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By some standards, China today may be going through the best of times and the worst of times: The nation’s economic power has resulted in one of the fastest growing economies in the world with the side effects being environmental degradation and the people’s growing obsession with money. The country faces the challenges of industrialization and urbanization and some of their ugly by-products, much like London did in the 1800s, as illustrated in many works of Charles Dickens (1812-70).
Modern China and the 19th century England, despite time period differences, share many of the similarities associated with great social and economic upheavals—a rush of workers from rural to urban areas, changing relations between the people, and numerous reforms—that tie the two countries together across the ages.
This year marked the bicentenary of the birth of Dickens, who is widely regarded as the greatest English novelist of the Victorian period. Under the current social environment, the celebration held special significance in China. While a major producer of everything from bullet trains to cellphones, China has yet to produce writers with skills on par with Dickens in terms of critical works pointing out the shortfalls of society.
Common commemoration
In celebration of Dickens’ 200th birthday last February, people around the world commemorated this English novelist by holding a number of activities and events. For instance, a global read-a-thon of Dickens’ works was held in 24 countries over 24 hours.
Many Chinese authors and readers also took part in the international celebration. Since last October, a number of seminars about Dickens were held in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing. In February, the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy in Beijing invited Chinese writers and readers to commemorate Dickens and announced the winners of Dickens 2012 Creative Writing competition. Chinese applicants wrote about their cities as Dickens did about his own hometown of London.
Although a writer from the Victorian era, Dickens continues to be one of the best known and most read English authors. His works transcend his time, language and culture and have a huge impact on Chinese literature.
Dickens’ novel David Copperfield was first translated into Chinese by Lin Shu(1852-1924) and Wei Yi (1880-1930) in 1908. At that time, China was oppressed by imperialism and people were suffering. An unprecedented literature reform was needed. Thus, Dickens’ critical realism and satirical writing aroused the keen interest of Chinese readers and were widely praised by Chinese writers. The humanitarianism and critical realism have a positive influence on Chinese modern novelists. In the following decades, well-known Chinese writers, such as Lu Xun(1881-1936), also wrote a lot of novels of critical realism. All 15 novels and most other works of Dickens have been translated into Chinese today. Moreover, in respect of quantity of the translation works, Dickens ranks the second in the Chinese book market following William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
Sympathy for the weak
Dickens gave much depiction of children and the downtrodden poor. He created some of the world’s most memorable fictional characters in his works. Readers can feel the author’s deep sympathy and mercy for the miserable figures, such as the orphan Oliver Twist. This can be due largely to Dickens’ own experiences during growing up.
Dickens’ father was imprisoned in 1824 because of financial problems. To pay for his debt and help his family, Dickens, then 12 years old, was forced to leave school and work 10-hour days as a child labor. At a very young age, he had tasted the bitterness and pains of the bottom life in London. Thus he expressed his sympathy for the poor who were treated unfairly in his works.
“The most significant thing about Dickens is that he not only faced the reality and depicted the pains of the people with extraordinary insights, but also called on the government and the public to take measures to improve the well-being of the common people,”said Tie Ning, a famous Chinese writer and Chairwoman of Chinese Writers’ Association.
Fang Fang, a Chinese contemporary writer and the winner of the Fifth Lu Xun Literature Award in 2010, said on her microblog, “Dickens’ works tell me that the civilization of a society depends on its attitude toward the weak. And the writers’ attitude is an important reference to measure the extent of social civilization.”
The rampant worship of money that has engulfed Chinese society in recent years has caused, as expected, an admiration for the rich and neglect of the poor.
“When we again read Dickens’ works today, we always find warnings that the virtue and kindness can lead people happy while greed can drive people to go the wrong way,”said Fang.
Critical realism
Another important spiritual legacy of Dickens is critical realism.
Dickens’ depictions of urbanization and industrialization in the 19th century created a view of his age. He observed and captured the humanity under the background of London’s expansion by using critical realism. Even today, Dickens’ insights on social injustices remain relevant.
Lu Jiande, Director of the Institute of Literary Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, praised Dickens.
“By starting A Tale of Two Cities with such wise and widely quoted sentences: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, Dickens wanted to warn people of the hidden darkness when everybody was complacent in good times,” said Lu.
In Dickens’ age, Britain was in the midst of an unparalleled industrial revolution. Factories sprang up bellowing plumes of soot and pollution into the air in the name of progress. These factories became a refuge for the poor peasants who had nowhere else to live after losing their land or homes. Dickens threw himself into his works criticizing the hideous side of humanity in his age to stir the conscience of the people.
Today, China is also enjoying similar good times—but behind the scene of a booming economy hides huge potential crisis. Despite the fact that China is the second largest economy in the world, a large number of its people still lead impoverished lives in the central and western parts of the country. Migrant workers from the countryside have a hard time in cities since many are denied basic social securities services.
“In such a rapidly-changing society, the complex humanity can be displayed intensively, which provides writers with opportunities to create works,” said Mo Yan, a Chinese writer and the winner of the Sixth Mao Dun Literature Award in 2005.
“Just writing stories is not a writer’s job. These people are tasked with figuring out root problems and presenting them to the society.”
“Dickens was deeply concerned about the weak in cities when depicting cities and petty bourgeois,” said Zhang Jianfei, literature professor of Wuhan University in central China’s Hubei Province. “Aside from painting dismal portraits of society, he also pointed out the good in man.”