MCLC: New anti-corruption novels

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New anti-corruption novels
Source: Global Times (7/2/15)
Digging deeper
By Global Times
Anti-corruption novels reflect the real social issues China is facing
Fans of political or realistic writing may have noticed that anti-corruption novels used to be hugely popular during the 1990s. The Republic of Wine by Mo Yan was hailed for its imaginative satire of government corruption in the country. Traceless Snow by Lu Tianming, a writer famous for his prolific anti-corruption writing, was later adapted into a popular TV series that impressed many audiences with its subtle depiction of human beings corrupted by the swelling selfish desire that often comes with power.
However, as time went on this type of novel disappeared from the public consciousness, that is until recently, as two new anti-corruption novels have reignited people's passion for the genre. A Camp by Tao Chun and The Song is Over, but Audiences Are Still There by Zhou Daxin both target corruptions within the military, a topic that few works have approached before.
"A Camp wouldn't be published if not for the current environment," Tao told the Beijing Daily. Recognized as a minefield prior to the 18th CPC National Congress, writing about military corruption was next to impossible according to Tao. What helped him decide to write such a novel was the national campaign against corruption that began with the meeting in November of 2012.
Real life motivation
"There has never been such a large-scale and resolute anti-corruption campaign in the Party's history," said Tao, admitting that his new book was a direct result of the fall of those "big-tigers" who used to be very powerful within the central government or the military.
Published around the same time as A Camp is Zhou's The Song is Over, but Audiences Are Still There, which covers the issue of corruption through China's planned economy period (1949 to the early 1990s) to the current market economy. Similar to Tao, Zhou's inspiration and courage to write such a novel also stemmed from the prosecution of several former powerful military officials.
For Zhou, the catalyst that got him started was even closer to home: the arrest of Gu Junshan, a former senior People's Liberation Army (PLA) officer. "We used to live in the same compound and knew each other. Who knew that he had taken so many bribes. They found 1,500 boxes of wine [in his home]," said Zhou. "It surprised me and motivated me to write [such a novel]."
Characters based on Gu actually appear in both Tao's and Zhou's works. A main character in A Camp is based on him, outlining the life of this "military tiger" over the decades through detailed depictions of Gu's involvement at different events such as reception banquets and public bids. Although the genre has slacked off some since it reached its peak in the 1990s, how anti-corruption novels can be adapted to a new era has been a topic of constant discussion.
"There have been some new changes to the means by which we fight corruption and the fighters themselves. It's impossible to write a good story based on indirect evidence," said Lu.
The complexity of human nature
Tao and Zhou are not the only writers bringing the anti-corruption genre back. A household name for his works in this genre including Man's World and Absolute Power, Zhou Meisen revealed to Beijing Daily recently that he is now working on a script for a 40-episode TV series titled In the Name of People, and also plans to adapt this script into a novel later. "I'm back on the boat again," he joked.
Originally determined to never touch anti-corruption topics in his writing again, Zhou Meisen, like Lu, had believed that real life corruption cases far exceeded anything they could produce from their imagination. "Life far surpassed writers' artistic imaginations," said Zhou. "How could I continue writing interesting stories and characters that readers would find enlightening?"
But after taking a serious look at these cases and personally communicating with officials involved in them, Zhou Meisen began to feel that they were something he could tackle. The story in his In the Name of People involves an official who is discovered to have 2.3 billion yuan ($370 million) in his house, echoing a real case that was widely reported on last year. "Although the case is known nationwide, I feel I can dig deeper into these corrupted officials' souls," said Zhou.
His personal relations with some officials offered him a chance to depict a different side of these corrupt officials who are seen completely evil in most people's eyes. "They are actually very talented and pioneering, but at the same time they feel left behind and find it unfair when they seeing how rich entrepreneurs can be," said Zhou. "These are my new discoveries, without this side which is left out of news reports, I can't write their stories."
Walking the tightrope
Although a reflection of reality, literature is still literature. Afraid of getting too close to politics or too obviously basing a character on a real life individual, writers in this genre tend to be more cautious than their peers. "I'm constantly struggling when writing such stories. I'm afraid of something going wrong," said Zhou Daxin. "Chinese writers are mostly unwilling to write this type of work. On one hand they don't want to get too involved in politics, on the other hand it's very hard to show the complexity of humanity with these stories."
After his The Song is Over, but Audiences Are Still There was published, Zhou was so nervous that he kept repeatedly checking the news and reviews about his new book. He was a little relieved to see that the responses so far have been mostly positive.
"It's unrealistic to expect a work of literature to delve into anti-corruption themes in extreme detail," said Shi Zhanjun, editor-in-chief of People's Literature magazine. "If you're looking for that, you'd be better off reading a news report." According to Shi, anti-corruption writing is not just about examining what is going on in society now, but has the far more important mission of enlightening people's future.
by denton.2 at osu.edu on July 6, 2015
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