{"id":17633,"date":"2008-02-21T18:58:59","date_gmt":"2008-02-22T01:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/"},"modified":"2008-02-21T19:00:40","modified_gmt":"2008-02-22T02:00:40","slug":"should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Authors Get Mixed Up in Politics?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.danwei.org\/books\/authors_involved_in_politics.php\">Danwei<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>    Danwei follows a debate about the current state of Chinese literature sparked by German Sinologist <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wolfgang_Kubin\">Wolfgang Kubin\u2019s<\/a> most recent comments that contemporary Chinese authors have \u201csold-out.\u201d  And, prompted novelist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.china.org.cn\/english\/GS-e\/240533.htm\">Zhang Ping&#8217;s<\/a> appointment as vice-governor of Shanxi Province, Danwei asks, do politics and writing mix?<\/p>\n<p>    What role should authors have in society? Wolfgang Kubin tells Oriental Outlook that contemporary Chinese writers have &#8220;sold out&#8221;; Chang Ping makes the case that writing is not incompatible with politics.<\/p>\n<p>When Deutsche Welle interviewed Wolfgang Kubin in December 2006, the German Sinologist&#8217;s disparaging comments about contemporary Chinese literature touched off a storm of controversy in China. It was later revealed that some of his harsher remarks had been mis-translated, making him appear more dismissive than he really was; a slightly more nuanced critique appeared in a China Daily interview in April 2007 <\/p>\n<p>The current issue of Oriental Outlook magazine prints yet another interview with Kubin, in which he speaks highly of Eileen Chang, Lu Xun, and the early work of Ding Ling, but dismissively of most everyone else (including G\u00f6ran Malmqvist, the only member of the Swedish Academy who knows Chinese).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Danwei: Danwei follows a debate about the current state of Chinese literature sparked by German Sinologist Wolfgang Kubin\u2019s most recent comments that contemporary Chinese authors have \u201csold-out.\u201d And, prompted novelist Zhang Ping&#8217;s appointment as vice-governor of Shanxi Province, Danwei asks, do politics and writing mix? What role should authors have in society? Wolfgang Kubin [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,5805,100],"tags":[1289],"class_list":["post-17633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-main","category-politics","tag-literature","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Should Authors Get Mixed Up in Politics?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should Authors Get Mixed Up in Politics?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From Danwei: Danwei follows a debate about the current state of Chinese literature sparked by German Sinologist Wolfgang Kubin\u2019s most recent comments that contemporary Chinese authors have \u201csold-out.\u201d And, prompted novelist Zhang Ping&#8217;s appointment as vice-governor of Shanxi Province, Danwei asks, do politics and writing mix? What role should authors have in society? Wolfgang Kubin [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-22T01:58:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-02-22T02:00:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"186\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"177\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Meredith Godwin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Meredith Godwin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Meredith Godwin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/9145f5b9c272d76d32ffd56a7eb29698\"},\"headline\":\"Should Authors Get Mixed Up in Politics?\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-02-22T01:58:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-02-22T02:00:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/\"},\"wordCount\":195,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"literature\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture &amp; the Arts\",\"Main\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/\",\"name\":\"Should Authors Get Mixed Up in Politics?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-02-22T01:58:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-02-22T02:00:40+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Should Authors Get Mixed Up in Politics?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\",\"name\":\"China Digital Times (CDT)\",\"description\":\"Covering China from Cyberspace\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\",\"name\":\"China Digital Times\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg\",\"width\":186,\"height\":177,\"caption\":\"China Digital Times\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/cdt\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/9145f5b9c272d76d32ffd56a7eb29698\",\"name\":\"Meredith Godwin\",\"description\":\"Meredith Godwin is the CDT Program Administrator. She previously wrote for CDT as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley where she earned her bachelors in Asian Studies. 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What role should authors have in society? Wolfgang Kubin [&hellip;]","og_url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/","og_site_name":"China Digital Times (CDT)","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes","article_published_time":"2008-02-22T01:58:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2008-02-22T02:00:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":186,"height":177,"url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Meredith Godwin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cdt","twitter_site":"@cdt","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Meredith Godwin","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/"},"author":{"name":"Meredith Godwin","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/9145f5b9c272d76d32ffd56a7eb29698"},"headline":"Should Authors Get Mixed Up in Politics?","datePublished":"2008-02-22T01:58:59+00:00","dateModified":"2008-02-22T02:00:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/"},"wordCount":195,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization"},"keywords":["literature"],"articleSection":["Culture &amp; the Arts","Main","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/","url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/","name":"Should Authors Get Mixed Up in Politics?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-02-22T01:58:59+00:00","dateModified":"2008-02-22T02:00:40+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/02\/should-authors-get-mixed-up-in-politics\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Should Authors Get Mixed Up in Politics?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/","name":"China Digital Times (CDT)","description":"Covering China from Cyberspace","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization","name":"China Digital Times","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg","width":186,"height":177,"caption":"China Digital Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes","https:\/\/x.com\/cdt"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/9145f5b9c272d76d32ffd56a7eb29698","name":"Meredith Godwin","description":"Meredith Godwin is the CDT Program Administrator. 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