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| Cui Jian in front of Tian'anmen, source: Chinese Avant-garde Art Archive |
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Cultural Milieu of the Reform Period response
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| Cui Jian in front of Tian'anmen, source: Chinese Avant-garde Art Archive |
Han’s story “Homecoming” is an allegory for the cultural milieu of the reform period and the resulting identity issues that were prevalent during this time period. At first, the narrator is seeing a dose of the ‘same old’ and begins to recognize familiar elements of the village where he presumably has never visited. He says that “this is impossible, I cannot have come here before. I have never had meningitis, no mental illness, I still have my wits about me. Maybe I saw this in a movie once, or maybe it was in a dream that... Anxiously I rack my brains. Stranger still, the hill folk all seem to know me.”(Han, 22) The villagers behave like they have met the protagonist and know what he is like as a person, despite the possibility, as the character asserts, that they may have never met him before.
ReplyDeleteThis is symbolic of the assimilation which defined the Great Cultural Proletariat Revolution of 1966. In this era of Chinese history, society was forced to conform when Chairman Mao ordered for a large number of artists and intellectuals to be exiled to re-education camps in far-away villages to learn communism and think the same way. When the people acted like they “knew” the protagonist without actually meeting him, the author refers to the cultural assumption in this era that everybody had similar communist ideals.
We see this sense of assimilation and oppression paralleled in Bei Dao’s poetry collection “August Sleepwalker.” In his poem “Accomplices,” Dao writes: “freedom is nothing but the distance / between the hunter and the hunted” (39). This quote highlights the poet’s view of living in the cultural milieu during this time of assimilation and oppression which was brought by Mao’s revolution. Bei Dao says that the very idea of freedom can be reduced to the psychological or physical distance between the oppressor (such as the government) and the oppressed (everybody else). In other words, this time period was extremely heavy for free thinkers who wanted the freedom of intellectual and artistic expression.
“this is impossible, I cannot have come here before. I have never had meningitis, no mental illness, I still have my wits about me. Maybe I saw this in a movie once, or maybe it was in a dream that... Anxiously I rack my brains. Stranger still, the hill folk all seem to know me.” Perfect quote you chose to display Huang/Ma confusion about his identity. Good post.
DeleteI really enjoyed your analysis of Dao's poetry, and your description of the milieu as a "time of assimilation and oppression." I agree that this time period was difficult for intellectual thinkers regaining their ability to freely express themselves, but questioning their own self-expression.
DeleteI like your analysis of the quote in "Accomplices." It's scary to think that a government can psychologically take away someone's freedom.
DeleteI really like your quote:" Freedom is nothing but the distance between the hunter and the hunted". He was living in the US. Do you think if he may compare China and the US?
DeleteAfter the beginning of the new period, the having slipped the leash of the durance of decade turmoil and pinko thoughts, all types of literature creation was flourishing. Bei Dao began to write the poems after ten years of turmoil period. I think the poems of Bei Dao are difficult to understand and they need to be thought about little by little. In his poems, its power lies in the metaphor, symbolic way and ironic.
ReplyDeleteIn his “The Answer”, “Debasement is the password of the base, nobility is the epitaph of the noble. See how the gilded sky is covered, with the drifting twisted shadows of the dead.” (Bei, pp.33) This is a typical ironical remark. The base could use the debasements as the password to achieve their aims. But the nobility would die for their noble actions. What kind of society it is and what kind of world it is? The society can’t tell right from wrong, and the black and white are mixed together in that world. A poignant contrast between the base and the nobility is a direct way of expressing discontent of the society. “Let me tell you, world. I do not believe! If a thousand challengers lie beneath your feet, count me as number one thousand and one.” (Bei, pp.33) This also express the author’s discontent of the morality undone society.
I agree, Bei Dao is one of my favorite poets but he is very heavy on the metaphor. That's probably why I enjoy his work much. It's very subtle and powerful, the way he uses symbolism and imagery to convey complex ideas.
DeleteI agree with you. Bei Dao's poems are too difficult to understand. In his poems, there are a lot of metaphors. Those are hardest to understand.
DeleteAgree with your opinion of “The Answer”, it is quite famous in China and it reflected the real society, which is dark and ironic.
DeleteI feel that both of the authors are hard to understand. The contents in their works often refer to other things and it is unclear what they are referring to.
DeleteI agree with " I think the poems of Bei Dao are difficult to understand and they need to be thought about little by little." His poems need to read many times to understand. I think because we do not have the same experiences as him, so we cannot get what the peoms mean easily.
DeleteHan’s story of The Homecoming talked about a man named Huang Zhixian, he entered a mountain village, and villagers think he is another person who is Glasses Ma. Huang spends a lot of time to prove whether or not he is Glasses Ma. “I now decide with all my might: I have never been to this place, nor do I know this fellow the Runt. No. Never.” (p.34, Han) Huang think he has never been to this place, but he knows the runt. He has doubted him is not himself, and he starts to believe he is Glasses Ma. Because he uses two strongly negative words to let h believe he has never been to this place, however, “NO, never” show that he begins to feel guilty.
