Introduction
It’s called a fugue state. A fugue state is characterized by a complete removal from, or interruption of, a person’s identity and a personal history. A fugue state is not always permanent, but during the episode, a person can completely forget who they are, and can assume a completely new identity for themselves. Usually, the fugue state isn’t even diagnosed until a person can recall their identity after the fugue state has ended (Costandi).
This is a perfect metaphor for Death Fugue, a novel by Sheng Keyi. In her novel, she explores the events related to the experience at Tiananmen Square in China in 1989. There, of course, Chinese university students were killed by the Chinese military, much like what happened at Kent State, in our own country, in 1970. Sheng Keyi deftly shows how China has disassociated itself with rationality, and from the truth. This is shown clearly by the degree to which the government does one thing, but then lies to the people about it on the other hand.
This paper will explore China’s traditions, how Chinese publishing houses refuse to publish Death Fugue, and how a critique of modernity actually led to the spread of modernity and nihilism.
China’s Literary Tradition
China, of course, has a very old literary tradition. The earliest attempts at literature generally focused on the works of Confucius (551-479 BCE) and Lao Tzu (probably the 4th century BCE). The main purpose of these writings was to tell readers how people should act (being virtuous in accordance with the writings of Confucius) and how a political system should be organized and should work. There is also strong tradition of historical writing, especially after a dynasty fell and the history of that dynasty was written by people who assumed the next dynasty (Chinese Cultural Studies).
But there was, a bit later, and flourishing tradition of poetry, novels, and drama. Poetry, especially, caught the people’s imagination. There was a great Chinese poet, Li Po, who wrote during the T’ang Dynasty, which lasted from 618 to 907 CE. The tradition of poetry has continued to this day (Chinese Cultural Studies).
The earliest Chinese novels were concerned mostly with character development, and these usually occurred during an adventure of some kind. Of course, history was also popular, as expressed in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Love stories, to, were quite popular. China’s most famous novel, Dream of the Red Chamber, is an example of this. That literary tradition continues to this day. But the things have changed. Much 20th-century writing concerns efforts to reform China, or to bring China up to date with modern times. Lu Xun, a poet and novelist, believe that modernization can only come through revolution – – something that is clearly reflected in the work of Sheng Keyi. Since China installed a Communist government, writers are closely scrutinized, and they are expected to embrace the values of communism (Chinese Cultural Studies). Sheng Keyi’s work is a refutation of that expectation.
Sheng Keyi
Sheng Keyi is a bold young novelist. Death Fugue is her sixth novel, that is entirely different from her previous work. It was named after a poem written by Jewish poet about the Germans Nazi concentration camps. Death Fugue, as I said earlier, it’s about the events on Tiananmen Square in 1989. As the book opens, the first image is of a very large pile of feces that somehow has appeared in Round Square. The government, of course, is interested in placing blame, but ordinary Chinese people don’t “swallow the proverbial crap,” and so protests ensue. Disquieted by these protests (disillusioned might be a better word), “Yuan Mengliu searches for a new identity.” Since he was unable to save his girlfriend, though he looked for her, he ended up at Swan Valley, “where everything is regulated ‘for the good of the nation” (Keyi). But it is a false utopia, and the consequences are devastating, just as in modern China under Communism.
Some years removed from Tiananmen Square, Sheng Keyi believes that China’s growth has resulted in negative consequences for the people, with rising prices, unsafe food, and problems in education. She says that she wrote Death Fugue as a political statement, with revolution and betrayal and totalitarianism. She says that it was difficult to write. It “felt arduous,” she said (Middlehurst).
A Critique of Modernity
Leo Strauss was one of the 20th century’s most important thinkers. Primarily he was a scholar of modern political philosophy. His was a critique of modernity based on the works of Western thinkers, like Plato, Maimonides, Machiavelli, Spinoza, and others. He declared that modernity occurs in three waves: first based on Machiavelli and Hobbes, the second characterized by Rousseau and Marx, and the third wave follows the work of Nietzsche and Heidegger. The problem has been that these critiques of modernity have, instead of restricting it, actually led to the spread of it (Mingjun).
Neoconservatism, the bane of all progress, when based on Strauss’s theory, is a counterpoint to the “popularization, planning, amoralization, and disorder of society, resulting from contemporary China’s economic transformation.” But of course neoconservatives critique does not reflect everyday life and reality. Consequently, there is a serious struggle between China’s need to progress as a society (the liberal viewpoint), and China’s need to recapture its history (the neoconservative viewpoint) (Mingjun). This dichotomy appears in Death Fugue.
The Text
In the first paragraph of the piece, the there is already a sense of dichotomy. Yuan Mengliu, a poet, is walking with Su Juli, the female protagonist. Keyi writes,
Several times, Mengliu thought she was about to fall straight into his arms. In the throes of flirtation, his legs felt fresh one minute, wobbly the next, and then stronger than ever, while his chest alternated between feeling full to the point of bursting and completely deflated. His heart shivered like a woman walking on bound feet, trembling and shaking all the way.
Note especially the phrase “his legs felt fresh one minute, wobbly the next, and then stronger than ever,” and “while his chest alternated between feeling full to the point of bursting and completely deflated.” These are exactly metaphorical for the struggle that’s going on in China today, but also the struggle that’s going on in the hearts and minds of the people. And like flirtation and the heart, there is no amicable or peaceful resolution.
