Selection for November 家 (Family) by 巴金 (Ba Jin)

[wushijiao]

In honor of the monumental Chinese writer Ba Jin who passed away just a few days ago, the selection of the month will be 家 by 巴金.

For info on Ba Jin, read this obituary:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,11617,1594534,00.html

Anyway, this book should be available everywhere in “Greater China”, unlike other more contemporary books. Also, even if your Chinese isn’t quite at the levels to read books, the novel is available in English. It’d be cool if people would chime in with opinions, questions, and commentary regardless of the language.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9813029609/103-4067616-6036655?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0881333735/103-4067616-6036655?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance

[wushijiao]

Before starting 家, I was a bit worried. Obviously, Ba Jin is a giant of Chinese literature. He is well respected. But, I wondered: was he well respected in the same way that Americans respect Henry James: a novelist that everyone admires, but no one reads because he is too dry, overly complicated, and out-dated?

Thankfully 家 doesn’t seem to be a classic because it was an indecipherable psychological literary parlor game. Instead, it became a classic because it was accessible, entertaining and moving. It was popular because Ba Jin created vivid three-dimensional characters that are easy to identify with. Also, it seems to have really captured the rebelliousness, hope, oppression, and revolutionary stirrings of the generation coming to age in the early to mid part of the 20th century. Is this a zeitgeist novel? Or is it a character-driven novel? At this point (80 pages in),I think it’s both.

In any case, in a day or two I’ll put up some vocabulary and rough character outlines.

[gato]

You da man!

[wushijiao]

Well, I don’t think I’ll give a detailed character list because there are too many characters. I don’t think I’ll give a vocab list because I’m too lazy. Instead, I’ll just write a few random thoughts about the book thus far (two thirds through).

First, the most shocking thing to me is the feminist quality to the book. The book clearly illustrates how the fates of poor servant girls and the well-off bourgeoisie girls were both at the whim of parents or older patriarchs, free to marry young girls away without consultation. Naturally, “love” (choosing a partner and falling in love) and “destiny” (the cruel whim of prearranged marriage) are in conflict. Similarly, being filial to mentally conservative parents is in conflict with fighting for justice and national rejuvenation.

In any case, most of the time I feel like 家 is an amazing book. I think so often foreigners can easily observe China’s macro-history. But often it’s hard to empathize with the people who actually had to live through the chaotic changes. People flying in an airplane over a burning forest can’t imagine how it feels to be moss on a tree, waiting to get singed.and suffocated.

However, on a strictly personal level, sometimes I just have to put the book down because it becomes a bit too melodramatic and sappy. I think one of the big themes is “pure love”. The idealized and dream-like perfect love conceptualized usually before one actually has sex with someone, and then gets blindsided with reality. This sort of idealized love, to paraphrase Octavio Paz, is a refuge for adolescents who realize the depth of their solitude and loneliness in the world for the first time. This sort of love is at once numbing and idealistic, but also escapist and purposely unattainable. So, of course, I don’t fault Ba Jin. In fact, he brilliantly captures a universal teenage rebellious emotion of teenagers throughout time. But I just think this book would have meant more to me if I had read it quite a few years ago (assuming I knew Chinese).

[skylee]

But I just think this book would have meant more to me if I had read it quite a few years ago (assuming I knew Chinese).

wushijiao, how do you like this poem -

少年不識愁滋味，愛上層樓。愛上層樓，為賦新詞強說愁。

而今識盡愁滋味，欲說還休。欲說還休，卻道天涼好箇秋！

Sorry if this seems irrelevant.

[wushijiao]

Well, like I said, I haven't finished the book. But the poem certainly reminds me of the character 剑云, who seems to wallow in his own self-made misery, depression, and idealized love. (Although I might do the same in his circumstances).

Although perhaps the second half of the poem is more depressing than the first half. Maybe it is hinting at the fact that people become less verbally idealistic and more jadded as a self-defense mechanism, although more realistic.

Sorry if this seems irrelevant.

