Different Writing About The Memory Of The Educated Youth

In the contemporary history of China, Down to the Countryside Movement for the urban educated youth began in 1953. "Educated youth" in its narrow sense refers to the generation of high school graduates who responded to the call of Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution that certain privileged urban youth should be sent to mountainous areas or farming villages so that they could learn from the workers and farmers there. Born between late 1940s and early 1950s, most of these young people lived and worked in the production team, state-run farms or Corps in the remote areas of China during 1968 to 1978. "Educated youth" in its broad sense includes not only the young people we mentioned above but also the generation who answered the sending-down policy in the early 1960s and worked in rural areas of China from 1953 to 1968. However, in Contemporary Chinese literature, the novels reflecting the lives of the latter group are few and far from forming "collective memory" of a whole generation. Contrary to this, as a literary group, the creation and works of the educated youth, whose main part were the junior and senior high school graduates of 1966~1968 and involved in the Down to the Countryside Movement during the"Cultural Revolution", have become an important literary and cultural phenomenon in contemporary literary and cultural history. Therefore, the "educated youth" discussed in the thesis, whether in the author's identity, or in the subject of the works, refers to "educated youth" in its narrow sense, who has become a unique social group in contemporary Chinese history.The paper limits its research subject to the novels reflecting the lives of"educated youth"written by the"educated youth"authors. With the inherent differences in the "educated youth novel" as an entry point for the study of the "educated youth"literature and phenomenon, the paper attempts to illustrate non-integrity in the notion "educated youth novel", to show the diversity of Educated Youth history and to discuss the complex relationship between literature and history."Educated youth" in this paper falls into two different types. The first type of youth scattered in different places and had to work hard, like farmers, to earn a living, for they could not get provisions from the state government since the second year they worked in rural areas. The second type, who worked and lived in large groups in Production teams and Construction Corps, got stable pay from the government although they suffered a lot as pioneers. Different life style has brought different experience and memory, all of which are reflected in the novels written by these two different types of authors. Farm and farmers are important parts in the life of young people of the first type. As a result, their narration has unexpectedly become a component of Chinese modern and contemporary regional literature although fundamental differences can be found when a comparison is made with these typical writers of regional literature. Due to the organization structure and personnel composition, the writers in the second type suffered a lack of profound understanding of local customs and their narration is rarely related to the Chinese modern and contemporary regional literature."Suffering" is a theme always found in educated youth novels. While the writers in the first type were describing their bitterness and sorrows, the writers in the second type raised the banner of heroism; when the writers in the first type diverted their attention to the hard life endured by the farmers in the rural areas, the writers in the second type began to document their tragedies. The time difference precisely indicates that these two types of writers reflected the idealism during 1950s and 1960s and collectivism during the"Red Guards"period from different dimensions. Generally speaking, the grand narrative of the writers in the second type moved their readers once and once again but showed a lack of endurance. Different from this, the writers in the first type diverted their attention from their own suffering to the search of"roots"in the local cultures.The era when the story is told is different from the era when the story really happened. This difference may explain the fact that same history and memory are narrated differently in different historical periods. Even for the individuals who have gone through that hard life, diachronic differences appear in their narratives about that period of history. The creation by the same author may also make some changes in different historical context. The repeated narration doesn't mean the repetition of the same idea, for when retelling a story the authors not only adopted a new narrative approach, but also conferred greater meaning and depth upon the narration so that stronger and richer life experience and understanding can be expressed through literature.The repeated writing of certain national and collective memory results from the fact that that period in history always assumes a kind of"contemporariness"under different situations. The"educated youth"discourse is never the same and without any change. It has typical time characteristics, which can be understood as the diachronic differences. Before the literary trend of so-called"roots literature", the educated youth novel evolved from the description of trauma to the reflection of their tragedies, just as what happened to the literary trends in the new period. During the trauma period, the educated youth novels echoed the theme of times and their voice are drowned in the mournful melody of historical, national and social tragedies. During the reflection period, the educated youth writers, accidentally, or intendedly maybe, played down their identity as"Red Guards"during the"Cultural Revolution"and intensified their identity as the"educated youth"participating in the Down to the Countryside Movement, which is a significant difference with the right-wing writers in the same period. It is from that time on that those educated youth authors began to have their own voice.Since 1985, the contemporary Chinese literature has come into an era of literary and cultural diversity, in which literature has transferred from grand narrative to individualized narrative. Educated youth novel began a new period with the emergence of some authors with distinct styles. These new novels have an intertexual relationship with the novels previously written and with the same subject matter."Educated youth", belong to the same generation, however, there are some differences even among the same generation. For example, because of the sexual difference, male and female educated youth authors have different narrative perspective, standpoints and styles when dealing with the experiences under the same system and region. In addition, those young people went to countryside and other rural areas in different time and therefore had different experiences, all of which resulted in the fact that the authors had completely different understanding of life, history and society. We have to admit that the writing of the educated youth authors is only a kind of subjective imagination and construction, with inherent partiality and limitations. In this thesis, a comparison is made to explore the differences in texts between educated youth authors and non educated youth authors so that we can find a lack of in the educated youth discourse.For the writers, the consistent enthusiasm for the educated youth subject matter stems from the "irreplaceable history"; for the researchers, their ongoing enthusiasm comes from the "replaceable narrative." Educated youth novels, as a narrative form for the history of youth, have fully displayed the subtle relationship between the narrative and the history. The study shows that the different writings for the same history results from the different life experiences and inner feelings of different writers. Having experienced that period of history, the educated youth writers would never forget the rich and real life of that era. In the literary world created by the educated youth writers themselves, the once young people documented their life and history in their own way and this is the most important. When we face the irreplaceable and untranscended history, what we can obtain from the educated youth novels is not the"reality of history", but the spiritual and emotional paths of the individuals in that particular period of history.