Talking about the phenomenon of literary pluralism and parallelism in the 1980s

People often remember the 1980s. It was an era of infinite excitement and pleasure for intellectuals. How many intellectuals got the feeling of "liberation" in that era, and they even became the favorites or heroes of the times, and the situation of being under the spotlight and being listened to by all people has become the best memory of intellectuals. Returning to the scene of history, we reorganize that era and realize that history is much more complicated than we imagined. Writer Cha Jianying, who experienced the baptism of culture in the 1980s, interviewed 12 intellectuals, including Ah Cheng, Beidao, Chen Danqing, Chen Pingyuan, Cui Jian, Gan Yang, Li Da, Li Xianting, Lin Xudong, Liu Sola, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Liu Struggle, etc., who were the trendsetters of culture in the 1980s, and compiled them into a book entitled "The Eighties" (Liu Struggle's interviews are not included in this book). Reading these historical texts, we seem to return to the scene of history, savoring the colorfulness and vicissitudes that already belong to history.

The Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, and the new era that people were expecting came after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee at the end of 1978, as if the spring breeze was blowing on the face, and a lightning-fast emancipation of the mind spread rapidly in the land of China. Intellectuals ascended to the stage of this era, and some events were projected passionately like slides on the curtain of that era - Today magazine, hazy poetry, Stars Exhibition, scar literature, vanguard literature, exploratory movies, Sartre's existentialism, Nietzsche's declaration that "God is dead", aesthetics, and so on. Nietzsche's declaration that "God is dead", aesthetic fever, salon gatherings, the Old Three, and so on - these historical events that once caused great repercussions in society have become a sign or even a symbol of this era, as the saying goes, "the flowers are all in a blur! "All of this, one after another, making the intellectuals are always in a state of ecstasy, as Nietzsche said the interpretation of the spirit of the spirit of wine.

Beidao said in the interview, "In any case, the eighties do make me nostalgic, despite all the crises. Every country has a cultural high point to be proud of, such as the Silver Age in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The 1980s was the cultural high point of the twentieth century in China, and it may be many years before such a high point occurs again, and I am afraid that our generation will not be able to catch up with it. The climax of the 1980s began with the 'Cultural Revolution. 'The earthquake opened up a new source,' and without the 'cultural revolution' there could not have been the eighties."

There is a problem in Beidao's statement that can easily be overlooked, and that is that this cultural climax began with the "cultural revolution". Without the decade of cultural blankness and repression, the high spirits and romance, the poetry and grandeur of the 1980s might not have been possible. Gan Yang, who used to be the main force behind Western studies, edited the series "Culture: China and the World" in the 1980s, which caused a sensation and became a landmark cultural event in the intellectual world, whereas before that, Western studies were often regarded as a taboo in translation and publication. There is nothing freer than to paint a picture on a blank page, and nothing shows more achievement than to build an edifice on the ruins. It is hard to say that the "literature of wounds," "literature of reflection," "literature of reform," and "literature of the vanguard" have reached a high literary level, but as a result of the decade-long process of translation and publication, it is difficult to say that they have reached a high literary level. It is hard to say that "scar literature", "reflective literature", "reform literature" and "vanguard literature" have reached a high literary level, but it is easy to understand that the literature of the new period has been enthusiastically sought after due to the decade of literary silence. In fact, the literature of the 1980s has become a way for people to interpret history and make a vague understanding of it, and its own aesthetic function is more in the second place, while the critique of social history is the most crucial. When we recite "Meanness is the passport of the mean, nobility is the epitaph of the noble," and "I tell you what, world/I don't believe it. " (Bei Dao), "The night has given me black eyes, but I use them to look for light" (Gu Cheng), "China, I have lost my key" (Xu Xiaobin), and so on, in the hearts of a generation of people who have gone through the Cultural Revolution, the kind of heartfelt recognition stirred up is unimaginable. It's hard to imagine the recognition, but it's worth noting that this form of poetry actually bears traces of the discursive culture of the Cultural Revolution.