ReplyDeleteIn the end of the story, Huang said:” I am tired.” (p.40, Han) I think “I” in addition to represent character, and it also represent Chinese people who come from city. The history background of the story is after Cultural Revolution. During Cultural Revolution that period, citizens were sent to remote villages to re-learned history and were forced to relinquish their individual ideas. They have no self-awareness during that time.
I agree. I think the people was trying to find their true self but society is imposing dual identities on them.
Delete"In the end of the story, Huang said:” I am tired.” (p.40, Han) I think “I” in addition to represent character, and it also represent Chinese people who come from city." Great thought here. I never thought of it like that. But I definitely agree with you. I feel as if this entire story was written for the confusion of the identity of the Chinese people post revolution.
Delete"The homecoming" from the novel's language and character psychology perspective, fudge and real hero of that language in the dialogue between the interwoven self appeared voluntarily go back to a voluntary return of conscious, have the desire to show in front of the reader's life.
ReplyDeleteBei Dao poetry began in the late ten years of turmoil, reflecting the awakening from a lost generation of youth to the voices of the absurd reality of ten years of chaos, causing the poet's unique "cold lyric" way - surprisingly calm and profound speculative. He wanted to "work through the establishment of a world of their own, which is a genuine and unique in the world, the world of integrity, justice and humane world.
I liked his"The answer" in the "I-do-not-believe!" (P33)This sentence is like to be awakened vast night sleeping people, let people the courage to face the world, and the courage to express their doubts."If the land is destined to rise,Let humanity choose a peak for existence again."(P33) like to tell people the courage to change the world.
"I do not believe" is one of my favorite lines from August Sleepwalker as well. It's such a boldly powerful statement because of how direct it is, which I'm sure was very hard to do in such an oppressive time period. It required a lot of courage.
DeleteI like your opinion that "I do not believe" is to be awakened vast night sleeping people, let people the courage to face the world. You think a lot, and have a deep understanding.
DeleteAt the Cultural Revolution time, to determine the value of a man, and recover of human nature is very important thing.
DeleteI like your idea:"This sentence is like to be awakened vast night sleeping people, let people the courage to face the world, and the courage to express their doubts" I feel the same way as you about " I do not believe". People need wake up to face the true world.
DeleteIn Homecoming, when the character Huang came back to the rural life again (a different village where he had never been), he felt familiarity and comfortable. During the culture revolution, educated youth from cities were asked and arranged to go back to the rural lives, the “root” part of Chinese culture. The tough environment, heavily physical labor, and mental suffering collapsed a plenty of them. This was unreasonable. However, to the author, he seemed to enjoy it because there, anyhow, not even an inch land of China was available to achieve his goals in his profession in that time. He was lost and confused to his faith. Probably he found something interested him while he was living and working in the village with those traditional earthy villagers. The familiar was something attracted him. I think that could be the traditional values. The conflicts in society forced those people to rethink about the city civilizations and the western values existed in that period. What was good, where to go, and how?
ReplyDeleteIn The August Sleepwalker, the author clearly expressed his opposition to the “sick” period of the culture revolution. The cruel reality was far behind what he was told about the “ideal world”. He was angry and in the depth of despair to that dark society, as what he wrote, “Let me tell you, world. I-do-not-believe!” (The Answer. Page-32) Dark suffocated the humanity, moral code, and values during the 10 years havoc. His cruel hope, “we have said goodbye to childhood friends and colorful dreams, the earth rushes on… let the retreating horizon collapse in a mighty howl” (Cruel Hope. Page-24). It was not a peaceful, fair, free, and beautiful world, but full of darkness and violence, especially to the new generations.
The reality was really far behind the "ideal world" and he was angry to the "dark society", but the poems he wrote are too negative. I don't think we should have such negative manner when we face the "dark society". I always believe that China will be more and more democratic, free and stronger in the future.
Delete"Homecoming" is a very surreal short story that can be interpreted in several different ways. Firstly it reminded me of Franz Kafka's "Metamorphoses", which makes sense now after I learned that Han Shaogong was influenced by Kafka. The main question of the story is if the narrator is Huang Zhixian, Ma Four eyes, or both. A great quote which describes the milieu of this time in China is "And this Huang Zhixian - is that me? I will never be able to walk out of the enormity that is me. I am tired." (Han, 40) The narrator is very confused about his identity, something many Chinese people after the Cultural Revolution had to deal with. His journey of self-discovery may be symbolic of the Chinese people trying to rediscover what had been lost during the Cultural Revolution.
ReplyDeleteThe one poem that stood out to me the most in August Sleepwalker was the "Song of Migrating Birds". It makes me think that Bei Dao was trying to say that the current generation of Chinese were like these migrating birds in that it was up to them to make changes to the country. "Let our shed feathers / Fall on the heads of young women;/ Let our strong wings / Bear the sun aloft. /.../ It is our cries / That frighten icebergs into ancient tears; / It is our jeers / That shame roses into crimson cheeks." (Bei Dao, 29) I believe it says a lot about the cultural milieu of the post-Cultural Revolution era.
It is interesting for me that you took change in your response. " like these migrating birds in that it was up to them to make changes to the country." But I think it is also a kind of symbolic of desire of freedom.
