Writing Oneself as a Writer: Intellectual Identity and Moral Agency in Contemporary Chinese Novels

213 Pages·2017·1.32 MB·English

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Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and
Arts & Sciences
Dissertations
Summer 8-15-2015
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Fang-yu Li
Washington University in St. Louis
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Li, Fang-yu, "Writing Oneself as a Writer: Intellectual Identity and Moral Agency in Contemporary Chinese
Novels" (2015). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 556.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/556
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WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
Program in Comparative Literature

Dissertation Examination Committee:
Lingchei Letty Chen, Chair
Robert E. Hegel, Co-Chair
J. Dillon Brown
Rebecca Copeland
Zhao Ma
Marvin Howard Marcus

Writing Oneself as a Writer:
Intellectual Identity and Moral Agency in Contemporary Chinese Novels
by
Fang-yu Li

A dissertation presented to the
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
of Washington University in
partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy

August 2015
St. Louis, Missouri
© 2015, Fang-yu Li
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments..........................................................................................................................iv

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION......................................................................................vi

Chapter 1: Writing Oneself as a Writer: Writer-Intellectuals and Narrative Identity.....................1

1.1 Writers, Intellectuals, and the Writing of Intellectuals.........................................................5

1.2 Writer-intellectuals in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong after 1990s..................................11

1.3 Narrative Identity, Moral Agency, and the Writing of the self as a Writer........................25

Chapter 2: Failing as an Author: Qiu Huadong’s Confession at Noon and the Spiritual Crisis of
Intellectuals...................................................................................................................................41

2.1 Qiu Huadong and the “New Generation Writings”............................................................42

2.2 Confession at Noon: Scandal and Criticism.......................................................................46

2.3 Failing as an Author: A Reading of Confession at Noon...................................................50

2.4 “Humanist Spirit” and the Value of Writing in the New Era.............................................71

Chapter 3: The Road to Redemption: Confession of an Intellectual in Yan Lianke’s Feng Ya
Song...............................................................................................................................................77

3.1 Realist Writings in the New Century and the Problem of the Writer.................................79

3.2 Yan Lianke and Divine Realism.........................................................................................84

3.3 Feng Ya Song: A Critique of Others or the Self?...............................................................90

3.4 Confessional Narratives and Feng Ya Song........................................................................98

Chapter 4: Rhizomatic Writing and Problematics of Taiwanese Identity in Wu He’s Thinking of
Abang Kadresengan....................................................................................................................113

4.1 The Lone Writer of Taiwan..............................................................................................115

4.2 Thinking of Oneself as a Writer and Searching for “Taiwan”.........................................121

  ii
Chapter 5: Possible Worlds and Writer’s Autonomy in Dung Kai-cheung’s The Exploitation of
the Works of Nature: Xuxu and Ruzhen......................................................................................145

5.1 A Book of the Self: Dung Kai-cheung and Self-Reflexive Writings...............................147

5.2 Two-Part Invention and the Dissolution of Binary Oppositions......................................152

5.3 Possible Worlds and Multiple Selves: The Crisis of Being a Writer and the Power of
Creation...................................................................................................................................164

Conclusion: The Dilemma of Writer-intellectuals and the Function of Literature.....................178

Bibliography...............................................................................................................................186

iii
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Lingchei Letty Chen,
for her valuable comments and critiques on my research and her support and guidance
throughout the years of graduate study. I would like to thank my mentor Dr. Robert Hegel, who
patiently corrected my writing and provided me invaluable lessons as well as practical advice
which I will continue to benefit in the future. I would also like to thank Dr. Marvin Marcus, Dr.
Rebecca Copeland, and Dr. Zhao Ma for their intellectual support and useful suggestions that
help me re-evaluate my project from various angles. Special thanks goes to Dr. Dillon Brown,
who was willing to participate in my final defense committee at the last moment.
I would like to thank my colleagues and friends Yunjing Xu and Kazue Harada, whose
intellectual stimulation and constant encouragement helped me survive the last and most difficult
stage of writing. Many thanks to Ke Nie, Yinghui Wu, Waiman Suen, Xia Liang, Wei Wang, Jue
Lu, and other colleagues and friends in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures for
giving offering me professional assistance and moral support when I needed them the most.
I would also like to thank my parents, my elder brother, and my dear friend Yi-chun Liu.
They were always supportive and encouraging me with their best wishes. Finally, I would like to
thank my husband, Geng-yuan Jeng, who never fails to believe in me. He was always there to
cheer me up and stood by me through the good times and bad.

