【Text/ Observer Network Columnist Yan Mo】
This is an inconspicuous news -- Zhang Xianghua, the widow of Bai Yang, officially issued a statement to publishers on both sides of the strait: "Yi Bai Yang confessed before his death, and now he will stop publishing "Ugly Chinese" forever." The reason was that some publishing houses wanted to obtain authorization to select excerpts into the first-grade textbooks of Taiwan middle schools, and Zhang Xianghua was worried that this work would be used to insult China, so he categorically refused.
This is not the first time that a publisher has negotiated the licensing of textbooks, and since 2016, Zhang Xianghua has continued to receive similar invitations, and she has refused one by one.
Zhang Xianghua, a writer and teacher by training, said that he could not agree with the current Taiwan education and the new curriculum syllabus "de-Sinicization" or even "anti-China", and was particularly saddened by the current "national language" and history textbooks, the deletion of literary texts, and the replacement of "Chinese history" with the viewpoint of "East Asian history" are fundamentally the teaching strategies of the ruling people to "de-sinicize".
"(Teenagers) who know very little about Chinese culture, even if they read Bai Yang's articles, how can they understand the spirit of Bai Yang?" Zhang Xianghua said so.
This famous book will never be renewed after the expiration of the contract with the original publishing house on both sides of the strait in 2024, and Zhang Xianghua even hopes that the publishing house on both sides of the strait will not publish this book from now on. She stressed that Bai Yang repeatedly explained before his death that when the mainland civilization has progressed, it is necessary to abolish the release of this book.
The Ugly Chinese is out of print, symbolizing the end of an era.
Zhang Xianghua and Bai Yang, image source: Taiwan media
The situation has changed, the feelings have not changed
As Bai Yang's former masterpiece, "The Ugly Chinese" was controversial on both sides of the strait when it first came out, because it challenged national self-esteem. However, because the original intention of Bai Yang's work was to continue the life of the nation, there is also great support from readers on both sides of the strait.
At that time, the love and hatred of this book was only a difference in patriotic methods, but readers on both sides Chinese of the strait, like the authors, wanted China to get back on its feet; but now, the reason for its favor with some publishers in Taiwan is that it is "convenient and anti-China," while the mainland has made leaps and bounds.
Whether on the left or right bank of the Strait, The Ugly Chinese is out of date, but for the purpose for which it was written, it is a consummation, not a regret.
Zhang Xianghua, who still has Chinese feelings, but is trapped in the "island of going to the middle", has a song by Mei Yanfang that should be in line with her state of mind at this moment: in the vast smoke waves, I miss, I miss previous years, my appearance has changed early, the situation has changed, and her feelings have not changed.
A generation of ideas of "success and retirement"
Bai Yang lived in an era when he was desperate to survive in China, and he came to Taiwan with the shame of being oppressed by foreigners to spend his best years. Therefore, in thinking about ways to make China rich and strong, Bai Yang does not leave the "Republic of China literati" model, in short, "China must be Westernized."
It was a big era of self-denial and eagerness to get out of trouble, and Bai Yang was a person in the era.
Bai Yang was imprisoned for nine years on charges of conspiracy, completed three chinese history manuscripts in prison, was released from prison in 1976, began compiling the "Bai Yang Edition of Zizhi Tongjian" in 1983, which took 10 years, and published "The Ugly Chinese" in 1985.
"2008 Commemorative Edition" "Ugly Chinese"
The experience of political prisoners made Bai Yang's thinking more inclined to Western democracy and he began to pay attention to human rights issues, and in 1994 Bai Yang served as the founding president of Amnesty International's Taiwan chapter. After Chen Shui-bian came to power in 2000, he served as the "National Policy Adviser to the Presidential Office", and in 2006 he was closed.
Just like Li Ao, who was imprisoned by the Chiang family, he naturally hated the old Kuomintang and its party-state system and ideology, and because the two sides of the strait were isolated at that time, in terms of thinking, only in Western culture could they find a place to stay, and they opposed the Kuomintang accordingly. "The Ugly Chinese" can also be said to be a work against the Kuomintang party-state system and culture.
