习惯死亡

by Zhang Xianliang

So it can go so far as to such a degree as his wish finally converges at mine. At the moment when I say he shall die, he himself is already willing to give his body to death. This saves a lot of my energy and trouble. We at last combine as one the moment he dies, the happiest moment that goes beyond any sex with any girl.

Genres: Asia, Fiction

299 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Zhang Xianliang (Chinese: 张贤亮; December 1936 – 27 September 2014) was a Chinese author and poet, and former president of the China Writer Association in Ningxia. He was detained as a political prisoner during the Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957, until his political rehabilitation in 1979. His most well known works, including Half of Man is Woman and Grass Soup, were semi-autobiographical reflections on his life experiences in prison and in witnessing the political upheaval of China during the Cultural Revolution.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Kirstie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing and intimate story of a Chinese poet/intellectual who spent extended periods of time in and out of labour reform camps in the years leading up to the Cultural Revolution.
"It's all getting into bed here, getting out of a grave there" is how the writer in the final pages humorously refers to the book he is writing, which is clearly semi-autobiographical, and yes, sex and death are the persistent obsessions and entwined dominant themes but by no means the most interesting aspect of this story for me. It was the well-described historical context, the poetic prose and perfectly observed sentences that held my attention. The writing is refreshing. Considering the subject matter there are many laugh out loud moments.
I learned about the damaging effects of centralised control on the individual human psyche and personal relationships as played out in Communist China, while also recognising myself in some of his his deeper reflections of life and it's essential struggles. I enjoyed the rare experience of reading a contemporary Chinese novel.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting work in which I feel that Zhang is asking himself and the reader what the value of his experiences were. Unlike other people and ethnic groups that have suffered deeply under their governments, the government which persecuted Zhang is still in power today, and would prefer it if the reality of events like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution where left forgotten, or at least kept away from foreign eyes. Unfortunately, even though the physical scars may be swept away under the rug, the psychological trauma still persists in those that have survived the labor camps. As the nation moves forward, this lost generation never really receives closure and rather gets continued criticism for their perceived crimes, and intellectuals like Zhang pass along their trauma to those they love most, most notably in this case the relationships he runs away from. The common theme throughout the book is that after his many brushes with death in the camps, Zhang simply has a hard time feeling anything, maybe anything aside from fear of further condemnation, and so he cannot return the love women give him in his fleeting relationships. Basically, the government succeeded in shattering him, and the person that existed afterwards is only a shadow of the former poet that went in.

Some quotes I liked:

"He had stayed at her house the last time he was in San Francisco. "Jing Hui" -neither the name nor the person could have come from the mainland. He could smell the difference between mainland Chinese and others. Jing Hui's very way of walking, as she moved into the living room, showed that she had never marched in any Communist parade. She couldn't be called pretty, but it was equally clear that she had never worked in a production brigade or in the fields. Her long sculpted fingernails toyed with an exceedingly small dog that she had scooped up and was now cradling in her arms." (Pg. 26)

"Although accustomed to stinking smells, I could hardly stand the stench. The few people I saw looked oppressed, like lost souls who were there to transmit pain and misfortune to one another. This was not a hospital in which the living administered to the dying but one in which the dying tried to pull down those still alive." (Pg. 81)

"After going through twenty years of being criticized, struggled against, 'making a clean breast of one's crime's, or repeatedly writing self-examinations, of attending large meetings, small meetings, ad infinitum, or being paraded through the streets as an example to the masses, or ceaseless impromptu debates...there is not a single Chinese intellectual who is not an expert in oral eloquence."
"The unending political movements in China have created wave upon wave of masters of the Chinese language. Those who were not articulate all died-who told them, after all, that they had the right to be inarticulate! It was only proper that they die!"
"Those who lived were those who could talk and could write self-criticisms, and consequently they are all professionals. All Chinese intellectuals who are alive today know how to cater to the tastes of an audience, how to tailor their speech to the mood and the time available, and how to end when it is time to end." (Pg. 91)

"I know I was trying to please the public with nonsense, but true knowledge can't be verbalized. The most precious things are those learned by experience, learned viscerally. Those things have to stay buried inside. Anything that can be defined absolutely admits a fraction of what's false into itself. So it's better," I concluded, "to phrase inner knowledge in the form of jokes than to say with all seriousness things that are half false, half true." (Pg. 97)

"Those who take their ancestors to be their glory will also take their ancestors to be their shame. A race of men that puts too much emphasis on them will dig them up and whip their corpses when they want to change their names. If bad times come, these men run to blame the graves-they don't take any responsibility on themselves. These people are not really human, they're merely the tails of ancestors." (Pg. 183)

