In the name of stability: Literary censorship and self-censorship in contemporary China

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15210%2F21%3A73608251" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15210/21:73608251 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://obd.upol.cz/id_publ/333188137" target="_blank" >https://obd.upol.cz/id_publ/333188137</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

In the name of stability: Literary censorship and self-censorship in contemporary China

Original language description

Scrutinizing Chinese literary field from the perspective of new censorship theories (Burt, 1994; Holquist, 1994; Post, 1998; Butler, 1998), this chapter describes mechanisms and provides deeper insights into ideological objectives of contemporary Chinese censorship, which can be summed up by notions of maintaining stability (维稳) and social harmony (社会和谐). M. Hockx’s (1999) adaptation of P. Bordieu’s (1992) concept of literary field for modern Chinese literature is characterized by addition of “political capital” to Bordieu’s original two-dimensional figure. Within this frame, the present study highlights nodal points of continuity in the official standpoints and requirements concerning the basic function of literature and arts despite turbulent changes in both politics and society in the PRC during the last 70 years. M. Hockx linked the “political capital” to [writers’]“ability to deal with the concept of people”, which is still plausible, not only on the official level – as the slogan of “serving the people” was repeatedly stressed by president Xi Jinping – but also in the everyday reality of each segment of the literary field, from writers through editors to publishers and sellers. Prominent writer Yan Lianke (2016) has pointed out that the Chinese literary system has since the 1980s shifted from “hard censorship” to a “soft” one, and writers, as well as other parts of the literary field, have resorted to “self-monitoring” motivated by “the seduction of power, fame and influence rather than being a product of fear and desperation.” The present situation marks a notable transformation of the original notion of literature as one of the main tools of propaganda whose aim is officially limited to disseminating key ideological concepts among the broad masses of people as it was formulated by Mao Zedong in Yan’an in 1942. The centralized, state-controlled literary establishment was gradually abolished during the post-Mao era, nevertheless, the basic principles in the official Party discourse remain and literature should still to some extent serve to extraliterary objectives. The literary field in the PRC has always been characterized by certain tension between writers’ (critical) commitment to “reality” and the officially formulated aims of literary creation, however, writers, as well as other players in the field, are with increasing intensity tempted to succumb to the seduction of the seemingly free market, which is in fact inseparably connected to and effectively controlled by the official literary system. The tension, propelled by collision between the symbolic and the political capitals, is thus diluted by growing potential of the economic capital and massive influence of popular culture that has (again) become a targeted tool for promoting the official ideology and its master narrative.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

C - Chapter in a specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60204 - General literature studies

Project

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Continuities

O - Projekt operacniho programu

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name

Routledge Handbook of Chinese Studies

ISBN

978-0-367-18139-0

Number of pages of the result

13

Pages from-to

505-517

Number of pages of the book

682

Publisher name

Routledge

Place of publication

London

UT code for WoS chapter

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