DeleteI really like how you said Huang Zhixian's journey "was of self-discovery and may be symbolic of the Chinese people trying to rediscover what had been lost during the Cultural Revolution" I couldn't agree with this more. Like you said in class, people at this time were almost brainwashed and this post Mao era was not only to rediscover their own identity, but also China's
DeleteI really like your mentioning of how Shaogong's work was influenced by that of Kafka. Very interesting!
DeleteI also thought this story was symbolizing the Chinese people trying to find what they lost in the Cultural Revolution.
DeleteYour post was very good! I thought you has very good ideas and quotes to support your ideas.
Delete"The Homecoming" is a short story about self searching or losing. "I" went on a trip to the rural region but to his surprise he found everything is familiar and people from the country seems know his well. And all of the people seemed to regard him as "Huang." So "I" went through the Huang's story and finally regard himself as "Huang." It is some kind of weird who is "I" on earth. As far as I am concerned, it does not really matter. It is just a symbolic of the progress during the whole historical background. As the author said in the last paragraph, "I'm stunned. My mind is blank. It is true, I am at the inn, in the corridor is a dim light swarming with bugs, underneath it a row of makeshift cots." (Han, p.40)
ReplyDelete"Bei Dao, The august sleepwalker": I really like Bei Dao's poem in my senior school. I still remember the sentences that "Debasement is the password for the base, Nobility is the epitaph of the noble."( Bei Dao, p.33) His poems are well written with beautiful words. I really enjoy the poem of "Notes from the city of the Sun." To be honest, I was shocking by his "Living, a net" (Bei Dao, p.30) Living it self it quite complex as a net. People are linked by the relationships with a huge net. Things are connected like a huge net. It is quite specific and accurate.
I agree that the Homecoming is very symbolic of progress that was going on in post-Cultural Revolution China. I also agree with your analysis of life being like a huge net with all the complex connections.
DeleteI support your point that human's relationship is like a huge nest. Even it is complex, human build the nest by communicating with each other.
DeleteI agree with your opinion. I really enjoy Bei Dao's poems. His words are beautiful, his poems are revealing and far-reaching.
Delete“The Homecoming” describes Huang going to a village but is recognized by the villagers as Ma. He is confused and does not think he is Ma. However, everyone knew him and tells him that he is Ma. The villagers were able to recollect ideas from the past about his presences and the things that he had done. I think the author is referring to the Cultural Revolution that that just taken place in China. During the revolution, people were simply being told that they should do this and do that. Perhaps the identity of the people have been lost. In the quote, “I am now absolutely sure. I have never been here before. As for the old woman’s statement, I have no idea what it means wither- an unfathomable pool (pg.32) “, we can see that Huang is confused. Like the people in China at that time, Huang does not know his true identity and how he should fit in the society. In the August Sleepwalker, the author is also criticizing the revolution. He is angry at the world and how the revolution has not changed the lives of the people for the better of the society. The new generation must fight for itself and hope better changes will come along.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that the Cultural Revolution dictated the identity of the people and "The Homecoming" seems symbolic of the people reclaiming their lost identity. I also reached the same conclusion about the new generation fighting for change in "August Sleepwalker".
DeleteIt seems that once again China had fallen back into a cycle where the norm was determined by one powerful ruler. The outcome is that the people of China lost their identity and the battle for self-identity began
DeleteI support your idea that some people in China still can not identity themselves. Revolution is definitely changes lives of people.
DeleteI think at that time in China, people need a integrity of the world, the world of justice and of human nature.
DeleteThe Han Shaogong’s Homecoming is hard to understand. The story narrated a man who went to the village. He was confused who he was. He was Huang or Ma. In the whole story, I felt confused and depressive. This story was written around in the 1980. Combined the story with the current society, I could feel some relationships between the story and society. In the story, the man mainly found who he was. In the 1980, I think there were many people were also confused who they were, what they should think. The Cultural Revolution ended in the 1976. Mao Zedong also died in the year. From the class video, I saw the China changed a lot in 1978. Deng Xiaoping went aboard. China had western party style that female and male danced together. I think the culture changed too quick that might hard to let some traditional people accept. Form the Homecoming, I felt that Han Shaogong was confused. He said in the story he missed the village. Also, at the end, he wrote : “I will never be able to walk out of the enormity that is me. I am tired” (Han, P40). I think he might be tired to accept the new cultural thought. He felt depressive.
ReplyDeleteBei Dao’s The August walker also let me feel very depress. Bei Dao had lived in the US. From his poems, I could see he was looking forward to freedom. In the The August Walker, “cloud”, “ocean” both represents freedom. However, he wrote corpses on the ocean. Maybe he reflected some dark truth at that time. As I read in the reading, “ In the eyes of the authorities, the writing of such poetry was itself an unforgivable act of political defiance, and the poets found it impossible to distance themselves from open political acts. Bei Dao took part in the Tiananmen demonstrations of spring 1976 which preceded the death of Mao Zedong and the fall of his “Gang of Four”. “The Answer” is a clear expression of his personal challenge to the political leadership.” (Bei Dao, P11) In my opinion, Bei Dao’s poems tried to tell people he was looking forward the real freedom.
