The Challenge of Realism in the Work of Mao Dun

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Whose Reality?

The Challenge of Realism in the work of Mao Dun

By Joana Carlson Avila

Authors have often used realism as a historical mirror. In its zenith, authors promoted realism as the most accurate portrayal of human experience, and even allowed it to serve as a method of recording history. This paper, however, will present a case against the general acceptance of the historicity of realism, particularly in the work of Chinese realist Mao Dun (1896-1981). First, this essay will trace realism from its roots in 19th Century Europe to its adaptation to revolutionary events in China during the early part of the 20th Century. Next, it will examine Mao Dun’s realism, focusing especially on the factors that influenced him most: foreign authors and ideologies, Chinese tradition and politics, class struggle, and the emergence of feminism in China. The essay will then examine two of Mao Dun’s works, The Lin Family Shop and “Spring Silkworms” as examples of his realism. Finally, it will argue that although Mao Dun strove to present a realistic account of Chinese life in the 1930s, due to intrinsic authorial partiality, he did not meet his goal of unbiased fiction. This essay poses two questions: Can realist fiction convey reality, and if so, whose reality?

Origins of Realism and Its Emergence in China

When Western literary historians trace the emergence of realism in China, they often only recognize its roots in 19th century Europe, since these critics are more prone to focus on aspects of literature that are homologous to their own literary tradition.[1] Although Western influence is an indispensable facet of Chinese realism, it does not adequately represent the history of the genre in China. Michael Gotz explains,

A prime example of Western political and cultural biases at work in the field of modern Chinese literary studies is the fact that the overwhelming majority of work has concentrated on literature of the May Fourth period and the 1930s…Emphasis is often placed, therefore, on the influence of European literary movements (romanticism, realism, sentimentalism, naturalism, and the like)…[2]

Realism did not emerge solely from the Western tradition; history also contributed to many classical Chinese texts and much of the prose written during the Song, Ming, and Qing Dynasties.[3] While it is ethnocentric to assume that Chinese authors imported the realist tradition entirely from the West, in their attempt to reconstruct a new society Chinese realists did look beyond national literature, drawing on European authors and theories to help construct modern Chinese realism.

This new realism emerged in response to the May Fourth New Culture Movement in 1919 and intellectual activism of the period. Many of these Chinese theorists and writers were Westernized intellectuals with an “elitist attitude” who studied abroad and later returned to China with plans to improve the national condition.[4] Chen Du Xiu, one of the most influential thinkers of May Fourth Movement, believed realism was the cornerstone of “New Literature.”[5] He claimed that literature and the human experience existed on parallel planes—that realism reflected the proletarian revolution, the most advanced stage of social development.

During the 1920s, Chinese writers eager to advance the cause of social revolution abandoned the emotive, passionate, and solipsistic genre of Chinese romanticism. They believed that only realist literature could save their nation; if a Marxist revolution were to occur, only literature that reflected the daily hardships of the proletariat could serve as its catalyst.[6] Because of the inseparability of realism from the proletarian revolution, realist authors exposed working-class dilemmas, thus prompting their readers to action. Rifts developed between authors like Mao Dun and Lu Xun, who claimed to strive for purity in their writing, and other authors who wrote politicized “socialist realism”. Since realist literature was supposed to accurately portray the proletariat, however, most of these bourgeois authors were severely handicapped. Few had any personal knowledge of proletarian, merchant, or peasant lifestyles, and as the literary elite, many were more familiar with the petty bourgeois lifestyle they strove to eliminate.

Mao Dun’s Inspirations and Their Impact

Western Authors and Ideologies

Mao Dun derived his distinct brand of realism from an amalgamation of foreign and indigenous influences, though unlike many of his contemporaries, Mao Dun did not study abroad, encountering Western literature at BeijingUniversity and the Shanghai Commercial Press, instead.[7] The two Western authors who had the most profound influence were Emile Zola and Leo Tolstoy.[8] Despite their contradictory worldviews and works, Mao Dun appears to have incorporated both literary giants into his work, reshaping their ideologies to fit Chinese paradigms and his own agenda. Earlier literary critics claimed ignorance shaped Mao Dun’s unusual appropriation of Western naturalism. However, David Der-Wei Wang counters that, “even if [Mao Dun] had a full knowledge of naturalism, he might have chosen to misread it in order to accommodate to new social/historical environments.”[9]

