Through the Gauze Curtain: Glimpses of Cultural Revolution in Gao Xingjian’s Buying a Fishing Rod for my Grandfather

Abstract

Globalization and the emergence of Culture Studies have problematized modern Chinese literature in current academic discourse. Modern Chinese literature shares a strained yet potent relationship with politics. In the politically charged literary scene, deviance from the prescribed literary guidelines amounts to dissent. Personal style and imaginative perception, the pursuit of the literary art for its own sake, were deemed unessential in the production of fine literature in twentieth century China. Gao Xingjian’s brand of individual aesthetics contravened the normative literary guidelines prescribed by the Chinese government and upheld the “voice of the individual”. The first ethnic Chinese to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2000, his works challenged the dictums on one’s creativity and individuality imposed by the ruling ideology.  The Cultural Revolution (1966-76) provides a stimulating background for his collection of short stories, Buying a Fishing Rod for my Grandfather (2004). This paper attempts to trace the effects of the Cultural Revolution in his apparently apolitical work of fiction.