Fang-yu Li
Washington University in St. Louis
August 2015
iv
Dedicated to my parents, Gong-way Lee and Bi-sha Hong
v
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION
Writing Oneself as a Writer:
Intellectual Identity and Moral Agency in Contemporary Chinese Novels
by
Fang-yu Li
Doctor of Philosophy in Chinese and Comparative Literature
Washington University in St. Louis, 2015
Professor Lingchei Letty Chen, Chair
Professor Robert E. Hegel, Co-Chair

The discussion of “identity” in current scholarship on modern Chinese literature is mostly
centered on the political dynamics between national, cultural, and gender identity. Contemporary
Chinese language novels from late 1990s to the present, however, seem to show a sense of
confusion and disorientation towards one’s existence in the rapidly changing society. Among the
works that address individual’s existential crisis, self-reflexive novels are particularly intriguing
as they reveal a strong sense of self-doubt on part of the author, and in particular, towards one’s
role as a writer in contemporary society. This dissertation investigates this sense of self-doubt by
examining closely four self-reflexive novels written by writers from PRC, Taiwan, and Hong
Kong: Qiu Huadong’s Confession at Noon (2000), Yan Lianke’s Feng Ya Song (2008), Wu He’s
Thinking of Abang Kadresengan (1997), and Dung Kai-cheung’s Exploitations of the Works of
Nature, Xuxu and Ruzhen (2005). In these novels, each author incorporates different narrative
strategies to conduct a moral inquiry into both the meaning of writing and one’s function as a
writer-intellectual in contemporary society. Despite having differing historical experience, these
vi
authors reveal a shared intellectual identity reminiscent of the traditional Chinese wenren or
“literati,” who believe in the power of writing in guiding one towards a moral path. Such a
shared intellectual identity indicates a common moral ground on which writers and intellectuals
from the three Chinese-speaking regions can conduct a dialogue transcendent of political
conflicts and cultural/historical barriers.
vii
Chapter 1: Writing Oneself as a Writer: Writer-Intellectuals and Narrative
Identity

"I think writers write for their consciences, they write for their own
true audiences, for their souls."1--Mo Yan

When the Swedish Academy in Stockholm announced Mo Yan as the winner of the
Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012, it generated a debate among critics and scholars in Mainland
China and overseas. While the Chinese government was quick to congratulate Mo Yan on his
success and to appropriate his personal accomplishment as national glory, many voiced concerns
on Mo Yan’s political stance and his affiliation to the CCP, especially regarding his role as
Deputy President of the government sanctioned China Writer’s Association (Zhongguo zuojia
xiehui), and his reluctance to speak against State censorship at the press conference prior to the
Award Ceremony.2 Mo Yan’s Award also generated a pen war among Sinologists overseas.
Perry Link condemns Mo Yan’s refusal to speak out against the imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo, the
Nobel Peace Prize winner who advocated for democracy in China.3 Charles Laughlin, on the
other hand, defended Mo Yan by highlighting the artistic value and humanistic concerns Mo Yan
demonstrated in his literary work, which, he argues, should be the main focus since Mo Yan was
awarded for his achievement in literature, not for his political views.4

1 Quoted from an online news article in Reuters. Mo Yan said these lines in an interview with the Beijing
English newspaper China Daily. See http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/11/us-nobel-moyan-
idUSBRE89A0NC20121011.
2 When asked to comment about censorship in China, Mo Yan compares it to the security check points at
airports, and implied that it can be considered as a necessary evil that every government in the world
more or less incorporates for the purpose of national security.
3 See Perry Link, “Does This Writer Deserve the Prize?” The New York Review of Books. December 6,
2012 Issue.
4 See Charles Laughlin, “Why Critics of Chinese Nobel Prize-Winner Mo Yan Are Just Plain Wrong”
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