wang shuo professional writing

7/30/2019 Wang Shuo Professional Writing

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WANG SHUO AND THE PROFESSIONALISED WRITING1

Yongli Su (Australian National University)

Wang Shuo, characterised by his satirical style and public profile as an entrepreneur, is one of

the most popular and controversial fictional writers in Mainland China, with his peak periodbeing from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Through the example of Wang Shuo, this paper

explores the new phase of the professionalised writing, and more broadly, the

commercialisation of culture, that emerged in Mainland China during the late 1980s and the

early 1990s. As John Fitzgerald anticipated in 1983, the influence and importance of this

cultural commercialisation can be compared to that of the Cultural Revolution.2

I approach this

significant cultural phenomenon through an examination of changes in peoples attitude toward

writing, especially fiction writing. As argued by John Sutherland, because of its length and

consequently the large investment it requires, the novel is intimately tied to the technological

development and commercial management.3

Therefore, through changes in fiction writing, the

historical changes in literary mode of production can be explored.

1 This paper was presented to the 15th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australiain Canberra 29 June-2 July 2004. It has been peer-reviewed and appears on the Conference Proceedingswebsite by permission of the author(s) who retains) copyright. The paper may be downloaded for fair use

under the Copyright Act (1954), its later amendments and other relevant legislation.2

It was indicated by the title of John Fitzgeralds article, John Fitzgerald, A New Cultural Revolution:The Commercialisation of Culture in China, The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, no. 11 (January,1984), p.105.3 John Sutherland,Bestsellers: Popular Fiction of the 1970s, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981),p.21.


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According to the Confucian tradition of Wen yi zai dao (literature to convey the Way),writing

had been considered an important means to transmit moral and political messages in China.

Writers had been viewed as guardians of values. Following the traditional Chinese values that

regarded commerce morally corrupting, Chinese writers for centuries were meant to feel

ashamed of associating writing with the idea and practice of earning profits. Even popular

fiction, such as Three Kingdoms (Sanguo yanyi), was always considered a means of moral

education (jiaohua).However, with the advance of the market economy, the powerful forces ofconsumerism penetrated cultural spheres. In post-Mao China, writers and others working in

cultural fields waded into the ocean of business dealings (Wenren xiahai). Even Confucius

was interpreted as a business guru.4

To explore this drastic cultural transformation, I will briefly investigate two types of

professionalised fiction writing in Chinese history, the professionalised commercial writing at

the turn of the twentieth century and the professionalised writing in the socialist period. I, then,

move to Chinese literary and cultural market in post-Mao era. The popularity of the writer

Wang Shuo among readers and the great controversies aroused by his self-promotion

demonstrate the emergence of a new type of the writer, the entrepreneurial writer.

1. Two types of professionalised writing in China

The notion of the profession is useful in exploring the historical changes in literary mode of

production and writers relationships to the changes.5

Magali Sarfatti Larson points out that

professionalisation coincides with the rise of industrial capitalism and with the

evolution of capitalism toward its corporate form.6

In the Chinese context, the emergence and

transformation of professionalised writing reflect historical changes in peoples attitudes toward

commerce and writing. At the turn of the twentieth century, along with the increasing

industrialization, urbanization and entertainment industry, fictional writing became a new

profession and literary works as commodities became acceptable.

During the socialist era, however, with strengthened Party control and the intensified socialist

ideology, writing was transformed into another type of profession to implant prescribed

4 Kam Louie, Sage, Teacher, Businessman: Confucius as a Male Model, Shiping Hua ed., ChinesePolitical Culture (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001), pp.33-38.5

See Norman N. Feltes,Modes of Production of Victorian Novels (Chicago and London: The Universityof Chicago Press, 1986), p.5-6;Robert L. Patten, Charles Dickens and His Publishers (Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1978), p.9-27; John A. Sutherland, Victorian Novelist and Publishers (London: AthlonePress, 1976), pp.78-81.6 Magali Sarfatti Larson, The Rise of Professionalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977),p.6.


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values and attitudes to common readers. Writers, dramatists and other people working in

cultural fields were called cultural workers (wenhua gongzuozhe). Instead of being geniuses

or creative, writers and other cultural workers were paid by the government and were supposed

to work as screws within the whole socialist machine.

1.1. The first stage of the professionalisation of writing

Historically, it was not until the late Qing Dynasty, when modern printing technologies emerged

and modern industrialisation developed, that it became possible for writing to develop into a

profession and writers to survive on their publications.7 Fiction was long considered an inferior

genre precisely because it often was associated with entertainment and commercial operations.

The commercialisaiton of the print industry emerged in China during the mid seventeenth

century.8

However, I argue that it was not writers but printing houses that played an important

role in the early commercilisation of fiction. Xiong Damu, the owner of the old-styled bookstore

Zhongzhengdang (which not only sold books but also printed books), was also the author and

compiler for several early novels.9

In addition, as McLaren points out, most works of vernacular

fiction were published using woodblocks, even after the advent of movable type.10

For

commercial publishers at that time, instead of publishing new texts, altering older woodblocks

was a more economical way for an expanding market. Consequently, not writers creative works

but compiled and revised works by publishers were inspired.

