The language of trauma in selected short stories by Gao Xingjian

For Gao Xingjian, the first Chinese-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, the precondition of being human, let alone a writer, is the freedom to be without subscription to any collective ideology. In this chapter, I further extend Gao’s view to his portrayal of one of the most devastating man-made disasters in modern history: the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In order to re-establish ruling order and credibility after what was known as the “Ten Years of Chaos, " the Chinese state’s interpretation and resolution of the Cultural Revolution prioritize national political and economic interests ahead of the people’s recovery from emotional and psychological damage. As such, the official discourse of the Cultural Revolution depends on collectivism. In contrast, Gao’s selected short stories, namely “The Temple” (1983) and “Buying a Fishing Rod for my Grandfather” (1986), establish spaces for individualistic introspections toward the Cultural Revolution trauma. Gao utilizes in these short stories a literary technique which he refers to as the “flow of language.” I argue such a narrative feature liberates Gao and his readers from the heavily politicized discourse surrounding the Cultural Revolution and shifts their attention toward the exploration of the scarred subjectivity of Cultural Revolution survivors.