Qu Qiubai Research Articles

Произведения Н. В. Гоголя в китайской аудитории: история переводческой деятельности и особенности изучения творчества

Introduction. The early twentieth century reforms in China gave rise to the issue of renovating fiction that profoundly influences collective consciousness. Chinese translators started actively addressing foreign fiction, including classic Russian literature. Goals. The study attempts an insight how Chinese reading audience’s interest in Russian classics — and particularly in the works of Nikolai V. Gogol — would take form and develop. Results. As for the reasons behind the Chinese translators’ appeal to Russian classical literature, the paper notes those are associated with the huge political and social changes in Russia after the October Revolution. The latter facilitated that Russian literature has firmly entered the cultural space of China, having yielded strong impacts on both readers and Chinese writers. The May Fourth Movement not only marked the beginning of a new era in the history of twentieth century China, but also served as an impetus for the development of new Chinese literature. The works of N. Gogol began to occupy a special place in this cultural space. Since 1920, when N. Gogol’s first work was published in a Chinese magazine, attention to his literary heritage has grown significantly. The translation activities of Qu Qiubai, Geng Jizhi, Ren Guangxuan, Bai Sihong, Bai Chunren and many other associates contributed to the widespread interest in N. Gogol’s works all across China. These efforts were paralleled by literary studies of the writer’s fiction techniques and style. The 1950s witnessed a ‘pause’. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, articles dedicated to N. Gogol disappeared from Chinese newspapers and magazines, but already in the 1970s publications about his works started reappearing. Since the 1990s, the research of Chinese specialists into N. Gogol’s narratives has become far more profound and diverse, and this work will continue, since Russian classical literature has had — and still does — a great influence on the development of contemporary Chinese literature.

An Interpretative View of the Origin of the Early Chinese Revolution from the Perspective of Secret Societies: Retrospect and Reflections from the History of Social Thought, Part II

Abstract The development of the Chinese revolutionary movement in the early twentieth century absorbed cultural resources from traditional secret societies and associations. The White Lotus, the Tiandihui, the Gelaohui, the Triad, and the various secret societies that had emerged in the Taiping and the Boxer rebellions were all incorporated into the discourse system of revolutionary history. The secret societies’ slogans of “overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming” and “rob the rich to help the poor” merged with the revolutionaries’ platform of “drive out the Manchus” and “relief for people’s livelihood,” and finally advanced the success of the Xinhai Revolution and was turned into a coherent historical narrative. After the founding of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen and Song Jiaoren carefully assessed the function of secret societies and distinguished them from modern political parties. On the other hand, leaders of the Communist Party, such as Mao Zedong, Qu Qiubai, Yun Daiying, and Chen Duxiu, emphasized the ideological transformation of secret societies and the suitable role they could play in the revolution, thus showing a dynamic strategy of allying with these organizations. The history of the relationship between the Chinese revolution and secret societies reflects the changing characteristics and logic of the underclass of Chinese society.

In the Realm of Comrades? Scattered Thoughts Occasioned by the Centenary of the Founding of the Chinese Communist Party, 1921–2021

AbstractThis brief essay meditates on the advent of the ideal of horizontal social relations, exemplified in the early CCP years in the political term, “comrade” (tongzhi). It takes up Qu Qiubai as exemplary of a Marxist political thinker whose commitments to horizontality/comrade relations can be illustrated through his theories of literature, translation and language. It proposes that despite Xi Jinping's recent rhetorical admonishments to re-activate “comrade” as a political term, it is the LGBTQ community's appropriation of “comrade” in contemporary China that actually holds the potential for a substantive reanimation of the utopian ideals begun a century ago.

Novamente sobre a Tradução: uma resposta a Lu Xun

Este artigo foi publicado originalmente em 1932 e é considerado um dos clássicos da teoria da tradução na China. Apresenta a perspectiva de Qu Qiubai em relação às funções da tradução na evolução da língua chinesa: introduzir novos métodos de expressão e novos conteúdos linguísticos aos leitores chineses, a fim de criar uma nova língua chinesa moderna.

