils toujours cette longue natte sur ledos?” demanda à mi-voix Marie.“Mais pas du tout. Tu sais, c’était dans les qui a renversé la dynastiedes Qing, les hommes se sont fait couper leur natte. Dans sa nouvelle‘La véritable histoire de Ah Q’, Lu Xun a décrit les scènes de la coupedes nattes.”“Et moi qui croyais que les Chinois s’habillaient encore comme lui,” ditMarie en pouffant de rire, “Mais souvent dans des films américains, ilsportent une jaquette de mandarin avec une calotte et jouent le rôle devalets qui disent toujours ‘oui’ à un maître occidental. . .“Dans les films français aussi. Par exotisme probablement, les cinéastesnous montrent toujours une Chine rétro empêtrée dans l’ignorance, enretard sur notre époque.”“Ce patron cherche probablement à attirer la clientèle en suivant cettemode.”“Tout juste,” approuva Sabine. “Il se donne en spectacle et se rendridicule. Pour gagner de l’argent, on fait n’importe quoi.”“Hélas, le monde est comme ça,” soupira Marie, “Heureusement quetu as rencontré un Chinois d’exception. Parle-moi un peu de ton YiMong! Il est comment?”150

If one follows the argument it is firstly the friend’s ignorant question about the long

149Shen, Les amoureux, p. 242.150Shen, Les amoureux, 165f.

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hair that is analyzed by a very prominent example of a modern Chinese short story.This is followed by reflections on film and its input and influence on the perceptionof the Chinese Other as being separated from the West in knowledge and time(development), and then moves briefly to the restaurant’s owner who is ridiculinghimself by using the orientalizing decoration to make profit. But the ChineseSabine is in love with proves to be the exception. This passage raises questionssuch as, why and what makes Sabine’s Chinese lover an exception, and whetherthere is no love affair, no kind of relationship possible with a less exceptionalChinese.

The question of integration only crops up at the French end. During the periodof time Yi Mong stays in Paris, he is constantly singled out as still in need ofsocial adjustment. His inability to eat raw things or cheese and his table mannersexceeding European standards lead to the statement: “Franchement, je crois qu’ilest trop Chinois pour franchir ce seuil.”151

Shen Dali narrates a story of stark distinctions. While the French womanknowing the Chinese culture and literature does not need to integrate, the Chinesecounterpart fails tragically (a similar construction of a love story can be found inDai Sijies’s 2007 novel Par une nuit où la lune ne s’est pas levée).152

The bridging or reconciling attributes of culture are portrayed in the followingstory, “Und ruhig fließt der Rhein” by Yiu Wubin from the collection Als Fremderin Deutschland,153 which deals with the disclosure of a friend’s duty on a Rhineship. A “yellow” passenger throws a small tin into the river and is interrogatedby a crew member.154 He finds out that the Chinese is fulfilling his dead Germanliterature professor’s wish to get purified in German waters, because in his first“Heimat” he was prosecuted for his affinity towards literature and culture, foremost

151Shen, Les amoureux, p. 192.152Dai, Par une nuit.153Yiu Wubing. “Und ruhig fließt der Rhein.” In: Als Fremder in Deutschland. Berichte,

Erzählungen, Gedichte von Ausländern. Ed. by Irmgard Ackermann. Munich: dtv, 1982, pp. 183–187.

154The racist remark is verbatim in the text, reproducing the words of a narrator who does notindulge in deeper deliberations regarding everyday verbal racism. “Da ließ ein Gelber unauffälligeine kleine Dose in den Strom gleiten.” Yiu, “Und ruhig fließt der Rhein,” p. 183.

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the German one, during the Cultural Revolution. The small tin contained somehair from the late professor. Both the crew member and the student then wishthe professor a peaceful rest.

Hence the adoration of the Other’s culture guarantees redemption. The storydoes not only contain a multitude of intertextual references to the masterpiecesof German literature and quotes several, among them the first lines of HeinrichHeine’s poem Loreley: (“Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten”), but lets Heine’spoem be the referential point for the symbolic burial. Contact with the waters ofthe Rhein promises purification:

“Du sollst einen Teil von meinen Haaren aufbewahren. Wenn es direines Tages gelingt, Deutschland zu besuchen, dann nimm diesen Teilvon meinem Körper mit und senke ihn in den deutschen Rhein. Ichweiß, daß meine Leiche verbrannt wird, und niemand darf etwas vonmeiner Asche aufbewahren. Diesen kleinen Teil von meinem Körper solldas Rheinwasser ununterbrochen bespülen, dann wird aller ‘Schmutz’abgewaschen, mit dem man mich jetzt befleckt, dann bin ich wieder reinund finde die ewige Ruhe in meiner zweiten Heimat. Wenn du keineGelegenheit dazu hast, sollst du es einem zuverlässigen ausländischenFreund anvertrauen, der meine letzten Wunsch zur Erfüllung bringenkann.”155

The “Winterreise” by Schubert is intonated and everyone chimes to the tune onthe Linden tree.156 The music creates an atmosphere for ending the story on thehigh note of praising Germany as a country of culture and freedom, at least inopposition to the People’s Republic of China. The lyrics are picked up in theconcluding sentence: “Ja, armer Alter, hier findest du deine Ruh! / Als Fremder— in Deutschland!”157

155Yiu, “Und ruhig fließt der Rhein,” p. 186.156The text refers to two different songs of the cycle: “Der Leiermann” (The Hurdy-Gurdy

Man) and “Der Lindenbaum” (The Linden Tree), whereby the latter is misquoted.157Yiu, “Und ruhig fließt der Rhein,” p. 187.

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It is in Shan Sa’s 2005 novel Les conspirateurs158 in which the negotiation ofcultural and national identity plays a major role. Not only does it unfold in a worldof secret services and international politics, but it again contains descriptions andanalogies on national or cultural stereotypes.159

The novel can be seen as a sequel to Porte de la Paix celeste. It pretends tofeature the same main character Ayamei, the Chinese dissident and heroine ofthe Tian’anmen student’s revolt. The American Bill Caplan, a US-American spyusing different pseudonyms throughout the novel, is assigned to investigate thereal identity of Ayamei since several secret agencies suspect that she might be aChinese agent who has changed her identity to get in touch with and incite theChinese dissidents in the Western world. The whole set up is revealed step bystep for the reader. Ayamei is not Ayamei, she is in fact a spy. Shan Sa tries toestablish fascination and suspense in the novel via the question whether the twosecret agents even through a multi-layered net of false identities can truly fall inlove, which is tinted with more or less explicit sex scenes.

The question is on what level do stereotypes, from Orientalism or Occidentalism,figure in this international mystery. Starting with the choice of tea that becomesculturally connoted — “Earl Grey? Thé vert? / — Thé vert, bien sûr, je suischinoise.”160 — to the following flattering statement.

“— Vous avez raison. La Chine est un continent confiant en son avenir.La France est minuscule, plantée au centre de l’Europe. Il est normalque les Français aient un peu de complexes et beaucoup d’angoisse.J’ai mal formulé ma question. Je me demandais comment une Chinoiseavait le courage de vivre loin de sa grande civilisation? Pourquoi avez-vous choisi notre petit pays?”161

158Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs.159Most of the time, foreigners besides the Chinese, French or German do not play a bigger

part in the texts. Shan Sa is one of the few exceptions as she not only includes a Japanesemain character in La joueuse de go but keeps up the practice with her later works, such as themultinational spy novel Les conspirateurs or Alexandre & Alestria set in ancient Mongolia.

160Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs, p. 41.161Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs, 30f.

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She replies that he is the foreigner among them, being dressed inappropriatelyand therefore standing out. The characters playfully deal with their stereotypicalroles. They are aware of the behavior ascribed to their own persona. Nonetheless,neither the text nor the narrator gives them the chance to distance themselvesfrom the imposed types. They may talk and reflect, but they cannot escape.

The references to the literary achievements of the French culture are ratherironic: “Il y avait une flamme qui m’a fait penser à Julien Sorel, à Rubempré, àRastignac qui m’a inspiré un élan romantique.162 At first sight Ayamei describesBill’s look as a flame that reminds her of these literary heroes and ignites a romanticverve in her. She continues to quote this list of fiction characters as a line fromexecution to suicide and finally a happy ending for the novels’ protagonist. Thepossibility that the American might not know the authors or the characters, thatthey may only arouse helpless incomprehension is not considered.

The level of contrast and confrontation is soon extended from a personal oneto a comparison of entire cultures and nations. From very basic assumptions,pseudo-logical conclusions are drawn.

Après les attentas du 11 septembre, la chute des talibans, la guerreen Irak, le discours dont elle lui rebattait les oreilles lui parut soudainavoir un sens.La Chine sera la seule puissance capable de défier les Etats-Unis.Armer la Chine, c’est affaiblir les Etats-Unis.La France n’existera dans le monde qu’en s’inscrivant dans une histoired’amour triangulaire avec la Chine et les Etats-Unis.La Chine est l’avenir de la France.La Chine est l’avenir de Philippe Matelot.Philippe Matelot travaille pour l’avenir de la France.163

With this logic whole nations and their people become pawns on a chessboard.As a final thought the short story “Am Chinesischen Turm”164 by Nelly Ma

162Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs, p. 161.163Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs, 140f.164Ma, Nelly (Nai-Li Ma). “Am chinesischen Turm. Berichte, Erzählungen, Gedichte von

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will be discussed. This is another example for the textual rendition of German-Chinese relations. The narrator is the observer of an everyday conversation inMunich, where two persons talk about their dogs. The location in EnglischerGarten at the café near a tower resembling a Chinese pagoda (as indicated in thetitle) and the dialect situates the story. Except the title, nothing in the text isconnected to China. It is only with the comment in the last line that the narratorrevels herself as a foreigner in Germany with her home being elsewhere. “In meinerHeimat gibt es nicht viele Hunde, aber viele Kinder.”165

In the novels and short stories, mentioned earlier in this chapter, it seems to berather inevitable for the authors and narrators to connect the story, characters orat least, like in the last example, the title to China.166

Nevertheless it is worthwhile noting that almost all the texts analyzed for thisthesis show traces of Orientalism, Self-Orientalization and Occidentalism. Thechoice of a European language, in this case German or French, raises the questionof the anticipated reader in those countries, who is generally unable to read Chi-nese and unfamiliar with Chinese culture and history. Hence, the author has to“explain” more. In the above mentioned cases she or he tries to satisfy expecta-tions and confirm already known facts for the reader. The upcoming chapter takesa closer look at those authors who try to elucidate Chinese culture and historywith the means of autobiographical or biographical narrations. These texts imple-ment even more descriptive and explanatory means: For instance not only do theymention the item in Chinese, but they also give its French or German translationand explain its use.

Ausländern.” In: Als Fremder in Deutschland. Berichte, Erzählungen, Gedichte von Ausländern.Ed. by Irmgard Ackermann. Munich: dtv, 1982, p. 65.

165Ma, Nelly (Nai-Li Ma), “Am chinesischen Turm,” p. 65.166Shan Sa’s Alexandre & Alestria is so far the only novel that is not connected to China or the

Chinese at all. Set in Mongolia it describes the encounter of Alexander the Great with Alestriaqueen of the amazons. (There exists an early Mongolian translation of the Alexander romancefrom the 13th century that would make the setting and the story a little more plausible to thereader.)

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Chapter 4

Communicating Chinese Culture and History

Over the centuries communication between individuals belonging to different cul-tures and not sharing a common language was carried out by interpreters andtranslators. It has been decisive to know the Other’s language and with that,the Other’s culture, in order to communicate and exchange, whether it be in thecontext of trade, religion, scholarly exchange or even war. The question of powerrelations between the two cultures is crucial to analyze the importance of linguisticand cultural translation. One has to think about cultural exchange in terms ofcontact and meeting between equal or unequal powers, strong or weak traditionsof adopting other cultures, or the metropolitan regions and border lands.

Nevertheless in the texts presented in this chapter culture itself is described asrather static and homogeneous. It is not in the analysis of the contact zones be-tween cultures where meaning is negotiated, but in the transformation, transplan-tation, transcription, and translation of one culture into another. “[C]omparisons[between cultures] testify of course to the desire to grasp the unknown by meansof the known, but they also contain a systematic and revealing distribution ofvalues.”1

During the former “colonial” times difference was corrupted into inequality,equality into identity. The modern interpreters of culture are still subjected tothe question of alterity, raising questions such as: If, how and where does a value

1Tzvetan Todorov. The Conquest of America. The Question of the Other. Norman: Univer-sity of Oklahoma Press, 1999, p. 128.

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judgment of the others’ culture evolve? Will relations to the ‘other’ be bridgedor distanced? How much knowledge or ignorance towards the other culture isassumed, manifested and demonstrated by the reader, author and editor, respec-tively?

The writers and texts treated in the following do not glorify a mixture to thedeterminants of purity but take up the role of intermediary between the two groups.They adopt the “Other’s ideology” not in order to understand their own culturebetter, but to present their culture to the other. Like giving a present, everythingis prepared, carefully chosen, and attractively wrapped. Everything is cut downto small doses, so that the content of culture and history is easy to digest for theanticipated reader, who is supposedly unfamiliar with the context.

In the case of written translations, the task of the translator is reduced toan asymmetric, atemporal occupation, distancing the original author from thetext and eventually the translator and the reader. The translator torn betweenfaithfulness and freedom, between being just to the text or to the reader, as wellas the identity of the translator becomes an immanent question of power relations.

The standard problem — ‘is translation really interpretation’ — familiar to alltranslation theory becomes magnified in the post-colonial. Who translates whombecomes a crucial issue. Questions of cultural familiarity, the implied constructionof the audience, the problems of constructing the ‘other’ have particular relevancein this context.2

The authors who build the basis of this dissertation are, as creators of theirown texts, simultaneously writers, translators and interpreters. This is not meantin the literal sense of translating their own texts from Chinese into German orFrench or vice versa, which only few of them do.3 With their texts, ranging frompoetry, theater plays and short stories to novels, they interpret and translate their

2Bill Ashcroft. The Empire Writes Back. Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures.London and New York: Routledge, 2002, p. 204.

3In her collection of short stories Nachtschwimmen im Rhein, translated from Chinese toGerman, Luo Lingyuan points out that she is not willing to fulfill the task of the translator, butprefers leaving this task in the hands of a faithful German translator. She only oversees andredacts the German versions of the texts. Luo Lingyuan. Nachtschwimmen im Rhein. Munich:dtv, 2008, pp. 175–178

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culture of origin to the implied reader from the host country. Societal, cultural,and historical facts and givens, practices, matters of course, familiar to a Chinesereadership, have to be explained to those who do not belong to the same culturalsphere i.e. the Western readers.

As seen in the chapter before, the image and knowledge of China is still sub-jected to a critical selection process. Inherited conceptions and imaginations fromthe late nineteenth century are mixed with mediated information in the form ofnews and features. While the lay person’s scrutiny of China-related material ortrips to China may increase, the majority would still have to rely on the profes-sional’s, journalist’s or scholar’s opinion and advice. On the other hand the Chinesebecome more and more visible in German and French society. Even though theChinese migration to Europe dates back to the middle of the nineteenth century,it is only over the last few decades that the number of migrants in the form ofstudents, workers, and businessmen has increased. With few exceptions, it is alsofrom this time period of the late 1970s that Chinese authors adopted a languagedifferent from Chinese to express themselves in Europe. Thus a distinct numberof Chinese authors have a strong connection to the French or German culture,society, and language and choose to write and publish their literary works in therespective language.

The set of writers includes Chow Ching Lie, Joseph Shieh, Ce Shaozhen, ChowChung-cheng, Luo Lingyuan, Han Sen, Zhou Chun, Kuo Xing-hu and Y.C. Kuan.Their texts span from the 1950s to the early years of this century. The stories re-volve mostly around their own family history, extending from the late 19th centuryof the imperial times to the present day. The narrations predominantly unfold inChina, but are also marked by the narrator’s, or rather the author’s, traveling andstaying outside China, usually France or Germany.

This chapter is divided into three parts. Part one deals with the staging of theauthenticity — both self-ascribed and attributed by others — that is assumed tobe inherent in the authors’ Chinese identity. The second part focuses on the typeof narration that is chosen by the authors, which includes biographic and fictivetexts mostly based on personal knowledge that seek to exemplify the Chinesesociety, history and culture. The last part takes a closer look at the strategies andmechanisms with which Chinese society, history and culture are communicated to

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the “Western” reader along with the conveyed contents.

4.1 Staging authenticity

The authors’ nationality by birth and presumed Chinese identity is thrust intothe limelight. Being Chinese, she or he possesses the “authentic” experience ofliving in China and insight into the culture that others cannot achieve. The textsmostly relate to the author’s personal lifespan including the communicated mem-ories of parents and grandparents. With this aggregated cognizance the writersencounter an “other” culture that is “distant” to their own. It is this contact withand knowledge of the host country’s culture that “urges” them to narrate andexplain their “own”, “original” culture. The accumulated special knowledge andcultural background is stated as a motivation by the author or the editor. Andindependently of them, the journalists and critics contribute to this assumptionthrough their reviews and interview questions. At this point it should be stressedthat very often the authors, even though they do longer write in Chinese or stayin China, are grouped with other Chinese writers: “Eine Kostprobe chinesischerOriginal-Literatur, nicht übersetzt sondern in deutscher Sprache geschrieben. Eineseltene Kostbarkeit aus einer anderen Welt.“4

The language shift does not seem to play a larger role for editors. In the caseof some authors it is said on the cover that this text is written directly in Frenchor German or in other cases that the editor/ co-author revised the text. Most ofthe time however it is not mentioned explicitly.

To illustrate the changing attitudes and self-descriptions of the authors forpresenting themselves and their texts, the author Chow Ching Lie, also calledJulie, can be used as an example. “Et qui en effet pourrait être pour nous unemeilleure ambassadrice de cette civilisation qu’une artiste qui, depuis quaranteans, se partage entre la France et la Chine?”5 This is the way the editors of Il n’y apas d’impasse sous le ciel wish the reader a good reading and introduce the writer

4Chow Chung-cheng. Aber ein Vogel gehört zum Himmel und ein Fisch gehört zum Wasser.Opladen: Argus Verlag, 1973, jacket.

5Chow Ching Lie. Il n’y a pas d’impasse sous le ciel. Paris: Édition Fischbacher, 2004, p. 7.

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and pianist Chow Ching Lie to her or him.Chow Ching Lie is one of the more prominent French authors of Chinese origin.

Over the last 30 years she has published four books. In 1975 she released her lifestory under the title Le palanquin des larmes.6 The text witnessed an unexpectedsuccess and was translated into several languages including English and German.A film by Jacques Dorfmann with the same title was released in 1988. Due toher popularity, she wrote the sequel, Concerto du fleuve Jaune7 in 1979, coveringher life in France. More than 20 years later in 2001 she recapitulates the eventsof her life in Dans la main de Bouddha.8 Structured by her memories instead ofchronologically, the text begins with her first journey to the People’s Republicof China in 1973 after she has left the country and includes many stories of herfamily members and other Chinese acquaintances in France and China, the endof the Cultural Revolution and the production of the film version of Le palanquindes larmes. It ends in the year 2000 in Shanghai where her son explains how theChinese culture survives. The opening quote taken from Il n’y a pas d’impassesous le ciel precedes a text that consists of anecdotal remarks and showcases herBuddhist and Christian devotion.

In Chow’s texts, particularly through the forewords and afterwords, a develop-ment can be traced. They sum up the French reader’s interest in and constructionof China over three decades. The picture of China drawn by Chow Ching Lie isregarded by herself and others as rather dark. The following quote reappears invariations in most of the introductory remarks: “Je suis née dans la Chine de lamisère et des larmes.”9

6Chow Ching Lie. Le palanquin des larmes. Dans la Chine de Mao, l’échappée d’une femme.Ed., with an afterw., by Georges Walter. With a forew. by Joseph Kessel. J’ai lu, 2005.

7Chow Ching Lie. Concerto du fleuve Jaune. Paris: J’ai lu, 1985.8Chow Ching Lie. Dans la main de Bouddha. Ed. by Isabelle Garnier. Paris: J’ai lu, 2004.9Chow, Palanquin, p. 7. Continuing in her next book: “La Chine de mon enfance, il faut bien

que je le redise, fut celle de la misère et des larmes.” Chow, Concerto, p. 5. And furthermore:“‘Je suis née, disait-elle, dans la Chine de la misère et des larmes’, cette Chine encore médiévaleoù rôdaient les famines, où l’on vendait des jeunes filles aux pieds bandagés, et où les provinceshumiliées changeaient de joug dans des bains de sang.”Isabelle Garnier. “Introduction.” In: Dansla main de Bouddha. Paris: J’ai lu, 2004, pp. 8–9, p. 7.

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Joseph Kessel, member of the Académie française, wrote the foreword for thefirst edition of Le palanquin des larmes. He recognizes Chow’s fate as remarkableand particular, and at the same time exemplary: “Parmi les livres, si nombreux, quinous parlent aujourd’hui de la Chine, celui-ci me paraît unique.”10 He distinguishesher ability to tell an authentic story: “Sans le vouloir et sans le savoir, Julie —puisque c’est ainsi que s’appelle également Chow Ching Lie — nous donne la plusextraordinaire des chroniques avec la seule innocence ce son regard.”11 Chow haswritten her narration with the help of Georges Walter, a Hungarian-French writer,and it is to him that Kessel refers to in the following quote underlining the value ofChow’s account: “Qu’il ait exploré cette vie avec respect et fidélité explique sansdoute la saveur, la force et la vérité de ce récit.”12

Functioning as an apt comparison at this point, very similar words were usedfor the characterization of Y.C. Kuan and the description of his work, this timemade by Kuan’s friend and Chinese studies scholar Hans-Wilm Schütte:

Der Lebensweg Y. C. Kuans ist einzigartig. . . . , ob seiner Seltenheit“der Chinese” schlechthin, in Hamburg, dieser Stadt mit traditionsre-icher Internationalität, zur Zeit seiner Ankunft — und wohl noch füreinige Jahre länger — der einzige Chinese aus der VR China.Das Ungewöhnliche an seiner Biographie jedoch lässt das Allgemeineseines Schicksals umso deutlicher hervortreten.13

Ten years after the first edition of Chow’s Le palanquin des larmes, Georges Walterwrote an epilogue on the genesis of the text that is printed in the following editions,where he insists on the truth of the narration:

“L’idée ne m’est jamais venue de romancer quoi que ce fût, je ne meserais jamais permis d’appuyer sur un trait, encore moins de broder.

