China's Shakespeare

Abstract

CHINA IS A NEW MEMBER IN THE WORLD OF Shakespearean scholarship. It was not until the turn of the twentieth century that Shakespeare became known beyond a small circle in China. In the years between 1903 and 1986, Shakespeare study in China underwent several stages in its development, representing in miniature all the features of literary criticism in China and, in a broader sense, many phases of modern Chinese history. China is an ancient country with a rich historical and cultural heritage. Through the first half of the twentieth century, as a result of more than two thousand years of its feudal society and its traditional closed-door policy, I China and its people felt a natural resistance to the introduction of foreign culture. Invasions by foreign powers after the Opium War of 1840 only intensified this spirit of nationalism. Consequently, Chinese Shakespearean study from 1903 to 1949 consisted of individual efforts, mainly in the form of translation, and remained within academic circles. The years since 1949 have seen a series of changes in Chinese political and economic structures. Mirroring the times, Chinese Shakespearean study since 1949 has reflected, first, the Soviet influence on Chinese literary criticism in the 1950s, then the scornful rejection of foreign literature and art during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, and now the emergence of a new literature in China in the past six to seven years and the search by Chinese intellectuals for more contact with the outside world and a better appreciation of foreign cultures. While China has been a socialist country with Marxism as the dominating ideology since 1949, it does not belong to the Soviet bloc. Long before the present Chinese leaders claimed to have built Chinese-style socialism-in fact, immediately after China broke away from the Russians in the late 1950s-China began to develop her own theory and practice of socialism. The ideas and instructions of Zedong-known in China as Mao Zedong Thoughtwere the political and cultural guidelines for the Chinese before Mao's death in 1976 and continue to have a strong influence on all aspects of Chinese life. In literary criticism, the principles established in his works have played a far more important role in directing the Chinese critics than have the writings of Marx or Lenin. Chinese Shakespearean criticism since 1949 has reflected Mao's Marxist viewpoint on literature and art as well as the special interests and particular emphases of Chinese literary critics. All three factors-China as an ancient country, as a changing society, and as an isolated socialist country with her own particular form of Marxist ide-