T HE two essays by Liu Xiaobo reprinted in this about Western culture and the marked influence of issue were written in 1989 and 1994 respective- Chinese and ...
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Liu Xiaobo A Chinese Intellectual Confronts Traditionalism and Nationalism
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two essays by Liu Xiaobo reprinted in this issue were written in 1989 and 1994 respectively. They are both concerned with the relationship between Chinese culture and the West. The first deals with modes of critical thinking, and the second with the problem of the nationalism of the dominant elites-in-China. Both, therefore, bring sharply into focus the underlying problems faced by all those who, like Liu himself, are trying to promote individual liberty and independent thinking in China. For a long time, Liu Xiaobo was an unreserved . admirer of the West, and he became well known in. 1986 for his vehement criticism of contemporary Chinese literature and his rejection of traditional culture. He assailed the ideas of Li Zehou, who was at the time the unchallenged master thinker for the renewal of philosophical and esthetic thinking, and until 1989 he continued to urge a complete Westernisation of Chinese culture (1). In April 1989, Liu cut short his stay in New York, returning to China and taking part in the student protest movement. Imprisoned immediately after the military crackdown on June 4th 1989, he was denounced as one of the intellectual leaders. He was released after a year and a half, following a self-criticism which the authorities considered adequate (2),but was re-arrested in October 1996 after the publication in Hong Kong of an article demanding political reforms in China (see China Perspectives, no. 8). Since then he has custody. remained in adm~nistrat~ve HE
The first essay in this issue, translated under the t~tle"Reflections of an Anti-traditionalist", is the last one written by Liu Xiaobo before his arrest in 1989. To understand both its range and its limitations, it has to be seen in the context of its publication. Begun in New York and completed in Peking, after an eight-month stay abroad, the essay betrays both a certain naivete -
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about Western culture and the marked influence of Chinese and Western ideas on the nature of modemity that were in vogue at the time. Liu's first period abroad brought him what he calls a "revelation" of the world outside China, which enabled hlm to recognise the limits of his previous thinking and to grasp the problems confronting the West. It also marked the end of his idealisation of Western culture and a shift in his critical orientation on the two themes of individual reflexivity and autonomy. His return to the two major principles of the modernity of the "Enlightenment" in this essay enable him to distance himself from both Chinese particularism and Western abstract idealism. Responding to the problems of the posrtion and the role of Chinese intellectuals within the modernisation of China, he is able to open up a genurnely philosophical enquiry into the issues of modernity and individual development in the Middle Kingdom. The second essay shows the increased maturity of his approach to the West and of his criticism of Chinese intellectuals. Written in the autumn of 1994, it represents a strong reaction against the wave of natronalism affecting China since the early 1990s. In it, Liu denounces the collusion of the intellectual elites with the establishment, and emphasises the extent to which this new trend repeats the confused antiWestern reactions which have recurred throughout modern Chinese history. Finally, posing the question of the relationship of the intellectuals to themselves, to the regime, and to the West, he shows that the new nationalism is in no way connected with any emancipatory trend. On the contrary, it remains trapped within the same submission and ideological self-denial as ever. Frank Muyard
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Reflections of an Anti-Traditionalist The Revelation in New York L N XIAOBO (3) -
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N the cultural debate over the last few
