The Pleasure of Thinking: A Collection of Essays

by Wang Xiaobo, 王小波

Wang Xiaobo made his name as a novelist but his essays, too, have become ongoing bestsellers in China since their publication in the nineteen-nineties. His thoughts on reading and talking and silence in the Cultural Revolution, about the irrepressible spirit of one beloved pig he met while an Educated Youth, and about being operated on via a textbook, these essays give a rare glimpse into a world rarely seen and discussed with such honesty.

Written with a light touch and with his characteristic sense of humour, these are also the essays of a great literary talent, grappling with sociology, sexuality and feminism, with the cultural clash of living in the USA, and with Chinese sci-fi, the internet, and beloved European writers like Bertrand Russell and Italo Calvino. Electrifying, containing a razor-sharp wit and intellect, this collection reveals the voice of a generation to English speaking readers for the very first time.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, China, Philosophy, Literature

Paperback

First published November 1, 1996

About the author

Wang Xiaobo (Chinese: 王小波) was a Chinese writer who became famous after his death.

Wang Xiaobo on paper-republic.org.

Wang was born in an intellectual family in Beijing in 1952. He was sent to a farm in Yunnan province as an "intellectual youth" at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1968. In 1971, he was sent to the countryside of Shandong province, and became a teacher. In 1972, he was allowed to return to Beijing, and he got a job as a working in a local factory. He met Li Yinhe in 1977, who was working as an editor for "Guangming Daily", and she later became his wife. He was accepted by Renmin University of China in 1978 where he studied economics and trade and got his Bachelor's Degree. He received his Master's Degree at the University of Pittsburgh in 1988. After he returned to China, he began to teach at Peking University and Renmin University of China. He quit his job as a college lecturer in 1992, and became a freelance writer. On April 11, 1997 he died suddenly of heart disease at his apartment.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked Pleasure of Thinking: Essays off the library's new acquisitions shelf, with no prior knowledge or expectations. Wang Xiaobo turns out to be a very witty essayist, who reflects on Chinese society, culture, and recent history, as well as his experience of living overseas. I think the pieces collected here were originally written in the 1990s, going by context and titles like 'Welcome to a New Year (1997)'. The beautifully minimalist Penguin Classics edition I read is annoyingly lacking any author profile, but his writing makes clear that Xiaobo and his wife are both social scientists. As I work in survey statistics, this made me smile in recognition:

In my experience, surveys involve two great challenges, one being funding and government co-operation, two being co-operation of the survey subjects. For most sociological research projects, the former poses a greater challenge; but when it comes to sensitive topics, the latter poses a greater challenge. To summarise: the first challenge is the obtainment of a representative sample. The second challenge lies in getting the interviewees to co-operate. When it comes to sexual topics, the second challenge is nearly insurmountable.

Xiaobo then gives an American example, which produced a lot of contradictory and odd data suggesting many didn't respond accurately. (Getting people to respond to a survey about sexual behaviour is also a problem in GB, I can confirm.) His reflections on the empirical evidence about sexuality, marriage, and social mores in China are informative and thoughtful. I found his anecdotes about being sent to farm during the Cultural Revolution fascinating and sometimes shocking (the incompetent surgeons!) These inform his sardonic comments in an essay on whether the internet should be censored:

There should be stronger supervision - but on the other hand, reviewing every piece of information on the internet before it is published seems untenable: even watching a TV series with 120 episodes is hard to accomplish. It would be easier to just ban it all. During the decade of the Cultural Revolution, I only ever watched the eight model films and yet I survived, didn't I? I'm not like these young people who can't do without audio and light and electricity and images. I would be happy just to read a book. [...]
But banning things all around, the ban will eventually reach me too. The contents of my novels are healthy but I can't guarantee that every one of my sentences is healthy. Besides, by then I would be so scared that I wouldn't have the wherewithal to explain myself. If TV and movies can be banned, then why not novels?

