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If I Were Real involved two areas, literature and art and it broke into two previously "forbidden zones", criticizing the present leadership for tolerating corruption, and experimenting boldly with a new technique. As has been mentioned, writers who experimented with new techniques, even by borrowing Western ones, were given great leeway while the fate for the "new content" in literary and artistic reflections was quite different.
Beginning in the autumn of 1980, the situation developed along the lines of tighter control following some speeches by some outspoken members of the Association of Writers and Artists at its Fourth Congress in October-November 19792 and the numerous stories, poems and investigative reports in the subsequent period. Fitfully in 1980, and repeatedly in 1981, literary works were charged with exaggerating the gloom, weariness, and cynicism within the population and spreading a feeling of utter hopelessness. Specifically, If I Were Real was criticized for inducing disillusionment with the system.
In the spring of 1981, the filmscript by Bai Hua, Bitter Love, was openly criticized by the Liberation Army Daily, signalling a new round of re-assessment of political development and this time culture was the target. Bitter Love was published in one of the most innovative literary journals, Shiyue (October), in September 1979. By 1981, it had been made into a movie which was shown to selected audiences but was not released to the general public. The filmscript was a sad story of an overseas Chinese painter who returned to China out of patriotism, only to be persecuted as a counter-revolutionary during the Cultural Revolution. At one point, his daughter raised the question “You have loved this country so much but does this motherland love you?'' Obviously, this question encouraged disloyalty to the party. After August 1981, the party newspapers fully joined in the attack. "It became evident that the party leadership was increasingly concerned with the continuing disrespect for authority and growing Western influence."22
Although this concern of disrespect for authority and growing Western influence subsided somewhat in 1982 and early 1983, it surfaced again in a campaign launched in the autumn of 1983 against “spiritual pollution", which was attributed to increased contact with the West. Political leaders were particularly concerned with Western ideas that evoked questioning of the party and its policies. Unlike the Bitter Love episode, this campaign was ideological in character. When in the later
79
If I Were Real involved two areas, literature and art and it broke into two previously "forbidden zones", criticizing the present leadership for tolerating corruption, and experimenting boldly with a new technique. As has been mentioned, writers who experimented with new techniques, even by borrowing Western ones, were given great leeway while the fate for the "new content" in literary and artistic reflections was quite different.
Beginning in the autumn of 1980, the situation developed along the lines of tighter control following some speeches by some outspoken members of the Association of Writers and Artists at its Fourth Congress in October-November 19792 and the numerous stories, poems and investigative reports in the subsequent period. Fitfully in 1980, and repeatedly in 1981, literary works were charged with exaggerating the gloom, weariness, and cynicism within the population and spreading a feeling of utter hopelessness. Specifically, If I Were Real was criticized for inducing disillusionment with the system.
In the spring of 1981, the filmscript by Bai Hua, Bitter Love, was openly criticized by the Liberation Army Daily, signalling a new round of re-assessment of political development and this time culture was the target. Bitter Love was published in one of the most innovative literary journals, Shiyue (October), in September 1979. By 1981, it had been made into a movie which was shown to selected audiences but was not released to the general public. The filmscript was a sad story of an overseas Chinese painter who returned to China out of patriotism, only to be persecuted as a counter-revolutionary during the Cultural Revolution. At one point, his daughter raised the question “You have loved this country so much but does this motherland love you?'' Obviously, this question encouraged disloyalty to the party. After August 1981, the party newspapers fully joined in the attack. "It became evident that the party leadership was increasingly concerned with the continuing disrespect for authority and growing Western influence.""22
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Although this concern of disrespect for authority and growing Western influence subsided somewhat in 1982 and early 1983, it surfaced again in a campaign launched in the autumn of 1983 against “spiritual pollution", which was attributed to increased contact with the West." Political leaders were particularly concerned with Western ideas that evoked questioning of the party and its policies. Unlike the Bitter Love episode, this campaign was ideological in character. When in the later
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