The Portfolios

Wei Jingsheng (魏京生) was brave to attack the administration under Mao Zedong (毛泽东) and Deng Xiaoping (邓小平) during a sensitive period of dictatorship. He is anti-communist. But, he was a member of the Red Guards and joined the People’s Liberation Army. I agree somewhat with the democracy polemic of Wei’s; however, his point of view about democracy and politics is biased, and his arguments are unilateral and superficial. He did not see problems in China as far-reaching – he argued in a narrow way, which made his statements and thesis weak from today’s political view.

Wei Jingsheng argued that democracy would be China’s “Fifth modernization,” playing off the “Four Modernizations” policy of Deng Xiaoping. Wei recognized that Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping were dictators, and not ones to put power in the hands of the people. But he argued that this was necessary for China to modernize.

Government pronouncements of its intentions were very important to Wei Jingsheng. The Chinese government was a dictatorship, and somewhat immature. Under Deng Xiaoping’s economic program, China created enormous bureaucracies filled with corrupt officials, thousands of people were laid off from their jobs, and small economic zones were created for experimenting with free-market capitalism. These zones experienced great success, but they were limited. As a result, the disparity of poor and rich is incredibly huge in today’s China.

Kang Youwei (康有为) was a representative of the bourgeoisie reformism. Kang had detailed plan to convince Emperor Guangxu to reform. His plans took more consideration of all Chinese people – the whole nation. Compared to Wei, Kang’s plans had a better chance of being put into practice; they are based on the idea that unity is strength. Kang’s ideas are not as biased as Wei’s ideas, and they are more far-reaching. For example, Kang focused on modern financial and educational infrastructures. In contrast, Wei did not mention much about education and finance in his “Fifth Modernization.”

I think Wei’s understanding of the word “democracy” is one-sided. His point of view doesn’t cover all the situations that existed during the Mao and Deng years. He didn’t show how democracy works in the Western countries, or consider that democracy might not be the ideal for China’s situation. Wei didn’t realize how difficult it would be to manage China’s very large population – including many different minorities – under a democratic system. It is very hard and complex to manage such a big country like China. By leaving out issues from Tibet, Taiwan and Xinjiang, Wei doesn’t present a comprehensive view of China.

Furthermore, according to Wei, Europe and America enjoy true democracies; however, Wei does not give us much evidence to prove his point of view in his essay. The Chinese government always says that every country has different national conditions, thus, different countries have different administrations: there is no single ideal system that works for everybody. In fact, Western countries have problems with democracy too. As long as governments exist in this world, people will always be controlled – and even oppressed – to some degree, whether in China or in the Western countries that Wei so admired. I can’t help but wonder, how come governments and their people always have disagreements? Shouldn’t the government give benefits to the people first instead of itself? Wei doesn’t admit that democracies aren’t perfect.

Wei clearly believes that democracy is important for economic development. He said that without it, “society will become stagnant and economic growth will encounter insurmountable obstacles.” Yet Wei does not name a single “obstacle” that nondemocratic societies cannot overcome. He has no evidence when he claims that “it would be impossible not only to continue further development but also to preserve the fruits of the present stage of development” ( Wei, 1978, p. 5). How does he explain China’s recent economic boom, which has not brought democracy?

While China still has a severe lack of freedom, its economy has been freed from the shackles of a centrally planned system, resulting in a huge economic expansion. But the country still faces a host of issues, of which the lack of political freedom is just one. With a combination of challenges such as social security, legitimacy, ethics, race, and separatism, China cannot only pursue democracy. We should consider more carefully Chinese people’s human development, health care, literacy, and life expectancy. When people have truly improved their living standard, their happiness can bring them to a new political stage. Hence, I argue Wei’s thesis was not far-reaching enough.

The novel “Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress” is a unique story with a dark, terrible background. Its overly romantic and lovely plot is hard for me to believe at some points in the story. I think this novel is more like a fairytale, and I strongly believe the author Dai Sijie is a romanticist.

In 1949, the Communist Red Army defeated the Nationalists in a civil war. On October 1^st, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established. In the 1950s, the lives of the average Chinese were relatively poor but peaceful. Families did not need to lock their doors at night, there wasn’t a big disparity in people’s salaries, people had better credit and they were more trusting; there was less graft, because officials convicted of corruption could face the death penalty.

But in 1966, the Cultural Revolution began, and Chinese people lost their freedom completely. Many city dwellers were sent into the countryside to be “re-educated” in the ways of the farmers and peasants. There have been a huge amount of memoirs written about individual experiences in the Cultural Revolution, and “Balzac” falls into this category.

Two city boys are sent to a small village, where they both fall in love with a poor mountain girl, the Little Seamstress. Although she is illiterate and ignorant of the ways of the world, they resolve to refine her. One of their methods is by telling the stories of Western books – now forbidden by the Communist regime. One of the passages that particularly affects the girl (and forms the thesis of the book) was written by Balzac: “The savage has only feelings, but civilized people not only have feelings but also have ideas.” Inspired by such words, the Little Seamstress determinedly leaves the village in search of the wider world, even though it means abandoning the boy she loves.

