1.Socialist Realism and The Golden Road

The first half of the 20 ^th century saw an influx of foreign literary works and terms from outside China.In 1928，Lu Xun wrote the following satire of“isms”in an essay，“The Tablet”[《匾》]：

The fearful thing about the Chinese literary scene is that everyone keeps introducing new terms without defining them.

And everyone interprets these terms as he pleases.To write a good deal about yourself is expressionism.To write largely about others is realism.To write poems on a girl's leg is Romanticism.To ban poems on a girl's leg is classicism.（Lu 74）

中国文艺界上可怕的现象，是在尽先输入名词，而并不绍介这名词的涵义。

于是各自以意为之。看见作品上多讲自己，便称之为表现主义；多讲别人，是写实主义；见女郎小腿肚作诗，是浪漫主义；见女郎小腿肚不准作诗，是古典主义。

What is worth noticing is the idea of distance that is inherent in the understanding of realism by the writers and critics in this era：realism is largely a kind of writing about“others.”The objective point of view that is required of a realist writer naturally assumes that the observer/writer should keep a considerable distance with the objects/liqterary subjects to be depicted.The metaphor that most loudly expresses this idea is perhaps from Stendhal's The Redandthe Black ：“A novel is a mirror going along a main road.Sometimes it reflects into your eyes the azure of the sky，sometimes the mud of the quagmires on the road.”（Stendhal 373） But the belief in the objective reflection of reality in literature was soon to be challenged by the recently introduced idea of socialist realism in the 1930s.In its original Soviet Union context，an official definition of“socialist realism”was given in the Constitution of the Union of Writers：

Socialist realism demands from the author a true and historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development.Moreover this true and historically concrete artistic depiction of reality must be combined with the task of educating the workers in the spirit of Communism. （James 88）

For Zhou Yang，who quickly adopted the socialist understanding of realism after his return from Japan as a student，the belief in“mirror reflection”is nothing more than a mimetic fallacy.Assuming a Lukacian stance，he insists that realistic writers inevitably belong to a social class and are conditional upon that class.（Zhou， Works 60） Zhou Yang highlights the“correct world view”which is key to grasping the“essence of reality”.（Zhou， Works 157）

Zhou Yang later became the Head of the Propaganda Department of the CPC.His belief that new realism“should be based on modern world view”（Zhou， Works 156）involves taking sides，thus eliciting a question：what is the writer's stance/place in writing about reality in literary texts？This question was rarely contemplated by writers embracing the more traditional European realism；even if it did come to their mind，the answer would undoubtedly be that the writers should not have a stance in order that the point of view is objective.With the introduction of the socialist realism theories and works，the question was gradually pushed into the foreground.In his article，“On‘Socialist Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism'”（1933），Zhou Yang qoutes from Kirpotin to argue that reality is only represented in the works of proletarian literature，and by those writers who are turning to the working class.He affirms the“necessity for writers of being combined with working class through real social practice，and turning the worldview of working class into their own.”（Zhou， Works 105）On account of his refusal of the mirror reflection metaphor，Zhou Yang believes that reality in socialist realism dwells not in the details，but in what is“essential”and“typical.”It is，therefore，not the adding-up of facts，but a selection of the“typical”facts.（Zhou， Works 109）

The problem of stance was ultimately solved by Mao Zedong in his“Speech at the Yan'an Forum of Literature and Art”（1942） which“laid theoretical foundations for Chinese revolutionary literature and art.”（Chen 15）In his own words，“the purpose of our meeting today is precisely to ensure that literature and art fit well into the whole revolutionary machine as a component part，that they operate as powerful weapons for uniting and educating the people，and for attacking and destroying the enemy.”（Mao 2）He addresses four problems that must be solved to achieve the objective：the problem of class stance，attitude，audience and study.Mao Zedong asserts that the stance of“our”writers should be undoubtedly“that of the proletariat and the masses.”“The audience for our literature and art consists of workers，peasants and soldiers and of their cadres”（Mao 4）.With the demands of the audience in mind，the writers should finally become one of them.He illustrates the point with his own experience of the transformation from a student（intellectual） to one of the masses of workers and peasants to argue that“the thoughts and feelings of our writers and artists should be fused with those of the masses of workers，peasants and soldiers.To achieve this fusion，they should conscientiously learn the language of the masses.”（Mao 5）Whilst he modestly said in the end，“I am merely raising these problems by way of introduction，”（Mao 7）such introduction became immediately the guiding principle of literary production and the theoretical framework of socialist realism in China.It was at this time that the principle was finally settled：to be a realist writer in China meant not only that the subjects should be the suffering peasants and workers who lived in the lowest sphere of the social hierarchy，but also that the writer him/herself should be one of them，and a member of the proletarian group.

