Milestones on a Golden Road: Writing for Chinese Socialism, 1945-80

Description

In Milestones on a Golden Road, Richard King presents pivotal works of fiction produced in four key periods of Chinese revolutionary history: the civil war (1945-49), the Great Leap Forward (1958-60), the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), and the post-Mao catharsis (1979-80). Taking its cues from the Soviet Union's optimistic depictions of a society liberated by Communism, the official Chinese literature of this era is characterized by grand narratives of progress. Addressing questions of literary production, King looks at how writers dealt with shifting ideological demands, what indigenous and imported traditions inspired them, and how they were able to depict a utopian Communist future to their readers, even as cracks in the regime began to show. Early "red classics" were followed by works featuring increasingly lurid images of joyful socialism, and later by fiction exposing the Mao era as an age of irrationality, arbitrary rule, and suffering. Ultimately, the Golden Road had led nowhere. Cover Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: The Road and the Writer Part 1 The War Years and the Search for Form, 1945-48 1 Ma Feng and Xi Rong, Heroes of Lüliang, and “Revolutionary Popular Literature” 2 Zhou Libo, Hurricane, and the Creation of a Chinese Socialist Realism Part 2 The Great Leap Forward and the Stuff of Heroism, 1959-62 3 Li Zhun’s “A Brief Biography of Li Shuangshuang” 4 Hu Wanchun’s “A Man of Outstanding Quality” Part 3The Cultural Revolution and the Spirit of Struggle, 1972-76 5 Hao Ran on The Golden Road 6 Zhang Kangkang at The Dividing Line Part 4After Mao: Reversing Judgments, 1979-80 7 Chen Guokai’s The Price 8 Zhang Yigong’s The Story of the Criminal Li Tongzhong Epilogue: A Golden Road to Nowhere Notes Bibliography Index