If the 1980s had not been preceded by a decade-long Cultural Revolution that severely repressed the human spirit, it is hard to imagine that it would have produced an era that sent the entire intellectual community into a frenzy. When discussing the relationship between May Fourth literature and late Qing literature in his essay "Repressed Modernity," scholar Wang Dewei once asked rhetorically, "Without the late Qing, how could there be a May Fourth?" Similarly, if we think about the 1980s, we also need to think about this: if there were no Cultural Revolution, would the 1980s have come into being? Returning to the May Fourth, Reflecting on the Eighties

In almost all reflective texts, the eighties are often given the same historical significance as the May Fourth, and these two eras, which have similar characteristics in China's century-long history, have become a special period of time that is often remembered in parallel by all intellectuals. Throughout the history of the twentieth century, the May Fourth and the Eighties have very similar historical characteristics - they are equally thunderous, equally the era of intellectuals as heroes, and equally the inauguration of a new era of enlightenment ......

Additionally We need to point out that the 1980s appeared, after all, after the May Fourth, so did the 1980s draw anything from the spiritual legacy of the May Fourth? I think the answer is yes. In an interview with Cha Jianying, the scholar Chen Pingyuan emphasized this "intergenerational inheritance" of spiritual and ideological heritage: "To understand the academics of the 1980s, we should link it to the university education of the 1930s. This is related to the words and teachings of a group of old gentlemen. ...... Most of the old gentlemen I am talking about did not really integrate into the academic thinking of the 1950s and 1960s. This is what made it possible to return, quite naturally and at once, to the thirties after the 'Reform and Rehabilitation' to take up the academic tradition that had already been formed during the Republican years." In the eighties era, on one side are the young pioneers who grew up in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, who passionately walked in the front of the times in a heroic manner; while on the other side are the cultural elders who were once imbued with the May Fourth culture and became the helmsmen of the times, who grasped the cultural lifeblood of the history for the direction of the times with their profound and senior cultural prestige.

The spiritual missions and pursuits pursued and continued in the 1980s were also the spiritual concepts sought during the May Fourth period. Whether it was opposing extreme leftist thinking, opposing alienation, advocating emancipation of the mind, promoting humanism, or advocating the concepts of democracy, science, and freedom, they were all the main contents of the May Fourth spirit, which Chen Pingyuan explained thoroughly: "What accompanied the whole stormy eighties was the fact that the whole stormy eighties was a time when the world was in the midst of the turbulence. What accompanied the turbulent 1980s was the thinking, following, reflecting and transcending of the new culture of May Fourth. The key is that one side follows and the other side reflects." And therefore, among the retrospect and reflection of many scholars, we can find traces of May Fourth in the splendid and glorious historical events of the 1980s.

There were also such features in the cultural thinking of the 1980s, with excessive pursuit of passion and grandiose narratives, and intellectuals assuming too much of the role of historical saviors and lacking in down-to-earth, practical maneuvers. Critic Li Tao harshly made this judgment in an interview about the cultural and intellectual fervor of the 1980s: "An era of great intellectual activity is not necessarily an era of great intellectual abundance-the 1980s was not an era of intellectual abundance." Perhaps this is precisely the characteristic of the Age of Enlightenment, and what comes after enlightenment is not something intellectuals think about.

What is left behind in the 1980s is, on the one hand, the ideals, pursuits, salvation, undertakings, passions, simplicity, missions, and beliefs that we miss, while on the other hand, there may be deficiencies such as vacuousness, impoverishment, incompetence, naiveté, grandiosity, romance, and inflation. Therefore, when we look back at the 1980s, we will find that the spiritual legacy left behind is far from being as rich as we imagined. The eighties came to an abrupt end, and everyone was driven unceremoniously into the nineties of the twentieth century, a new era completely different from the eighties, an era full of desire and excitement.