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On Sunday night, our group met with four Chinese writers discusses the Chinese concept of culture. While the conversation ranged over a wide variety of topics, from Mao and communism, to the capitalist economic explosion that’s embracing China and diverting young people away from literature, the panelists unselfconsciously referred to themselves as “intellectuals.”
Here in China, the word intellectual isn’t quite as much a pejorative, as it is at home. Instead, it’s a word freighted with a specific, if nuanced, meaning — one that I’ll try to explain as it was explained to me (in translation, so bear with me if I get this wrong).
Historically speaking, Chinese intellectuals were advisors to the royal family — bureaucrats –who if their advice wasn’t taken, they took their own life (as a sign of their honor and honesty — so, yes, intellectuals were still viewed with suspicion even then). Later, during the Cultural Revolution, intellectuals were deemed undesirables, persecuted as a group, and all but wiped out. Later, in 1989, it was the students — intellectuals — who led the protests in Tiananmen Square, again placing them under suspicion from the state.
nlike the United States, it’s not just liberals who can be considered intellectuals (ask yourself how frequently you hear Republicans describe themselves as intellectuals before you send me hate mail). In China, both those who oppose the government and government officials, who are themselves often highly educated (frequently abroad) can be considered intellectuals.
The magazine Foreign Affairs understands this concept – in April last year it put out a list of the top 100 Public Intellectuals. They included five Chinese on their list. Among them was Wang Hui, who was one of our speakers on Sunday night. Wang is professor of Chinese language and literature at Tsinghua University. He participated in Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and was sent for reeducation. He’s often associated with China’s “New Left” movement which, rather than try to explain, I refer you to this article by Pankaj Mishra from the New York Times.
As for “miracles” – well that’s the word people use to describe any kind of amazing success. As in, “that we have 150 billion clicks on our Web site each month, it’s some kind of miracle,” “That my novels have sold more than 6 million copies is kind of a miracle.”
More on both of those stories later in the week…
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24. June 2009
20:34 Uhr
Interesting how a concept–an intellectual–can take on such different meanings in different places. I think the Chinese have it more right than we do in America.
28. June 2009
20:52 Uhr
“On Sunday night, our group met with four Chinese writers discusses the Chinese concept of culture.”
An intellectual wrote this? Or perhaps a non-native speaker? After the second spelling error, I stopped reading carefully. Sorry, I can’t take uneducated intellectuals seriously.
There isn’t a word for ‘intellectual’ in Chinese. They have a word, but intellectual is just a translation. I’d figure that an intellectual would be aware of that. Chinese traditions of scholarship are different from Western ones.
A long lookat history will tell you why Americans regard intellectuals with suspicion. Common folk usually just want to be left alone to live their lives. “Think for yourself” is the mantra, instead of the Chinese system of “your betters will decide for you.”
Less of an obsession with being called an intellectual would be a good start.