As for writers, considering the despised status of fiction, the number of writers engaging in

writing novels was much less than that in classical prose or poetry. Traditional Chinese literati

made a living more often from official service, landowning, or other business, other than

writing.11

There were no records of manuscript payment standards. In addition, it was proved

that not a few novels, such as The Journey to the West (Xiyouji), was printed and circulated

around two or three decades after its completion. The author could not have a chance to observe

the publication of the book.12

Even the authorship became a problem for the contemporary

literary archaeologist. In that case, it is hard to imagine that fiction writing could be a profession

for writers at that time.

7 Perry Link, The Uses of Literature: Life in the Socialist Chinese Literary System (Princeton, NY:Princeton University Press, 2000),p.129.8

Anne E. McLaren, Chinese Popular Culture and Ming Chantefables (Leiden: Brill, 1998), p.1.9

Chen Dagang, Tongsu xiaoshuo de lishi guili (The Historical Development of Popular Fiction)(Changsha: Hunan chubanshe, 1993), pp.72-73.10 Anne E. McLaren, Chinese Popular Culture and Ming Chantefables, p.43.11 Perry LinkThe Uses of Literature.p.12912 Chen Dagang, Tongsu xiaoshuo de lishi guili,p.90-91.


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Modern printing technologies developed during the late Qing dynasty. Meanwhile, an enlarged

cultural market grew.13

Along with the prosperity of teahouses, theatres and other forms of

entertainment, a certain volume of writing was for entertainment and profits. Bao Tianxiao, a

famous writer during that period, later recalled:

What was the content of these entertainment papers like? Fun, of course, was

their core. Their first principle was not to speak of politics; they would hear

nothing of the great affairs of the nation and things like that.14

The commodity aspect of writing became clear. This was demonstrated by the appearance of

payment standards. When the Datong Translation Press (Datong yishu ju) was established in

Shanghai in 1897, it openly solicited manuscripts by offering payments:

Any books of translation, creation or compilation can be printed by ourpublisher if required. It will be paid for either by money or printed books as an

alternative, with negotiation.15

Although there was no mention of a fixed standard, this was said to be the first available

reference in Chinese history to the setting payments for manuscripts. Following this start, fixed

standards soon developed. In 1907, theXinmin News(Xinmin congbao), which was established

by Liang Qichao and others in 1902 and was believed as one of the most influential newspapers

at that time, introduced rates of remuneration in carefully distinguished categories:

The payment rate of commentary (shu ping) and criticism (pi ping) can be set at

3 yuan per thousand characters. As for treatises (lun zhu), the rate might be

increased a little (depending on the value of the content), with 4 yuan of the

highest and 3yuan as a common standard. As for reports (ji zai), the rate can be

set at around 2yuan.16

Besides this, rates higher than threeyuan were reserved for writers of established reputation and

were offered by the major publishers. The Commercial Press (Shangwu yinshuguan) once

offered the cultural authority Liang Qichao 20 yuan to get one of his articles published in the

Oriental Magazine (Dongfang zhazhi).

17

This rate of payment stabilised until around the late1930s.

13 For more on the entertainment industry during that time, see Perry Link,Mandarin Ducks andButterflies: Popular Fiction In Early Twentieth-century Chinese Cities, (Berkeley: University OfCalifornia Press, 1981).Bao Tianxiao, Chuan ying lou huiyi lu (Reminiscences of the Bracelet Shadow

Chamber, Hong Kong: Da hua chubanshe, 1971).14

Bao Tianxiao, Chuan ying lou huiyi lu, p.445.15

Liang Qichao, Yinbingshi Collection (Yinbingshi hej) (Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, 1941), vol.2, p.58.16 Ding Wenjiang and Zhao Fengtian et.al.,Liang Qichao nianpu changbian (Chronicle of LiangQichaos Life), (Shanghai: Renmin chubanshe, 1983), p.387.17Ibid., p. 965. This offer was disclosed in the letter the editor Zhang Jusheng wrote to Liang Qichao.


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Previously in China, authors occasionally received payment for their writing. As stated in the

Analects, thejunzi understands the importance of morality (yi) and thexiaoren understands the

importance of profitability (li). Throughout Chinese history, good Confucians avoided talking

of money.18

Writing for profit was often considered a disreputable affair. However, in Shanghai

in the early twentieth-century, people began openly soliciting manuscripts, advertising rates of

remuneration and honoring well-known writers with extra high rates.19 These practices indicated

that peoples attitudes toward writing had started to change and the commodity aspects of

writing emerged.