In the story of the "Homecoming", there was a lot of confusion and mystery. You have the narrator come into the story and from what it he says the narrator seems to be lost and was also losing his mind. "There really is a bird singing in the tree: "Do not go-go-go, do not go-go-go..."-a lonesome cry that shoots high into the heave like an arrow.." (Pg 39 Han Shaogong) shows that the narrator was actually losing his mind to some extent because in actuality there is no bird singing to him. Through out the story there are other scenes that depict this strange behavior were he insist that he knows certain people when in actuality they have never met. This also brings up perspective because he is returning from being sent-away as a youth. As a child his thoughts could have been clear but as the narrator becomes older his perspective will undoubtedly change.
ReplyDeleteIn the "August Sleepwalker" there was a more dark element to this reading. Everyone was as if they didn't want to know about the new world and rather "forget" that anything existed. The newer generations were the ones to take all of the burden left behind by the older generations but no matter what the outcome was there was always going to be this time of renewal. "Grass is drunk in sobbing. Chrysanthemums imitate soberness. Winds says to rain. You were once Water. and to water shall return. Then rain withdraws its first sword points. And flows into streams that pour into rivers." shows that even in nature there are things that will continue to exist and be continuous whether it accepts it or not. However, I do have to point out that the poems that are also accompanied with the one above are dark and they have underlying theme of hatred towards the new society. in one story there is a narrator saying that they remember everything that happen even though it really didn't and in the other, the poems seem to speak as if they see the truth but instead want to close their eyes from it and pretend to know nothing. No matter the situation life is continuous and will renew itself as the old generation begins to return back to the ocean
I love how you mention some of the poems seeing the truth, but wishing to pretend that they didn't. The older generations cannot forget the pain their society experienced under the era of the Cultural Revolution, but newer generations will renew their perceptions of culture. Great point!
DeleteThe period following the Cultural Revolution was a time when people were searching for an identity, both individually and collectively, while coping with the trauma that they had experienced. Han Shaogong’s short story and Bei Dao’s collection of poetry express the emotions of this time period rather than directly describing it. In “The Homecoming,” there is very little concrete information about the narrator, but it is implied that he is one of the sent-down children. The last line of the story says a lot not just about the narrator as an individual, but the collective identity of the sent-down children. “I will never be able to walk out of the enormity that is me. I am tired.” (Han, 40) “Enormity” usually has a bad connotation, which implies that the narrator, as well as the other sent-down children, will be forever struggling with an identity crisis caused by various relocations, and that this struggle is tiring.
ReplyDeleteBei Dao’s poetry, like all poetry, can have vastly different meanings depending upon who interprets it. For me, reading it in the context of post-Cultural Revolution society, his poem “Let’s Go” is urging his fellow countrymen to move on. In particular, these lines stand out: “…But the song has no home to return to…We have not lost our memories….The road, the road, Is covered with a drift of scarlet poppies.” (Bei Dao, 34) The people in this time period could not change their society to fit any of the ideals of the previous time periods in China, but as they forged a new path, they also could not forget their memories of the Cultural Revolution.
The cultural revolution can never be forgotten in China, but I think things like cultural revolution won't happen again in China. "Let's Go", urging fellow countrymen to move on.
Delete“A dream comes to me. In it I am still walking on and on along a rutted path, its skin and muscles of mud long since stripped away by runoffs from the hills, only bones and bowels left now to bear the trample of the hill folk’s straw shoes. The road is endless. The calendar watch on my wrist tells me I have been walking for an hour, a day, a week… but still the road runs beneath my feet. Later I am to have the same dream over and over, no matter where I go” (Homecoming, 40). It can be assumed that Xiao Ma (Huang Zhixian) was a participant of the “Sent-Down Youth,” and was rusticated, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, to the countryside for an extended amount of time during the Cultural Revolution. This quote jumps out at me because it is obvious that his “exile” in the countryside left Ma confused on where his home was, and probably his purpose in life as well. When the revolution was over, he found that his home was neither here nor there, and that he was condemned to be a wanderer, tortured by his dual identity. It also tells us that this path is weary and “stripped,” and that the travelers upon this path are the “hill folks;” this tells us that there are many like him who are enduring the same experience, many lives that were destroyed by Mao’s pursuit of leftist ideals.
ReplyDelete“Let’s go – Fallen leaves blow into deep valleys, but the song has no home to return to. Let’s go – Moonlight in the ice has spilled beyond the river bed. Let’s go – Eyes gaze at the same patch of sky, hearts strike the twilight drum. Let’s go – We have not lost our memories; we shall search for life’s pool. Let’s go – the road, the road is covered with a drift of scarlet poppies” (Sleepwalker, 34). “Let’s Go” impacted me the most in “August Sleepwalker,” mostly because of its close connections to “Homecoming.” “…no home to return to” once again signifies all of the people who are misplaced because of the Cultural Revolution ,and must find their lives again. “We have not lost our memories” suggests how the government just wanted the people to forget what had happened after they had been exonerated, but it was truly impossible to forget, for some, what took up two decades of their life. “The road is covered with a drift of scarlet poppies” could allude to either the lives lost throughout the revolution (red signifying blood), or the prevalence of communist (red) ideals that caused the misplacement to occur.
