Yan Lianke - Serve the People

Banned in China, Yan Lianke’s latest novel, Serve the People, tells the story of a brief affair between a low-ranking army orderly and his commander’s wife, during the time of the Cultural Revolution. Spontaneous and passionate, their relationship forms an ironic counterpart to the events going on around them, and ultimately leads to the end of their way of life.

Lianke is quick to highlight the massive social engineering which took place under Mao. Quotations from the Red Book are emblazoned everywhere, like a low-tech version of Orwell’s Telescreens, and Maoist slogans become part of everyday speech (‘Serve The People – sit down and rest’). Women may be considered attractive as a result of their ability to ‘recite a hundred quotes from Mao’. The individual is subliminated into a wider ‘chain of revolution’ as a result of the relentless theory. Even the most banal domestic acts become ‘revolutionary chores’.

On the army base, theoretically the apotheosis of conformity, Wu Dawang and his lover Lui Lian become truly subversive figures, as they indulge their personal passions. Symbolically, as they become more uninhibited and animalistic, the paintings of Mao and engraved slogans that fill Lian’s lodgings are trampled into dust. Although their affair is brief and discreet, its after-effects shatter their surroundings; as rumours spread of the flagrant individualism of their act, Dawang’s entire battalion is disbanded, to prevent similar acts of defiance.

Although Dawang is regarded as a ‘Model Soldier’ and is able to recite Mao with great fervour, he has always had rather bourgeoise aspirations, to escape his rural background, and move his wife to the city. To do this, he must join the army, and win promotion. Lui’s influence can make a significant impact on his status. As he becomes more assured of his security, and his prospects, he finds that more and more of his superiors, including the Political Instructor, share his goal of individual advancement, although this must be shrouded by an ostensible dedication to collectivism.

The army, and Chinese society in general, is presented in Feudalistic, hierarchical terms. Liu is completely dominant over Wu, and he must call her ‘aunt’. There is a massive divide between rural and city life, and women are subservient to men for the most part. It is significant, however, that the novel contains no criticisms of any specific aspects of Maoism. Wu suffers no outright oppression, and collective farming is treated neutrally.

The book takes a stronger approach than simply attacking individual policies. Lianke is arguing that details can cloud our judgement, when an entire regime is based on faulty principles. The lack of detailed criticism gives the book a more internationalist appeal, beyond the specifics of Chinese history. The book attacks the imposition of a rigid dogma on a people who don’t believe it, and the destruction of individual values; this charge can be held against all totalitarian regimes. The key to happiness, suggests the author, is to find a way of escaping this mindset, smashing the statues and slogans.

‘Serve the People’ has parallels with 1984, with its focus on didactic authoritarianism, and its invocation of passion as an antidote to proscribed modes of behaviour. There is a similar sense of anticlimax also, as the affair ends and both parties return to their designated roles in society, as factory worker and diplomatic wife. Serve the People shows men as impotent (Lui’s husband) or powerless (Wu), all agency taken from them by the state. Lui, like Julia, must incite Wu to take power and responsibility for himself. Lianke does not write with Orwell’s pessimism though; Serve the People is warm and humorous at times; maybe historical distance removes the need for Orwellian paranoia.

I’m sure that Serve the People will mean different things to each reader; it could be taken as a paean to Western capitalism, but is not necessarily so. It argues against totalitarianism, remember, without arguing for either capitalism, socialism, or any other form of political belief. Primarily, Lianke argues for the importance of autonomy and individual beliefs and ideals. It is not a surprise that the novel is banned in its country of origin. It can still be effective in helping western readers to examine their own mindsets and outlooks though, as well as being a funny and at times uplifting piece of writing.