Another pivotal element for the professionalisation of writing was the publication of serialised

fiction in newspapers and magazines. As recalled by Bao Tianxiao, started from Shibao,20

serialised publications became popular. Publications of serialised fiction intensified the

publishers commercial relations with authors, and provided writers the possibility to live on

writing.21

Series writers incomes were more stable than casual incomes from getting a novel

published. Some writers had thus kept long-term relations with the press. Zhang Henshui, the

famous writer for popular fiction at that time, worked for nearly six years with the Press of

WorldDaily News (Shijie ribao) in serialising his story, Grand Old Family (Jinfen shi jia).22

He

also received fixed salary as he worked as an editor for Wanjiang News (Wanjiang ribao).23

In

fact, many writers worked as editors and earned manuscript payment from extra piecework. Li

Boyuan, for example, was employed by The Commercial Press to edit Xiuxiang Fiction

(Xiuxiang xiaoshuo);Bao Tianxiao and Chen Jinghan were employed by the press ofFiction

Times (Xiaoshuo shibao).24

These demonstrated that the first group of Chinese professional authors emerged at the turn of

the twentieth century. This was similar to the findings of Feltes that the serialised publication in

the Victorian period marked the emergence of professional authors in Britain.25

Due to different

social circumstances, there are distinct differences between the professionalised fictional writing

in China in the twentieth century and in Britain in the Victorian period. In Britain, coinciding

with industrialization process, literary works with commodity aspects gradually evolved into

18Kam Louie, Sage, Teacher, Businessman: Confucius as a Male Model,p.33.

19Perry Link.Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies, 153.

20Bao Tianxiao, Chuan ying lou huiyi lu, p.313.

21 Perry Link,Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies,p.151-152. Link analyses the important role theserialisation of fiction played in the development of both newspapers and popular fiction.22 Hsiao-wei Wang Rupprecht,Departure and Return:Chang Hen-shui [Zhang Henshui] and the Chinese

Narrative Tradition (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co., 1987), pp.15- 16.23

Yuan Jin,Zhang Henshui pingzhuan (Critical Biography of Zhang Henshui) (Changsha: Hunan wenyichubanshe, 1988), p.56.24 Bao Tianxiao, Chuan ying lou huiyi lu,p.313, p.317.25 N.N. Feltes,Modes of Production of Victorian Novels. (Chicago and London: the University ofChicago Press, 1986), p. 4.


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mature commercialised writing and industrialised culture. In contrast, the first phase of

professionalised commercial writing in China was ephemeral and did not have a chance to

develop fully.

As business dealings were still despised,26

writers concerns with regard to money came mainly

from the need to support family rather than to earn a profit. Zhang Henshui explained that he

had to write to keep his family well-fed and warm, I must write every day. If I stopped writing

today, I would go hungry right away on this day. How could I let that happen?... I always have

to write.27

Furthermore, the development of professional writing was interrupted by various

wars since the 1930s and the increased power of the Communist Party.

1.2. The professionalisation of writing in Maoist era

During the Communist era, there emerged another type of professionalised writing. The

professionalised commercial writing was transformed into a way of writing administrated by

bureaucracy and guided by ideology to teach readers correct political and social attitudes.

After a short period of development at the turn of the twentieth century, commercial

professionalisation of writing was rejected in Maoist China. Under socialist principles,

commerce, the market and other business concerns and practices were viewed as evil and

capitalist reactionary. Even soft topics, such as love or other sentimental feelings, were

criticised as bourgeois decadence. Guided by Mao Zedongs Talks at the Yanan Conference

on Literature and Art in 1942, writing was supposed to engineer peoples minds for the

purposes of politics. Depictions of mountains or water, for example, were intended to inculcate

patriotism among young people;28

stories of contemporary lives were expected to set up models

for readers to learn.29

Instead of the market, the Party bureaucracy controlled publication and distribution of literary

works. One important institution was the Central Bureau of Publishing (Chuban zongshu).

Established in 1949, it was a department of the central government to supervise nation-wide

publishing. The first effort the Central Bureau of Publishing made was to set up the first group

of state-run publishers across the country and build a network of the New China Bookstore as

26 The status of merchants in the late Qing Dynasty was not high. See Wellington K. Chan,Merchants,

Mandarins and Modern Enterprise in Late Qing China (Harvard University Press, 1977), p.24.27

Zhang Henshui, Jianmo (Reticence),Xinmin bao (Xinmin News) (Chongqing), April 14, 1942.28

Liu Baiyus famous prose, such as Sunrise (Richu), Three Days along Yangtze River(Changjiang sanri), are typical examples. Previous publications of landscapes, such as Li Bais poems, were alsointerpreted as eulogies for the motherland.29 The character Gao Daquan in the novel The Sun Shine Bright(Yan yang tian) is an example.


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distribution channel. The Central Bureau of Publishing controlled the selection of publications,

the supply of capital and paper to publishers nation-wide, and was in charge of the New China

Bookstore, the sole distributor of all publications around the country.30

Meanwhile, previous

private publishers were brought under joint state-private ownership, and by 1956 all private

publishers had been nationalized. As a consequence, systematic institutional networks

developed, which made it possible for an all-encompassing, monolithic official culture to come

into existence which was disseminated from the top. Writers, editors and other cultural workers

were engineered and conformed to the leadership of the Party.