I thought the quote you picked to open with and expand upon it was really well done. I also enjoyed your analysis of "Let's Go"
DeleteYour analysis of the people traveling along the path could be significant with the many lives that were like him whose lives were destroyed by Mao's pursuit of leftist ideals was brilliant. I would have never of thought of that. Great job Tyler!
DeleteI like this quote you chose, It does exactly what I talked about in my response, which is the use of vivid language, while still supporting your arguments. It is very easy to paint a picture with the author's words, which allows us to look at the actual meaning behind the description, which was the effects of the revolution.
Delete“Homecoming” by Han Shaogong opened up with a man named Huang Zhixian walking into a village. The villagers greeted him saying he had been gone for 10 years. All of the villagers think he is a man named Glasses Ma not Huang Zhixian. Apparently, this Ma character is married, he owns a house, he might have killed a man and he was a teacher of Communist material. Huang/Ma has a hard time remembering this life that the villagers speak of. He says, “All this seems familiar, yet strange too, like a word you’ve been staring at for too long- now it looks right. Damn it, have I been here before or not (Shaogong, 2)?” The story continues with the protagonist, Huang/Ma, very confused about his identity. This could be symbolism for what the Chinese people were feeling at the time. They were a very confused nation being pulled in 2 very different political ways. The purpose of confused identity and trying to find self actualization is key in understand this reading.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I noticed while reading Bei Dao’s “August Sleepwalker” poems, was all the imagery he portrayed for the reader. My favorite poem was “All.” “All is fate. All is cloud. All is a beginning without an end… All hope comes with footnotes. All faith comes with groans. All deaths have a lingering echo (Dao 35).” This is a beautiful poem. The way he opens the beginning and closes the end, I feel as if he is describing his feeling during the Post Chinese Revolution. These were sad poems that depicted his real life feelings. Very passionate poems.
I really liked how you commented on how the nation was being pulled in two different directions just like his identity.
DeleteI really liked how you used the quote from Bei Dao's "August Sleepwalker." That poem was one that stuck with me and really showed what was happening during the cultural revolution.
DeleteThis is a good summary and analysis of how this story relates to China's economical and societal ties with the ongoing revolution. Without that key knowledge and interpretation, this story may just seem pointless!
DeleteHan Shaogong’s “Homecoming” depicts a man who encounters a village in which there are familiar images, but he is almost certain that he has never been there before. As he battles to recall why these strangers seem to know him, he becomes more and more confused. The story ends when he returns to his inn and is called by his ‘real’ name. It leads the reader to determine which perceptions of the man were imagination or reality. The last line of the story furthers this question of identity, “I will never be able to walk out of the enormity that is me” (Shaogong 40). The aftermath of the Cultural Revolution also prompted this search of the past, of self-discovery, and of true identity.
ReplyDeleteBei Dao’s collection of poetry has similar dark undertones, yet not without faint hope. One particular poem, “I Go into the Rain Mist” stood out for the soul’s desperate plea to find home amidst darkness, “Heart, where is home. Where is your roof?” (Dao 21). It contains powerful imagery of the surroundings such as “grass is drunk in sobbing” and “chrysanthemums imitate soberness” (Dao 21). The “birds scatter in all directions,” describe the scattering of the Chinese people during the Cultural Revolution, searching for the Chinese meaning of culture once more. Both Shaogong’s “Homecoming” and Doa’s “The August Sleepwalker” portray their meaning within their titles. In the milieu of the 1980s, the Chinese people are desperate to awaken out of their sleepwalking state left by the Cultural Revolution and into a homecoming of an authentic cultural identity.
Really good post. I like how you related the titles of the readings to the sleepwalking state left after the Cultural Revolutions in China.
Delete“The Homecoming” is talks about a man named Huang Zhixian walks and discovers a washed-away dirt path. Then, it leads him to a mountain village and villagers consider him as another person called Ma. He confuses and question by himself after he got detail from villager’s memory about Ma. “I will never be able to walk out of the enormity that is me. I am tired.” (Han,P40). This sentence indicate the narrator tired of denying he was Ma, he is literally labeled his name “Ma” and lost his identity. China just experienced “Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution” in 1960 and citizens were force to give up their individual ideas and support communism. The evidence of the narrator’s struggle can be in fact of culture milieu in 1980s that Chinese wrestling with the effects of being a re-educated youth.
ReplyDelete“The August Sleep Walker” by BeiDao was written in 1985. China just experienced economic reform by Deng Xiaoping. “All”(P35) means image unity and performance of natural environment. “All hope come with footnotes. All faith comes with groans.” It reveals Bei was puzzle by reality and want to get answer from the footnotes.
I agree with your opinion. Chinese citizens in that period of time were forced to follow the government. I think people should have their own thought, not just like unthinking toys.
DeleteHan Shaogong's The Homecoming, tells the story of a man who travels to a village where the village people are telling him that he is Glasses Ma, although he believes he is Huang Zhixian. He is constantly being persuaded that this is the person he is. This story serves as a symbol to the end result of the Cultural Revolution in China. People were having to relearn China. "I am stunned. My mind is blank...this Huang Zhixian-is that me? I will never be able to walk out of the enormity that is me. I am tired" (Shaogong, 40). I thought this quote was really interesting because he is no longer sure of his identity, like the Chinese after the cultural revolution.