Another particularly good essay, 'Overcoming the Puerile Condition', considers the history of censorship in America. Xiaobo also discusses literature and his own fiction. Each piece is quite short, yet covers a lot of ground and nuance. I appreciated his unique voice and insight into China at the end of the twentieth century. This is a great collection, full of thought-provoking observations and easy to read thanks to skilled translation. It is also structured well, so that the final essay 'The Silent Majority' brings together multiple themes already touched upon into a satisfyingly tidy synthesis.

[Harish Namboothiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Xiaobo visualised in me a seahawk that flies far above the ocean, observing it closely and once in a while plunging into it and rising again with a fish on the beak. He gives us a general description of the subject and, when we least expect it, takes the plunge and throws towards us a surprise observation that is consistently profound and witty.

[R C · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t read this book, the essays have absolutely no substance. Completely trite, oddly outdated (even though it’s from the 90s), so up itself, self-indulgent, etc. Reads as bad comedy standup except the comedian keeps calling himself an intellectual and the punchline never comes. And I won’t even go into how bizarre it is that several of the essays are just dedicated to saying how good his wife’s research is.

Immensely ironic that the author spends the entire first chapter praising the virtues of being an intellectual when the remainder of the book is a prime example that people should only be public intellectuals if they have something interesting to say

[David Castillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up because 1) I thought the cover was very punk, and 2) I didn’t know anything about the author.

I quickly found out the book’s contents were indeed very punk, and after finishing it, I feel like Mr. Wang and I are close friends (of course, it is just a feeling).

He lived an interesting life, and I’m glad we get to read some of his stories and thoughts. I really appreciated his sense of humor - it kept me on my toes: “is he being serious here, or is he being sarcastic?”.

The topics are varied and engaging, even 30 (or more?) years after these essays were written. Wang’s direct style is refreshing and it shows great respect for his readers. I felt like it’s all there, plain to see. No unnecessary explanations, no fluff.

I wish some of the essays didn’t end so abruptly, but maybe I’ve become accustomed to language tax.

[Luciano Asinelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is composed by well-written short essays from the author’s perspective of the Culture Revolution and American culture. It’s a different point of view of China’s rise and a comparison to the Western society. The reference to Chinese authors, myths and culture makes the book a must read for understanding today’s China.

[Cheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

选文和沉默的大多数重复不少，不过还是有一些新的文章很值得看。喜欢王小波的应该不介意多看一遍。我时常在想，王小波如果还在世，会是什么光景。可惜斯人已逝。

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wang Xiaobo was a Chinese writer who died at age 45 in 1997 and whose works are only just now being translated into English. (See my review of his novel Golden Age.) Wang was a sent-down youth during China’s Cultural Revolution, when millions of urbanites—entire families—from the middle-class and upper class were “sent down” to the countryside to toil in collective farms, a practice which lasted from the late 1950s until 1976. (Wang was sent down during his teens, presumably because of because of his father’s academic background.) The essays collected here express his views, often tinged with irony, on a variety of topics, from sociology, to literature, to homosexuality, to living as a grad student in the U.S. during the 1980s, and more.

For instance, surgery during the Cultural Revolution was performed without access to electricity or hygienic conditions by men [sic] who had no training in or knowledge of medicine—the doctors had all been sent down too on account of their college background. Wang also writes on sociological studies written by Li Yinhe, his wife, and published in mainland China regarding feminism, homosexuality, and heterosexuality. Although his dated comments on feminism may discomfort some readers, the discomfort owes more to cultural differences between East and West that give rise to different questions regarding gender, natural aptitudes, and responsibilities than the often monolithic, one-size-fits-all approach towards those topics as discussed by mainstream feminists in the West. The conclusions of Li’s studies of homosexuality (for which Wang was a co-author) won’t come as a surprise to Westerners—the government’s ideological claims aside, homosexuals have always been a part of China’s population, and at rates similar to the rest of the world—but comes as an uncomfortable truth to many (officially atheist) Chinese, even today, whose hostility toward homosexuals is as oppressive as any Western practitioner of one religious orthodoxy or another.