All artists and writers were regrouped into state-sponsored units and went

through thought reform, or indoctrination in Maoist ideology, to become

workers for socialist culture. After all the institutional bases of old culture were

thus swept away or taken over, the party emerged as the countrys only cultural

authority in full control of a new national culture that could now begin topenetrate every corner of Chinese society on an unprecedented scale.31

Most writers of the time wrote part-time and undertook other jobs. Their incomes derived

mainly from their working in the state-owned units. During that time, the professional writer

referred to full-time writers supported by the Writers Association (zuojia xiehui). As Perry Link

points out, the Writers Association was to serve the complementary functions of providing the

Party with a means of monitoring and controlling creative writing.32

Therefore, among

requirements to become professional writers, such as a certain number of publications and

prizes, the most important criterion was to conform to the guideline of the Association to

comply with the leadership of the Party.

Professional and other writers financially supported by the Writers Association did not

worry about the market or whether their works could be sold. They mainly worked on writing

projects allocated by the government. They were another type of professionalised writers,

although not commericalised. Their writings generally were to serve the Party and to inculcate

certain political and social attitudes among readers. Literature or cultural forms for

entertainment were restricted from developing. Popular fiction in the tradition of Mandarin

30 The New China Bookstore had branches in every province to build up a nation-wide network. It lost itsexclusive right of distribution in late 1985 when private booksellers distributed books directly from

publishers to privately owned bookstores and bookstands. See Ren Ke, ed., Sao huang zai yi jiu ba jiu(Retaliation Against Pornography in 1989, Beijing: Zhongguo Renmin daxue chubanshe, 1989), p.31.31

Jianying Zha, Chinas Popular Culture in the 1990s, China Briefing: The Contradictions of Change,ed., William A. Joseph, (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1997), pp.111-113.32 Perry Link, The Uses of Literature, p.119. Link discusses the role and functions of the WritersAssociation in the book.


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Ducks and Butterflies (Yuanyang hudie pai) had to stop publications, though it continued to

thrive in Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas communities.33

Without regulations through the market, government was the only force that decided the topics

of writing and rates of manuscript payments. Due to the contempt the Party held for commerce,

the payment standard decreased. Even worse, frequent political campaigns were against writers

and intellectuals. Liu Shaotang, a famous writer in the 1950s, recalled in 1998 that the rates of

manuscript payments for fiction in the 1950s before 1957 were about 12, 15, 18, up to 20yuan

per thousand characters. The anti-rightists political campaign in August 1957, which

developed into a nationwide political movement, dramatically changed the situation. Liu

Shaotang, who had a high income from his writing, was soon categorised as a bourgeoisie

rightist against the Party and socialism.34

In July 1957 The Peoples Daily advertised that his

novel, The Golden Canal(Jinse de yunhe) would be published with a print-run 100,000 copies

in October. However, after the Anti-rightist Campaign commenced, the manuscript was returned

to the author from the printing factory.

In 1960, a notification from the government declared the abolition of royalty payments. With

the intensification of the class struggle, even the authors right was denied. In 1966, the

Cultural Revolution began. The decade of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) represents the

lowest point in the status of the writer in Chinese history. Owing to the Gang of Fours new

literary prisons, nearly all publishers needed to ask for high-level approval before getting a

book printed.35

A word out of place could bring about imprisonment or even death for the

writer and their families. With political movements strengthened and more frequent, it was

impossible for professionalised commercial writing to develop. Even creative writing was hard

to maintain. Most writers stopped writing until the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. As a

result, many editors were discredited and lots of publishers were forced to close. Manuscript

payments were cancelled; even the Writers Association was closed.36

33 Perry Link,Mandarin Ducks, p.236. But peoples need for entertainment did not disappear. A numberof popular novels, such as Zhang Yangs The Second Handshake and some foreign works, circulated

underground.34

According to Liu Shaotangs recall, he received 1,800yuan for his anthology of short stories, GreenBranches (Qingzhi lye) with 40,000 characters. His payment was calculated as 15yuan per thousandcharacters. While 20,000 copies were set as a quota, the actual 63,000 copies printed enabled him to earn45yuan per thousand characters. At that time, one kilogram of pork cost 0.6yuan; 100yuan wasconsidered as standard salary for an ordinary worker. Given that, the 1,800yuan manuscript payment

made him a high income earner. In fact, he used about 2,500yuan of his manuscript payment to purchasea house with five bedrooms. See Liu Shaotang, Wangshi bukan huishou (Unforgettable Past).

http://www.booksir.com/books2003/cnread1/zzzp/n/niuhan/sywc/102.htm35 Geremie Barme, Notes on Publishing in China 1976-1979. The Australian Journal of ChineseAffairs. no.4.(July, 1980). p.167.36 Perry Link, The Uses of Literature.p.131.
http://www.booksir.com/books2003/cnread1/zzzp/n/niuhan/sywc/102.htmhttp://www.booksir.com/books2003/cnread1/zzzp/n/niuhan/sywc/102.htm