Keyi, further on in the piece, displays a poem or song that is full of the language of revolution. Perhaps it is an allusion to China’s history of poetry, brought up to modern times. Words like “tyrant,” and phrases like “contemplate the death of another – – by the time the rod is raised halfway destiny will cease its call for mutiny,” and “to lord it over us we will break the tyrants muzzle and slowly make our escape.” The hard yoke of communism, cracking down on any dissent, or any other view besides the official one, is quite obviously reflected here. And when the people rose up in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the Communist regime absolutely crushed the revolution, the anger, the selfless need to express something else, rose up as well. Though the tyrant’s muzzle wasn’t broken , and China officially has resumed its communist ways, the encroaching modernity (it happens everywhere, all the time, in some places more quickly, and in some more slowly), It may be happening slowly, which may be what is meant by “we will break the tyrants muzzle and slowly make our escape.” It is happening in other parts of the world.
In the novel, Keyi is very honest about how the student protest was absolutely crushed and extinguished by the People’s Liberation Army. She also invents a society in which everything appears to be sleek and new and richly appointed, and productive. That is a metaphor for how she sees China today (Perlez).
My Thoughts on the Text
Death Fugue is, of course, brilliantly written. Some may not like dystopian film or literature, and so this novel would not be for them. However, as one who appreciates dystopian literature, I find this piece fascinating. Tiananmen Square and the events there are not so distant in our past that they seem like another world. People are still living who remember that quite vividly, and for the families of those students, the pain probably never goes away. Keyi handles most of it thoughtfully, but she is not afraid to bring the full force of people’s feelings into it as well. It is not surprising that the work was suppressed in China, and then banned outright. The People’s Liberation Army is quite sensitive to their actions in Tiananmen Square then, and to be reminded again of just how brutally that protest was handled is probably too much to take. But the government couldn’t stop it from being published in English, so now most of the world knows. It may not be enough to “break the tyrant’s muzzle,” but an avalanche begins with a few stones rolling downhill.
Works Cited
Chinese Cultural Studies. “Chinese Literature.” Compton's Living Encyclopedia. 1995. Accessed May 22, 2016. Web.
In order for someone to understand the importance of this novel to Chinese literature overall, it is important to know some of the history of literature in China. China has a very long tradition of literature, especially poetry. This novel echoes some of that history and is, in the tradition of Lu Xun and others who have sought, in the 20th century, to bring China up to modern standards.
Costandi, Mo. “The Dissociative Fugue State: Forgetting One’s Own Identity.” New row Philosophy. April 18, 2007. Accessed May 23, 2016. Web.
This is a simple comment from someone who is not a doctor, but it does explain the nature of a fugue state very well, so people can understand what happens in a fugue state. This explanation is helpful in understanding the dichotomy that China is, between ancient and modern, and the transparency that the people desire, and the opacity that the government is.
Keyi, Sheng. “Death Fugue.” Tr. Shelley Bryant. A selection from Words Without Borders. November 2012. Accessed May 21, 2016. Web.
The selection that I read was outstanding. I had not heard of Keyi before now, but it’s good to know her work. She quite starkly exposes, kind of in the tradition of Ray Bradberry, the status quo and its brutal and destructive shortcomings. But there is also in her writing a sign of a delicate hand, and that makes a nice contrast, also.
Middlehurst, Charlotte. “Author Sheng Keyi on anned book Death Fugue.” Time Out Beijing. October 14, 2014. Accessed May 23, 2016. Web.
This is a nice piece on Keyi and Death Fugue. She compares Death Fugue with Keyi’s earlier successful novel, Northern Girls. Though the two are quite different in their treatment of Chinese culture, some of the same literary devices were used in each, for example, the use of absurdity as a way of easing tension in the story. One could also tell that Middlehurst is a sympathetic to the author as her treatment in this piece is quite gentle and uplifting.
Mingjun, Lu. “Ancient vs Modern: The Modernity Debate in Chinese Thought Post-2000.” Tr. Daniel Nieh.LEAP: The International Art Magazine of Contemporary China. December 18, 2013. Accessed May 23, 2016. Web.
Lu spends considerable time and space explaining the differences between ancient China and its culture and modern China and its culture, and now there are those that rebel against any change, while others protest for change. China, of course, is a huge country with a huge population, and there are likely to be more opinions than you would want to count. But she does spend a considerable part of her thesis talking about Leo Strauss, who was one of the foremost thinkers of the 20th century, and who was concerned about Chinese modernity.
Perlez, Jane. “Chinese Writer, Tackling Tiananmen, Wields ‘Power to Offend.” New York Times. October 10, 2014. Accessed May 22, 2016.
Jane Perlez reveals the author in a gentle light, so that we can see her without being harsh about it. She talks about Keyi, and how in 1989 and that Tiananmen Square massacre she didn’t know any better than what the government reported about it. In the novel Death Fugue, however, she managed to zero and completely on the truth, and even in her portrayal of Swan Valley, she is able to capture the absurdity of the false utopia that everyone is waiting for, and that appears in Chinese society, beckoning the uninformed.
