The China Beat again has an extraordinary entry, this time for Qian Zhongshu’s centennial anniversary.
“‘Life, it’s been said, is one big book…’: One hundred years of Qian Zhongshu” by Christopher Rea (21 November 2010).
While some of Lu Xun’s stories are thought to be his only “apolitical” writing, Qian’s novel marks him as a detached, “apolitical” author. These works, like those of many other great writers, penetrated the seemingly urgent issues of their times and places, bringing the inquiry to a deeper level. Although everyone else was blaming the chaos of his/her society on war, colonialism, foreign occupation, lack of democracy, lack of the rule of law, etc., they looked into the human stains within us, our natural or unnatural tendency to be selfish, coward, lazy, jealous, intolerant, hypocritical, overbearing, and ignorant. So when peace made, independence achieved, decolonisation going on, even democracy established, law and justice rules above all, we find ourselves in similar situations, or at the best, in a situation where the roles of the harming and the harmed are reversed. We still wonder: why things have not improved. Once we have dreamed that social institution would restrain the dark side of human nature and before this we even bet all we had on that wanton lady called Rationalité.
It seems, then, that the so-called apolitical writing, composed by those witty men and women who were or are the best observers of human life, is ironically the most political. Because their writing transcends the problems of one time and one place; it tears down the beautiful clothes made of political movements and shows us the ugly body underneath. After all, in that much abused and misused epigram of Aristotle, politics means living in a human society and dealing with your fellow human beings. In this sense, writers like Qian are, by nature, the most political animals.
Personally, I never believe the hot and hard “political” theories, concepts, views that are claimed to be universal or time-enduring. Why a random Joe with absolutely no academic ambition or literary taste would still find reading the classics rewarding today? Because claims based on the fact of us all being human (though different human individuals) last way longer than those based solely on the tides of their place and time.
