August 17, 2025, Updated

Without Revolutionary Literary Renaissance, There Can Be No People's Awakening 

— Commentary on the Serialization of "Black and White" on Revival Net

Zhang Hongliang，2024

This is our original intention and hope in recommending and serializing Mr. Liu Jiming's "Black and White" to everyone, and also our original intention and hope in previously serializing Mr. Meizi's "Red Wall Dream."

Starting today, our website will serialize the masterwork "Black and White" by contemporary China's renowned writer Mr. Liu Jiming. "Black and White" is a panoramic novel covering all periods of China's modern history—the Republican period, the socialist construction period, the mass political revolution period, and the reform and opening-up period. It has been praised by Professor Kong Qingdong, a great contemporary literary critic, as a monumental work comparable to world classics. We welcome everyone to come and read it.

The novel "Black and White" is a revolutionary work that views and interprets history from the people's standpoint. In today's corrupt Chinese literary scene represented by "scar literature" that accuses revolution and decadent "double-yin literature" [note: vulgar literature focused on sexual content], this is undoubtedly a thunderclap and a spring breeze. Looking at human history, no generation has experienced more earth-shaking, soul-inverting experiences than this generation of Chinese people, experiencing repeated torment from heaven to hell in just a few decades. Just the scene of tens of millions of workers laid off and hundreds of thousands of women forced into prostitution created by "Hu Hansan has returned" [note: reference to a character representing the return of old oppressive forces] alone exceeds all imagination about suffering in human history, making it difficult for future historians and descendants to believe. Therefore, history and the people desperately need revolutionary works that describe the truth of evil and suffering, desperately need revolutionary works like those claimed by French writer Ernaux, who won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature: "My novels are taking revenge for the people." Fortunately, revolutionary works represented by "Black and White" have begun to appear.

The appearance of such revolutionary works means that history that has been inverted in the field of literature and art will be reinverted, and the phenomenon of decadent and counter-revolutionary works represented by "double-yin literature" and "scar literature" flooding China's social literary and artistic fields will collapse. The people will move toward awakening and liberation in spirit and thought. Without the Renaissance movement, there would have been no bourgeois ideological liberation movement and bourgeois revolution; without the Chinese left-wing cultural movement of the 1920s and 1930s, the ideological foundation for Marxism entering China would not have been laid; without mass literary and artistic revolution, there would be no third ideological liberation movement and mass political revolution in human history that is now beginning in today's world. Similarly, without a renaissance movement of revolutionary literature and art in contemporary China, there will absolutely be no great rise of the Chinese nation. This is why we have emphasized for many years that as long as China cannot produce works like "Chinese Migrant Workers" and "Laid-off Female Workers," and does not repent to the suffering people, China will never find the basic conscience to stand among the world's nations.

Revolution, which once wandered outside and was declared dead, has now awakened and is walking on the road home. The surging anti-capitalist movements rising one after another in today's world mark that revolution has knocked on the door of the contemporary world. Whether the door of revolution can be opened depends on one hand on whether the concepts of mass democratic movement and mass political revolution can be accepted by the world; on the other hand, and more importantly, on whether the spring breeze of revolutionary literature and art that can bind the emotions and souls of the masses together to form unified strength can blow across the world and awaken every soul that has been numbed by the demonic fog of demonizing revolution. Since the 1980s, the evil tide of accusing and demonizing revolution has blown from east to west across every corner of the world, poisoning the world for more than 40 years, soaking the hearts of people worldwide in the poisonous water of rumors and lies for more than 40 years. Only through a thorough revolutionary literary and artistic renaissance movement can the people's hearts that have been soaked in poisonous water for more than 40 years be washed clean, the door of revolution opened, and revolution welcomed home.

This is our original intention and hope in recommending and serializing Mr. Liu Jiming's "Black and White" to everyone, and also our original intention and hope in previously serializing Mr. Meizi's "Red Wall Dream."

September 2, 2024
(Originally published on National Revival Net)

The Self-Exile of an Idealist: 

Why Liu Jiming Broke with Mainstream Literary Circles in 2018

By Cao Zhenglu-Liu Jiming Research Center, July 28, 2025

Liu Jiming's break with mainstream literary circles in 2018 was essentially the result of escalating contradictions between his long-held leftist stance and social critical position against the mainstream literary establishment. The core motivations can be summarized in five points:

I. Complete Disillusionment with Literary Circle Ecology

In his public statement, Liu Jiming directly denounced literary circles as having degenerated into a "marketplace of fame and profit driven by sordid pursuits," believing they had become deeply bound with capital interests and lost their public nature and critical spirit. He criticized the mainstream literary establishment for being monopolized by an "iron triangle" (power, capital, elites), betraying the original intention of speaking for the people. This institutionalized environment formed a fundamental conflict with his concept of "writing for the proletariat."

II. Irreconcilable Ideological Positions

As a representative figure of New Left literature, Liu Jiming consistently emphasized that literature should serve the masses at society's bottom, upholding socialist values while openly criticizing historical nihilism and money-worship. However, the "depoliticization" of mainstream literary circles led to repeated suppression of his works and statements. For example, he faced reports for "erroneous statements" and even received disciplinary action within the Party for publishing remarks defending the revolutionary spirit of Mao's era and criticizing social injustice. This political opposition ultimately led to his complete break with the establishment.

III. Escalation of Struggle with the "Fang-Chen Clique"

Around 2018, Liu Jiming's conflicts with writers like Fang Fang and Chen Yingsong became public. He openly reported Chen Yingsong for "attacking the Chinese revolution" and corruption issues, but was counter-reported by the opposing camp for "political errors" in his articles, ultimately receiving unfair treatment. Liu Jiming characterized this struggle as an "ideological confrontation between the proletariat and the public intellectual clique," believing that public intellectual forces had infiltrated the establishment to form "two-faced people" who suppressed writers with genuine socialist beliefs. Behind the personal conflict was an intense clash of two value systems.

IV. Defense of Creative Autonomy

After breaking with the mainstream literary establishment, Liu Jiming completely abandoned traditional publishing channels and turned to online platforms to release his works. Citing Zhang Chengzhi's views, he called print media "corrupted and degenerate," while the internet was the "trench" that could achieve "truly free writing." This choice was both a rejection of mainstream literary evaluation systems and a reconstruction of literary communication power—transferring discourse rights from elites to the masses.

V. Identity Awakening of Class Identification

In works like "To You All," Liu Jiming declared his position of "returning to the people." His representative works "Black/White" and "Human Realm" focus on the fate of workers, peasants, and other members of society's bottom, while the elitization of literary circles made him feel isolated. The 2018 break was a complete clarification of his class position, viewing literature as a "weapon against injustice" rather than a label of honor and status within the establishment.

Summary: The Self-Exile of an Idealist

Liu Jiming's break was not an impulsive act, but the tragic choice of an idealist in an era of value collapse. His refusal to compromise, though leading to personal hardship and repeated banning of his works, strengthened his symbolic meaning as a "people's writer"—in an isolated and harsh environment, he single-handedly carved out a thorny path, becoming another spiritual banner for leftist groups after Wei Wei. This break is both a microcosm of contemporary literary differentiation and a reflection of the identity crisis of Chinese intellectuals amid the tide of marketization.

Editor: Red Sun Rising
Source: Cao Zhenglu-Liu Jiming Research Center

Different Positioning of Liu Jiming and Cao Zhenglu 

in Left-wing Literature

Left Review, July 25, 2025

Liu Jiming and Cao Zhenglu are both representative figures of contemporary Chinese neo-left-wing literature, jointly referred to as "two solitary peaks." However, their creative positioning, thematic focus, and historical influence exhibit significant differences, primarily manifested in the following aspects:

I. Thematic Focus and Narrative Dimensions

Cao Zhenglu: Deep Analysis of Working-Class Destiny

Core subject matter: Concentrated exposure of workers' predicaments during state-owned enterprise restructuring. His representative work That Place [Na'er] presents the tragedy of union chairman Zhu Weiguo's suicide after failed resistance, revealing the collapse of faith and spiritual predicament of the working class under capitalist logic. The novel profoundly depicts the social reality of state asset loss and workers' layoffs leading to their descent into the underclass (such as Du Yuemei becoming a streetwalker).

Narrative characteristics: Employs realist techniques, using the factory as a microcosmic social reflection to reveal the complex relationship between profit-seeking management and worker solidarity, emphasizing the struggle of collectivist spirit under market pressures.

Liu Jiming: Panoramic Social Critique and Historical Reconstruction

Thematic breadth: Breaks through single-class limitations. In Black/White [Hei/Bai], he creates a multi-class portrait including landlord descendants, intellectuals, new capitalist elites, and others, displaying structural contradictions through interwoven character destinies. This work is called "a literary mirror of a century of Chinese social development history."

Historical perspective: Actively reconstructs revolutionary history that has been negated by the mainstream (such as land reform and people's communes), bridging the rupture between the "two thirty-year periods" of New China. His creation incorporates techniques like magical realism to deconstruct official historical narratives.

II. Creative Philosophy and Ideological Positioning

Cao Zhenglu: Concrete Presentation of Class Contradictions

Maintains a worker's stance, exposing systemic oppression (such as policy traps that cause workers to mortgage their properties yet lose controlling rights), focusing on the inevitability rather than coincidence of underclass suffering, calling for "drawing attention to healing and remedy."

Rejected by mainstream literary circles, his works are viewed as benchmarks of "underclass literature," though he himself remains vigilant against narrowing underclass narratives to mere "suffering themes."

Liu Jiming: Systematization of Left-wing Thought and Radical Transformation

Upgraded class analysis method: Inheriting the tradition of Mao Dun's Midnight, he uses a framework of "analysis of all social classes" to dissect power structures under capitalist globalization, emphasizing the commonality between intellectuals' and the underclass's destinies.

Radical stance: After 2018, he broke with the literary establishment, transforming from an "internal critic of the system" to a "revolutionary leftist." Through his Random Thoughts [Suixiang Lu] microblog-style writing, he lowered the threshold for left-wing thought dissemination and cultivated young writing forces.

III. Historical Inheritance and Literary Influence

Cao Zhenglu: A "Milestone" Continuing Left-wing Tradition

Evaluated as "the reviver of left-wing literature after a 30-year interruption," his That Place is considered the starting point of neo-left-wing literature, directly promoting the underclass literature boom after 2004.

Limited influence: Due to his concentrated focus on worker groups, he failed to form a theoretical system, maintaining a relatively isolated creative state.

Liu Jiming: System Builder of Left-wing Literature

Positioned as the spiritual inheritor and expander of Wei Wei [note: prominent Chinese writer], Chen Yingzhen [note: Taiwanese left-wing writer], and Cao Zhenglu, collaborating with scholars like Kong Qingdong to promote theoretical systematization.

Literary historical significance: His novel Black/White generated over a hundred critical essays, called a "phenomenal spectacle," marking the transition of neo-left-wing literature from a thematic movement to ideological construction.

IV. Differences in Style and Technique

Literary Style

• Cao Zhenglu: Cold realism, detailed depiction of workers' lives

• Liu Jiming: Fusion of realism and modernism, multi-temporal narrative

Historical Perspective

• Cao Zhenglu: Focus on reform's growing pains, revealing "changing winds"

• Liu Jiming: Reconstruction of revolutionary history, defending the modernity of Chinese revolution

Social Function

• Cao Zhenglu: Awakening attention to underclass suffering

• Liu Jiming: Promoting revival of class consciousness, nurturing young left-wing forces

Summary: Core of Positioning Differences

Cao Zhenglu, using working-class destiny as his vehicle, became the founder of neo-left-wing literature, his creation cutting open the wounds of restructuring like a surgeon's scalpel.

Liu Jiming, in his role as historical reconstructor and system builder, expanded left-wing literature into a critical project encompassing multiple classes and spanning a century, while exploring organized practices for cultural positions.