years, my posifion has always been to oppose traditional culture. Moreover, I believed that my theoretical level had reached international standards, which made me rather presumptuous. My recent journey abroad has made me see things more clearly. In the context of a comparison between China and the West, and the changes currently taking place in China, my opposition to tradition is probably still worth something. On a world scale in fact, the state of China and of her culture are equally decrepit, inert and out of date. Consequently, we Chinese actually need the power of a different civilisation, as a threat and a spur to change. We need to be ashamed of our backwardness in order to enliven our detwmination to recreate Chinese comhativity and strength of mind. We need the breadth and the power of an ocean to make our insularity, weakness, and insignificance stand out in stark contrast. That is why the use of Western culture as a reference grid for comparisons throws the sharpest light on the overall nature of Chinese culture and its particular weaknesses. If we adopt Western culture as the yardstick in our all reflections, it can also effectively expose the degenerate state of Chinese cul- Liu Xiaobo ture. And finally, if Western culture is considered constructively, its knowledge can infuse fresh vigour sons, my opposition to tradition only retains some wotth into China. in its treatment of the ruins of a worthless culture, However, if one takes the fate of the human race and whereas its failings stand out clearly on two counts: its its global prospects seriously, or if one adopts the standnationalism and its adulation of Western culture. point of individual development, my opposition to tradiOr tion becomes worthless. This is because the questions that I have attended to are too narrow and superficial. Since my F i t engagement in the cultural debate, severThey are in fact the questions of a Chinese person who al people have condemned me for "total Westemisation" is only interested in China, and who is not concerned or for "national nihilism". However, in actual fact, with mankind in general or its future. Even less do they everything that I said about Chinese and Western culture arise from any transcendental insight into the tragic charwas based on a nationalist approach to the transformaacter of individual existence, which might lead to a contion of China, and was radically different from "total cern for a fuller existence for each of us. For these reaWesternisation".
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In my view, one of the greatest qualities specific to without any certain foundations. If he finally did escape Western culture is its tradition of critical reason. from his inner conflict, it was not to make his way Accordingly, a real "Westernisation" could not be contowards a transcendental value, but to fall back into trivfined to critical reflections on Chinese, or indeed iality by joining with a bunch of mediocrities, who bad Western, culture alone. It necessarily entails an interest none of his breadth of vision, in order to engage in equalIn the fate of mankind in general, and in the full develly trivial polemics in the letter columns. Those who opment of the individual. Furthermore, this tradition of move in superficial circles end up becoming superficial. critical reflection is based on a non-utilitarian concept of In other words, after he had gone beyond the limits of the "knowledge for its own sake", and is the outcome of a reality of China and her culture by dint of his criticism, highly structured set of values and ways of thinking. It is and had therefore become completely isolated, Lu Xun in no way based on pragmatic, utilitarian values. The was unable to bear the fear and loneliness of a man convery fact that I attempted to reform Chinese pragmatism fronting the unknown world and the approach of death. through a reliance on Western culture clearly aligns me He had refused to take up a transcendental standpoint in with the typical Chinese village-pump mentality, and not order to engage in a dialogue with his own soul. And at with the "Westernisers". This nationalist attitude, which that moment, the utilitarian nature of the traditional man puts China at the centre of everything, in fact limited my of letters was revived within him. Deprived of transcenthinking and my interest in loftier matters, just as it has dence, he could only decline. He still liked being amidst blinkered the vast majority of Chinese intellectuals. (If darkness, because he liked "the fight against darkness". China has produced no thinker of international stature in But he was unable to take the fight further. Here lies the the modem world, that is certainly because of the narbig difference between himself and Nietzsche, despite rowing effects of this nationalism). For this reason, I the latter's influence upon him. In Nietzsche, the loss of could not take up the question of the future of mankind hope in humanity, in Western culture, and in himself had and thus engage in a dialogue with Western culture on given rise to an increased valuation of individual existhe grounds of its world-wide concerns, nor could I tence, thanks to the idea of a superman transcending his adopt the..