10Joseph Kessel. “Préface.” In: Le palanquin des larmes. Dans la Chine de Mao, l’échappéed’une femme. Paris: J’ai lu, 2005, pp. 5–6, p. 5.

11Kessel, “Préface,” p. 6.12Kessel, “Préface,” p. 6.13Hans-Wilm Schütte. “Nachwort.” In: Mein Leben unter zwei Himmeln. Eine Lebens-

geschichte zwischen Shanghai und Hamburg. Munich: Knaur-Taschenbuch, 2003, pp. 772–776,p. 227.

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Pour quoi faire? Toute addition à la vérité n’est-elle pas une soustrac-tion? Le récit de Julie se suffit à lui-même.”14

She is therefore introduced as an authentic and reliable teller/ narrator of herown fate and the Chinese fate in general. “Mais c’est elle, Julie, qui demeure lafigure centrale. Le drame est d’abord le sien: celui de la femme chinoise et de sonasservissement séculaire.”15 Hence Kessel narrows the content down to a personallevel and lays the ground for affinity between the author and reader. This bookenables an emotional rapprochement to China, allowing us — the readers — toempathize with the stages of her story and the epoch. Chow Ching Lie’s Chinesename is dropped in a subordinated clause and the introduction continues with herFrench name. Walter also highlights that Chow Ching Lie reveals her pride asa Chinese overseas while possesing the great ability to bring out similarities indifferent cultures. “L’histoire de Julie — qui embrasse deux mondes — nous estfamilière et lointaine. Mais n’est-ce pas ce qu’ils ont de plus différent qui nousrend les autres plus proches?”16

The emphasis lies on Chow’s position between the two cultures and moreoverbetween two nations. Valued as exceptional, this uniqueness is also stressed in thesequel Concerto du fleuve Jaune published in 1979 due to the worldwide successof Le palanquin des larmes. In the editorial no more help by a third person isacknowledged and she is granted a prologue and an epilogue by the editors. Theeditor only refers to the origins of the title — “Concerto du fleuve Jaune” was themusical piece Chow Ching Lie performed in Paris.

Créé par Shi Ching Haï en 1966, à Pékin, le Concerto du fleuveJaune a été joué pour la première fois en Europe, au Théâtre desChamps-Élysées, le 1er décembre 1973 par un premier prix de pi-ano de l’Académie Marguerite Long nommé Chow Ching Lie, avecun orchestre de soixante-cinq musiciens. L’auteur a symboliquement

14Georges Walter. “Dis ans après.” In: Dans le palanquin des larmes. Dans la Chine de Mao,l’échappée d’une femme. Paris: J’ai lu, 2005, pp. 379–382, p. 381.

15Kessel, “Préface,” p. 6.16Walter, “Dis ans après,” p. 381.

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emprunté à ce concerto le titre de son livre parce qu’elle le considèrecomme ‘une très intéressante rencontre de la musique chinoise avec les12 instruments occidentaux.’17

This piece of music establishes the connection between the Orient and the Occi-dent, as the editor’s quotation of Chow Ching Lie’s words declares. Chow puts herlife story amongst the Chinese experiences of the 20th century: “Mon témoignagepourrait être celui de millions de Chinoises.”18 This China that she has left — evenwith its changes — will never be alien to her.

Mais mon destin personnel n’est pas ce qui importe le plus: c’est plutôtl’extraordinaire transformation de mon pays que je voudrais évoquer àtravers mes aventures — cette transformation dont je continue d’êtrele témoin, puisque j’ai le bonheur, habitant en France, de retournersouvent dans cette Chine où je suis née, et dont aucun malheur, aucunbonheur ne sauraient m’être jamais étrangers.19

The third book Dans la main de Bouddha is introduced by the journalist IsabelleGarnier, who wrote down the text. She also draws on creating an intimate con-nection between the reader and the narrator, as follows: “Elle s’appelle ChowChing Lie. On l’appelle Julie.”20 With this step the editor is not only droppingthe Chinese name, but also addressing the author with her first name. And theeditor continues. “Son histoire, révélée, par un livre dont nul n’a oublié le titre,Le Palanquin des larmes, a ému des millions de lecteurs et passionné un immensepublic avec un film de même nom.”21 When Garnier wrote the editorial, more than20 years had passed after the last publication of Le Palanquin des larmes and overa decade since the film adaptation was released in the French cinemas.

Chow’s latest book, which initiated the premeditation on the subject of au-thenticity, highlights the connection between Chow as a person and her personal

17Chow, Concerto, p. 4.18Chow, Concerto, 5f.19Chow, Concerto, p. 6.20Garnier, “Introduction,” p. 7.21Garnier, “Introduction,” p. 7.

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background.

Dans ce dernier livre, elle illustre son parcours par des contes etmaximes bouddhistes qui l’ont nourrie et lui ont donné sa force. Iln’y a pas d’impasse sous le ciel est ainsi une porte ouverte, simple etvivante, au cœur de la fascinante sagesse chinoise.22

With her innocent eyes, Chow Ching Lie, who is mainly addressed with her West-ern name Julie, becomes an intimate, familiar conversational partner for the reader.Chow is presented as a remarkable woman who was able to flee the China of the“dark ages.”23 Her Western education, her affinity towards music makes her, ac-cording to the text’s argumentation, a reliable transmitter of Chinese culture andhistory. Once this position of familiarity is established it is constantly referred to.Thus the reader is familiar with her and is able to trust in the authenticity of heraccounts:

Dans cet ouvrage [Il n’y a pas d’impasse sous le ciel], elle raconte desépisodes marquants de sa vie tumultueuse, ses succès, ses joies, sesdifficultés et dévoile pour la première fois les secrets de son endurance,de sa spiritualité, de ce cœur tendre qui palpite au creux d’un caractèrefier, intrépide et indompté.24

Chow always refers to herself as being Chinese. She never backs away from “hercultural identity”. For Chow her mother symbolizes the Chinese tradition, whileher father signifies the future with Western education and culture.25 From her very

22Chow, Impasse, p. 7.23The picture of China that is presented in the books is not a positive one. The editors or

writers of introductions regularly refer to China as only recently passing through the middle agesor being at least 50 years behind European development.

24Chow, Impasse, p. 7.25She dedicates Dans la main de Bouddha to her parents: “À mon père, Chow Wei Yi, qui

m’a ouvert les yeux sur le monde de demain, et à ma mère, Tsong Haï, qui m’a transmis unetradition millénaire.”Chow, Bouddha, p. 5. After telling her and her immediate family’s life story,she moves to another set of persons and starts a fictive narration and her last book only consistsof anecdotes and religious wisdom that includes Buddhism and Christianity but concentrates onpopular Asian art and Chinese calligraphy.

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first text, Chow describes her personal background, her education and upbringingin detail:

J’ai été élevée par un père qui m’a inculqué les principes de la moralechinoise traditionnelle tout en étant marqué lui-même par son éduca-tion à l’occidentale. Ma mère était une vraie paysanne chinoise, boud-dhiste fervente, mais j’ai fréquenté une école américaine où, petite fille,j’ai prié à la fois le Bouddha et Jésus-Christ.26

Chow’s upbringing is marked by a father who incorporates the “new China” withtraditional Chinese morals and Western education, a mother representing the “oldChina” as a country girl who is a fervent Buddhist, and Chow’s own education atan American high school in Shanghai. Even though the quotation clearly showsthe different, multicultural influences of her personality, Chow only points out thefact that she and her children live in France and that she has a French passport.But she notes her experiences as an Overseas Chinese going back to MainlandChina and how this changes over the years.

Partout, à l’aéroport, à l’hôtel, dans les magasins, dans la rue, j’avaisbeau tirer mes cheveux, emprunter les vêtements de mes sœurs, il avaitsans doute dans mon allure quelque chose qui sentait l’Occident; etcomme il est visible que je suis chinoise, je ne bénéficiais ni de la cour-toisie à laquelle les étrangers peuvent prétendre ni de la fraternité quise manifeste entre Chinois.En outre, j’avais un passeport français. Quand je voulais me rendreavec mes parents dans un de ces magasins Amitié qui sont réservés auxétrangers, on me laissait entrer au vu de mes papiers, mais on chassaitmes parents comme des chiens. Et quand je dis “comme des chiens”,je ne parle pas, bien entendu, des chiens cajolés et chouchoutés commeon les voit en France. Non. Mes parents étaient chassés comme desales bêtes. Je ne supporte pas qu’on traite ainsi mes parents, et je me

26Chow, Palanquin, p. 5. This is only one of many possibles examples, which are particularlyrecurrent in La palanquin des larmes.

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suis plus d’une fois fâchée très fort à cause de cela.27

The quote clearly shows the ambiguity with which foreigners, Overseas Chinese,Chinese intellectuals and others are treated over the years in the People’s Republicof China.

However the editors and co-authors of her books, besides pointing out that sheis Chinese, add that she is on one hand familiar with the French culture and onthe other hand an Overseas Chinese.

Sans mépris aucun des étrangers, on sent chez elle une sorte de fiertéà parler de ce qui ne se fait pas en Chine, qui est accepté ailleurs maisn’est pas convenable ici. Non seulement cet attachement est communà tous les Chinois qui vivent à l’extérieur — et chacun d’eux porte ensoi son pays — mais il semble qu’il ait joué un rôle capital au débutde ce siècle dans l’éveil du nationalisme chinois.28

Chow herself only feels this kind of affiliation in the one field she is dedicated to,in music. She wants to enforce musical practice among young people in China andacquire recognition in France. That is her task and obligation to her country.29

Dedication to China as the home country, not only as a cultural background,is expressed in many ways. The authors’ notes in the paratexts range from openor mild criticism of China and the communist regime to praising and defendingthe country. A very revealing example can be seen in Zhou Chun. For him theexperience of being in Germany provided him with the very possibility of writinghis fictionalized life story:

Aber es ist vielleicht gerade diese Trennung von meinem Volk zuverdanken, daß ich der deutschsprachigen Leserschaft diesen autobi-ographischen Roman bieten kann. Denn ein solches Buch hätte ich in

27Chow, Palanquin, p. 274.28Walter, “Dis ans après,” 183f.29Talking about her piano teacher. “Je dois bien cela à la mémoire du professeur Chen, qui

m’a si généreusement aidée à mes débuts. Je dois cela aussi à mon pays, qui se relève d’unepériode effroyable avec un courage et une énergie exemplaires.” Chow, Bouddha, 188f.

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China nicht geschrieben.30

In his novel’s first edition, Zhou points out that he plays the role of a culturalambassador who transmits knowledge of China to the German audience.

Ich habe auch nicht erwartet, daß ich einen neuen Weg finden könnte,um, weit weg von China, meinem Land und meinem Volk zu dienen.Ich bin quasi ein “Volksbotschafter” geworden, wie mich der ehemaligeRektor der Universität Mannheim nannte.31

And it is in this spirit that he talks about his novel Ach, was für ein Leben!Changing publishing house for his next novel and reissuing his first one, he writesa second epilogue for his debut novel where he harshens the tone and puts strongeremphasis on the patriotic duty to serve his people, which is fulfilled by explainingChina to the Germans:

Ich ärgere mich, wenn man mein Land aus unausgesprochenen, niederträchti-gen Motiven angreift. Selbstverständlich kann jeder Mensch Chinakritisieren. Die Frage ist: Kritisiert man China als Freund, um ihmzu helfen, oder attackiert man China als Feind, um es zu vernichten?Wer versucht, China in den Schmutz zu ziehen, ist nicht mein Freund.Die Souveränität meines Landes und die Würde meiner Nation zuverteidigen, ist meine heilige Aufgabe im Ausland geworden.32

He claims that he is able to give a true depiction of China for a German audience, incontrast to the prevailing opinions and images transported by the German media:

Mein Glück liegt auch darin, daß ich einen Weg gefunden habe, meinemLand und meinem Volk weiter zu dienen. Als Schriftsteller, Journalist,Dozent und Vortragender verdiene ich nicht nur meinen Lebensunter-halt, sondern versuche auch, China den westlichen Menschen dadurch

30Zhou Chun. Ach, was für ein Leben! Berlin: Ute Schiller, 1992, p. 275.31Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 275.32Zhou Chun. Ach, was für ein Leben! Hamburg: Abera, 2001, p. 413.

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näherzubringen, die entweder sehr wenig oder sogar falsch über Chinainformiert sind. . . . Leider ist meine Arbeit mit viel Streß und Ärgerverbunden, denn es gibt immer Menschen, auch in der Politik und inden Medien, die sich aus verschiedenen Gründen statt mir Glauben zuschenken lieber an ihr China-Bild klammern, das durch Unwissenheit,Mißverständnisse und Irrtümer, durch Klischees, Diskriminierung undVorurteile völlig verzerrt ist.33

Producing an authentic, truthful image of his home country seems possible onlythrough him. Zhou’s main aim lies in fostering international understanding, whichhe highlights with the following remarks preceding his second novel Die Tochterder Partei in 2002:

Ich hoffe, daß ich nach meinem autobiographischen Roman Ach, wasfür ein Leben! mit diesem zweiten Roman mein Land der Leserschaftnoch näher bringen kann. Ich bin immer der Ansicht, daß Völkerver-ständigung die Voraussetzung des friedlichen Zusammenlebens ver-schiedener Völker ist.34

This extraordinary way of self description should be contrasted with the self in-troduction by Ce Shaozhen in the collection of anecdotal stories Flaneur im altenPeking. Ein Leben zwischen Kaiserreich und Revolution in 1990. The book isedited by Margit Miosga. Ce displays himself as a mere human being, trying tocharacterize himself as “ein Mensch schlechthin.”35 Although Ce introduces himselfas the loyal, trustworthy narrator, he sees his shortcomings at the same time:

Die Geschichten, die Sie lesen werden, schreibt ein alter Mann, dermanches erlebt hat: Begebenheiten, die vielen entfallen sind und andie andere nicht mehr gerne erinnert werden wollen. Er hat sich selbsterlebt oder kennt sie vom Hörensagen. Was er gehört hat, entspricht

33Zhou, Leben, 2nd edition, p. 413.34Zhou Chun. Die Tochter der Partei. Hamburg: Abera, 2002, p. 9.35Ce Shaozhen. Flaneur im alten Peking. Ein Leben zwischen Kaiserreich und Revolution.

Ed. by Margit Miosga. Munich: dtv, 1990, p. 11.

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vielleicht nicht immer den Tatsache, aber man hat es ihm so erzähltund er hält sich daran.36

He distances himself from the claim of authenticity and completeness. “Das Bucherhebt nicht den Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit, noch viel weniger will es eine wis-senschaftliche Abhandlung sein — Sinologen, lest dieses Buch nicht!”37

But this categorization as a simple, humble narrator only represents the mi-nority of approaches, focusing on possibilities to develop a personality that isnot constrained as being Chinese or bi-cultural: “Sein Lebensweg aber machteihn zu einem wahren Weltbürger, dessen leben unter zwei Himmeln — demseiner eigentlichen Heimat und dem seiner mit Mühe errungenen zweiten HeimatDeutschland — über beide Horizonte hinausreicht.”38

Co-authors and editors even “naturally” allude to the exotic looks of theirwriter. “Sie [Xiao Hui Wang] fiel mir sofort auf, als ich den Raum betrat. Siestand aufmerksam da, wirkte zart und exotisch.”39 The approach to the Chineseculture by aWesterner and the representation by a Chinese unfolds on an emotionallevel.

Wir staunten, wie schnell wir uns nahe kamen, obwohl wir aus sehrverschiedenen Welten stammen. Ich genoss ihre östlichen Charme, ihreunvoreingenommenen Neugierde, mit der sie die Menschen ihrer neuenUmgebung gewann. Mit welcher Hingabe und Gründlichkeit stürzte siesich in ihrer Arbeit, in ihr neues Leben. . . . Längst war mein Interessefür dieses geheimnisvolle, fernöstliche Land geweckt, das von westlicherSeite immer noch mit einer Fülle von Vorurteilen belastet ist. Ichbegann mich in die chinesische Mentalität einzufühlen und lernte, imFremden das Vertraute neu zu sehen.40

36Ce, Flaneur , p. 11.37Ce, Flaneur , p. 11.38Schütte, “Nachwort,” p. 776.39Wang Xiao Hui and Monika Endres-Stamm. Töchter des halben Himmels. Sieben Frauen

aus China. Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, 2004, p. 10.40Wang and Endres, Töchter des halben Himmels, p. 11.

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Third parties like journalists and critics largely concentrate on the author’s culturalbackground. Even from the critics’ side this static and objectifying allocation ofidentity is welcome. The reading for them showcases the Chinese situation, itspresent or past society and history. The following two newspaper articles show howthe culturally mediating elements and not the literary aspects in Luo Lingyuan’stexts are pointed out:

Sonst arbeitet der Roman fleißig mit sozialen, kommerziellen undpolitischen Typisierungen — Landes- und Menschenkunde in Ro-manform. . . . das ist hier kein phobisch zu registrierendes politischesoder ökonomisches, sondern erst einmal ein literarisches Studienpro-gramm.41

This is sustained in further reviews of Luo’s other texts as well. “In all ihrenErzählungen spielen Chinesen die Hauptrolle . . . . Mit ihren Büchern wolle sienach und nach verschiedene Seiten Chinas darstellen und den Deutschen näherbringen.”42 These few examples could be easily multiplied.

The procedure is usually the same: The author is identified as Chinese andtherefore as a reliable representative of her or his culture and nation. The connec-tion to the reader is not achieved in a scientific or journalistic tone but on a ratherpersonal and intimate level, e.g. in Chow’s case, the usage of her adopted Frenchfirst name. This is complemented by the claim that the author’s work gives aninsight that cannot be achieved by another who might come from the outside. Thislogic is given as a reason to record the text in German or respectively in Frenchby the authors. They want to tell their story in order to inform the German orFrench audience and correct the “distorted” image of China that is prevalent inGermany and France through the media. It is partly seen as an obligation to thefatherland and is often proclaimed to be an expression of strong love for the homecountry and culture of origin. Further motivations do not only draw on the au-

41Regarding Die chinesische Delegation. “Die Chinesen kommen.” In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung(Feb. 2007).

42For her short story collection Du fliegst jetzt für meinen Sohn aus dem fünften Stock! of2005 “Schockierende Einblicke. Autorin Luo schildert Willkür und Repression in China.” In:Süddeutsche Zeitung (Nov. 2007), R5.

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thor’s identity, but lie in the inherent structure of the narration telling a life storyas an exemplary possibility of illustrating and showing the “true” China.

These statements and creations regarding the authors’ identity have to be seenin contrast to those writers who publicly deny that their sole purpose consists ofexplaining and representing Chinese cultures in their works, and emphasize ontheir individuality as an author.43

4.2 Narrating a Life Story

The sets of texts in this chapter differ within their degree of fictionality. Mostof the texts revolve around the narration of a personal or family life story thatis interrelated on a wider or narrower level with the author’s story or that of hisor her family. This entails structuring experiences of your life and connectingthem to events that happen around you in a not necessarily chronological butrather causal order that would make sense for the reader. Those reconstructionsor constructions of a certain point in time, history or society build the platform fornarrations that include to a large extent explanations of the previously mentionedsituation besides the plot and character development. Those texts are obviouslyfound at intersections. These texts intersect with autobiographical reports oftenpublished in the form of a book. Those “factual records” feature either a life thatis similar to their peers or differs very much from theirs, either paradigmaticallyor exceptionally. These writings seem to sell well, as on both the French andthe German sides a long list of authors and their successful texts exists. Andthis is not limited to authors with a Chinese background. Prominent writers ofthis kind include the above-introduced Chow Ching Lie and Ce Shaozhen at theintersection, Han Sen as a border case, Y.C. Kuan as an extraordinary example,and Kuo Xing-hu as an exceptional case due to the content. The authors Niu-Niu,

43Cf. The article by Adelheid Hu concerning Chinese authors in Francophone spaces: “Beiallen drei Autoren (François Cheng, Ying Chen, and Gao Xingjian) ist eine starke Abneigunggegen jede Form von kultureller Homogenisierung durch Klischees, Ideologien und anderen Sim-plifizierungen jedweder Art offensichtlich. Alle lehnen vehement ab, auf eine statische kulturelleIdentität als Vertreter Chinas im Westen festgelegt zu werden und betonen ihre jeweils individu-elle Sicht der Welt, die sich aus vielerlei unterschiedlichen Quellen speist und nicht auf starreMuster reduzierbar ist.” Hu, “Chinesische Schriftsteller/innen in frankophonen Räumen,” p. 114.

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Siao-ling Chow and Chow Chung-cheng shall be mentioned here, as they narratetheir life-stories in one or several books but quite similar to Chow Chin Lie andHan Sen.44 But at the same time a certain number of authors insist on writingfiction while telling a truthful story that either involves their own life or is similarto their experiences. Among them are the already mentioned Zhou Chun as wellas Mingxiang Chen and Luo Lingyuan.

There is a long list of authors from abroad in France and in Germany whowould seemingly benefit from their own biography by writing down accounts ofthe events of their life.

For France the best know author, Chow Ching Lie retells her life story inseveral accounts, sometimes with the support of an intermediary. As mentionedabove the retrospection of Chinese history spreads over more than a hundredyears, narrating the changes from the imperial times to the communist reign. Herfirst book, Le planaquin des larmes stretches from her birth in 1936 to 1964 andincludes her parents and grand parents lives as well; Concerto au fleuve Jaunecontinues with her life in France and her first trip back to China; Dans la main deBouddha recreates the seventies in China and includes stories and happenings ofChina’s political history throughout the 20th century; Il n’y a pas d’impasse sousle ciel recapitulates her whole life between China and France in the form of shortanecdotes.

