Bo Yang's Ugly Chinaman

I have long outgrown Bo Yang’s (pictured) writing so it was somewhat surprising to myself that I still picked up his book 酱缸震荡 再论丑陋的中国人 (柏杨 星光出版社中华民国84年). Maybe I needed a dose of strident ranting from time to time.

On the decaying powers of Chinese culture, Bo Yang had this to say - “酱缸强大的腐蚀力，连美女都能变成丑八怪，连耶稣都会被扭曲，何况什么主义” ("The strong corrosive powers can even turn a beautiful woman into an ugly creature, and even Jesus will become twisted and contorted, let alone any kind of ideology.)

His disdain of Mao Zedong was unconcealed. “毛泽东真是伟大，他在短短的二十年左右，竟把中国变成一个以说谎为美德的社会，真不简单！” ("Mao Zedong is truly a great man. In a short time span of about 20 years, he had turned China into a society where deceit and lying is a form of virtue. Truly remarkable indeed!")

“诚如毛泽东所说的“中国有那么多人，不斗行吗？”把“人多”和“斗争”奇异的结合在一起，就是一种苍蝇飞翔式的思维逻辑。” ("Mao Zedong has said “China is so populated, can the lack of struggles be possible?” Linking “overpopulation” with “struggles” is a strange logic that is similar to the flying pattern of flies.")

Of course Bo Yang often made valid points, except they were expressed in strident language.

有光荣的历史，不证明有光荣的现在。一个生气勃勃，健康而有能力，大踏脚步前进的年轻人，不会炫耀他读幼稚园小班时，口齿是如何流利。一个老病夫，成天坐在养老院的摇椅上，或坐在街头的长凳上，偶尔和同年龄的人聚在一起，才总是喋喋不休的谈“想当年”英雄往事。中国人五千年不过是喃喃自语。于是乎，没有现在，也没有未来，只有过去五千年，用过去的五千年，当作自己现在的面子，心情的悲凉，使人落泪。(“Having a glorious history does not mean that the present is glorious. An energetic, healthy and capable young person marching confidently towards his future would not boast of how intelligent he was when he was in kindergarten. Only an ailing old man who sits all day on a rocking chair in a home for the aged, or sitting on a bench at the street corner, would talk incessantly about his glorious past. In the past 5000 years, the Chinese have been mumbling to themselves. There is no present, neither is there a future. There is only the past 5000 years, which is used as a form of pride and façade. The sadness of it all is enough to reduce one to tears.”)

一九六八年夏季的一天晚上，监狱中已经病入膏盲的刘少奇，突然发起高烧，毛泽东先生下令用所有的力量抢救他的生命，这跟史大林下令用所有的力量抢救艾古洛夫的生命一样，这不是慈悲仁爱，而是毛泽东要由他自己，而不是由上帝，来撕裂刘少奇的灵魂和肉体，他要刘少奇活着看到自己被开除共产党籍。对一个终生奉献给党，而又是党的副领袖而言，仅此一项打击，就够羞愤，痛苦，万箭钻心，那是一项最恶毒的摧残。(“One summer night in 1968, Liu Shaoqi who was at the verge of death in prison suddenly contracted fever. Mao Zedong instructed that no efforts should be spared in saving Liu. This is similar to the approach undertaken by Stalin. This was not compassion or humanity. Rather, it was because Mao Zedong wanted to make sure that it was himself, and not God, who could destroy Liu’s body and soul. He wanted Liu alive to see Liu expelled as a member of the Communist Party. For a man who devoted his entire life to the party, and for a deputy of the party no less, such a blow would be humiliating, tormenting and most vicious.”)

On his impressions of Lu Xun, Bo Yang wrote that he had a strong admiration for Lu Xun’s “righteousness and fearlessness” (正直和无畏) and described Lu Xun as “having a great impact on contemporary Chinese thought, but had yet to surpass Hu Shi.” (对近代中国思想有很大影响，但没有超过胡适)

他有强烈的战斗性，却缺少包容性，简直是拒绝任何批评，这不是民主人的气质。(“Lu Xun had a strong combative streak, but lacked tolerance, and almost rejected any form of criticism. This is not the demeanor of a democratic person.”)

鲁迅是一位“民族作家”，不是“民主作家”。1988年我去中国大陆，发现鲁迅已成为一位不可批评的人物，使人生忧。没有批评，如何进步？一代应比一代好，思想与文学也是，一个人不应成为思想的终结者，世界才有美景。(“Lu Xun is an “ethnic writer” and not a “democratic writer”. When I was in China in 1988, I discovered that Lu Xun had become someone who cannot be criticized. This is worrying. Without criticisms, how can there be any improvements? One generation should always surpass the previous. The same applies to ideology and literature. A person should not become the terminator of ideology. Only then can the world be a better one.”)

鲁迅在大陆的地位，是因获得毛泽东的支持，应是中国政治文化的一项特色，鲁迅的文学成就被政治化后已被当作一个政治工具。当哪一天鲁迅思想可被批评挑战时，鲁迅的价值才可以呈现。("Lu Xun’s exalted position in China is due to the support of Mao Zedong, and is a feature of Chinese political culture. Lu Xun’s literary accomplishments had been politicized and turned into a political tool. Lu Xun’s real value can only be brought to fruition on the day when his thinking can be criticized and challenged.”

China's Son - Growing Up in the Cultural Revolution

Da Chen’s autobiography China’s Son Growing Up in the Cultural Revolution (Delacorte Press. 2001) is an absolutely easy read.

It is an account of growing up in a small village in Fujian province, and the journey from a model student, to “counterrevolutionary” due to a landlord family background, to almost a drop-out, and eventually the first person from his village to study English in the prestigious Beijing First Foreign Language Institute.

The book is also an interesting account of the pressure faced by students during the college entrance examinations, where the pressure in the days after the Cultural Revolution seemed as intense as those faced by current students.

One area that was covered in the examination was “political studies” described by Chen as “the most boring of the five subjects required in the big exam” and “all about the twisted philosophy of the Communist party.”

“They sounded like sophistry at best, and that was what they were. It was like a carpet-cleaning salesman raving about this great revolution taking place in the carpet-cleaning industry, where actually none existed. And the machine he was trying to sell you wasn’t one bit as good as what he claimed. It was tedious self-promotion, mixed with a little bit of lying.”

“Many times I wanted to throw the book into the river. What was this? Marxism combined with Mao’s superior thoughts? It was simply some foreign garbage, stir-fried with local flavor until it became a dish called Communism, Chinese style. Moo goo gai pan with ketchup.”

“Some of the questions and explanations given were so far-fetched. I felt like spitting. Like why in the beginning of the revolution Mao had ordered his armies into the countryside instead of starting a revolt in the big city. The book said Mao was applying Marxism to China’s unique circumstances. That was bull. Mao was just running for his life.”

“He hadn’t even had time to wipe his ass. The Nationalists army was after his head and he’d had to flee into the woods. There had been no Marxism in his mind at that time. I almost puked as I read a whole chapter talking about the virtue of Mao’s one-liner “True knowledge comes from practice.” Yeah, right.”

“Well, he’d had plenty of practice, starting with dumping his ugly country-bumpkin first wife and crawling into bed with a chic Shanghai actress, while his army was chewing tree roots and getting their butts frozen in northern Shanghai ..”

How much of the above was what he thought then, and what he subsequently thought?