Tapestry of Light

Yiju Huang, Ph.D. (2011), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is assistant professor of Chinese Studies at Bowling Green State University. Her recent publications include an article on French philosopher Alain Badiou’s writing on the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

"Tapestry of Light offers an intriguing take on how the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, and the silence/secrecy surrounding some of its horrors, can continue to shape the aesthetics of literature, art, and cinema. [...] constitutes an interesting and valuable intervention, laying the foundation for a timely and much needed discussion of the past, trauma, and artistic expression in the continuing aftermath of that period of history." Rebecka Eriksson, Lund University, MLCL Resource Center Publication, October 2015"Yiju Huang's gracefully written monograph contributes to the studies of the Cultural Revolution with a theoretically rigorous approach and an ingenious emphasis on elaborating the signification of this turbulent period by considering what amounts to its traumatic afterlives. [...] Huang's book is not one to be skimmed through. The wandering, fragmented nature of its highly evocative prose gives rise to illuminating sparks that ultimately form a collective tapestry of light resisting totalization and universalization. [...] The monograph is a necessary addition to any collection on the cultural historical ramifications of the Cultural Revolution."ZHANG Zhen, Union College, Frontiers of Literary Studies in China, Vol. 9, No. 4, 2016

• ContentsAcknowledgments 1IntroductionEmbroidering a Tapestry of Hope2Familial SecretsMao’s Famine in Hong Ying’s Daughter of the River3Aesthetic of HeterogeneityRoots in Han Shaogong’s Theoretical and Literary Writings4Ghostly VisionZhang Xiaogang’s “Bloodline: Big Family”5Protean YouthRedemptive Poetics in In the Heat of the Sun and The Postmodern Life of My AuntCodaBa Jin: Toward an Ethical Relation to HistoryBibliography