Sunday June 5 blog 3
Speaking of returning to the past...the theme of the search for a steady guide through a time of transition was first introduced in our meeting with faculty of Tsinghua University on their lovely campus in Beijing. We met with faculty representing psychology, sociology, Chinese language and literature, English stylistics and several other subjects. We were able to learn a lot from one another just by introducing ourselves and talking about our interests. This is where I first pulled "zhentan xiaoshuo" out of my hat.
What we so easily call "detective fiction" (and can be relatively sure we all understand what we're referring to) is difficult even to name in Chinese. "Zuian xaoishuo" is "crime fiction," a broader category. Each time I have used the term to describe the rather specialized interest I have developed people cast light and lively looks at each other and they often laugh. Perhaps it is my pronunciation? Or maybe it is surprise? Embarrassment? They do know what I'm talking about though, as the names Sherlock Holmes and Robert Van Gulik (author of the Judge Dee novels) are then brought up. Step 1 in my research project is to find someone to help me understand this reaction.
From what I understand from the little research I have been able to do, when we say "private investigator" or "private eye" and believe we understand each other in our culture, we are speaking of a kind of work that has a more complex reception in China. If I understand correctly, one cannot hang out a shingle saying "Private investigator" in China. It is not legal to openly operate in a way that parallels or challenges the official legal system. One can, however, be an "information consultant" and operate carefully and discreetly to go where the official system doesn't go, won't go, or can't go. I'm sure There are Chinese authors writing what we would recognize as texts of private detection, but finding them isn't simply a matter of a Google search. Particularly since Google itself is not a welcome presence in China!
The only native Chinese authors whose work in this genre I really know are now living and publishing outside of China, Qiu Xiaolong in the US and Diane Wei Liang in England. Both the high and low versions of detective fiction give us a very interesting look at the border where the official version of the law meets reality, often revealing the shortcomings of either the law (its restrictiveness or the corruption of its enforcement) or of social reality (exotic personal failings or small mis-steps that lead to slippery slopes) or, often, both. My challenge is to find the "true true" name of this writing in contemporary China and to gain access to those entertaining but dangerous stories.
All periods are transitional periods but some transitions are more dramatic than others. Right now, the Chinese people are navigating very dramatic change and trying to do it without capsizing. At the risk of taking my seafaring metaphor too far, I would say they are trying to find materials to build a rudder that will steer their craft safely and steadily through this time. Stories about crime and the limits of law are unlikely to be welcome additions to the "official version" of this period's history because they are likely reveal uncomfortable truths.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
June 4 Evening (almost June 5) - Blog Entry #2
June 4 blog 2
In Beijing, we visited the Summer Palace, went to a performance of the Beijing Opera at Tian Qiao, climbed the Great Wall at Juyongguan, entered and escaped Hong Qiao Market and, on our final day, visited the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. I don't intend to write a travelogue, though each place left me with significant and, I believe, lasting impressions. What I really want to write about is the people we've met. For the travelogue, there are other sources; for the people, you've got to be there.
We met with several groups in Beijing for a variety of purposes. On Tuesday evening we met with a group of men who study Confucius in an attempt to discover what he has to teach modern China. They meet regularly on their own time to study and discuss Confucian thought. We came together in the upstairs conference room of a simple yet elegant building overlooking a lake, a singularly beautiful location in which it was quite easy to ignore the fact that we were still in the midst of millions of others. Our hosts were very welcoming and treated us with respect.
The talk was of Confucius as a guide for a constitutional society. If there has been any theme that weaves together all of our interactions with the groups we have met, it is the idea that in this spectacularly transitional period, many people in China are grasping for some kind of guidance for their new society. So much of what held China together in earlier periods--or, at least, a system of values held in common by most people--was destroyed in the twentieth century. There are generations of adult Chinese who were deprived of their country's intellectual history, who know little of it because they weren't allowed to learn about it. Now, they are trying to fill empty spaces in their cultural memory, learn their own history, and hope that in their past they can find a trustworthy guide for their future.