The main point in this book is that knowledge is freedom. It brings power and responsibility. The boys want to enlighten the Little Seamstress, but they do not realize until it is too late that this means giving her the power and freedom to do whatever she wants, including leave them. The girl’s grandfather realizes the changes she is going through, and even asks the boys to stop reading her stories – because he is scared. He knows that the power bestowed by knowledge can lead to trouble, especially in the political climate of the Cultural Revolution. Dai distinguishes the civilized man and the savage as a way to denounce Mao and the bureaucratic power. Hence, I believe Dai was using the contrast between the fairytale and the reality to prove how autocratic and imperious the Chinese government was at the time.

The material in this book is very supportive of the author’s thesis. However, I considered much of the material to be an exaggeration, based on the knowledge of some experienced people, such as my parents. For example, in the beginning of the story, we learned the boy brought his violin to the village. In reality, as the son of a class enemy he would have had this instrument destroyed at his home by the Red Guards before he ever arrived in the village. He played a sonata in front of the village chief, who represents the ignorant bureaucrat who only knows how to give orders and follow them. When the hero and his friend Luo introduced the sonata as a type of Western music, the glint of the vigilant communist reappeared in the headman’s eyes, yet when they announced the name of the song as “Mozart is Thinking of Chairman Mao,” the chief received it warmly. In reality, during the Cultural Revolution, people avoided everything related to Western culture, lest they be classified as bourgeoisie; a real village party leader would never have let the boy keep his violin, whether he was “thinking of Chairman Mao” or not.

The character Four-eyes provides a more realistic portrayal of a youth in the re-education program. City youth went to the countryside to work, having zero farm skills, and being made to eat and live poorly. They wanted to work hard to impress their hosts, and thus have a good chance to get out of the countryside, back to their city lifestyle. This is what Four-eyes does, even working on Sunday to show the party elders how well he has been re-educated.

The Little Seamstress represents the romantic idealist, the savage villager who becomes enlightened and strikes out on her own. She is, of course, the prettiest girl in the area, she is brave, faithful and ambitious; these traits distinguish her from the rest of the villagers, and eventually spur her to leave for the world outside of her mountain. Balzac and all the forbidden books are not just great reading for the educated boys from the city, they represent knowledge, freedom, and faith. In the hands of the Little Seamstress, they represent the chance for a new life.

Dai also exaggerated what kind of new fashion the old tailor created for all the villagers after listening to a Western story for about a week. In reality, during the Cultural Revolution everyone had limited options to buy living supplies, with strict quotas imposed by the government. People did not have the freedom to buy many colorful fabrics, and the tailor would not have had the guts to make new fashion under political Mao’s policy. After all, this is the same man who was worried about his granddaughter hearing Western stories.

One small detail that Dai didn’t mention in the book was the little red book, “Quotations from Chairman Mao”. Our text book “East Asia” gives a clear description of the little red book. During the Cultural Revolution, everyone related to the little red book. You needed to keep it inside your chest pocket, wave it and recite a quotation from memory before doing anything in public. But in this story it made not one appearance. In addition, Dai made Four-eyes’s mother’s position a little contradictory. Theoretically, she should have been classified under the Right, and should have been criticized and punished by the Red Guards. She should not have had the power to help her son get a job in the city. In the book, Dai did not explain this plot point clearly.

“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” is a unique story compared to many other memoirs from that period. It has some basic background as the textbook “East Asia” introduced, but it is beyond what the textbook covered. You will not fully understand the purpose of the book if you do not understand the historical background in the textbook. In particular, the textbook mentioned that the Red Guards roamed the streets in their battle against things foreign or old. They invaded the homes of those with bad class backgrounds, “bourgeois tendencies,” or connections to foreigners. However, Dai did not touch on this. For example, he does not go into why books from Western countries were forbidden.

Overall, “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” gave me a different perspective to understand the Cultural Revolution. Dai used a very ingenious way to show what the Cultural Revolution was like in China. His words are lithe and romantic like cotton. His implied meaning about the Cultural Revolution is about freedom that makes people ponder long and deeply. More importantly, he makes us understand that what people really need is freedom and liberty.

Thanksgiving weekend was nice, despite some mild drama (par for the PortFam course at the holidays). We drove out to PA and stayed with the Violas, who cooked up a feast. Gia and Mom were there, too.

The food was excellent, as usual for a meal from Uncle Steve, although dinner eventually devolved into an argument over politics and other nonsense – and things only got worse afterwards, when some miscommunication led to rather heated exchanges.

It had me harking back to the Thanksgivings we had in Shanghai. Michael, Jarrett and Brad would all pitch in and create a massive feast for 15-20 of us, and the solidarity among expats celebrating far from home brought us all together as family. Those were some of the best times in China.

Saturday I made time to get out to the golf course with Will and Piers, as they had been with Dad on Thanksgiving and I hadn’t seen them. The three of us carried our bags for nine holes and engaged in a little friendly competition, which saw Will finally clinch the Bory Cup for the second year in a row. Piers continues to improve at golf, only playing twice a year. If we manage to get him out there more next year, he’ll be ready for a shot at the Bory Cup, too.

The weather was a little cold, but the sun poked through with enough regularity to keep us comfortable. Afterward, we shot the breeze with everybody in the Pro Shop for a while, then bid them farewell for the winter and headed to the train station, perfectly timed to meet my ride back home. One of Xianyi’s homemade meals was the perfect end to the day.