Together, they constitute the evolutionary trajectory of neo-left-wing literature from "revival" to "deepening."

(Source: Cao Zhenglu-Liu Jiming Research Center)

The Right Path in the Human World is Full of Vicissitudes

—Reading Liu Jiming's Novel Black and White

By Sishui Farmer

This summer, an unusually intense heat enveloped Wuhan, and while I was enduring the torment of this endless summer, I was fortunate to receive Teacher Liu Jiming's manuscript of Black and White. Thus I retreated into my small room, turned on the air conditioning to appreciate this masterpiece—no less than cool breezes to dispel the long summer, taking me on a marvelous literary journey.

Black and White consists of 3 parts and 9 volumes, totaling 1.2 million words. Its temporal span covers from the 1980s through nearly 40 years of reform and opening-up history, extending to a century of Chinese revolutionary history from the early 20th century. Through narrating the trajectories of central characters like Gu Zheng, Wang Sheng, Du Wei, and Ba Dong, and their intricate social relationships, it assembles typical figures from all social strata—from the highest halls of power to grassroots society—focusing on major events in China's centennial history, especially the reform era, sketching a broad panorama of social life encompassing both urban and rural, official and popular spheres.

The sounds of the era and characters' destinies reflect each other brilliantly; decay and decline clash intensely with vigorous struggle; black and white, beauty and ugliness, good and evil intertwine in this work, staging scene after scene of thrilling, deeply moving, and profoundly thought-provoking human dramas. We can even recognize those incredibly familiar and vivid figures in this novel, along with historical traces of a century of revolution and forty years of tumultuous reform.

This monumental work, which consumed five full years of creative effort, undoubtedly represents a major turning point and breakthrough in Teacher Liu Jiming's creative career. More importantly, it crystallizes his recent social practice and careful reflection. As he said: "Without these years of experience, there would be no Black and White. I have created an artistic world richer, broader, and more complex than Human境 [Human Realm]." I deeply relate to this, having had the privilege of standing with Teacher Liu during those dark, depressing yet passionate days, witnessing the era we now inhabit.

Great times demand great works; great works create great writers. Whether for Teacher Liu personally or for our era, the birth of Black and White is hardly surprising—indeed, it was inevitable. The greatest aspect of literature and writers lies in never being absent from their times, but rather serving as witnesses to their era—just as France's ascending capitalist society inevitably produced Balzac's The Human Comedy, Russia's revolutionary eve inevitably produced Gorky's Mother, and China's socialist rural upsurge inevitably produced Liu Qing's The Builders. In today's China, with reform and opening-up having reached this stage, a artistic masterpiece like Black and White was bound to emerge. Otherwise, what a regrettable disservice it would have been to the historical current and to literature!

With its weighty footsteps of the era and profound historical questioning, Black and White proves that China's advanced writers and revolutionary intellectuals rise up in adversity, always maintaining their unbending backbone. They have not failed the era's trust or the people's aspirations, writing brilliant chapters with their pens that will be forever recorded in history, leaving behind substantial testimony to their times.

Due to the work's grand and complex themes, its conception breaks through conventional single-thread narrative structures. Even in the author's previous work Human Realm, only two main narrative lines were employed—Ma La and Murong Qiu. Black and White, however, features four to five or more character and narrative threads. How to handle these multiple threads while maintaining order, avoiding chaos, and achieving unity despite apparent dispersion undoubtedly represents a new attempt and challenge for the writer.

Yet reviewing the entire work, we find all concerns were unnecessary. The author employs superb artistic techniques, using several closely connected central characters to create a seamlessly woven network of character relationships. The narrative touch moves freely, using typical social events as nodes, concentrating on displaying the stage where various characters perform against a foundation of broad strokes and detailed background. With proper tension and release, this constructs undulating plot developments. The entire narrative structure resembles a beehive, ingeniously fusing colorful characters and plots with China's centennial history, especially forty years of reform and opening-up. Each cell is a unique world while perfectly connecting to form a harmonious whole, demonstrating the author's ingenious and masterful construction.

Characters are the soul of fiction. According to classical Marxist literary theory, creating typical characters in typical environments is literature's primary task. Throughout history, outstanding literary works have invariably left behind brilliant character images, forming eternal galleries of artistic figures. What leaves the deepest impression in Black and White is undoubtedly these vivid character images, which remain lifelike in our minds long after reading.

Take Wang Sheng, for example—this character has appeared multiple times in Teacher Liu's works. Similar to Ma La in Human Realm, he is an intellectual who loves reading and thinking, stubborn and introverted yet pure-hearted. Like Ma La, during his spiritual growth he experiences internal struggle between two opposing "spiritual mentors" representing idealism and pragmatism respectively. After painful inner struggle, they finally break free from dark obscurity, refuse to submit to base sentiments, and choose to stand on the side of justice and truth. Ma La chose to struggle against capital and selfishness, leading peasants to establish cooperatives; Wang Sheng chose to expose Wu Bozhong, the monstrous product of capital-power collusion, even landing in prison. In Gu Zheng, we seem to see shadows of Murong Qiu from Human Realm—both are pure-hearted intellectual women who persist in their ideals, like two lotus flowers emerging unstained from mud. Compared to Murong Qiu, Gu Zheng is more action-oriented, making her rebellious spirit even more pronounced. Ultimately, she would rather lose her career and future than compromise in her struggle against evil forces, achieving great elevation in her ideological realm. If Wang Sheng and Gu Zheng achieve spiritual resonance through shared hardship and resistance, moving toward common purpose, then Tian Qingqing and Zong Xiaoxiao are their shadows, suggesting new hope is rising. Thus the revolutionary initial aspirations inherited from Anna, Wang Shengli, Luo Zheng, the old principal, and others continue to pass down through generations in history's great tide.

If the positive characters above shine brilliantly, then the following characters with negative qualities are carved even more deeply, penetrating to the bone. Particularly Song Qiankun—like the novel's title itself, he is a complex character where black and white are inextricably entangled. He is both an old revolutionary and actually a deep-hidden opportunist within revolutionary ranks, bearing profound class marks. Such people are extremely representative—they were speculators during the revolutionary era, capitalist-roaders in power during Mao's time, and became so-called ideologically open veteran cadre representatives during reform and opening-up. Historical development finally revealed their true nature as "genuine at both ends" [note: opportunists who adapt to whatever political wind prevails]. Such people must be as numerous as fish crossing a river in revolutionary ranks, which precisely explains why China's revolution was extraordinarily difficult. Song Qiankun's daughter, Song Xiaofan, inherited her father's opportunistic genes in her bones and developed them further. This can be seen from her successive husbands: during the revolutionary fervor she found Cheng Guojun, a Cultural Revolution rebel leader; in the era of bidding farewell to revolution and denouncing trauma, she found Li Xin, an opportunistic intellectual; and in the era of capital globalization and America's new Marshall Plan, she threw herself into the arms of Bai Wen, a comprador capitalist and descendant of Kuomintang agents—truly enjoying all the glory, never missing any good opportunity. There's also Lang Tao, who transformed from a scholar full of Western learning into a vulgar bureaucrat, representing the life trajectory of a large group of elite intellectuals of that era. Wu Bozhong and his son Du Wei elevate the ugly aspects of human nature almost to a philosophical level, developing them to extremes. Wu Bozhong's licentiousness, cunning, and deep calculation make him worthy of being a Mephistopheles-like [note: reference to the devil character in Goethe's Faust] demonic mentor, while Du Wei proves himself a prize student carefully cultivated by Wu Bozhong. He is sophisticated in worldly affairs, opportunistic, insatiably greedy, dissolute and unrestrained, yet ambitious. To get ahead and gain profit, he stops at nothing, regardless of right and wrong, truly applying pragmatist philosophy to its extreme. That such characters can perform freely on the front stage, enjoying success, doesn't this precisely demonstrate that the era provided them with such a grand stage!

In this work, we cannot fail to mention a special character who embodies both ice and fire, conspiracy and love—Li Hong. She is so beautiful and moving yet ruthlessly devoured by a corrupt and ugly world. She struggles alone but is not numbed by pain; her heart still burns with the flame of justice. It is precisely with her help that Gu Zheng obtains powerful evidence of official-business collusion, dealing a heavy blow to the corrupt clique. Li Hong's black-and-white life seems like a legend, yet feels so real.

Social environment is a great dye vat where all kinds of people undergo repeated washing and winnowing. There are those like Luo Zheng, the old principal, Wang Sheng, and Gu Zheng who maintain inner purity and remain true to their original aspirations, as well as dye-makers and dyed ones like Song Qiankun, Lang Tao, Du Wei, and Ba Dong. Trapped in this vast, boundless, bottomless dye vat, how difficult it is to maintain original aspirations, guard inner purity, and emerge unstained from mud! Yet precisely because of this difficulty, those noble souls shine even more brilliantly, their life force surging with passion.

As Teacher Liu said: "Novels are testimony to their times." Black and White perfectly embodies thoughtfulness within artistry, perfectly interpreting the meaning of testimony to the times. The novel adopts a grand historical perspective, using character destinies as warp and story plots as weft, stringing together major social events like pearls, vividly presenting the rich, complex, and magnificent panorama of social-historical development over forty years of reform and opening-up, extending to a full century. The author internalizes a series of real social events into the novel's artistic world, using them as nodes to form a clear trajectory of social development, revealing the direction of historical progress and the joys and sorrows of the masses. For example, the popularity of "scar literature" in the early reform period sparked an ideological wave of bidding farewell to revolution. The fictional work Xiangchun Street, characters Li Xin and Song Xiaofan in the novel are precisely projections of real existence. Even today, scar literature's ghost lingers, accompanying the reform era like a shadow, occasionally stirring up waves—doesn't this deserve our deep reflection? There are also allusions to River Elegy and similar works, depicting the transformation trajectory of liberal intellectual elites who were once all the rage, which is extremely typical. Through Wu Bozhong's "Yuan Ji Grand Method," we clearly see shadows of the once-sensational qigong master Wang Lin [note: controversial Chinese qigong master]. The Donggang incident evokes the earth-shaking Liaoning Tonggang incident; Chuyun Group evokes the once-glorious "Red Mansion"; the social practice narrated through Tian Qingqing is clearly a reproduction of labor unrest in a southern city; the Yanshan Association led by Hong Taixing is the real-world Taishan Association; the Marxist society that Tian Qingqing and Zong Xiaoxiao join likewise truly exists in reality. Being able to reflect these major, even sensitive events through fiction in artistic form itself demonstrates the author's realist spirit and courage to face reality directly. The author doesn't simply reproduce reality but, through artistic processing and refinement, makes the work both derive from life and transcend life—a profound embodiment of the author's persistent practice of the Marxist literary view that "social life is the sole source of literature and art."

The core of Marxist literary theory lies in the people's standpoint. As Chairman Mao pointed out in "Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art": "Promising revolutionary writers and artists must go among the masses; they must for long periods and unconditionally go wholeheartedly among the worker, peasant, and soldier masses, into the heat of struggle, into the only source that is broadest and richest, to observe, experience, study, and analyze all people, all classes, all masses, all vivid forms of life and struggle, all raw materials of literature and art. Only then is it possible to proceed to creation." The creation of Black and White precisely follows such principles and approaches, which is why it displays differences from and superiority over general realist works. It stands completely on the position of China's vast majority of working people, conducting profound analysis of social-historical development. In Teacher Liu's words, it "strives to reveal reality that has been obscured, distorted, and castrated by various dominant and popular discourses." Therefore, the reality thus reproduced is necessarily different from, even opposite to, the reality in the eyes and pens of various elite authorities. Any writer's creation inevitably carries subjective factors, but only by standing on the position of the vast majority can the subjective world more closely approach the objective world, thus coming closer to the truth of things and nearer to truth itself.

