The Epoch Times sponsored a 'Chinese Literature under Dictatorship' seminar at the Frankfurt Book Fair. (Ji Sen/The Epoch Times)
Running from Oct. 14 to 18, the event showcased Chinese literature, arts, and publishing, including analyses of the state of language in modern China.
The Epoch Times invited experts and scholars to discuss the issue and held a series of seminars exploring these issues. One seminar, titled “Chinese Literature under Dictatorship,” was co-hosted by poet-in-exile Bei Ling, German-based social scholar Zhong Weiguang, and director of the Independent Chinese Pen Center in Sweden Chen Maiping.
Speakers discussed what had been termed the “pollution” of the Chinese language by the Chinese Communist Party.
“This language pollution is more serious than environmental pollution in China,” said, Gao Xingjian, who is a former winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. “When I write, I dare not hold a pen—as I cannot believe some of the words that come out of it,” he said rhetorically.
Chen Maiping from Sweden explained that when he started “Today” magazine during the June 4 campaign in 1989, he published a play written by Gao and got himself into trouble as a result.
“We use words like ‘people’ and ‘democracy,’ and so does the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). We have used these words since we were young. The Chinese Constitution mentions freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of publication, and at one time we really believed those terms. Yet when we write them now, I find that I actually don’t really understand their true meaning.” Chen said.
Chen argued that the language pollution has led to “more than 50 percent of the newspapers and magazines published in China being garbage.”
Gao Xingjian said “The most fundamental human values are lost in today’s Chinese society in a way we don’t even realize. It seems that, for Chinese, respect only need be given to higher officials.”
The Chinese language however, as their mother tongue, is still close to the writers.
“Although we are homeless, as long as we use Chinese to write, we have our own home,” Gao said.
Chen Maiping considers that the task of Chinese writers is not merely limited to upholding freedom of speech. He noted that even after being granted freedom of speech, writers still have to pay attention to the way they write.
“Right now we have to detoxify the Chinese language and make it cleaner. We have to get rid of the CCP’s pollution in the Chinese language and purify it,” he said.
