No writer in recent memory has contributed more to the imagination of historical space inChina or a reevaluation of Chinese society, past and present, than Mo Yan, whose RedSorghum changed the literary landscape when it was published in 1987, 1 and was the firstChinese film to reap critical and box-office rewards in the West. 2 In the process of probingChina’s myths, official and popular, and some of the darker corners of Chinese society, MoYan has become the most controversial writer in China; loved by readers in many countries,he is the bane of China’s official establishment, which has stopped the sale of more than oneof his novels, only to relent when they are acclaimed2 outside the countryBorn in 1955 into a peasant family in northern China, where a hardscrabble existence wasthe norm, Mo Yan received little formal schooling3 before being sent out into the fields to tendlivestock and then into factories during the disastrous4 decade of the Cultural Revolution(1966-1976). His hometown, in quasi-fictional5 Northeast Gaomi County, is the setting forvirtually all his novels; the stories he heard as a child from his grandfather and other relativesstoked his fertile imagination, and have found an outlet6 in a series of big, lusty, and alwayscontroversial novels, the earliest of which, in a delicious quirk7 of irony8, were written whileMo Yan was serving as an officer in the People’s Liberation Army.
Mo Yan styles himself as a writer of realist, often historical fiction, which is certainly true,as far as it goes. Like the Latin American creators of magic realism (whose works Mo Yanhas read and enjoyed, but, he insists, have exerted no influence on his own writing), hestretches the boundaries of “realism” and “historicism” in new, and frequently maligned,directions. Official histories and recorded “facts” are of little interest to this writer, whoroutinely blends folk beliefs, bizarre animal imagery, and a variety of imaginative narrativetechniques with historical realities — national and local, official and popular — to createunique and uniquely satisfying literature, writing of such universally engaging themes andvisceral imagery that it easily crosses national borders.
Following the success of Red Sorghum1, a fictional autobiography10 of three generations ofGaomi Township freedom fighters during the War of Resistance against Japan (1937-1945),Mo Yan wrote (in less than a month) a political, if not polemical, novel in the wake of a 1987incident that pitted impoverished11 garlic farmers against the mendacity of corrupt12 officials.
And yet the unmistakable rage that permeates13 the pages of The Garlic Ballads14 (1988; 1995) istempered by traces of satire15, which will blossom in later works, and a lacerating parody16 ofofficial discourse17. Viewed by the government as likely to stir up emotions during the vastpopular demonstrations18 in 1989 that led to the Tiananmen massacre19, the novel was pulledfrom the shelves for several months. That the peasant uprising was crushed, both in the realworld and in Mo Yan’s novel, surely gave the leaders of China little comfort as they facedstudents, workers, and ordinary citizens in the square where a million frenzied20 citizens oncehailed the vision of Chairman Mao.
Mo Yan’s next offering was Thirteen Steps (1989), a heavily sardonic21 novel whose insane,caged protagonist22 begs for chalk from his listeners to write out a series of bizarre tales andmiraculous happenings; in the process, the reader is caught up in the role of mediator23. Innarrative terms, it is a tour de force, a tortuous24 journey into the mind of contemporary China.
In a speech given at Denver’s The Tattered25 Cover bookstore in 2000, Mo Yan made thefollowing claim: U I can boast that while many contemporary Chinese writers can producegood books of their own, no one but me could write a novel like The Republic of Wine”
(1992; 2000). 3 Compared by critics to the likes of Lawrence Stern’s Tristram Shandy, 4 thisSwiftian satire chronicles the adventures of a government detective who is sent out toinvestigate claims that residents of a certain provincial26 city are raising children for food, inorder to satisfy the jaded27 palates of local officials. The narrative9, interrupted by increasinglyoutlandish short stories by one of the novel’s least sympathetic characters, graduallyincorporates “Mo Yan” into its unfolding drama, until all the disparate story lines merge28 in adarkly carnivalesque29 ending. Indeed, no other contemporary novelist could have written thissatirical masterpiece, and few could have gotten away with such blatant30 attacks on China’slove affair with exotic foods and predilection31 for excessive consumption, not to mentionegregious exploitation of the peasantry.
As the new millennium32 approached, Mo Yan once again undertook to inscribe33 hisidiosyncratic interpretation34 of China’s modern history, this time incorporating nearly all of thetwentieth century, a bloody35 century in China by any standard. Had he been a writer of lesserrenown, one bereft36 of the standing37, talent, and international visibility that served as aprotective shield, he might well not have been able to withstand the withering38 criticism thatfollowed the 1996 publication of his biggest novel to date (nearly a half million words in theoriginal version, a “book as thick as a brick,” in his own words), Big Breasts and Wide Hips39.