Emile Zola, the 19th century French author, and the “Father of Naturalism,” made significant contributions to modern realism. Zola was politically active, and his involvement in the Dreyfus Affair of the 1890s, in which the French government accused an innocent Jewish officer of espionage, prompted Zola to pen J’Accuse, as an indictment against the government.[10] Although naturalism did not make inroads into China until the 1920s, more than a decade after Zola’s death, Mao Dun’s scientific realism (especially evident in “Spring Silkworms”) recognizably emulated Zola’s style. Additionally, Mao Dun, like Zola, tried to accurately portray various classes of Chinese society. Looking at Mao’s early work, the Village Trilogy (“Spring Silkworms,” “Autumn Harvest,” and “Winter Ruins”) portrays rural life, The Lin Family Shop, town life, and Midnight recreates urban society.[11]Reflecting a Zolaesque concern with the full strata of society, Mao Dun chronicled a day in China, petitioning housewives, prostitutes, and secret agents, among others, to write down their experiences in One Day in China, May 21, 1936.[12]

In addition to the naturalism Mao Dun adapted from Zola, critics also note the presence of Leo Tolstoy’s humanitarianism.[13] Tolstoy based most of his works on journal entries that reflected a deeper devotion to the fate of society than concern with aesthetics. Although Tolstoy’s Chinese readers had little interest in his belief that literature should advance the Christian brotherhood, they gravitated toward Tolstoy’s style because of his passion to save society.[14] Mao Dun strove to be the same sort of social savior, and according to Wang, “Though he personally favors symbolism and neo-romanticism, Mao Dun declares that he is obliged to promote a realist/naturalist movement since it best meets China’s current needs.”[15]

Chinese tradition and climate

In addition to the Western influences discussed above, several inherently Chinese forces influenced Mao Dun’s use of historical fiction. Due to Confucian rationalism, the lack of an epic tradition, and the derision of mythology among intellectuals, many Chinese considered history the only indigenous form of prose writing. In fact, fiction did not distinguish itself from history until writers in the Tang Dynasty adopted fictional elements from Indian culture.[16] May Fourth writers felt compelled to document what was happening in their country during the Revolutionary Period, and authors like Mao Dun felt a certain urgency to capture events while they remained fresh in their readers’ minds. Barriers to social transformation seemed to crop up everywhere: power struggles with landlords, internal civil war between the Guomingdang and the Chinese Communist Party, and the external war against Japanese aggression. Every aspect of the revolution influenced society, and authors such as Mao Dun used these events as historical backdrops for their work. In Mao Dun’s fiction, the author portrays events like the Mukden Incident of 1931, the nationalist/communist split, and the Japanese closure of Chinese silk factories in a personal way.[17]

This focus on current events encourages revisionist history. Members of the Communist Party harshly criticized Mao Dun’s work, alleging that his stories, which aimed at presenting reality, rather than “socialist reality,” were nothing more than “bourgeoisie realism,” or propaganda.[18] In their works these writers disagreed over realism’s purpose; orthodox communist members claimed realism should promote the proletarian cause by focusing on the benefits of socialism, while others like Mao Dun strove to be more objective.

The Emergence of Feminism in China

In addition to literary and political factors, social changes profoundly influenced Mao Dun. Traditionally, male society objectified and possessed Chinese women, binding them ideologically with Confucian bonds of chastity and fidelity and physically binding women’s feet to appeal to male fetishes. After the May Fourth Movement, however, intellectuals made significant strides toward a more egalitarian role for women. Male authors tried to portray female protagonists as complex characters, and some “New Literature” authors even wrote their stories from a feminine perspective. Moreover, in the years that followed, female authors, a rarity under the exclusively male Confucian education system, emerged, thus allowing women to speak for themselves.

A traditional reading of Mao Dun’s work suggests a compassionate, thoughtful rendering of female characters, women who show a level of independence and revolutionary participation not previously allowed. Some critics suggest that he is at his literary best in his portrayals of women.[19] Others take a harsher view of these fictional women, though. They argue that Mao Dun’s female characters fall into two distinct groups: the virtuous woman and the femme fatale. In works such as Rainbow, he shows the exemplary woman, sacrificing her own desires for the greater good of the revolution, while in Midnight, he portrays the femme fatale, a woman willing to use her sexuality to get what she wants.[20] In the end, the latter incurs punishment for her transgressions and her ambition, while the audience lauds the former for her sacrifice.

Class struggle

The final influence on Mao Dun’s realism addressed here is the role of class struggle. One of “New Literature’s” main difficulties in its portrayal of class was that although its authors wrote for the masses, as elites they had little idea what it was like to be a member of the working class. Mao Dun even claimed, “Ordinary Chinese have absolutely no ability of artistic appreciation.”[21] He disparaged authors who wrote for proletarian audiences, saying that the proletariat’s high illiteracy rates, minimal leisure time, and lack of interest in the new literary genre made authors’ efforts futile.[22] Mao Dun’s middle-class background limited his ability to fairly portray other classes. According to Sylvia Chan, “Both Lu Xun and Mao Dun believed that a writer should confine himself to the aspects of life he was most familiar with through his own personal experience…[But] they honestly confessed to their ignorance of the life of the proletariat and admitted that they were better acquainted the petty-bourgeois intellectuals, shop-keepers and small farmers.”[23]

Analysis of Mao Dun’s Realism in The Lin Family Shop and “Spring Silkworms”

It is important to understand how these influences manifest themselves in Mao Dun’s work, especially as they pertain specifically to The Lin Family Shop and “Spring Silkworms.” By analyzing these two works, both published in 1932, which detail the lives of two different Chinese communities, the reader will see how the aforementioned pressures pervade Mao Dun’s writing.

