Silencing Lu Xun
Lu Xun has long been the Chinese Communist Party’s favorite author. One of his key qualifications for that post was his untimely demise in 1937, well before the Party became a serious political force — had he lived, the acid-tongued essayist would certainly have made trouble for Mao, and ended up shot or exiled. But instead with his anti-imperialist writings safely frozen in the amber of history, Lu became a staple of mainland school curricula.
Until now. As Arthur Waldron writes, Lu Xun’s works are being removed from high school reading lists in Beijing. Meanwhile, the schools are promoting the reading of kung fu romance novels of Louis Cha, more widely known by his pen name Jin Yong.
So why cut back on the reading of Lu Xun? One clue is the fact that present-day China resembles more and more the denouement of the Republican Period in the 1930s. That means Lu’s writings carry troubling implications for the present rulers. Substitute a few words and you have a stinging satire on the Communist Party itself. Prof. Waldron cites the story “In Memory of Miss Liu Hezhen,” which could easily pass as an elegy for one of the student protesters killed in 1989.
The more interesting question is, why now? Jin Yong’s novels were once banned by the communists, apparently on the grounds that they glorified outlaws, perpetuated feudal values, etc. But in this post-ideological age, the difference between Lu Xun and Jin Yong boils down to this — Lu Xun engaged in soul-searching to understand the weaknesses of the Chinese national character, whereas Jin Yong is escapism with a dose of nationalism. This fits in perfectly with the “bread and circuses” approach of the Hu administration. As the Taoist philosopher Laozi wrote, “The sage rules men by filling their bellies and emptying their minds.”