This novel, with its eroticism and, in the eyes of some, inaccurate40 portrayal41 of modernChina’s political landscape, would have sparked considerable controversy42 had it simplyappeared in the bookstores. But when, after its serialized publication (1995) in a major literarymagazine, Dajia, it was awarded the first Dajia Prize of 100,000 renminbi (roughly $12,000),the outcry from conservative critics was immediate43 and shrill44. The judges for thisnongovernmental prize had the following to say about a novel that its supporters have called a“somber historical epic”:
Big Breasts and Wide Hips is a sumptuous45 literary feast with a simple, straightforward46 title. In it, withundaunted perseverance47 and passion, Mo Yan has narrated48 the historical evolution of Chinese society in awork that covers nearly the entire twentieth century…. It is a literary masterpiece in the author’s distinctivestyle.
The judges took note of the author’s skillful alternation of first-and third-person narrationand his use of flashback and other deft50 writing techniques. As for the arresting title, Mo Yanwrote in a 1995 essay that the “creative urge came from his deep admiration51 for his motherand … the inspiration [for] the title was derived52 from his experience of seeing an ancientstone sculpture of a female figure with protruding53 breasts and buttocks.” 5 That did not still hiscritics, for whom concerns over his evocation54 of the female anatomy55 were of lesserconsequence than his treatment of China’s modern history.
While the novel opens on the eve of the Sino-Japanese War (1936), with the birth of thecentral male character, Shangguan Jintong, and his twin sister, the narration49 actually begins intime (chapter 2) at the turn of the century, in the wake of the failed Boxer56 Rebellion, in whichtroops from eight foreign nations crushed an indigenous57, anti-foreign rebellion and solidifiedtheir presence in China. As in Mo Yan’s earlier novel, Red Sorghum, the central, and in manyways defining, events occur during the eight years of war with Japan, all on Chinese soil. ForMo Yan, the earlier decades, while not peaceful by any means, are notable for personal, ratherthan national, events. It is the time of Mother’s childhood, marriage, and the birth of her firstseven children — all daughters and all by men other than her sterile58 husband. The nationalimplications become clear when Mother’s only son, Jintong, arrives, the offspring of SwedishMalory, the alien “Other.”
The bulk of the novel then takes the reader through six turbulent decades, from the Sino-Japanese War, in which two defending factions59 (Mao’s Communists and Chiang Kai-shek’sNationalists) fought one another almost as much as they fought, and usually succumbed60 to,the Japanese. It is here that Mo Yan has particularly angered his critics, in that he has createdheroes and turncoats that defy conventional views, resulting in a “sycophantic, shamelesswork that turns history upside down, fabricates lies, and glorifies61 the Japanese fascists62 and theLandlord Restoration Corps63 [groups of landed individuals who went over to Nationalist-controlled areas after the War when their land was redistributed by the Communists],” in thewords of one critic. Of the several male figures in the novel, excluding the foreigner, whose“potency64” cannot save him and stigmatizes65 his offspring, one is a patriot-turned-collaborator,another is a leader of Nationalist forces, and two are Communists (a commander and asoldier); all marry one or more of Mother’s daughters, but only one, the Nationalist, earnsMother’s praise: “He’s a bastard,” she says, “but he’s also a man worthy66 of the name. In dayspast, a man like that would come around once every eight or ten years. I’m afraid we’ve seenthe last of his kind.”
Big Breasts and Wide Hips is, of course, fiction, and while it deals with historical events(selectively, to be sure), it is a work that probes and reveals broader aspects of society andhumanity, those that transcend67 or refute specific occurrences or canonized politicalinterpretations of history. Following Japan’s defeat in Asia in 1945, China slipped into abloody civil war between Mao’s and Chiang’s forces, ending in 1949 with a Communistvictory and the creation of the People’s Republic of China. Unfortunately for the Shangguanfamily, as for citizens throughout the country, peace and stability proved to be as elusive68 in“New China” as in the old. The first seventeen years of the People’s Republic witnessed abloody involvement in the Korean War (1950-53), a period of savage69 instances of score-settling and political realignments, the disastrous “Great Leap Forward,” which led to threeyears of famine that claimed millions of lives, and the Cultural Revolution. In defiance70 ofmore standard historical fiction in China, which tends to foreground major historical events,in Mo Yan’s novel they are mere71 backdrops to the lives of Jintong, his surviving sisters, hisnieces and nephews, and, of course, Mother. It is here that the significance of ShangguanJintong’s oedipal tendencies and impotence become apparent. 6 In a relentlessly72 unflatteringportrait of his male protagonist, Mo Yan draws attention to what he sees as a regression of thehuman species and a dilution73 of the Chinese character (echoing sentiments first encounteredin Red Sorghum); in other words, a failed patriarchy. Ultimately, it is the strength of characterof (most, but not all) the women that lends hope to the author’s gloomy vision.