*lpproach of individual self-development condition. But in Lu Xun's case, once his hope in the aimed at transcendence of a religious kind. Still less was Chinese people, in Chinese culture, and in himself had I able to reject utilitarian temptations to undertake been lost, he could find no transcendental system of research of knowledge for its own sake. I am too utilithought, and so he turned back to the reality that he had tarian and pragmatic, and I am still locked into the backradically rejected. ward reality of China, with its range of immediate tem- _. The Chinese intellectual horizon poral questions. This brings me to the following question: why is it that The tragedy of Lu Xun Western Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the counAll this reminds me of Lu Xun, because I think that his tries of Eastern Europe, have all produced a number of torment was that he has neither God nor any other tranremarkable writers in exile, whereas China has produced scendent value. His experience of the tragedy of exisnone? Why do the leading figures in Chinese culture, as tence led him from dealing with an external social missoon as they are exiled, achieve no success? Apart from ery to an inner individual one. This is quite clear in his the obstacles arising from the difficulty of the language, development as a writer from Outcries (Nahan) to I believe that the main reasons are, firstly, the narrowHesitation (Panghuang), and even more so in Weeds ness of the Chinese intellectual horizon, which is exclu(Yecao) which is by far his deepest w_ork. For the Lu sively concerned with Chinese problems, and secondly, Xun who wrote Weeds, temporal values had ceased to be its utilitarian mode of thought, which is always centred the main concern. He had moved on from s. lucid critiupon the values of material existence. The Chinese intelcism of China and her culture to reflections on himself. lectual lacks a drive towards transcendence, and he has That is why his weighty burden and the inward divisions no spirit of resistance with which to oppose the life of which he expressed in Weeds demanded the elaboration the individual against the social collective. He lacks the of some transcendental value. Despair in the face of the ability to withstand solitude, and he has not the aptitude impossibility of any resolution, and awareness of the and courage to confront the unknown. The Chinese intelinevitability of death, call for a turn towards God. But lectual can only live on familiar soil, amidst the applause without the support of an absolute value enabling him to of an ignorant crowd which gives him status. This is partranscend temporal concerns, Lu Xun could not get ticularly true of quite a few celebrities who find it diffbeyond the limits outlined in Weeds. And so it turned out cult to give up their fame in Chinese society to start from in his career. This collection was both the high point of scratch in a foreign land. It is a typically Chinese comhis creative talent and the grave that he dug for himself. plex, and is only shaken off with great difficulty, because After it, Lu Xun could no longer bear his inner isolation its particular quality is the complete absence of any and despair, nor endure the wanderings of a thinlang authentic individuality. This is the complex which drives -
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the leading figures in Chinese culture to embrace nationalism. Far from coming to terms with their real self, enabling it to expand, they contemplate their image in the overblown reputation with which the ignorant flatter them, living for the illusory satisfactions of those who play at being saviours of the world. In China, their slightest moves are carefully noted. But once they are abroad, alone and away from the admiration of their flatterers, nobody deigns to pay them the slightest homage, except for the few enthusiastic foreigners interested in Chinese affairs. What they need then, to put up with this new solitude and lack of applause, is no longer a collective strength but an individual one, the strength of the creative wisdom and talent of the individual. So, however great the fame or position that one has acquired in China once abroad one has to rely on one's own anthentic existence if one is to open a malogue with society as a whole.
achieved a total victory over my own facile triumphs in China.
