If like me one of your New Year’s (whether Chinese or Western) resolutions involves learning more about China, let me suggest one book as a must read: Yu Hua’s “China in Ten Words.”
One of contemporary China’s best known novelists, Yu Hua’s “To Live” was made into a film by Zhang Yimou. It is a panorama of China in the last half of the twentieth century—from the founding of the Republic to the Great Leap Forward to the Cultural Revolution and into the later part of the twentieth century—as illustrated by the shifting fortunes of one family. No one familiar with this period will be surprised to find both the words “tragedy” and “triumph of the spirit” can be aptly ascribed to both the novel and the film.
It is harder to know exactly what words to apply to his 2008 work, “Brothers.” The New York Times used “blunt, puerile, libidinous,” The Guardian “crude, hyperbolic” and the LA Times “crude, lowbrow, crass.” “Hilarious” invariably turns up in most reviews, while no one I have come across so far has used the word “boring.” Given these descriptions, you will not be surprised to learn that a pivotal scene in the first part of the novel involves the main character falling into a pool of shit at a public toilet while trying to sneak a look a woman’s behind. Unfortunately, I am not knowledgeable enough about the architecture of Cultural Revolution era toilets to explain the mechanics of this scenario. The novel concludes with a beauty contest for virgins whose prize causes women all over China to get surgery to restore their hymens. Amidst these absurdities we are presented with the saga of the two step brothers who come to age during the Cultural Revolution and carve out different paths into the twenty-first century and whose conflicting fortunes provide a serious critique of the excesses and indiscretions of contemporary China.
“China In Ten Words” is a different beast entirely, a work of nonfiction but one whose critique of China will not be unfamiliar to readers of Yu Hua’s books. Indeed, some lines right out of the nonfiction work could well be used in a literature course to describe themes from the last novel.
“Since 1990, corruption has grown with the same astounding speed as the economy as a whole.”
“In the short space of thirty years, a China ruled by politics has transformed itself into a China where money is king.”
“Environmental degradation, moral collapse, the polarization of rich and poor, pervasive corruption — all these things are constantly exacerbating contradictions in Chinese society.”
“So intense is the competition and so unbearable the pressure that, for many Chinese, survival is like war itself. In this social environment the strong prey on the weak, people enrich themselves through brute force and deception, and the meek and humble suffer while the bold and unscrupulous flourish.”
“China In Ten Words” devotes a chapter to each of the following terms — people, leader, reading writing, Lu Xun, revolution, disparity, grassroots, copycat, bamboozle — in order to provide a prism through which to look at contemporary China.
Take, for example, the word “people” (人民: renmin). For Yu Hua, there is something mystical about the term. Growing up during the Cultural Revolution, the phrase “to serve the people” (wei renmin fuwu: 为人民服务) was one of Mao’s favorites and was invoked to express the highest attainable goal of a Chinese citizen. It stood for a common good overriding individual interest. Indeed, the word itself is in the name of the country: the People’s Republic of China. Today, Yu Hua laments, this concept is foreign to his countrymen, who in the grip of capitalism are obsessed with self-interest. If there is a shared sentiment, Yu Hua sarcastically remarks, it is that “everyone is united in the urge to make money.” The only people who use the term in the old sense are public officials and entrepreneurs, who invoke it only to profit off of it. I am reminded of the old Twilight Zone episode, where creatures from outer space come to planet Earth carrying a book “To Serve Man.” We think the aliens are here to help us but in fact the words are the title of a cookbook, with us as the main ingredient. To Yu Hua, this seems to be the fate of Mao’s slogan in contemporary China. ”
The analysis carried out in the examination of the remaining words is no less harsh but provides a valuable history lesson for those unfamiliar with China’s past and a no holds barred look at its present.
With regard to the toilet scenario, you don't have to appreciate 'the architecture of Cultural Revolution era toilets' just go into the countryside outside any city and you can experience first hand the joys of basic toiletry.
Some friends took me to a fantastic seafood restaurant outside Yantai. After the meal I had use the toilet. In Canada years ago toilets outside the building were called an 'outhouse'. In Canada a famous Nova Scotia photographer Sherman Hines did a series of humourous books titled the "Outhouse series'.
But there was nothing humourous about this toilet outside Yantai. When I came out my lady friends started laughing and said "We never, ever, go into one of those places. We will hold it until we die." hahahaha
Butt the bottomline is that if you are outside one of these toilets and are so inclined you could squat and bend over to peer into the toilet. Bottoms Up! hahaha