ПРЕДСТАВЛЕНИЕ О «ГОЛОДНОМ КРАЕ» В КИТАЙСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЕ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ ОЧЕРКА ЦЮЙ ЦЮБО «ПУТЕВЫЕ ЗАМЕТКИ О НОВОЙ РОССИИ ИЛИ ЗАПИСКИ О ГОЛОДНОМ КРАЕ») (The Concept of a 'Hungry Land' in Chinese Literature (Using the Example of Qu Qiubai ‘Travel Notes on New Russia or a Note on a Hungry Land’)

Russian Abstract: В статье анализируется понятие и представление о «голодном крае» на примере очерка Цюй Цюбо «Путевые заметки о Новой России или записки о голодном крае». Приводятся примеры употребления данного понятия в прямом и переносном значениях. Определяется связь «голодного края» с образом восприятия России и русских. English Abstract: The article analyzes the concept and idea of a “hungry land” using the example of Qu Qiubai “Travel notes on New Russia or a note on a hungry land”. Examples of the use of this concept in direct and figurative meanings are given. The connection between the “hungry land” and the image of perception of Russia and Russians is determined.

The Beijing institute of Russian language and translation of Russian literature in 20th century China

ABSTRACTThis article introduces the key stages and major figures in the historical development of the Beijing Institute of Russian Language (1899–1935), a leading school offering Russian language education in China at the end of the Qing Dynasty and during the Republican era. The institute attracted several notable Russian sinologists and brought up Chinese translators, who became the leading agents of Russian literary thought in China. Current work discusses the contribution that the school’s lecturers made in the field of intellectual and literary exchange between China and Russia while teaching in the Beijing Institute of Russian Language. It evaluates the translation activities carried out by the graduates, predominantly Geng Jizhi, Qu Qiubai, and Wei Suyuan, reflecting the changing priorities of Chinese literary thought from the beginning of the May 4th movement to the late 1930s.

Feasibility Analysis and “Alienated” Expression of Qu Qiubai’s View of Happiness

It has both theoretical and practical significance on the study of Qu Qiubai’s heart path from the perspective of happiness. So the key points of this thesis are the existence of Qu Qiubai’s view of happiness, the necessity of the research and the foresight of its development. On the basis of previous research, the study eventually forms a prospective analysis of the relevant research and the conclusion of the existence of Qu Qiubai’s “alienated” happiness. “Alienated” happiness is a kind of happy expression which has the characteristics of Chinese traditional Taoist theory. It is not only a kind of happy attribute, but also a form of happy practice. Qu Qiubai’s “alienated” happiness is attributed to the special identity and temperament of his “scholar leader”, which is formed in the elastic wisdom that his alienation is consciously transformed into the pursuit power and the catalytic element.

The Experience of L’Internationale in Modern China

Abstract During the 20th-century Chinese revolution, L’Internationale was one of the most important political symbols. After the failure of the Paris Commune in 1871, Eugène Pottier wrote the poem titled “L’Internationale” which was published for the first time until 1887. It was set to music by Pierre Degeyter in 1888 and introduced into China from both France and the Soviet Union (USSR). Qu Qiubai and Xiao San made great contribution to the work of translation that influenced the official version in 1962. From a hymn for the International Workingmen’s Association to the revolutionary song of all the proletariats, L’Internationale was the historical witness of the National Revolution, the Chinese Communist Revolution and the Continuous Revolution, whose symbolic meanings were connected closely to the tensions between nationalism and internationalism.