Can Confucius be a good guide for modern China? I don't know enough about the subject to offer an opinion. I can say that I was a bit troubled by some of what I heard. For instance, the idea that "filial piety" should be one of the fundamental underpinnings of society or that "the countryside has much to teach intellectuals" have, for me, a kind of dissonance. Even the appeal to Natural Law seems to me to have some very unhappy associations. Given the experience of the Chinese people, I can understand the desire to look to one of the major figures in their history for guidance now. And I do know that I have much left to learn about China, past and present.
In Beijing, we visited the Summer Palace, went to a performance of the Beijing Opera at Tian Qiao, climbed the Great Wall at Juyongguan, entered and escaped Hong Qiao Market and, on our final day, visited the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. I don't intend to write a travelogue, though each place left me with significant and, I believe, lasting impressions. What I really want to write about is the people we've met. For the travelogue, there are other sources; for the people, you've got to be there.
We met with several groups in Beijing for a variety of purposes. On Tuesday evening we met with a group of men who study Confucius in an attempt to discover what he has to teach modern China. They meet regularly on their own time to study and discuss Confucian thought. We came together in the upstairs conference room of a simple yet elegant building overlooking a lake, a singularly beautiful location in which it was quite easy to ignore the fact that we were still in the midst of millions of others. Our hosts were very welcoming and treated us with respect.
The talk was of Confucius as a guide for a constitutional society. If there has been any theme that weaves together all of our interactions with the groups we have met, it is the idea that in this spectacularly transitional period, many people in China are grasping for some kind of guidance for their new society. So much of what held China together in earlier periods--or, at least, a system of values held in common by most people--was destroyed in the twentieth century. There are generations of adult Chinese who were deprived of their country's intellectual history, who know little of it because they weren't allowed to learn about it. Now, they are trying to fill empty spaces in their cultural memory, learn their own history, and hope that in their past they can find a trustworthy guide for their future.
Can Confucius be a good guide for modern China? I don't know enough about the subject to offer an opinion. I can say that I was a bit troubled by some of what I heard. For instance, the idea that "filial piety" should be one of the fundamental underpinnings of society or that "the countryside has much to teach intellectuals" have, for me, a kind of dissonance. Even the appeal to Natural Law seems to me to have some very unhappy associations. Given the experience of the Chinese people, I can understand the desire to look to one of the major figures in their history for guidance now. And I do know that I have much left to learn about China, past and present.
June 4 Evening - Blog Entry #1
June 4 10 pm Xian, China
Ok, so last time we connected, I was exhausted and was one of a group of sort of cranky folks. I'm happy to report that we are no longer cranky. There is the prospect of a free morning tomorrow, Sunday! With that relaxing thought in mind, let me back up and cover some of the ground I've, well, dragged over, since last I wrote.
Our hotel in Beijing was the Penta Hotel in the Chongwenmen district in the heart of downtown. Fortunately for some of us there was a Starbucks just around the corner though I am enjoying drinking lots of tea too. Black tea, green tea, jasmine tea, teas for all occasions. The jasmine is served in the evening.
And speaking of cuisine, did I mention I ate donkey my first night in China? Yes, I ate it even knowing what it was. Thank you for admiring my bravery. It was ok. I am tempted to say here that it tasted like chicken, but it was really more like a slightly bland beef. There was nothing objectionable about its taste or texture and I probably wouldn't have questioned what it was since it looked rather beef-ish too. Every time I look at a menu here I am forced to think about how culture-bound my ideas about foods are. There are billions of people perfectly happy and healthy eating foods and animal parts that I would never go near. No more donkey for me, but you can serve me lotus root any time!
Ok, so last time we connected, I was exhausted and was one of a group of sort of cranky folks. I'm happy to report that we are no longer cranky. There is the prospect of a free morning tomorrow, Sunday! With that relaxing thought in mind, let me back up and cover some of the ground I've, well, dragged over, since last I wrote.
Our hotel in Beijing was the Penta Hotel in the Chongwenmen district in the heart of downtown. Fortunately for some of us there was a Starbucks just around the corner though I am enjoying drinking lots of tea too. Black tea, green tea, jasmine tea, teas for all occasions. The jasmine is served in the evening.
