Martin Woesler
Martin Woesler (* 29. September 1969 in Münster, Germany) is a German sinologist, cultural scientist and translator of Chinese literature. He is full Professor of Intercultural Communication with the University of Applied Languages, Munich, Germany.
Sinologist, translator of Chinese literature
Woesler translated works from the Chinese authors Lǔ Xùn 鲁迅, Zhōu Zuòrén 周作人, Xǔ Dìshān 许地山, Yù Dáfū 郁达夫, Zhū Zìqīng 朱自清, Bīng Xīn 冰心, Bā Jīn 巴金, Qián Zhōngshū 钱锺书, Wáng Měng 王蒙, Zhāng Jié 张洁, Liú Zàifù 刘再复, and Jiǎ Píngwā 贾平凹 into English and German as well as of Cáo Xuěqín 曹雪芹 into German. Together with Rainer Schwarz he published the first complete translation of the Chinese novel The Dream of the Red Chamber into German. Woesler made available a lot of Chinese literature for the first time in a Western language.
In China, Woesler documented a critical campaign against the liberal Minister of Culture Wáng Měng 王蒙 and proofed, that this campaign only pretended to be motivated by interest in literature, but actually was motivated by politics (Political literature in China 1991-1992, 1994). He turned the until then neglected genre of the Chinese essay into a modern tool to express the upcoming individualism in China before the eyes of the European and American China Studies (History of the Chinese essay, 3 vols., 1998). These short first-person narratives, which mostly appeared in newspapers between the May-4th-movement 1919 and the beginning of the 1930s, were a new form for the awaking civil society to express its views and feelings. From the 1930s until around 1979, the essay faced an ideological instrumentalization at the expense of its literary quality. Woesler drew attention to the essayistic work of Zhōu Zuòrén, the younger brother of Lu Xun, who was ostracized due to his positive attitude towards Japan and his independence from daily politics and propaganda. Woesler's re-evaluation of Zhou's work were confirmed by different scholars outside mainland China. In fact, Zhou's writing of intentionally unpolitical literature in a time when literature was instrumenalized, was a political statement by itself. Woeslers work in the tensional field between politics and literature stimulated further books on Zhou, mostly from North American sinologists, supporting the necessity to re-evaluate Zhou.
Since the 1980s, China sees the upcoming of a critical public again. Woesler sees here a parallel between the role of the internet since the 1990s and the newspapers between the 1910s and 1930s. In his books (China's digital dream 2002, and others), together with Chinese scholars, he came to the conclusion, that the internet in China has a more liberalizing impact on society than it has in more liberal countries.
Categorization and description of trends of contemporary Chinese literature
In preparation of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2009, when China was the guest of honor, Woesler categorized contemporary Chinese literature. He himself translated two very different novels for the Book Fair: The most uncontentious canonized classical novel Dream of the Red Chamber by Cáo Xuěqín 曹雪芹, which has never been fully translated into German before, and one of the most contentious books of China today, Panda Sex by Mián Mián 棉棉. As the main trend of Chinese literature, Woesler sees young authors describing their everyday life in a rapidly and excitingly changing reality. The main motivation force of this literature is the alienation, initiated by urbanization and loss of orientation. Young Chinese do not live in and for the traditional family clan anymore, but are on their own. This has added a more critical and independent view to Chinese literature. The stories are dealing with drugs abuse, alienation, singles and the world of dreams. This touches also Western readers of translations. 2009 Woesler identified the following trends:
cult literature
In China there is a hype about young authors from the mega cities. They are celebrated like pop stars. In 2007 26 year-old Guo Jingming in 2007 earned 11 million Yuan with his novel Cry me a sad river. Having sold around 500.000 copies, he ranks first on the mainland's 2007 best seller list.
vagabond literature
The short story Peking double quick by 31 year-old Xu Zechen, which describes very closely the daily trading of the street hawkers of Peking with fake identity cards and dvds. In this realistic writing style 51 year-old Liu Zhenyun's novel „The pickpockets“ ranked top in 2008 mainland China best seller list.
critical surrealism
Even more interesting for the Western readers is his combative, elder colleague Han Han, who, with Days of glory wrote a social-critical, humoristic novel in the style of Magical Realism. Due to its sarcastical tongue-in-cheek and his grotesque elements it belongs to the critical surrealism. In the beginning of 2009, he succeeded Liu Zhenyun as no. 1 on the best seller list, having sold around 500.000 copies of his new novel "His land". This novel is also social-critical. Nationalism, patriotism and the heroe's cult are all lampooned in a humoristic way.
underground literature
Mian Mian is the most prominent representative of this trend of literature, describing the Shanghai night life from the perspective of young female singles. She was the first to write about sex, drugs, and alcohol and has been banned in China until February 2009.
'longing for something' literature
A large audience in China uses the opportunity to flee from its materialistic everyday life into an exoctic, but weirdly familiar world through utopian literature. This literature seems to yearn for another world. This category consists of two sub categories, the nostalgia and the Tibet exoticism. The latter often appears esoterically lost and recruits its supporters also among Non-Tibetan authors. The literature of nostalgia looks back into history: Examples are Yu Dan's Confucius in your heart, commentaries to the historic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms by 62 year-old Yi Zhongtian, which ranked in 2007 3rd on the best seller list, the historicizing novel about the last emperor's dynasty The Qing prime minister“ by 46 year-old Wang Yuewen and War drums in Peking by 55 year-old Dou Liang.
Women's literature
Shanghai has developed its own category of literature with Zhang Ailing's (1920–1995) autobiographical women's literature, which describes the inner life of the single women of Shanghai. Authors like 57 year-old Bi Shumin follow her up with novels like "Women's boxing" and "The female psychologist".