The book Le palanquin des larmes is subtitled Dans la Chine de Mao, l’échappéed’une femme. It promises an authentic insight into Chinese family life and tradi-tions, foremost from the perspective of a young and oppressed woman.45

Parmi les livres, si nombreux, qui nous parlent aujourd’hui de la Chine,celui-ci me paraît unique.D’abord parce que Le palanquin des larmes, histoire de la vie de ChowChing Lie et de la tragédie d’une enfant, nous introduit dans l’intimitéd’une famille chinoise où cohabitent trois générations. Et, qu’il s’agissedes mœurs ou des croyances, des relations essentielles et immuable

44For title and issue dates see References.45Chow, Palanquin, p. 5.

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entre les parents et les enfants, voire même des habitudes alimentairesou des surprenants remèdes de la grand-mère, il n’est pas un détailde l’existence quotidienne qui ne nous intéresse, nous charme ou nousétonne.46

The book contains according to the preface a portrait of manners and morals inChina and the relations between parents and children. There is not one detail ofdaily existence that does not interest, charm or surprise in its representation. Theintroduction includes the reader in this assumption by using the familiar “nous”(us).

The text spans over a time period that is characterized by several upheavalswithin the Chinese nation. Kessel remarks that even without consciousness ofdoing so, Chow relates the chronicle of China with the innocence of her eyes:

La guerre sino-japonaise — qui naît avec elle — la guerre civile, laLibération, les Cent Fleurs, le Grand Bond en Avant, tantôt la con-cernent et tantôt ne la concernent pas: cette histoire est d’abord lasienne, même si, personnage d’un roman involontaire et passionné, elleaime et souffre au rythme des convulsions de la Chine.47

Chow’s account bore a certain totality of possibilities, the different layers of com-pleteness for which were fulfilled by Georges Walter, at least for the first book:

C’est Georges Walter qui a recueilli ses propos, suscité la confessiontotale, provoqué les souvenirs qui, autrement, ne seraient peut-être passortis de leur sommeil. Il a déployé, en l’occurrence, celle des qualitésde l’écrivain qui, à tort me semble-t-il, est le moins souvent mise enavant: la faculté d’écouter l’autre et de lui donner la parole.48

Walter underscores the extraordinary power of Chow’s ability as a narrator andthe veracity and boldness of her own story:

46Kessel, “Préface,” p. 5.47Chow, Palanquin, p. 6.48Kessel, “Préface,” p. 6.

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L’idée ne m’est jamais venue de romancer quoi que ce fût, je ne meserais jamais permis d’appuyer sur un trait, encore moins de broder.Pour quoi faire? Toute addition à la vérité n’est-elle pas une soustrac-tion? Le récit de Julie se suffit à lui-même.49

In her second book, Chow refers to the told story of Le palanquin des larmesas follows: “Mon témoignage pourrait être celui de millions de Chinoises.”50 Sheargues that she wrote Concerto du fleuve Jaune as a response to readers whoasked about her whereabouts and later life. “Mais tous me posaient la mêmequestion: tous me demandent encore ce qu’il est advenu, ensuite, de moi et demes enfants.”51 More important, with this text from 1979 she could finally speakabout certain events and circumstances due to political changes after the CulturalRevolution: “Ce que je n’ai pu dire dans Le palanquin des larmes pour ne pasaggraver la situation de ma famille, j’ai pu le dire, sans aucune crainte, dans cenouveau livre.”52 Furthermore it is no longer her destiny that is important to heras China opens up politically as well as to foreigners. Again the country can beher and her family’s home53 and will never be alienated from her:

Mais mon destin personnel n’est pas ce qui importe le plus: c’est plutôtl’extraordinaire transformation de mon pays que je voudrais évoquer àtravers mes aventures — cette transformation dont je continue d’êtrele témoin, puisque j’ai le bonheur, habitant en France, de retournersouvent dans cette Chine où je suis née, et dont aucun malheur, aucun

49Walter, “Dis ans après,” p. 381.50Chow, Concerto, 5f.51Chow, Concerto, p. 6.52Chow, Concerto, p. 285.53Chow speaks with relief of the family’s vindication and rehabilitation, see as follows. “Ce

‘ciel bleu’ a lavé notre honte, à nous qui vivions en baissant la tête: le titre infamant de droitiste,qui frappait mon frère et mon père au temps de la Révolution culturelle, condamnant toute lafamille à une vie diminuée, a été levé, et ne laisse aucune trace fâcheuse. On ne me traite plusde ‘sale capitaliste’: au contraire, on est fier, dans mon entourage, de ma réussite, que je dois àmon seul travail.” Chow, Concerto, p. 285.

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bonheur ne sauraient m’être jamais étrangers.54

Twenty-two years later Chow writes down afresh her and her family’s story in-tertwined with historic events and developments in China. The editor IsabelleGarnier highlights Chow’s insight that is propelled by the constant traveling be-tween China and France.

Elle peut donc, d’un regard lucide, observer l’“Histoire majuscule”, lesgrandes réformes de Mao, les horreurs commises par les gardes rouges,la chute de la “bande des Quatre”, le “règne” agité de Deng Xiaoping,et les métamorphoses de cette dernière décennie du XXe siècle.Et le réveil des énergies chez les jeunes dans l’élan d’économie libéralede la Chine d’aujourd’hui, celle de Jiang Zemin, celle où les enfantsde Julie sont revenus faire leur vie, tandis qu’en ce tournant de siècleles petits-enfants s’épanouissent entre deux cultures, entre Orient etOccident.55

The originally much longer passage lists in short sequences the most importantpolitical and environmental events and changes in the society. It indicates thatChow’s book thus provides a comprehensive insight into Chinese history and so-ciety on a micro and macro level.

It is her dedication to transmit the two cultures respectively that is also under-scored:

Le plus étonnant dans ces pages, où tout est vu et vécu au plus près, est,peut-être, que Julie ne se laisse pas happer par ce monde en mutationperpétuelle. Elle reste elle-même. Elle garde la même sincérité fort etnaïve, pour confier ses joies et ses peines. . . 56

Closely connecting to this point is the introduction written for the already brieflymentioned sinologist and author Y.C. Kuan.57 Again the uniqueness and at the

54Chow, Concerto, p. 6.55Garnier, “Introduction,” 8f.56Garnier, “Introduction,” p. 9.57Y.C. Kuan (Kuan Yuqian or Kuan Yu Chien) was born in 1931 in Guangzhou (Canton).

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same time significance of his particular narration is brought out. “Der LebenswegY. C. Kuans ist einzigartig. . . . . Das Ungewöhnliche an seiner Biographie jedochlässt das Allgemeine seines Schicksals umso deutlicher hervortreten.”58

Kuan has written his memories voluntarily. The idea dates back to the late60s and was brought to life in the late 90s. The first draft was written in Chineseafter which, together with a former student, Kuan worked on the German version.There is no apologetic explanation in his words referring to the duty to explain tothe German side or the obligation to the Chinese side.

In the introductory note “Über das Erinnern” (Remembering) of Flaneur imalten Peking, Ce Shaozhen reasons out the motivation for collecting biographicand anecdotal remarks; Ce tries to recreate a gone social stratum, essentiallyBeijing’s high society. Again this features an extraordinary life story but alsogives exceptional insights into divers aspects of the imperial Chinese society.59

Was will der Schreiber mit seinen Aufzeichnungen? Er hat allzuoftLeute getroffen — selbst junge Pekinger, von Ausländern ganz zuschweigen —, die vom damaligen Leben in Peking keine Ahnung hat-ten, die nicht wußten, daß Peking eine Stadtmauer besaß die nichtwußten, daß Schafe auf der Straße geschlachtet wurden, wie die Aus-länder hier lebten. . . . Warlords, Opiumraucher, Taxigirls, kaiserlicheHofdamen, exclusive Hotels und Übernachtungsplätze für Bettler,nichts dergleichen gibt es jetzt. Auch nicht mehr die Ausländer, die sostolz ihre “white man’s burden” trugen. Zusammen bildeten sie dasKaleidoskop des alten Peking, ein buntes Glaskaleidoskop, das nicht

58Schütte, “Nachwort,” p. 772.59In cooperation with the journalist Margit Miosga, Ce reviews the already noted down

episodes on Beijing’s high society and adds his background. “Als Ergebnis der zusammen ver-brachten Tage entstanden dann die in kursiver Schrift gesetzten biographischen Zwischenkapi-tel dieses Buches, die die Erzählungen des Flaneurs begleiten und in komprimierter Form dasungewöhnliche Leben eines ungewöhnlichen Mannes darstellen, eine Biographie, die unter sicher-lich nicht ganz gewöhnlichen Umständen zustande kam.” Margit Miosga. “Zu diesem Buch.” In:Flaneur im alten Peking. Ein Leben zwischen Kaiserreich und Revoution. Munich: dtv, 1990,pp. 9–10, p. 10.

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mehr existiert, das einfach weggeschüttelt ist.60

Ce sees himself as the collector and preserver of memories. His own experiencesare valuable, thus many people, Chinese and foreigners alike, should learn fromhim about Beijing’s past, for otherwise this would be forgotten. The memoriesare therefore written almost as a testimony for future generations in China andelsewhere.61

Han Sen’s case functions as a comparison to the ones mentioned before. Beingborn in Berlin to Chinese parents and speaking Chinese, he acknowledges Germanas his first language in word and pen.62 After a childhood in Germany and Switzer-land he moved to China, to migrate to the USSR, and then to Ukraine in orderto be closer to his home, Germany, and states that to his generation migrationis nothing unusual. He conducts the writing of his autobiography as a journeynot only back to the past but foremost back to his “Heimat” Germany and as aremedy for homesickness:

Manche hatten wie ich Schwierigkeiten, ihre Heimat zu vergessen, wennman unter diesem Begriff nicht das Land der Ahnen, sondern dasjenigeversteht, in dem man aufgewachsen ist. Dennoch haben mich meinenostalgischen Gefühle nie daran gehindert, mein Leben dort zu meis-tern, wohin das Schicksal mich verschlug. Ganz im Gegenteil erinnertensie mich in den elendsten Momenten an eine liebe Vergangenheit undstärkten meinen Glauben, dass es sich lohnte durchzuhalten: in derHoffnung auf ein Wiedersehen mit zu Hause.63

Xing-Hu Kuo’s journalistic self-depiction as a political prisoner and the elucida-

60Ce, Flaneur , 11f.61Miosga explains that Ce was asked by colleagues while working on the Chinese-German

dictionary to write down what he remembered about his childhood and youth. Miosga, “Zudiesem Buch,” 9f.

62“‘Was heißt, in die Sowjetunion auswandern, das gibt’s doch gar nicht,’ meinte sie, ‘Russenleben in Russland, Chinesen in China. . . ’ Ich sagte, das stimme schon, aber Chinesen werdenin China geboren und nicht in Berlin, weshalb sie besser Chinesisch sprechen und schreiben alsBerliner.” Han Sen. Ein Chinese mit dem Kontrabass. Leipzig: List, 2003, p. 198.

63Han Sen, Ein Chinese, p. 327.

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tion of the crimes committed against political convicts in the German DemocraticRepublic function as witnesses for the “Aufklärung der Stasi-Verbrechen. Genaudiesem Ziel dient das jetzt vorliegende Buch.”64 The allusions to China in this bookbear the same adverseness directed at the political regime of the GDR; nonethelessthey remain scarce.

Writing down one’s own biography as a human being, a “Weltbürger”,65 a proudChinese, a representative of the Chinese people or as a victim of time and societyleads to rather similar motivations for writing stories — and foremost long parts— of a person’s or a family’s life in the People’s Republic of China during theCultural Revolution.

In the case of fiction writing, the instance that the narration transmits historyand culture is argued on a more rational level. Luo Lingyuan for example feels aneed to convey her memories and images of China to the German reader. It is theunrest and angst of her former existence in China that haunts her:

China, meine Heimat, mein vertrautes Land. Die ersten 26 Jahremeines Lebens habe ich in der Volksrepublik China verbracht. Das hatmich geprägt. Fünfzehn Jahre sind seither vergangen, aber die Erin-nerungen sind noch frisch und die Bilder in meinem Kopf sind nochklar. Sie versetzen mich in eine Welt, dich mich auch heute noch sounruhig macht, dass ich mich entschlossen habe, sie für die deutschenLeserinnen und Leser in einer Reihe von Erzählungen festzuhalten.66

The dark and negative mood of the short stories is countered by her novel Diechinesische Delegation. It includes positive, even humorous happenings, as well asironic aspects, as in the portrayal of power relations during the communist regimepersonalized in the arrogance and masochism of the party’s functionary Wang, themore or less open critique of the main protagonist, the Chinese tour guide Song

64Accentuations in the text. Kuo Xing-Hu. Ein Chinese in Bautzen II. 2675 Nächte im Würge-griff der Stasi. Böblingen: Tykve, 1990, p. 7.

65Schütte, “Nachwort,” p. 776.66Luo Lingyuan. Du fliegst jetzt für meinen Sohn aus dem fünften Stock! Munich: dtv, 2005,

cover text.

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Sanya living in Germany, and the disappearance and defection to the West by oneof the tourist group’s members, She Ren.

Luo was born in Gao’an, province Jiangxi in 1963 and studied computer sci-ence and journalism. She translated, among others, works of Elias Canetti intoChinese. She lives in Germany since 1990 and continues to write and publishin Chinese. Her first German language short stories were published in journals,one, for example, under the pseudonym Luo Pai Dao in the journal Neue deutscheLiteratur.67 Since 2005 she has released two collections of short stories Du fliegstjetzt für meinen Sohn aus dem fünften Stock! in 2005 and Nachtschwimmen imRhein 2008 and three novels (Die chinesische Delegation68 in 2007, Die Sterne vonShenzhen69 in 2008 and Wie eine Chinesin schwanger wird70 in 2009), all of themwith Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. She has received numerous awards, amongthem the Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Förderpreis in 2007.

In contrast, the literary scholar and author Zhou Chun accentuates the impor-tance of fictionalizing the events of his life story (in Ach, was für eine Leben!) andthat of his sister’s (in Die Tochter der Partei). As shown above, Zhou emphasizeson his obligation to engage in Völkerverständigung (international understanding)and to transmit his knowledge of China in order to give a more neutral, an un-biased view of the country. The reader should believe in him and his vision ofChina.71 “Die Welt hat von Chinas Erfindungen und Erfolgen profitiert; die Weltkann auch aus den Fehlern Chinas lernen.”72 By describing these errors committedin his home country China the anticipated reader therefore can, according to Zhou

67Luo Lingyuan. “Ein zarter Bambussproß.” In: Neue deutsche Literatur. Vol. 45. 3. Ham-burg and Berlin: Schwartzkopff, 1997, pp. 119–123. published as Luo Pai Dao.

68Luo Lingyuan. Die chinesische Delegation. Munich: dtv, 2007.69Luo Lingyuan. Die Sterne von Shenzhen. Munich: dtv, 2008.70Luo Lingyuan. Wie eine Chinesin schwanger wird. Munich: dtv, 2009.71As quoted before: “Leider ist meine Arbeit mit viel Streß und Ärger verbunden, denn es gibt

immer Menschen, auch in der Politik und in den Medien, die sich aus verschiedenen Gründenstatt mir Glauben zu schenken lieber an ihr China-Bild klammern, das durch Unwissenheit,Mißverständnisse und Irrtümer, durch Klischees, Diskriminierung und Vorurteile völlig verzerrtist.” Zhou, Leben, 2nd edition, p. 413.

72Zhou, Tochter , p. 9.

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take lessons for the benefit of Germany.Reacting to the criticism of his ambiguous representation of the Communist

regime in China, Zhou explains his standpoint. He contrasts this with his fel-low Chinese’s lives, paints his own as miserable, whereby he does not know whothe originator of his vexations is. Later on the same page he describes himselfas a victim of history but declares that does not seek a culprit.73 Zhou arguesagainst common accusations he and his works are confronted with and explainshis motivations.

Zwei Fragen, die man immer wieder an sich stellt:“Wie kann Zhou Chun sein Heimatland noch lieben, in dem außerAblehnung nur noch Demütigung sein Schicksal war? Er hätte längstseinem Land den Rücken kehren und ein Dissident oder Regimekritikerwerden sollen!”Oder: “Zhou Chun ist ein Feigling. Mao Zedong und die KP habensein Leben ruiniert. Er hat nicht einmal den Mut sie zu hassen.” Sehrlogisch — diese Fragen. Aber, läßt sich das Leben immer nur durchLogik erklären? Warum soll ich Mao und die KP hassen, wenn ichmich als Opfer der Geschichte fühle? Warum soll ich mein eigenesLeben nicht lieben, wenn ich mich trotz alledem als ein Kind meinesLandes und ein Sohn meine Volkes fühle?74

Zhou’s statement reveals an unadulterated love for his fatherland, although Zhoustresses his suffering in China and his role as an innocent victim. Another reasonfor his reluctance to take sides and therefore writing “fiction” is found in theprologue to Tochter der Partei.

Nein, das ist nicht die Biographie meiner zwei Jahre jüngeren Schwester.“Ein Buch über mein Leben würde sich wie eine Anklage gegen diePartei lesen”, hat sie mir aus China geschrieben. “Ich will das nicht.

73“Ich aber trage überall eine schwere Last durch das Leben. Liegt es an den zahlreichenpolitischen Kampagnen unter Mao Zedong? Nein es liegt — es liegt an mir selber? Vielleicht.”Zhou, Leben, 2nd edition, p. 412.

74Zhou, Leben, 2nd edition, p. 412.

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Die KP ist meine Partei. Ich darf sie kritisieren. Aber wenn andereLeute sie kritisieren, bin ich böse. Ich kann dir nicht verbieten, übermich zu schreiben, aber ich werde dein Buch nicht als Biographieanerkennen.” . . . . Also habe ich diesen Roman geschrieben. DieThematik ist unverändert geblieben, aber der Name der Protagonistinnicht.75

Zhou apparently wants to safeguard himself and his family against any possiblemeasures by the Chinese state or citizens that might lead to an accusation oreven an honest and reflective debate on the happenings. This persists even in theconfessional character of his novels. For example, the evaluation of the CommunistParty after Ach, was für ein Leben! is circumlocuorily dealt with in the chapter onthe protagonist’s joining the Communist Party and the Party’s misdeeds againsthim in Die Tochter der Partei.

The chapter’s title starts with the exclamation “Ich will auch ein Parteimitgliedwerden!”76 It describes the futile application of the character Zhou Chun for a partymembership in 1947. A superior at his university and his sister’s friend both askhim why he has not yet become a member of the communist party. In his answerhe argues that he has not conquered all his flaws and weaknesses. Becoming amember at this moment would contaminate the holiness of the party. His superiorencourages him that the party will help him overcome the faults and that it needsintellectual members. Zhou identifies the goodness of the party of that time asbeing a gem of harmony, equality, openness and solidarity. Zhou refrains fromreferring to temporal developments, and resorts to a generalization: “Diese guteTradition ist heute in China zwar noch zu finden, aber leider nur noch selten.Diese harmonische Atmosphäre und die kameradschaftlichen Beziehungen sind oftzerstört. Macht verdirbt, glauben viele Leute.”77 He further speculates about thepossible party membership of a fellow co-worker. This person, old Li, has to be amember because he is a good human being who is willing to make sacrifices and

75Zhou, Tochter , p. 9.76Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 45.77Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 46.

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be helpful. Zhou finally applies for party membership: “Ein Held war ich nicht,aber auch kein Feigling. Wenn ich mich vor mir selbst schämen mußte, so war daskein Leben mehr.”78 Nevertheless Zhou’s application, which is handed in secretly,is rejected. The party secretary delivers the message in person. It is his capitalistfamily background that prevents his acceptance. Zhou has not done enough todeserve being a party member. Boiling with rage he feels wronged. Reflectingon the happenings he accuses the absent party secretary of bias stemming fromhis poor, peasant background and scarce education. The secretary is ignorantof his action’s consequences, dogmatic and unable to acknowledge Zhou’s doings.Calming down after a while, Zhou switches to the present tense and confirms hisdevotion to the party and its struggle. The party becomes an abstract being thatwill understand him at a later moment.

Es war ziemlich spät, als ich den Strand verließ. Das Meer hatmich beruhigt. Man muß lernen, weitherzig wie das Meer zu leben.Abgelehnt oder aufgenommen, ich will weiter für die Revolution ar-beiten. Mein Gewissen ist rein. Ich habe freiwillig alles aufgeopfert,um einem Land und meinem Volk zu dienen. Auch jetzt, nachdem diePartei mich abgelehnt hat, ist dieser Wille ungebrochen. Ich habe demRektor versprochen, auch sterben würde ich in den Befreiten Gebieten.Mitglied oder nicht Mitglied, das ist die Sache der Partei. Sie wirdmich eines Tages verstehen.79

He cannot help but compare himself and his situation to that of the writer LuXun:

Jedenfalls fühle ich mich wie ein Kommunist, ‘Bolschewik außerhalbder Partei’ — diesen Ausdruck gibt es schon lange. Der große Denkerund Schriftsteller Lu Xun ist ein glänzendes Vorbild. Warum kann ichund soll ich nicht wie er für mein Ideal kämpfen?80

78Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 49.79Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 51.80Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 51.

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In Die Tochter der Partei the communist party urges the main protagonists todivorce, because she is an undoubtedly loyal member of the party and he is areactionary journalist. Years after these happenings, the following evaluation ofthe situation is given:

Merkwürdig war Gongs zufälliges Zusammentreffen mit dem SekretärZhao in Peking. Inzwischen war er ganz hoch oben auf der Karri-ereleiter. Am Rande einer Sitzung sagte er:“Genossin Gong, es freut mich, dich wiederzusehen. Über deine Situ-ation bin ich relativ gut informiert. Tja, damals haben wir mit einemguten Herzen etwas Schlechtes getan.”Bevor Gong reagieren konnte, war er schon weg: Er war ein sehrgefragter Mann.“Etwas Schlechtes getan — ja,” meinte der Kleine Bruder, als er vondieser Bemerkung erfuhr. “Aber mit einem guten Herzen? Außerdem,wer ist für die ganze Tragödie verantwortlich?”Niemand. Niemand fühlte sich dafür verantwortlich.Die Tochter der Partei war einfach ein Opfer der Geschichte, wie vieleChinesen unter Mao Zedong — ganz normal.81

Again no explicit fault or wrong can be found in the still existing system. Noopen critique of the party can be found. In keeping with the general tendency inZhou Chun’s writings, negative situations are introduced but never connected toa character’s political motivation or actions.