A criticlsm of Chinese culture It was precisely because of my narrowly nationalist position, and my attempt to improve China by relying on Western culture, that my criticism of Chinese culture was premised on an uncritical idealisation of its Western counterpart I neglected or wilfully ignored the faults of Western culthre, even those which I had fully recognised. Therefore, I becanie unable to rise to a sufficiently high level to undertake a critique of Western culture, and the failures of mankind in general. I could only paint the West in flattering colaurs, embellishing it outrageously, as if it were not only the star of salvation for China but the end-point of all human development. Pushing the analysis a bit further, I would say that my embellishment of Western culture was essentially an embellishment of myself. Thanks to this pretentious I&How I became aware of my own deficiencies alism, 1 was in fact assuming the role of a redeemer, showing that my revulsion for redeemers was for exterFor the same reason, it does not matter whether I unre-mal use only. But as soon as 1 faced the truth about servedly admire Western culture or radically criticise myself, I saw that I too was engaged, willingly or not, in Chinese culture, because 1 am still as limited as the the same unpleasant posturing as all redeemers, and that proverbial "toad at the bottom of a well" who can only I was becoming intoxicated by the infinite compassion see a patch of blue sky the size of his hand. On the theand grandiose projects which make up their whole style. oretical level, to reflect critically upon China and her tra1 now know that Western culture can only ,serve to dition does not in fact require any great wisdom, and cerf' . * reform China at its present stage, and that it 1% not the tainly no creativity. This is because the frame of referfuture salvation of mankind. Seen from a transcendental ence through which I pursue these reflections is already standpoint, the multifarious weaknesses of Western culthoroughly established and well known, and has no need ture illustrate a single underlying failure. Here the words of any new discoveries on my part. The theories which of Zhuangzi in Autumn Waters seem yertinent: however to Chinese leanled circles appear new and original have already been analysed from top to bottom by Westerners, much the river waters rise, seen from the ocean they will always be small; however far the oceans stretch, seen not recently but over the last few centuries. In the West from the universe they will always be paltry. Belief in they are old formulae, with no need for further elaboraone's own perfection is always illusory. By analogy, we tion by me. If I manage to master the frame of reference could say that if China is backward in relation to the in a relatively precise and percipient manner, that would West, the West is limited in comparison with humanity, already be quite something. and humanity is paltry in the eyes of the universe. The foolish pride common to mankind is to be found not only It was when I entered the Metropolitan Museum and in Chinese smugness and self-congratulation, as in Lu the Museum of Modem Art in New York that I realised, Xun's hero Ah Q (4). but also in the Westerner's belief deep within myself, that all the discussions that I had in the sovereignty of science and the omnipotence of reabeen so proud of initiating were completely insignifison. In fact, it matters little that modem Western tlunkers cant, by any standard of intellectual creativity. have undertaken a severe critique of their own idealism, Confronted with this different world, my failure was and that they have canied out an extensive rejection of absolute. Because I had been enclosed for too long in a their own colonial expansion and feelings of white racial limited and sterile culture, my thinking was superficial, superiority. In the face of other nations, they maintain a and my life was shrivelled up. Being too long accusdeep-rooted belief in their superiority. They even get tomed to the dark, my eyes could not adapt to the sudden carried away by the courage and sincerity of their selfopening of the window. That is how I came to see my criticism. But if they can easily, and even proudly, accept own weakness at the very moment that New York tore the criticisms which they make of themselves, they find down the illusory veil of notoriety and sophistication it difficult to accept criticism from others. So they are that I had acquired in China. I was not only unable to not prepared to accept that to use reason to criticise ratioface up to that reality, but for a while I was tncapable of nalism amounts to entering a closed circle. But then, even starting a dialogue with the leading minds of the who can find a better critical weapon than reason? world. This failure was far-reaching and cruel. It -