The Lin Family Shop

The Lin Family Shop recounts the plight of Shopkeeper Lin and his family as they struggle to pay their debts and collect their outstanding loans. Political and economic struggles against invading Japanese troops and corrupt Guomingdang officials further complicate their situation. Throughout the story we see, as director Shui Hua foreshadows in his screen adaptation, “big fish eating the little fish, who in turn ate shrimp.”[24]Written in the wake of the catastrophic Mukden Incident in Manchuria, which allowed the Japanese to set up their puppet government in Changchun, the reader cannot overlook the role of history and current events. The anti-Japanese sentiment reflected by the townspeople is not at all surprising, nor is the anti-Guomingdang position, since the nationalists were occasionally guilty of banditry and extortion. Given Mao Dun’s own disillusionment after the collapse of the National Front in 1927 and Chiang Kai-Shek’s extermination expeditions against the Communist Party, the reader must wonder how fairly Mao Dun could portray the nationalists.

Mrs. Lin and A Shou, the key female characters in The Lin Family Shop, are both “exemplary women”. Mrs. Lin is devoted to her husband and ably manages her household, while A Shou is the stereotypical Chinese daughter, slightly petulant and naïve, but obedient and generally concerned with her family’s well being. Mao Dun departs from traditional female characterization, giving Mrs. Lin a strong independent streak that manifests itself when she refuses to give her daughter as a concubine and decides that she will allow her husband and daughter to escape while she stays behind to face the authorities. But apart from Mrs. Lin’s minor representation of female empowerment, the author portrays other women, and often Mrs. Lin herself, as superstitious, emotional, and gullible.

In similar fashion, individuals outside the working-class are shown little compassion or depth of character. The author portrays Mr. Yu as an extortionist, concerned only with receiving bribes from local businessmen while pretending to be sympathetic to their concerns, and reduces Director Pu to a womanizing glutton, concerned only with his financial and sexual prosperity. Although the reader is generally encouraged to pity the different levels of society disenfranchising each other, the text does not permit the reader to show compassion for Mr. Yu or Director Pu.

“Spring Silkworms”

“Spring Silkworms” examines rural life with the same fatalistic perspective as The Lin Family Shop. Despite the protagonists’ hard work, their efforts are futile and they are destined to grow poorer the harder they work. As in The Lin Family Shop, current events play a central role in plot development. In “Spring Silkworms,” the introduction of foreign silkworms, which are preferred over native silkworms, disrupts the native Chinese silk industry,and the Japanese invasion of Shanghai forces silk filatures to close or buy at drastically reduced prices.

The emphasis on class in “Spring Silkworms” is evident. Early in the narrative, the reader encounters the rise and fall of both Master Chen’s family and Old Tong Bao’s family, a change that Old Tong Bao attributes to both economic and supernatural forces. The peasants also express strong anti-foreign sentiments. The reader learns that although he has never met one, Old Tong Bao hates “foreign devils,” and that according to Master Chen, “The foreign devils have swindled our money away.”[25]

The majority of the women in “Spring Silkworms” are traditional nurturers, so it is interesting to note the consequences deviant women in the story face. Lotus is portrayed as a “hussy,” “a shameless, man-crazy baggage,” who has a reputation around town.[26] Considering Lotus’s character and Mao Dun’s polarization of women, the reader is not surprised to learn that of all the families raising silkworms, only Lotus’s family has bad luck.

The Failure of Realism in Mao Dun’s Work

Although Mao Dun’s work served an important purpose in modern Chinese literature, it failed to paint an accurate picture of Chinese society in the late 1920s and 1930s.[27] All authors struggle with the issue of perspective and personal experience, but as a realist author, Mao Dun faced these burdens in a more problematic way, since his influences could never be completely divorced from his work. In Mao Dun’s case, elements of unintentional bias are evident. As an author and editor, he alienated himself from the masses, maintaining the elitist position that the masses were too simple to understand artistic literature, though he seemed to realize that only proletarian and peasant writers could write truly objective literature about their respective classes.[28] With his perspective in mind, the reader must view Mao Dun’s shopkeepers, farmers, and merchants with caution, remembering that their portrayal is a product of the author’s middle-class background.

Mao Dun’s representation of women is another factor that stymies his realism. As a communist, he undoubtedly felt that women should play an active role in the revolution, and that society should allow them a greater degree of freedom. Unfortunately, the portrayal of women in his work reflects a dichotomization of femininity, which prevents his female characters from becoming multifaceted, “realistic” characters.