Asian Literature

Post Modern and Modern Literature play a prominent role in developing the past and present culture of China. Chinese people seem to relate effectively to these stories, fiction and history thus being able to find their own identity. In this paper we study two major authors in Chinese history. One of them is a fictional writer and the other a major historian, who reveal a great deal of knowledge about the thoughts, objectives and doubts of the Chinese people. A major concern of people living in the twentieth century is unsteadiness. The country was separated in a different ways by a variety of rulers, traditional values, and even though most of the people of China wanted One China, where everyone was united, there was a major generational conflict due to these traditions and values.
Families were always of utmost importance to the Chinese people as they usually lived in joint family systems. For example Chinese families customarily preferred sons compared to daughters and little children were treated as non humans always being reminded to live in their place. Love meant nothing to Chinese traditions and was usually viewed as a great threat to the communal and political systems. In order to restrain these occurrences of love and passion, rules were set up to control wedding, reproduction, heritage and the position for women. In China, Confucian viewpoint sermonized containment of family affection and matrimony was often viewed as a trade.
Family is Pa Chins autobiographical novel and focuses on the idea that has connotation across civilizing boundaries  the agitation and belongingness of youth to form an identity separately from the obsolete society and principles of their older generation is referred to as feudal in the novel.  This relates to the extensive protest movement carried out by the youth during the late 1960s and early 1970s, during which venerable political and individual morals and principles were questioned and most of them discarded. 

In Family, each of the three Kao brothers had been a victim of traditional values in many ways and has several other outstanding roles in the novel, which includes the maid servant Ming-Feng, cousin Chin and Cousin Mei.  The story also reflects the respected Master Kao being a victim of these customs and values. The position of aggravation of the youth in the family is overstated by as compared to the modern thinking of the people in China which resulted due to the movement on 4th May.  On May 4, 1919, there was a student protest on the Tiananmen Square and this was deep rooted in the irritation which was caused due to the decisions made in the Paris Peace Conference this allowed Japan to take over a part of Shandong province located in China.  However as historians put it, the protest was also a result of the traditional customs being followed and the main motto was to overthrow Confucius and Sons. 

The Cultural Revolution has started taking place in China since 1931 and the youth were found struggling for their independence from traditions and customs brought forward by the older generation. The question they had on their minds was whether they have to suffer only because they were young and because they were in denial to the identity and personal self-esteem in order to value
Confucian family tradition 

During the first part of the 20th century, Chinas conventional society was under immense pressure to adopt modern customs from the Westerners, and the ones under this pressure mostly was the youth generation, who familiarized themselves easily with the western lifestyle and traditions and that they did not have to be the victims of the distorted and mean  customs and valuesbut that this alteration would come at the cost of the familys reverence, which for the Chinese was the greatest value and must be cherished. The contradictions present in the characters of Pa Chins novel Family, were evident in each character of the story, ranging from the most vulnerable Cheuh-hui and the most conventional Master Kao, and this is what makes the reader relate to the cultural contradictions at that time in China. Pa Chin successfully tried to depict that all men have the craving both for freedom and belongingness it is treacherous and hard for any person to practice his or her egotism without considering their family, while the consequences of any person existing in a life distinct and forbidden exclusively by the family is perpetual pain and self-hatred. Pa Chin describes his characters as very soulful not one of them shows true constancy in their actions in opposition to their opinions on societal transformation or family customs and practices. The respected Master Kao, who was the head of the family and custodian of Confucian order in his family, is disparaged intrinsically by his grandson Cheuh-hui for belittling female impressionists and for his affection of his coarse, unattractive (Chin, 65) concubine that is a sarcastic taste when bearing in mind Master Kaos affection for elegant books and talent. Though the head of the family mentions that every word of his is final, he finally calls off the arranged marriage for Cheuh-min, the middle brother of the three, after he flees away in protest to this idea. I was wrong, the old man admits (Chin, 289). This is where Pa Chin shows remorse for the traditional conflicts and a hope for social progress against the Confucian values.

    Lu Xun, also known as Zhou Shuren, was a powerful author whose works personified the instability present in the attitude of time during the Confucianism. His writings seem to incline in the direction of supporting a Communist rule, though it is difficult to tell how he was affiliated to the Communist rule by just reading hi stories. All of Lu Xuns stories, however, absolutely have some hidden meaning about it that is not as understandable as the story itself which has a clear and blunt plot to itself. Most seem to be filled with perplexity and logic of not expressive as to what should be done. Many of these communal rules were the main themes of Lu Xuns short story titled Regret for the Past. The narrator of the story is Shi Juansheng, a man who had been through a tough and struggling, yet fascinating journey with his mistress Zijun. They were living together without marriage their familys permission and against the norms of the society in which they lived. At first their liaison was new, thrilling and bold nevertheless soon to be left miserable and finally shattered by the loss of his work and his truthful declaration that he was not in love with her any longer.

    He desired to have the same excitement and thrill back into his life when in the end he was left alone because Zijun kills herself, since she cannot break through the relentlessness and taboo that the traditions of the society had placed on him. Junasheng stood alone in the society and realizes that the happiness and peace is freezing him (Hsun, 21) he feels himself like a bird with paralyzed wings. All the characters in the story are close to life and one can easily relate to them as we all learn from them mistakes are a part of life and truth should always overcome hypocrisy. The story revealed what happens if we go against this theme in our real life. Zijun character was a clear depiction of female realization and all that a woman should not be in China under the Confucian values. 

    At the same time when Lu Xun is narrating this powerful woman he is also helping us notice what can happen if we try to go against the traditional Chinese customs. Lu Xun almost makes a relation to the revolution of the youth that was taking place at that time, but also tells the reader what could happen and how negatively it can happen if one tries to break free from the customary Chinese laws and traditions.

    This story is all about a woman consciousness and customization to the traditional Chinese society. Generally women can narrate to most of Zijuns struggle and adversity that she tolerated such as the conflict between being a physically powerful independent female while at the same time having admiration for your communal role and rejecting the desires required of the man you love.  Zijun declared at the start of her premarital relationship, Im my own mistress none of them have any right to interfere with me. (Hsun, 16) Zijun at these starting stages was regarded as controlling and physically and emotionally powerful for fleeing away and listening to her heart, however as the story urbanized she grew less powerful and instead became a weakling and a tired housewife who desired that her supposed husband would love her and their life would be same as before. She was agonized by the regret that she had for not being able to lead a joyful life like other men and women share. This is very common in western culture as well. The story reflects that where a womans sexuality can be a source of power for her, on the other hand the same sexuality can rob her off the power and dignity in the name of traditions and cultures.

    These two very prominent novels in Chinese literature were written in reaction to the miscellaneous faults that the society had. Lu Hsun and Pa Chin both commented on political and social problems that were evident in the early 20th century such as the events of 1911 revolution The May Fourth Movement. Also close to reality is their portrayal of womens rights, human liberty, and indifference and how each one of these turned out to be a catastrophe that people in China still face.