The people are the creators of history and the driving force of social development. Singing and weeping for the people, voicing their hearts, is the natural duty of advanced intellectuals. Especially under today's conditions, how ambitious writers and artists should display this process of people creating history; how to uphold people's subjectivity, creating for the people and bearing witness for the times; how to defend and protect discourse rights belonging to the masses—these are undoubtedly major issues concerning the fundamental interests of the people. From this perspective, Teacher Liu Jiming's Black and White provides a perfect answer.

In conclusion, Black and White, with its magnificent structure, seamless layout, vivid and full characters, progressively layered plot, thrilling events, constitutes natural, profound, and broad narration. It can be called a pinnacle work of contemporary Chinese realist writing—an illustrated history of contemporary Chinese social development. Its birth opens new navigational markers for people's literature.

Why Has Black and White, Discussed by Kong Qingdong, Sparked Widespread Attention?

Weibo Smart Search
July 6, 2025, 12:19

The novel Black and White, discussed by Kong Qingdong, has sparked widespread attention primarily due to the work's social critical nature, the author's ideological stance, and the social resonance it has triggered. This can be analyzed from the following dimensions:

I. Work Positioning: A "Left-Wing Literary Banner" 

That Confronts Reality. Sensitivity of Subject Matter. Set against the backdrop of state-owned enterprise restructuring and capital expansion, the novel uses multi-threaded narration to expose class differentiation and power corruption during the social transformation period. Scholars have evaluated it as "a visual history of contemporary Chinese social development." Its sharp focus on contradictions within reform and opening-up touches upon public anxiety about fairness and justice.

Creative Stance. The author inherits the critical tradition of left-wing writers like Wei Wei and Cao Zhenglu, clearly advocating "people's realism" and placing the fate of the working class at the narrative center. This stance is scarce in today's literary circles, creating a differentiated impact.

II. Kong Qingdong's "Catalyst Effect": The Superposition of Academic Authority and Controversial Traffic

Deep Interpretation Sparks Ideological Collision 

A Peking University professor, Kong Qingdong, through articles like "Fu Zhigao Who Did Not Betray Is More Terrifying" [注: 《没有叛变的甫志高更可怕》], draws parallels between the novel's character Song Qiankun and Fu Zhigao, the traitor from Red Crag [注: 《红岩》, a famous revolutionary novel], proposing the concept of "hidden betrayers"—intellectuals who appear upright but essentially maintain systemic flaws. This interpretation imbues the text with realistic metaphor, inspiring readers' philosophical reflection on "loyalty and betrayal."

Organized Dissemination Promotes Breaking Out of Circles

Using the "Cao Zhenglu-Liu Jiming Research Center" as a platform, Kong Qingdong leads reading groups and essay competitions, attracting young doctoral and master's students to participate. The second essay competition in 2024 covered more than ten provinces nationwide (with winners like Liu Tiezheng from Liaoning and Liu Xiaoqiang from Hubei), bringing serious literary discussion down to grassroots communities.

Personal Controversy Expands Topic Radiation

Kong Qingdong's previous statements on "enemy-friend class theory" [注: 敌我阶级论] and other controversial remarks give him inherent polarizing attributes in public opinion—supporters praise him as a "warrior-type scholar," while critics denounce him as extremely conservative. This controversy, combined with official suppression, objectively helps Black and White break through literary circles and enter the realm of public discourse.

III. Social Emotional Resonance: A Literary Outlet for Class Anxiety

Echoing Popular Collective Reflection on "Capital Alienation"

The novel's plot of foreign enterprises acquiring state-owned enterprises and workers becoming cheap labor creates intertextuality with real-world news like "exploitation of student interns," triggering readers' vigilance against globalized capital. This shares the same social psychological foundation as Daolang's phenomenal hit "Rakshasa Sea City" [注: 《罗刹海市》, a popular song by Daolang] that same year, which criticized the "inversion of beauty and ugliness."

Young People's Idealistic Projection.

The "awakening" journey of the protagonist, Wang Sheng, provides a spiritual reference for confused youth. Young authors like "Left Wheel" and "Little Bi," selected as "Emerging Writers of the Year" by Renjing.net [注: 人境网], actively engage in social criticism, reflecting some young people's rediscovery of left-wing narratives.

IV. Points of Controversy: Ideological Opposition Behind Polarized Evaluations

Supporters View It as an "Eye-Opening Work"

They affirm its exposure of neoliberal myths, as scholar Han Yuhai pointed out in the "struggle for cultural hegemony," believing the novel continues Gramsci's and Mao Zedong's thinking on history and class consciousness.

Critics Question "Over-Politicization"

Opponents believe the novel oversimplifies social contradictions. Critics like He Sanwei oppose Kong Qingdong's "enemy situation mentality" [注: 敌情观念] for creating antagonism, worrying that the work might fuel populist sentiment.

Conclusion: The Conspiracy of Literature and Ideological Trends

The discussion fever around Black and White is essentially a projection of contemporary Chinese social fissures in the cultural field. Its influence stems not only from the power of the text but also, to some extent, from Kong Qingdong's continuous interpretation as an opinion leader, transforming the novel into a symbolic vehicle for class criticism. This both satisfies some groups' expectations for a "people's literary renaissance" and triggers intense backlash from opposing camps due to touching on painful points of reform. This multiple tension makes it transcend the purely literary category, becoming an important case for observing the spectrum of contemporary Chinese thought.

Kong Qingdong Further Discusses "Black and White": The Unbetrayed Fu Zhigao is More Terrifying

Location: Zhengzhou, Henan

My real specialty is studying modern novels, that is, studying novels from the past century-plus. So I'm viewing Liu Jiming's work from the perspective of Chinese novels over the past century-plus.

Perhaps everyone mainly views it from the perspective of revolutionary thought. This view is also correct. But it's insufficient to explain the artistic achievements of "Black and White." True leftists should transcend left and right, standing in the air to observe left and right.

Chairman Mao was like this, so Chairman Mao was labeled rightist among leftists. Everyone should understand that people like Chairman Mao, Lu Xun, and Confucius cannot be categorized simply as leftist or rightist. It (Black and White) is comprehensive, covering a century of China. My review title is "Mirror of a Century of History." Our century of literature's task is to promote the country's modernization. To promote modernization, we must reveal, catch, and defeat demons. Writers throughout history have completed this task, most representatively Lu Xun. Lu Xun caught many demons for us. For example, Ah Q is a demon. When revolution was needed, we should support his revolution. But Ah Q's revolution itself planted the seeds of revolutionary disaster. Later revolutionary history completely proved Lu Xun's foresight. Moreover, after Ah Q's revolutionary victory, he might first persecute his creator, persecute Lu Xun.

We must understand history from this height. So placed in the river of novels, I believe Liu Jiming's "Black and White" has very high historical and literary value. One proof is that it cannot be officially published on the mainland. This itself is proof. Liu Jiming is a famous writer in our country, a writer with leadership titles. Of course, he was previously praised by rightists as a "representative liberal writer." So I say, don't fear whether someone is leftist or rightist, don't attach labels. See if they have conscience - rightist writers can equally describe human suffering. Moreover, the more capable a person is, the less willing they are to mix with bad people, and they will turn against them. Some familiar so-called leftist big V's might have been rightists twenty years ago. So don't think someone has problems just because their views differ from yours.

How many former Kuomintang members are in our Communist Party? Native-born, deeply wronged Communists might still become traitors. In "Black and White," if you only look at the surface, you won't understand its true value. It's not simply saying what is black and what is white. It restores the proportion of black and white to their natural state. There's truly good within bad and bad within good. But it's not like rightists' confusion of right and wrong, claiming there's no good or bad in the world. There is good and bad, but distinguishing them is very difficult. The novel has several very important characters worth our consideration. Since everyone hasn't read it yet, I can only share some viewpoints to help everyone read it.

This novel has held two essay competitions. Last year we awarded prizes in Shaoshan. Originally, we were going to hold the second essay competition award ceremony these days, but the ceremony keeps getting postponed. Relevant departments want to protect us, not letting us give awards, afraid something might happen during the ceremony. So Liu Jiming can't come today. I don't know the reason - I hope he's not really ill, because there are too few capable people among the good guys. Every person, every warrior is precious. I hope Liu Jiming stays healthy; I'd rather he can't come for other reasons.

Last year Beijing prepared to commemorate Chairman Mao's birthday five times. Four times were "protected" from happening - I won't say sabotaged, but protected. Twice I was already in the car when I received calls saying, "Teacher Kong, this meeting can't be held." Twice meetings were about to begin when suddenly large numbers of police comrades arrived - and you could tell they were well-prepared. The police comrades were very polite and civilized in law enforcement, speaking reasonably and with evidence. They said, "Hello comrades, we also love Chairman Mao, we also want to commemorate Chairman Mao, but this meeting can't be held. Why? Because there are bad people."

See how well they put it - you can't deny there are bad people, right? There really are bad people, so it's to protect everyone. The current situation is similar.

So this book? On the surface, it discusses Chinese social history during the decades of reform and opening up. It involves many fields: politics, economy, culture, universities, literary circles, and underworld. Characters are vivid, not labeling who is good, but reaching Mao Dun's level.

Everyone understands Mao Dun's "Midnight." Why is our country's highest literary award the Mao Dun Literature Prize? Why do bad people always want to negate Mao Dun? From this perspective, bad people don't dare negate Lu Xun because they can't, but they want to negate people like Mao Dun.

"Black and White's" story has many subplots extending to a century of Chinese history.

Many problems appearing after reform and opening up might have existed at the beginning of revolution. For example, this novel has such a character (Song Qiankun) in high position. Why did he join revolution? Because a girl he liked was possessed by his father. His father was a landlord, so he wanted revolution. His revolutionary purpose was to defeat his father and reclaim that girl. This story isn't melodramatic but very real. We have many revolutionaries who joined revolution with various private motives. Our revolution didn't examine motives - anyone who revolutionized was a good comrade. Look at today too - if someone wants revolution, we should of course unite and support them, not question their motives. But these motives might cause other problems later. They might become true revolutionaries through revolutionary tempering. But not everyone is like this. Some leading comrades were once captured by enemies. Being captured doesn't mean they betrayed under torture. If so, the problem would be simple. What's frightening is when enemies are calculating and don't make them betray, just release them.

This matter is rather complex.

I once organized my fans to read "Red Crag" extensively. I started by frightening everyone with "Red Crag," making everyone think about a question. If you read the first half of "Red Crag" without knowing beforehand, could you tell Fu Zhigao is a traitor? Honestly, you couldn't. He was the most revolutionary person. He read Chairman Mao's articles, accurately judged the situation because revolution was about to succeed, so he worked actively. What was wrong with him? Nothing. In comparison, who weren't actively working? Jiang Jie and Xu Yunfeng seemed gray, not actively revolutionary.

Fu Zhigao's betrayal was contingent. When Xu Yunfeng discovered the bookstore was dangerous and said you've been noticed by enemies, transfer immediately tonight, Fu Zhigao would have been fine if he'd transferred that night. He just had one wrong thought - he wanted to bring beef to his wife, a bit petty bourgeois sentiment, but this was human nature. But if he hadn't delivered beef that night, he wouldn't have been captured by enemies, and revolution would have succeeded soon.

Let's imagine: after revolutionary victory, Fu Zhigao's position in the revolutionary party would have been higher than Jiang Jie's or Xu Yunfeng's. During the anti-rightist campaign, he would have labeled Jiang Jie as rightist. He would later engage in exaggeration. During the Cultural Revolution, he might have suffered some injustice, but this became his capital during reform and opening up. Right? Many things during reform and opening up were done by whom? By unbetrayed Fu Zhigaos.

So Fu Zhigao's betrayal isn't terrifying - what's terrifying is that our Party has many unbetrayed Fu Zhigaos.

Why did Chairman Mao trust a certain person so much? At such a critical moment, Chairman Mao personally spoke to preserve his Party membership. Chairman Mao had a basic judgment: he was never captured by enemies. He had no possibility of betrayal, so he was a good comrade.