ReplyDeleteBei Dao (Zhao Zhenkai) is a very controversial writer in China, who's work mostly touched on the subjects of China's politics. He was a part of the Tienanmen demonstrations of 1976 (McDougall,11). One of the poems he wrote that I really liked was Notes from the City of the Sun, especially the lines "Youth, Red Waves, drown a solitary oar" (Dao, 31). I thought it was interesting because of how youth band together and act as a unit, absorbing others.
I enjoyed the quote that you picked; specifically, I enjoyed when he says "I am tired." This immediately struck me as a highly unique way to end a story. What is he tired of? Is he tired of being divided between his separate identities? Is he tired of living in a country that now accepts him, but just years before rejected him? Is he tired of being lied to? I think it can be interpreted in many ways.
DeleteIn Han Shaogong’s “Homecoming”, it mainly talked about a man named Huang Zhixian came to a village, but most of villagers thought he as another man named Ma Four Eyes. From the novel we can know some information about the Ma Four eyes. “‘I've still got those books you gave out when you were the local schoolteacher.’”(Han, 28) Through this words, Ma Four Eyes was once a private teacher in village who is during the Culture Revolution. And he also killed a male villager who was named Yang the Runt. Also because once he was refusing a young girl’s love that led to this girl have a misfortune end. So, Ma Four Eyes’ everything is to be borne by the Huang Zhixian. And Huang gradually put himself as Ma. At the end of the novel, "I" steal away like a fugitive and went to an inn. When his friend addresses him as “Huang Zhixian”, did not know who is Huang. “But…is there still someone in the world named Huang Zhixian? And this Huang Zhixian ---is that me?”(Han, 40) Finally, the author at the end used “I was tired”. Han’s “homecoming” in the form of virtual to enlightenment to us, the essence of the revelation we think about and find yourself.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, in China have a poet who named Bei Dao. He is the most notable representative of the Misty Poets, a group of Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution. I know him because when I study in Middle school, his words attracted me that is “Debasement is the password of the base, Nobility the epitaph of the noble.” (Bei, 33) His poems reflects from confusion to awakening of a generation of young men’s heart. Ten years of unrest in the absurd reality, cause him became a unique way of "cold lyric" ---- surprisingly calm and deep thoughts. So, in his poem it mainly about the integrity of the world, the world of justice and of human nature.
This is very similar as Han Shaogong’s novel. They are all mocking the world and wanted the people can reflection of history and reality. Also hopes in the Cultural Revolution time, to determine the value of a man, and recover of human nature.
“Homecoming” is a short story that I believe centers around the term identity. This is because in the story, we quickly learn that Huang Zhixian has “returned” to a small village and is apparently highly regarded throughout the village as someone named “Ma four eyes” (reason being he has glasses). As the short story progresses Huang Zhixian begins to develop more confusion on his true identity. Is he Ma four eyes? Is he even Huang Zhixian? Or is he both? As the short story comes to an end the readers stumble upon a great quote that reads “I steal away like a fugititive, without saying goodbye to the people in the village, and without taking care of the premium white rice. Anyways, what do I want with rice or with opium? It seems they are not what I came for originally. I feel suffocated by it all – the whole village, the entire enigma that is me. I must escape.” (39) Through this quote we see the main character, Huang Zhixian, refer to himself as an enigma, meaning his own identity is a mystery or puzzling. The short story ends allowing the reader to interpret whether or not Huang Zhixian really was Ma four eyes or not. To my interpretation I believe Huang Zhixian was also Ma Four eyes. Like Vincent said in class, at this time people were almost brainwashed into thinking a specific way. I also believe because this was during the cultural revolution, and eventually leading to the post Mao era, people were beginning to
ReplyDelete“lose their identity” of old China. A quote that I stumbled across when reading that I found interesting was when Huang Zhixian began to almost instinctively refer to himself as this Ma character. “Yes, it’s me. (how calm and confident comes the answer)” (37)
The poem that caught my attention was “True”. Tying this in with “Homecoming” the phrases that stood out were “True, this is spring. Pounding hearts disturb the clouds in water. Spring has no nationality. Clouds are citizens of the world. Become friends again with mankind.” (Bei Dao, 22) The post Mao era was a time for China to reform from their old ways of traditions and civil wars that ruined their country. By referring to “spring having no nationality” and also the meaning of spring and rebirth, I believe the purpose of this poem was explain what China was going through, a rebirth period. A new China was being born.
I agree with you; I also think that identity is the main idea of "Homecoming."
DeleteI also agree. The main thing that the Chinese people wanted the rest of world to know not about their economy or the style of their government. They wanted to show the world about the unique and special customs of the Chinese culture.
DeleteIn the beginning of Han Shaogong’s “Homecoming”, there are examples of strife that took place in the town. For instance, in the blockhouse there are “blank staring gun embrasures, and dark walls that looked as if they had been charred by smoke and fire, as if they were the coagulation of many dark nights. I had heard that bandits had been rife in these parts in the past” (Han 127). Many agitators from the city along with the youth were sent to small villages as part of their cultural education. There are many instances of theft.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to this small example, I think the whole story can be read as an example of what happened to people during the Cultural Revolution. The narrator had presumably been teaching and touting Marxist / peasant uprising ideas. We could assume that he was sent to be re-educated and now can no longer remember his past life. So much so that when he returns to his village, he doesn’t recognize it as such, nor does he recognize himself. There is a great moment of self-awareness and triumph of the individual when he is bathing. He sees himself as someone who can do something.