Mao Zedong's“Speech”advocates a kind of literature and art that are intended for the people，the masses of workers，peasants and soldiers who are engaged in the struggle for liberation.The speech gave rise to“revolutionary realism，”a variation of socialist realism.In fact，Mao's speech ushered in“revolutionary realism which became the mainstream direction of Chinese literature.”（Chen 15-16）Works such as The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River （1948） by Ding Ling， The Storm （1948）by Zhou Libo，and The Song of Youth （1958）by Yang Mo embody the qualities of revolutionary realism. The Song of Youth provides a good example in this regard.Set in the 1930s，this female bildungsroman recounts the heroine's transformation from melancholic intellectual to devoted revolutionary.Upon reading Marxist theory，she embraces socialism：“From these books，she saw the future of the development of human society.From these books she saw the brilliant rays of truth and the road that she as an individual should take.”As realism of manifestation，these literary works successfully perform the task of educating the people by revealing the truth behind the historical process and illuminating the road to socialism.

The decade after the birth of the People's Republic of China（PRC）also saw Chinese socialist realist writers'influence reaching out to the entire Socialist Bloc. The People's Daily reported on March 18，1952 that Ding Ling and Zhou Libo，two influential Chinese writers，were awarded the Stalin Prize，the equivalent of the Nobel Prize amongst the socialist countries.The affirmation of Ding Ling and Zhou Libo's outstanding socialist realist works（the above-mentioned The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River and The Storm ）to some extent marked China's success in assimilating the literary model that was introduced from the Soviet Union into the local context.When Ding Ling was in Moscow for the prize，she learned that her book had sold 500，000 copies there，much more than it had in China.On the other hand，China at this time had also a large readership of Russian novels.Statistically，during the years from 1949 to 1958，3526 Russian books were translated into Chinese，and over 82 million copies were printed. How the Steel Was Tempered （1932），a typical socialist realist novel by Nikolai Ostrovsky，was popular in the 1950s and 1960s.One version of its Chinese translation had 25 prints within 17 years，and its sales totaled one million copies.（Shen and Wang 15-16）The acceptance of Russian literature in China，and in return the recognition of Chinese socialist realist writers in the Soviet Union is evidence that socialist realism became a transnational enterprise.

Although socialist realism was officially accepted as the“highest standard of literary and artistic production and criticism”at the second Congress of Literature and Art in 1953，Chinese critics and writers were making attempts at its accommodation.In 1958 at a meeting in Chengdu，Mao Zedong proposed that China's new poetry should be in the form of the folklore，and its content the dialectic unity of realism and Romanticism.The idea was then developed in an essay by Zhou Yang who observed that“Mao Zedong proposed that our literature should be the combination of revolutionary realism and revolutionary Romanticism.This marks a scientific summarization of the entirety of the historical experience of literature，a correct proposition based on the features and demands of the present era，and therefore should be the goal that all the artistic and literary workers strive to achieve.”（Zhou，“New Folk Songs”33-38）

It is not surprising that Chinese theorists of socialist realism will eventually integrate Romanticism into socialist realism，which，as required of“praising the masses of the people，their toil and their struggle，their army and their Party，”and in the service of the socialist practice，is inevitably blended with a touch of heroic or epic Romanticism.To many critics，the definition of realism as the“objective representation of contemporary social reality”excludes“the fantastic，the fairy-tale like，the allegorical and the symbolic，the highly stylized，the purely abstract and decorative”，and functions as“a polemical weapon against Romanticism.”（Wellek 10）The objective nature of realism intrinsically results in a“distrust of subjectivism，of the Romantic exaltation of the ego.”Zhou Yang speaks to the long-held idea of the contradiction between realism and Romanticism，and calls for a theoretical justification of their combination.The purpose is again to“better reflect the reality of our era，serve the working people and the great socialist and communist cause.”At the Third Congress of Literature and Art in 1960，socialist realism was finally replaced by“the combination，”the latter being the best method of literary creation.The replacement was a political decision against the backdrop of China's split with the Soviet Union in the 1960s.More significantly，it serves as an indicator that contemporary Chinese realist literature was pursuing its own road independently from the Soviet model.

