{"id":7873,"date":"2016-12-14T15:23:25","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T20:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=7873"},"modified":"2016-12-16T15:35:12","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T20:35:12","slug":"kristina-moriconi-the-problem-with-me-and-other-essays-about-making-trouble-in-china-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/kristina-moriconi-the-problem-with-me-and-other-essays-about-making-trouble-in-china-today","title":{"rendered":"Kristina Moriconi: The Problem with Me: And Other Essays about Making Trouble in China Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"problem-with-me\"This provocative collection from \u201cChina\u2019s Troublemaker\u201d falls short on wit and excels at arrogance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the translators\u2019 introduction to Han Han\u2019s collection of essays, The Problem with Me, we come to know this young, influential writer is speaking for \u201ca new generation of troublemakers and dissidents, young people [in China] unhappy with the status quo.\u201d And \u201ccentral to enjoying Han Han\u2019s writing is his sense of humor.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it becomes difficult at times to read his work through a lens of satire or wit when his language leans heavily toward judgment and narrow-mindedness. For example, \u201cThe Chinese education system is terrible because the teachers are terrible.\u201d Or, \u201cPoets think that they\u2019re superior to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is danger in painting everything and everyone with such broad brushstrokes. But Han seems unconcerned with the idea of taking such risks. In fact, he writes, \u201cFor a real writer, recklessness is very important.\u201d To be reckless is to be unconcerned about the consequences of one\u2019s actions, to proceed without caution, to be careless.<\/p>\n

By 2008, several years after dropping out of high school and entering the world of car racing, Han had become China\u2019s top blogger, \u201can influential opinion leader who lambasted corrupt officials, stood up for downtrodden citizens, and joked with porn stars with insight and wit\u2026As an Internet celebrity, [he] found his every political thought amplified, shared and liked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps one might want to consider such credentials when reading this collection of essays, ranging in topic from governing to policing to intellectualism, from history to culture and tradition.<\/p>\n

It is one thing as a writer to voice an opinion, but to attempt to state that opinion as fact, in the absence of statistics or sources or context, is both arrogant and self-serving. Good writing is grounded in research and data. And good writing tells the full story. There is a slant to Han\u2019s writing, a one-sidedness that may be fine for his audience of twenty- and thirty-somethings who are discontented, even angry, with Chinese culture and politics today. But, for a wider audience, that slant is\u2026well, reckless. And too often it comes across as smug.<\/p>\n

Perhaps he could learn a lesson or two from Andre Dubus III, who reflects on his own writing in this quote I\u2019ve found to be both inspirational and honest: \u201cMost of the time I feel stupid, insensitive, mediocre, talentless and vulnerable \u2014 like I\u2019m about to cry any second \u2014 and wrong. I\u2019ve found that when that happens, it usually means I\u2019m writing pretty well, pretty deeply, pretty rawly.\u201d It is nearly impossible to find that kind of humility and vulnerability in Han\u2019s essays.<\/p>\n

What you will find, though, is chauvinism. There are subtle instances throughout, but there are two instances in particular where the misogynistic language is so obvious that it is troubling. The first coincides with Han\u2019s above comment about poets. \u201cWriting prose is writing prose, but when it comes to getting young female literati into bed with you, prose writer isn\u2019t as effective as poet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second instance is from \u201cOn His Daughter,\u201d part of an interview with the Beijing Youth Weekly where Han makes it clear that, beyond being happy and having good character, he has few expectations of his daughter. Yet, were he to have a son, he would be expected to \u201cwork hard for himself and in order to change society, to fight to build a safe environment for the daughters of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, when the interviewer responds, \u201cSome people will no doubt suspect that you have serious male chauvinist tendencies, and that you think of girls as weak,\u201d Han says, \u201cIsn\u2019t that the case? People have all sorts of roles the world over, but some things are simply the way they are. In many areas, like walking on a dark road in the middle of the night, or in athletic competitions, girls suffer. I\u2019m a protector of girls. I don\u2019t want my wife to go out to work, and I want to protect my daughter. If you want to call that male chauvinism, then I\u2019ll admit to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only positive spin in all of that is that he at least has the insight to admit to being a chauvinist, though in so doing he doesn\u2019t seem too concerned about alienating female readers who may be offended by this. But, again, to be reckless is to be utterly unconcerned about the consequences of one\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

There are far too many more examples of this kind of recklessness throughout Han\u2019s collection. His endeavors to be witty and satirical fall short for me. In his attempts to be provocative or controversial, however, he does succeed. But, still, there is a line where writing that is thought-provoking lurches toward offensive and insulting. It is obviously up to the individual reader to decide if they think Han has crossed that line in this collection, because, of course, it would arrogant and self-serving of me to state my opinion as fact.<\/p>\n

Kristina Moriconi is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared in a variety of literary journals and magazines including Brevity, Superstition Review, and the Nervous Breakdown, as well as many others. She earned her MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop in Tacoma, Washington. She lives in the Philadelphia area and teaches writing in the local community. Moriconi also teaches in the Creative Writing MFA Program at Rosemont College.<\/p>\n

Source:http:\/\/www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com\/bookreview\/the-problem-with-me-and-other-essays-about-making-trouble-in-china-today<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This provocative collection from \u201cChina\u2019 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[279,1956,1957],"views":6129,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7873"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7875,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7873\/revisions\/7875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}