^1. See for example Honglin, Li, “‘Xinyang weiji’ shuomingle shenme?” (“What does the ‘faith crisis’ indicate?”), Renmin ribao (People's Daily), 11 11 1980.Google Scholar

^2. Williams, Raymond, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (London: Fontana Press, 1976), p. 36.Google Scholar

^3. This includes several collections published in Taiwan. Yang, Bo (ed.), Laobangzi jiuguan (Old Stick's Wine Shop) (Taipei: Linbai chubanshe, 1988).Google Scholar At least one story from this series has already been translated and published in English; see “Clock,” in Tai, Jeanne (ed. and trans.), Spring Bamboo: A Collection of Contemporary Short Stories (New York: Random House, 1989), pp. 5–18.Google Scholar

^4. In 1986, Beijing Literature organized a special forum devoted specifically to the discussion of “Strange Tales from Strange Lands.” A summary of the speeches made at this forum was later published in Beijing wenxue, No. 3, (1986), pp. 69–79.Google Scholar

^5. I am referring here only to the official literature, that is, literature published by officially sanctioned publishers. In unofficial magazines and journals, experimentation thrived in the 1970s.

^6. For example, starting from 1988, Wu Liang, Zhang Ping and Song Renfa have edited a series entitled Xin shiqi liupai xiaoshuo jingxuan congshu (A Series of Books on the Fiction of the Schools of the New Period) in which these schools are represented.

^7. The controversies surrounding China's cultural heritage are not unique to the post-Mao period. It was a major political issue almost as soon as the People's Republic was established. See Louie, Kam, Inheriting Tradition: Interpretations of the Classical Philosophers in Communist China 1949–1966 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).Google Scholar

^8. Beijing University, for example, established the International Academy of Chinese Culture in 1984. In the same year, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Fudan University jointly published Zhongguo wenhua (Chinese Culture), ajournai which is designed to revitalize the discussions on traditional Chinese culture.

^9. Shaogong, Han, “Wenxue de ‘gen’” (“The ‘roots’ of literature”), Zuojia (Writers), No. 4 (1985), p. 2.Google Scholar

^10. Ibid. p. 5.

^11. The Oroqens are a very small national minority people living in the north-east of China and engaging mainly in hunting and mining. In the 1990 census their numbers were only 6,965.

^12. Wanlong, Zheng, “Wo de gen” (“My roots”), Shanghai wenxue, No. 5 (1985), p. 44.Google Scholar

^13. This concern is expressed in many forms, from the May Fourth intellectual type to the obedient Party soldiers of the Lei Feng variety.

^14. The machismo displayed in these stories is again typical of many of the xungen writers. See discussion in Louie, Kam, “The macho eunuch: the politics of masculinity in Jia Pingwa's ‘Human Extremities’,” Modern China, Vol. 17, No. 2 (1991), pp. 163–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

^15. Mosher, Donald L. and Tomkins, Silvan S., “Scripting the macho man: hypermasculine socialization and enculturation,” The Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1988), pp. 60–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

^16. Wanlong, Zheng, “Xiagu” (“The Gorge”), in Wanlong, Zheng, Shengming de tuteng (The Totems of Life) (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chuban gongsi, 1986), pp. 25–40.Google Scholar Quotations from the series in this article come from this collection.

^17. Mosher, and Tomkins, , “Scripting the macho man,” pp. 72–73.Google Scholar

^18. Connell, R. W., Gender and Power (London: Allen & Unwin, 1987), p. 52.Google Scholar

^19. Wanlong, Zheng, The Totems of Life, p. 100.Google Scholar

^20. Ibid. pp. 93–94.

^21. Ibid. p. 3.

^22. This uses the theory developed by Roy Baumeister. Although he specifies the theory as being applicable to sexual masochism only at this stage, it seems to apply here as well. See Baumeister, Roy, “Masochism as escape from self,” The Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1988), pp. 28–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

^23. Wanlong, Zheng, The Totems of Life, p. 1.Google Scholar

^24. Ibid. p. 3.