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2. Wang Shuo and a new era of cultural commercialisation

According to Perry Link, rooted in Chinese cultural tradition, written language had been

strongly associated with moral instruction.37

Chinese writers, from traditional Confucian

scholar-officials, modernisers in the early twentieth century, Maoist cultural workers to post-

Mao writers in the 1980s, albeit different or even having opposing views on various matters

during different periods, agreed almost unanimously in the assumption that literature is

relevant, or even essential, to morality, social life, and politics.38

However, the fact that

professionalised commercial writing developed at the turn of the twentieth century reveals that

with appropriate social conditions, the market could also become the motivation for writing.

From the late 1980s, together with the transformation from planned economy to market

economy, from Maoist ideology to post-Maoist ideology, the dominant status of moral writing

was almost demolished by the trend of professionalisation and commercialisation in writing.

Compared to the first phase of professionalisation of fiction, the new phase in the contemporary

era unfolded more swiftly and impetuously. This section centres on the writer, Wang Shuo and

investigates the contemporary Chinese cultural market from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

Comparing Wang Shuo with the American novelist Mario Puzo, the Chinese writer Ah Cheng

who was active during the mid-1980s and the first group of Chinese professionalised

commercial writers at the turn of the twentieth century, I argue that Wang Shuo was for his time

and place significant for researches. Wang Shuo represents that new type of professional

writers, entrepreneurial writers, stepped into the centre of Chinese cultural stage. His popularity

signifies that the trend of commercialisation radically transformed not only a group of writers,

but also editors, book merchants, officials and the Chinese common readers.

Wang Shuo versus Mario Puzo

John Hersey, a novelist in the US of the 1970s and the chairman of one of the committees of the

7,500 strong Authors Guild,observed that publishing a book in the US at that time was more

and more a choice of whether a book will sell, not whether or not it will contribute to our

culture39

Cultural artefacts, even authors writing intentions, fell completely into the world of

commodities. Mario Puzo is an example. He is famous for his popular novel The Godfather

(1969), as well as his blatant proclamation of profit seeking. It was said that the delivery of The

37Perry Link, The Uses of Literature.p.5, p.143.

38 Perry Link, The Uses of Literature,p.5.39American Book Review, December 1977. Cited from John Sutherland,Bestsellers: Popular Fiction ofthe 1970s, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981), pp.22-23.


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Godfatherwas spurred by the authors need of some money to take his family on holiday.40

The

speech make by Puzo himself assured the words, as he publicly declared that, I wrote it to

make money.41

Similarly, in China, Wang Shuo is also well known for his undisguised pursuit for money and

view of writing as a means to earn profit, as he says, having money is better than anything

else.My business experience gives me the merchant insight. I am aware of what is saleable.

42Notably, being famous in Mainland China during the late 1980s and the early 1990s, Wang

Shuos words were more provocative than those of Puzo. When Puzo expressed the worldly

concerns on writing, the US was already a country with advanced industrialisation and

consumerism. Puzo just expressed what had been accepted in a high capitalist country, although

such ideas were not necessarily respected. However, when Wang Shuo uttered similar ideas,

China was just emerging from the Cultural Revolution when any thoughts containing

commercialism were under criticism from orthodoxy ideology. In addition, in traditional

Chinese thinking, there also existed a contradiction between writing and commerce. Confucian

thoughts, for example, viewed writing as a means for moral standardisation, and considered

commerce as morally corrupting. Under these circumstances, Wang Shuos proclamation

equating literature with a means of earning profit was undoubtedly offensive and provoking. It

amounted to declaring a war on both Confucian and communist traditions.43

Ironically, although the trend of commercialisation is found to be against communist tradition, it

can be argued that the development of cultural workers during the Maoist era formulates the

foundation of the commercialisation in the post-Mao era. During the Maoist era, writers were no

longer considered to be moral guardians, the status they were entitled to in Confucian tradition.

Through thought reform or indoctrination in Maoist ideology, writers were supposed to be the

same as other people working for socialist construction, such as workers in factories. This, in

the context of post-Mao China, developed a ground for the rise of an indiscrimination between

writing, business and other professions, and with specific circumstances, made the rise of

common commercial concerns possible.

Wang Shuos attitude toward writing and earning money can be found in the book, I am Wang

Shuo (Wo shi Wang Shuo, 1992). Here, Wang Shuo expresses his view that literature is a

40 John Sutherland,Bestsellers: Popular Fiction of the 1970s, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981),

p.38.41

Mario Puzo, The Godfather Papers,p.38.42

Wang Shuo, Wo shi Wang Shuo (I am Wang Shuo, Beijing: Guoji wenhua chubangong si, 1992),p.17,20.43 In fact, a nation-wide debate on humanistic spirit (renwen jingshen) from 1993 originated fromdiscussions on this controversial writer.


