Uses of Literature

Perry Link is Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University, where he teaches modern Chinese language, literature, and cultural history. His books include Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies and Evening Chats in Beijing.

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2000 "The definitive social and intellectual history of China's early post-Mao socialist literary system ... This book doubles as the most revealing, systematic, and readable guide yet to Chinese literary institutions, thought, tastes, reader-ruler relations for the whole communist period."--Choice "In his new, densely packed, and fascinating book, Professor Link has moved from describing the plight of Chinese intellectuals to an account of what books and publications the Chinese read and why...The members of the Chinese reading public are hardly known in the West. In The Uses of Literature, they are perceptively described ... Professor Link provides the best description and analysis I have read of how literary controls have been imposed during the last five decades."--Jonathan Mirsky, New York Review of Books "Link is too astute to be a true believer of any literary ideology, East or West... The historical background he provides, however, will enable all critics of contemporary Chinese literature to do their work with far greater accuracy and insight."--Timothy C. Wong, World Literature Today "The Uses of Literature will prove a wonderfully useful book, not only to those of us in the field, who will relish the fine detail and strong description, but to the more general audience who seeks to understand the complexities of the socialist literary system."--Kirk A. Denton, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii A NOTE ON DOCUMENTATION ix INTRODUCTION 3 CHAPTER ONE Historical Setting 13 Warming, 1976-1979 15 Cooling, 1980-1983 22 Perspectives 36 CHAPTER TWO The Mechanics of Literary Control 56 A Spectrum of Newpoints 56 What Was Controlled? 59 The Literary Control System 63 The Mechanics of Relaxation 68 The Mechanics of Tightening 81 Soviet Comparisons 97 CHAPTER THREE Writers 104 Tradition of Responsibility 104 The Modern Crisis and the Idea of a "Path"106 Establishing National Guidelines 108 Effects of the Anti-Rightist Campaign 110 Maoist Utopianism in Command 113 Kinds and Groups of Writers 116 The Writers' Association 118 Generational Differences 122 Livelihood 129 Dissent 138 Purposes 142 CHAPTER FOUR Media and Market 167 Distribution: Official and Public 167 Distribution: Restricted, Semiofficial, and Unofficial 183 Related Media: Stage, Film, Radio, and Television 198 CHAPTER FIVE Readers: The Popular Level 210 Readership (Audience) Groups 212 Popular Entertainment 220 CHAPTER SIX Readers: Socially Engaged Level 249 Intrusive Politics 254 Special Privilege and Abuse of Power 258 Pervasive Corruption 260 Styles of Bureaucratism 263 The Need for Rule of Law 270 The Problem of Truth 272 The Place of Romance 278 CHAPTER SEVEN The Uses of Literature 284 The Party and Its "Engineering" 286 Problems with Engineering 289 Retreat ftom Engineering 294 Secondary Uses of Engineering 296 The Variety of Other Uses 300 Transcending "Uses" 319 Use and Quality 322 SELECT GLOSSARY OF CHINESE CHARACTERS 333 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED IN THE NOTES 339 INDEX 369