Stateless Subjects: Chinese Martial Arts Literature and Postcolonial History

by Petrus Liu

Known in the West primarily through poorly subtitled films, Chinese martial arts fiction is one of the most iconic and yet the most understudied form of modern sinophone creativity. Current scholarship on the subject is characterized by three central assumptions against which this book first, that martial arts fiction is the representation of a bodily spectacle that historically originated in Hong Kong cinema; second, that the genre came into being as an escapist fantasy that provided psychological comfort to people during the height of imperialism; and third, that martial arts fiction reflects a patriotic attitude that celebrates the greatness of Chinese culture, which in turn is variously described as the China-complex, colonial modernity, essentialized identity, diasporic consciousness, anxieties about globalization, or other psychological and ideological difficulties experienced by the Chinese people.

Genres: Nonfiction, China

300 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2011

Reviews

[violet · Rating 3 out of 5]

the martial arts novel invents scenes of stateless subjects to explain the constitutive sociality of the self. its discourse of jianghu (rivers and lakes) defines a public sphere unconnected to the sovereign power of the state, a sphere that is historically related to the idea of minjian (between the people) as opposed to the concept of tianxia (all under heaven) in chinese philosophy. the martial arts novel presents the human subject as an ethical alterity, constituted by and dependent on its responsibilities to other human beings. it is through the recognition of this mutual interdependence, rather than the formal and positive laws of the state, that humanity manages to preserve itself despite rampant inequalities in privilege, rank, and status.

in stateless subjects, liu argues against the previously dominant idea in academia that wuxia fiction initially and primarily served as 'psychological compensation for foreign imperialism, warlordism, and ineffectual government' in the 20th century, and later developed into 'an essentialised and celebratory chinese cultural identity' that 'exemplifies benedict anderson's theory of "print capitalism"—the ability of serialised fiction to create sentiments of diasporic nationalism by allowing readers [...] to imagine themselves as members of a coherent national community: cultural china.' (an adjacent expression of the latter view is presented in jeannette ng's article 'history and politics of wuxia' which, oddly enough, cites stateless subjects in its first section despite arguing for a point-of-view that is for the most part contrary to liu's.) instead, liu reads wuxia as a 'progressive intellectual critique of modernisation theory', especially of the one championed by the may fourth movement, whose 'new culture' intellectuals demonised wuxia as traditionalist and part of the insipid and shallow yuanyang hudie pai (mandarin ducks and butterflies) school of popular fiction. analysing pingjiang buxiaosheng, wang dulu, jin yong and gu long's (serialised) wuxia novels (as well as several films inspired by such works, including crouching tiger, hidden dragon and swordsman ii), liu concludes that 'reading [...] martial arts fiction [...] critically constitutes an imaginative exercise against the geopolitical map of ideologically divided nation-states that we have inherited from the cold war. to reclaim such wisdom afforded by chinese martial arts fiction is not a nationalist endeavour, but quite the opposite.'

i thought liu presented some amazing analysis in this book, especially on homosociality, gender, the construction of an abstract socio-linguistic community (ostensibly termed 'jianghu') in wuxia, and the history and ideologies surrounding the rise of wuxia fiction in the early 20th century; however, i sometimes struggled to pinpoint how exactly some sections in later chapters contributed to his central thesis (though this is probably a skill issue on my part.) i also felt that liu overstated exactly how progressive wuxia fiction is in general, since (as ng points out) i do feel that some depictions of foreign threats to china throughout wuxia may reinforce sentiments of han exceptionalism, and from what i know of jin yong's work (which is admittedly not much — i've read one of his 1600-page novels and the rest i know from cultural osmosis), i don't feel convinced of liu's argument that jin yong provides progressive representations of marginalised ethnicities and sexual/gender identities, even if liu offers some insightful comments on those topics themselves.

obviously take this review with a pinch of salt! i only know the rudimentary basics of history in the 20th-century sinophone world and i wouldn't claim to be an expert in wuxia either. nevertheless this was pretty fun and somewhat illuminating

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book at first. Besides dealing with a topic that's very dear to me and, in the second chapter, a novelist that has had a great impact on my life (Wang Dulu being the author of the first full Chinese novel I ever read in Chinese), it's also simply a fascinating, thought-provoking account throughout. However, by the last two chapters, it really starts to lose focus, while in the last chapter especially Petrus Liu makes a lot of absurd statements that are completely unnecessary. For instance, he claims that every Shaw Brothers movie of the '60s was adapted from a work by Gu Long. Leaving aside the fact that they made comedies which definitely weren't adapted from Gu Long, it took about 10 seconds for me to find a Shaw Brothers movie from that decade that wasn't related to Gu Long.

The first chapter looks at Pingjiang Buxiaosheng, Wang Dulu was treated in the second, the third and fourth look at Jin Yong, and the fifth is about Gu Long. The first three were great, the fourth was very fascinating but weak, and the fifth was simply crazy. He moved further away from the thesis with each chapter and had to strain quite impressively to make his case as the book progressed. While I consider the sentiment that these novels represent thoughtful literature, not mere juvenile escapism, quite admirable, he could have made that case without the intellectual gymnastics.