The True Story of Ah Q
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| Author | Lu Xun |
|---|---|
| Original title | Ā Q Zhèngzhuàn |
| Country | China |
| Language | Chinese |
| Publisher | |
| Released | c. 1921 |
The True Story of Ah Q (Traditional Chinese: 阿Q正傳; Simplified Chinese: 阿Q正传; pinyin: Ā Q Zhèngzhuàn), is a long short story by Lu Xun, first published between December 1921 and February 1922. It was later collected in his first short story collection Nahan (呐喊) in 1923, and is the longest of the stories in the collection.
The piece is generally held to be a masterpiece of modern Chinese literature, and one of Lu Xun's most important works; it is certainly his most famous.
The story traces the adventures of Ah Q, a man from the peasant class with little education and no definite work. Ah Q is famous for "spiritual victories", Lu Xun's euphemism for self-talk and self-deception even when faced with extreme defeat or humiliation. Ah Q is a bully of the less fortunate but fearful of those who are above him in rank, strength or power. Lu Xun exposes Ah Q's extreme faults as symptomatic of the Chinese attitudes of his time. The ending of the piece - where Ah Q is carted off to execution for a lowly crime - is equally poignant and satirical.
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[edit] Synopsis
In Chapter One, the author claims that he could not recall nor verify Ah Q's correct name, a claim that gives the character symbolic anonymity. "Ah" (阿) in Chinese is an affectionate prefix for names. "Q" is short for "Quei," Lu Xun's romanization of what would today be romanized as "Gui." However, as there are many characters that are pronounced "quei," the narrator does not know which character he should use, and therefore shortens it to "Q." The deliberate use of a Western letter instead of a Chinese character is a reference to the concepts of the May Fourth movement, which advocated adoption of Western ideas. Another theory regarding the use of the letter Q, is its aural similarity to 'queue', the Manchu hairstyle which all men in Qing Dynasty China was forced to wear, and which most cut off as a symbol of protest.
In the novel, Ah Q has no status in the village of Weichang, except for what little he may temporarily gain by lying, stealing, or somehow linking himself with an important person. He wanders all day on the streets and makes a living by stealing and begging, and sometimes by doing low-paid temporary jobs. Ah Q has an "abundant" spiritual life made up of watching others doing things that he considers "foolish" or "rude." Ah Q always feels superior over most people despite the fact that he was the one being looked down upon. Many people actually "enjoy" watching the absurdity and failure of Ah Q. There are also some people that Ah Q truly respects or fears, such as the landlords and rich citizens.
Ah Q is known for deluding himself into believing he is the victor every time he loses a fight. In one scene, Ah Q is beaten and his silver is stolen. He slaps himself on the face, and because he is the person doing the slapping, he sees himself as the victor. This deep-rooted need to maintain a victorious status even when actually defeated shows the Chinese obsession with maintaining a good appearance to all outsiders to be ridiculous at times.
When Mr. Zhao, an honored landlord of the village, beats Ah Q in a fight, Ah Q considers himself important for having even a tiny association with such a person. Though some villagers suspect Ah Q may have no true association with Mr. Zhao, they do not question the matter closely, and instead give Ah Q more respect for a time. This interaction symbolizes China's tradition of group rewards and punishments--guilt or honor by association.
Ah Q is often close-minded about petty things. When he ventures into a new town and sees that a "long bench" is called a "straight bench," he believes their way to be instantly inferior and totally wrong. Traditional China had long held to the belief that those outside of China were barbarians, and were close-minded about accepting the accomplishments of other countries.
There is a scene in which Ah Q harasses a small nun to make himself feel better. He pinches her and blames his problems on her. Instead of crying out at the injustice of Ah Q's bullying, the crowd nearby laughs. This symbolizes the "mob mentality" that Lu Xun so detested in the Chinese people which led to their extreme apathy in the face of injustice.
One day the news of Xinhai Revolution comes into town. Both landlord families, the Zhaos and the Chiens, become revolutionaries to keep their power. Some people, under the name of "revolutionary army," rob the houses of the landlords and rich folks. Ah Q also wants to join them and also claim himself a revolutionary, but is too afraid to act when the time comes. Finally, Ah Q is arrested as a scapegoat for the robbery and sentenced to death by the new governor.
When Ah Q is asked to sign a confession, he worries that he cannot write his name. The officers tell him to sign a circle instead. Ah Q is so worried about drawing a perfect circle to save face that he is unaware he might be executed until it is too late.
[edit] Observations of China
China at the turn of the 20th century, the environment in which the story is set, was facing an significant clash between traditional culture and modern capitalist-industrial ideologies defined by Western nations. However,the downfall of Qing Dynasty and the growth of Western capitalism, as is shown in the novel, had barely any influence on average Chinese people according to the novel. The story bears the thought of the author that the ignorance of masses in Chinese, which was the root of its backward status, could not be saved by a simple change of government. Lu Xun commented that what China really needed was what he called "medicine of the spirit", which might mean modernized education and the resulting changes of social habits. In the novel, such idea is well expressed in an inversed fashion. By presenting the poor living status of masses in China on both material and mental level, the author tried to make people (especially the urban intelligentsias) aware of the gruesome reality facing average Chinese people, instead of focusing solely on some academic topics that are hardly related to social issues in China.
The novel also strongly critisized the alleged historic-cultural burden of China, which was formed by the long history of absolute authority of the feudalist order. The feudalist social structure, order and culture are solidified through its two thousand year dominance. As a result of this, enormous social pressure brought on by group punishment and the rigidly-interpreted Civil Service Test both encouraged conformist ways and social hegemony in the Chinese culture. According to Lu Xun, people molded by such cultural environment were obsessed with saving face, proud of its past without any new accomplishments, and accepting without questioning the injustices imposed by authority. But as in most of Lu Xun's works, the criticism offers no clear solution to the problems. However, the mentality favouring science and democracy, which were the main ideals of the Chinese social revolution against feudalist order, was exceptionally strong.
[edit] References in modern culture
In modern Cantonese, the "spirit of Ah Q" (阿Q精神) is used as a term of mockery to describe anybody who chooses not to face up to reality and deceives himself into believing he is successful.