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If, after the 30 years that 1 have lived in China, I wish sation able to manage the demographic explosion, the to reflect philosophically on mankind in general. and energy crisis, the ecological imbalance, and nuclear arms myself in particular, starting from a concern with indi- proliferation. We are even further from a culture which vidual development and the future of all, I find it mces- could abolish moral suffering and the limitations on s a y to engage in two distinct types of criticism at one human existence. At a time when we are dealing with and the same time. Firstly, I use Western culture as a weapons that could destroy everyone in a fraction of a frame of reference for my criticism of the situation in second, these concerns cannot be ignored. They f o m the China and of Chinese culture. But secondly, Western existential background of the whole of contemporary culture must be criticised from the standpoint of individ- humanity, since this ultimate death robs all effort of its ual creative potential. These two perspectives are quite meaning. To be ahle to confront this cruel reality, while different. One cannot stand in for the other, nor should advancing courageously towards the abyss, representa a they he allowed to merge. Indeed I can very well criticise 6nal human frontier. the atrophying effect on the individual of the supremacy (...) of reason, of science, and of money in Western culture; I So, after making use of the West to criticise Chinese can criticise the hierarchical inequalities in the world culture, I found myself completely defenseless in the economic order and the enfeeblement of social resis- face of an embarrassing dilemma. I suddenly realised tance to it under the impact of technological standardis- that I was using old tools to criticise an even older civilation and the exchange economy; I can criticise the isation, enjoying the superior feelings of a handicapped absence of critical response, and the fear of freedom man making fun of a tetraplegic. When I actually found brought about by riches and a life based on con- myself in the wide open world, I came to recognise that sumerism; bnt such criticisms are not applicable to 1 was neither atheoretician nor a great mind, but an ordiChina. This is because the spirit of rationalism and sci- nary man obliged to start again from scratch. entific enquiry among the Chinese, and the relations In China, the background of g e n d s e d ignorance which they have with monetary power, are still embrygni~Their lives are stin gripped in the vise of poverty and lack of freedom. Consequently, not only can one not apply to China the same frame of reference which can be used to criticise Western culture, but one must be even more careful not to use Chinese culture as a frame of reference for criticising Western culture. The former misapplication would amount to f ~ n gin the dark; the latter would lead to the regression of the whole of mankind. Undoubtedly, some Western intellectuals, dissatisfied with their own society and culture, turn towards the East i n the hope of finding there solutions to the problems confronting the human race. But they are victims of their own blindness and false conceptions. Chinese culture is already powerless in the face of its own national crisis. So how could it possibly' provide the solution to the problems of mankind ingeneral, and especially those faced by the developed countries of the West? I believe that one of the main mistakes committed by mankind in the 20th century was to try to escape from its problems by relying on previously existing civilisations. In their present state, neither Oriental culture nor Western culture has sufficient strength to help humanity out of its desperate plight. At best, the higher level of Western culture may bring the backward East towards modemisation, but modern life is nonetheless a disaster. Up until now, mankind has not been ahle to create a really new civili- Lu Sun, aged 20, in 1904
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made me seem a sage, the cowardliness of the incompetent made my courage seem great, and the congenital idiocy made me seem healthy. But in the United States, deprived of.this context of ignorance, I found myself robbed of my sagacity; when the wall of idiocy fell down, I was nothing but a sick man; and once the prevailing weakness vanished, I was just a coward unwilling to face himself. In China, I lived by a reputation which was overwhelmingly undeserved. In the West, for the first time I faced reality and the hard choices posed by existence. The fall from illusory heights makes one realise that one had never scaled them, and had always been struggling far below. One day, my wife, Tao Li,
wrote to me: "Xiaobo, you seem to be the rebellious son of this society, but in fact you share a profound identity with it. While opposing you, this society can still tolerate you, pardon you, inspire you, and even encourage you. You are like an ornamental inscription on its reverse side". At the time, I did not understand these words. But now, when I think of them again, they hit the mark. My thanks to Tao Li, who is not only my wife. but my severest critic, before whom I bow. I can no longer go back, whether 1 leap across the chasm or break my bones in the attempt. When one's thought engagecthe real, one cannot withdraw from the battle.
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The National Pride of the Slave
On the RecentWave of Nationalism in China LIU XIAOBO (5)
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ERHAPS it
is the fear of violence and imprisonment that has silenced the voice of conscience, perhaps it is the lesson of painful experience that has led to renewed awareness, perhaps it is the profit motive that has conquered the abstractions of liberal democracy, or perhaps it is the failure of China's bid to host the Olympic Games that has roused the national pride. Whatever the causes, ever since the events on Tian'anmen Square on June 4th 1989, and especially since Deng Xiaoping's "tour of the South" in 1992, the whole of China, from the highest circles of government to the general population has been experiencing a rising tide of nationalism and its cult of a return to the soil. The rapidity, intensity, and length of its duration have no precedent among the previous patriotic movements fomented by the government. It is as though the wounds to national pride over the last hundred years are opening yet again.
