Depicting Reality? What does art say about Modern China?

The closest thing I had previously come to "Chinese entertainment" was at my favorite Chinese restaurant in Williamsburg, VA. The owners of Peking had installed TV's that showed Chinese videos of landscapes and circuses to the locals and tourists who frequented their buffet (which has grown to include Mongolian as well as Japanese style dishes). If my family was going out to eat growing up, which was infrequent, but odds are we were going to Peking. The restaurant had grown from a small sit-down establishment with a menu of traditional Ameri-Chinese dishes, to this giant restaurant which in the strip mall had consumed the once occupied spaces of a pet store, dance studio and shipping store. The owners seem to be living out the American dream, but I'm not sure how "American" it really is. From my readings on the history of Modern China I have learned about the various movements in the socialistic cycle that took place following the revolution: The Great Leap Forward, The Cultural Revolution, The Four Moderns. It's one thing to read about this from a historical perspective, it's another to understand what they meant to the people of China. In the movie To Live, directed by Zhang Yimou and the book Life and Death are Wearing Me Out written by Mo Yan we are entertained by works that bring to life the second half of the 20th century. Both works parallel the tubulent history with different perspectives of that time as seen through the various characters. They incorporate Chinese cultural traditions, the puppets in To Live and the concept of reincarnation in Mo Yan's work as virtual characters in the stories. The audience gets to see how these artists perceived the effects of the different movements in Communist China.

As artists, they are allowed certain liberties in their story telling, and these are especially employed by Mo Yan. Mo Yan's switching through narrators can be confusing at times, I found myself having to stop at the beginning of each chapter to figure out who was doing the talking, but it also made the book interesting. The style of writing was also different from what I am used to in Western works, but made the book interesting. I found myself very consumed with the stories, especially when they were being told from the perspective of the animal reincarnations. It was through these reincarnations of donkey, pig and dog that the author could really offer a commentary on the times and even at times, the animals could become just as caught up in the various movements.

While these artists can employ artistic freedom, as the audience I felt their depictions serve to give the modern audience a better understanding of the times.