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Tag: Culture

Yan Lianke

Published May 17, 2023 by Abby Varricchio

Yan Lianke (1958- ) is a Chinese novelist known for his satirical portrayals of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its domestic economic and censorship policies. Before Lianke began writing satire, he served as a propaganda writer in the CCP. He currently teaches in Hong Kong.

Born in rural Song County in the Henan Province to illiterate farmers at the beginning of the Great Leap Forward, Yan Lianke’s writing is heavily influenced by his experience with poverty and its entailing despair as a young boy. His novels explore the stark differences between his impoverished childhood and the prosperity of contemporary China through the lens of popular memory. Lianke specifically focuses on what events are openly remembered by the public and how the state influences public recollection. State control of language through censorship of literature, art, and publication affects the selective memory of the past because it reenforces self-censorship. 

Lianke also suggests that Xi Jinping’s “Chinese Dream” and the desire for wealth have corrupted the people’s ability to critique the regime and create art and literature, given that most opportunities to achieve economic prosperity are so closely dependent on submitting to state power.

These themes are particularly prominent in the novel The Day the Sun Died (originally published in 2015 in Taiwan). The novel unfolds over the course of one evening, in which nearly an entire village begins to “dream walk” and get into fatal accidents as a result. Eventually, the village slips into a state of moral depravity and its inhabitants begin to act out their suppressed desires. Told through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old boy, The Day the Sun Died seeks to critique Xi Jinping’s optimistic “Chinese Dream” and the taboo surrounding discussion of past state- sponsored violence and tragedy.

FURTHER READING:

Lianke, Yan. The Day the Sun Died. Translated by Carlos Rojas. New York: Grove Press, 2018.

Lianke, Yan. Serve the People!: A Novel. Translated by Julia Lovell. New York: Grove Press, 2007.

Lianke, Yan. Heart Sutra. Translated by Carlos Rojas. New York: Grove Press, 2023.

Lianke, Yan. “On China’s State-Sponsored Amnesia.” Translated by Carlos Rojas. New York Times (2013), www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/opinion/on-chinas-state-sponsored-amnesia.html.

Lianke, Yan. “Finding Light in China’s Darkness.” Translated by Carlos Rojas. The New York Times, 2014), www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/opinion/Yan-Lianke-finding-light-in-chinas-darkness.html.

Fan, Jiayang. “Yan Lianke’s Forbidden Satires of China.” The New Yorker, October 2018, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/yan-liankes-forbidden-satires-of-china.

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Zitkala-Sa

Published June 20, 2022 by Amy Weitzman

Zitkala-Ša (1876–1938) was an activist for indigenous and women’s rights, born on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota. She was also known as Red Bird and Gertrude Simmons Bonnin. She played a significant role in the Society of American Indians (SAI), whose purpose was to “help Indians help themselves”. She wrote speeches, recorded tribal traditions, and collected statistical reports. Furthermore, she journaled her own experiences in an assimilation school and described its cultural suppression, but also the formative educational opportunities it provided.

Zitkala-Sa and her violin, 1898. Photo by Gertrude Kasebier, Smithsonian
Zitkala-Ša, 1898

Zitkala-Ša’s speeches and writings reached a vast audience, including with the federal government, due to her rhetorical skill. Her speeches centered around colonization and loss of property as the cause of suffering for native people. She believed self-determination, citizenship, and property rights were the key to improving conditions on reservations. Zitkala-Ša pointed to rampant sexual abuse as a long-term impact of indigenous oppression and collected studies to show the extent of the problem. Another of her commitments was to advocate against peyote, which, while being part of a native cultural tradition, also brought destruction to their communities.

FURTHER READING

Lewandowski, Tadeusz, ed. Zitkala-Sa : Letters, Speeches, and Unpublished Writings, 1898-1929. Boston: BRILL, 2017. Accessed June 18, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Zitkala-S̈a. My Life: Impressions of an Indian Childhood ; the School Days of an Indian Girl ; Why I Am a Pagan. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. 

Nps.gov. “Zitkala-Ša (Red Bird / Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) (U.S. National Park Service),” 2014. https://www.nps.gov/people/zitkala-sa.htm.