In the post-Mao years (Mao died in 1976), Jintong’s deterioration74 occurs in the context ofnational reforms and an economic boom. Weaned of the breast, finally, he represents, to someat least, a “manifestation of Chinese intellectuals’ anxiety over the country’s potency in themodern world.” 7 Whatever he may symbolize75, he remains76 a member of one of the mostintriguing casts of characters in fiction, in a novel about which Mo Yan himself has said: “Ifyou like, you can skip my other novels [I wouldn’t recommend it — tr.], but you must readBig Breasts and Wide Hips. In it I wrote about history, war, politics, hunger, religion, love,and sex.” 8
Big Breasts and Wide Hips was first published in book form by Writers Publishing House(1996); a Taiwan edition (Hong-fan) appeared later the same year. A shortened edition wasthen published by China Workers Publishing House in 2003. The current translation wasundertaken from a further shortened, computer-generated manuscript supplied by the author.
Some changes and rearrangements were effected during the translation and editing process, allwith the approval of the author. As translator, I have been uncommonly77 fortunate to havebeen aided along the way by the author, by my frequent co-translator, Sylvia Li-chun Lin, 9and by our publisher and editor, Dick Seaver.
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1
sorghum
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| n.高粱属的植物，高粱糖浆，甜得发腻的东西 | |
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acclaimed
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| adj.受人欢迎的 | |
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schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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fictional
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| adj.小说的，虚构的 | |
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outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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quirk
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| n.奇事，巧合；古怪的举动 | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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autobiography
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| n.自传 | |
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impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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permeates
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| 弥漫( permeate的第三人称单数 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透 | |
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ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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satire
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| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
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parody
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| n.打油诗文，诙谐的改编诗文，拙劣的模仿；v.拙劣模仿，作模仿诗文 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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demonstrations
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| 证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威 | |
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massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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sardonic
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| adj.嘲笑的，冷笑的，讥讽的 | |
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protagonist
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| n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公 | |
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mediator
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| n.调解人，中介人 | |
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tortuous
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| adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的 | |
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tattered
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| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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jaded
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| adj.精疲力竭的；厌倦的；（因过饱或过多而）腻烦的；迟钝的 | |
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merge
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| v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体 | |
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carnivalesque
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| 好像过节的，快乐的 | |
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blatant
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| adj.厚颜无耻的；显眼的；炫耀的 | |
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predilection
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| n.偏好 | |
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millennium
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| n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世 | |
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inscribe
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| v.刻；雕；题写；牢记 | |
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interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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bereft
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| adj.被剥夺的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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withering
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| 使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的 | |
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hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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inaccurate
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| adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的 | |
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portrayal
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| n.饰演；描画 | |
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controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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narrated
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| v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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narration
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| n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体 | |
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deft
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| adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手） | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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evocation
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| n. 引起，唤起 n. <古> 召唤，招魂 | |
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anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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boxer
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| n.制箱者，拳击手 | |
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indigenous
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| adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的 | |
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sterile
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| adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的 | |
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factions
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| 组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
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succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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glorifies
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| 赞美( glorify的第三人称单数 )； 颂扬； 美化； 使光荣 | |
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fascists
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| n.法西斯主义的支持者( fascist的名词复数 ) | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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potency
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| n. 效力，潜能 | |
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stigmatizes
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| v.使受耻辱，指责，污辱( stigmatize的第三人称单数 ) | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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transcend
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| vt.超出，超越(理性等)的范围 | |
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elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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relentlessly
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| adv.不屈不挠地；残酷地；不间断 | |
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dilution
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| n.稀释，淡化 | |
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deterioration
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| n.退化；恶化；变坏 | |
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symbolize
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| vt.作为...的象征，用符号代表 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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