Opera, Society, and Politics in Modern China by Hsiao-t'i Li

Reviewed by: Opera, Society, and Politics in Modern China by Hsiao-t'i Li Jonathan P. J. Stock (bio) Hsiao-t'i Li. Opera, Society, and Politics in Modern China. Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 117. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2019. x, 365 pp. Hardcover $49.95, ISBN 978-0-674-98716-6. Li's book is a fascinating series of close-up insights into the workings of opera reform in Shanghai and Xi'an, primarily from 1910 through the late 1930s but further contextualized by a historical introduction and with some concluding commentary on later developments post-1949 and up to the Cultural Revolution. Specifically, Li compares materials relating to the performance of Beijing opera at the Xin Wutai (New Stage) Theater in Shanghai and the Qinqiang dramas created by members of the Yisushe (Society to Transform Customs) in Xi'an. These two settings represent the more commercialized and the gentrified elite poles of a social reform movement that had several expressions across China, all of them sharing the idea of influencing the population at large through the powerful appeal of traditional theater. Chapter 1 provides a review of the history of traditional opera in late imperial China, and covers the subject in a rich, if chronologically and topically convoluted, fashion. A number of citations add historical character, and these are both a strength and reveal the occasional weaknesses of Li's approach. For instance, Li quotes at some length a rich and telling account from scholar Jiao Xun (1763–1820) who relates that he's fond of the "miscellaneous tunes" (luantan) or flowery tunes (huabu) of his day, which he compares favorably to the Kunqu dramas. "The words of the plays are simple and straightforward: even women and children can understand them. The melodies are so impassioned that the audience is stirred by them." Jiao immediately goes on to complain about the presence of "licentious, vulgar, and teasing words" in so many dramas (cited on p. 15). Li notes that Jiao's Confucian ideology biases him against certain aspects of the performances, but then other documents are presented at face value without a similar evaluation [End Page 321] of the writer's rhetorical stance: I wondered, for example about the anecdote on actor Yuan Shihai's domestic singing as overheard by his neighbors (p. 17). That looks like a romantic formula found in many a Communist (auto) biography, emphasizing the formative role of the laboring people in the encouragement of the young artist. Or in a further example, it's unclear to me why Li appears to believe, following writers like Hu Shi, that, "The omnipresence of opera melodies in the streets of Beijing was a deplorable malady of the entire society" (p. 33). I rather suspect Li doesn't accept this generalized complaint, but providing the statement without any critical commentary or interpretation leaves the matter ambiguous. In the second chapter, Li introduces the reader to a series of intellectual reformers active in the first part of the twentieth century, from Chen Duxiu to Qu Qiubai. Their viewpoints are reflected in discussions of sample prospectuses from each figure. He talks us through a 1904 article by Chen, "On Opera" (Lun xiqu) which provided a detailed outline of the changes Chen saw as necessary for turning the theater into a powerful site for social reform (pp. 55–60). Some reflect conventional Confucian criticisms and others seem quaint from a century later on: for instance, that use of electricity in stage lighting would introduce the masses to modern science or that plays concerning immortals and ghosts were to be held responsible for the superstitious beliefs of the recently defeated Boxer rebels (p. 57). Again, Li isn't an especially demanding interpreter of this data but he presents it clearly, pointing to its salient features in historical context. If certain of these reformers are well-known figures, Li brings fresh attention to three US-trained dramatists (Yu Shangyuan, Xiong Foxi, and Zhao Taimou) each of whom apparently defended traditional opera from its high-brow critics while developing new work that drew from their personal contact with Western spoken dramas. A valuable biography is provided for each figure (pp...

“History's Coffin Can Never Be Closed”: Qu Qiubai Translates Social Science

This article argues that the polymath Marxist philosopher and Communist Party apparatchik Qu Qiubai, who established sociology in the Chinese Marxist tradition by organizing the Sociology Department at Shanghai University in 1930, proposed that “society” was the sine qua non of human existence. To establish the contours of society and exploit the value of the social sciences, however, Qu as a translator struggled against China's written language in the name of sociology and social justice. In this regard, Qu understood that the diglossic literary language harbored ancient “ghosts” and philosophy dating from the origins of the written graphemes that make up the hanzi, or written medium. Always ill, always fleeing, the polylingual and cosmopolitan Qu, who died at age thirty-six, left behind a vast archive of unfinished work and fresh, complex ideas about the real, the social, the experiential, and the work of translation.