^25. Ibid. p. 4.

^26. Another good example is the swaggering young boy Liu Santai in “Old Stick's Wineshop.” By imitating the macho behaviour of the hero Chen Sanjiao, he is able to trample on the hapless Old Stick.

^27. Wanlong, Zheng, The Totems of Life, p. 49.Google Scholar

^28. Ibid. p. 78.

^29. Furman, Nelly, “The politics of language: beyond the gender principle?” in Gayle, and Kahn, Coppélia (eds.), Making a Difference: Feminist Literary Criticism (New York: Methuen, 1985), p. 61.Google Scholar

^30. Mo, Chen, “Qian tan ‘Yixiang yiwen' de bu zu’ (“A brief talk on the deficiencies of ‘Strange Tales from Strange Lands’”), Beijing wenxue, No. 3 (1986), p. 73.Google Scholar

^31. Xiang, Cai, “Yeman yu wenming: pipan yu zhangyang” (“Barbarism and Civilization: Criticism and Praise”), Dangdai wenyi sichao (Contemporary Literary and Artistic Currents), No. 3 (1986), p. 76.Google Scholar

^32. Wanlong, Zheng, The Totems of Life, p. 172.Google Scholar

^33. See for example the discussion in Shulei, Li, “Cong ‘xunmeng’ dao ‘xungen’” (“From ‘seeking dreams’ to ‘seeking roots’”), Dangdai wenyi sichao (Contemporary Literary Currents), No. 2 (1986), p. 47.Google Scholar

^34. Ziping, Huang, “Zheng Wanlong de ‘Tao guan’, ‘Goutou jin’, he ‘Zhong’” (“Zheng Wanlong's ‘Porcelain Tin’, ‘Dog Head Gold’ and ‘The Clock’”), Beijing wenxue, No. 12 (1985), p. 70.Google Scholar

^35. For a discussion of Ah Cheng's relationship to Daoism, see Louie, Kam, “The short stories of Ah Cheng: Daoism, Confucianism and life,” Between Fact and Fiction: Essays on Post-Mao Chinese Literature and Society (Sydney: Wild Peony, 1989), pp. 76–90.Google Scholar

^36. Lau, D. C. (trans.), Mencius (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970), p. 183.Google Scholar

^37. See Louie, Kam, “Educated youth literature: self-discovery in the Chinese villages,”Google Scholar in Louie, , Between Fact and Fiction, pp. 91–102.Google Scholar

^38. Rumian, Wen, Xin wenxue xianshizhuyi de liubian (Changes in Realism in the New Literature) (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1988), pp. 185–196.Google Scholar

^39. Male-centred vision is definitely not peculiar to the Chinese. American sinologists such as Leo Lee have urged that works from the xungen genre be treasured, seeing them as bamboo sprouts shooting up after a period of literary and artistic repression, sprouts which “may yet mature into magnificent stands of literary masterworks.” Lee, Leo Oufan, “Introduction,”Google Scholar in Tai, , Spring Bamboo, p. xvii.Google Scholar

^40. Goffman, Erving, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience (New York: Harper & Row, 1974).Google Scholar

^41. Bin, Wang and Xiaoming, Zhao, “Dangdai shenhua: ‘tengtu’ de shuailuo” (“Contemporary myths: the decline of ‘totems’”), Xiaoshuo pinglun (Xian) (Fiction Criticism), No. 2 (1988), p. 9.Google Scholar

^42. Lévi-Strauss, Claude, Totemism (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1969), p. 176.Google Scholar

^43. Ibid. p. 84.

^44. Lau, D. C. (trans.), Confucius: The Analects (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1979), p. 114.Google Scholar

^45. Lau, D. C. (trans.), Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1963), p. 57.Google Scholar

^46. Poole, Roger C., “Introduction,”Google Scholar in Lévi-Strauss, , Totemism, p. 62.Google Scholar