Oh, if I could meet Chairman Mao's spirit in heaven, I would criticize Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao, you were too kind. This logic is probably unreliable, not 100% reliable. We used to investigate history very strictly, checking if anyone was captured by enemies. Being captured was questionable, especially without proof. He said a certain comrade was very clean, never captured by enemies, always escaping danger wisely. See why I wrote several continuous microblogs about his wise escapes? This is terrifying. He didn't betray. But his heart was different.

"Black and White" writes this kind of black-and-white intertwined complexity. Including writing about human nature today. I see a plot here: a powerful, influential Red Second Generation appears in a wheelchair. I thought, who would dare publish this? No one would dare. But it's not simple innuendo. If it were innuendo, it would be meaningless - he's not alluding to any specific person, writing very complexly. He (Hong Taihang) was a Red Second Generation with revolutionary ideals who went to Beidahuang when young. We know Beidahuang was an anti-revisionist outpost then. During the Zhenbao Island incident's confrontation with the Soviet Union, he lay in snow and froze his legs, so he became disabled later. He was a good person when young, full of revolutionary ideals, so you can't simply say his morals were bad. He later changed with the entire historical transformation - not any good person suddenly becoming bad. As a result, officials big and small coming to Beijing for business had to pay respects at his dock, had to act according to his wishes. Finally, our country's major and minor affairs were controlled by such a group of people. Then they colluded intricately with various underworld forces and local powers.

"Black and White" also writes about hope - several young people are written very well, representing revolutionary hope. I think this all comes from teacher Liu Jiming's kind writer's heart. But he doesn't write excessively - he doesn't write that they will definitely achieve victory. The future remains unknowable. It writes many revolutionary problems worth considering during the revolutionary process, including non-revolutionary problems and ordinary human nature problems.

So this novel, even by bourgeois standards, is an excellent novel, very excellent. It gives us more inspiration to think, not to simply attach labels, saying who's bad, what problems reform and opening up produced. It prompts us to think about how these problems came about, why these problems exist.

I think he fulfilled an excellent writer's responsibility.

Teacher Liu Jiming is quite proud of this novel, somewhat negating his previous creations. He says his previous thinking was wrong. I don't see it that way. I affirm all excellent literary works. His previous works as a rightist writer were still very good, just didn't point to the revolutionary path. This novel he's written now - I also found some detailed problems for him. Because it's so massive - three parts covering a century of history - it involves a place called Dajiang City, which is actually Wuhan. Such a big city's history might have some inaccuracies in details. Wuhan is a very complex city. When I went to Wuhan for the sixth time, I wrote an article called "Sixth Time to Wuhan." I said Wuhan could have the character "great" added in front - Great Wuhan.

Wuhan was also a city Chairman Mao valued greatly. Chairman Mao liked staying at Wuhan's East Lake. Moreover, the Cultural Revolution's turning point was the July 20th incident, which occurred in Wuhan. The Wuhan July 20th incident still hasn't been completely investigated. But actually, it was the reactionary forces' "Xi'an Incident" - a showdown with Chairman Mao! Meaning if you keep doing this, we'll all rebel! Just without completely breaking face. So after the July 20th incident, Chairman Mao retreated across the board. He returned to his correct military principles, knowing he couldn't act recklessly. Because the army still had to be relied upon. If the army became chaotic, it wouldn't work. The front-line commander of the July 20th incident, Chen Zaidao, went to Beijing, and Huang Yongsheng even slapped him. In the end, Chairman Mao still protected Chen Zaidao. Chairman Mao actively let these capitalist roaders return to lead the country. This also shows the difficulty of revolutionary cause. When we lack revolutionary consciousness, we need to develop it and inspire others. After developing revolutionary consciousness, we must think about deeper, farther problems. With a very rational, responsible attitude, while full of revolutionary emotion, think about this history, think about human nature.

Because I participated in this essay competition ("I Read 'Black and White'"), I've seen book reviews and reading reflections - very good. Everyone writes from one angle, especially some young people write well. If you haven't read this book yet, I think you should finish it in a month - it's absolutely worthwhile. It's a first-class masterpiece in the century of literary history and will remain in Chinese literary history. Moreover, its publication and reading history will itself constitute history.

Among us, there seem to be friends who write novels. I know many of our righteous comrades want to create. We must overcome shouting slogans and attaching labels in creation. These are mistakes the Left League made before. At the Left League founding meeting, Lu Xun was invited to speak, and Lu Xun threw cold water. At the founding meeting, Lu Xun's first sentence was, "I worry leftists will become rightists." This is true foresight. Don't revolution when there's no revolution; when there is revolution, be rational about it.

I think teacher Liu's book can artistically awaken our consciousness in this regard. He's not here today, but I congratulate him again. After everyone reads this book, let's exchange ideas again if we have the chance. Any questions?

Host: Someone wants to ask questions.

Reader: For example, some of our people were good during revolution, but after success they're not necessarily good people anymore. Like you said about Ah Q - if Ah Q's revolution succeeded, he'd still be that kind of Ah Q. This is actually the historical cycle problem. May I ask, if revolution succeeds again, how can we escape this historical cycle problem?

Kong Qingdong: The same revolution probably won't happen again. Because productive forces have changed greatly, production methods have changed greatly. Today we've entered a completely intelligent era. Although revolutionary spirit remains unchanged, revolutionary methods have already changed. So I repeatedly emphasize that today's Jinggangshan is not in Jiangxi, not in Henan, but on the internet. We must persist in internet struggle. We must master high technology. We can't watch high technology being controlled unlimitedly by capital.

The Communist Party's success has many secrets - not just being able to fight. The Communist Party first excels at economics and finance, second at grasping culture, third at grasping technology. The Communist Party's success always grasps the most advanced technology. Whatever technology is most advanced at the time, the Communist Party grasps it. For example, telegraph technology - the Kuomintang was so wealthy but couldn't outplay the Communist Party at telegraphs. The Communist Party with just a few broken radios played the Kuomintang around - that's valuing technology and technological talent. After capturing Kuomintang talent, they immediately used them while educating them, gradually educating them to come over. Like aircraft pilots, telegraph operators, medical personnel. So grasping science and technology is very important.

I just mentioned we need to spread revolutionary thinking among technical personnel. Technical personnel and the tech world are also disaster areas - many scientists have very reactionary thinking. Initially contacting them is very repugnant, but you must be patient. Present facts, reason with them. You must believe that as scientific technical personnel, they will acknowledge truth. Sometimes it's difficult because we don't understand their specialties. But we must persist in this work. Gradually, when more technical personnel have revolutionary thinking, revolution will succeed.

In this regard, North Korea does particularly well. North Korea's party flag has a brush on it. Our party flag doesn't have elements representing intellectuals, but North Korea's party flag has elements representing intellectuals, so North Korea's intellectuals are one heart with the party. Unlike our China.

Look at our China's intellectuals - they're not one heart with the party, because there's no representation of them on the party flag. North Korea's intellectuals never oppose the party. Rightists always curse me, saying "you should go to North Korea." I say you don't know anything about what North Korea is like. North Korea university professors are treated extremely well. If I went to North Korea, they'd first give me a 300-meter mansion, then the organization would assign me a car and secretary. I say, how do you know what life North Korean intellectuals live?

So we must spread revolutionary thinking among intellectuals and technical personnel. Our party did this too - as early as the 1930s, we won over many scientists, not after founding the country. This party is truly remarkable. In Yan'an, in those broken cave dwellings, they were already thinking about how to get scientists in America to return to work. I'm very moved seeing this. I say, how did they think of this? The Japanese devils weren't defeated yet, right? How did they think of getting scientists back? Right after founding the country, they started - the work on people like Qian Xuesen, planned long ago. And think, those scientists returning to China, the highest salary was maybe 200-300 yuan per month, which was very high then, right? But in America they made hundreds of dollars monthly, not counting other income. What did you use to attract them? What advantages did you have? Just five words: "The motherland needs you." Hearing this brings tears.

What era was that? What was the party's image? Saying these five words could bring scientists back. Even those who didn't return worked for the motherland. Like Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning - they didn't return but worked for the motherland. The party's heart of serving the people let technical personnel all know.

"Black and White" also writes very well about the intellectual field - how they betrayed the people. This aspect is also revealed very well. I was a university student in the 1980s - reading it felt very intimate. 1980s campus life is written very vividly - how to eat, how to dance, how to have parties. Teacher Liu himself came through this way - he was also an early university student.

The Pursuit of Original Intentions and the Return Journey of a "Son of the People" 

— From "Human Realm" to "Black and White"

By Sishui Farmer, 10-21-2023

Being naturally slow-witted, my earliest encounter with Teacher Liu Jiming's works was "Human Realm." Upon first reading this book, I was immediately attracted by its overflowing idealistic sentiment and serious realistic style. In my limited reading experience, literary works possessing these two characteristics have been, if not entirely extinct since reform and opening-up, then extremely rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, so I couldn't help but feel my eyes light up.

Because I enjoyed reading "Human Realm," I became interested in the author himself and sought out Teacher Liu's other works, reading them one by one. Only then did I learn that Teacher Liu had once been a member of mainstream avant-garde writers in his early years, later achieving a transformation from avant-garde to grassroots writing, becoming a typical representative of grassroots writers. "Tea Eggs," "Between Us as Husband and Wife," "Singing Aloud," and "Life and Death Knot" are representative works from this period.

Looking back at "Human Realm," I felt there was an inevitability to it. Just as today, having first read "Human Realm" and then "Black and White," I don't find it abrupt—there's a sense of natural progression. Some critics believe that "Black and White" and "Human Realm" are sister works, with the latter being an extension and expansion of the former, and moreover, the latter completes themes left unfinished by the former. This assessment is indeed precise. In the history of literary creation, this is actually a regular phenomenon—as a writer's thinking matures and expands, their works correspondingly mature and expand. Lu Yao's "Life" and "The Ordinary World" have this same relationship.

With the foundation of the turn toward grassroots writing, "Human Realm" was able to extend one step further on the basis of grassroots writing, while "Black and White" reaches an even higher level based on "Human Realm." It can be seen that these two works are not only a continuation but also a progression, or rather, an advancement.

Having the foundation of grassroots writing, looking at "Human Realm" again, I felt there was inevitability. Just as today, having first read "Human Realm" and then "Black and White," I don't find it abrupt—on the contrary, there's a sense of natural progression. Some critics believe that "Black and White" and "Human Realm" are sister works, with the latter being an extension and expansion of the former, and moreover, the latter completes themes left unfinished by the former. I think this critique is quite accurate. Below, I'll discuss three preliminary observations around this topic.

I. In the shaping of central characters, "Black and White" is an extension and progression of "Human Realm."

Generally speaking, central characters are the typical among typical characters, the soul of a novel. Analyzing from the central characters grasps the consistent thread running through the entire work. The central characters in "Human Realm" are Ma La and Murong Qiu, while "Black and White" depicts numerous typical characters, yet in a certain sense, Wang Cheng and Gu Zheng can be called the central characters among these typical figures. We'll begin our analysis from these two pairs of central characters.

First, let's look at Ma La and Wang Cheng.