In his debut novel Bittergurke Mingxiang Chen highlights the veracity of hisaccount.82 It is a “record of facts” that he is writing, the story line follows trueevents and outlines the “normal” life of the Chinese people, while the author triesto elucidate the human side of Mao Zedong at the same time:

Das Buch ist ein Roman, ein “Tatsachenbericht”. Es handelt nicht vomLebensweg einer einzelnen Person, sondern von dem einer ganzen Ge-

81Zhou, Tochter , p. 255.82Mingxiang Chen. Bittergurke. Roman der chinesischen Jugend unter dem roten Kaiser Mao.

Mannheim: Kolb, 2006.

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neration, die fast alle politischen Aktionen unter Maos Führung durch-lebt und ihrer besten Jahre Maos Alleinherrschaft geopfert hat. ImRoman werden keine Sensationen geschildert, sondern das “normale”Leben der Millionen und Abermillionen Chinesen, vertreten durch einpaar junge Menschen, Schüler, Studenten und Angestellte, die hartarbeiteten, ganz “bescheiden” oder — genauer gesagt — menschenun-würdig lebten und über das eigenen Schicksal nicht selbst entscheidenkonnten. Andererseits versuche ich Mao, den Anführer des kommu-nistischen Regimes, ans Tageslicht zu bringen. Die ganze Geschichtebasiert auf wahren Ereignissen, nur die Namen, außer denen von Poli-tikern, sind frei erfunden.83

The novel tells the stories of young people who face calamities throughout thepolitical movements of the communist regime without doing any wrong. Theirfriendships and relationships are tested, and some fail because of the politicalpressure. The book only ends after the death of Mao. In the last chapter theprotagonists gather in Shanghai at the end of the 20th century and discuss therecent developments of their home country. The clarifications on Mao Zedong’slife promised by Chen in the foreword are largely bedroom episodes, sometimesinterconnected with decisive moments of daily politics.

In these texts it is again necessary to create a pact with the reader, and assurehim or her that authenticity is staged. It is the author as a person, voicing her orhis own experiences, and therefore authentic. They want to give a faithful imageand story of what has happened to them and project it as a showcase for thewhole country. But the project does not limit itself to that, not only are historyand customs explicated, but the explanations move on to very small details oftenconcerning food and everyday living conditions. The question to what extentthe creation of and emphasis on authenticity and a distinct national culture isnecessary for the genre cannot be answered here.

83Chen, Bittergurke, p. 7.

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4.3 On how to Explain Chinese History and Culture

The authors of Chinese origin writing in French or German experience a differencein the general knowledge of their audience in comparison to the average knowledgeof a Chinese person. Very often everyday objects as the 炕 (kang), a brick-madebed, or the 四合院 (siheyuan), a typical building formation in Beijing are ex-plained. The authors’ intention to level out the different standards of knowledgeis communicated in several ways.

There is a simple version of using the Chinese term and giving the translationright after, either in brackets or separated by a comma, sometimes with the detourof a literal translation. The alternative version gives the meaning in footnotes.More skilled ways introduce the Chinese world first and mention the French orGerman equivalent in the subsequent sentences.

When it comes to more complex Chinese particularities, some authors pausethe narration and insert whole paragraphs to clarify the content. The exampleschosen in the following show recurrent themes that appear in numerous texts.This could have been expanded to other topics like Chinese customs, food andanecdotal stories — such as the killing of the sparrows during Mao’s reign in the1950s, which figure for example in Kuan’s record as memories before fleeing outof China.84

4.3.1 Shanghai as an International City

Location plays a crucial part in the works of Chinese migrant writers that writeabout China. To inform the “Western” reader about the country it is necessaryto give a factual introduction to the local setting. These descriptions with “exoticplaces” follow different levels of the same agenda to make the reader familiar with“unknown territory.”

The texts take place in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, sometimes Chengduor Harbin and rural areas such as the provinces of Sichuan, Xinjiang or Hei-

84Kuan Y.C. Mein Leben unter zwei Himmeln. Eine Lebensgeschichte zwischen Shanghai undHamburg. Munich: Knaur-Taschenbuch, 2003, p. 599.

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longjiang. Whereas the cities are rather defined and can easily be differentiated,the rural areas, despite their geographic and climatic specificities, can be easilyexchanged. Exceptions are the descriptions of the “Long March” and the stay ofthe Communist Party and the Red Army in Yan’an as well as the more careful de-lineations by authors like Wei-Wei’s in Fleurs de Chine, which connects the storiesof several women from different parts of the country.

Taking the example of Shanghai, the many texts that fully or partly take placein that city, with their variety of approaches to present it through their narrators’autobiographical or fictional texts in different social/ temporal settings, display alimited spectrum of vocabulary and images.

The geographical data like the city’s location south of the river Yangzi, thedivision by the river Huangpu in the center with the Chinese Old Town, the In-ternational Concessions, particularly the Plane Alley of the French Concession,the Universities and the new district Pudong with the economic center resultingfrom the reform and opening policy of the late 1970s are repeatedly mentioned.Likewise the climatic conditions like the hot and humid weather during the sum-mer are often alluded to.85 Nevertheless, the focus is placed upon the man-madespace. Depending upon the time period, the stories evolve around the Old Townwith a poorer population, or the International Concession where the place of res-idence is usually the French Concession, and the leisure activities take place inthe parks and shopping streets of the International Concession and in the hotelslocated at the waterfront, the Bund. Texts situated in today’s Shanghai like LuoLingyuan’s short stories focus, as for example in “Im Ausländerviertel,”86 on pri-vate space that is more or less reserved for foreigners or, as in “Hochzeitsnacht im

85For example: “Im Juli in Shanghai war es heiß, oft sehr schwül. Die Luft war feucht unddrückend. Tagsüber lag die Temperatur oft über dreißig, manchmal bis achtunddreißig oder sogarvierzig Grad. Nachts sank sie nicht viel. Man konnte nicht ruhig schlafen. Mehrmals musste manaufstehen, um eine Schüssel Wasser zu holen und sich zu erfrischen. Aber das Wasser aus derLeitung war lauwarm. Auf der Schilf- oder Bambusmatte zeichnete sich deutlich eine Körperspurvom Schweiß ab.” Chen, Bittergurke, p. 27.

86The foreigner’s quarter mentioned in the title can be found in the vicinity of a university inthe northern parts of the city. Luo, Du fliegst, pp. 70–89.

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Jinmao-Tower,”87 in a hotel room that indicates the fortune of the bridal couplein Shanghai’s financial district, Pudong. These stories echo the strict division be-tween the people living in Shanghai and the spheres they circle in. Even thoughthe way of introducing the city to the reader might be different for every individ-ual author and text, a recurrent theme dealing with the same places, topics andstories can be seen. This similarity extends even further, to a semantic level. ZhouChun for example even list a number of given names. “Über das alte Shanghai derKolonialzeit hat man vieles geschrieben: ‘Paradies der Abenteurer’, ‘Paris des Os-ten’. . . und über das berüchtigte Schild am Eingang des damaligen Bundgartens:‘Für Chinesen und Hunde verboten’.”88 These expressions are found verbatim inother texts. For example Chow Ching Lie refers to the signpost: “. . . les jardinsau bord du Wangpoos qui sont ‘interdits aux Chinois et aux chiens’. . . ‘Paris del’Asie’.”89 Joseph Shieh includes the reference in the very title of his piece, Dans lejardin des aventuriers.90

Introductory sentences, such as the following are characteristic: “Shanghaï étaitune ville chinoise mais cosmopolite comme New York.”91 Or the following: “AShanghai, nous n’avions guère l’occasion de nous frotter à la culture chinoise.Comme je l’ai déjà dit, Shanghai était une ville hybride, et la culture qu’elleproduisait l’était tout autant.”92 This refers to the unique historical conditions ofthe late 19th and early 20th century.

Three longer examples show the similarities.

Shanghaï représente alors toute la confusion de la Chine. Capitale de

87The Jinmao Tower is for now the highest building in Pudong, with the world’s highest hotel,where the wedding night takes place. Luo, Du fliegst, pp. 90–100.

88The existence of the sign “Chinese and dogs are not allowed” outside the park on the Bundis often referred to. Nevertheless its existence is disputed. This does not interfere with the factthat then Chinese were not permitted to enter the park. Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 12.

89Chow, Concerto, p. 29.90Joseph Shieh. Dans le jardin des aventuriers. Paris: Édition du Seuil, 1995. Avec Marie

Holzman.91Chow, Palanquin, p. 8.92Shieh, Dans le jardin, p. 18.

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la corruption et de la prostitution, c’est le Chicago de l’orient avecmode européenne, manières occidentales, grosses et petites affaires,dans un tourbillon de plaisirs et d’insouciance. Au delà de ses buildingsorgueilleux commençait les plaines et les montagnes de la Chine, lesmassacres et la faim, les grands fleuves généreux et meurtriers. . . . .[L]a concession internationale et la concession française où les étrangersdétenaient leur autorité propre, avec leur police. Si bien qu’il y avaitdeux villes dans Shanghaï. Celle où les étrangers avaient commencé àconstruire, grâce à leurs profits énormes, des édifices impressionnantsde dix et quinze étages semblables à ceux d’Amérique et d’Europe, etla ville chinoise. La première, vie sur les vices et la respectabilité, laseconde, tout autour de cet îlot de luxe, présentait des maisons serréesles unes contres les autres, des baraquements, et même des huttes deterre battue. . . . . C’est dans les années vint que Shanghaï devint lagrande ville cosmopolite de l’Extrême-Orient.93

Zhou Chun titles the first sub-chapter of his novel Ach, was für ein Leben! withthe riddle that in Shanghai there where two republics in one street. He highlightsthe darker sides of that time.

Zwei Republiken auf einer Straße? — Rätsel?Nein, das war kein Rätsel. Das war Geschichte.Vor der Gründung der Volksrepublik China 1949 war Shanghai eineStadt der Finsternis. In dieser Stadt bin ich 1926 geboren und indieser Stadt bin ich aufgewachsen. Ich bin ein Teil der Geschichte vonShanghai und Shanghai ist ein Teil der Geschichte von China.Shanghai war vor dem Sieg im Antijapanischen Krieg 1945 eine geteilteStadt, ähnlich wie Berlin nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg. Zwar war Chinaeine souveränes Land und Shanghai eine chinesische Stadt, aber außerden Bezirken unter der Kontrolle der damaligen chinesischen nation-alistischen Regierung, zum Beispiel Nanshi, Südstadt, wo sich meineGrundschule befand, gab es noch eine internationale Niederlassung —

93Chow, Palanquin, pp. 9-12.

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das International Settlement, vorwiegend unter britischer Kontrolle —und eine rein französische Konzession — die French Concession. DerBoulevard des Deux Républiques war die Grenze zwischen dem chine-sischen Bezirk Nanshi und der French Concession.94

While this passage is rather descriptive, Zhou evaluates the situation on the nextpage.

Meine Erinnerungen an das alte Shanghai sind finster. Ich muß immeran die Sikhs, die Vietnamesen und die verbannten Russen denken, dieals Polizisten im Dienste der Kolonialisten chinesische Rikschakulisgrausam schlugen, an die japanischen Schildwachen, die chinesischenVorübergehenden großzügig Ohrfeigen schenkten, an amerikanischeMilitärpolizisten, die in ihren Jeeps wie verrückt hin und her rasten.Ich muß immer an die zahlreichen Bettler, Prostituierten und Gaunerdenken und auch an die mehrere Millionen Einwohner, die in Armutund Angst lebten.95

For Jospeh Shieh the point of departure was different. Being the grandchild of aBritish grandfather and a Chinese grandmother, he and his family moved in theotherwise unreachable societal layers. In his memoirs Dans le jardin des aventuri-ers he dedicates several pages on the history and present of Shanghai.

La ville de Shanghai, pourtant, concentrai tous les excès. Les plaisirsnobles étaient à la disposition des Européens et des riches: les meilleursspectacles, les derniers films, les plus célèbres acteurs du monde entierse pressaient à Shanghai pour s’y produire. On y trouvait aussi lesplus habiles couturiers, coiffeurs, manucures, etc. Les tentations lesplus diaboliques ruinaient les aventuriers et tuaient les pauvres: fu-miers d’opium, belles de nuit, tripots en tout genre, casinos, champsde courses proposaient leurs charmes troubles aux démunis comme auxmilliardaires. Shanghai était alors le paradis des riches et l’enfer des

94Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 11.95Zhou, Leben, 1st edition, p. 12.

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pauvres. Surnommée à juste titre “le jardin des Aventuriers”, ma villenatale offrait généreusement asile aux princes russe désargentés commeaux politiciens détrônés, aux commerçants juifs comme aux filles de joiede toutes les couleurs, mais cette prospérité futile entraînait son lot demisères. Enlèvements, assassinats, trafics clandestins, règlements decomptes tissaient la trame sur laquelle venaient se dessiner les prémicesde la révolution chinoise. J’ai vécu dans cet univers factice et violent.J’ai été ce sable que criblaient les flots amers de l’histoire tragique dela Chine.96

Shieh’s description of early 20th century Shanghai contains both the upsides anddownsides of the cosmopolitan city.97 Shieh is one of the few authors that comparesand comments negatively on the later developments: “Là où s’agitait autrefois unefoule cosmopolite et élégante ne circulaient plus que des vélos et des passants habil-lés en bleus de chauffe ou en costumes Mao.”98 Chow Ching Lie for example refersto developments over the course of the 20th century without directly comparingthem. For these texts as well as for their authors, Shanghai reflects the crucialinfluence of national and international politics and history, the development andchanges China as a country has experienced over the last 200 years, all effects ofwhich are to be found in this harbor city.

4.3.2 The Chinese Language and Naming

Chinese, being an ideogrammic language, has for a long time been presented asmysterious and difficult to learn. The Chinese language and its particularities arecommunicated to the Western reader in forms of examples. The Chinese customof naming is a recurrent feature. As the reader is told at the beginning of mostbiographical texts, in Chinese names the family name generally comes first. Most

96Shieh, Dans le jardin, p. 14.97In chapter 2 “Une bonne éducation jésuite”. He continues with the schooling system and the

Christian religion in China. Shieh, Dans le jardin, pp. 15–30.98Shieh, Dans le jardin, 10f.

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of the time the name is given in the Pinyin romanization99 and no translation ofthe meaning is added. Sometimes the name is introduced with its actual mean-ing, as for example in Dai’s Le complexe de Di where the nickname Volcon de laVieille Lune is explained.100 To exemplify the emphasis on accuracy and sufficientinformation, the following longer quote was selected.

Dennoch trug ich mindestens bis 1929 den Namen, den sie mir gegebenhatte: Anton Chen. Das geht aus der polizeilichen Abmeldung vom 5.April 1929 hervor, als das Kind Anton Chen, geboren am 6. März 1925,Geburtsort Berlin, Staatsangehörigkeit chinesisch, von Berlin in dieOdenwaldschule bei Heppenheim umzog. Chen war der Familiennamemeiner Mutter. Später bekam ich von meinem Vater, der für einenChinesen völlig untypisch ganz welliges Haar hatte, den Vornamen HanSen, der aus zwei chinesischen Hieroglyphen besteht und ‘geboren inChina’ bedeutet, dem Klang nach wahrscheinlich aber dem deutschenNamen Hans ähneln sollte. Standardnamen wie Fritz, Ruth, Hansusw., wie sie im Westen üblich sind, gibt es in China nicht. Dort denktsich jeder für sein Kind einen einzigartigen Namen aus, der entwederaus einem oder aus zwei Hieroglyphen besteht und etwas Poetischesoder Originelles ausdrücken soll, eben so wie der Name ’geboren in

99Rarely the Chinese romanized version of Western names like ‘Baerzake’ for Balzac is given.Dai uses this tool only once to, on one hand, create an authentic situation when the young readershouts the name out loud, but at the same time to remind the reader of the Chineseness of theprotagonist. “‘Ba-er-za-ke’. Traduit en chinois, le nom de l’auteur français formait un mot dequatre idéogrammes. Quelle magie que la traduction! Soudain, la lourdeur des deux premièressyllabes, la résonance guerrière et agressive dotée de ringardise de ce nom disparaissaient. Cesquatre caractères, très élégants, dont chacun se composait de peu de traits, s’assemblaient pourformer une beauté inhabituelle, de laquelle émanait une saveur exotique, sensuelle, généreusecomme le parfum envoûtant d’un alcool conservé depuis des siècles dans une cave.” Dai, Tailleuse,p. 71.

100“C’était elle, H. C., sa camarade de classe, spécialisée elle aussi dans l’étude des textesclassiques. (H. est son nom de famille, composé d’un idéogramme dont la partie gauche signifie‘ancien’ ou ‘vieux’, et la partie droite ‘lune’. Quant à son prénom, C., il est également constituéde deux parties, dont la gauche veut dire ‘feu’ et la droite ‘montagne’. jamais nom ne fut plusporteur de solitude: ‘Volcan de la Vielle Lune’, mais jamais no plus il ne le fut de tant de beautégraphique et de magie sonore. Jusqu’à aujourd’hui, Muo se dissout sitôt que sa bouche articuleces deux mots.) Dai, Le complexe de Di, 38f.

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China‘ für mich, der ich in Berlin das Licht der Welt erblickte. Dader Familienname meines Vaters Hsieh war, wurde aus mir Hsieh HanSen. Familiennamen stehen bei den Chinesen in der Regel vor demVornamen.101

Han Sen only gained familiarity with the Chinese language at a later stage in hislife. He vividly describes the difficulties in mastering the language:

So hat die chinesische Sprache beispielsweise vier Tonlagen, und es warfür mich schon sehr schwierig, mir für die einzelnen Wortbedeutungenjeweils die richtige Tonlage zu merken. Sprach man das Wort in eineranderen Tonlage aus, bedeutete es auch gleich etwas anderes. Dieswiederum war meinen chinesischen Mitschülern oft Anlass zu Spott,auch wenn sie aus dem Kontext heraus verstanden, was ich eigentlichgemeint hatte.102

The difficulties do not stop with the articulation but continue with the writtenlanguage where the homophony in Chinese causes problems for pupils confusecharacters with similar intonations:

Schon achteinhalb Jahre war Yushan alt geworden. Er musste indie Schule gehen. Beim Aufnahmetest schrieb Yushan statt “Hand”“Kopf”, weil in der chinesischen Sprache der beiden Wörter den glei-chen Laut haben. Ursprünglich hatte der Junge sich nie “Hand”eingeprägt, sondern nur “Kopf”. Der alte Lehrer mit der schwarzenBrille zeigte irgendwie Verständnis dafür.103

The Chinese script, a combination of writing and painting, seems to be the “firstvictim” of the language switch to German or French. The power of associations,the chains of images that a text in Chinese characters evokes appears to be lost

101Han Sen, Ein Chinese, 11f.102Han Sen, Ein Chinese, 103f.103(手 shou: hand; 首 shou: head.) Chen, Bittergurke, p. 18.

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with the newly adopted language.104 Some of the authors venture to still useChinese characters at striking spots in their texts, while others most of the timeuse transcriptions in the roman alphabet, — with pinyin being the most common— which is usually accompanied with the translation in a footnote or subsequentsentences. Many writers have attempted to reintroduce the beauty of the languagein the German or French text by direct translations of Chinese words and idioms orby only introducing the imaginary of proverbs or names in the European languages.

The fascination for those not knowing the Chinese script is one of the biggestreasons behind the interest in the language and culture using it.105 Though fas-cinating, Chinese characters are hardly used in Western language texts. Besidestechnical difficulties of combining and integrating two different scripts in one print,the unintelligibility or broad unfamiliarity with these ‘signs’ urges for immediatetranslation or explanation.

Shan Sa is the only author who includes complete sentences, an actual dialog,in her novel Les conspirateurs:

— 你好。我是 Christopher Lizard 张英先生约我见面。(Bonjour, Christopher Lizard, J’ai rendez-vous avec M. Zhang Ying.)— 你好。我们马上张总秘书联系。请稍后。(Bonjour, nous allons avertir le secrétariat du président. Veuillez pa-tienter.)L’une d’elles le conduit au coin-salon.Dix minutes plus tard, une porte laquée s’écarte. Une autre Chinoiseen uniforme apparaît.— 您好。张总在等着您。(Bonjour. Le président Zhang vous attend.) . . .— I’m Zhang Ying, dit-il spontanément en anglais. Nice to meet you.

104Regarding the long history of interpretation of Chinese characters by Western scholars andauthors, with Ezra Pound and Victor Segalen being the best known among them, only onerelatively recent reading can be suggested: Eric Hayot, Haun Saussy, and Steven G. Yao, eds.Sinographies. Writing China. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

105Other cultures in Asia that are partially using the Chinese characters in their written lan-guage, as for example the Japanese and Korean cultures.

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— 张总，谢谢您，能够在一星期六的下午抽出时间。(Merci, monsieur le président, de me recevoir, surtout un samedi après-midi.)Ravi d’entendre un étranger parler sa langue, Zhang Ying esquisse unlarge sourire. Il continue en chinois: . . . .106

Although the multilingualism of the passage is eminent, the main texts and allexplanations take place in French.

As the novel contains the story of multiple identities in an espionage setting, aplay with changed and hidden identities also takes place. The US-American agentBill Kaplan impersonates Christopher Lizard. He has to play his part to a certaindegree of perfection. While his own abilities in Chinese are impeccable, Christo-pher speaks rather well, but not fluently and with a Taiwanese accent. The scenetakes place in a Beijing office; he wants to get more background information on histarget Ayamei and to track down her true identity. These further comments aresolely given to illustrate the ease and naturalness with which a non-native speakermasters the Chinese language. And it is with the same matter-of-courseness thatChinese characters are included in the textual body.