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commodity and writing is the same as operating a business in the market. Whether it aimed to

provoke the society or not, the book caught the publics attention. In the book, Wang Shuo

recalls his personal experience in private business and attributes his achievement in writing to

his professional understanding of the market. Before writing, he resigned from working in a

state-owned unit and pursued business activities in the market. It was well-known that on the

burgeoning Chinese market, the boundary between legal and illegal business was not clear. As a

result, Wang Shuo once became a black marketeer(daoye). The business world did not bring

him wealth. However, he claims that his experience in the market gave birth to his achievement

in writing. As he announces, the business experiences make it easier for him to gauge editors

and readers expectations. He had two stories published in 1984, including the novella, Kong

zhong xiaojie (Air Hostess), which brought him fame.

The title of the novella, Air Hostess, is an example of Wang Shuos ability to grasp editors

and readers interests. The title in Chinese incorporates two expressions in the air (kong

zhong) and Miss (xiao jie).The phrase in the air attracted most Chinese including editors

and readers in the late 1980s because it aroused their desire to travel by air, their curiosity about

the modern lifestyle and even their jealousy toward those rich businesspeople travelling by air.

During Maos time Chinese airliners were a non-profitable service exclusively for the

privileged, and commoners had few chances to travel by air. Later in Dengs era, travelling by

air was possible for many, although passengers were mostly successful businesspeople.

Therefore, the phrase in the air was seen to be fashionable.

The last word Miss was a pejorative term in the Maoist era because of its indication of images

of beauties and thus, moral decadence. However, in the commercial society in the 1980s, this

word regained its charm and fashionability.44

The attractive title helped the publication of the

story and demonstrated Wang Shuos sensitivity to new social trends. With an entrepreneurs

insight, he exploited language as a resource to follow the fickle taste of the public and was able

to hit a large buying readership.

Wang Shuo versus Ah Cheng

However, Wang Shuo was not the only writer in China who was affected by consumerism.

Earlier than him, during the mid-1980s, Ah Cheng uttered similar ideas on many occasions.

When being asked about the motivation for his novel, Chess King (Qi wang), Ah Chengs

44 Ping Chou, Halfway Rebel: Rise and Fall of Wang Shuo's Hooligan Literature between 1978 and1999, PhD thesis (Stanford University, 2003),p.23.


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answer was payment for manuscript, just for that.45

In introducing himself, he compared the

status of writers with that of carpenters and stated that writing was just to exchange for some

money to cover family expenses.46

It can thus be seen that the view of writing as a means to

earn profit was not exclusive to Wang Shuo. What interests me is, while the commercialised

writing of Wang Shuo incurred heated critiques, similar aspect of Ah Chengs writing scarcely

received a ripple of interest. Why?

To answer this question, there are three points worth noting. Firstly, the way Wang Shuo

publicised these ideas was much more provocative than Ah Cheng. While Ah Chengs words

gave people the impression that he needed manuscript payments to cover family expenses,

which was understandable, Wang Shuo provoked people. For example, he openly states that

Talk? All right. I am keen on whatever can bring me fame in the book entitled,I am Wang

Shuo.47

Secondly, the content of fiction by Ah Chang and Wang Shuo are different. While Ah Chengs

stories more concern about tradition and culture, as shown by Chess King(1984), Wang Shuos

fiction often depicts lives of urban young people. Wang Shuo writes about air hostess which

became a fashionable profession at that time. He writes about adventurers and tide-riders of the

economic reforms, who drive Cadillacs and drink X.O. whisky. In fact, as discussed, Wang

Shuos stories fired Chinese peoples imagination of a material and consumerist world.

More importantly, Wang Shuo uttered monetary concerns at a time when commercialisation

began to affect the Chinese in an unprecedented way. The different reactions to Wang Shuo and

Ah Chengs similar materialistic concerns derive from the fact that they verbalised similar ideas

at different times. The mid-1980s was a period quite different from the late 1980s and early

1990s. The 1980s was claimed as a decade of glory and dream of enlightenment.48

Elites

utopian discourse dominated the literary and cultural scene during the mid-1980s.

Consequently, rather than the material aspect of his writing, most research on Ah Cheng focuses

on the revelation of traditional Chinese culture, such as Confucianism and Daoism in his

writing.49

In contrast, the late 1980s was a period when materialism and consumerism became

such a fashion for Chinese. As I analysed the title of Air Hostess, the popularity of Wang

Shuos stories results from his ability to voice what people wanted to hear.