The protagonist Ma La in "Human Realm" was born into a peasant family. Although he became an intellectual through study and examinations, his peasant origins left an indelible mark on the depths of his soul. Despite being tempted and influenced by his spiritual mentor Lu Yongjia during his maturation, having experienced the ups and downs of worldly affairs, he didn't lose his true nature. Especially under the spiritual inspiration of his elder brother Ma Ke and the teachings and personal example of old-generation Communists like Da Wan Bo and Ding Changshui, he achieved class consciousness awakening. His leading the farmers of Shenhuang Island back onto the path of collectivization, determined to build an ideal world, was precisely the concrete practice following his ideological transformation. It can be said that Ma La's actions on Shenhuang Island implicitly continued the unfinished work of Ma Ke, Da Wan Bo, Ding Changshui and others. That is to say, if we compare Ma Ke to Liang Shengbao in "Entrepreneurial History," then Ma La is Liang Shengbao's rebirth, and his organizing cooperatives on Shenhuang Island was, in a certain sense, continuing the once-interrupted "Entrepreneurial History." However, with changing times and shifting circumstances, the modern Liang Shengbao could no longer independently resist the rolling tide of the times. In an era where marketization and capitalization comprehensively occupy and control all domains, the modern Liang Shengbao, like Don Quixote fighting windmills (the windmill metaphor in the novel), appears anachronistic yet filled with tragic heroism. Finally, under the conspiratorial oppression of capital and power, Shenhuang Island was flooded, Ma La's utopia became a bubble, and the enterprise of continuing "Entrepreneurial History" also ended in failure. When times favor you, heaven and earth lend their strength; when fortune abandons you, even heroes lose their freedom. The glory of Liang Shengbao and "Entrepreneurial History" was no more, society had a new batch of people (former old people from "Entrepreneurial History"), who began their new "entrepreneurial history." The great stage of society no longer belonged to the "Liang Shengbaos," who retreated dimly, like the final disappearance of "Da Wan Bo" and the "commune members." At the end of "Human Realm," Shenhuang Island is flooded, Ma La's social reform ideals are shattered, and his own final destination is like the vast flood, flowing toward an unknown direction, symbolizing the uncertainty of the future with a profound sense of desolation.

The protagonist Wang Cheng in "Black and White"—his father Wang Shengli was a revolutionary soldier born to peasants who, after the revolution's victory, never considered himself a hero based on his merits, always maintaining a style of hard struggle, connecting heart to heart with the people, sharing joys and sorrows, leading workers to self-reliance and creating the brick and tile factory. Therefore, Wang Cheng's background, while being from a revolutionary cadre family, was essentially working-class and peasant. Under his father's and family's influence, Wang Cheng developed revolutionary heroism complex from childhood, which can be seen from his name being identical to the volunteer army soldier Wang Cheng in "Heroic Sons and Daughters." However, when Wang Cheng grew up and entered Chu Prefecture Teachers' College, it was precisely the early period of reform and opening-up, when historical nihilism was rampant, and social currents of de-revolutionization, bidding farewell to revolution, and even denying revolution were clamorous, which inevitably plunged young Wang Cheng into a crisis of faith. Just as Ma La encountered Lu Yongjia, at this time Wang Cheng also met his spiritual mentor Professor Lang Yongliang, causing his thinking to reverse, even changing his name from "Wang Cheng" to "Wang Sheng," representing a gesture of bidding farewell to the past. However, in his heart's depths, he often fell into contradictory struggles, with two kinds of thinking constantly pulling at him. After university graduation, he went to work at the provincial writers' association and was sent down to teach at the Women's Normal School, where he met young female teacher Tian Fang and the old principal of Phoenix Island. In his interactions with them, Wang Cheng was infected by Tian Fang's kindness, simplicity, and spirit of dedication, and was also inspired by the old principal's persistent perseverance. His once-dormant idealistic faith quietly revived. Wang Shengli and Luo Zheng played decisive roles in his complete ideological transformation. Wang Shengli fought resolutely to defend workers' interests until his death, and Luo Zheng, together with the old principal, led Phoenix Island masses in rights defense movements. He said to Wang Cheng: "Child, seeing you is like seeing your father. Remember, you are a descendant of revolutionaries, and you must never surrender to evil forces at any time!" Wang Cheng's spirit was baptized again, and he began to break with that so-called new world in the depths of his heart. Due to having such a psychological development process, when Zong Tianyi entrusted him with the important task of reporting Phoenix Island's criminal forces before his death, Wang Cheng risked destroying his own future, sternly refused Du Wei's threats and inducements, and bravely launched an assault against criminal forces. Under the manipulation of Du Wei and the forces behind him, Wang Cheng's report failed, and he was sentenced to three years in prison. But he didn't surrender; instead, he continued appealing in prison, and ultimately, with Gu Zheng's help, the criminal and corrupt forces were contained and dismantled.

From the experiences of these two protagonists, we can see that both their backgrounds, characters, growth, and trajectories of ideological transformation are extremely similar—they resemble each other both in form and spirit. However, upon closer examination, differences still exist between them. For example, Ma La likes the character Levin in "Anna Karenina." "Levin's clumsy practitioner character, his weariness of Moscow aristocratic life, the series of reforms he implemented on his farm... all had an unprecedented attraction for Ma La." As critics have noted: "Ma La's awakening was mainly completed through Levin-style solitary contemplation and self-reflection, while Wang Cheng was planted in various intricate contradictions and conflicts." Therefore, Ma La, who tended toward inner self-reflection, could only pursue Levin-style social reform after awakening, organizing Shenhuang Island farmers to return to the path of collectivization, while Wang Cheng, who awakened through contradictory conflicts and struggles, was more driven by social environment, making his resistance more intense and more revolutionary. It can be seen that although both Ma La and Wang Cheng went through left-right-left ideological transformations and both returned from individual to class under the call of revolutionary original intentions, Ma La took the path of reform, which was destined to fail, while Wang Cheng took the path of resistance, which, though more dangerous, has dawn ahead. Around him gathered more and more like-minded comrades, with successors like Zong Xiaoxiao and Tian Qingqing among the younger generation, symbolizing where hope lies.

Both Ma La and Wang Cheng in the novels aspire to write a book. Ma La's book theme concerns his own life experiences, which can be seen as a kind of searching for roots regarding his origins. Wang Cheng's "Biography of Zong Da," while superficially appearing to clarify historical fog, actually contains the pursuit of Communists' original intentions and the rectification of revolutionary faith, thus can also be understood as a kind of spiritual root-seeking. Spiritual root-seeking is broader and more essential than origin root-seeking, possessing more compelling inspirational power.

Now let's look at Murong Qiu and Gu Zheng.

The novel "Human Realm" is structurally divided into two major parts that seem independent yet form a unity. What connects them is not only the story plot but more importantly the thematic ideas the work wants to express. The protagonist of the novel's first half is Ma La, while the second half is Murong Qiu. Murong Qiu has dual identities: one is university professor and intellectual elite; the other is former educated youth and the former lover of fire-rescue hero Ma Ke. Back then, as a sent-down educated youth, Murong Qiu fell in love with production team leader Ma Ke, a Liang Shengbao-type socialist new person. However, a sudden fire separated them forever. Under the circumstances of her former lover sacrificing himself for the public good, Murong Qiu left the countryside and, decades later, became a renowned scholar and professor. However, her personal life was quite unfortunate, suffering abandonment by her ex-husband Gu Chaoyang. With her emotions wounded, she never remarried, always depending on her daughter for company. Compared to the awkwardness in personal life, the dissatisfaction in her career was even more troubling. The mainstream academic circle she belonged to was seriously detached from reality, heavy with academic atmosphere and full of bureaucratic flavor. Her new work "The Changes of He Family Village," which used sociological research to study rural problems and conduct field research in rural areas, couldn't get recognition and support from academic circles, and when author He Wei spoke at meetings, no one responded. Murong Qiu greatly appreciated He Wei's viewpoints, defended him, and reflected on the dull, bureaucratized academic atmosphere. To realize her unfinished ideals, she also encouraged her daughter Lu Lu and Kuang Xibei to jointly establish "People's Livelihood Net," guiding them to go deep among the people, measuring the earth with their feet and seeking China's way forward. She herself abandoned the academic circle that reeked of decay, broke through spider-web-like imprisonment, and once again walked toward a broader real world: "She couldn't continue staying in the 'academic circle' that reeked of decay. She suddenly had an idea: next semester she would take graduate students to Yanhe, to Shenhuang Island, back to that village where she had once lived and worked, to conduct truly meaningful field research."

Gu Zheng in "Black and White," in the author's original design, was only meant to serve as a foil to protagonist Wang Cheng. However, in the novel, because she gained "the power of self-growth," she ultimately became a central character alongside Wang Cheng. Just as "Human Realm" has two central characters, Ma La and Murong Qiu, "Black and White" also has two central characters, Wang Cheng and Gu Zheng. If Wang Cheng is a projection of Ma La, Gu Zheng is also a projection of Murong Qiu. Unlike Murong Qiu, who came from a high-level intellectual family, Gu Zheng's background is more complex and special. Her maternal grandfather bore the identity of "traitor," her father mysteriously disappeared, her mother unfortunately drowned after mental breakdown, and with her brother's flight and family's dissolution, she could only live with her maternal grandparents from childhood, shaping her sensitive and solitary character. Family misfortune left wounds and shadows deep in her soul, giving her intimate experience of human suffering, thus also developing her instinctive resistance consciousness toward all ugly people and things. This laid the foundation for her resolute involvement in decisive struggle against criminal and corrupt forces. Seeing Wang Cheng framed and imprisoned by criminal forces, she stepped forward, parted ways with lawyers who were spokesmen for criminal forces, took on Wang Cheng's case, and together with Li Hong, jointly brought down Wu Bozhong, Du Wei, and the corrupt group behind them. At the novel's end, Gu Zheng transformed from a previously aloof and proud cold beauty into a steely-boned female hero. No wonder critics consider Gu Zheng one of the most successfully portrayed characters in the novel.

It can be seen that both Murong Qiu and Gu Zheng are intellectual women with pure hearts and persistent ideals, even possessing a kind of spiritual cleanliness in character, radiating from inside out an idealistic temperament incompatible with reality, like two white lotus flowers emerging unstained from mud. However, compared to Murong Qiu, Gu Zheng is more action-oriented, thus her spirit of resistance is more manifest. Finally, she would rather lose her career and future than fight criminal forces to the end, achieving great sublimation in her entire ideological realm. If Murong Qiu moved from study to society, then Gu Zheng moved from society to the battlefield of struggle against criminal forces. Gu Zheng went further than Murong Qiu and was more resolute. Here we can see that Gu Zheng almost continued the path Murong Qiu didn't complete; the former is entirely the spiritual descendant of the latter. Murong Qiu's daughter Lu Lu founded People's Livelihood Net to speak for the people, while Gu Zheng also established Tonggu Net to help masses defend their rights. Could this merely be coincidence?

Due to worldly vicissitudes and changing circumstances, the path of socialist revolution and construction in Mao Zedong's era came to an abrupt halt, but that period of history didn't drift away with the smoke—its spirit has subtly influenced later generations. The most representative spiritual inheritors fall into two categories. One category is represented by Ma La and Wang Cheng—they were originally born into the working class and peasantry, possessing the true character of working people, inherited from the lineage of socialist new people like Liang Shengbao and Xiao Changchun. The other category is represented by Murong Qiu and Gu Zheng—they were originally born into elite or intellectual families but ultimately took the path of combining with workers and peasants, embodying the continuation of the spirit of older-generation revolutionary intellectuals like Ding Ling and Liu Qing. In "Human Realm," Murong Qiu's romance as an educated youth sent to the countryside with production team leader Ma Ke metaphorically represents the revolutionary concept of intellectuals combining with workers and peasants. Murong Qiu's spiritual attachment to Ma Ke also reflects that "accepting re-education from poor and lower-middle peasants" indeed changed her soul, enabling her not to lose direction amid great social changes but to firmly stand with working people, drawing clear lines with those intellectuals who, after reform and opening-up, sided with privileged elites and the bourgeoisie. Her attachment to Ma Ke was also attachment to faith and adherence to original intentions. Similarly, in "Black and White," Wang Cheng and Gu Zheng, having experienced cruel realistic struggles, became like-minded comrades—this cannot help but be a profound metaphor.

