Under Sky under Ground: Chinese Writing Today (review)

300 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1996 Henry Y. H. Zhao and John Cayley. Under Sky under Ground: Chinese Writing Today. Volume 1. London: Wellsweep Press, 1994. xviii, 247 pp. Paperback $14.95, isbn 0-948454-16-4. This fine book is the first biennial selection ofworks in English from Today, a well-known underground magazine that emerged in 1978-1979 during the movement associated with die Democracy Wall in Beijing, and which likewise was suppressed in early 1979. After the June 4, 1989, Massacre, its core members recommenced publication in Stockholm. This selection ofwritings is chosen from the first six issues (the first and second issues of 1990, and the first to fourth issues of 1991) and includes poetry, reminiscences, short stories, and critical essays. The contributors to this volume are mostly in exile; some, like Bei Dao, were forced out; and some, like A Cheng, chose not to return. They represent two generations : the Red Guard Generation, born around 1949, and the post-Cultural Revolution Generation, born in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The few still in China are mostly college-educated members of the latter group. All clearly share a spirit of resistance to CCP control ofliterature and the arts, and all are engaged in the search for new artistic possibilities. Under the heading "Memoirs of Underground Literature," A Cheng's vivid account of the pioneer underground poet Guo Lusheng fills in a missing page in the history of Chinese underground literature; Guo Lusheng, who wrote powerful poems during the Cultural Revolution, and who went mad in the mid-1970s, indeed deserves recognition. Duo Duo's recollections of Guo Lusheng, Meng Ke, Yue Zhong, and other poets from the period 1970-1978 are most valuable. Zhang Langlang's witty and bitter account ofhis arrest because of an alleged connection with the underground "Sun Brigade," besides providing information about the underground poets, emphasizes the brutality and absurdity of cultural dictatorship. The short stories are varied in subject matter and style. Notably, Nanfang's "Mr. Nanfang Kansheng," Henry Zhao's "The Woman in Crimson," and Haizi's "First Love," with their delightful touches of mysticism, are reminiscent of the strange and fantastic stories of classical Chinese literature. Janet Tan's "Datura" is an excellent tale of childhood in the countryside; she successfully depicts the mind of a child, whose friendliness toward a snake is contrasted with the hostile attitudes of the adults in the story toward the environment and toward each other. Du Ma's "Into Parting Arms," low-keyed and cynical, though not as sharp© 1996 by University as Wang Shuo's fiction, conveys the loss of faith in conventional values by urban ofHawai'i Pressyouths. Duo Duo's "Hitchhiking," set in England, suggests physical and mental displacement and the search for a destination. Reviews 301 The critical essays are informative and insightful. Li Tuo's "1985" (which might more appropriately be placed in the "criticism" section rather than in the "memoirs ofunderground literature") is an eyewitness account ofthe changing Chinese literary scene in the early 1980s. Henry Zhao keenly observes the changes in twentieth-century Chinese literature from the perspective of its long history. You Yi's incisive comment on the Westernization of Chinese literature in the 1980s is provocative. The poems by "Misty" (menglong) poets and their younger counterparts provide a glimpse into what contemporary Chinese poets can do with words in unorthodox ways. Rejecting the confinement ofpropagandistic language, these poems have shaken offall traces of Maospeak, as evidenced by their sharp sensitivity, unconventional themes, and striking images—"a black night dyed blacker by the daylight" (Yang Lian, "CV of Hate"), "a drop ofblood marks the final point/on the map spread over death" (Bei Dao, "Along the Way"), "fingers stuck into pants pockets jingling coins and genitals" (Duo Duo, "They"). Still, one senses that many poems seem lacking in individuality, emotional rhythm, and verbal tension. As a result, even an informed reader might be at a loss to distinguish the authors ofthe poems. This book is only slightly marred by misrendering in several places; for instance : Lu Shuangqin appears as "Lu Shengjin" (p.102), zhuren (master) as "landlord " (p. 20), and...