Dance With Chains

Mao Zedong put forward the policy in 1956, that is, let a hundredflowers blossom and a hundred schools of thoughts contend, which formedrelatively free literature environment. This made some intellectuals think thatthe spring of literature had come. Different novels were published one afteranother,Red Beans by ZongPu,On the Cliff by Deng Youmei etc,which wereabout intellectuals'love and marriage life that few writers dared to deal within the past. They were paid great attention to at that time. In the second halfof 1957, these works were thought of as poisonous weeds. After crushing "the Gang of Four ", these works were appraised highly, becoming "revitalized flowers ". Over half a century, when we recall these works whichwere first denied, but then praised in historical context, it is quite significantto reexamine and evaluate them from the multiple perspectives oftext ,society ,and culture.In 1955, after the Agricultural Cooperative Movement , and thecompletion of industrial and commercial socialist transformation, MaoZedong thought that the class struggle had already been nearly over, the focusof work should be transferred to economic construction. In order to arousethe enthusiasm of the intellectuals, in the April of 1956, at the enlargedmeeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ChineseCommunist Party, the policy, "let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundredschools of thoughts contend"was made. When the sensitive intellectuals'"class orientation"was not explained clearly, the criticism to the intellectualssuch as Hu Shi , Yu Pingbo , Hu Feng ,etc. had not been dispersed yet, peoplewere worried about the ambiguity of the policy. In this period, theintellectuals felt inspired and proud but at the same time, anxious and afraid.They described the struggle and painful transformation resulting fromindividual sensibility approaching the sense of revolution. Love was only animage in Red Beans, the connotation was conflicts at the crossroads. In otherstories, the intellectuals frequently played the role who were under thesupervision of the Party , in need of transformation and help. Deng wrote asentence in On the Cliff , which was a classic summary of intellectuals'image in the period. "Like a person in a long-distance walking race,attracted by an exotic flower, I forgot the road signs, and detoured from themain road", In that period, the novels about love and marriage involved relationshipsbetween revolution and love, conflicts between literature and politics, whichreminds us of the revolutionary stories of the 1930's. The intellectuals in therevolutionary novels took part in the revolution when the nation was at stake,but did not give up their own emotional pursuit. In the novels of the 1950's,the intellectuals'outlook on life was the same. When the biological standardsand social standards couldn't be met with in one person, they were moreinclined to biological standards like appearance. The difference was that theintellectuals of the revolutionary novels in the 1930's were deeply influencedby thoughts of the May Fourth Movement, while dedicating themselves to therevolution , they still kept their own emotional world intact. The intellectualsin the 1950's submerged individual freedom into that of their country andpeople. Under universal restrictions, love in accordance with their desire onlyexisted in mind. Any individual opinion about love should all comply withsocial tendencies. So most love stories first described love, but then criticizedit. Revolution is needed, not love, or love is thoroughly revolutionalised. This kind of novels advocated suicidal moral values. In the beginning ofplanned economic system when various social resources were in greatshortage, the country attempted to transform selfish people into unselfishones by frequent culture movements. This kind of transformation reflectedthat love was a moral issue, love was not trivial matters, it could test people'sclass consciousness and moral standards. Love for people and work was themost lofty and most beautiful. Love was not a personal feeling, but belongedto class and social interests. Personal love became great moral love; lovebecame the touchstone to test class consciousness and moral. The narration ofthe novel was in pace with characteristics of the times, the suicidal moralvalues were intensified, but its artistry was weakened greatly .Studying the works of this period carefully, you will find most authorsdesigned the image of a good cadre of the Communist Party, who wasregarded as the protagonist's leader. They often stood high above the masses,had supernatural mysterious power of knowing everything clearly, oftenappeared and gave help when they tended to have thoughts of PettyBourgeoisie. Descriptions related to these cadres were limited in the novel,most appearances being fuzzy. They had only official titles, the name wasnot quite clear, but they were important, pointing out the right direction. Evenif the protagonist totally has their own awareness and emotion, they mustdepend on the leader who gave them information, for instance, Xiao Su inRed Beans, section chiefs in On the Cliff etc. The branch secretary inBeautiful, was the person in modern times who interferes with the freedom tochoose one's spouse. The works of love and marriage in the fifties, carried the burdens ofrevolution and love , moral values , leadership of the Party and so on. Thusthey formed a kind of set social logic, identical narrative mode,andpersonage's identity symbol was difficult to overcome. The intellectualprotagonists mostly held bourgeois ideas different from those of the massesof workers and peasants, often " played pendulum " between bourgeois andproletariat, overcame their own problems, and approved workers'andpeasants'thoughts and feelings. According to Booth, the choice of the visual...