II. In thematic expression, "Black and White" is an elevation and transcendence of "The Red and the Black."

In "Black and White," Wang Cheng and Gu Zheng, as inheritors of revolutionary faith and guardians of revolutionary original intentions, engage in life-and-death decisive struggle with criminal and corrupt forces, embodying the profound meaning of the title "Black and White." We can understand this as black and white life, black and white society—in any case, it's a clearly oppositional summary and metaphor. Then there are other characters in the novel, such as Du Wei and Ba Dong, in whom we can clearly see the shadow of "Julien." "Julien" is the protagonist of French novelist Stendhal's "The Red and the Black," a typical figure of bourgeois individual struggle. As a classic image in literary works, he reflects the consciousness of bottom-level intellectual youth during Europe's bourgeois ascendant period. The era that produced "Julien" seems to have some overlap with the present era, so it's not surprising that this era produces a batch of "Julien"-type Du Weis and Ba Dongs. Although both advocate unscrupulous individual struggle and share common character traits, they also differ. Du Wei's characteristic is never concealing his ambitions and being able to find high-sounding reasons for any despicable and shameless behavior. He appears to be a chivalrous person but is actually a ruthless character who will do anything to achieve personal goals—truly the incarnation of a devil. Ba Dong, in order to get ahead, though also using every means to curry favor and please, still retains some small-town youth's self-respect and self-love in his bones, unlike Du Wei, whose entire soul has been twisted and alienated.

It can be seen that Wang Cheng and Gu Zheng take the "black and white" path, moving from individual to class, thus taking the path of class struggle, while Du Wei and Ba Dong take the opposite "red and black" path, unable to extricate themselves on the road of bourgeois individual struggle. Similarly, "Black and White" belongs to people's realist works, while "The Red and the Black" only belongs to critical realist works that emerged hundreds of years ago. "Black and White" has obvious progressive advancement with the times and is the "Human Comedy" of today's era, a masterwork that bears witness to the times and speaks for the people.

III. The artistic world depicted in "Black and White" and the real world, the protagonist images in "Black and White" and the author's characteristics merge seamlessly.

In the "Afterword to Black and White," Teacher Liu Jiming wrote: "This novel is an 'unexpected harvest' for me. Without the experiences of recent years, there would be no 'Black and White.' I created an artistic world richer, broader, and more complex than 'Human Realm.' When I wrote the last word and realized I would have to bid farewell to the characters in the novel, I felt reluctant to part with them. I created them, and they also created me. I considered myself one of them and experienced tremendous joy. For a writer, this is undoubtedly the best reward, once again proving that 'social life is the only source of literature and art' is an unshakeable truth. Therefore, I want to say: thank you, life." He also wrote in "'Black and White' Afterward, Writing Another Word of Fiction Would Be Superfluous—Response to 'Mars' Editorial Department": "I once said: 'Black and White' is an unexpected harvest for me. For a long time after completing the work, I was immersed in a tremendous sense of happiness. Please note, I said happiness, not satisfaction. This is a state of free writing that has broken away from the pure literature tradition formed since the New Era. Through this novel, I constructed an artistic world that belongs entirely to myself. At that moment, I felt that I and 'Black and White' had become one."

Teacher Liu repeatedly emphasizes that "Black and White" is an unexpected harvest, implying that because of real-life experiences, he was given creative inspiration and material—this is the original meaning of art originating from life and transcending life. Regarding that special period of life experience, Teacher Liu once solemnly declared in "To You": "When my enemies threw buckets of dirty water and poisoned arrows at me, I knew the time had come to part ways with their 'literary world.'" He also issued a declaration: "A few years ago, when I finished the novel 'Human Realm,' I had the idea of stopping writing permanently. But now I've changed my mind. Because, since writing is a battle for me, I have no reason to flee from the battlefield." Thus, Teacher Liu, like the characters in his works, achieved complete transformation, from an institutional professional writer to a leftist intellectual with distinct political orientation. More precisely, he has become a brave warrior like Mr. Lu Xun, using his pen as a weapon for battle.

Although in some people's view, writers are merely storytellers, true writers must not only know how to tell stories but should also be brave and skilled at dissecting themselves. This self-dissection is not wallowing in the small self but achieving the greater self, connecting "I" with the people and masses, just as Mr. Lu Xun said: the infinite distance, countless people, all are related to me.

The artistic world displayed in "Black and White" corresponds one-to-one with the real life the author experienced, and the growth process of the protagonists in the novel almost completely merges with the author's ideological journey. Such a work is undoubtedly a soul work watered with the author's passionate blood. Looking at the author's background and experience, he bears both the class imprint of working people's origins and the social identity of an intellectual, thus embodying both the character of Ma La and Wang Cheng and the temperament of Murong Qiu and Gu Zheng. The fusion of both constitutes the author's unique artistic style and ideological inclination. As critics believe, marked by "Black and White," Teacher Liu Jiming's creation and life have entered a new realm, transforming him from a traditional writer into a steadfast action intellectual and "son of the people."

Precisely because there was first the author's complete transformation to a people's position, there could be such outstanding people's realist works as "Black and White." Teacher Liu uses literary and artistic forms to call forth the soul and forge the soul for a sleeping class, calling for the return of revolutionary spirit and inspiring the rise of revolutionary fighting spirit. The appearance of "Black and White," in the current situation where privileged elites reside high in the clouds while workers and peasants have become bottom-tier vulnerable groups, undoubtedly has realistic significance that strikes at people's hearts.

Ideals never die, original intentions never perish, revolution is immortal, and the people are eternal.

Thoughts on the Character "Song Qiankun"

—Notes After Reading "Black and White"

By Hong Bei

In teacher Liu Jiming's novel "Black and White," there is a character named Song Qiankun. Song Qiankun participated in the revolution during the New Democratic Revolution period and had suspicions of being a traitor while doing underground Party work before liberation. After liberation, this suspicion of being a traitor was never clarified. More importantly, although Song Qiankun participated in the revolution, his individualistic thinking was quite serious. After liberation, he coveted enjoyment and was single-minded about promotion, seeking higher positions. Although Song Qiankun was a veteran cadre who participated in the revolution before liberation, he lacked communist ideals and lived a corrupt life after liberation, being very improper in male-female relationships. During the Cultural Revolution, Song Qiankun naturally faced liquidation and criticism. However, after "reform and opening up," Song Qiankun was rehabilitated and became a "reformist." Not only that, but Song Qiankun after "reform and opening up" also became involved in economic corruption.

Looking at Song Qiankun's entire life, he is quite similar to certain veteran cadres. Of course, teacher Liu Jiming took characteristics from different veteran cadres, processed them through literary fiction, and concentrated them in the character Song Qiankun, giving him symbolic meaning. This symbolic meaning reminds people to reflect. Reflect on what? Just as Chairman Mao said in his "Important Instructions" at the beginning of 1976: "Some comrades, mainly old comrades, have their thinking still stuck in the stage of bourgeois democratic revolution, not understanding socialist revolution, having resistance to it, even opposing it... After the democratic revolution, workers and poor peasants did not stop, they wanted revolution. But some Party members no longer wanted to advance, some retreated and opposed revolution. Why? Because they became big officials and wanted to protect the interests of big officials. They had good houses, cars, high salaries, and attendants, even more powerful than capitalists. When socialist revolution came to their own heads, some Party members opposed it during collectivization, and they resented criticism of bourgeois legal rights."

During the Cultural Revolution, many veteran cadres who had worked in white areas were accused of having historical problems, and some were directly suspected of being traitors. In the later period of the Cultural Revolution, most veteran cadres were cleared of suspicion. Actually, during the democratic revolution period, the discipline of the CCP's white area underground Party was very strict. At that time, some traitors did appear, including some in important positions who caused much damage to Party organizations. But overall, most Party members of the white area underground Party during the democratic revolution were good people who risked their lives for revolution with loyal hearts. Precisely because the underground Party discipline was very strict at that time, once traitors appeared, they were quickly discovered and eliminated, without causing long-term concealment of large numbers of traitors and spies within the underground Party.

Looking at history, the reason why some veteran cadres from the democratic revolution became backward after entering the new society and the socialist revolution period was probably not related to their pre-liberation experiences, but to their incomplete ideological and worldview transformation. In 1972, a certain person wrote to Chairman Mao expressing "never to reverse verdicts," and Chairman Mao noted on his letter that this person "had no historical problems and never surrendered to the enemy." Actually, looking back now, just because he had no historical problems, does that mean his thinking wouldn't degenerate? Does that mean he wouldn't worship capitalism?

The Chinese Communist Party, whether in the white area underground Party during the democratic revolution period or in preventing imperialist infiltration after liberation, always did excellent work in "anti-spy and anti-traitor" activities. However, many veteran cadres did not keep up with the pace of socialist revolution ideologically, transforming from heroes who risked their lives for revolution during the revolutionary war era into mediocre people who were complacent, unwilling to reform, and did not pursue independent thinking ideologically. Ideological betrayal is more terrifying than direct surrender to the enemy. The collapse of the Soviet Union, changes in Eastern Europe, and changes in various socialist countries are all closely related to this problem.

In reality, many people like Song Qiankun participated in revolution during the democratic revolution period, relaxed their study and reform ideologically after liberation, became detached from the masses as their official positions grew larger, plus their craving for comfort in personal life and unwillingness to continue struggling hard, finally degenerating into capitalist roaders, or at least becoming supporters of capitalist roaders even if not consciously so. We should acknowledge that many veteran cadres took this path. If not for this, after Chairman Mao's death, it wouldn't have been so easy to change the Party and state, nor would social atmosphere have regressed so quickly, nor would privatization, polarization, rampant corruption, and oppression of the masses with "new three mountains" have occurred later.

In 1956, at the Party's Eighth Congress Second Plenary Session, when talking about the events in Poland and Hungary at the time, Chairman Mao said: "Our Party has millions of experienced cadres. Most of these cadres are good, they are home-grown, connected to the masses, and tested through long struggle. We have such a set of cadres: from the Party founding period, the Northern Expedition period, the Agrarian Revolutionary War period, the Anti-Japanese War period, the Liberation War period, and after national liberation. They are all precious assets of our country. One important reason why some Eastern European countries are not very stable is that they don't have such a set of cadres. With such a set of cadres tested in different revolutionary periods, we can 'remain calm regardless of wind and waves.'" Later history proved that a considerable portion of the veteran cadres disappointed Chairman Mao.

Looking back at history now, in the Soviet Union and originally socialist countries in Eastern Europe, whether during Khrushchev's revisionist rampage or the "color revolution" fever at the end of the 20th century, not many people stood up, not many dared to "go against the tide." In our China, many veteran cadres also "followed the crowd" for a long time, without independent thinking ideologically. In our China, after "reform and opening up," only a few people dared to stand up. For example, when some people used the so-called "discussion on the criterion of truth" to try to bring down Chairman Mao's banner, Comrade Wu Lengxi stood up in opposition. Another example: at the end of the 20th century, Wei Wei, Yu Quanyu and other veteran cadres made the magazines "Zhongliu" and "Zhenli de Zhuiqiu" into old leftist strongholds, resisting and criticizing the bourgeois liberalization and privatization wave in society at that time. Another example: at the beginning of the 21st century, when a certain big figure in the Party openly proposed to "expand the class base of the Party," Wei Wei, Zheng Tianxiang and other veteran comrades dared to stand up and criticize, not fearing retaliation. However, looking at the 47 years of history since Chairman Mao's death, old leftists were only a very small minority among veteran cadres, and most had degenerated into political "deaf-mutes" and "tide-watchers." Additionally, among veteran cadres, there were also a few extreme rightists, like former Deputy Director of the Organization Department Li Rui and former Vice President of People's University Xie Tao, who became vanguards of anti-Mao and anti-Marxist activities.