Naturally, the passages are immediately translated into French. But they leavethe reader without any command of Chinese indifferent, if not irritated. The ar-bitrariness, incoherence of sign, meaning and translation to the “Western” readercan not be absorbed by the text in Latin letters. The bewilderment is even aug-mented by the English phrases inserted to create a more realistic setting of thescene. It is needless to say that there is no translation or paraphrasing referenceattached to the English passages,107 of which several can be found in the book. Itis the Chinese who uses the foreigners’ language as a sign of welcome, neverthelessas mentioned before, the interlocutors keep speaking Chinese, even though thetextual body switches back to French.

106Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs, 201ff.107For example: The implementation of English occurs in moments when English native speak-

ers converse. But here as well the “other language” emerges and fades without any introduction,clue or translation. Shan Sa, Les conspirateurs, 200 and 217.

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An even more puzzling example marks the novel La couleur du bonheur108 byWei-Wei. It is the first and third person narration about a woman’s fate during thesecond half of the 20th century in China. The first person narration that alternateswith the third person narration, is headlined with the characters 美丽, the otherwith a sun wheel. The reader is left to his/ her own means for deciphering thecharacters and no explanations follow. It is five chapters or 50 pages later, thatthe female protagonist’s name is explained in the annotations. “Mei-Li, on m’adit que vous êtes aussi jolie que votre nom*, . . . . *Mei-Li (美丽) signifie ‘beau’,‘beauté’.”109 But the connection to the headline or the title is to be made by theattentive reader alone. It seems that Wei-Wei instigates a game of recognitionwith the reader here.

Dai Sijie, however, tries to introduce the beauty of the written language with theexample of the character, 日. This meaningful character is introduced as follows:

La prison est un bâtiment en briques noircies, construit dans la formede l’idéogramme chinois ‘ri’ = 日 (le soleil, ou le jour). Les traitshorizontaux du haut et du bas représentent les parties sud et nord dubâtiment.110

The author deprives the character of its meaning and reduces it to its form. Thereis no necessity for Dai to include the translation of this character; a simple drawingwithout allusions to the Chinese script would have been fully satisfactory.

The most common usage of Chinese characters is reflected in the numbers. Itis the simplicity of the first three numbers (一，二，三) that enables even thereader who is not familiar with the Chinese language to understand the meaningof the sign without translation or clarifying annotations. This practice is regularlyimplemented by the authors Shan Sa and Ya Ding.

En effet, tous deux conservent le système idéogrammatique pournuméroter leurs chapitres. Cela présente pour eux l’avantage d’ancrer

108Wei-Wei. La couleur du bonheur. La Tour d’Aigues: Éditions de l’aube, 2006.109Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur , p. 54.110Dai, Le complexe de Di, p. 343.

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leur production dans la tradition chinoise et de répondre aux attentesd’un public occidental toujours fasciné par le mystère de la calligraphie;pour autant, en vertu de sa fonction essentiellement symbolique, cetacte ne porte en rien atteinte à une compréhension de l’œuvre par lelecteur français, puisque ces idéogrammes ne sont pas intégrés commefacteurs d’opacité dans le sens général de l’œuvre.111

In my opinion, the utilization of Chinese numbers as chapter headings generatesthe sensation of exotism and, at least after the first three characters, the feelingof estrangement. The numbers four to ten (e.g. 四，五，六，七，八，九，十)reveal no greater connection to their meaning for the unfamiliar reader. If thenovel consists of more than ten chapters, the reader has to go back to the table ofcontents and either count or decipher the system of numbers to deduce the actualchapter’s cipher.

The usage of the Chinese script visibly establishes the Chinese language andculture and at the same time alludes to the enigmatic, exotic and inscrutable Otherthat is still distant from the French reader. Either the meaning of the character isemptied as in the example of Dai Sijie or it is not put into context as in the caseof Shan Sa, whereas the other authors, in my opinion, try to create a decrytpinggame for the reader that is more or less supported by the writer. An exceptionto my opinion can be found in children’s books, which create a familiarity withthe Chinese culture and offer a more thorough exposure to Chinese characters.For the reader, this comprehensibility imbues the culture and its language with aconsiderable degree of normality and reduces its otherness.

The necessity to bring the reader closer to the Chinese script and languageleads to a multiplicity of Latin alphabet transcriptions. They are frequently usedin the texts, whereby the Pinyin variation has taken over recent literary productionsince its creation in 1982. The transitional possibilities of Chinese characters inEuropean languages is represented by the various romanizations of the Chineselanguage. There exists a long history of competition and coexistence of different

111Porra, “Quand les ‘passeurs de langue’ deviennent ‘passeurs de culture’,” p. 134. Even thoughVéronique Porra refers to a Chinese tradition in numbering the chapters, naturally Chinese prosecontains a multitude of options for forming a headline.

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transcriptions based on different European languages or Chinese dialects. Todaythe most common ones are the Hanyu Pinyin and Wade-Gilles, while for otherChinese languages and dialects, the Yale Romanization is used. The setting ofLuo Linyuan’s novel Wie eine Chinesin schwanger wird is in Canton, but insteadof using the Cantonese expressions for aspects like food or places, she uses thoseexpressions that are common in German and if new words are need, the Pinyintranscription, which Luo uses in a way that creates a better understanding ofthe Pinyin transcription. “Kanton oder eigentlich Guangzhou, die Hauptstadt dersüdlichen Provinz Guangdong, . . . .”112 The Cantonese name would be Gwongzau.

Another consequence of the characters’ transcription is that, in most of thecases, the tonal aspect of the language gets lost since hardly any reference to theterms’ tonal structure or pronunciation is to be found in the writings.

4.3.3 Proverbs

Proverbs and sayings play an important role in the Chinese language. A greatnumber of Chengyus or poem verses are mentioned in the texts. Most of the timethey are literally translated into French or German, which creates a sensation ofalienation and distance.

Han Sen elaborately explains a gesture he could not understand at first andequates it with similar behavior and usage from the German context:

Hin und wieder piesackten sie mich auch, indem sie mir mit einer Handüber den Rücken strichen und einen leichten Buckel andeuteten. Dabeikringelten sie sich vor Lachen. Es dauerte einige Zeit, bis ich demGrund ihrer Heiterkeit auf die Spur kam: Der angedeutete Rückensollte den Panzer einer Schildkröte darstellen, und Schildkröten geltenin China als Inbegriff der Dummheit. Wenn man dort als alte Schild-kröte bezeichnet wird, so ist dies ebenso abfällig gemeint wie in Europa‘dummer Esel’ oder ‘blöder Hund’.113

112Luo, Wie eine Chinesin schwanger wird, p. 19.113Han Sen, Ein Chinese, p. 104.

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Chow Ching Lie, for example, alters a Chinese saying for her account: “‘Palanquinde joie’, disait-on chez nous. Pour moi, palanquin des larmes.”114 The sedan of joy(喜轿 xijiao) as synonym for marriage and its happiness is reversed into a symbolof the horrors that the Western reader is assumed to associate with arranged andparticularly forced marriages.

An extraordinary example can be found in the novel La montagne de Jadeby Xiaomin Giafferri-Huang.115 A “city youth” works on the rice fields in thecountry side. While working in the fields, sorting the weed from the rice, a politicalinstructor picks on the quality of the protagonist’s work and highlights her errors:

Je vous demande donc de faire très attention. . . . Le président Maol’a bien dit, ceux qui s’éloignent du travail manuel sont plus ignorantsque les paysans; ils sont incapables de distinguer l’ivraie du bon plant.Nous pouvons constater que c’est absolument vrai!116

This quote refers to a common practice in the China of the Cultural Revolution.Quotations by Chairman Mao were learned by heart and inserted in conversa-tion,to show the speaker’s devotion to the continuous revolution and/ or to enddiscussions because Mao’s word was true and could not be disputed. Giafferri-Huang nevertheless incorporates an image from the bible, “to separate the wheatfrom the chaff” (Matthew 3.12), whereas Mao’s images are taken from the steelindustry. The following quote is from a French translation of Mao’s words:

Le commandant utilise tous les moyens d’informations recueillies surl’ennemi, rejetant la balle pour conserver le grain, écartant ce qui estfallacieux pour garder que le vrai, procédant d’une chose à une autre,de l’externe à l’interne; puis, tenant compte de ses propres conditions,il fait une étude comparée de la situation des deux parties et de leursrelations mutuelles; alors ils forme son jugement, prend sa décision et

114Chow, Palanquin, p. 189.115Giafferri-Huang Xiaomin. La montagne de Jade. La Tour d’Aigues: Éditions de l’aube,

2004.116Giafferri-Huang, Jade, p. 82.

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établit ses plan.117

In contrast to the English translation,118 if one looks for the expression in a French,English or German to Chinese dictionary, an image from the realm of wine culti-vation usually appears: 取其精华，弃取糟粕 (quqijinghua, qiquzaopo; select theharvest (the elite), discard the useless pomace (worthless remains). The two fourcharacter quotes marked bold in the text and the translations can be found assignifying the saying, whereupon the first is an abbreviation of the term used in aChinese to German, French or English dictionary.

In the text the political instructor continues and describes the chaff and how itcan be differentiated from the rice. Giafferri-Huang wrongly introduces the quotethat has nothing to do with the work in the fields and thereby uses images of thebible qualified as Chinese and originating from Mao.

4.3.4 Food and Hospitality

The presence of food in the form of cooked dishes, fruits and drinks is anothermethod for depicting everyday Chinese culture. Most of the time a proper Frenchor German translation for the dishes and ingredients is given, which is sometimesaccompanied by the original Chinese term. The example introduced here refers toa ‘mis’reading of a word by word translation from the Chinese to German.

In the laudation for the awarding of the Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Förderpreisof the Robert Bosch Foundation to Luo Lingyuan in the year 2007, the authorMichael Wildenhain refers to a particular Chinese food:

117And the Chinese original: “指挥员使用一切可能的必要的侦察手段，将侦察得来的敌方情况的各种材料加以去粗取华，去伪存真，由此及彼，由表及里的丝素，然后将自己方面自己情况加上去，研究双方的对比和相互关系，因而构成判断，定下决心，作出计划. . . ” Mao Zedong.Citations du Président Mao. Versions bilingue. Paris: You Feng, 1998, 328f.

118“He applies all possible and necessary methods of reconnaissance, and ponders on the in-formation gathered about the enemy’s situation, discarding the drossand selecting the essential,eliminating the false and retaining the true, proceeding from the one to the other and from theoutside to the inside; then, he takes the conditions on his own side into account, and makes astudy of both sides and their interrelations, thereby forming his judgements, making up his mindand working out his plans.” Mao Zedong. Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung. Vol. III. SelectedWorks of Mao Tse-Tung. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1965, p. 326.

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Aber ich denke, diese Einzelheit, das Fünfduftei, hat sich nicht ohneGrund in meiner Erinnerung festgesetzt und trägt, obwohl ich bisheute nicht weiß, was man sich unter eine [sic!] solchen Speise genauvorzustellen hat, nicht nur zur Qualität der Erzählung bei, sondern istauch ein Synonym für den besonderen Charakter jenes Textes und derTexte der Autorin überhaupt.119

In the text, the boiled egg is introduced while the young heroine is on a foot marchto another city on a cold winter day:

Plötzlich liegt der Geruch von Fünfdufteiern in der Luft und zieht sieunwiderstehlich an. Sie muss nicht weit gehen, bis sie den Stand, andem die Eier verkauft werden, findet. Sie kauft zwei davon und schlingtsie gierig hinunter.120

Luo Lingyuan refers to a variety of the “tea leaf egg”, a common snack sold bystreet vendors. She gives a word for word translation into German: 五香粉 (wuxi-angfen), the five scent powder is usually translated into German as “Fünf-Gewürze-Pulver” or shortened in English to “five spice” with the determinant, “the chickenegg”. The spice is very common in Chinese cuisine in China and overseas.

4.3.5 Political Movements and Their Depiction

Beside the mostly exact localization of the texts in China and elsewhere, the timeframe of the narration is easy to identify. This is closely linked to the author’sself-image as “cultural ambassador”. The need to explore and explain the Chinesesociety is nowhere illustrated in greater detail as in the portrayal of the historicand political situation. Explaining the specificities and background of 20th centuryChina occupies a large portion of the majority of the texts. This encompassescolonial rule in Shanghai, foreign powers in Beijing at the beginning of the 20th

119Michael Wildenhain. Laudatio von Michael Wildenhain zur Verleihung des Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Förderpreises der Robert Bosch Stiftung an Luo Lingyuan. 2007. url: http://www.bosch-stiftung.de/content/language1/downloads/laudatio_lingyuan.pdf.

120Luo, Du fliegst, p. 8.

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http://www.bosch-stiftung.de/content/language1/downloads/laudatio_lingyuan.pdf



century, the Japanese occupation and liberation, wars during the 1930s and 40s,the relationship between Nationalists and Communists and the liberation, andfinally, the political campaigns of the Communist Government of the 50s, 60s and70s and the democratic endeavors and economic liberation of the 80s and beyond.

The focus in this section is upon the description of the Anti Rightist movementsof the 50s and early 60s and occasionally the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolutionfrom 1966 to 1976. In the following, the ways in which they are implemented inthe text and introduced to the reader, along with the particularities that areconsequently highlighted are shown.

The agenda of the narrations follow similar strategies. For instance, the pro-tagonist becomes an “innocent victim” of the political campaign, as in the novelsAch, was für eine Leben! and Tochter der Partei by Zhou Chun. Another exam-ple of iniquity towards the protagonist arises when she or he defends a friend or ajust cause against the political actors. A third variation is set in motion when theevents of the time are portrayed through the eyes of an infant protagonist (who willmost likely become an outcast because of his family’s background as “rightists” orbourgeois) as in Bittergurke by Mingxiang Chen. The cruelty in the main charac-ter’s humiliation and in many cases banishment into hard labor is most strikingin the depiction of public sessions with open accusations and auto-critique.121 Atypical example can be found in Zhou’s Die Tochter der Partei. Paradigmatically,the good-natured, honest man does not surrender to the forces of the politicallyagitated mob that pressurizes the person in the dock being questioned and humil-iated.122 As shown in these longer examples the Western reader is thought of as a

121Both measures of public accusation and public self-critique (检讨 jiantao) where commonpractices for showing the presence or absence of a revolutionary spirit for the so called strugglesessions (斗争会 douzhenghui).

122“Nein, ihr Li ließ sich nicht kleinkriegen. . . Sie wurden aufgefordert, Geständnisse über ihre‘geschichtlichen Sünden’ abzulegen. . . Diese Zermürbungstaktik hatte wenigstens eine Funktion,sie machte den Mann ziemlich schnell geistig kaputt, so daß er bald mit gesenktem Kopf jedenWiderstand aufgab. Aber nicht so Li. Vor jeder solcher Sitzungen versäumte er nicht, sichsorgfältig zu rasieren und zu kämmen, einen frischen, gebügelten Mao-Anzug anzuziehen, seineLederschuhe gründlich zu putzen. Erst dann erschien er vor ‘den breiten, revolutionären Massen’mit seiner Ledermappe in der Hand, worin sein sorgfältig vorbereitetes Plädoyer lag. Er ließ sichweder von der Androhung einer strengen Strafe einschüchtern, noch von dem Versprechen einermilden Behandlung irreführen, sondern setzte sich immer selbstbeherrscht mit seinen Anklägern

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tabula rasa, a blank page, to whom the author in his or her role (or understandingof the role) as “cultural ambassador” has to introduce and explain China. Thenecessary explanations reach from simple expressions to the description of complexhistorical conditions.

Choosing to tell a life story to recapitulate the strange and moving experiencescan certainly be found with other Chinese authors of the same generation. Whatis striking is the strong identification of the author by him/ herself or by othersas an individual Chinese, whereby the strive towards a factually correct versionof the events is absent. Their writings bear more similarities with works by otherChinese authors outside the country than those who stayed on, for example to thosewho write in English e.g. Jung Chang’s Wild Swans.123 Many Overseas or exiledChinese writers in general take the fact of being in the West as an opportunity tocome to terms through the free form of writing. These authors also profit fromthe possibility to refer to Western or Chinese analyses, for example of the CulturalRevolution.124 In the next chapter, the idea of a literary treatment of the past isresumed.

Punkt für Punkt auseinander. Schließlich wurde nicht er, sondern das Publikum zermürbt. Dasletzte, was es mit ihm tun konnte, war ihn als einen unverbesserlichen geschichtlichen Konter-revolutionär einzustufen und ihn aus der Hauptstadt in den Nordosten in ein Erziehungslager ander chinesisch-sowjetischen Grenze zu verbannen.” Zhou, Tochter , p. 15.

123Jung Chang. Wild Swans. Three Daughters of China. Simon and Schuster, 1991.124Monika Gänßbauer. Trauma der Vergangenheit. Die Rezeption der Kulturrevolution und der

Schriftsteller Feng Jicai. Dortmund: Projekt Verlag, 1996, p. 373.

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Chapter 5

Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Liter-ary Traditions

5.1 Adopting Mainstream Concepts

This sub-chapter discusses the idea that some works by Chinese writers in theFrench or German language maintain or adopt patterns that are prominently foundin contemporary Chinese literature. As the twentieth century unfolded, Chineseliterature moved away from the adoption of Western literature, a multiplicity of-isms after the post May-Fifth-Movement, resulted in politically motivated trendssuch as the Revolutionary Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism1 of the earlyPeople’s Republic and the more recent literary coming to terms with the pastin “Scar or Wound Literature”, “Obscure Poetry” or a new form of realism andtoday’s “New Generation” female novelists.

The writings of the authors introduced so far can be more or less easily distin-guished from contemporary Chinese literature in Chinese language by the extremeuse of older Western imaginaries and cultural parameters or by the strong explana-tory character of their writing. The literary texts regarded in this chapter, from athird major group of Chinese writers in French and German, are chosen because

1Revolutionary Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism emphasize on idealism, the Marxistworldview of writers, the ideological utilitarianism of literature and art, and center around ide-alized, heroic characters. This kind of literature does not portray life as it is but as it shouldbe.

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5. Continuities and Discontinuities of Chinese Literary Traditions

of their similarity in style, characterization and plot to several contemporary Chi-nese authors and literary trends. Nevertheless the kind of literature these authorsrepresent is more or less to be understood as a coming to terms with the past andthe present of China.

The author Han Chen with his text Le filet reminds the reader of the popular“Scar literature.” The name or label derives from the short story “Scar” by LuXinhua2 and is also given the alternate label of “Wound Literature”. In the textHan, as a member of the Lost Generation retrospectively negotiates the positiveand negative aspects of his biography, which brings his writings in proximity tothose of A Cheng and Feng Jicai. In Wei-Wei’s texts the cruelties and the hardshipof the female protagonists’ lives is ameliorated by the nostalgic recollections offamily and the small home town in Southern China. This emphasis on one handon the female version of the past and on the other hand on the romanticizing ofloss, restraint and renunciation can be found in works such as those by Su Tongand Wang Anyi. A third aspect is the depiction of violence and torment in theworks of Luo Lingyuan. In her short stories, many shades of human suffering andhorror are described. The intensity of the descriptions resembles those found forexample in the short stories and novels of Yu Hua or Mo Yan.

5.1.1 Wounds Can Heal

During the Cultural Revolution, the literary production was even more constrainedthan during the early years of the People’s Republic.3 At the height of the Cul-tural Revolution in 1968 Jiang Qing, member of the politburo and the CentralCultural Revolution Group, reduced theatrical performances to eight Model The-

2Lu Xinhua. “The Wounded.” In: The Wounded. New Stories of the Cultural Revolution77-78. Ed. by Xinhua Lu, Geremie Barmé, and Bennett Lee. Hong Kong: Joint PublishingCompany, 1979, pp. 9–24.

3Mao Zedong’s Talks at the Yan’an Conference on Literature and Art were first published in1942. They were to be followed as a guideline: “Life as reflected in works of literature and artcompared with ordinary actual life, can and ought to be on a higher plane, more intense, moreconcentrated, more typical and more idealized, and therefore has greater universality.” Quotedfrom: Lan Yang. Chinese Fiction of the Cultural Revolution. Hong Kong: Hong Kong UniversityPress, 1998, p. 15.

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atrical Works including five Peking operas, two dance dramas and one symphony.The only possibility for literature, after the official ending of the Cultural Rev-olution in 1976 and the economy opening policies, was to diversify. Thus manydifferent voices found their ways into publication.

Literary treatments of the Cultural Revolution within the texts share the com-mon feature of the movement as a decisive, life-changing topic. In addition thenovelists may document their own life story to give history an individual face, givean account a the lost generation, demonstrate sympathy with the scapegoated‘Red Guards’ and request an undogmatic view of the happenings. Some otherspaint an absurd image of the events and even generate laughter over the horror ofthe campaign through an ironic and distant handling of the time. Other authorsvehemently describe the loss of human dignity and the destruction of human con-sciousness and elaborate on the individual and social consequences in their poetryand prose. The only positive aspect found in the texts is that the unreflectedpolitical activism led to emancipated participation.

To simplify somewhat, the first was that the CR epitomized factional‘chaos’ and anarchy, and must hence be firmly suppressed by the forcesof order. The second was that the CR represented the victimization ofthe Chinese people by the forces of a centrally enforced radical ideolog-ical tyranny, which must therefore give way to an ‘emancipation of themind’. The third was that the CR indeed represented victimization,but ‘we have seen the enemy and it is us’ — i.e. the culture in whichwe are all enmeshed is the enemy. For shorthand purposes we mayrefer to these three clusters of thematic emphasis as the ‘chaos’ focus,the ‘scar’ focus (after the ‘scar’ or ‘wound’ literature launched in thelate 1970s and early 1980s), and the focus on cultural self-criticism.4

Similar to the authors in the previous chapter, the experience of the politicalmovements influences the writings of many authors analysed in this chapter. The“Wound Literature” or “Scar Literature” refers to the wounds, physical as well

4Woei Lien Chong, ed. China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Master Narratives andPost-Mao Counternnartives. Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002, p. 8.