The great nationalist chorus In its "Programme for a Patriotic Education", the government has spared no effort to promote national pride.
It has used every means at its disposal to promote an awareness of national culture through meetings, lectures, concerts, public readings, festivals, exhibitions, and rallies of various kinds. Every day a patriotic film is shown on television. Publishing houses bring out series of books on traditional Chinese culture with no expense spared. The flag-raising ceremony on Tian'anmen arouses daily attention. And the primary and secondary schools are obliged under current law to have their own flag-raising. The government also makes use of nationalism on the international scene, particularly with regard to human rights. In the face of pressure from the international community, it advances the argument, backed by the possibility of exclusion from the enormous Chinese domestic market, that there are differences between national situations, traditions, and standards of human rights, in order to justify its crushing of those rights and to denounce Western hegemony. Among the population at large, the live television broadcast of China's failed bid to host the Olympics aroused disappointment and anger among millions of Chinese, who blamed the West, and particularly the
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The Diaoyu Islands issue has amused patriotic fervmv United States, for it. Subsequently the telev~sionscreenS' provided space, and unprecedented glamour, for a gamut of historical figures, from Sunzi. Laozi, and the great Yu, to the Han emperor Gaozu, the T'ang emperor Xuanzong, the empress Wu Zetian, the Sung emperor Taizong, the Yuan emperor Kublai Khan, the Ming emperor Taizu, and the Qing emperor Kangx~,not omitting a series of assorted concubines. The bookstalls throughout the country displayed books on the I-Ching, interpretations of the hexagrams, the theories of qigong, the strategy of Sunzi, biographies of leading figures of ancient times, and so on. There was %proliferation of theme parks U e the Window of Chinese Civilisation, Chinese Villages, the Ancient Times Wax Museum, the Journey to the West, and the Tltree Kingdoms Palace. Increasingly, new hulldings were provided w ~ t htraditional upwardly curved roofs. Liu Huifang, the leading female role In the television series Craving (Kewang) was applauded mainly for her traditional virtues (6). The decadent spirit of traditional scholars, thirsting only for wives and concubines, such as it 1s described in The Fallen Capital (Feidu) (7), became a national obsess~on. Films with historical themes and traditional figures continue to win prizes by the bucketful. Those who had hved abroad also hastened to join the great nationalist chorus. In the previous years it was -
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fashionable to go overseas, but more recently returning has been in vogue. Even some of the exiles of June 4th have returned home on the quiet. The returnees mostly express great frustration about their lives abroad, and the literature and films dealing with being sent overseas (yung chadui) have set the current trend (8). First of all there was the fashion for novelised reports like "A Clunese Woman from Manhattan" and "A Peking Man in New York", followed by the very popular TV series with the same name as the latter title. These productions give a general picture of the difficulties facing Chinese abroad, with their national smugness, and they also denounce the insensitivity of the capitalist world. It hardly matters that they bear no relation to the reality of life in the United States: the bigger the lies, the greater their attraction. Their success is a good indicator of the present state of mind of the Chinese population. Academics and government unite to reject the West The nationalist mood displayed by the academic elite is more intense than at any time since the opening to the outside world in 1978. Not being as directly bmed in political needs as the government's patnotism, nor being as emotional as the patriotism of the masses, their nationalism is carefully wrapped in an educated lan-
