Wolfgang Kubin, a professor of Sinology from
the University of Bonn, reinforces his criticism of modern Chinese
literature at a recent conference held at Beijing's Remin
University of China.
He's back. Dr Wolfgang Kubin, the sinologist who shook more than
a few quills last year over his indictment of Chinese literature,
now wants to make his point clear: He hasn't changed his mind and
things have not improved since he first stirred the scholarly
pot.
"Blindly believing in themselves as great writers is a very
strange phenomenon among Chinese authors," he says. "They should
have the guts to open their eyes and recognize that from the
international literary perspective they have been hopelessly
backward for decades."
It's fair to say that this is one academic who doesn't mind
getting straight to the point.
"Chinese authors are backwards because of their style, their
world outlook and the literary forms they make use of. In such a
case they should either stop writing or start reflecting upon their
one and only important medium: language," Kubin says.
A professor of Sinology from the University of Bonn, Kubin has
written numerous essays on modern Chinese literature and criticism.
He also spoke at the recent conference entitled Dialogue of
Civilizations and a Harmonious World, which was held at Beijing's
Remin University of China.
However, it was a 2006 interview with broadcaster Deutsche Welle
that saw Kubin make headlines all over China.
Mian Mian, or Wang Xin, 37, published her
first novel in 1997 and her novel Sugar has been translated into
many languages.
When asked for his view of what the interviewer called the
"pretty girl writers like Mian Mian and Wei Hui", Kubin's answer
was remarkably blunt.
"You must be joking. That is not literature. That is trash," he
said.
Kubin also referred to Jiang Rong's best-selling social
allegory, Wolf Totem (Lang Tuteng), as "fascist", slammed the
Chinese Writer's Association as serving "no purpose whatsoever" and
said of the Novel Prize for Literature "if you write well, you'll
never win it".
However, while criticizing a large chunk of post World War II
Chinese authors as being insignificant, Kubin defended the
integrity of contemporary Chinese poets, such as Ouyang Jianghe, Xi
Chuan and Zhai Yongming.
The subsequent reporting of the Deutsche Welle interview, which
Kubin claimed was a distortion of his words, spread to the
mainstream Chinese media and inspired a flurry of comments from
Internet readers. Still, it seems that the controversy has not
caused Kubin to tone down his stance.
Wei Hui's books, such as Shanghai Baby, have
been very controversial.
?"My point of view has not changed at all since then.
Unfortunately, the state of contemporary Chinese literature seems
to be even worse. People not only in China, but also in Germany are
making fun of Chinese writers."
Kubin said many writers and online contributors support his
damning observations.
"I was only told that some Chinese writers felt insulted by my
words which I can understand. I was also told that 85 percent of
netizens agree with my views."
Born in 1945, and a native of Bonn and Vienna, Kubin is also a
published poet and has been lauded for his translation work, a
skill that he believes is sorely absent among Chinese literary
circles. In his interview with Deutsche Welle, Kubin said that
Chinese writers' ignorance of foreign languages was the greatest
impediment preventing them from producing work that might be
revered outside of the mainland.
"All great modern writers I know were translators and/or could
handle a lot of different languages: Goethe, Rilke, Celan, Lu Xun,
Dai Wangshu," he said.
"It is true that Gu Cheng and Zhai Yongming once told me that
learning German or English would destroy their mother tongue. But
if there is any truth in this, why did Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang)
or Bian Zhilin not loose their Chinese when they even wrote in
English?"
Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong talks about lives of
herdsmen and wild wolves on the Mongolian grassland. Many
entrepreneurs find the novel relevant to their businesses.
It was this point Kubin made in the Deutsche Welle interview
that Chinese writers largely remain lingually deficient he says was
the most hotly disputed.
"If I remember rightly, no one agreed with my theory that the
backwardness and clumsiness of many Chinese writers might have to
do with their dearth of knowledge in foreign languages. By the way,
the same might be true for Chinese scholars, too."
In addition to language barriers, Kubin also sees a more
systematic problem within the domestic literary community: writers
being critical of work other than their own.
"The emperor and poet Cao Pi once said: 'wenren xiang qing',
meaning scholars and writers despise each other," he said. "This
has been true for nearly 2,000 years. Most of the Chinese writers
are always criticising others, but never themselves."
Added to this perceived inability to foster a supportive writing
community, Kubin also said that many were not dedicated enough to
their craft.
"What many Chinese writers and literary critics lack is a sense
of responsibility for literature, for language and for society," he
said.
Being surrounded by a booming economy isn't helping writers
either, according to Kubin. He argues that the temptation of the
more lucrative business world may have lured some away from the
difficult pursuit of producing world-class literature. And
perpetuating the relatively low standards of writing are literary
critics who accept cash from publishers to write favorable
reviews.
"Many writers left the field after 1992 when they discovered
they can make a better living by 'xiahai' (entering the sea,
meaning to do business) than by writing. Also, many literary
critics are given 'hongbao' (red envelopes that could contain some
4,000 yuan, or $520) by publishing houses so that they only write
their book reviews in the way they are expected to do," he
said.
"Others write about sex and crime to satisfy the demands of the
international market, thus confusing sensationalist writing for
great literature."
On the other hand Kubin believes that the isolation of Chinese
poets such as Zhai Yongming, Xi Chuan, Wang Jiaxin and Ouyang
Jianghe, who struggle to find a Chinese readership, is a reason
they continue to produce reputable work. Without the commercial
pressure experienced by their prose counterparts, could the poets'
struggle to make money be of benefit to their writing?
"True Chinese poets are at the edge of Chinese society. Even if
they would like to write for the market, they would not be willing
or able to do so. All they can do is to contribute to (their)
language and fulfil what is the foremost duty of a writer: to work
hard for every single word," he said.
"In some respect one could also say, some poets do not even
belong to Chinese literature any more."
(China Daily April 10, 2007)