Master narrators
Besides the partly very modern trends of literature there are some long lasting master narrators like Mo Yan with his novel The wearines or 49 year-old Yu Hua with „Brothers“. With his historicizising novel Mo Yan "The sandalwood death penalty" belongs more to the trend of literature describing states of psychological emergency.
Translations from Chinese into English
- The Chinese Essay in the 20th Century, The University Press Bochum, 2000, 496 (xlii, 205, 229) pp., ISBN 978-3-934453-14-2, incl. 42 essays, both in Chinese and English, and an introduction to the genre. It contains texts from Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Xu Dishan, Yu Dafu, Zu Ziqing, Bing Xin, Ba Jin, Qian Zhongshu, Yang Shuo, Sun Li, Wang Zengqi, Yu Guangzhong, Wang Meng, Zhang Jie, Liu Zaifu, Xue Erkang, Ye Meng, Jia Pingwa, and Si Yu.
Works on Chinese literature
in English
- Martin Woesler, ed., The Modern Chinese Literary Essay - Defining the Chinese Self in the 20th Century - Conference Proceedings, Bochum, The University Press Bochum, 2000, 327 pp., ISBN 978-3-934453-15-9
- Harvard lecture on the 20th century Chinese essay, Bochum 3rd ed. 2006, book series Scripta Sinica vol. 4
- Yale lecture on the 20th century Chinese essay, Bochum 2nd ed. 2005, ISBN 978-389966-102-6, 58 pp., book series Scripta Sinica vol. 3
- Comparing Chinese and German culture, Bochum 2006, book series Comparative Cultural Sciences vol. 2
in German
- Chinese cultic literature 2008/2009 - authors, works, trends, Munich 2009, 127 pp., book series Sinica vol. 25
- Chinese contemporary literature - authors, works, trends – A snap-shot 2007/2008, Munich 2008, 267 pp., book series Sinica vol. 23
- Timeless Chinese poetry from the beginnings to the “China avant-garde”, Bochum 4th ed. 2007, 72 pp., book series Scripta Sinica vol. 8
- The history of the Chinese essay, Bochum, 2nd ed. 2009, xiii, 900 pp.
- My Essays are my ‘Longing for Freedom’ - Wang Meng, Former Minister of Culture, as Essayist in the Period 1948-1992, ix, 394 pp, Frankfurt / Main, Peter Lang Press 1998
- Political Literature in China 1991-92 - Wang Meng's 'Reform of Breakfast Habits'. A Translation of the Story “Hard Porridge” and the Documentation of an Absurd Debate, Bochum 2nd ed. 2003, 252 pp., book series Sinica vol. 13
- Valuation criteria for literature – The Dream of the Red Chamber as the most important Chinese novel, Bochum 3rd ed. 2006, 66 pp., book series Scripta Sinica vol. 7
Works on the Chinese internet
- Zhang Junhua, Martin Woesler, eds., China’s digital dream. The impact of the Internet on Chinese society, The University Press Bochum 2002.10, 274 pp., ISBN 978-3-934453-90-6
Literature
- Wolf Baus, News on Chinese literature, in: East Asian Literature Bulletin (1994.11, issue 17), pp. 109 – 114
- Wolfgang Kubin, Introduction: Prose, Essays, in: History of Chinese Literature, vol. 4, Bonn 2.2004, p. 3
- European Science & Scholarship Association: Statement of the jury awarding Martin Woesler the prize 'Desideratum 2007'
Comparative cultural scientist
In the field of cultural comparison Woesler has advanced the existing models by contributing descriptive, high-contrast examples of distant cultures, like the Anglo-American and the Chinese. Here he has enriched the theory of cultureshocks with the term own culture shock, which describes the state of shock a person crossing cultures can suffer from when he returns to his own culture.[1] Woesler has set different traditional models of comparison of cultures in the framework of a related system and further developed them in front of the background of globalization, mobility, and the internet. In 2006, he developed the model of culture maps, in which all cultural phenomena are positioned in a coordinate system and related with phenomena of other cultures.[2] Applying the model, even mixed cultures can be described better than with traditional models.
Works on comparative cultural science
- A new model of intercultural communication – critically reviewing, combining and further developing the basic models of Permutter, Yoshikawa, Hall, Hofstede, Thomas, Hallpike, and the social-constructivism, Bochum/Berlin 2009, book series Comparative Cultural Sciences vol. 1 [Introducing a model to compare distant cultures like the Chinese and the Anglo-American one.]
- co-ed. of the book series 'Comparative Cultural Science' with Matthias Kettner
Sources
Interviews with Martin Woesler
- Philipp Stelzner, "What do Chinese people read? About fast moving party literature and long novels" in: television channels N24/Pro7/Sat1, broadcast date 2009/10/15
- Lisa Grant, Frankfurt/Washington D.C., American National Radio "Meeting of official and dissident authors at the Frankfurt Book Fair", background interview 2009/10/14
- Angela Gutzeit, Deutschlandfunk Cologne, "Rich Chinese Literature at the Frankfurt Book Fair", 2009/10/13 4.10-4.30 pm
- Henrik Schmitz, "China for a long time was leading world literature", evangelisch.de, Frankfurt 2009/10/01
- Nicole Stöcker, "The Chinese culture has not yet shaken off its status of exotism", in: Buchreport, pp 54-55, Dortmund 2009/09/01, issue 9
- Jennifer Minke, "The hour of the young authors", weekly magazine "Börsenblatt", Frankfurt 2008/5