Review: China Witness- Xinran

I’ve been reading my beautiful, hardback copy of Xinran’s latest book for around two years now, a chapter at a time in between novels and FINALY finished it this week.

Based on twenty years of experiences and interviews, China Witness is a combination of history and biography following Xue Xinran as she attempts to gain a better understanding of the generations that came before her own: the generations of Chinese people who lived through the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

Oral history has traditionally received a bad rap from the academic world. After all, human memories are subjective and various studies have proven without a doubt that they are mutable and susceptible to change. I won’t go into this debate in detail, suffice to say that recent students of history tend to think that ALL history is subjective to some degree but as human life tends to be subjective, think that it is inevitable that the study of history is bound to be littered with contrasting opinions.  More to the point, oral history has been the preferred method of passing down events by those who cannot leave their story for future generations in any other format. Not only has Oral history been an important tool for accessing the opinions and memories of those who are not educated, but it has also provided a platform for those without social or economic power and those who have views that are opposed, repressed and suppressed by their respective sources of power. Oral history then can be a very effective way to glean information that otherwise would have been forgotten.

Xinran’s China Witness is based around this concept. Whilst the rest of the world has since been made aware of the horrors and hardships of living in China under the leadership of Mao Zedong, it is still extremely rare to hear first hand accounts from the ordinary people who were his contemporaries. Interviewing everyone from taxi drivers and lantern makers to a female PLA General, Xinran leaves no stone unturned in her efforts to gain a better insight into her parent’s generation.

Her interviewing style is very personal. Often, we are told, she merely waits. She chats generally, allowing her interviewees to relax and reveal their often suppressed memories and feelings. The interviews are presented in transcript format, complete with inconsequential details and painstaking descriptions of the physical manifestations of the fear and pain which stirring up old memories cause.

Despite these barriers, a number of the ‘witnesses’ here give frank and open accounts of their past roles in society. However, there is still a tendency for Xinran to ignore her journalistic instinct on the occasions when the person she is talking to is evasive or skirts around an issue. Her failure to probe deeper is often explained away as an unavoidable side effect of showing deferential respect. She is at pains to point out the generational gap between herself and the people she talks to:  the majority of the people whose stories are recorded within China Witness are in the seventies and eighties and the Chinese culture is known for its deferential attitude towards its elders. In addition, this particular group of people lived through one of the most controlling societies in modern history, mainly because they learned to play by its rules, and kept their heads down and their thoughts to themselves. Considering the nature of the project, it is perhaps not surprising that Xinran chooses the softly softly approach, however, there are moments when you sense that the merest push might have revealed something more.

One of the more harrowing accounts is that of Mr Chanzheng, a ninety year old survivor of the Long March. The accounts here are very restrained, often the language used is fairly subdued but even the toned down language cannot hide the horror of accounts like Mr Chanzheng’s when he reports loosing companions in the Lazi Kou Pass:

‘Some of our comrades didn’t take enough care coming down and they rolled over the edge and died! When I think back to all that, it makes me really, really sad. We never knew who would be next.’

China Witness provides a fascinating insight into the history of modern China and the lives of ordinary Chinese people during an extraordinary period. Some of my favourite stories came from the everyday workers, who carried on living life as normally as possible despite increasing pressures to conform to new standards. The interview with the lantern-maker may not seem as relevant as that of the ex-policeman, but it is full of minor, charming details that paint an intimate picture of one man’s working life. These intimate portrayals of Chinese lives are what make China Witness stand out and ultimately mark its triumph.