Reinventing Modern China: Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing by Huaiyin Li (review)

Reviewed by: Reinventing Modern China: Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing by Huaiyin Li Paul G. Pickowicz Reinventing Modern China: Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing by Huaiyin Li. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2013. Pp. xii + 338. $52.00. Reading Huaiyin Li’s interesting and innovative book, Reinventing Modern China: Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing, caused me to recall my first visit with the famous Harvard-trained historian Zhou Yiliang. It was July 6, 1971, and I was on a day-long visit to Beijing University. Though Zhou’s father was a prominent capitalist before the revolution, Zhou joined the Communist Party in 1956. He was dying to serve the new revolutionary regime. But when his “ revisionist” sponsor, top culture czar Zhou Yang, fell from power in an initial phase of the Cultural Revolution, so too did Zhou Yiliang. When I met him a few years later in July 1971, he had just returned from [End Page 167] a multi-year term of “reeducation through labor” and was once again dying to serve the latest incarnation of Mao’s revolution. I took extensive notes on his detailed briefing on the unfolding of the Cultural Revolution at Beida, comments that focused on what Zhou clearly viewed as the righteous rebellion of militant Red Guards and the dastardly efforts of such arch counterrevolutionaries as Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping to suppress the new revolutionary upsurge. His lively account was fascinating. During a break in the action, Zhou asked me about the topic of my doctoral dissertation-in-progress. “My goodness,” I thought, “he wants me to say a word about my own research. There’s no way he’ll miss its relevance!” So I told him I was working on a study of the revolutionary martyr Qu Qiubai, the top leader of the Communist Party for a time in the late 1920s, and (more famously) China’s leading Marxist literary critic in the early 1930s. But Zhou said absolutely nothing. He simply stared at me with a frozen face. I was so disappointed. Qu was executed by the Nationalists in 1935. But now, in the middle of the Cultural Revolution, rampaging Red Guards regarded him as a detestable renegade. My topic was politically incorrect. I saw Zhou Yiliang one more time. A few days later, on July 19, he was present (along with others) when I met Zhou Enlai in the Great Hall of the People. During a four-hour discussion the Premier mentioned Zhou Yiliang by name and fondly noted that they shared the same surname. It appeared the two men were on good terms. Zhou Yiliang must have felt that his political situation was now secure. But there were two other fast-rising political leaders at that meeting: Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan, later identified as members of the odious Gang of Four. They, too, had plans for Zhou Yiliang. By 1973 they had recruited him into the notorious Liangxiao writing group. Yet again, Zhou was dying to serve. Part of his job was to write historical essays that were intended as sharp attacks on Premier Zhou Enlai himself. Not surprisingly, after the Gang of Four fell in 1976, Zhou Yiliang was arrested and served two more years in prison, this time as an agent of the Jiang Qing clique of villainous, counterrevolutionary demons. Upon his release, he asserted that the Gang of Four had deceived him. Once more (and quite predictably) he was dying to serve. This time, the glorious cause was Deng Xiaoping’s Four Modernizations project. Some observers insisted that people like historian Zhou Yiliang never had a choice: he had to search his soul each time and sincerely embrace [End Page 168] every new political vision that came along. Others were more skeptical: he had no principles, blew with the breeze, believed in nothing, and was a blatant opportunist—a sycophant. Above all, he was dying to serve political leaders who held power or were on the rise. Why is this tale worth telling? Because the Zhou Yiliang story intersects in many revealing ways with the macro-analysis contained in Huaiyin Li’s exciting book, a must read for scholars...

‘Class’, ‘Race’ and Language: imagining China and the discourse on the category ‘Han’ in the writing of Marxist revolutionary Qu Qiubai (1899–1935)

This study investigates the discursive peregrinations of the ‘Han’ category in the writings of the Chinese revolutionary, theoretician and activist Qu Qiubai. In the papers he wrote at the beginning of the 1930s dealing with the questions of language and writing, the author made singular use of the concept ‘Han’ to talk about the language/writing of the ‘Han’ (Hanzi, Hanyu) as a racial or ethnic group (Hanzu). Qu elaborated a discourse which articulated and mobilized, sometimes in a contradictory manner, the ‘Han’ category both as a ‘race’ and as a social class. Going beyond the race/class dialectic, I will try to show that these texts question the territorial, cultural and ethnic boundaries of ‘China’ and its homogeneity. Following this argument, this paper demonstrates how Qu's attempt to define ‘Chinese language(s)’ helps us to elucidate the complex articulation between China as a discursive and spatial category, the ‘Han’ category, and the other nationalities in the Chinese space. By questioning the homogeneity of the linguistic identity of China, using the word zhongguohua, Qu Qiubai unveiled an unstable and fragile imaginary relative to China and its so-called majority ethnic group, the Han.

