From Ah Q to Lei Feng From Ah Q to Lei Feng freud and revolutionary spirit in 20th century china Wendy Larson stanford university press stanford, california Stanford University Press Stanford, California ©2009 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, elec- tronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Larson, Wendy. From Ah Q to Lei Feng : Freud and revolutionary spirit in 20th century China / Wendy Larson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8047-0075-7 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Chinese literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Psychoanalysis and litera- ture—China. 3. Psychoanalysis and motion pictures—China. 4. China—History—Cul- tural Revolution, 1966-1976—Literature and the revolution. 5. China—History—Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976—Motion pictures and the revolution. 6. Literature and history— China. I. Title. II. Title: Freud and revolutionary spirit in 20th century China. PL2303.L365 2009 895.1'09353—dc22 2008011827 Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10.5/14 Adobe Garamond In Memory of Donald Martin Larson 1957–2002 Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1. Freudian Obsessions 13 2. Psychology and Freudian Sexual Theory in Early 20th Century China 31 3. Revolutionary Discourse and the Spirit: From Ah Q to Lei Feng 77 4. The Spirit of the Countryside: Mang Ke’s Wild Things and Wang Xiaobo’s The Golden Years 115 5. Extracting the Revolutionary Spirit: Jiang Wen’s In the Heat of the Sun and Anchee Min’s Red Azalea 155 6. The Workspace of a New Age Maoist: He Jianjun’s The Postman 197 Conclusion: History and Literary Aesthetics in the Study of Modern Chinese Culture 223 Chinese and Japanese Character List 239 Notes 259 Bibliography 287 Index 311 Illustrations Figure 1. Westharp’s “Female-Male Power Intercourse Chart” (Nünan liliang jiaohe tu) 45 Figure 2. The Modern (Xiandai) cover, 1931 71