Dropped off the Map: Han Shaogong's Maqiao

Abstract

u UJ Q C O Io X a. Han with nality, Shaogong exceptional human (b. perspectives artistry 1953)intertwines, and of origithe withexceptional artistry and originality ,humanperspectives of the localandtheglobal, andhiscareer exemplifies thecreative revolution thathas takenplacein Chinesewriting since1976.Han's representativework , A Dictionary ofMaqiao, is tobe commendedforthehumorand humanity of its storytelling; for itsunsentimental dedication to recounting thelivesofimpoverished farmers; forthelight-handed skillwithwhichit narrates thetragedies ofmodern China;andfor its experimental formand sophisticated insights intoChineseculture, language, and society. A constantly surprising blendoffiction, memoir, andessay, A Dictionary ofMaqiaocombines the variety ofa short-story collection withthedeep andcomplex structure ofa sustained plot. In 1970,as partofMao's Utopian planto resettle millions of urbanintellectuals in the countryside duringthe CulturalRevolution, thesixteen-year-old Han Shaogongwas sent tovillages innorthern Hunanas an "Educated Youth," tospendhislifeplanting riceand tea. Thatplancametoan end in 1976,alongwith theCultural Revolution (andMaoZedonghimself ), and Han returned toHunan'sprovincial capital, Changsha, wherehe attended college andbegana career as a novelist. Bytheearly 1980s, hewascontributing tonewly critical currents ofwriting tolerated bytheearly post-Mao political thaw, producing a series ofshort stories reflecting on thepersonal catastrophes caused by Maoism.In 1985he becamespokesmanin -chief forthe"Roots-Seeking Movement," a - r T , *1 *c pioneering groupof rwriters committed , (among other things) to exploring thefantastical roots ofChineseculture through localhistories and legends, andtacreating a darkly modernist type offiction capableOTarticulating themacabre violence ofMaoism. A decadelater, Han'sfascination with south China(inparticular, wjththe heterodox traditions oftheancient state^rf Chu, in present-day Hunan)and withthe|*blitical calamities ofthetwentieth century culminated inhis1996masterpiece, ADictionary of Maqiao-? a fictional biography ofthevillage towhich Han wassentdownduring theCultural Resolution, Thebookoffers - atfirst reading-^M extraordinary cornucopiaof social,cultural, and ethnographic information aboutnorth Hunan. As itstitle suggests, thenovelis structured as a dictionary (itsheadingsmade up ofwords from thelocaldialect), narrated by Han Shaogongas an EducatedYouth,recording the history, language, and customsof thearea frombefore , during,and afterthe Cultural Revolution. Through entries thatrangefrom peopleandplacestodogsandmosquitoes, Han introduces us toa wealthoflocalsingularities thatsurvived intotheruthlessly modernizing Maoisteraand beyond: suchas themisogyny written deep intoMaqiao dialect, theworship offoodandeating hardwired intothevillagers bytheconstant menace offamine, andthehazy graspofa linear, national senseoftime. Atall points, this detail isembedded intherecent and distant pastoftheregion, andofChinaitself: in thelegendary migrations ofthefirst millennium bce;in Qing-dynasty millenarian rebellions; in r , ■■ ' While inspired ■ by the peoples, places, ancj languages of -• " south China, Han , Shaogong is»in^ no wayb^^y^ by is simuftaRe^||| heir to^thi^pH cosmopdfltal^P traditions twentiethcentury Chinese letters. LU QC to o X a. Julia Lovell teaches modern Chinese history and literature atBirkbeck College, University of London. She is the author of The Politics of Cultural Capital: China's Quest for aNobel Prize in Literature and The Great Wall: China Against the World. Her several translations of modern Chinese fiction include Han Shaogong's ADictionary of Maqiao, Zhu Wen's ILove Dollars and Lu Xun's The Real Story ofAh-Q and Other Tales ofChina. Her next book, f Opium War: Drugs ;Dream , ' and^MakinsofChin^f , thechaosandtreachery oftheCommunist revolution ; inthehorrific famine oftheearly1960s; intheappalling political apartheid ofMaoism. ButHan'snovelisfar more than a drylexiconofhistorical andlinguistic data.Asthebook progresses, entries start toassumeknowledge of peopleand wordsalready introduced (theold villageleaderUncleLuo; theoperaaficionado Wanyu; thetopsy-turvy Maqiaounderstanding ofthewords//scientific,, or"awakened"), thus dictating a linearreading. Thenovelmanages to humanize,withwonderfully understated sympathy and humor, everybig,conventional historical narrative upon whichit touches. DuringtheCulturalRevolution, thevillagers are distinctly unentertained by theprovincial propaganda squad's dull"proletarian" operas: "Whydon'tyou have me haul a bucketof shit, whileyou'reaboutit?"thelocalsinging starsarcastically asksHan,protesting atbeing forced tocarry a "realistic" hoeonstage. Politicalpersecution transforms Yanzao,thesonofa former landlord, intoa mute, incapable evenof shouting "LongLiveChairman Mao" at gunpoint . Mostsurprisingly ofall,perhaps, Maqiao combines theinquisitive prurience ofa small, isolated, rural community witha raucous licentiousness - eventhrough thepuritanism ofthe Maoistyears. Consider, for example, Benyi, the village's loud-mouthed party secretary andalso a practicing bisexual;or thenagain,Tiexiang, hisfemme fatale wife, whocommandeers Benyi as a husbandwhileconspicuously pregnant; a fewyearsintohermarriage, shehasa scandalousaffair with Maqiao'smost picaresque loafer, Three Ears. Yetwhileinspired bythepeoples,places, andlanguages ofsouth China, HanShaogong is innowayboundbythem, for heis simultaneously heir tothevital cosmopolitan traditions of twentieth-century Chineseletters. Lu Xun,one ofthefounding figures ofmodern Chinese writing ,helpedremake literary language andform during $*e1910s and'20sthrough hisvoracious i|$fi4ing and translation of foreign literature. %|$ri^unlike manyofhiscontemporaries - has mthehigh MayFourth style mastered a foreign language (English), enabling himtodiscover in th^Q&jpiala number ofnon-Chinese stylists; . translated...