The political intervention reached its extreme during the Cultural Revolution period.The term“socialist realism”was erased from the official vocabulary，and replaced by“the combination of the two isms”instead.Literature succumbed to the demands of the political and ideological correctness，and became the illustration of the abstraction of“class struggle”and Mao Zedong Thought.The example par excellence was The Golden Road （1972-1974）by Hao Ran，a vivid account of how the poor and lower-middle peasants，under the guidance of the correct Party line，realize in their struggle with the capitalist forces and the enemy of the people that only socialism can save China.The setting of the novel was nothing unheard of—the story of a villages'process of collectivization was already fictionalized in the Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov's Virgin Soil Upturned and Zhou Libo's The Storm .The protagonist，Gao Daquan，phonetically equivalent to“Lofty，Huge and Perfect，”having survived the hardship of the great famine and the oppression of the landlords in the 1930s and 40s，leads the village unto the path of collectivization despite the siren's call of wealth，and the evil plot of people's enemy.The editor of The Golden Road at People's Literature Publishing House recalled in her memoir that in 1973 her task was to“edit a book that fulfills the leadership's demands.”（Wei 163-164）

The Golden Road is indeed filled with all of the socialist realist tropes and allusions.When Gao Daquan returns to Greenfield（芳草地）in Hebei province where he used to work for a landlord on the exact day when the PRC was founded，he travels on a train that is romantically named“people's train，”which“ran on the vast and merry land of the mother country，moving forward and forward.”Readers familiar with socialist realist novels will immediately recognize that“the train”is a constantly used symbol for the industrial development and expansion of socialist economy and modernization.Chinese readers would not forget that the model figure of Pavel Korchagin，the protagonist in the time-honored Russian novel How the Steel Was Tempered ，starts off as a worker in the locomotive factory.Laboring in the train-related industry is also the first step of one's socialist moral training，and a way of learning from the working class who are thought to be models for village farmers in their awareness of making contributions to the socialist construction.Thus，when Gao Daquan is offered an opportunity to work for the building of a train station in Beijing，he immediately accepts the job.By working together with workers in Beijing，he and his fellow villagers not only help with the construction，but also learn a lesson from the working class.In the encouraging words of Luo Xuguang（罗旭光），a member of the work team that comes to the village to conduct land reform，

A glorious and totally unprecedented struggle is about to unfold throughout the country！I hope you will become a true vanguard fighter of the proletariat！

If you want to change the world，you also have to change yourself：persevere in overcoming your peasant mentality and strengthen your Party spirits.Devote your life to struggle for communism.（Hao， Days 104）

一场在我们国家从来没有发生过的伟大艰巨、光辉灿烂的新战斗即将开始了！希望你成为一个真正的无产阶级先锋战士！

在改造客观世界同时，也要改造自己的主观世界：不断地克服农民意识，不断地增强党性，为共产主义奋斗终生。

And the best way to“overcome the peasant mentality”is to become one of the working class，working in collaboration towards the goal of socialism.He finally discovers that the difference between the villagers and the workers is that the former strive for their own benefit，whilst the latter always labor for the welfare of the whole nation.

The Golden Road is the literary embodiment of Mao Zedong's idea of“class struggle”and socialist vision.In Hao Ran's novel，the key issue comes down to one question：to be wealthy，or not to be wealthy.In an argument between Gao Daquan and the potential enemy of the people，Zhang Jinfa the village head，the legitimacy of the“getting rich competition”（发家竞赛） policy is fiercely debated.For Zhang Jinfa，the competition comes from the order of the higher official and therefore must be obeyed；in Gao Daquan's opinion，however，the official does not make it legitimate as long as it is sabotaging the road to socialism.In the preparation of a New Year's cultural performance，a script is written to please the officials in the audience.Its title， The Young Couple Striving to Get Rich ，immediately arouses opposition among the actresses who have come to hear the reading of the play.Zhou Liping（周丽平），the chief actress refuses to play a part，and comments：

I was outraged when I read it.What kind of play is this？It just features two selfish money-grubbers who work away on their abacus，totally fixated on getting rich.They don't show the slightest trace of poor peasant character.What's the point of putting on this trash，much less having anybody watch it？（Hao， Days 198）

从头到尾地一看，差点把我气疯。这是什么剧本，满篇就是两个自私鬼，财迷精，在那儿打小算盘，不顾死活的闹发家，没有一点贫雇农的味儿。我们演它，群众看它，有什么意思呀！

The idea of getting rich on the individual basis is rejected by Gao Daquan who wants to implement collectivization.

Mao's“Speech”must have been in the mind of Hao Ran as he created the novel，for the speech is even mentioned by Zhou Liping，as the guiding principle of artistic creation.To Hao Ran，writing the story of a village's golden road to collectivization and socialism was not a process of recounting the narrative of the“others”—it was of vital importance that it was the story of“us.”In 1957，when visiting the party secretary of a village in the county of Shunyi，he witnessed with his own eyes the incidents of the local villagers acting against the policy of collectivization.Ironically，however，although bearing in mind the Speech's teachings of learning from the actuality of the lives of the proletariats，Hao Ran finally retreated to the abstraction of“class struggle”as the axis upon which to build up his narratives.But again，this may well be the“reality”that he and other socialist realist writers are seeking to manifest after all. Xsqdx8KZVnj9PcDeS07NDz9NGa5MwDtXJrnjJmHU96VYspzlSj3FIKp2uQOdP0U0