To Be or Not to Be "Eaten"

Abstract

Few intellectual generations in modern China were as bedeviled as the May Fourth generation, confronted as it was with the task of demolishing the moribund Chinese culture, while burdened with the mission of national salvation. Contrary to accepted opinion as well as the conviction of the May Fourth generation itself, the former was not necessarily a logical means to further the achievement of the latter. If it had been so, tensions generated by disparate demands would have been reduced to a minmum. Actually, in the eyes of the May Fourth iconoclasts, one of the accursed aspects of Chinese culture was its blighting effect on individuality (gexing). And behind their call for the emancipation of self' (gexingjiefang), the historian may discern a wish to be far from the madding crowd. Thus, later on, when the May Fourth intellectuals began to stake their hope of national salvation on the mass movements led by the Chinese Communist Party, they all had to undergo a process of self-convincing, to the effect that the redemption of self would come through the collectivist channel. Not all of them, however, were equally successful in this act of overcoming self. Of particular interest is Lu Xun, whose radicalism can be classified as liberal or Marxist only by straining the parameters of these rubrics. Unlike the ideologues of both camps, Lu Xun was less optimistic about the darker shades of the human psyche, which made it more difficult for him to reconcile himself with the masses as well as with his own self.