Between the Fall of the Gang of Four and the Rise of Bestsellers

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. In 1978 less than one per cent of China's urban population possessed a television set; ten years later the figure stood at nearly forth per cent, according to Joshua Aleksandr Harman in ‘Relative Deprivation and Worker Unrest in Mainland China’ (<http://mcel.pacificu.edu/aspac/papers/scholars/harman/ Harman.htm>, accessed 15 Feb. 2007). 2. In 1932 a debate over the concept of ‘Third Kind of Writer’ raged between Lu Xun on the one hand and Du Heng and Dai Wangshu on the other, who maintained that there was a third position between a bourgeois writer and a writer committed to the Party line. For more on this controversy see Gregory Lee, Dai Wangshu: The Life and Poetry of a Chinese Modernist, chapter 2. 3. At the same time it should be recalled that, even within the Communist Party and its pre-Liberation cultural front, the League of Left-Wing Writers, there were divergent politico-literary lines. The prominent metropolitan writers, such as novelist Mao Dun, were attached to a more Soviet-style socialist realism, while the Party theorist Qu Qiubai, whose ideas presaged much of what was preached at Yan'an, was critical of the use of such bourgeois forms as the novel and, in the face of mass illiteracy, favoured a recuperation of popular lyric and visual forms so as to achieve a mass democratisation of literature and culture. As for Lu Xun himself, in the late 1920s and early 1930s he had abandoned his critical realist narratives, for which he is celebrated, for a more polemical revolutionary line which he promoted in numerous essays. Both Qu Qiubai (1899–1935) and Lu Xun (1881–1936) died before their ideas and reputations could be recuperated, normalised and exploited by Communist Party theorists. For more on Shanghai literary politics see Wang-chi Wong Wang-chi Wong . Politics and Literature in Shanghai: The Chinese League of Left-Wing Writers, 1930–36 . Manchester : Manchester UP , 1991 . [Google Scholar], Politics and Literature in Shanghai: The Chinese League of Left-Wing Writers, 1930–36. 4. First published as an article in Wenyibao, II (1982). 5. Mang Ke, Mang Ke shixuan [Selected poems of Mang Ke], Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chunban gongsi, 1989. Printed and ‘published’ in February 1989 but, because of the events leading up to and following the debacle of Tiananmen and Mang Ke's history as an underground poet, this book was not distributed. When I visited Mang Ke in May 1990 in his flat in Beijing, I found him surrounded by cartons containing several hundred copies of his book that he had rescued just before they were pulped by the publisher. 6. For Bai Hua's own full account of the ‘Bitter Love’ controversy see his interview with Cheng Yingxiang in Dégel de l'intelligence en Chine 1978–1989. 7. Following Party intervention in local elections in November 1986, the dissident Fang Lizhi made controversial speeches that led to students’ demonstrations against the authorities. Hu Yaobang, the relatively liberal party chairman, was held responsible, officially criticised and forced to step down on 16 January 1987. The following week the Anti Bourgeois Liberalism campaign was re-launched. The untimely death in 1989 of Hu Yaobang and the mass mourning that followed was reminiscent of the massive mourning and demonstrations that followed the death of Premier Zhou Enlai, held in high esteem by liberal intellectuals, in 1976. The brutal suppression of the mourners, deemed counter-revolutionary by the authorities, was termed the Tiananmen Incident. Those involved were later ‘rehabilitated’, or found to be innocent and the ‘Incident’ itself labelled progressive. After the massacre at Tiananmen in 1989, the authorities declared the student occupation and demonstrations to be counter-revolutionary, and described the event once again as the ‘Tiananmen Incident’. The 1989 ‘incident’ and those who participated in the democracy movement have yet to be ‘rehabilitated’. 8. The participation in the global capitalist economy of former state-controlled socio-economies has not significantly democratised them, while democracy in those countries that ‘won’ the Cold War has suffered serious reversals.

