Shouting and Rumors

Author: Xu Zidong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-03
Features: This book collects 35 essays, book reviews, and lecture drafts, most of which are the author's recent works, while some are older articles from over a decade ago. Categorized by topic, they can be broadly divided into three parts: "Eileen Chang and Modern Chinese Literature," "Rereading the Cultural Revolution," and "Reading Hong Kong Fiction." "Roaring and Rumors" not only serves as a keyword for the author's rethinking of his field (Modern Chinese Literature) but can also be loosely used to describe his recent work. The second part of the book, from "Rereading the Cultural Revolution (Thought Notes)" to "Revolution, History, Fiction," consists of nine articles that supplement and expand the author's previous work, Forgetting the Collective Memory (Columbia University Press, 2000). The author's tedious and repetitive discussions on how "Cultural Revolution stories" are narrated in contemporary Chinese literature can also be considered his "roar" (though his voice is not loud, his throat is hoarse, and few people are listening). The last part of the book contains over a dozen articles on Hong Kong fiction, which can demonstrate the author's strong interest in the form of urban literature shaped by rumors. In the "rumors" of food and color depicted by writers such as Eileen Chang, Huang Biling, Li Bihua, Wang Lianghe, Kun Nan, and Ye Si, the author sees another form of "roar." Of course, the author has other ways of discussing or spreading "rumors," though they are outside the scope of this book. However, his attitude toward "Roaring and Rumors" remains consistent, with the lecture drafts appended at the end serving as an explanation.