For a course in anthropology Wang took in the U.S. as a graduate student, he worked in two Chinese restaurants owned and operated by naturalized Chinese nationals. The point of Wang’s anthropological study was to explore the Chinese immigrant story for immigrants who came to the U.S. as unskilled laborers. It serves to introduce Chinese immigrants to U.S. working conditions and as an explain to U.S. readers how those experiences are understood by immigrants.

The final essay, “The Silent Majority,” bookends nicely with the second, titular essay, “Pleasure of Thinking.” Wang reflects on the role of silence versus speaking out on important topics. During Wang’s formative experiences of the Cultural Revolution, opining on any given topic—especially those with political ramifications—could result in public ridicule, beatings, torture, and death. Very few people knew who they could trust without fear of repercussion, so their public personae did not necessarily represent how they felt. The Cultural Revolution exacerbated a cultural tendency that favored keeping mum over risking looking foolish. As a result, Wang speculates on the nature of a Chinese silent majority, masking a mass of discontent—implicitly with, if not the Communist Party, then at least its leaders and administrators.

Writing and speaking truthfully provide their own pleasures, of course, but safer are the pleasures of thinking, free of persecution and condemnation, and which, in written form, allow us to communicate and develop hope with and among kindred spirits.

For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...

[Karl Kilbo Edlund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wang Xiaobo famously writes in a "vernacular" tone, his language almost has a flow-of-conscience quality, but with punctuation. I like to imagine my own conscience flowing with punctuation, yet at first I found it difficult to adjust to the writing. The first essays were particularly hard for me, maybe exactly because they were the first, or maybe because they are less argumentative and more descriptive, a recollection of the author's memories as an "intellectual youth", or "sent-down youth", during the Cultural revolution.

This book consists of a large number of mostly very short essays on a wide variety of topics, most of which are only loosely related to what Wang calls "the pleasure of thinking" - or precisely the pleasure he was most denied during his youth on a communal farm in Yunnan, a form of "reeducation". The hastiness of his language, I have learnt, is typical for Wang Xiaobo, and something he comments on himself, saying that "[a] person cannot make every piece of work perfect, but of course, perfection would be best". I disagree; finishing the book I have changed my mind, and I now think Wang Xiaobo's language holds the same type of elegance as a quickly drawn painting with large and hurried brushstroke which are still perfectly placed to create a masterpiece.

The topics treated by Wang vary considerably across the essays, and sometimes it is hard to follow his line of thought. But they each give an interesting glimpse into, as the backside text of the Penguin edition states, "a world rarely seen". It is, I believe, a desperate attempt to start a reflection on repression, oppression, and normativity in Chinese society, a coming-to-terms with the memory of revolution, atrocity, and repression.

In the end, I have only one major criticism: That Wang comes across as quite misogynistic, and even worse that he seems genuinely unaware of it. He regularly praises male authors unconditionally, but with the female authors he mentions, he unfailingly points out something that to his mind constitutes a major flaw. In one essay, he mentions that his wife "works in women's studies", and concedes to calling himself a "liberal feminist", and I have to give him kudos for a (reasonably) respectful position towards homosexuality. Yet, throughout the book, he keeps objectifying women and condoning uncomfortable male behaviours.

Nonetheless, with this caveat, I found myself liking Wang Xiaobo's book much more than anticipated. It really lives up to the promise on the backside: offering a "glimpse into a world rarely seen - and rarely discussed with such honesty". It is worth reading for its language, its aphorisms, and its anecdotes from the heydays of Maoism. I can certainly recommend the book to anyone interested in China's reckoning with its own, traumatic 20th century. It is no surprise Wang achieved something of a cult status.