Qu Qiubai: Superfluous Words. Jamie Greenbaum

<i>Qu Qiubai: Superfluous Words</i>. Jamie Greenbaum

Aesthetics and Marxism: Chinese aesthetic Marxists and their Western contemporaries

Although Chinese Marxism—primarily represented by Maoism—is generally seen by Western intellectuals as monolithic, Liu Kang argues that its practices and projects are as diverse as those in Western Marxism, particularly in the area of aesthetics. In this comparative study of European and Chinese Marxist traditions, Liu reveals the extent to which Chinese Marxists incorporate ideas about aesthetics and culture in their theories and practices. In doing so, he constructs a wholly new understanding of Chinese Marxism. Far from being secondary considerations in Chinese Marxism, aesthetics and culture are in fact principal concerns. In this respect, such Marxists are similar to their Western counterparts, although Europeans have had little understanding of the Chinese experience. Liu traces the genealogy of aesthetic discourse in both modern China and the West since the era of classical German thought, showing where conceptual modifications and divergences have occurred in the two traditions. He examines the work of Mao Zedong, Lu Xun, Li Zehou, Qu Qiubai, and others in China, and from the West he discusses Kant, Schiller, Schopenhauer, and Marxist theorists including Horkheimer, Adorno, Benjamin, and Marcuse. While stressing the diversity of Marxist positions within China as well as in the West, Liu explains how ideas of culture and aesthetics have offered a constructive vision for a postrevolutionary society and have affected a wide field of issues involving the problems of modernity. Forcefully argued and theoretically sophisticated, this book will appeal to students and scholars of contemporary Marxism, cultural studies, aesthetics, and modern Chinese culture, politics, and ideology.

In Commemoration of the Forty-Fifth Anniversary of Comrade Qu Qiubai's Noble Sacrifice

A forum was convened this afternoon in the West Room of the Great Hall of the People to commemorate the forty-fifth anniversary of Comrade Qu Qiubai's martyrdom. The deputy minister of the CCP Central Committee Department of Propaganda and chairman of the Chinese Literary Federation, Zhou Yang, spoke to the assembly. … In his wide-ranging speech, Zhou Yang evaluated Qu Qiubai's many contributions to the Chinese revolution most highly. (See full text below.) Shen Yanbing [Mao Dun], Tan Zhenlin, and Li Weihan recalled the glorious history of our party's revolutionary struggle and spoke of Comrade Qu Qiubai's historic achievements in the cause of the Chinese people's revolution. Cao Ying, in his talk, recounted Qu Qiubai's life history and refuted the slanders of Lin Biao and the Gang of Four about Qu Qiubai. He stated that after Qu was captured he did nothing that in the least would endanger the party or the revolution, but held fast to Marxism, fearlessly upheld our great cause, proclaimed the revolution, ...

Qu Qiubai's Superfluous Words

The publication in Historical Studies [Lishi yanjiu] of "A Re-evaluation of Superfluous Words" by Chen Tiejian and "A Comprehensive Assessment Should Be Made of Qu Qiubai" by Wang Weili and Du Wenjun has provoked great interest and heated discussion among the third-year students in the University of Hangzhou history department. Recently they conducted a probing examination of Superfluous Words. Their discussion revolved around three questions: why did Qu Qiubai write this work, how should we characterize its major tendency, and what explains the erroneous ideas to be found in it.

My Understanding of Superfluous Words

The first time I read Superfluous Words was in Yanan. Comrade Luo Fu [Zhang Wentian] spoke to me about it and said that some comrades believed the work most likely to be counterfeit. I then went to the library of the Central Propaganda Department and borrowed the journal that contained not only the work but also a description of the circumstances of Qu Qiubai's death. As I read the memoir it was as if I was looking at Qu Qiubai himself. I fully believed that it was written by him. (Of course, the possibility that the enemy had tampered with it could not be excluded completely.)

Cherish the Memory of Qu Qiubai

It is already the forty-fifth anniversary of Comrade Qu Qiubai's heroic sacrifice. Although Comrade Qu lived only thirty-six brief years, he still made great contributions to the party and to the proletarian revolution. He is worthy of the people's eternal remembrance.

Comrade Qu Qiubai's Contributions to the Chinese Revolution

Comrade Qu Qiubai was one of the leaders of the Chinese Communist party. He was an eminent political activist, theoretician, and literary figure during the early years of our party, and he made major contributions to the Chinese revolution.