When Bai Yang wrote "The Ugly Chinese," it was already the end of Chiang Ching-kuo's rule and the society was moving toward an open path, but the fact that the book could still be published despite much criticism was a green light signal. Therefore, this book also symbolizes one of the important nodes for the United States to break away from the Kuomintang system and western values to enter Taiwan, and Bai Yang himself is in the bureau, and I am afraid that he has not been able to see this clearly.
The Ugly Chinese is a critical work that takes a Western view of Chinese culture, focusing on the "sauce pot culture", aiming at China's official culture and the Chinese society under its domination, and the core of corruption is considered Confucian culture.
Today, when you re-read this work, you will feel that Bai Yang is scolding American society—the "great Anglo-Saxon nation" he originally wrote about—because replacing all the "Confucianism" in the book with "capital" does not have a too abrupt sense of violation.
In other words, conformal corruption is a common phenomenon of all human cultures, but the nature of the dominant ones is different. What Bai Yang criticizes is actually human nature, and Chinese culture is just carrying a black cauldron, because Bai Yang is Chinese.
The Chinese literati in the era of national shame had a strong hatred of iron and steel, and with Western culture as a control group, their understanding of Confucian culture was seriously deviated. Bai Yang's misunderstanding and prejudice against Confucianism was a common cultural phenomenon of that era.
But today, since the bankruptcy of Fukuyama's "final conclusion of history," all cultural theories that once held Western culture as a high standard have also gone bankrupt — although Fukuyama's followers are still hardening their mouths — including The "sauce tank culture" of Bai Yang. This is not to say that the concept of "sauce tank" is wrong, the mistake is that Bai Yang labeled it "Chinese exclusive".
"The Ugly Chinese" sharply criticizes China's official culture, talking about ancient times, but it is the Kuomintang that is slandered, and its "demeaning" view is naturally of great instrumental use value for the anti-Kuomintang elite, "Taiwan independence" and the japanese imperial people. I am afraid that it was not until the 8 years after Chen Shui-bian came to power that Bai Yang vaguely felt that his "sharp Chinese feelings" were being used by anti-China forces and separatists, and he chose to remain silent.
In other words, for the Green Camp, Bai Yang herself had already "retired" after the rotation of political parties in 2000, but "The Ugly Chinese" still had use value until Tsai Ing-wen came to power, and her widow was not stupid, determined to end that era by herself.
What about the "Baiyang Edition of Zizhi Tongjian"?
Historical opinions of Bo Yang
Chinese history can be studied with Western research tools, but not by Western cultural perspectives, especially contemporary ones.
"Bai Yang's Edition of Zizhi Tongjian" is to look at problems from the perspective of Western contemporary culture. Because Bai Yang is a novelist and critic, his historical skills are naturally far from being comparable to Qian Mu's, so reading his historical opinions is easy to read and understand, and he can see new ideas, but he is also full of deviations.
The Baiyang Edition of Zizhi Tongjian is a historical commentary, not a systematic Treatise on History, and even less a serious work of Shi Kao, so if the reader wants to truly understand a piece of history, this work is not helpful, but it is a good way to understand the "contemporary thinking of critics". For example, Bai Yang repeatedly condescended to the nameless women in history, which is a clear example of reading history with a contemporary value filter, and later generations of people reading "Bai Yang's Version of Zizhi Tongjian" are not reading "Zizhi Tongjian", but in the era of reading Bai Yang.
The "Zizhi Tongjian" itself is a kind of "historical theory", because its method of compilation is to serve the historical view at that time and summarize the "Chenguang Yue" in each paragraph; the "Baiyang Version of the Zizhi Tongjian" does not create its own example of usurpation, but only imitates the model of "Chenguang Yue" to give readers the reading guide of "Bai Yang Yue", so it can only be classified as "historical commentary", Zang denies history, and Zang denies "Chenguang Yue".
25th Anniversary Edition "Baiyang Edition Zizhi Tongjian"
As far as modern business logic is concerned, the essence and value of historical commentary is deviation, and it is necessary to focus on the words of one family to facilitate sales. But it is precisely from this deviation that the reader is able to explore the author's emotional orientation, ideological stance, and contemporary values with which he subscribes.
