Ang Lee, Ma Jian and Absurdist China

Zhong Guo

Exiled writer, Ma Jian, whose work in banned in China said in his recent talk,

"Chinese literature is absurdist because our culture is Conservative and restrictive and therefore writers are accustomed to use symbols and metaphors. To criticize in an indirect way because it is the only way they know. The society is so traditional as well as our culture and the country is broken the only way one can understand or make sense of China is through absurdist thinking.

"Each book I write is different, for example the Noodle Maker, it is about the Tiananmen Massacre, it is set after 1989, and it is about the great change that has taken, and the sense of lost and alienation people felt. The whole situation, what happened was one piece of absurdist theater. How could one compare the event and what happened after with anything in reality? When I look at China, I see it as absurd, therefore we write absurdist literature."

This is perfectly illustrated by how the media and the Chinese government treated Ang Lee's Oscar win. The morning after the best director went to Ang Lee, the first Asian-American director to ever win this award, the Chinese paper splashed the news in all its front pages. Claiming he is the "pride of all Chinese people," the great son of the Chinese civilization, that we should all be proud of.

Except Broke Back Mountain is banned in China because of its homosexual story line, that Lee's speech was censored because he thanked everyone in "Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan." As well as reports failing to mention Lee is of Taiwanese Decent, and is first ever Oscar nominated film was a Taiwanese film called, "Eat Drink Man Woman,"  in the foreign film category.

If that is not ridiculous enough asking people to laud their favorite son of the moment for something they don't know what of, about content that is not approved, and taking glory from someone whose home they do not recognize, as another twist in unfathomable logic -due to the wide spread piracy in China, the film is in fact available pretty much everywhere.

How do one compare any of that with reality?

Comments

[Harald]

So how do people respond to this kind of thing? Do they know that Brokeback Mountain exists? Do they have to guess? Do they discuss this with each other? What kind of conclusions do they reach?

[Rob]

There's a fascinating story about one of the first conquistadors to land in America, Balboa I think, who upon having sailed into a bay found that the native Americans on the shore completely ignored the ships with their vast white sails. The reason being that their conception of reality was unable to deal with the unreality that confronted them and so they were unable to see what was in front of them, they subconsciously suppressed the sight.

Does that answer your question?

[rob2]

that is retarded