45 Yu Ah Cheng dongla xiche (Talking about this and that with AH Cheng),Jushi niandai (TheNineties) 1 (1986), p.68.46

Ibid.47

Wang Shuo, Wo shi Wang Shuo (I am Wang Shuo), Beijing: Guoji wenhua chuban gongsi, 1992).p.1.48

Huazhi Wang, Problematizing the Nation: the Wang Shuo Phenomenon and Contemporary ChineseCulture, PhD thesis, Cornell University, 1999, p56.49 Different from the main theme, Kam Louie provides an in-depth discussion of the celebrity of life inAh Chengs writing, see Louie,Between Fact and Fiction (Sydney: Wild Peony, 1989),p.85-90


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In short, both Wang Shuos stories and promotional words hit the right nerve of the Chinese at

that time. Besides ordinary people, even Chinese officials welcomed Wang Shuo because, to a

certain extent, his ideas coincided with the social transition toward commercialisation advocated

by the government. He stood as a skilful spokesman for the trend of commercialisation in China

during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was for his time and place notable in social and

cultural indications.

Wang Shuo versus the first group of professionalise commercial writers

Resembling the first group of professional writers at the turn of the twentieth century, the

writings of Wang Shuo were reader-oriented and profit-seeking. With an intuitive understanding

of market condition for that time, Wang Shuo went one step further and promoted his works by

intentionally challenging Chinese tradition. What differentiates Wang Shuo from the

Republican professional writers is that, while those authors distinguished themselves from

commercial operators although their works were circulated on the market,50 Wang Shuo took

the role of a commercial operator to create mass mania and to promote his works. Instead of

concealing commercial concerns, he provocatively highlighted his image as an agitator. He

publicly compared writing with money and said money is more important than anything else

for me.51

He recalls his personal experience in private business and attributes his achievement

in writing to his professional understanding of the market.

Furthermore, he affronted the decency of Chinese writers and elite tradition by declaring that:

I simply cant stand their [writers] sense of superiority and nobility. They think

that common folks are all benighted fools and only they themselves are the

conscience of the society. Isnt this aggravating? Theres no so-called conscience

in this society. Who needs them to fabricate it? 52

As noted before, it is true that most Chinese writers most of time liked to think of themselves as

educators or moral guardians. This is mainly because they presumed that fiction is a good tool

for reforming society and writers had responsibilities to assist political rulers and to uplift

common people.53

However, Wang Shuos words were remote from a serious reflection on this

cultural issue. In fact, it was his attitude that irritated Chinese intellectuals: he derided the

presumed responsibilities of Chinese writers and intellectuals as superfluous and

50Perry Link,Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies,p.150.

51 Wang Shuo, Wo shi Wang Shuo.p.17.52 Wang Shuo, Wo shi Wang Shuo. pp.12-3.53 Cited in Perry Link, TheUses of Literature.p.143.


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aggravating. He even mockingly described them as the fourth mountain which suppressed

him:

In the past we often said that Chinese people had been oppressed by three

mountains imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism. Chinese

women were also oppressed by the fourth mountain men. In my case, the fourthmountain is Chinese intellectuals

54

More than occasionally, Wang Shuos words were intended to arouse controversy and attract

attention. In an interview, he highly valued his own writing and anticipated that his future work

at least could amount to, Gone with the Wind, with a bit of luck, it might be turned into A

Dream of Red Mansions (Honglou meng).55With little disagreement, Gone with the Wind is

said to be a famous novel in US, whereas A Dream of Red Mansions is considered the greatest

piece of literary work in the history of Chinese literature. As writers, to compare their writing to

these two well-established literary works would have been considered blatantly insolent. In fact,

people who disapproved of Wang Shuos arrogance and insolence often quoted this sentence.

These words, however, could also become the best advertisement for Wang Shuo and

his works. A book, which was said to be as good as Gone with the WindandA Dream of

Red Mansions, could arouse great curiosity among common readers. Wang Shuos

provocative public speeches were rewarded in the market. The sales of his books prospered. The

Selcted Works of Wang Shuo (Wang Shuo wenji (1992) was the first Mainland Chinese

bestseller. Looking Beautiful (Kanshangqu hen mei) (1999) was also one of the best-selling

books in Chinese book market. As a result, Wang Shuo was on the list of the top richest Chinese

writers.56

In this sense, his provocative public speeches can also be viewed as a marketing

strategy. This is particularly important because the practice of self-promotion illustrated a strong

marketing consciousness and represented a new era in the professionalisation of writing.

As already discussed, the commodity-text of series publication in the Victorian period inBritain and at the turn of the twentieth century in China independently signalled the emergence

of professionalised commercial writing. Here I would like to point out that the emergence of

writers strong marketing consciousness represented a new phase of professional writing.

During the first phase, the commodity aspect of writing was recognised. Writing began to be

considered as a profession from which to make a living, but most writers who sold their work

54Wang Shuo, Wo shi Wang Shuo. p. 13.

55Wang Shuo, Wo shi Wang Shuo. p.99.

