Jeremy Tambling
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622098244
- eISBN:
- 9789882207158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622098244.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
The True Story of Ah Q, unlike the other short stories in A Call to Arms, was written for serial publication. Its nine chapters appeared under another pen name, Ba Ren, in the literary supplement to ...
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The True Story of Ah Q, unlike the other short stories in A Call to Arms, was written for serial publication. Its nine chapters appeared under another pen name, Ba Ren, in the literary supplement to the Beijing Morning Post. The title Dragonboat Festival refers to the “double fifth”—the fifth day of the fifth month when debts are, traditionally, repaid. The main character in this short story, Fang Xuanchuo, reflects Lu Xun. The White Light is devoted to a person whose dreams of becoming a successful civil servant go through his head only to be dashed each time he fails the exam. The last three stories in A Call to Arms (Some Rabbits and a Cat, Comedy of Ducks, Village Opera show something of a retreat from human engagements to engagements with animals, and a concentration on the figure of the mother.Less
The True Story of Ah Q, unlike the other short stories in A Call to Arms, was written for serial publication. Its nine chapters appeared under another pen name, Ba Ren, in the literary supplement to the Beijing Morning Post. The title Dragonboat Festival refers to the “double fifth”—the fifth day of the fifth month when debts are, traditionally, repaid. The main character in this short story, Fang Xuanchuo, reflects Lu Xun. The White Light is devoted to a person whose dreams of becoming a successful civil servant go through his head only to be dashed each time he fails the exam. The last three stories in A Call to Arms (Some Rabbits and a Cat, Comedy of Ducks, Village Opera show something of a retreat from human engagements to engagements with animals, and a concentration on the figure of the mother.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804700757
- eISBN:
- 9780804769822
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804700757.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter explores the development of theories of the mind in revolutionary culture, focusing on Lu Xun's 1921 novella The True Story of Ah Q (A Q zhengzhuan). In this work, the fictional ...
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This chapter explores the development of theories of the mind in revolutionary culture, focusing on Lu Xun's 1921 novella The True Story of Ah Q (A Q zhengzhuan). In this work, the fictional character Ah Q, a day laborer, uses a strategy known as “spiritual victory method” to turn defeat into victory. Mao Zedong rejected “bourgeois” emphasis on subjectivity and personality while stressing the importance of human will. The Leninist ideas of reflection and recognition were valorized by revolutionary Chinese psychology. This chapter examines the Chinese discourse of revolutionary spirit and interprets it as a mentality that was profoundly different from that of the Freudian subject which is characterized by its deeply sexualized unconscious. In terms of the structure of the mind, however, the person with this revolutionary spirit shares some similarities with the Freudian subject.Less
This chapter explores the development of theories of the mind in revolutionary culture, focusing on Lu Xun's 1921 novella The True Story of Ah Q (A Q zhengzhuan). In this work, the fictional character Ah Q, a day laborer, uses a strategy known as “spiritual victory method” to turn defeat into victory. Mao Zedong rejected “bourgeois” emphasis on subjectivity and personality while stressing the importance of human will. The Leninist ideas of reflection and recognition were valorized by revolutionary Chinese psychology. This chapter examines the Chinese discourse of revolutionary spirit and interprets it as a mentality that was profoundly different from that of the Freudian subject which is characterized by its deeply sexualized unconscious. In terms of the structure of the mind, however, the person with this revolutionary spirit shares some similarities with the Freudian subject.
Gerda Wielander
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9789888455720
- eISBN:
- 9789888455515
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888455720.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter analyzes the appearance of happiness in public and political discourse in China in the wider context of socialist modernization underpinned by Chinese socialist views of the psyche. It ...
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This chapter analyzes the appearance of happiness in public and political discourse in China in the wider context of socialist modernization underpinned by Chinese socialist views of the psyche. It examines the link between the spiritual and the political and argues that the current emphasis on happiness needs to be understood as a continued effort on the part of the CCP to instil the “correct spirit” in China’s population. The author argues that in this process Lu Xun’s Ah Q has turned from a symbol of feudal decay into a role model for China’s citizens. The chapter draws on a range of conceptual frameworks from cultural studies, psychology, sociology and anthropology in its analysis of the tension between individual and collective happiness and the strategies adopted by the CCP, as ruling party, to address it. Examples from a debate on happiness held in the journal Zhongguo Qingnian中國青年 in the 1950s and 1960s are juxtaposed with contemporary sources to illustrate the continuity and differences in the Chinese socialist debates on happiness over the decades.Less
This chapter analyzes the appearance of happiness in public and political discourse in China in the wider context of socialist modernization underpinned by Chinese socialist views of the psyche. It examines the link between the spiritual and the political and argues that the current emphasis on happiness needs to be understood as a continued effort on the part of the CCP to instil the “correct spirit” in China’s population. The author argues that in this process Lu Xun’s Ah Q has turned from a symbol of feudal decay into a role model for China’s citizens. The chapter draws on a range of conceptual frameworks from cultural studies, psychology, sociology and anthropology in its analysis of the tension between individual and collective happiness and the strategies adopted by the CCP, as ruling party, to address it. Examples from a debate on happiness held in the journal Zhongguo Qingnian中國青年 in the 1950s and 1960s are juxtaposed with contemporary sources to illustrate the continuity and differences in the Chinese socialist debates on happiness over the decades.