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as psychic, which were caused during the Cultural Revolution, and acknowledgesthe devastating impact of the destruction of tradition and culture on the socialstructure and daily interaction with the family and other fellow human beings.The texts grouped under this term deal with the accelerating intrusion into theprivate sphere of the individual and the family. The capacity to act according toone’s own will became more and more confined, and in the end fear and disquietudecommanded the actions, often in the form of political necessities. A plurality oftexts deal with the rustication movement, often telling the writers’ own story orbased on his or her experiences. Young people from the cities go voluntarily or areforcefully sent to the countryside to learn from and help the peasants. Anotherlarge number of texts reflect the life of the “intellectuals”, whereby the term mayrefer to many different groups including artists, journalists or teachers. Sometimesthe stories only take place during the Cultural Revolution itself, but most of thenarratives include the end of the period, when the protagonist is rehabilitated andcan start a new life. Responsibility and guilt for the suffered injustices are usuallyattributed to the Gang of Four and others officially in charge. Personal guilt ishardly dealt with. The protagonists are mostly innocent victims of the politicalmovements or history itself. The already introduced author Zhou Chun exemplifiesthis with the inability to pinpoint and denounce a particular culprit in the novelDie Tochter der Partei.5 Another promising comparison could be undertaken withChen’s novel Bittergurke.

In the following, the main focus will be on the novel Le filet6 by Han Chen.Han Chen works as translator and author in China. Le filet is the only text he haswritten directly in French. The novel is published with a small publishing housein Paris specialized on China related topics.

The novel Le filet takes place in the early nineties in an unknown city. Theevents narrated in the text reach out to the early fifties in Shanghai, the HundredFlower Movement and Cultural Revolution, as well as the economic modernization

5Cf.: “Niemand. Niemand fühlte sich dafür verantwortlich. / Die Tochter der Partei wareinfach ein Opfer der Geschichte, wie viele Chinesen unter Mao Zedong — ganz normal.” Zhou,Tochter , p. 255.

6Han Chen. Le filet. Paris: You Feng, 1993.

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of the late 70s and early 80s.The third person narration relates the relationship between the nameless chief-

editor of the poetry department of a literary journal and a younger colleague, XiaoXiao. They get involved as they discuss the different meanings of a poem, Le filet.The poem equals life with a net. He perceives the poem as a joke, while she cancomprehend the two-word poem as a universal truth:

Depuis longtemps il s’est posé cette question: “Est ce que je suis unraté? Ai-je l’air d’un misérable?” Oui, il se peut que je le sois pour lesjeunes, je suis un pauvre hère, une loque, un être pitoyable. . . Pourtant,je me suis mainte, fois dit qu’après tout, j’avais bien vécu, et que jepouvais faire davantage pour que la vie devienne encore plus pleine. . . ”Machinalement, il tend la main et prend le poème:LA VIE : Un filetUn frisson le parcourt, la feuille tombe. Xiao Xiao ramasse le poèmeet le regarde:“Oh, c’est génial! Il suffit de deux mots pour dire une grande vérité:la vie est un filet! Il faut se battre pour en finir avec, ou, au moins, jemérite un filet plus grand, plus confortable et plus spacieux!”7

Her reaction provokes him to tell her about his life: the rustication during theCultural Revolution, his mother’s death, his father’s return from Taiwan via HongKong. In retelling the stories a sad and remorseful tone sets in. The past wasnot a happy one, could not be changed and therefore had to be accepted. Thegrowing relationship with Xiao Xiao enables him to attend a party.8 At the partyhe is discovered by a foreign sinologist as a renowned scholar in the field of Chinesepoetry and especially on Li Qingzhao9 and is officially invited to a yearlong stayat a US-American university. Out of mischief and envy, his superior makes the

7Han, Le filet, 14f.8The party is described as a modern Western invention, which has limited attractions because

it consists of standing around with drinks instead of a traditional banquet with food in abundance.Cf. Han, Le filet, pp. 85–95.

9Song-Dynasty female author of poems (shi) and songs (ci), born in 1084 and died around1152.

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trip impossible for the first person narrator: He would be allowed to leave thecountry and keep his position at the publishing house, but lose his apartment. Hebalances the benefits for himself in contrast to the negative effects for his familyand renounces the possibility to go abroad. Drunk, as a result of the rejected stayabroad, he remembers his love for a Eurasian girl in the early fifties. He even triesto take pleasure in his ’forced’ life and be content. The welfare of the many (of thefamily) is more important than that of the single human. He accepts this altruisticstatement and lives in conformity with it. Xiao Xiao listens to his statements, butnevertheless takes the chance to leave for Shanghai and by implication “the net”of the title. There she will be able to start a self-decided life.

Hence the omnipresent pressure of the communist system in China, in the faceof political movements and party members is portrayed. But no direct blame islaid. The main character is described as a humble person, who at certain times isable to actively do things because of his family background with a father overseasor to altruistically think about his kin rather than about himself. This is contrastedwith the younger generation which lacks the personal experience of the revolution,openly engages with foreigners and sees and uses possibilities to act and decidefor itself, as Xiao Xiao gives up her work at the publishing house to follow herboyfriend to Shanghai. This discrepancy of attitudes between generations beforeand after the Cultural Revolution is pointed out several times in the text.

Han puts himself in line with other writers from Mainland China, who arecontributing to height of “Scar Literature” like A Cheng or Feng Jicai.

For example Feng Jicai’s short novel 啊10 (Ah, English title: A Letter) takesplace in the same milieu. Certain people in academia and more influential others ina publishing house along with family relations hinder the main character’s carrierand through unanticipated circumstances his life during the time is turned upsidedown. Even though his innocence is later re-established, he can never regain thesame position in society.

The stories of this phase of “Scar Literature” no longer have a secondary status.While others are still “[d]ramatizing the traumatic, [Scar Literature] parrots the

10Feng Jicai. “A Letter.” In: Chrysanthemums and Other Stories. Trans. by Susan Wilf Chen.San Diego, New York, and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985, pp. 96–164.

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official indictment that holds the Gang of Four solely responsible for the socio-political disaster on the one hand, and reconstructs the myth of humanism on theother,”11 Han and others raise hitherto unasked questions. By showing the resultsof passivity and impotence during the communist regime and its consequences,they indirectly criticize the protagonists. But in contrast Han does not only hopefor a better future that can be formed by the individual and is independent ofpolitical powers but shows through Xiao Xiao the possibility to act independentlyand determine the future as an individual or a family.

5.1.2 Nostalgic Recollections

While the aforementioned text describes the individual’s renunciation for the fam-ily’s good with a certain bitterness, the characters of Wei-Wei’s novels seek strate-gies that lead to contentment or even happiness in sacrifice.

The literature of the late 1980s and early 1990s in China takes up the changesthat are encountered in the country’s big cities. Places and spaces alter theirappearances, adding to the devastating experiences of the cultural revolution theloss of a sense of family and belonging. This irreversible change is felt even morestrongly by the Chinese who have left the country and return to a town or citythat she or he is no longer able to recognize. Struggling for a balance in the strivetowards modernization and commercialization, the 90s’ authors — who form such adiverse group encompassing Su Tong, Wang Anyi, Bi Feiyu and Ge Fei — fabricatea nostalgic narration of the past that evokes feelings of longing.12

No nostalgic writing can be considered a ‘re-creation of the originalscene.’ Different from a written record that calls up memories of yes-

11Howard Y.F. Choy. Remapping the Past. Fictions of History in Deng’s China, 1979-1997.Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008, p. 8.

12The freedom incorporated in nostalgia, which is understood as a concept of projection, isevinced in the essays by Jinhua Dai and David Der-Wei Wang, who put the adjectives “imagined”and “imaginary” in front of the term. Dai Jinhua. “Imagined Nostalgia.” In: Postmodernism &China. Ed. by Arif Drilik and Zhang Xudong. Trans. by Judy T.H. Chen. Durham and London:Duke University Press, 2000, pp. 205–221; David Der-Wei Wang. The Monster That is History.History, Violence, and Fictional Writing in Twentieth-Century China. Berkley, Los Angeles,and London: University of California Press, 2004.

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terday, nostalgia, as the fashion of contemporary China, uses the con-struction and embellishment of remembrance to assuage the present.13

The emergence of nostalgia reflects the need for a positive reconstruction of thepresent and the past. The wave of nostalgia became a recurrent mode of expressionin the wake of the rather grim narrations. The nostalgia in the writing not onlycreates an imagined shelter with its positiveness but also ensures an alliance inmaking it possible to remember embracing the ongoing progress. The realm ofnostalgia nevertheless opens up a space for imagination and consolation, whileenabling a new stance of “regarding history and embracing historical culture.”14

Therefore, nostalgia is double-bound: “In terms of memory, nostalgia is less thanthe past; it loses the irrecoverable ‘facts’ from history. In terms of imagination,nostalgia is more than the past; it attaches excessive fantasies to history.”15 Theprotagonists’ stories are no longer exclusively linked with historical events, howeverthe effect of these events and the political measures is absorbed in the minds andfamilies of the protagonists.

Also the locality of the events is transformed. Beijing no longer features as thepolitical center of China or as the main setting of the texts. The shift is towardsthe periphery. While the prominent literary movements of the 80s engage in eitherthe minority discourse with locating the texts in Tibet or Xinjiang, for instanceor describe the rusticated youth’s experience in the northern villages (as in 知青, zhiqing literature) or explore city-countryside family relations in for exampleShandong or Hunan (as in the 寻根文学, xungen movement), the authors of the90s seeking and expressing themselves in the nostalgic fashion move southwards intheir texts. This part of China incorporates for Dai Jinhua “the delicate textureof the wilderness, . . . the fragile beauty of the old south, and . . . the mesmerizingyet corrupt Shanghai.”16 Even though Shanghai is mentioned, this refers to a sen-timental version of the city from the 1920s or 1930s and the movement is from the

13Dai J., “Imagined Nostalgia,” p. 207.14Dai J., “Imagined Nostalgia,” p. 211.15Choy, Remapping the Past, p. 135.16Dai J., “Imagined Nostalgia,” p. 210.

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metropolis to provincial towns.Wei-Wei17 was born in the province of Guangxi in Southern China, where she

studied French to become a translator and interpreter in Nanning. During theCultural Revolution, like many of her peers, she was sent to the countryside tolearn from the peasants. Starting in 1976 she worked as a language instructor forFrench at the National Minority Institute of Guangxi. She continued her studiesat Peking University and received a stipend in 1987 for the Sorbonne in Paris. Shelives in Manchester in the United Kingdom and continues to write in French.

In her debut novel La couleur du bonheur18 from 1996, the female protagonistMei-Li gives an account of her family’s life as well as her own. In 1997 Wei-Weipublished the travelogue Le Yangtsé sacrifié19 in which she recreates an earlierjourney along the Jiangzi River. In Fleurs de Chine,20 ten women’s fates, allnamed after flowers, are mostly told by themselves to an eleventh woman. In Unefille Zhuang,21 an autobiographical novel, Wei-Wei describes the early stages of thelife of a girl belonging to a Chinese minority from her childhood in the countrysideto her studies at a university in Beijing. In 2007 Wei-Wei, contributed the chapter“Pondeuse de rêves” to the UNESCO’s The Alphabet of Hope Anthology,22 andexplained the connection between literature and trauma in the article “Parolesdes sans-voix”.23 Common topics in Wei-Wei’s works include women’s conditions,changes in the Chinese society, natural disasters, and political movements such

17Not to be confused with the 20th century Chinese writer of the same name, Wei Wei (1920–2008).

18Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur .19Wei-Wei indicates the genre of the text: “Ce livre est un récit de voyage. Les incidents

racontés sont vrais, les lieux parcourus et les personnes rencontrées sont réels. Mais j’ai changéles noms des villages que j’ai visités, le nom de la petite rivière qui les baigne, et les noms despaysans qui m’ont reçue et parlé, de crainte que mon récit ne leur attire des ennuis — j’espèreque le lecteur le comprendra.” Wei-Wei. Le Yangtsé sacrifié. Voyager autour du barrage desTrois-Gorges. Paris: Éditions Denoël, 1997, p. 237.

20Wei-Wei. Fleurs de Chine. La Tour d’Aigues: Éditions de l’aube, 2007.21Wei-Wei. Une fille Zhuang. La Tour d’Aigues: Éditions de l’aube, 2006.22Wei-Wei, Fleurs de Chine.23Wei-Wei. “Paroles des sans-voix.” In: Les assises internationales du roman. ’Roman et

réalité’. Paris: Christian Bourgois, 2007.

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as the Hundred Flowers Campaign, the Cultural Revolution, and their concreteimplications on the novels’ characters.

At this point the 1996 novel La couleur du bonheur will be introduced as acounter-example to the above mentioned Le filet. The bitterness of a main pro-tagonist resigned to helplessness is no longer prevalent. Instead a positive toneunderlies the pragmatic actions of the female protagonists.

The paratextual quote from Dream of the Red Chamber24 sets the novel’s mood:“Le vrai devient la fiction lorsque la fiction est vraie; l’irréel devient le réel lorsquele réel est irréel. Chao Xue-Qin.”25 The narrative structure of the novel contin-ues to draw the reader into the in-between of “realism” and “memories”. Thenovel alternates between two different narrators, who are identified by two sym-bols functioning as titles: two Chinese characters 美丽 (Mei-Li) signify the firstperson narrator’s name (which is only indirectly revealed at the end of the secondchapter) whereas a sun wheel is associated with the third person narrator.

The two narrations are connected by Mei-Li. The first person narrationstretches form the 1920s to the early 50s, while the third person narration starts21st of February 1953 and ends in spring 1984 the moment Mei-Li starts her nar-ration to her granddaughter Fan-Fan. It is three generations of family in China,telling the stories of arranged marriage, adultery, war, political absurdities, thepolitical movements and natural catastrophes. In the process of reading the novel,the relations between the two narratives and the protagonists in it are implicitlyestablished. The true connection between the two narrations is only revealed atthe very end of the novel:

Mei-Li sourit. Elle tira une enveloppe de sa poche, la tendit à Fan-Fan.— Qu’est-ce que c’est? demanda Fan-Fan.— La lettre de ton grand-père.26

Since there is no direct correspondence between Taiwan and Mainland China at

24红楼梦 (Hongloumeng), Dream of the Red Chamber is one of the most important novels ofthe Qing Dynasty. The text involves a more generational family story including several lovestories and is characterized by the inclusion of different kinds of texts like poetry.

25Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur , p. 7.26Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur , p. 339.

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that time, the letters go via Canada. Mei-Li soon reveals the true nature of Fan-Fan’s grandfather. Fan-Fan has more questions, and hence Mei-Li starts narratingthe story:

— La lettre de ton grand-père.— Maman le savait?— Elle savait seulement qu’elle avait un autre père — son père naturelqu’elle n’a jamais vu et qu’elle rejette toujours.— Pourquoi?— Ça, c’est une très longue histoire. Il faut remonter au jour de monmariage, il y a soixante-quatre ans. . . 27

These passages are at the very end of the novel, but in order to maintain thechronological order here the very beginning of the novel is quoted.

美丽

La date? C’est drôle mais je ne m’en souviens plus. . . Il y a de celasi longtemps. . . Soixante-quatre ans déjà. . . Et puis, l’ancien calendrierlunaire. . .Mais le printemps devait être avancé, car le jour se levait déjàtrès tôt et il faisait doux. En tout cas, c’était un jour faste que monpère et mes futurs beaux-parents avaient choisi après s’être penchésdes heures sur les pages jaunies d’un gros bouquin poussiéreux.28

In the passages above, expressions like “trés longue histoire” and “il y a de celasi longtemps” emphasize the effort to trace the nostalgic reminiscence back to afaraway time:

Her happiness in this “jour faste” attributed to her upcoming wedding is rep-resented in objects from the “old” Chinese culture, for example the decorations ofan armchair:

Le fauteuil était fait de bois noir et le vernis était parti aux angles.Son dossier très finement sculpté représentait un cerf dansant dans les

27Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur , p. 340.28Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur , p. 9.

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champs et ses bras, plusieurs chauves-souris en vol. Ah, ces motifs sontsignificatifs comme tu t’en doutes bien: le mot “chauve-souris” (fu) estl’homonyme du mot “bonheur” et le mot “cerf” (lu) est l’homonyme de“carrière brillante”. Ce fauteuil était le siège sacré de mon père pourles cérémonies du Nouvel An. Il l’avait hérité de son père qui l’avaithérité de son grand-père qui l’avait hérité de son arrière-grand-père.Une antiquité, quoi.29

The wooden chair bears both the beauty of an old culture and the weight of familyheritage. It represents continuity that the grandmother can only transfer by wordsto her granddaughter, because the object was lost in the course of time.

Another example of the recreation or continuity of tradition and cultural valuesand the protagonists’ nostalgic longing is demonstrated in the following analysisof a longer passage in La couleur du bonheur. During the Cultural Revolutioncultural products were treated with resentment and contempt including literaryworks such as classical Chinese poetry. Intellectuals including high school teacherstook flight from the major cities and sought refuge in rural areas. Nevertheless inthe text, the metropolitan area of Guanning is struck by chaos due to the armedconflicts between different groups of Red Guards.30 The group, which includes someof those intellectual fugitives hiding from the terrors of the Cultural Revolution,engages in a talk about classical Chinese literature with the accompanying high-school children. There is a striking discrepancy between the omnipresent threatsto the protagonists’ physical and psychological well being and the tranquility andconcentration with which they examine the flora of their surroundings and itsmetaphorical meaning in Chinese poetry.

The first two paragraphs of the passage focus on the tangible contrast betweenthe lurking dangers of the Cultural Revolution and a peaceful, calm and naturallandscape.

29Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur , 9f.30“Depuis le début du mois d’avril 1968, les conflits entre les diverses factions de gardes rouges

devenaient de plus en plus fréquents et violents, les ‘combattants révolutionnaires’ ayant aban-donné leurs armes primitives tels que poings, pieds et bâtons, pour des armes à feu à l’efficacitébien plus redoutable.” Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur , p. 127.

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Les rues étaient désertes. L’impression de sommeil profond semblaitd’autant plus irréelle que, dès le lever du soleil, la ville se réveilleraitdans son cauchemar quotidien: le typhon de la haine ressusciterait etdéchaînerait les flammes de la guerre civile chaque jour plus meur-trières.À la sortie de la ville, les trois bicyclettes s’engagèrent sur une routegoudronnée de cinq mètres de large, bordée d’une double rangée dejeunes manguiers. Derrière leurs feuilles luisantes de rosée s’étendaientjusqu’à l’horizon des rivières où les plants verts ondoyaient sous le ventléger du matin. Dans ce paysage paisible on avait l’impression d’être àmille lieues du sang et de la mort.31

In the third paragraph, those who for the moment escaped from it all, “therefugees,” sit down near the local university in the shades of a tree and have apicnic with “tasty” homemade snacks,32 in the middle of which, the name of ayellow flowering tree next to them is asked. Neither the children nor the mathe-matics teacher can answer that question. But the Chinese literature professor, thegrandmother Mei-Li and her daughter Bai-Lin know it.

— Quel est cet arbre à fleurs jaunes? Demanda Fan-Fan à Oncle Weiassis à côté d’elle.— Je ne sais pas, je n’y connais rien en botanique, répondit oncle Wei.Hé, Vieux Zhong, sais-tu quel est le nom de cet arbre?— On l’appelle “arbre du mal d’amour”.— Joli nom! S’exclama oncle Wei.— Savez-vous pourquoi on l’appelle ainsi? Interrogea le professeur dechinois.

31Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur , p. 130.32“Les réfugiés s’arrêtèrent à mi-chemin, près de l’entrée de l’université de Guang-Ning, afin

de se dégourdir les jambes et de reprendre souffle. Le soleil commençait à taper. Ils s’assirent àl’ombre d’un arbre trapu dont les fleurs dorées riaient parmi de petites feuilles ovales d’un vertfrais. Ils buvaient tour à tour à même le bidon, mordaient à belles dents dans des gâteaux rondspréparés par Mei-Li avec de la pâte de riz et du sucre de canne brun, délicatement parfuméespar la feuille de bananier qui les enveloppait.” Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur , p. 131.

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Mei-Li et Bai-Lan échangèrent un sourire. Oncle Wei et les enfantssecouèrent la tête.33

In his answer the former Peking University professor refers to a Chinese literatureanthology, explains the background story of the plant and later the poem by a TangDynasty poet. As soon as he mentions the poem’s title “Le Mal d’amour” byWang-Wei,34 he is interrupted by the children, who cannot suppress their knowledge,having been taught the poem by their grandmother.

— Connaissez-vous l’Histoire de la poésie des temps anciens aux tempsmodernes? Non? Alors, selon ce livre, il y a très longtemps un soldatmourut à la guerre loin de son pays natal. Sa jeune femme le pleuratous les jours au pied d’un arbre à petits pois rouges, jusqu’à ce qu’ellemourût de chagrin et d’épuisement. En souvenir de l’amour de la jeunefemme pour son mari, on surnomma l’arbre ‘arbre du mal d’amour’. Etles petits pois rouges que donne cet arbre reçurent eux aussi le nom de‘pois du mal d’amour’. Plus tard, sous la dynastie des Tang, un poèteappelé Wang-Wei écrivit un poème, ‘Le Mal d’Amour’. . .— Ah, je connais ce poème, le coupa Ming-Ming.— Je le connais aussi, dit rapidement Fan-Fan, grand-mère nous l’aappris.35

Further explanations regarding the poem are cut off by the impact of a nearby

33Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur , p. 131.34

相思（唐）王維

紅豆生南國春來發幾枝勸君多採擷此物最相思

The poem is included in the poetry collection of 300 Tang poems. “One-hearted.”Three HundredPoems of the T’ang Dynasty. 618 - 906. English transl. v. Chinese text ; a translation withnotes and commentary for the study and appreciation of the Chinese poems. Trans. by WitterBynner. Taipei: Wen-hsing-shu-tien, 1966, p. 227. A literal translation of the title would be‘mutual longing’.

35Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur , p. 131.

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explosion and the “petite band” cycles away.36

As in the example of the wooden chair, Wei-Wei withdraws from the historicalreality of the surroundings through the means of nature’s beauty, good food andthe heartwarming, educating effects of Classical Chinese literature.

Hence in the re-construction of China, Wei-Wei’s protagonists maintain a life-affirming, positive attitude. Although the characters are subjected to a life fullof hardship, Wei-Wei never forgets to portray them with dignity and humanity.Her heroines “always” do the right thing; they know how to differentiate betweengood and evil and make the “right” decision. They do this in accordance withthe Confucian or largely Chinese tradition, but are nevertheless modern women interms of emancipation.

As shown in the analysis of the narrative construction of La couleur du bonheurand the two examples, Wei-Wei emphasizes not only on a female perspective butalso highlights the value of family, which deserves personal sacrifice, the qualityof Chinese food, crafts, art and culture in itself. She contrasts this with thedestructiveness of a male-dominated political class, the tussle between an ancientand modern China against personal development and happiness and the abovementioned positively depicted elements of society and culture. Wei-Wei’s choice ofsetting the novel in southern China, her selection of imaginaries and her narrativestyle bring her novels close to the nostalgic writings of the 1980s and 90s by Chinesewriters like Su Tong and Wang Anyi:

The wave of nostalgia brings new representations of history, making his-tory the “presence in absentia” that emits a ray of hope on the Chinesepeople’s confused and frenzied frailty. A kind of familiar yet strangerepresentation of history, a long repressed memory emerging from thehorizon of history, through the repeated identification of contemporaryChinese history, allows people to receive consolation and gain a holistic,

36“— Je m’en doute bien, Fan-Fan, reprit oncle Zhong en faisant un clin d’œil à Mei-Li. C’estgrâce à ce poème que l’arbre aux petits pois rouges est devenu le symbole du mal d’amour dansnotre littérature et. . . À cet instant, trois explosions de forte puissance firent tressaillir le sol sousleurs pieds. Une fumée noire s’échappa d’une fenêtre du bâtiment de la chimie qu’on apercevaitderrière une haie de ketmies. La petite bande se précipita sur les vélos et se sauva à toutespédales. Wei-Wei, La couleur du bonheur , p. 132.

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imagined picture of modernized China. In this picture, modernizationis no longer the miracle of the 1979 reform of an old China in declinebut an always integral part of the history of China. The difficulty oflife is undoubtedly an incontrovertible fact, as is the impossibility ofannihilating the pressures of the inner anxieties of reality. Neverthe-less, the mesmerizing allure of the picture is that it rebuilds a kind ofimagined link between the individual and society, between history andthe present reality, in order to provide a rationale for our contemporarystruggle and to impart to us some sense of comfort and stability.37

A critical reading of Wei-Wei’s texts discusses the connections between writing a“saga féministe”,38 i.e. “conveying . . . sordid happenings [in China’s past] with deftyet painterly daubed details”,39 and the possibility of happiness. Here nostalgicrepresentation becomes a substitute for historical consciousness.40

5.1.3 Atrocities and Violence

In contemporary Chinese literature the graphic depiction of violence came to theforefront of story telling.41 Violence and crime have been constant companions toChinese prose since the Ming Dynasty.42 In the vernacular Chinese writings of that

37Dai J., “Imagined Nostalgia,” p. 219.38Claire Devarrieux. “Le langage des fleurs.” In: Libération (Apr. 2001).39Bettina Knapp. “Wei-Wei ‘Fleur de Chine’.” In: World Literature Today 76.1 (Winter 2002),

pp. 131–132.40Cf. Dai J., “Imagined Nostalgia,” particularly p. 209f.41For further readings on violence and specific accentuations of it, like cannibalism in

Chinese literature: online bibliography by Barend J. ter Haar of the University of Leidenhttp://website.leidenuniv.nl/ haarbjter/violencetext.htm; Wang, The Monster That is History;and Thilo Diefenbach. Kontexte der Gewalt in moderner chinesischer Literatur. Wiesbaden:Harrasowitz Verlag, 2004.

42Thomas Zimmer. “Zur Ästhetik von Mord und Gewalt in der chinesischen Literatur. DieTradition und zwei Beispiel aus der Romankunst der Gegenwart.” In: Zurück zur Freude. Studienzur chinesischen Literatur und Lebenswelt und ihrer Rezeption in Ost und West. Festschrift fürWolfgang Kubin. Ed. by Marc Hermann and Christian Schwermann. Sankt Augustin: Inst.Monumenta Serica, 2007, pp. 353–369, p. 354.

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time and all through the Qing Dynasty the breach of norms was rather morallythan juridically driven:

Die frühe Kriminalliteratur weist aber noch eine andere Besonderheitauf, die wichtig ist für die Darstellungen von Gewalt und Mord in derModerne: es herrscht in der Regel eine Schuldauffassung vor, nachder Schuld weniger als Übertretung von Verhaltensnormen, die durchkodifizierte Gesetze vermittelt sind, verstanden wird, sondern eher alsmoralische Schuld. Diese wiederum gründet nicht primär in der Tatund in der Handlung des Täters, sondern im durch das Verbrechensichtbaren Leiden des Opfers.43

The unambiguous painting of guilt and justice is broadened to the polarized de-pictions of the innocent victim, noble prosecutor, the one-dimensional villain andthe always-resolved crime. Despite some more crucial examination of traditionalChinese society in itself, the depiction of crime in Chinese novels, following Diefen-bach’s argumentation, was often propelled by and reacted to the surrounding po-litical situation, as for example in the middle of the 19th century when the nation-ality or ethnicity of the protagonist decided his or her character or during the firsthalf of the 20th century where any violent action against “evil” — which depend-ing on the author’s political standpoint could be against warlords, Communists,Nationalists, Japanese or Americans — was justified.

In the late 20th century the horrors of the Cultural Revolution have rupturedthe simple relation between power, politics and violence. For many writers ofpost-78 literature from Mainland China as well as Taiwan the moral frameworkcrumbles away.44

43Zimmer, “Zur Ästhetik von Mord und Gewalt in der chinesischen Literatur,” p. 355.44This statement clearly takes into account the variety of canons regarding Chinese literature in

respect to the literary critics’ point of origin in Greater China and beyond. In her 1983 novel TheButcher’s Wife Li Ang describes the eponymous character’s immanent murder of her husband,while Mo Yan’s The Republic of Wine investigates cannibalism, and the brutality of revoltingfarmers is delineated in The Garlic Ballads. Cf. Wang, The Monster That is History, p. 9:“The twentieth century saw a China in constant shift among political, historical, and literaryentities, each reciting its own self-narrative and pursuing its own idea of (post) modernity. As aresult of this historical fragmentation and dispersal, writers have come to interpret the Chinese

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Violence with all its horror is described in detail and graphically, often as an un-stoppable chain of events that spins into a vicious circle destroying the victim andrevealing the unscrupulous actions of the culprit. This brutality can be triggeredby an accident but is most of the time due to the circumstances of a hopelesslydistorted social and political environment.

Frequently used examples for the portrayal of violence in contemporary Chineseliterature are the novels and short stories of Yu Hua.

The short story “One Kind of Reality” narrates in a matter of fact style thetragic events that happen to an extended family of three generations after a fouryear old boy accidentally drops his baby cousin and thereby kills him. Whileterrorizing the infant, the child Pipi imitates his father hitting his mother. Hecontinuously and aggravatingly strikes and throttles the child in order to hear theinfant cry. He takes the baby out of the cradle to show him the rain and drops the“slab of meat” without remorse or feelings because the baby was too heavy. Beinghome alone with only the grandmother present in another room, the baby dieson the floor. After the family finds out, they quarrel, the two brothers Shanfengand Shangang fight, they settle for a financial compensation and penalize Pipi tolick the baby’s blood from the ground. While doing so Pipi is kicked by Shanfengand dies. Money as a solution is now out of the question and Shangang decidesto take revenge on Shanfeng’s wife. Shanfeng substitutes his wife and is torturedto death with the help of a stray dog. Shangang ties the sitting Shanfeng to atree and coats his brother’s feet with a savory meat mash, which the dog licksoff the feet. The tickling sensation forces Shanfeng to laugh to the extent thathe is unable to breath and suffocates after a while. Shangang runs away, buthis escape is unsuccessful. He is arrested and publicly executed. His sister-in-law pretends to be his wife at the authorities and Shangang’s body is left formedical use and transplantation. While the family shows no emotional bonds,the state’s representatives treat their “subjects” with contempt and mischief. Thelack of compassion, the actions of revenge and retaliation are seemingly driven

experience in ways that could never have been marshaled into a stifling unity. While the canonof one community is the taboo of another, apparently antagonistic discourses may share anuncannily similar premise.”

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emotionlessly. Guilt and its psychological consequences are superseded by thematter-of-course language and the familiarity of the readership with “this kind ofviolence”.45 This consequently allows the story to be read rather as a journalisticreport than a fictitious story:

[D]er Autor [Yu Hua] macht klar, daß die Gewalt für ihn eben dieentscheidende Kraft der Inspiration zu künstlerischer Kreativität istund daß der Zivilisation und überhaupt der menschlichen Ordnungnur eine ornamentale Rolle zukommt.46

The description of violence becomes a performative act in the texts. This style andthe coolness of the omniscient narrator are mirrored in Luo Lingyuan’s short storycollection, Du fliegst jetzt für meinen Sohn aus dem fünften Stock! The stories ofLuo Lingyuan, like those of Yu Hua, start with the individual situation of a coupleor family. Luo depicts a China where social coherence and responsibility declinetogether with the most basic human relations. With a “realistic” voice Luo’snarrations focus on the downside of the society and locate her stories in both thecenter and periphery of today’s China. She mostly delineates violence against theinnocent and weak and thereby accuses the individual of loosing humanity and thepolitical system and their representatives of corruption.

The eponymous story “Du fliegst jetzt für meinen Sohn aus dem fünften Stock!”(“You Are Going to Fly Out of the Fifth Floor For My Son Now!”) shows the directimpact of the one-child policy in China. In a village Wang Mang, a father of twodaughters is visited by Zhao, member of the regional family planning commission.The farmer’s wife is pregnant and hides from the authorities in a secret roominside their house. The husband is threatened with fines and forced abortion evenin the later states of pregnancy. Though warned by the village chief, Wang andhis family do not go away from the village. Comrade Zhao returns to the villageand tears down the house of Wang with his wife, their new-born son and the sickgrand-father inside. All of them die. Wang Mang leaves the village and his two

45David Der-Wei Wang. “Chinese Fiction for the Nineties.” In: Running Wild. New ChineseWriters. Ed. by David Der-Wei Wang. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994, pp. 238–258. especially pp. 243–248. especially 243–248.

46Zimmer, “Zur Ästhetik von Mord und Gewalt in der chinesischen Literatur,” p. 359.

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daughters behind, travels to the city, enters the state building and throws theresponsible comrade Zhao as well as two other civil servants out of the window.

The interaction between “ordinary people” and authorities is also depicted inLuo’s short story “Das Liebespaar, die Polizisten und der Einbrecherkönig” (“TheLovers, the Policemen and the Burglar-King”). A chance meeting between twostudents and two policemen with a detained criminal ends with the death of astudent and the escape of the captive burglar due to the incompetence and bru-tality of the law enforcement officers. The story opens with two students Su Sanand Ma Sai walking along the shores of the West Lake in Hangzhou. Two policeofficers Kang Zhengqi and Dong Penglin have just arrested the infamous burglarYou Long who was violently resisting his detention. The students try to evadea meeting with them and turn around. Getting suspicious by this the policemenimmediately start harassing the students. Su is able to run away while her friendis hit and eventually shot to death after the policemen find out that the convicthas meanwhile escaped. In the official report it is stated that the student helpedthe criminal to escape and was killed doing so. As the student’s family and hisfriend Su file charges against the police officers, nothing happens because the po-licemen’s testimony cannot be challenged. They approach the press, but only thelocal paper takes up the story. “Die Behörden reagieren prompt.”47 The editor-in-chief looses his job, and the next day an article emphasizing the diligent andsuccessful work of the police is posted.

The mechanisms of the system affect the individual on every level. Luo oftenfocuses in her stories on the patriarchal structure of the Chinese society. In her sto-ries the female gender — usually represented by young girls — is often victimizedand powerless.

The story “Ein Geburtstags-Ei” (“A Birthday-Egg”) narrates the tale of theseven year old girl Feifei who is beaten to death by her parents. The familyoriginating from Shanghai, continues to lives in the countryside of the provinceJiangxi even six years after the Cultural Revolution. The parents are teachersand very proud of their four year old son. Nevertheless, they neglect and abuse

47Luo, Du fliegst, p. 107.

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their daughter who is consequently physically and psychologically marked. Whilea neighbor only interferes halfheartedly to interrupt the daily beating of Feifei, thegirl befriends the society’s outcast, a homeless woman. Though Feifei maintainsthe house, she is not allowed to participate in the family meals. One day themother finds out that Feifei has blackened the female bodies and stained the maleones in a hidden, blacklisted book on sexuality and as a punishment beats her soseverely that the child dies.

The cruelty and hopelessness of the girl’s experience of life vibrates in the lasttwo sentences of the short story: “Nun aber liegt sie krumm da, krumm wie einTier. Sie wird sich nie wieder ein bemaltes Ei wünschen.”48

In another story, which has already mentioned before, “Ein zarter Bam-busspross" ("A Tender Bamboo Sprout"), the young girl Bai from the countrysidewants to visit her aunt in the city. As her aunt is away on holiday, she is dependenton the kindness of strangers. Her naivety is rewarded by her abduction, rape andforced marriage to an older man, who scars her cheek with a knife to mark her ashis wife. “Du bist jetzt meine Frau, mein Kätzchen.”49 He does not treat her asa human being but more so as a piece of property, or an animal. Luo obliteratesevery possibility of a happy life. The “most” uplifting story, “Das ist es doch, waswir wollen” (“Isn’t this what we want”) ends with the disappearance of fear thathad pervaded the daily existence of a family threatened from the surroundings.

Luo recreates disturbing images in a rather dry and sarcastic tone and leavesthe reader with these desperate situations and destroyed lives. She emphasizesthat these images and stories are what she brought from China and wants to makeavailable to her German readers.50

The above mentioned features of post-Mao Chinese literature are assembledmost prominently in Wei-Wei’s novel, Fleurs du Chine. In episodes focusing onthe living conditions in the second half of the twentieth century in China, Wei-Weirecreates a nostalgic flashback. She begins the “root seeking” elements with the

48Luo, Du fliegst, p. 34.49Luo, Du fliegst, p. 11.50See chapter 4 for further information on the attitude of Chinese overseas writers towards

their texts and German and French readers respectively.

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trail of the Red Guards moving away from the center to the countryside where theywere sent during political campaigns. Telling through a first-person narrator aboutthe simple life, the incredible hardships and horrors that women lived through —and thus recalling the so-called “Scar literature” — she does not spare the readerthe images and thoughts of suffering and intolerable violence.

What cannot be found as a major theme in Chinese migrant writing is thetopic of “root seeking” or more so of “Chinese minority literature”. The “rootseeking” (xungen) movement is in search for a new Chinese identity different onone hand from the Han majority and on the other hand from the wielders ofpower in China. Thus the literature takes place in rural China and very oftenamong farmers belonging to a minority. For instance some of the texts alreadyintroduced in earlier chapters refer to the Uyghures in Xinjiang, as in Yuan’s DieTempelglocken von Shanghai, or the Yi as in Dai’s Le complexe de Di. Here theminorities are mostly used as an especially exotic backdrop of a more intact socialworld or backward customs. A more interesting account of the countryside can befound in Ya Ding’s La jeune fille Tong51 where he mixes the exoticism of a villagethat is almost impossible to find with popular belief and magic.

5.2 On the Forefront of Chinese Migrant Writing

The texts introduced and reviewed so far mostly consist of novels and to someextent short stories. They follow more or less three schemes: from imitations ofalready molded paradigms about China (i.e. Occidentalism and Orientalism) toactively promoting the Chinese culture and history as ambassadors (see chapter 4)to partaking in the contemporary topics and styles of mainland China’s literature(i.e. scar literature, idealization and violence).

The intention of this sub-chapter is to shortly introduce those Chinese-Frenchand Chinese-German writers who deviate to a smaller or larger degree from those“mainstream” groups. Hence this sub-chapter is dedicated to those writers whochoose a different genre and individual modes of expression in poetry, theater orradio plays; at the same time they explore different topics dissociating themselves

51Ya Ding. La jeune fille Tong. Paris: Mercure de France, 1994.

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not only from exoticism (and to some extent from Orientalism) but also fromthe three mainstream tendencies just mentioned. These authors are going to beintroduced in a chronological order by year of birth and their main works.

5.2.1 Cheng Sheng

Cheng Sheng is the first52 Chinese author to write poems in French, whereby oneseries was written as sonnets.53 Cheng Sheng (Tcheng Cheng) was born in 1899and died in 1996. He is known foremost for the two volumes entitled Ma mère andMa mère et moi.54

Dans ces deux volumes, je fais tout mon possible pour montrer la figurechinoise — telle qu’elle est — à tous les points de vue. Je ne veux nil’embellir, ni l’enlaidir.55

The two volumes collect autobiographical and historical accounts taking placeduring the late 19th and early 20th century. His poetry is strongly influenced bymodern European literature.

It is not without reason that Paul Valéry has written the preface for his book,stating that: “La Chine fort longtemps nous fût une planète séparée. Nous lapeuplions d’un peuple de fantaisie, car il n’est rien de plus naturel que de réduireles autres à ce qu’ils offrent de bizarre à nos regards.”56

Moreover his poetry resorts to images used in Asian and European epics andincludes political ideas and thoughts of his own time. “Je suis un Chinois eu-

52Chen Jitong (1851-1905), who has written essays in French, was sent to Europe by theChinese emperor in the late nineteenth century. An older alternative spelling of his name isTcheng Ki-Tong. For example: Chen Jitong. Les Chinois peints par eux-mêmes. Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1884; Chen Jitong. Les Parisienne peint par un Chinois. Paris: Charpentier, 1891.

53Cheng Sheng. Poèmes 1966-1979. Castelnau-le-Lez: Climats, 1995.54Cheng Sheng. Ma mère. With a forew. by Paul Valéry. Vol. 1. Vers l’unité. Paris: Éd.

Victor Attinger, 1928. (16 editions in 6 languages, among them English, German, Dutch.) ChengSheng. Ma mère et moi à travers la révolution chinoise. Paris: Éd. Victor Attinger, 1929 andtogether Cheng Sheng. Ma mère et moi à travers la première révolution chinose. Paris: ÉditionEntent, 1975.

55Cheng Sheng, Ma mère et moi à travers la révolution chinoise, p. 31.56Paul Valéry. “Préface.” In: Ma mère. Éd. Victor Attinger, 1928, pp. 11–26, p. 12.

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ropéanisé, un Oriental occidentalisé. / Mais je suis opposé à une imitation aveugleet exagérée de l’Europe.”57 His life story resembles these words.

5.2.2 François Cheng

François Cheng (* 1929) was the first Chinese-born intellectual to be elected tothe Academie Française in 2002. His achievements belong to the field of Chineseliterary studies and in translations from Chinese to French. His own literary worksconsist of poetry and novels. Among his writings are Le dit de Tianyi58 from 1998and L’éternité n’est pas trop59 from 2002, both of which were issued by AlbinMichel in Paris. Recently a collection of his earlier poetry À l’orient de tout60 waspublished by Gallimard Paris. He has also published extensively on why he choseto write in French, namely Le Dialogue. Une passion pour la langue française61

and declares: “Je ne crois pas qu’il y ait de différence entre Orient et Occident.”62

5.2.3 Gao Xingjian

Born in 1940 in Ganzhou in the Jiangxi Province, Gao Xingjian spent his youthin Nanjing. He studied French at a Beijing university in the late 50s and workedas a translator. He was sent to the countryside — to the provinces of Jiangxi andAnhui — for reeducation during the Cultural Revolution. He soon resumed hiswork as a translator and interpreter, which enabled him to travel abroad as soonas 1979. He has translated, among others, Eugène Ionesco and Jacques Prévertinto Chinese. Although written earlier he started publishing his literary work in1980. He then emerged as an eminent figure of the Beijing theater scene in the

57Cheng Sheng, Ma mère, p. 128.58François Cheng. Le dit de Tianyi. Paris: Albin Michel, 1998.59François Cheng. L’éternité n’est pas trop. Paris: Albin Michel, 2002.60François Cheng. À l’orient de tout. Œuvres poétiques. Paris: Gallimard, 2005.61Cheng, L’éternité n’est pas trop.62François Cheng. “Le cas du chinois.” In: Du bilinguisme. Ed. by Bennani et al. Paris:

Éditions Denoel, 1985, pp. 227–242, p. 242.

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early eighties, gaining a distinct reputation with his first plays, 对信号 (“SignalAlarm”), 车站 (“Bus Stop”) and 野人 (“The Wildman”). His innovative use ofthe “Theater of the Absurd” created considerable uproar in Beijing and furtherperformances and stagings of his plays were prohibited. Invited by the DAAD(German Academic Exchange Service), he moved to Europe where he earned hisliving mostly by painting. He kept up writing theater plays and prose texts. Whilehe continues to write in Chinese until today, he also began creating theater playsin French and has published four plays in French so far. In the year 2000, Gaowas awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his seminal novel 灵山 (“SoulMountain”) of 1990. He published the novel 一个人的圣经 (“One Man’s Bible”)in 1999 and the short story collection 给我老爷买鱼竿 (“A Fishing Rod for MyGrandpa”) in 1989. His writings, including theoretical texts on literature, theaterand art were first published in Taiwan and after the award of the Nobel Prize,have been translated into many European and Asian languages.

Gao’s first play in French Au bord de la vie was written in March 1991 inParis and was originally published by Lansman in the Collection Théâtre à Vifin 1993. Quotes used here are taken from the collection of theater plays GaoXingjian, Théâtre 1 (2000), which includes other pieces written during his earlyyears in France. The play is a monologue with three actors, a woman namedELLE narrating her life in the third-person, a dancer expressing her emotions andfeelings, and an actor miming the roles of a man, demon and old man. They areall dressed in black.