[Budge Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s an absolute delight of a book, an eclectic confusion, maybe even convulsion, of essays, some which will infuriate you, some which will definitely have you roaring with laughter, many which will lure you into sitting back to think … or even intimidate you into thinking. My only problem with it is wondering whether it really warrants a 5 score and not just a 4.
It builds slowly, jumps from ideas and subjects to reminiscences and the role of experience in shaping your worldview. He describes being brought up in Maoist China – the manipulation of people, the indoctrination, the tensions, the pressures.
He’s inviting you to question the processes of indoctrination which take place in, say, Western societies – people are trapped in religions which are not simply myths, they’re political institutions which ruthlessly control the indoctrination of generation after generation and censor criticism or challenge.
People are trapped in the logic and ideology of capitalism, neoliberalism, the myths of the market and political institutions which have been bought by the rich to serve the needs of the rich … but sleepwalk through their days convinced they are living in a democracy.
It’s bread and circuses and consumption of product: writing has become a product for sale, writers are the celebrities who produce product and serve the market … we need to recover writing as a means of communication, an arena for questioning, a medium through which to share questions and ideas.
Wang offers brief essays on a whole range of subjects – use them as a mirror to question. There’s a tongue very definitely in cheek attitude in several of the essays. He was a sociologist, I’m a sociologist, he makes a couple of allusions to ‘human nature’ … and that infuriates me, I can’t understand how any sociologist would fall for that one. Maybe he’s inviting that reaction? Maybe I’ve grown too comfortable, maybe I needed a book to make me angry and shake me out of my lethargy.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Tchaikovsky wasn’t Little Ivan; Mariah Carey never picked cotton in a Southern plantation; the people who sang “On the Loess Plateau” were all decked out in jewels; the actress who played Qiu Ju didn’t look the slightest bit miserable once she sheds her makeup. She has plenty of money … and I hear she wants to marry a tycoon. All these examples point to a single truth: it is other people’s suffering that is the wellspring of your art; if you went and suffered, then you would only become the wellspring of someone else’s art."
This collection took some getting used to - after the first few essays, I was so unimpressed I nearly abandoned the volume. But slowly, Wang's particular brand of wryly provocative humour started to settle, and I stopped taking everything so literally, and by the end I was thoroughly enjoying the book.
There isn't huge analysis or insight here - and some of what is here has not aged at all well (Wang's slight bemusement with both feminism and the existance of queer people could use come contextualising from the early 90s China) - but there is a welcome reminder that refusing to take things seriously is sometimes the only serious response. Wang pokes various targets - American leftists (his favourite kind of American), social scientists, authors, revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries, popular culture and literary culture. At times, he gently reminds us that he has seen significant suffering, and so it is credible that the celebration of ambiguity, of subtletly, of humility, of flawed humanity, and of laughter, is, in his own way, a manifesto for better living. He celebrates the decisions we don't make - silence, inaction, choosing not to participate as heroic acts. I don't always agree with this - and I suspect it contributes to some of his blinkered views on the struggles of women and acceptance of some racist stereotypes - but it is an argument worth listening to, in a world where much harm is done from intention to do the opposite.

[Crispin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a refreshing and light-hearted read moving through such a variety of topics including many that would be heavy in the hands of anyone else: the cultural revolution, hard physical labour, amateur surgery. I had not heard of Xiaobo before, but he is a lauded novelist and essayist from Beijing apparently. I was looking for something to read on holiday, and this jumped off the shelf at the bookshop, for its slim dimensions and liberating title: on seeing those three words, I realised that I'd been denying myself these pleasures, instead finding (a somewhat justified, but over-extended) shame in thinking. At one point Xiaobo touches on exactly this issue in his chatty, black-comedic way and it was just the tonic I needed.
Many funny and sometimes simultaneously horrific anecdotes and reflections in here. Easy reading, saying meaningful things, often in ironic or obscured tones – he's clear about the impact the communist party's rule, and thought policing, had on him and others, and he's equally irreverent (yet ever mindful of consequences) about the West too. Great find.

[Sandeep · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of essays by Wang Xiaobo provides an understanding of how critical thinking developed in the 1990s in China. Wang's black humour, his incisive critique of officials and self-proclaimed professors of morality, his reflections on the Mao era and on rethinking social sciences in the global post-Cold War environment all shine through the selected essays.

The essays contain anecdotes about living between the East and West and serious musings on the intellectual situations at home in China and abroad, Xiaobo examines modern life with levity.