Tang Liqun: "Black and White": Allegorical Writing in the Post-Revolutionary Era

Liu Jiming wrote in the "Afterword" of "Black & White" that the novel was begun in September 2019 and completed in June 2022; it was finalized in April 2023, taking three and a half years in total. The writing of this three-volume, nine-part, 1.2 million-word masterpiece almost coincided entirely with the pandemic that swept the capitalist world, highlighting the author's painstaking efforts and the work's significance of resistance in what seems like a coincidental juxtaposition. Such was the temporal context of the larger environment. For Liu Jiming personally, the writing of "Black & White" only began after the 2018 incident, although the "conception" occurred two years before he began writing, but that was merely like "a seed buried in the soil." 2018 was like a watershed, bringing Liu Jiming into a different state. In his own words, it meant "leaving a camp that didn't belong to me" and "returning" to that "fallen class," as prophesied in his earlier poetry: "I am destined to fall behind in the journey / and soon be forgotten by my companions / while the scenery on both banks / and the nameless people / will take me in." ("Flowing Water Sonnet," 1997)

From the liberal-leaning creation of the 1980s and 1990s, to the turn toward grassroots literature in the new century, and then to being called a representative writer of New Left literature, he has indeed moved increasingly away from the literary mainstream. However, at the same time, he maintained a considerable status and position within the system... until 2018, when there was a complete and public break with the system—whether he was "forced to rebel," made an active choice, or both—this was of great significance for Liu Jiming. From the subsequent writing of "Black & White," he seems to have gained greater freedom, more unrestrained thought, and a more comprehensive and strategic approach... all of which are forged into the novel's holistic thinking about Chinese society.

I. Epic and Allegory

Just as Lu Xun, after resigning from his teaching position in 1927, achieved the peak of his essay writing, and Zhang Chengzhi, after resigning from public office in 1989, completed the spiritual exploration and literary liberation of "Soul History," Liu Jiming after 2018 wrote this outstanding masterpiece "Black & White."

"Black & White" is undoubtedly an epic work, including its massive narrative scale spanning enormous temporal and spatial dimensions, the narrative network woven from multiple storylines, the broad panorama of historical and social changes reflected through the ups and downs of several generations, and the grand theme of using the novel as testimony to the era. But its meaning and value go far beyond this. The epic quality may be a common ambition and pursuit of many modern Chinese novelists, and the turbulent, ever-changing Chinese society of the 20th century also provided repeated material for novelists to write about. Whether it's the leftist masterpieces from the revolutionary era ("the short 20th century") like "Midnight," "The Sun Shines on the Sanggan River," "The Hurricane," "Red Flag Spectrum," "The Builders," "Song of Youth," "Golden Road," or the dazzling array of novels from the post-revolutionary era (after the 1980s) such as "Big Breasts and Wide Hips," "White Deer Plain," "Ordinary World," "To Live," "Hometown Noodles and Flowers," "Jiangnan Trilogy"... all demonstrate writers' various impulses to reproduce, rewrite, and revise history using the novel form that can accommodate vast social content.

The famous Marxist theorist and critic Fredric Jameson once characterized Chinese modern literary texts represented by Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman" as "Third World national allegories," believing that "the texts of the Third World classics always project the writer's political aspirations in the form of national allegories: stories about individual fate contain referential implications about the popular life and the impact on the entire society of the Third World" (Jameson: "Third World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism"). The "impact" here can be understood as the consequences brought by modern capitalist hegemony. The absurd spectacle that appeared in the post-revolutionary era is: those writers and works occupying mainstream positions in the literary world often use "reverse" allegorical writing to attribute all the pain and disasters of popular life and the entire society's suffering to the Chinese revolution, as if all problems in Chinese society were brought by the revolution. Only by placing the birth of "Black & White" in this context can we understand its extremely significant meaning: after nearly 40 years of "reverse" allegorical writing, such a novel capable of competing with it finally appeared; it is both an epic and a positive allegory, containing high-intensity politics in the various individual destiny stories, providing indelible testimony for the betrayed people and cause.

"The temporal span of this work covers the history of reform and opening up of nearly 40 years from the 1980s onwards, as well as extending to the hundred-year history of Chinese revolution from the beginning of the last century" ("Black & White Afterword"). So what kind of strong narrative drive could propel the development of this hundred-year Chinese revolutionary history and forty-year reform and opening up history? In the author's words, "it is an opportunity for the hundred-year Chinese history and reality to achieve self-expression through my hands." History and reality can speak for themselves, which actually means that the creator's thinking and experience have accumulated to the point of eruption. The author also said that "Black & White" has "at least four or five main narrative threads, each thread like a screen panel, and opening each panel is like opening a world." The novel's "screen-style" narrative structure allows the panorama of history and reality to continuously open and converge, then fade out and reorganize, both complex and simple, free and flexible. What seems like a "masterfully achieved" narrative method is actually determined by the author's conceptual structure, which is to pursue and answer the question "Why did the revolution fail?" This becomes the novel's most internal consciousness, most core allegory, and provides the novel with its most powerful narrative drive.

Why did the revolution fail? Or rather, why did the socialist revolution fail? In the novel, this transforms into a highly allegorical journey of truth-seeking about "Who are the traitors?" It runs throughout the novel, mysterious and dramatic, becoming the novel's most intriguing setup. Different from the revolutionary historical novel "Red Crag's" investigation and identification of traitors, where the revolutionary camp would ultimately settle accounts with impure elements; also different from the avant-garde novel "Fancy Style," where whether one is a martyr or traitor has nothing to do with the individual subject, and individuals cannot penetrate the fog of history. In "Black & White," the traitor problem is structural, first structuring two eras, becoming the bridge connecting revolutionary history and reform history, while forming mutual reference between the two historical periods. Is Zong Da a traitor? Did Song Qiankun betray? This is not only a mystery left from the revolutionary era but also extends to the situation in the post-revolutionary era, indicating the source of why the reform history presents such a face.

Zong Da in the novel, as an early leader of the Chinese Communist Party, was characterized as a "traitor" for being arrested and writing "My Confession." However, as the text unfolds, through narrations, reviews, and investigations by different narrators, Zong Da's betrayal increasingly appears to be a conspiracy and deception manufactured by the Kuomintang intelligence service. Similarly, Song Qiankun, who joined the revolution very early and served as Zong Da's guard and staff officer, was investigated due to Zong Da's disappearance case, suspected for being arrested and released, and once imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution due to continuous reports but quickly returned... As the narrative deepens step by step, this "old revolutionary" increasingly seems like a traitor, yet there is still no conclusive evidence for complete identification. The novel highlights the complexity of the traitor problem, revealing that situations where truth and falsehood are hard to distinguish and black and white are confused often occur, but it is not lamenting that history has no truth, but rather pointing to another level of truth: even if one cannot confirm the title of traitor, the departure of revolution participants from revolutionary goals and even betrayal of revolution was already showing signs early on.

The 20th-century revolution led by the Chinese Communist Party was a proletarian revolution, a socialist revolution. Its fundamental difference from all dynastic changes, regime changes, and bourgeois revolutions in history, in Marx's words, was to achieve two breaks: complete break with private ownership, and complete break with traditional ideological systems and bourgeois ideology. However, how difficult is social transformation that includes individual transformation! Just as in the heated discussions sparked by the publication of "Black & White," one focus of attention was Song Qiankun's opportunism. He was a landlord's son, yet killed his own crime-ridden father and joined the revolution. However, behind this seemingly righteous act of destroying relatives for justice was hidden an unspeakable purpose: competing with his father for a woman. Therefore, "many revolutionaries joined the revolution with various private motives" (Kong Qingdong: "The Unbetrayed Fu Zhigao is More Terrifying"), and they did not complete self-transformation during the revolutionary process. "They bet on the revolutionary side, wanting to seek benefits for themselves after the revolution succeeded" (Zuolun: "Turncoats and Revolutionaries"). These speculators were "as numerous as carps crossing the river," causing great harm to the revolution. As for Zong Da, besides being a Party leader, he was also a famous left-wing cultural figure. Although he did not cause substantial harm to the Party's cause after being arrested, the novel writes about his years of silence and quiet death, which implicitly suggests a state of separation, alienation, and detachment from the revolution. If we "delve deeper, it actually involves the profound and complex relationship between intellectuals and revolution and the masses, and at a deeper level, the question of how intellectuals can break out of traditional ways of thinking" (Lao Tian: "From Society's 'Qualitative Change,' Zong Da's 'Confession,' and Qu Qiubai's 'Superfluous Words'"). Whether Zong Da or Song Qiankun, they both needed to betray their identities as landlord class and petty bourgeoisie in order to devote themselves to the proletarian revolutionary movement, but how far they could go on this path was unknown. Revolution cleansed the old society's filth and turbidity, and could even destroy the old economic foundation, but there were still those difficult-to-transform parts that could become the roots of restoration at any time, ultimately manifesting as the old world's comeback in the post-revolutionary era.

II. "Their Era" and "Our Era"

"The revolution succeeded!" "The revolution has already failed." The narrative starting point of the novel is not "the day after the revolution," but the university campus of the late 1980s, ten years after the last revolutionary movement of the 20th century. The spaces where cultural figures gathered were permeated everywhere with the "de-revolutionization" flavor of "new enlightenment," whether it was the gentle humming of avant-garde poetry, the rise and fall of scar literature and educated youth literature, or the temporary popularity of Heidegger's philosophy... all indicated the arrival of an era pursuing novelty and releasing individuality.

Starting the novel from the university is actually deeply meaningful. The author is well-versed in the daily life of intellectuals, using this as an entry point makes it easy to convey the characteristics of that era; the university campus also provided space for the appearances of protagonists like Gu Zheng, Li Hong, Wang Sheng, and developed many future narrative threads. But none of this is most important. Most important is: this space presented how power in the cultural field was transferred. Just like Lang Tao, who returned from studying abroad and was unrivaled at Dongjiang University, talked enthusiastically about Heidegger's existentialism but turned a blind eye to Wang Sheng's questioning about Heidegger's connection to fascism. Literary star Song Xiaofan's novel "Xiangchun Street" describing the persecution of educated youth was highly praised, while Wang Sheng's criticism questioning its fabrication of bizarre plots and poverty of thought was drowned out. Even Wang Sheng himself, regarding the naming "Wang Cheng" from the revolutionary era's "Heroic Sons and Daughters," changed his name because he couldn't bear others' mockery... The situation shown by the novel is that the standards for evaluating history and reality in the post-revolutionary era had quietly changed, the production mechanisms of knowledge and culture had become entirely different, and the era's discourse power was gradually being mastered by elites.

And this was just the beginning. As the novel's plot unfolds, from the 1980s to the 1990s to the new century's reform history, "Black & White" presents a process where elites gradually achieved joint rule. As one review keenly captured a typical scene in the novel: the "Three Families Banquet"—Dongjiang University President He Shouwu, Dongjiang Provincial Committee leader Song Qiankun, and expert scholar Lang Yongliang's three families, these power holders from political and academic circles, completed mutual interest exchanges while toasting and drinking. This small "Three Families Banquet" was "merely a microcosm of multiple 'family banquets,' the prototype of the later giant 'Yanshan Meeting.' Based on interest connections, they carefully planned and proceeded step by step, ultimately beginning to devour land, factories, media, and other resources that originally belonged to the masses, and using power, judiciary, and media, attempted to permanently consolidate their positions." (Yi Ran Ni Ni: "The Elites United, but the Masses Remain Scattered: Speaking from the 'Three Families Banquet'")

In the process of various forces' generation, competition, differentiation, and reorganization, the shadow of capital was indispensable. From Ba Guangming in the small town of Pi contracting the brick and tile factory, treating collective property as his own private property, arbitrarily firing workers, embezzling and corrupting, enriching himself, to Dongjiang Steel Works, the pillar industry of Dajiang City, continuously encountering enterprise restructuring, foreign acquisitions, worker layoffs, and management self-enrichment, and then to the "Red Second Generation" Hong Taihang in Beijing, using his identity and resources to manipulate multiple state-owned enterprise acquisitions behind the scenes, collaborating with foreign capital forces for huge profits... After three to four decades of expansion from top to bottom, capital had grown so large and strong that even the "healthy forces" represented by Chen Yimeng could not shake it.