An excerpt from the stage directions reads as follows:

2. On recherchera une expression moderne de jeu des comédiens quis’inspirera de la forme traditionnelle de l’opéra chinois. On ne viserapas à représenter la réalité, mais plutôt à souligner la théâtralité.3. La pièce est à la fois tragédie, comédie et farce, sans exclurel’acrobatie, la danse et la prestidigitation. La pureté de sa forme résidedans la seule narration.4. La narratrice ne cherchera pas à s’identifier à son rôle.63

63Gao Xingjian. Au bord de la vie. Théâtre à vif. Carnières: Éditions Lansman, 1993, p. 60.

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The woman narrates a self-deprecating depiction of herself, evoking, for examplethe question of her own existence:

N’aurait-ELLE jamais vécu? Peut-être n’est-ELLE que l’ombre dequelqu’un d’autre? Son existence aussi serait-elle une illusion? Maisnon, ELLE s’en souvient, ELLE a eu une enfance comme tout le monde.Chacun a la sienne: ELLE aussi!64

She hysterically looks back at her love affairs and relationships, her childhood andformer happiness. The play ends with questions. First the narrator questions thegenre of the play (whether it is a story, fable, comedy or moral lesson, whetherit is more prosaic or lyrical) and then moves on to scrutinize its levels of reality(being imaginary while containing notions of wrong and right or being a nightmareor an illusion without reasoning). She continues to challenge the protagonists ofthe play, including him, her, you, herself or ELLE, the main character. The lastquestion is negated, and no identification with any of the characters is possible.So the questioning goes further to ask about the “soi”, the self being talked aboutand impossible to locate. The play ends with the following line: “Qu’est-ce que cesoi-disant ‘soi’? Et de tous ces mots, que reste-t-il?”65

The mute old man totters offstage, the woman breathes loudly, secludes herselfdevoutly and lies down. The play ends with the deafening noise of cars as theblackening stage backdrop swallows the silhouette of the actress.

His second play in French Le somnambule was first published in 1995, and issubdivided into three scenes taking place in a train compartment and a night-mare. All of the actors have two different roles in the play; there are no rolenames, only attributes or types. A “Voyager” turns into the eponymous “Som-nambulist”, a “Bearded Old Man” into the “Homeless person”, a “Young Man”into the “Nighthawk”, a “Young Woman” into the “Prostitute”, a “Sir” into the“Guy”, the “Train Conductor” into the “Man Without A Face”. They change afterbeing checked by the conductor, whereby none of them has a proper ticket. In thefollowing situation where the conducter asks a bearded foreigner for his ticket, the

64Gao, Au bord, p. 70.65Gao, Au bord, p. 76.

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misspellings in the English sentences are from the original text:

Le contrôleur (s’adressant au vieux barbu): Monsieur, votre billet s’ilvous plaît.Le vieux (continuant à rouler son tabac, sans lever la tête): Sorry, Ihave not.Le contrôleur: Vous n’avez pas non plus d’argent, je suppose?Le vieux: No, no money.Le contrôleur: Où êtes-vous monté? Et quelle est votre destination?Le vieux (articulant avec un accent bizarre): Je suis un étranger volon-taire.Le contrôleur: Do you speak english?Le vieux: A little.Le contrôleur: Well, where are you going?Le vieux: Maastricht.Le contrôleur: This train don’t go to Maastricht. Do you understand?Le vieux: O.K.Le contrôleur: Do you have a passeport?Le vieux: Yes. (Il fouille ses poches et en sort un passeport)Le contrôleur (regardant le passeport): Vous habitez Paris?Le vieux: My brother lives in Paris.Le contrôleur: Ce n’est pas votre passeport, alors?Le vieux: Why?Le contrôleur: Vous n’avez-vous pas d’adresse permanente? Un domi-cile fixe? Vraiment pas?(Le vieux le regarde sans mot dire. Le contrôleur prend quelques noteset lui rend le passeport.)66

Drifting into the nightmare, the language gets even worse, the absurdity of thedifferent excuses for traveling without tickets becomes darker. People talk to eachother, the prostitute gets violated, nobody acts, social feelings like empathy are

66Gao Xingjian. Le somnambule. Collection Beaumarchais. Carnières: Éditions Lansman,1995, p. 6.

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totally neglected and existentialist philosophy is brought to the forefront. Chrono-logical or sequential narration is undone as the actions and plot become reversiblee.g. the Prostitute who was violated and died, later reappears alive and well. Thefollowing quote illustrates the manner of storytelling and the vocabulary used:

La prostituée: Tu l’as tuée dans ton imagination. Tu t’es joué d’elleet tu as mis fin à sa vie. Les hommes sont comme ça, et tu n’es pasdifférent des autres. . . .La prostituée: Ta conscience a été étouffée. Il ne te reste que la faib-lesse. La faiblesse et la peur, voilà la différence entre toi et eux.67

While clearly rich in traits of absurdity, Gao notes in the stage directions at theend of the play that the play investigating a nightmare is not necessarily absurdbut divulging the psychology of reality instead. Thus the actors have to act outtheir roles naturally (not naturalistically) and keep the two parts separate. Theplaywright gives further advice regarding the dialogues, the props and the stage,from which the most interesting remark is to be found in the referential frame forthe embodiment of a particular role. Here Gao differentiates between performancesin the Chinese and occidental languages.

Dans une mise en scène en langue chinoise, le sans-abri ne devra pasêtre représenté comme un Dieu ou un clochard, mais plutôt par unpersonnage à l’image du Maître Ji qui peut servir de référence (bonzemagicien dans les légendes populaires de Chine). Le mec sera un chefde bande, le noctambule un gredin. La prostituée ne portera surtoutpas la robe chinoise, de même que le mec ne portera pas de cravate.S’il s’agit d’une production dans une langue occidentale, ces contraintesn’existent pas.68

Gao’s latest plays are titled Quatre quatours pour un week-end in 199869 and Le

67Gao, Somnambule, p. 44.68Gao, Somnambule, p. 58.69Gao Xingjian. Quatre quatuors pour un week-end. Carnières: Éditions Lansman, 1998.

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quêteur de la mort in 2004.70

5.2.4 Ya Ding

Ya Ding (*1956) has worked as a journalist and written several novels. Le sorghorouge71 can be regarded as his most prominent text and is not to be mixed with MoYan’s 红高粱家族, which is translated in English as Red Sorghum. Even thoughthe story of Le sorgho rouge takes place during the Cultural Revolution in ruralChina and describes the shift in the power relations of a village, the narration doesnot resort to the simple black-and-white rendition of the characters and story line,but rather includes a sensitive coming of age story and a debate on Catholicismand politics.

Ya Ding published further novels such as Héritiers des sept royaumes in 1988,72

Jeu de l’eau et du feu in 1990,73 along with Cercle du petit ciel74 and La jeune filleTong in 1994.

5.2.5 Other Authors

Among the youngest generation of authors75 those deserving particular mentioninclude the journalist Shi Ming (*1957), who also publishes radio plays and shortstories;76 the author Ling Xi (*1972), who wrote the science-fiction story Été

70Gao Xingjian. Le quêteur de la mort. Paris: Seuil, 2004.71Ya Ding. Le sorgho rouge. Paris: Stock, 1987.72Ya Ding. Les héritiers des sept royaumes. Paris: Stock, 1988.73Ya Ding. Le jeu de l’eau et du feu. Paris: Flammarion, 1990.74Ya Ding. Le Cercle du Petit Ciel. Éditions Denoel, 1992.75More difficult to find are those authors who only publish in larger anthologies, journals

and/ or newspapers, (e.g. Jianguang Chen. “Die Strohpuppe.” In: Nationalbibliothek desdeutschsprachigen Gedichts. Ausgewählte Werke VI. Munich: Realis, 2003, p. 630).

76Shi Ming. “Das Briefritual.” Erzählung. In: Betreten eines fremden Landes. Schriftstellerim deutschen Exil. Stuttgart: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg, 1998,pp. 19–25; Shi Ming. “Die Trauerrede.” Erzählung. In: Betreten eines fremden Landes. Schrift-steller im deutschen Exil. Stuttgart: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg,1998, pp. 26–32.

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strident imagining China in a parallel universe in the future;77 Lin Jun (*1973),who recently published the novel Mein deutscher Geliebter78 that is one of thefirst to take on the style of Wei Hui’s Shanghai Baby and Mian Mian’s Candy; theChinese teacher Yujing Kan (1960), who writes primarily in Chinese, with onlyone collection of poems in German;79 and the literary scholar Xu Pei (*1966) withseveral poetry collections illustrated i.e. by Georg Baselitz.80

77Ling Xi. Été strident. Arles: Actes Sud, 2006.78Lin Jun. Mein deutscher Geliebter. Munich: Droemer, 2009.79Yujing Kan. Vergessen wider. Gedichte. Berlin: BONsai – typART, 1998.80For example: Xu Pei. Lotosfüße. Gedichte. Düsseldorf: Grupello Verlag, 2001.

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Conclusion

Chinese migrant literature with its usage of different languages and distinct cul-tural imaginaries moves between several academic fields. At the same time thiskind of literature links those fields together and thus presents new ways of tacklingcross-national and cross-cultural literature. The overlapping interest of compara-tive literature scholars, German or French literature scholars and Chinese studiesscholars is inevitable, even if they investigate with different starting points andfoci.

German migration literature studies and Francophonie studies see Chinese over-seas writings as an emerging field within their respective philological spheres. Onlya small number of literary scholars from these disciplines highlight the task of thiskind of literature to display the Otherness of the author and his or her work re-garding the author’s culture and the transportation transmission of images fromChina. As Véronique Porra among others puts it: “Quand les ‘passeurs de langue’deviennent ‘passeurs de culture’.”81 The authors and texts are referred to as beingsimultaneously ’originals’ and ’translations’.82 This describes the paradox of beingand writing about “the Chinese” for a French or German audience while usingthe language and the known images of the host country. The identification andequation of the author with his or her country of origin results in assumptions by

81Porra, “Quand les ‘passeurs de langue’ deviennent ‘passeurs de culture’.”82“Like Dai Sijie’s Balzac, François Cheng’s novel (Le Dit de Tianyi) deconstructs literary

boundaries not only by its mere existence as a French-language novel by a writer of Chineseorigin. It also does so as the explicit French-language translation of Chinese-language discourseboth oral and written, both ‘original’ and ‘translated,’ in French and other Western literatures.”Karen L. Thornber. “French Discourse in Chinese, in Chinese Discourse in French. Paradoxesof Chinese Francophone Émigré Writing.” In: Contemporary French and Francophone Studies13.2 (Mar. 2009), pp. 223–232, p. 230.

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some editors, journalists and readers that the life reports, novels and short sto-ries can be taken as a truthful reproduction of a real China. The denotation ofbeing authentic, being an original, experienced and educated in China has to beexamined carefully by literary scholars. As discussed in this study, the imaginedidentities are manifold.

Chinese studies scholars, however, tend to regard the authors of Chinese originand their works in a broader perspective. They link these persons and works tothe question of Chinese culture, to what belongs to it, and to how this manifestsitself.

Tu Wei-Ming83 suggests that the creation of a ‘cultural’ China must come tothe foreground, from the “periphery” to the “center”, including not only Chinesein China but also Chinese from overseas.

In terms of Chinese societies, the center-periphery distinction suggeststhat ‘Cultural China’ is to be created by the transformation of thecenters of power by intellectuals from the margins with little or nopower, as this is the configuration of power that the center-peripherymodel usually suggest.84

Another common approach by Chinese studies scholars looks at the level of mod-ernization and its impact on Chinese literature. They refer to contemporary Chi-nese literature as being highly cross-cultural,85 and the debate stretches out to thepoint of how or whether Overseas Chinese literature can be part of the discourse.86

83Tu Wei-Ming. “Cultural China. The Periphery as the Center.” In: Daedalus 120.2 (Spring1991), pp. 1–32.

84Dirlik, “Chinese History and the Question of Orientalism,” p. 115.85“‘Diasporic Chinese’, to the extent that they are successful in a global economy or culture,

then become the agents for changing China. . . . the assertion of ‘Chineseness’ against this un-certainty seeks to contain the very dispersal of a so-called ‘Chinese culture’ into numerous localcultures which more than ever makes it impossible to define a Chinese national culture. Thisstrategy of containment is the other side of the coin to the pursuit of a ‘Chinese’ identity in aglobal culture.” Dirlik, “Chinese History and the Question of Orientalism,” p. 116.

86“The works (a film, a work of plastic art and an essay) are thus ‘Chinese’ not just because theyare by Chinese artists and writers and ‘from China’ but because they also bear witness to culturaland intellectual imaginations both by the Chinese themselves and about China in an era of

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Conclusion

Wang Gungwu distinguishes Chinese authors who are living in or outside China,but by this he means living and writing in or outside the Chinese culture, notwriting in Chinese or another language. He describes the multilingual situation inSouth East Asia, with literature written for example in Malay or Indonesian besidesChinese, and adds to his description the bilingual situation in North America withChinese and English.87

In contrast to this statement, Chen Xiaomei draws the line along the languagechoice, whereby only texts in Chinese are included:

. . . these stories were written in the Chinese language – some by over-seas students themselves – for an audience at home who shared theirvision of a troubled and yet hopeful China. Situated in the nativecircumstances, these narratives provide a dialogic space that trans-forms geographic regions into diverse cultural conceptions of the Selfand Other. As these authors search for their own identities in a cross-cultural context, they inevitably express their own subjectivities – ei-ther in terms of ‘Chinese’ or ‘non-Chinese’ or everything else in between– against multifaceted nationalist and imperialist backgrounds.88

These thoughts by Chinese studies scholars on whether Chinese Overseas literaturebelongs to Chinese literature, even if it is written in a language other than Chinese,mostly regard works written in English.

This thesis is the first comprehensive attempt to bring together the multitudeof authors that have the Chinese language and origin in common but choose towrite in a different language, as shown here in the case of German and French.

As elucidated in the first two chapters, the field of Chinese Overseas writerswriting either in French or German has only marginally been explored. Regarding

border-crossing. They constitute, in that sense, part and parcel of an interactive reconstruction ofthe meaning of ‘Chineseness’ in our time.” Wen-hsin Yeh. Cross-Cultural Readings of Chinesness.Naratives, Images and Interpretations of the 1990s. Institute of East Asian Studies, 2000, p. 1.

87Wang Gungwu. “Within and Without. Chinese Writers Overseas.” In: Journal of ChineseOverseas 1.1 (2005). Ed. by Chin-Keong Ng and Tan, Chee Beng. url: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_chinese_overseas/v001/1.1ng.html.

88Cf. Especially the chapter: “China Writes Back. Reading Stories of the Chinese Diaspora”.X., Occidentalism, pp. 139–176, p. 129.

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http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_chinese_overseas/v001/1.1ng.html



Chinese Studies, German Studies, French Studies and Comparative Literature onlya few, very short, incomplete surveys were conducted and only prominent figureslike Gao Xingjian (after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature) and FrançoisCheng have received some attention form the scholarly world. We are now enteringinto a phase when a new interest is emerging, particularly in the French contextas revealed by/ and manifesting itself in occasional, short publications.

Being classified to a larger extent by critics and readers as being part of a cul-tural China and with their origin authorizing them to give an authentic testimonyof what is Chinese, the authors adopt different strategies to either fulfill theseassumptions or get rid of the imposed perception as “the Chinese”.

Chapter 3 has shown that the imaginaries of China created in the 19th centuryby foreign thinkers and authors influenced the writings of Chinese intellectuals backthen. The “Western” point of view has been adopted by Chinese intellectuals andcan be found almost unchanged today in some of the works of Chinese Overseasauthors in French and German. The persistent strength of Orientalism and itsfascination found in the books still reveals a degrading view of the Chinese pro-tagonists familiar with Western values and techniques vis-à-vis the “uncivilized”Chinese in the texts. This parallels, for example, the main protagonist Kin-Fo inJules Verne’s novel Les tribulations d’un chinois en Chine, as the educated, civi-lized Chinese who escapes superstition and the pressures of tradition. Likewise themain protagonists of Dai Sijie’s novel Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise areurbanized people familiar with Western culture and thus superior to the countryfolks.

The other side of this discursive strategy to implement Western thoughts andliterary trends is the idealization and re-evaluation of Western thoughts and ways oflife. The texts mirror with this the recreation of both an Occident and an Orient asfictive places and its people as described by Said in his seminal work, Orientalism.The Occidentalism displayed in the texts oscillates between the Westerner awareof and familiar with the Chinese language, traditions and history and the totallyignorant Westerner; but in the end both kinds of people can never truly understandand connect to a Chinese person as shown in several, unhappy love stories like ShenDali’s Les amoureux du lac, Shan Sa’s Les Conspirateurs and Luo Lingyuan’s Diechinesische Delegation. It is acknowledged as a fact that the Westerner can never

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Conclusion

overcome his or her individualism and thus cannot establish a close relationshipwith a Chinese person.

This literature reproduces for the intended reader an already known imaginaryand by doing so reinforces an exoticised vision of a fictive China.

Chapter 4 demonstrates a more explanatory approach of migrant Chinese litera-ture towards transporting and transmitting what China and being Chinese meansin the recent past and today. The authors and their texts "function as culturalambassadors". This label is either self-ascribed or assigned by the publishers andcritics. The writers’ origin grants authenticity. Working as cultural ambassadorswith the impetus to give an accurate and unbiased view on China, both authorsand texts claim to operate as mediators between the two cultures. They are ableto describe what is distinctive about Chinese culture and how it is generally apartfrom Western culture. The “ordinary reader’s” assumed knowledge on China israther little. The units of explanation are structured in a simple manner. Thetextual units mentioning Chinese expressions referring to a person, place, histor-ical event or food are closely followed by an explanation. This can happen, asdemonstrated before, on different levels, ranging from footnote annotations to asubsequent sentence that takes up the expression, as in the following explicationfor “kang”: “Je berce le petit frère sur le kang, grand lit en adobes, en regardantmaman repriser un pantalon de papa.”89 In many other texts, objects, places andhistorical events are broken down to little pieces and explained one by one, usingeither the German/ French equivalent or describing the content at length. Theseexplanations are rather exact. However when it comes to more complicated is-sues, they simplify and do not presuppose any knowledge on Chinese geography,society, culture and history. This clearly shows that the anticipated “European”reader for the authors is supposedly ignorant of any facts regarding China be-sides the media-mediated images that are either exoticized and or rather bleak oroptimistic stereotypical descriptions of everyday China.

The examination of everyday China as a topic is also to be found within thenext group of texts described in this thesis. Certain parts of society and its actions

89Wei-Wei, Fleurs de Chine, p. 9.

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are examined carefully and brought to the attention of the reader. A large num-ber of authors focus on the Cultural Revolution and with this topic, highlight theconsequences and psychological and physical damages caused by the movement:the recovery from it is found in the “Scar literature”, the romanticizing view ofnostalgic recollections and the drastic turn to violence as a symptom of the disso-lution of societal and human bonds. These three tendencies can be identified incertain German- and French-language texts by Overseas Chinese in general andpredominantly in the literary production of authors from Greater China.

In the case of many other writers living in Germany and France, the presence ofthese topics is due to the fact that these authors had been marked by the politicalmovements of the second half of the twentieth century, especially the CulturalRevolution, before they decided to leave for Europe. It is important to point outthat the authors differ from those introduced in chapter five in the sense thatthese writers analyzed under the topic “Adopting the mainstream concepts”, donot intended to transmit and explain anything to an audience unfamiliar withChinese culture and history but try to come to terms with China and understandit.

One group of authors portrayed in this thesis does not correspond to any of thetypological groups presented before. They do not consciously form a group sinceeach of them follow individual interests both vis-à-vis topics and styles. They canbe defined as ‘renegades’ in the sense that many of them are not interested inwriting about China and those who still are adopt a very different way of dealingwith it and the notion of being Chinese in comparison to other authors. Theychose to do so in many different genres, whereas the authors introduced beforemainly write prose. One of the differences is that these ‘renegades’ often focus onother time periods and incidents in Chinese history. For example, François Chengwrites about the Ming-Dynasty while most of Gao Xingjian’s plays written inFrench do not make use of any historic-deictic setting, and this is also the case forXu Pei’s poetry. While Ya Ding writes about rural places with a strong tendencyto add religious aspects and/ or magic to his stories, Ling Xi’s writings transcendinto the genre of science-fiction. Cheng Sheng is the earliest representative of theFrancophone authors, and has written about the Chinese struggle for unity in theearly 20th century and later, poetry. Shi Ming and Yujing Kan negotiate, in their

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Conclusion

short stories and poems respectively, the conditions of being abroad and are two ofthe surprisingly few authors that deal with homesickness, which is a recurrent topicfor example in the 1980s German-Italian and German-Turkish migrant writings.

Overseas Chinese writers, even though they switch language, are included byChinese studies scholars in the discourse of what modernity, post-modernity andChineseness mean. On one hand the writers themselves claim to be part of “Chi-nese” literature and consequently participate in the construction of “Chineseness,”but on the other hand, from the perspective of reception, literary scholars, culturalstudies professors, philosophers, social scientists, critics and journalists instrumen-talize the authors as being “culturally Chinese” even though they live abroad andwrite in languages other than Chinese. Another approach, again from the side ofboth authors and scholars, is the following: Some writers reject any kind of cul-tural affiliation towards China, and academia in Chinese studies inside and outsideof China completely neglects those authors because they use a different language,because they do not write in Chinese or English.

Research on Overseas Chinese authors who have chosen French and Germanas their mode of expression shows the challenges and new tasks of Comparativeliterature today. The question of what kind of academic discipline feels responsiblefor a writer like François Cheng or Luo Lingyuan seems irrelevant because theirworks can neither be regarded as only French, German or Chinese, nor can thisliterature be analyzed and understood from one side only. Literature at the turnof the 21st century proves to be global in one respect and very local in the Other.

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