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guage with pretensions to virtue. The academic elite is ism", with which they attack Western ethnocentrism, dissatisfied with being subservient to the West and its also comes from the United States. It is truly a return to dominant culture, as if these questions were directly the slogan of "learning from foreigners in order to beat them", which has joined the present trend of the internarelated to intellectual conscience or national pride. Accordingly, a certain number of influential young lec- tional academic discourse to defend the dignity of turers at Peking University are preaching a regeneration Chinese culture. The West does indeed dominate world culture at the of national studies (guoxue) and a renun to the time of present time. Westerners determine international starQianlong and Jiaqing (9), with the aim of counteracting dards, and recognitidn depends upon fouowing the rules the academic tendency to foUow Western trends. Some of their game: Those who conform to Western standards well-known young intellectuals promote "Chineseness" are deemed w o a y of international acclaim, and the rest in long articles intended to reinvigorate the declining are ruled out. The Nobel Prize for Literature, cinema national spirit. The discussions, which take S. prizes like the Oscar, the Golden Palm, and the Golden Huntington's Clash of Civilisations and E. Sad's Lion, the Venice Biennial prize for painting, and the rolls Orientalism as their starting point, focus their attack on of international celebrities nominated by Oxford and Eurocentrism and the cultural hegemony of Europe and Cambridge all represent the highest international presthe United States. The "New Wave'' writers who arrived tige and the desired goal for people of all countdes. on the literary scene by imitating Western modernism Contemporary Chinese have been infected with a have largely returned to the "YeUow Earth" (10). "Nobel complex" and an "Oscar complex" to the point Although they often lack the courage to confront conof obsessiveness. But Orientals have no standards for temporary Chinese reality and confinue to blur the hisevaluating Western achievements. There are no intematorical background to theirworks, their "back to the soil" ^Itionally recognised rules of the game, and Western cultendencies are all too obvious. , tural productions have no need to win prizes in the East More dramatic are the cases of Zhang Yimou and or bend to Eastern tastes. Chen Kaige, who won prizes at Venice and C a m s by In recompense for their humility and self-denial before making the land the major theme of their films, but were Westerners, Orientals become exceptionauy pleased then accused of making films to flamer foreign tastes. with themselves whenever the master deigns to award But, at the same time, this phenomenon was dubbed with them with his Favors. When Tagore won the Nbbel Prize, the fashionable learned title of "post-colonial cinema". the Chinese presented him as "the first Asian to win the It is food for thought that the arguments put forward by Nobel Prize for literature". When Kawabata won it, he the government and by the academic elite for rejecting became "the first Japanese to win the Nobel Prize for the West are absolutely the same, and that they use the L~terature". But in recent year, Asians have broken the same phrases (Western hegemony, political hegemony, record by not getting any prize at all. cultural hegemony) aU of which reduce the establishIt is obvious, then, that winning a foreign prize is an ment of this hegemony to a single material force--ecoOriental's passport to the world, bringing lasting fame nomic and military power based on technological develand considerable stature in his own country. The weUopment. It is true that the West exercises its hegemony behaved docility of Orientals in the face of Western by relying on capital and military power. But the norms is like that of children saying a grown-up sentence Chinese intelligentsia seems to forget the freedom and democracy of the West. It always returns to the and being praised by their parents. And yet the formation Westernisation Movement under the Qing dynasty, when of this mentality is not only due to Western norms. Its the West opened up China for itself through the power of causes ate much more m be found in the slavish personality and inferiority complex of the Chinese. It is diff1its gunboats. The cycle of history has accelerated with astonishing cult to imagine what else could be found in such a slavspeed. The champions of Westemisation who loudly ish personality, except an inferiority complex and the called for freedom and democracy at the time of the June compensatory pride borrowed from outside itself, name4th incident, have suddenly become nationalists opposed ly from the consciousness of the master. to Western hegemony. Even Su Xiaokang, in exile in the Universal values and Western supremacy United States. has questioned the tendency found in Yellow River Elegy towards "total Westemisation" and Taking matters a little further, the question is: why is there this global inequality? Is it just because the West is "national nihilism". rich and miIitarily powerful? It would seem not, since Beating the foreigner by imitating him Kawabata and Kurosawa, whose country does not lag Regrettably, all the intellectual tools which such people behind the West in this domain, only received universal use to oppose Western hegemony come from the West, recognition after winning a Nobel Prize and an Oscar. In and the articles in which they defend Chinese culture are the formation of this worldwide culture centred on the West, riches and power are only apparent causes. The loaded with imported concepts. Their beloved "oriental--