Moreover, they were deeply entrenched, multifaceted, and often crossed boundaries. For example, university professor Lang Tao later became provincial propaganda minister, and Hong Taihang had extensive connections spanning politics and business. Because they grew savagely and inversely from the body of socialism that originally pursued equality, the paths to become elites often broke through conventions and bottom lines, shocking people. The most representative were Wu Bozhong and his son Du Wei. Wu Bozhong was originally a country doctor who walked the rivers and lakes through deception. His method of treating infertility was actually to produce a bunch of illegitimate children, yet he deceived smoothly and was revered as a "master" by various elites, occupying Phoenix Island and becoming a local "emperor." His son Du Wei, lacking education and skill, only inherited some family photography, but excelled at forming cliques and colluding with powerful people. He not only climbed to the position of editor-in-chief of "Popular Art" but also became chairman of a listed media company and chairman of the provincial literary federation, encompassing official, academic, and commercial spheres. As Wu Bozhong firmly believed, after reform and opening up, "my era and my son's era will all come!" This was indeed "their era," widely seizing power in various fields.

This era was so new, yet so old. The novel designed a detail where Wu Bozhong talks extensively about "restoration," conveying the essence of this era: "Use the plow of capitalist primitive accumulation to ruthlessly till the fertile land of the socialist economy, turning it completely upside down!" "Then there will be open bribery, drunken debauchery, rampant desires, prostitutes everywhere, thieves appearing, even leading to division and separatism. But the Spring and Autumn period was the freest, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was the freest, all periods of warlord chaos were the freest, all most capable of producing free people and free culture. In this sense, old China was actually the best China." This era seemed to break free from all constraints, but what broke free was merely personal desire; it seemed free and pluralistic, but actually only achieved the rule of capital; it seemed like a new era, but was merely old China.

For them it was the best of times, but what about "us"? The workers and farmers who had once been condensed into a powerful "us" during the revolutionary era and had existed as masters of the state and society, what did they experience in this era? Literary works depicting reform and opening up are numerous, some praising and glorifying, others criticizing and exposing, but few works like "Black & White" write about the fall of the laboring masses as an entire class, occurring simultaneously with the elites' rapid rise during the reform process. This is not the ups and downs and accidents experienced in some individual's life; the novel touches on the transformation of the entire political-economic structure.

The "people's realism" of "Black & White" is to make visible the social production relations and class relations connected to the characters, which is key to what has been gradually forgotten or deliberately obscured by mainstream literature in the post-revolutionary era. Wang Sheng, the most important protagonist in the novel, was born in a small town in the sixties and attended the best university in the provincial capital in the eighties. According to mainstream narrative logic, what should follow is his various individual struggles after entering the city. But "Black & White" insists on writing about his origins, his childhood experience helping at the collective brick and tile factory, his father Wang Shengli's life devoted to the public, and the process of the brick and tile factory being tortured to exhaustion and reduced to ruins after being privately contracted. The brief life of rural private teacher Tian Fang connects to the multiple meanings of the space of Phoenix Island where she lived. When Tian Fang was young, there was a fishing brigade on the island, the brigade had nurseries and kindergartens with conditions no less than those in the city, and life in the socialist-era fishing village was prosperous. Later, when the commune was dissolved and collective land and fishing production materials were distributed to individuals, many people left the small island to work in the south. The island's population decreased, and despite Tian Fang and the old principal's persistence and perseverance, they could not change the fate of the school's disappearance and the fishing village's decline. Not only that, the entire island was later devoured by private interests and gradually became Wu Bozhong's independent kingdom for power-money-sex transactions.

Another important protagonist, Gu Zheng, connects social relations that, besides the paternal line leading to Zong Da, also includes the maternal line related to Dongjiang Steel Works, Dajiang City's most important state-owned enterprise. Gu Zheng's maternal grandfather, grandmother, and uncle were all engineers or workers in the factory, witnessing the steel factory's ups and downs in different eras. The steel factory's space also became the place most capable of reflecting the transformation of production methods and full of struggle.

Readers will continuously encounter words that have become strange and distant today—"commune," "production team," "Red Guards," "revolutionary committee"... Rather than evoking memories of the revolutionary era, this serves to restore the prehistory of those migrant workers and laid-off urban workers, their positions during the great socialist construction era, and then contrast the collapse of inherent production relations and social relations that brought about the defeat of the entire class.

The novel clearly shows us how a group called the leading class lost leadership and became the bottom of China's urban and rural society. This is a class-against-class struggle, and also a large-scale betrayal. The novel's persistent pursuit and interrogation of "who is the traitor" appears particularly vivid in the narrative structure where revolutionary history and reform history are interwoven, with main and subplot lines intersecting. It is not a local plot point, but an overall allegory.

III. "Left then Right" and "Right then Left"

People can easily become traitors. Including ourselves. During revolutionary high tide, everyone is a leftist, but after times change and several waves rise and fall, how many remain true to their original intentions without following the crowd? "Black & White" places its characters in constantly changing dynamic circumstances for examination and writing, thereby constructing a rich character genealogy, making the characters' personalities and images not resemble the "complex human nature" that mainstream literary criticism loves to discuss, but closer to what Marx called "the totality of all social relations."

Part Three of "Black & White" has a small section titled "Situation and Ability," writing about Lang Tao's assessment and consideration of his own "talent" and external "leveraging of situation." These are two very vivid yet highly generalizable terms. If we expand "situation" to understand the trends continuously growing in the entire society, and expand "ability" to understand a person's subjective initiative, then we find that the characters in "Black & White" are undoubtedly all placed in such a tension structure.

There is a type of character in "Black & White" who, rather than being called idealized images, should be called pure people, possessing particularly moving power, such as Wang Shengli, Luo Zheng, the old principal... They also experienced the rise and fall of revolutionary tides. Initially, it seemed the revolutionary wave caught them: because of blood feuds with the old world, or because of progressive pursuit of the new world, individual destiny coincided with revolutionary momentum, and from this they began devoting their lives to the cause of liberation for the laboring masses. "Liberation" for them was far from just the victorious moment of 1949, but always placing people's interests above all else. Wang Shengli was a soldier in uniform and a leader of commune masses out of uniform; Luo Zheng persisted in investigating and reporting traitors who caused the "Phoenix Island Massacre" after liberation, his long confrontation with Song Qiankun and others most strongly interpreting what "loyalty" and "betrayal" meant; the old principal believed for life from the moment he received a copy of the "Communist Manifesto" left by Luo Zheng, transforming ideals and beliefs into protection for Phoenix Island's land and children... When the situation reversed and revolution was no more, these "people who lost power" still maintained their persistence through nine deaths without regret, opposing the rolling tide of capitalization. The "fighting spirit" of these characters "doesn't seem to come from the new period, but from the 'first thirty years'" (Zhu Yafang: "Three-Person Discussion: Giving Form to the People, Bearing Witness to the Era—Thematic Analysis of 'Black & White'"), except that they were heroes in the "first thirty years" and tragic heroes in the post-revolutionary era.

Forming a staggered correspondence with this series of characters is another type like Wu Bozhong and his son Du Wei, Ba Guangming and his son Ba Dong. They also have great persistence, which is placing personal interests above all else. When the revolutionary tide swept away everything, they hibernated in inconspicuous corners, and when individualism tore open the crack of the era, they invested all their shrewdness, scheming, calculation... into unlimited expansion of self-interest. They went with the flow, constantly expanding. "Du Wei embodies an individualism or desire-ism aesthetic developed to the extreme" (Liu Jiming: "Testimony of Time—'Black & White' and Others"), and Wu Bozhong's final suicide to protect his son precisely reflects his rock-solid determination to maintain personal interests. Even his extraordinary sexual capacity and the endless stream of illegitimate children in the plot design also allegorize the powerful vitality of individualism that is difficult to eradicate.

But these civilian capitalists, in the Chinese context, could not have flourished to such an extent without receiving top-down "momentum." This involves another type of "left then right" characters represented by Song Qiankun, Hong Taihang, Lu Shengping... Some were veteran cadres and old revolutionaries, some were descendants of revolutionaries, and others were war heroes... They all had glorious revolutionary records, including Hong Taihang's eight years in the Beidahuang Corps and his paralyzed legs from frostbite while performing duties. These people might have been activists or appeared to be activists during the revolutionary era, but these were ultimately just symbolic capital they accumulated, which would be converted into actual benefits when the time was right. When they dominated the direction of reform, China's rightward trend became inevitable.

However, history's dialectic often manifests as one trend producing its opposite. The post-revolutionary era was far from revolution, which also constituted the main growth environment for characters like Wang Sheng, Li Hong, Gu Zheng, Gu Xiaole, Tian Qingqing, Zong Xiaoxiao... Most of them were initially in a state of "political unconsciousness," but encountered various social contradictions and struggles at different stages of their lives, with Wang Sheng and Gu Zheng being most typical. Wang Sheng had Wang Shengli's education, Luo Zheng's influence, and Tian Fang and the old principal's inspiration on his "left" side, while on his "right" side were Lang Yongliang's guidance, Du Wei's recruitment, and the surrounding of various mediocre people. It was only when he chose to publish online a report exposing Wu Bozhong and others' scandals and was retaliated against and imprisoned that Wang Sheng gradually became aware of whom he should stand with. Gu Zheng initially was a sensitive woman with "literary youth" qualities, often avoiding the filth of the real world. It was only when she chose to break with the corrupt legal circle, defending Wang Sheng and her uncle Gu Xiaole's resistance to factory mergers, that she began brave competition and struggle with dark forces. The "right then left" transformation trajectory of these characters carries the color of subjects' difficult exploration, seeking to find their own path. As for the younger Qingqing and Xiaoxiao, during their university years, they were already re-exploring Marxism and connecting with real worker-peasant issues.

This series of character creation in "Black & White" has multiple meanings. For example, its connection to the "new person" image in 20th-century socialist literature and proletarian literature and art, that kind of completely new person who wanted to break free from and transcend old production relations and social relations. Although still "unfinished" by the novel's end, compared to the character images provided by mainstream literary circles, they already belong to "another world's" "new sprouts."

It also touches on the issue of "successors" to some extent. The section about Wang Sheng's birth in the first part of the novel is titled "Successor." People born and raised in socialist countries should all be cultivated as successors to communism, but social changes differentiated and alienated them. Those "left then right" characters make this term particularly ironic, while these "right then left" characters, although far from the era that produced true warriors and revolutionaries like Wang Shengli and Luo Zheng, also continue their predecessors' spiritual bloodline in the post-revolutionary era.

More importantly, this series of character creation shows the ebb and flow of "situation" and "ability" in this society. During Wang Sheng and Gu Zheng's university years in the 1980s, there might only be "left then right" people, not "right then left" people, but by the time Qingqing and Xiaoxiao attended university in the new century, the situation had become completely different. Capital's rapid expansion created the largest proletarian team. The state-owned enterprise workers and migrant workers in "Black & White" had begun to resist. Although spontaneous resistance was still far from becoming conscious, "revolution" is not something you can bid farewell to just because you want to. This also constitutes the reality that was pushed backstage in the post-revolutionary era but still appeared on the front stage from time to time. Therefore, by the latter half of the novel, it had already transitioned from the question "Why did the revolution fail?" to another question: "Is continuing revolution possible?"

Can the proletarian cause start anew? Wang Sheng, Gu Zheng, Xiaoxiao, and Qingqing in "Black & White" are all intellectuals, and the path from intellectuals to the proletariat still has a long distance; how can intellectuals combine with the masses? The problem of integrating with the masses implied in the left-wing cultural celebrity Zong Da nearly a century ago will reappear. However, history will not appear a second time in exactly the same form, because living people in reality will actively invest in the growth and flow of new trends.

This article was published in "Left-wing Literary Review" 2024 Issue 2