Unfortunately the essays are not dated and the translation is not that great, but the humour, intellect and incisiveness of Xiaobo's writing shines through making it a pleasurable read.

[Maja · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Every skyscraper has a foundation stone; the first passion remains irreplaceable."

"Some people believe that a person should be filled with only high-minded thoughts and be relieved of all the lowly ones. Such an idea may sound good, but it fills me with terror because I am precisely an amalgam of high and low thoughts; if a part of that is removed, my identity becomes a question."

"For all that was good about our character and our behavior, we must thank the teachings of silence."

"But among all the people of the world, the one I wish most to elevate is myself. This is contemptible; it is selfish; it is also true."

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, such interesting tales from his life told in a way that makes you self reflect sometimes after every line. A very interesting perspective that you don’t always have to agree with but all written in such an engaging manner it’s hard put the book down. I’ve delayed finishing it and read one short essay at a time until I find a worthy replacement. Can’t recommend it enough for those into this genre.

[KG · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up in a bookstore in London intrigued and decided to read it. I think there’s some nuggets in here and some whimsical stories and some very fascinating perspectives from someone sent to revolution communes and who immigrated later in life. It’s mixed in with some essays though where I have absolutely no idea what he’s trying to say. Not life changing, but maybe a good one if you like reading Richard Feynman type shit.

[Jack · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't dislike it, but I can't justify giving a higher score to this aimless, meandering collection. Wang Xiaobo seems to have some cultural cache in China, and I'm not sure if it was a translation issue or just a poor choice of essays to translate, but there's really nothing of interest here other than the anecdote about people in the countryside injecting themselves with chicken blood to stay energised and the essay about Chinese restaurants. Otherwise I really don't know why I read it.

[Cameron_Asao · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I like Wang Xiabo as a person more than as a writer, and maybe that's his appeal. His writing feels confessional, his personhood is evident over his identity as a writer, and despite it's semi-academic tone it reads with sincerity. The stories and theories in this book struggled to play off each other smoothly, but despite that I enjoyed both.

Will read more Xiaobo.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Chao Chao · Rating 5 out of 5]

Introspective and irreverent at times, great essays.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun stories. Essays itself did not impress, as usual. The author's early passing is sad

[Akshita · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 would recommend. I’ll remember this book as my autorickshaw read at 45 degrees of a heatwave

[kait · Rating 4 out of 5]

a hit or miss, as essays go, but wang xiaobo is so silly and thoughtful

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Starvation can turn a child into a termite."

[Antonia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring

[Rory Lilley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Witty! But overall a little lost on me due to lack of cultural/periodical context?

[Dylan Kakoulli · Rating 3 out of 5]

As affective as it is effecting, The Pleasures of Thinking offers an interesting -surprisingly witty take, on all things; political, cultural, social, and even personal (in relation to Xiaobo that is).

Stories range from ponderous tales, to profound (almost philosophical) musings. With my favourite by far, being the story of The Maverick Pig. A humorous -if slightly Orwellian fable, that successfully managed to both entertain, and enlighten.

That said, there were a few essays that didn’t quite hit the mark (for me at least). Mainly (or should that be MANly) those pertaining to issues of feminism and homosexuality. Which sadly came across far too hackneyed and dated (“it was the 90s”).

Overall though, this was a creatively written, contemplative and comprehensive collection, that offers a unique and often illuminating glimpse into life in China during/post cultural revolution, as well as a life lived in the West, seen through the eyes (well mind) of a Chinese immigrant, at the turn of the century.

3 stars

PS ~ look at me branching out into nonfiction for once !

[Emilie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witty and entertaining but some things just simply don’t stand the test of time

[天上大风 · Rating 4 out of 5]

尤瑟纳尔《一弹解千愁》《东方奇观》。朱子看古井阴阳外也该看到自己白团团的脸hhhh思辨的乐趣，坦荡明澈。

[Gerard Hulsebos · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book by Wang Xiaobo is slightly outdated. For me the cultural differences with China in the nineties were to great to really appreciate this book.