It's all interconnected!

What do you think of it skylee?

[skylee]

I think ageing is sort of relieving (well I like to be positive). Having spent their youth trying to make up sad poems without really experiencing sadness, older people know what life is about and can stop worrying so much about it and start appreciating it. It is not being jaded. It is not becoming unfeeling. It is growing wiser and knowing how to face life. It is 豁然開朗. it is 平常心.

[wushijiao]

Yes, your reading of the poem makes more sense! I suppose I saw the poem too much via the lens of 家 ( especially characters like 觉新. 觉新, one might say, 而今識盡愁滋味, but then he no longer is willing to vent his misery. But in that case, it's not because he has matured and become older, but rather that he is responsible for the family, is caught in "old" ways, and is typical of the oldest child in a family). So I think the feelings in this poem closely connect to some characters (especially 少年不識愁滋味，愛上層樓/ 愛上層樓，為賦新詞強說愁) , but less to others.

Also, I suppose I misread "而今識盡愁滋味，欲語還休" Especially misread 休，as tired and complacent and beaten by the ways of the world. Of course, it probably means calm, collected, and no longer desirous to vent out sentimental and gloomy feelings.

[skylee]

I think you can interpret the poem freely. You can focus on 欲說還休 (I think it is 說 rather than 語) -> there is too much sadness that one doesn't know where to begin; or focus on 天涼好箇秋 -> turn away and appreciate the weather.

It is great to discuss about poems (and this one is over 800 years old). But I know nothing about Ba Jin's novel as I have not read them.

[in_lab]

I read the book a few years ago in translation. I can't remember it well enough to really discuss it, I only remember a strong dislike for it. But reading wushijiao's comments about the melodrama and sappiness brings back some of the memories. I think it was probably too much of a message book for my tastes.

[wushijiao]

It is great to discuss about poems (and this one is over 800 years old).

I agree. I think one of the best things about Chinese is the poetry’s terseness and ambiguity. In theory, I suppose if one is very well read, each individual character, over the course of hundreds of poems, takes on certain connotations of emotion and meaning.

But reading wushijiao's comments about the melodrama and sappiness brings back some of the memories. I think it was probably too much of a message book for my tastes.

Hehe! I know what you mean. For me at least, the ability to read it without almost any dictionary work is keeping me going.

[wushijiao]

Well, in a nutshell, I’d strongly recommend this book, with the caveat that it gets a bit sappy and sentimental in parts.. 家 works on many levels. It’s a good book from an academic, analytical point of view. At the same time, it is also good if you just want a moving story. Ba Jin, at only 26 years old, was able to write a book that skillfully created quite a few three-dimensional characters. 觉慧 is the young, idealistic, optimistic, stubborn and courageous hero (probably based in the image of Ba Jin himself). 琴 is the intelligent, beautiful and strong willed young girl in love with 觉民. I’d suspect that most young readers would identify the most with either觉慧 or琴, depending on gender. However, perhaps some readers, especially those who are the eldest in a group of siblings, might identify the most with 觉新, the guy who has to balance intellectual and ideological earnings with filial piety.

One final thought: it was a bit weird to read a book that is a call to arms to get rid of the old oppressive 绅士 family system (which might roughly compare to a white slave owning family in the antebellum South). At times, the reader is filled with rage towards the unjust and outdated social system, but at the same time, the reader is filled with a tragic sense of anxiety knowing that the bureaucratic and systematic violence of Maoism will carry this generation’s idealism past the limits of its best intentions. As far as understanding the renaissance of Chinese literature in the 1920’s and 30’s, and as far as understanding the enthusiasm of the young Chinese intellectuals in that era, this book is an interesting historical document.

[skylee]

Did you mean 士紳 (gentry)? (I don't really know the story as I have not read it.)

[wushijiao]

Did you mean 士紳 (gentry)?

Yes. 家 uses this term many times to refer to the 高 family. Although I think it is 绅士家庭, but I am probably mistaken.