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Hispanidad, or Spanishness

Published June 9, 2022 by Amy Weitzman

Hispanidad (1910s–Present), or “Spanishness”, is a Hispanic American nationalist ideology that seeks a restoration of Spanish spiritual identity. It rests upon the belief that a Catholic spiritual identity has united Latin America since the time of early Spanish missionaries. Hispanidad officials aimed to eliminate the rising Communist, secular, and anti-clerical ideas of the 20th century. Ramiro de Maeztu exemplifies Hispanidad as a prominent thinker who argued that Enlightenment thought was the source of Latin America’s weaknesses.

Francisco Franco’s fascist regime in Spain introduced the ideology into Latin America. In order to spiritually unify the region, Franco not only appointed Spaniards into Latin America’s political positions, but also invited several far-right Hispanic Americans into Spain for their input on expanding the ideology. Hispanidad likewise influenced the Philippines in both culture and government. Gradually, Latin American cultures began to associate with Latinidad instead—a unity among all Latin Americans regardless of an ethnic background. However, it remains a component of far-right ideologies.

Bandera de Hispanidad, designed by Angel Camblor

FURTHER READING

http://filosofia.org. “Ramiro de Maeztu, La Defensa de La Hispanidad.” Filosofia.org, 2022. https://www.filosofia.org/hem/193/acc/e05449.htm.

‌BOX, ZIRA, and Wendy Gosselin. “Spanish Imperial Destiny: The Concept of Empire during Early Francoism.” Contributions to the History of Concepts 8, no. 1 (2013): 89–106.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/43610933.Diffie, Bailey W. “The Ideology of Hispanidad.” The Hispanic American Historical Review 23, no. 3 (1943): 457–82. https://doi.org/10.2307/2508538.

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Indigenismo

Published April 30, 2022 by Amy Weitzman

Indigenismo (approx. 1930–1970) was a political and literary movement throughout Latin America, but particularly significant in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. Indigenismo advocated for the preservation of indigenous rights and culture. Significantly, many thinkers associate it with socialism due to the poor economic conditions of indigenous communities. The movement critiqued the political systems and cultural deterioration that separate indigenous peoples from the nation-state as a whole.

The Mexican Revolution was one example of an event that lent itself to Indigenismo. A regime change meant an opportunity for reform, leading activists to call for indigenous inclusion. For example, Ricardo Flores Magón was a popular journalist and contributor to the political movement in Mexico. Meanwhile, in Peru, the movement built momentum due to rising modernization at the cost of indigenous livelihoods. José María Arguedas was a novelist and contributor to the literary movement in Peru. Both Magón and Arguedas wrote extensively in support of property rights for indigenous communities. It is still relevant to Latin America as indigenous communities continue to advocate for themselves.

Carnaval by José Sabogal

FURTHER READING

Marentes, Luis A. “Latino Indigenismo in a Comparative Perspective.” Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199913701-0040. 

Rodriguez-Peralta, Phyllis. “Ciro Alegria: Culmination of Indigenist-Regionalism in Peru.” Journal of Spanish Studies: Twentieth Century 7, no. 3 (1979): 337–52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27740901.

Tarica, Estelle. “Indigenismo.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.68. 

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José María Arguedas

Published April 29, 2022 by Amy Weitzman

José María Arguedas in Lima, Peru 

José María ARGUEDAS (1911–1969) was a Peruvian novelist from a Quechua family. During his time at Peru’s National Agrarian University, he wrote many novels in defense of indigenous Andean culture. He was a significant participant in the Indigenismo movement who also identified as socialist. His novels represent indigenous culture challenged by modernization and capitalism.

Arguedas frequently uses language to express how modernization distorts culture. He includes blends of Spanish, English, Quechua, Aymara, and profane vernacular. His use of language communicates not only the diversity of Peru, but also the degradation of native tongues and appropriation of Western language. His central themes of indigeneity in the face of both modernization and capitalism are found in his final novel, a work of magical realism, The Fox From Up Above and the Fox From Down Below. It features fictional characters whose interactions symbolize industrialization and the resilience of indigenous culture despite a defiled physical environment.

FURTHER READING

Arguedas José María, Julio Ortega, Christian Fernandez, and Frances Horning Barraclough. The Fox From Up Above and the Fox From Down Below. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000. 

Arguedas José María, and Frances Horning Barraclough. Deep Rivers. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2007. 

Sandoval, Ciro A., and Sandra M. Boschetto-Sandoval. José María Arguedas: Reconsiderations for Latin American Cultural Studies. Athens, OH: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 1998.

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