Liu Zaifu | |
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| Born | (1941-10-22)22 October 1941 |
| Occupation | writer, poet, professor |
| Period | 1977-present |
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Liu Zaifu (simplified Chinese:刘再复;traditional Chinese:劉再复;pinyin:Liú Zàifù; born 10 October 1941) is a Chinese author, poet, and professor in literature and theliberal arts. Liu is particularly well known for his work "Reflections on Dream of the Red Chamber", which analyzes the Chinese classic "Dream of the Red Chamber", but with Liu's personal viewpoints and philosophy. He has lectured at theUniversity of Chicago,University of Colorado,Stockholm University, and theCity University of Hong Kong, where he served as an honorary professor in 2004.[2]
Liu was born into a peasant family in southernFujian in 1941.[3]: 67 Liu took particular interest in Marxist literature, but put his own morals and messages behind the pieces, rather than those given by the party.[2][4]
Liu studiedChinese literature atXiamen University.[3]: 70 After his graduation, he became the editor-in-chief ofWenxue Pinglun (Literary Review), a Chinese periodical discussing literary works.[2] He worked as an editor for Beijing-based magazine,New Construction.[3]: 67
During theCultural Revolution, Liu was placed under house arrest for his personal views ofMarxist belief and doctrine not matching those of the party.[5] He was given protection by future PresidentHu Jintao.[6]
Towards the end of the Cultural Revolution, Liu traveled abroad, going toTaiwan,Hong Kong, and theUnited States among other places, which would end up influencing his works, along with spreading his literature abroad outside of China.[7]
In 1979, Liu joined to Communist Party and assisted senior literary leaders and writers with their manuscripts and speeches.[3]: 67
From 1985 to 1989, Liu was the director of the Institute of Literature at theChinese Academy of Social Sciences.[3]: 70 During his tenure, he sponsored academic discussions on cultural liberalization.[3]: 67
Liu's 1986monographOn the Composition of Human Character is one of his most acclaimed but also most criticized texts.[3]: 67 The text contends that humanist literature should exceed the bounds of Maoist aesthetics and assert the "inner universe".[3]: 67 The same year, he appliedLi Zehou's philosophy of subjectivity to literary theory and published an article inPeople's Daily calling for "socialist humanism."[8]
Liu andLi Zehou wroteA Farewell to Revolution in 1995.[3]: 46 The book, which criticised Mao-era radicalism and mass uprising as violent and called to "bid farewell to revolution" in favor of incremental reform and the development of democratic temperament, became a major text for those who continued to advocate theNew Enlightenment ideals.[3]: 46 The book also led to the increasing divergence of perspective between liberal intellectuals andNew Left intellectuals over the New Enlightenment legacy, as New Left intellectuals viewed the book as a veiled neoliberal effort to depoliticise radical thinking and legitimateend-of-history liberal triumphalism.[3]: 47
Liu's 2002 work with Lin Gang,Guilt and Literature, discusses two categories of individual responsibility for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution.[3]: 69 Guilt and Literature distinguishes between a "limited legal responsibility" for imposing judgment based on a person's individual legal and political consequences and an "infinite moral responsibility" through which individual's actions are ultimately judgment by their "inner conscience".[3]: 69