Your response is interesting. I never paid attention to the evidence of conflict in the village, nor did i think about why the narrator was sent there in the first place.
Delete"Homecoming" is a very interesting and confusing short story. During the Cultural Revolution, the main character was sent out to the villages, like many students were during the time. We're trying to figure out if the main character is Ma Four eyes, Huang Zhixian, or event both. He becomes very confused of his own identity and tries to figure it out. I think this is a symbolic for the people of China who were trying to find what they lost during the Cultural Revolution.
ReplyDelete"August Sleepwalker" was full of interesting, meaningful poems. I think the most powerful quote that I found in any of these poems came out of the one titled, "Accomplices." "Freedom is nothing but the distance between the hunter and the hunted." I think this is expressing his realization that his freedom can actually be taken away at any time, with the communist government being the hunter and the citizens being the hunted.
"Freedom is nothing but the distance between the hunter and the hunted."
DeleteI love the piece that you picked. Around the same time of this publishing, the "Democracy Wall" had been created by the citizens, posting their thoughts and ideas post-Cultural Revolution; a major discussion was Democracy and , in turn, freedom of the people. I wonder if Bei Dao contemplated if freedom was a possibility through the state. And if so, I wonder if this is how he truly defined it.
I really like the quotes that you chose. You had a good summary of Homecoming as well, especially given how confusing it was to read.
DeleteI like the quotes that you chose for this response, they enable you to have a great summary of the poems and accurately depict them in this writing.
DeleteMy first thought about this piece is how open it is for interpretation. The main character is very "confused" throughout the whole reading, and at times I found it somewhat confusing of a story. However, the story itself has a backdrop or setting based off of the ongoing cultural revolution, which made this discombobulated tone very appropriate. The name Homecoming is also very suitable considering many individuals similar to Huang were simply lost on their point of views or stances with respect to society and culture, and were just trying proverbially get home. Overall I believe this piece's most significant aspect is the setting and symbolism that which the protagonists portrays.
ReplyDelete"August Sleepwalker" was also of importance when talking about the setting of China during the 1980s. This piece is a collaboration of many poems that have the presence of symbolism. These poems contain very profound, vivid language. The imagery produced by the poems makes it seem like you aren't even reading, and your simply watching something transpire right before your eyes. These poems, along with Homecoming provide the true meaning on China in the 1980s; at the time, many Chinese had mixed thoughts, and were not sure of what to believe, or think; yet having the right to make their own decisions meant there was hope. This was hope for these citizens of the People's Republic of China, as well as hope for the society as a unit to come together and move forward.
I agree with you about the descriptive language. I could easily picture in my mind the settings.
DeleteI have the same idea with you. "Chinese had mixed thoughts, and were not sure of what to believe". This is because China developed too fast. After just one year, they became very open mind, such as female and male danced together.
Delete“The Homecoming” is a magic realism fiction, it talks about self-identify. Huang once went to a village. However, he found that every villagers already knew him, they called him Glasses Ma. Villagers talk about past things with him, he gradually got confused about who is he. “ I am stunned, my mind is blank. It’s true, I am at the inn, in the corridor is a dim light swarming with bugs, underneath it a row of makeshift cots.”(Han Shaogong, P 40). He’s friend called him Huang, but villagers thought he was Glasses Ma. As we can see, Glasses Ma is a positive character in this fiction, He has many good qualities such like kind and justice. Combined with historical background, culture evolution destroyed Chinese traditional values, It also destroyed thousands of people’s view of life. I think Han was attempted to retouch Chinese people’s roots, to retrieve those good qualities in Chinese traditional values, to lead Chinese people to get out of the confused period. In a way, he did something same as Lu Xun.
ReplyDeleteIn Bei Dao’s poetry “The August Sleepwalker”, we can see his longing for light and hope. Culture evolution, some Chinese people named this movement as “ Ten years of chaos” because this movement brought huge damage to the Chinese traditional values. Lots of people lost themselves in this movement. In “The August Sleepwalker”, Bei Dao uses “sun” stand for light, “stone bell tolls” stand for hope. He said “ the stone bell tolls on the seabed, Its tolling stirs up the waves. The august sleepwalker has seen the sun in the night.”(Bei Dao ‘The August Sleepwalker”). From these sentence we can see Bei Dao hope Chinese people can get out of the dark period and wake up from nightmare. The sun will rise and the future will be bright.