When reading Bai Yang's comment "Sima Guang... Never forget the position of a scholar with vested interests" and "Sima Guang is just a village gentleman with a million family wealth", readers should know that Bai Yang must rely on criticizing Sima Guang to highlight the progressive nature of the contemporary era in order to lay out selling points, and this kind of "commentary" is often not related to historical truth.
When reading that Bai Yang commented on Xiang Yu simply because he did not listen to someone's advice and went straight to Guanzhong, the reader should understand that what you read is the afterthought of course, but you cannot read the background, state of mind and scruples of Xiang Yu's decision, and this deviation is the excellent material for literature and opera.
Bai Yang is a novelist, and the filter for interpreting history is not only Western ideas, but also the work inertia of novelists.
The experience of being imprisoned has also made Bai Yang's perspective on history different from that of general historians, especially his sensitivity and sensitivity to the dark side of politics.
Therefore, the "Baiyang Edition of Zizhi Tongjian" and "The Ugly Chinese" tell about the time and space environment in which the author lived, in that era, Taiwanese read the Chinese feelings brought by the Chiang family in the classroom, and the japanese flavor that quickly disappeared in society, and the customs still followed the Qing Dynasty style, plus the loneliness of being separated from the international community, and the "fresh air" in the early days of opening up.
Although the Taiwanese did not participate in China in 1911, let alone in 1949, after the Chiang family's decolonization policy, before this century, the island as a whole still identified itself as Chinese.
In today's Taiwan, China's identity has entered a state of endangerment, the world has changed, and Bai Yang has only lived to the early stages of this change, and the widow Zhang Xianghua has witnessed the entire process of alienation.
Taiwan's Chinese is endangered
Imagine a kind of life, when he was young, he followed the Kuomintang to Taiwan, when he was middle-aged, he was beaten into prison by the Kuomintang, and when he was old, he even had to hesitate to say that he was a Chinese, this is Bai Yang's life, Li Ao, who scolded Bai Yang as a "really ugly Chinese", also read the same scenery of the times.
The difference is that no matter which party is in charge, Li Ao scolds, but Bai Yang chooses to silence; when Lee Teng-hui was in power, he helped him build a human rights monument; Chen Shui-bian flaunted "human rights to establish a country" after he came to power, and Bai Yang became one of the door gods of the Green Camp.
After putting a label on one's head, it is difficult to interject things other than the label; after tying oneself to some force, it is difficult to interject the misdeeds of that force. As a result, Lee and Bian have hollowed out Taiwan's Chinese elements, and Bai Yang has stayed out of the matter, and he has not regarded his Chinese identity as an equally important matter as human rights values, at least, there is no eye-catching evidence of behavior. Probably because the former is countercurrent and the latter is downstream.
A year before Bai Yang's death, the title of "Father of the Nation" in the textbook was changed to "Sir", "GuoZi" was changed to "Chinese Character", "National Calendar" was changed to "Solar Calendar", and "Guangfu" was changed to "Post-War".
In the year of Bai Yang's death, Taiwan's Chinese identity was still in crisis, and today, 13 years later, some primary school students do not even know who Sun Yat-sen is, and the publisher still wants to use "The Ugly Chinese" as a middle school textbook. Not to mention these publishers, I am afraid that the entire island is becoming an endangered animal Chinese, and "unification" is also regarded as "treason".
On the joint of national righteousness, if you take the concept of "sauce tank" to check Bai Yang's late festival, this "human rights fighter" may not be able to pass, but the widow Zhang Xianghua sealed "Ugly Chinese" in the next year of his hundredth birthday, which can be regarded as preserving the dignity of Bai Yang's death as the Chinese soul.
Last year, Zhang Xianghua lamented that Bai Yang and his works have few followers in Taiwan, but they are valued in the mainland. This is certain, Taiwan Island advocates that "Chinese" can only be matched with "ugly", and this is the only remaining use value of Bai Yang.
Taiwan's Chinese endangered, forcing "The Ugly Chinese" out of print, but unfortunately, this is already a humble news.
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