56 Chen Jie, Wang Hong, Shichang jingji zhi xia de zuojia gaochou (Writers Payments Under theMarket Economy),Zhonghua dushu bao (China Reading Newspaper), Sep. 30 1998.http://www.anewfocus.com/wwwdigest/spare/contfee.htm
http://www.anewfocus.com/wwwdigest/spare/contfee.htmhttp://www.anewfocus.com/wwwdigest/spare/contfee.htm


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did not expect profit, yet the allure of payments was undeniable.57

With the advance of

industrialisation, the commodity aspect of writing and culture was further reinforced and was

incorporated into systematic commercial machinery. The development of cultural industries was

strengthened by writers and artists strong desire to sell and, most importantly, by systematic

mercantile operations, which may include a whole string of agents, editors and salesmen.58

In

this sense, the new phase of professional writing can be called as commercial writing.

Due to different socio-political circumstances, when commercial writing appeared in China in

the late 1980s, it was different from what happened in the US and other western countries

during the 1960s and 1970s. Rather than a whole string of agents, editors and salesmen,

individual practices, such as the writer Wang Shuos self-promotion, played an important role in

producing bestsellers and encouraging cultural commercialisation in China. Chinese cultural

industry during the late 1980s and early 1990s was far from being systematically established.

Instead of brokers and agents intervention, Wang Shuo himself adopted the role of promoter

and agent of his own works.59

The promotional practices of Wang Shuo stirred society, and at the same time, pushed the

undercurrent of commercialisation into the centre of the Chinese cultural stage. His popularity

compelled the Chinese to confront the existence of entrepreneurial writing and reflected

commercial concerns among readers. Not long after Wang Shuos attempt at entrepreneurial

writing, a large number of Chinese writers, university professors, teachers, editors and others

who worked in cultural fields waded into the ocean of business dealings ( Wenren xiahai).60

This trend was not confined to wenren, people in almost any area became involved in the

business world. A popular ditty (shunkouliu) of the mid-1990s vividly discloses the situation,

as it goes, [There are] a billion Chinese, and 90 percent of them are doing business dealings

(shi yi renmin jiu yi shang).61

Ironically, the phrase imbued with revolutionary ideology

Looking forward (Xiang qian kan) was reworded as Putting money above everything else

(Xiang qian kan).62

Even Confucius ideas, which for centuries had been supposed to be hostile

to commerce, were re-interpreted to be beneficial to economic growth.63

57Link,Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies.p. 152.

58Sutherland,Bestsellers, p. xii.

59Liu Xiaobo, Wang Shuo: Zhongguo zui you shangyexing yu tongsuxing de zuojia (Wang Shuo: The

Most Commercialised and Popular Writer in China), Wang Shuo, ed.Bianjibu de gushi (Stories of anEditorial Board,Taipei: Fengyunshidai chubanshe gufenyouxiangongsi, 1993), p.1.60Wenren xiahai was a notable phenomenon during the early 1990s.6162

The two terms and are of the same pronunciation, but their meanings are quitedifferent.63 For detailed discussion on this point, see Kam Louise, Sage, Teacher, Businessman: Confucius as aMale Model, pp.21-41.


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All these reflected the fact that, along with the rapid progression of the market economy,

commercialisation in culture and ideology developed. Furthermore, the government officially

legislated and reinforced this trend. In 2000, a policy intended to develop culture-related

industries was promulgated.64

Zhang Xianliang, the previously elite writer who set up a film

production company in 1993, was elected to attend the Tenth Plenum of National Committee of

the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). He stated in pubic that he was

one of the richest writers in China and he was proud of his entrepreneurial practice which served

the nations modernisation.

Conclusion

By tracing the development and variation of professionalised fiction in Chinese history, this

paper focuses on fictions professionalisation and cultural commercialisation in post-Mao

China. Wang Shuos self-promotion departed from the established image of Chinese writers

who were ashamed to associate writing with commerce. He was the continuity of the image of

professional writers who emerged during the first decades of the twentieth century because he

considered writing as his profession, and manuscript payments were his only income.

Influenced by Maoist ideology, he treated writing the same as any other profession. During

Dengs era he added new meaning to the image of the writer: strong marketing consciousness

and provocative promotional practices.

By a comparison of Wang Shuo with Mario Puro, Ah Cheng and the first group of

profesionalised commercial writers at the turn of the twentieth century, I argue that Wang Shuo

was a man for this time and place. He represents the China then, experiencing great transition

not only in socio-economic but also cultural spheres. The trend of commercialisation radically

transformed not only a group of writers and intellectuals, but also common readers, editors,

officials and the Chinese in various fields. Furthermore, the emergence of entrepreneurial

writers in post-Mao China was not only a product of industralisation and integration with the

world in terms of both trade and cultural practice in accordance with Deng Xiaopings reforms

policy, but also a result of the socialist professionlisation which engendered the rise of an

indifferentiation between writing and other professions.

64 The Fifth Plenum of the Fifteenth Central Committee of the CCP issued the culture industry (wenhuachanye) policy. http://www.ynu.edu.cn/web1/ynu80/wenhua/jianjie.htm.
http://www.ynu.edu.cn/web1/ynu80/wenhua/jianjie.htmhttp://www.ynu.edu.cn/web1/ynu80/wenhua/jianjie.htm

wang shuo professional writing

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