In the story The Homecoming by Han Shaogong is about a man name Huang who is mistaken at this village for being someone named Ma. When he is first mistaken for Ma he makes a very big effort to tell those around him that they have him mistaken for someone else. “My name is not Ma, it is Huang..” (Shaogong, 23) “I want to say my name is not Ma at all, it is Huang-Huang Zhixian, as a matter of fact..” (Shaogong, 27) However, despite what he says and efforts to convince them, they still believe he is not who he thinks he is. I think this reflects the cultural milieu that was going on because the government was forcing people to think as communists. Like the story, when the villagers have this thought that they know him because they should all think and act the same he eventually gives into it at the end. “Is there still someone in the world named Huang Zhixian? And this Huan Zhixian-is that me?” (Shaogong, 40) The piece that I chose in the collection, “August Sleepwalker” was Cruel Hope. I think the title really tells a lot about those who didn’t want to think or act the way that the government wanted but felt that there was little hope. “We have said goodbye to childhood friends and colourful dreams”(McDoughgall, 24). This reflects the culture milieu by reflecting the effect that this change is having on these people.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story “The Homecoming” by Han Shaogong, the main character is mistaken for someone he is not named Ma. He fights and argues with the villagers who have mistaken him that he is not Ma, but none of them listen to him, which is shown in the quote, “I want to say my name is not Ma at all, it is Huang-Huang Zhixian, as a matter of fact.” (Page 27). I find that this shows the confusion in China at the time dues to traditional Chinese culture and the Communist party’s view on society mixing and causing a loss in “identity” just as the main character.
ReplyDeleteBei Dao’s collection of poetry was somewhat dark and mysterious. A common theme I found was the sense of confusion. This can be analyzed to show the Chinese people who are confused and searching for their traditional culture and history, but also trying to stay true to the Chinese government at the time.
I used the same quote in my description of the Homecoming, I think it is a very powerful quote of how he felt at the beginning of the story where he was trying to convince everyone that he isn't who they though. I think how you reflected it with the confusion that China was in at the time, it was a different perspective of what I had thought.
DeleteI also like your interpretation of the confusion in China during the revolution and how this theme is present in both of the readings.
Delete"Homecoming" is a story of a man named Huang Zhixian who is thought to be another man by the name of Glasses Ma or Four Eyes Ma. This is simply a coincidence that Huang happens to walk through that very village. All the local villagers rush up to greet him but he still does not have any strong or otherwise notable memories of the place. This story was very interesting because it confronted an issue that was very big after the cultural revolution. This issue was of an on-going identity-crisis.
ReplyDeleteThe poems by Bei Dao were very vivid and interesting because of the very vibrant and discursive words. These poems definitely depict the attitude portrayed by the Chinese people of the 1980's in the sense that they were striving to show the rest of the world what culture meant to them. Chinese people desperately wanted a sense of identity among not just China or East Asia, but across the globe as well.
I think your description of the poems were very accurate, they were different views on the people of China trying to show the identity they wanted to everyone instead of what was expected of them.
DeleteThis is a good depiction of the poems, they are different but have the same underlying message that you caught onto.
DeleteI believe that these two samples of writing indicate that the social situation in China during the 1980s was vaguely reminiscent of how it had been in the past but was an obviously different atmosphere with the country moving in an entirely different direction. I believe that the citizens were sort of unsure as to what they should expect of the future and how, if at all, their memories of the past would be any indication of where the country was headed.
ReplyDeleteThe two quotes that I believe best show this from these two readings are:
From homecoming: "All this seems familiar, yet strange too, like a word you've been staring at for too long-- now it looks right, now it doesn't. Damn it, have I been here before or not?"
From Smiles, Snowflakes, Tears:
"Everything is spinning rapidly.
Only you are smiling softly.
From the smile's red rose
I've plucked the winter's song.
O deep blue snowflakes.
What are you saying in whispers?
Give me an answer--
Are starts always stars?"
Great post. I like the poem that you chose to use.
DeleteIn Homecoming, when Huang returned back to the rural lifestyle again, which was actually a different village that he was not completely familiar with, he turned out to be very comfortable with this life change. The youth that were considered educated that lived in the cities were asked, but more or less were told to go back to the rural lives, which was considered the root part of the Chinese culture. He endured tough struggles but not limited to, the very tough environmental conditions, mental suffering and also very harsh physical labor. This was very unfair and unreasonable. He became very lost, and began to question his faith. One thing that seemed to almost comfort him was the same traditional values that he came across, they were similar to his own and it made the harsh living not as bad.
ReplyDeleteIn Bei Dao’s “August Sleepwalker” poems, he used very detailed imagery to the reader. “All is fate. All is cloud. All is a beginning without an end… All hope comes with footnotes. All faith comes with groans. All deaths have a lingering echo (Dao 35).” You can really feel emotion in this poem, you could tell that these feelings were not made up. It was evident that his diction choice really depicted his true feelings.
Han’s story “Homecoming” is a great story that describes a man going to a village. When he arrives the villagers as someone who he is not, a man names Ma, recognize him. This has Han very confused because he doesn’t know himself as this Ma character that everyone thinks he is. The people of this village keep telling him that he is Ma until he starts to believe it. They talk about his past as if they have all known each other for years. This is the author’s way of relating a story that is very interesting with the revolution that has just taken place in China. This is seen because the villagers tell Han who he is just like that government of the time told the people who they were and how they were allowed to act. This revolution took away the personality that the Chinese have and made them a bland culture for a period of time. “I will never be able to walk out of the enormity that is me. I am tired.” (Han, 40) This is Han talking about how he has had to struggle with who he is during this time, and how he will never be able to be the man that he sees in the mirror because everyone around him tells him who he is and how to act.
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