Martin Woesler

Martin Woesler (born 29 September 1969 in Münster, West Germany) is a German sinologist, cultural scientist and translator of Chinese literature.

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, Jiǎ Píngwā 贾平凹, and Hán Hán 韩寒 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.

After the liberal 1980s, the 1990s saw a strong commerzialization of literature due to an opening of the book market. Woesler sees the following trends: 'cult literature' with Guo Jingming 郭敬明, '悲伤逆流成河 Cry me a sad river', vagabond literature with Xu Zechen 徐则臣, '跑步穿过中关村 Peking double quick', Liu Zhenyun 刘震云, '我叫刘跃 The pickpockets', underground literature Mian Mian 棉棉, '声名狼籍 Panda Sex', 'longing for something' literature, divided in historicizing literature with Yu Dan 于丹, '《论语》心得 Confucius in your heart', Yi Zhongtian 易中天 and in Tibetan literature with Alai, literature of the mega cities, women's literature with Bi Shumin, master narratives by narrators like Mo Yan 莫言 with '生死疲勞 (Life and Death are Wearing me out)'.[1]

However Chinese literature at the beginning of the 21st century shows signs of overcoming the commercialization of literature of the 1980s and 1990s. An example is Han Han 韩寒's novel His land (Ta de guo 他的国, 2009), which was written in a social critical surrealistic style against the uncritical mainstream, but ranked 1st in 2009 Chinese bestseller list.[2] The online literature plays a more important role.

Translations from Chinese into English

Works on Chinese literature

in English

in German

Works on the Chinese internet

Literature

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.[3] 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.[4] Applying the model, even mixed cultures can be described better than with traditional models.

Works on comparative cultural science

Sources

Interviews with Martin Woesler

References

  1. ↑ Martin Woesler, 'Chinese contemporary literature - authors, works, trends – A snap-shot 2007/2008', Munich 2008, 267 pp.
  2. ↑ Martin Woesler, Chinese cultic literature 2008/2009 - authors, works, trends, Munich 2009, 127 pp.
  3. ↑ Woesler, Martin: A new model of cross-cultural communication, Berlin 2009, p. 31
  4. ↑ Woesler, Martin: A new model of cross-cultural communication, Berlin 2009, p. 31

External links

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