And speaking of cuisine, did I mention I ate donkey my first night in China? Yes, I ate it even knowing what it was. Thank you for admiring my bravery. It was ok. I am tempted to say here that it tasted like chicken, but it was really more like a slightly bland beef. There was nothing objectionable about its taste or texture and I probably wouldn't have questioned what it was since it looked rather beef-ish too. Every time I look at a menu here I am forced to think about how culture-bound my ideas about foods are. There are billions of people perfectly happy and healthy eating foods and animal parts that I would never go near. No more donkey for me, but you can serve me lotus root any time!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Beijing
Beijing is a huge city of industrious people, canals shaded by willows, boulevards divided by quiet, shaded parks with benches, some extraordinary, eye-popping architecture, and some very mundane architecture. It has shopping malls, Starbucks, millions of bicycles, KFC, articulated buses, and sometimes gridlock. We are staying on the 11th floor of a very nice hotel. We have just completed three full days of activities here and are totally exhausted.
I have not been able to get much Internet access, so I am currently in the hotel lobby accessing it from there. Though I can read and send email, the system is not letting me in to the Internet to access this blog directly; therefore, it is being sent to a 3rd party to post. I am exhausted and distracted, so I will end this post and try to write more later.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Chinese detective fiction
Tomorrow's the big day--our group is departing Newark Liberty Airport at 12:05 pm. Beijing, here we come...after a 13.5 hour flight. I can watch at least six movies in that time or I can use my time more wisely by doing some reading and working on some ideas I have for my time in China. And I think Dr. Poe is going to make me do some brainstorming about our fall class, though my tendency (Kids, don't try this at home!) is to do that in, say, late August. Dr. Poe...now...don't make me change my seat.
Since classes finished a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been able to devote more time to considering precisely what area of contemporary Chinese writing fits my interests and overlaps with my academic preparation. One of the subjects I teach at Pace is American Detective Fiction, but for about three years I have been contemplating putting together a course that would explore detective fiction in the rest of the world, including, of course, East Asia. I have been able to do only a small amount of research (all online, alas) in the time I have had to devote to this subject about which I am nearly completely ignorant, but it does seem like a worthwhile area of inquiry and one in which not much work has been done yet. Not to mention that it will give me even more reasons to read crime fiction, as if I needed any more. I looked through several years' worth of Clues, the journal of detective fiction, and found no articles at all about Chinese fiction and only one about Japanese. I have come across references to some printed works that will provide some information and I have found bits and pieces online (such as this from a Dartmouth professor, G.J. Demko: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gjdemko/china.htm).
I contacted Dr. Eva Shan Chou, of Baruch College (CUNY), who spoke to our faculty seminar a couple of months ago about twentieth-century Chinese literature. She suggested a book that looks like a perfect introduction to the subject of Chinese "crime fiction." Through the good graces of Xiaohong Hu I have a copy of this book (Chinese Justice, the Fiction: Law and Literature in Modern China by Jeffrey C. Kinkley) in my hot hands and plan to read it on the plane. It's a library book, so please God don't let my hands wander near a highlighter. In China, we're going to be meeting with a lot of academics at several universities and I hope to be able to meet at least one professor in China who knows something about the field. I also hope he or she speaks English, because I think I failed my Mandarin final.
I understand that little contemporary crime fiction has been translated into English. In fact, my only direct knowledge of the subject comes from writers such as Qiu Xiaolong and Diane Wei Liang, "overseas Chinese" who are writing in English. I also understand that the “private eye” holds a tenuous place in contemporary China. However, detective fiction as a genre also encompasses fiction that describes the work of police officers or the investigation of crimes by others out of professional interest or mere curiosity. The detective figure does not have to be a private investigator.
I understand that little contemporary crime fiction has been translated into English. In fact, my only direct knowledge of the subject comes from writers such as Qiu Xiaolong and Diane Wei Liang, "overseas Chinese" who are writing in English. I also understand that the “private eye” holds a tenuous place in contemporary China. However, detective fiction as a genre also encompasses fiction that describes the work of police officers or the investigation of crimes by others out of professional interest or mere curiosity. The detective figure does not have to be a private investigator.
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