"I followed my lessons to the letter, doing everything that the books and the newspapers told me to do. I truly loved what the regulations said I should love. But the final thing I should love [Mao Zedong] wore me down till there was nothing left, and from then on I no longer dared to love."
"In the past, I remember once loving my mother. But then my teacher [Mao] warned me about her, told me not to love her anymore. According to the laws of class analysis, she belonged to the bureaucratic class-she should not take any pleasure in bearing such vile, evil spawn as me. All the crimes that later came down on my head were the direct result of her happiness in giving birth to me. So my teacher split me off from the mother I loved. Then I fell in love with the first woman I encountered, but the Great Teacher warned her that she should "draw a clear line" between the two of us, that according to class analysis, I belonged to the capitalist class, and so he split me off from a woman who loved me. With no one else to love, he said I should love him, that he alone was the saving star of all under heaven. Without him, I would immediately go to hell. And the way to love him best was to fill my breast full of hatred: Hate became the ethical standard of the new world."
"He had used the slightest tap of a single finger to destroy my primitive sense of love, like flicking over the first of a set of dominoes. From then on my ability to love was maimed." (Pg. 166)

[Chet]

Zhang Xianliang is one of those pitiable novelists whose work has quickly faded while the critics' masterful dissections of his writings live on. One of the literary critics in question is Liu Runwei (刘润为), who started writing in the 80s but is currently enjoying a resurgence. I'm the 80s and 90s Liu frequently and with prescience warned the Chinese masses that novels being written ostensibly to critique the excesses of the Cultural Revolution were in fact Trojan Horse performances meant to undermine China's communist system writ large. This book under review was one of his favorite examples to point to. Liu courageously pushed this line in literary journals at a time when Marxism was seen as stodgy and outdated and following pomo Western literary trends was all the rage. Zhang Xianliang drank the latter kool-aid (this novel is a pomo mess wherein the autobiographical narrator gushes about the West and whines about Maoism) and despised Liu's critiques, but in the era of Xi Jinping and a general revival of Marxism worldwide, it's Liu who now is on the cutting edge.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the writing style, even though I know it is translated from the original Chinese. The author goes back and forth between life in Chinese labor camps and in the U.S., mostly seen through the relationship with three women, and how the former affected the latter. Many astute comments are made.

[Alana Bookapillar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, although I'm sure that it is not for everyone. Its written somewhat in the same style as Haruki Mirakami. There is a lot of imagery and metaphysical concepts. About half way through the book, I realized that the author/protagonist was mentally ill. This is acknowledged and stated in the latter half of the book several times. The protagonist is struggling to feel life outside, when he is dead inside. The only way he thinks he can feel life is with women, although the sex act makes him feel as though he is dying again on the execution field. He over analyses every move, gesture, and words of the women he is with. He wants desperately to connect and to feel love, but is always stuck outside himself while living in the past.

The translators notes help explain certain phrases, or historical references, which is helpful.

I could not give this a five star because at times the style of writing was confusing. The flashbacks and flashforwards seem to meld together to create a weird effect of not knowing if he was in the future having a memory of the past, or in the past dreaming of his future, or if either happened at all.

I have to say it is one of the weirdest books I've ever read, but written well and with startling imagery that was worth giving it four stars.

[Katie Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm having a difficult time rating this book.
Did I like the man? No.
Is that due to his environment and hence who he's become? Possibly.
Did I understand everything he was trying to convey? No.
Is that due to his environment and hence who he's become? Possibly.
Did I get a glimpse into what he was trying to say? Yes.
Did I like what I saw? No.
Isn't that kind of the point? Possibly.
Is some of that connection I was lacking due to translation? Possibly. Probably.

I didn't like the book, but the more I reflect on it, the more I realize it's a pretty amazing book. The author is sharing some deeply disturbing and horrid things about his experiences and how he feels they have facilitated his development as an individual, an intellectual, a writer, a Chinese citizen. He as much as says that unless you've lived as a mainland Chinese intellectual you won't understand his thought processes and emotions, etc. So, maybe he does a remarkable job at giving the reader just a hint, a glimpse into that brain? I'm not sorry I read this one. Would be nice to discuss with a very mixed group of people, but certainly not my current book club. Will I keep it on my shelf, no. Would I recommend it to anyone I know, probably not. Would I dissuade anyone from reading it, nope.

[Kelly Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book at random, because I'm trying to read 1 author from every letter of the alphabet this year, and X is hard to find! I found the book difficult to get into at first, mostly because it is written in a very confusing, haphazard way--both the timeline and the narrator changes frequently. However, the translator's note helped quite a bit, and by a few chapters in I had a good sense of the novel.

In the end, I thought this book conveyed a lot of interesting messages about the effects of Communism on the Chinese people. There is a lot of sex and vulgarity in the book, but I think in the end it is trying to prove a point--about how detached and psychologically abused many Chinese have been by their government. This is an interesting read, but be ready to have your thinking cap on!

[Chas Bayfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

No where near as depressing as the title suggests, despite being set in China under the oppressive Maoist regime. The language and descriptions are beautiful and death is treated as a fact of life.

[Magpie · Rating 5 out of 5]

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