Table Of ContentLiterature the People Love
Chinese Literature and Culture in the World
Edited by Ban Wang
As China is becoming an important player on the world stage, Chinese literature is
poised to change and reshape the overlapping, shared cultural landscapes in the world.
This series publishes books that reconsider Chinese literature, culture, criticism, and
aesthetics in national and international contexts and render China’s classical heritage
and modern accomplishments as a significant part of world culture. By promoting
works that cut across the divide between modernity and tradition, this series will aim
to challenge the inequality and unevenness of the current world system and aspire to a
prospect of the global cultural community. Imbued with a desire for mutual relevance
and sympathy, the series strives to influence the dialogue regarding world culture.
Ban Wang is the William Haas Professor in Chinese Studies at Stanford University,
United States, and the Yangtze River Chair Professor at East China Normal University,
China. He is currently the chair of Stanford’s Department of East Asian Languages and
Cultures. His publications include The Sublime Figure of History: Aesthetics and Politics
in Twentieth-Century China , I lluminations from the Past: Trauma, Memory, and History
in Modern China , and H istory and Memory: In the Shadows of Globalization.
Published by Palgrave Macmillan:
Literature the People Love: Reading Chinese Texts from the Early Maoist Period
(1949 –1966 )
By Krista Van Fleit Hang
Literature the People Love
Reading Chinese Texts from the Early
Maoist Period (1949–1966)
Krista Van Fleit Hang
LITERATURE THE PEOPLE LOVE
Copyright © Krista Van Fleit Hang, 2013.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–1–137–30698–2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Van Fleit Hang, Krista, 1974–
Literature the people love : reading Chinese texts from the early Maoist
period (1949–1966) / by Krista Van Fleit Hang.
pages cm.—(Chinese literature and culture in the world)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–1–137–30698–2 (alk. paper)
1. Chinese literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Politics
and literature—China. 3. Communism and literature—China. I. Title.
PL2303.V36 2013
895.1(cid:2)090052—dc23 2012045537
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: May 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Qiao Yulian (1945–2010)
My mother-in-law taught me to appreciate the joy in the CCP
narrative of feminist liberation among the peasantry . . .
and the bitter tragedy of its limitations.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction: Reading People’s Literature 1
2 P eople’s Literature and the Construction of a
New Chinese Literary Tradition 23
3 Creativity and Containment in the Transformations
of Li Shuangshuang 57
4 The Heart of the Party: Gender and Communist
Party Ideals in Tracks in the Snowy Forest 91
5 Educational Laughter: Urban Cinema and
Community Formation 119
6 Conclusion: More, Better, Faster—the Ming
Tombs Reservoir and a Different Path for
Maoist Culture 147
Notes 159
Bibliography 177
Index 189
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Acknowledgments
More debts than can possibly be acknowledged have accumulated
in the long period of the writing of this book and the dissertation
from which it grew. This study began at the University of Chicago,
traveled with me to Emory University for a year as a visiting instruc-
tor, and finally came to fruition at the University of South Carolina
(USC). While at the University of Chicago my graduate stud-
ies were supported with financial assistance from the Jacob Javits
Foundation fellowship and a dissertation writing grant from the
Whiting Foundation. In my travels to China I found assistance in a
Taiwan Ministry of Education Scholarship, a Center for East Asian
Studies predissertation research travel grant, and a Peking University
Harvard-Yenching Institute Fellowship for Advanced Research in
Chinese Studies. At Emory University, the department of Russian
and East Asian Languages generously gave me travel funds to make
the trip from Atlanta to Chicago in the cold late autumn to defend
the dissertation. I was provided with summer research funds and also
granted a Promising Investigative Researcher Award that funded a
trip to Beijing to visit the Ming Tombs Reservoir from USC.
While it is a relatively straightforward task to thank these insti-
tutions for their support, fully acknowledging the people who have
helped me along the way is much more difficult. Prasenjit Duara
combines wisdom, understanding, and kindness to be the best of
teachers. He was always able to help me find workable solutions
to various predicaments in the formulation and writing of my dis-
sertation. In the years since I finished, Judith Zeitlin has gone
from being a committee member who helped greatly improve my
writing, to a good friend I can count on visiting during Beijing
summers. I’m thankful for her continued advice, academic and
otherwise. Tang Xiaobing, my adviser, has been guiding me since
my first year as a wide-eyed graduate student struggling with semi-
nar papers. After I fell in love with The Song of Youth , he was one
of the few people who encouraged me to pursue study of Maoist
