The subject in crisis: Han Shaogong's cripple(s)

Abstract

Once their initial bewilderment over the idiot protagonist Young Bing in Han Shaogong's novella “Pa Pa Pa” was over, Chinese critics came to recognize in the character yet another representative of the Chinese national character and, therefore a symbol of the defective aspects in the nation's cultural consciousness. This paper, however, examines Young Bing in his own right as a subject. It argues that because of his lack of access to language, Young Bing has become a free‐floating signifier in a world of language to be arbitrarily interpreted. The non‐participation in the production of his own meaning has thus called into question the hero's status as a subject. At the same time, as disturbing as the drastic undermining of the autonomous, self‐knowing subject is Han Shaogong's persistent sense of crisis, which is evidenced not only in the endurance of the crippled subject but also in its relentless reproduction.