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deeper reasons are to be found in the higher values of the West, particularly those which have been developed since the Renaissance in the realm of human rights, freedom, equality, and dignity, along with the democratic political structures based on them. These values correspond more closely to the nature of mankind in general, and they are more favourable to the development of human freedom. They already constitute universally accepted rules of conduct, which nobody dares to oppose openly. Even Oriental dictatorships preach democracy. Even the intellectual elites who are dissatisfied with Western hegemony have to recognise the values of democracy, equality, freedom, human rights, and individual dignity. And even the promoters of neoConfucianism-Du Weiming, Feng Youlan, and Li Zehou-have to make common cause with democracy and freedom to advance their own slogan: "To rule the outer world by a return to inner wisdom". The constant oumge felt by the Chinese towards the West, which so easily bursts out in patriotic mass movements, is rooted in a clinging to past glory, a lamentation over present backwardness, a fear of yielding to the blandishments of the world, and a feeling of inferiority andweakness. Irrational displays of emotion may soothe the humiliations of the last hundred years, but racial hatred will not cure the inequalities in the world. The blinder these irrational displays are, and the more the resentment 1s nourished, the less we will be able to free ourselves from the humiliation. Isn't it time to break out of the vicious circle of modem Chinese history? The Qing government's morbid concern with "face" actuallybrought in Western firepower. The Boxers' fury led to even more unequal concessions. And Mao Zedong's autarchic rule only lasted 20 years and kept up the appearances of national pride at the cost of mining the economy, totally abandoning cultural values, and
destroying the personal dignity of every ind~vidual Chinese. That is why the primary task confronting the Chinese people, in their own country, is to recover and maintain the dignity of every individual, and to face the power of the West with a healthy sense of equality. Only then will it be possible to establish an authentic national and individual dignity. The master and the slave are but two sides of the same coin. I do not believe that a man who is accustomed to being a slave at home can claim to be proud of himself when he ventures out. If our rejection of Western hegemony were ever to reach the point of abandoning our wish for democratic freedom, we would lose all our claims to be anything but perpetual slaves.
1. Cf. Liu Xiaobo. Beiju, Shenmei. Ziyou (Tragedy. Esthetics, Freedom), Taipei. Fengyun shidai. 1989; and Xwnze de pipnn (Selected Criticism), Taipei. Pengyun shidai, 1989. There is a good critical biography of Liu Xisobo in Gu Xin. Wongguofonchunnrong~h~~yi de pinkun (The poverty of Chinese Anti-traditionalism), Taipei, Fengyun shidai. 1993. 2. On this mpic seeLiu Xiaobo, Mon xingcunrhe de dubai (Monologue of the Escapee of the Last Day), Taipei. Shibao wenhua chubanshe, Lishi yu xiangchang congshu 1992. 3. Minghao yuekan. July 1990. pp. 11-16. 4. Ah Q is the hem of the novella by Lu Xun. The Tnre S m v of Ah Q (Ah Q rhengLhuan) who combines blind confarmism with a conviction of his superiority. 5. Ko$m"g. November 1994. 6. Craving (Kewang), a very successful television series based on a s m y by Wang Shuo, broadcast in 1992-1993. 7. The Fallen Capital (Feidu), a novel published in 1993, by Jia Pingwa. For a discussion, see Annie Au-yeung, "Un liwe controvers.5". Perspectives chinoises 00.21, January-Febmary 1994. p. 52. 8. See Jean-Philippe BAja, "Naissance d'un oationalconfucianisme", Perspecrives chinoises no. 30. July-August 1995, p. 6. 9. The Qingempemrs: 1736-1796, and 1796-1821. 10. See Chen Yan. "Fihvre du pas6 et criae identitaire". Perspecrives chinoises no. 28, March-April 1995, p. 9.
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