Writing in solidarity: Gu Cangwu, Cultural Revolution, Cold War

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article will shed light on the remarkable yet overlooked influence of the Cultural Revolution on renowned Hong Kong writer Gu Cangwu during the Cold War period. Through scrutinizing his untapped works in the 1970s, the article will argue that Gu Cangwu incorporated a Communist perspective in his observations of pivotal local, national, and global events in his poems and writings. Gu’s untapped works show his attempts to use Cultural Revolution ideology and Chinese nationalism as a source of resistance to British colonialism amid Hong Kong’s Defending Diaoyu Island Movement in 1971, a movement in which international recognition of Communist China at the United Nation sparked Gu’s nationalistic fervor and encouraged him to embrace critical realism. The article also puts Gu’s sympathetic portrayals of the Cultural Revolution and Vietnam War in juxtaposition with his decadent narratives of the 1972 Hong Kong landslides, showing that his effort to build local solidarity with Chinese nationals and the people suffering in the global conflict of the Cold War was based on a stance in opposition to capitalist-imperialist-colonial aggression. More significantly, transcending the simplistic Cold War binary between communist totalitarianism versus liberal capitalism and foregrounding the specific experience of the Cold War in the Hong Kong context, the case of Gu Cangwu demonstrates that the production of Hong Kong literature in the 1970s occurred at the intersection between local ideological contestation and global Cold War tensions.KEYWORDS: Gu cangwuCultural Revolutioncultural Cold WarHong Kong literature AcknowledgementsI would like to express my gratitude to the late author Gu Cangwu for giving me his precious time in the interview in 2018. Thanks to my research assistant Wong Shing Kit for his meticulous assistance. The work described in this paper was fully supported by Seed Fund for Basic Research for New Staff, The University of Hong Kong (201807159004).Special termsTableDownload CSVDisplay TableNotes1 The capitalized term “Communism” is particularly used to describe the ideology related to the Chinese Communist Party.2 The worst landslide day in Hong Kong’s history occurred on 18 June 1972. The Hong Kong Observatory measured 653 mm of rain, which was the second-highest amount of rain ever recorded there. Seventy-one persons lost their lives as a result of the mud that flooded more than 70 temporary wooden dwellings in the neighborhood of Sau Mau Ping. Gu Cangwu used the tragedy to criticize the colonial government’s lack of concern regarding the living conditions of underprivileged locals. (Hong Kong Geotechnical Engineering Office Citation2022).Additional informationNotes on contributorsShuk Man LeungShuk Man Leung is an Assistant Professor in the School of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong. Her research specializations include modern Chinese literature, Hong Kong literature, and print culture in Greater China. Her first book is Utopian Fiction in China: Genre, Print Culture, and Knowledge Formation, 1902–1912 (Brill, 2023), and her second book project, Identities in the Cold War: The Cultural Revolution Discourse in Hong Kong Print Media, 1966–1977, is supported by the Research Grants Council, Hong Kong SAR Government. Her major publications have appeared in Asian Studies Review, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Cultural Studies, Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese, and Comparative Literature Studies.