Checkmate with the Devil: A Critique of Five Writers

Author: Cang Lang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: The five writers reviewed in this book are all very famous contemporary Chinese writers. From the criticisms in the paper, the problems are indeed quite serious. In the past, writers were called "engineers of the human soul," and literary scholars were hailed as "humanity scholars." However, judging by the works of the writers cited here, the differences are vast. Some may even be better seen as going against the grain: not uplifting and elevating humanity, but belittling and poisoning it. After reading the reviews in this book, it deepens our already rather poor impression of Chinese intellectuals. They are extremely skilled and willing to depict the base, animalistic (under the guise of life) instincts of humans, specifically the two points mentioned above—"eating" and "sex"—along with China's traditional loss of personality, bowing and scraping, shouting "Long live the sage-king" and "The imperial grace is vast," yet they are clumsy at depicting the rational actions of humans fighting for equality, democracy, and freedom, and even more so at depicting the spiritual actions of humans pursuing the ultimate values of humanity. Such writers, who are only happy and capable of depicting base activities, will become what kind of "engineers of the human soul"? Are they still qualified to be called "humanity scholars"? What kind of meaning and value do such writers have for human civilization? The author addresses these questions in the book.
This book provides insights into the works of five prominent contemporary Chinese writers: Chi Li, Wang Anyi, Mo Yan, Jia Pingwa, and Erhuhe. In China, critics have always been praise-mongers—they are both onlookers and transients. Some are busy compiling histories of literary praise, others are busy teaching female Ph.D. students who enjoy romance and poetry, and some act like prostitutes, producing a "great writer" in just two or three days with a red envelope. The corruption of the Chinese literary world is entirely the result of their joint crime with the writers!