View/Open - DukeSpace - Duke University

such, the Comrade stories that appeared during this period, including “The Illusive Mind,”
address issues concerning freedom of expression in relation to modern China’s socialist market
economy.
Concurrently, great strides were made in the Chinese literary realm, partly due to
influences from Western discursive practices but also as a result of localized literary
developments in the 1980s. With the end of the Cultural Revolution, literary ideals that had long
been oppressed became active (Zhang and Ming 2007). 27 Chinese writers began to embrace
contemporary discursive practices such as post-modernism, reflexivity, and self-consciousness in
writing. As Comrade authors gained exposure to different literary works and the Chinese online
tongzhi culture, both new but rapidly changing phenomena, the stories produced mirror the
growing self-awareness among Chinese gays (Simon 2001). The earliest stories (with “Beijing
Story” as the foundational novella) served as a refuge from reality, whereas later works reflect
less need for these types of texts (Cristini 2005). Increasingly, authors of Comrade stories could
not just rely on explicit homosexual content to engage and impress their readership, and
developed their literary writing skills. This is evident in the greater thematic diversity
distinguished by inventive plots and poetic language of stories published at the turn of the
twenty-first century.
Even though almost two decades have passed since “Beijing Story” (1996) was first
circulated, few Comrade texts from the Mainland have garnered the same level of attention and
27 Scholars have highlighted that, immediately following the end of the Cultural Revolution, political objectives
came first and artistic aims second, and works prioritized commenting on or documenting past history to “make up”
for the ten-year absence of literary production (Wang and Lin 2011). In contrast, when China experienced rapid
development that transformed the nation’s social, political, and economic landscape, an exclusive concentration
articulating political objectives was abandoned and “the understanding of ‘art’ and ‘literature’ became the new
criterion of concealment and revelation” (Wang and Lin 2011, 237). With the intensification of market reforms,
Chinese literature and culture turned increasingly commercial and escapist, and writers increasingly recognized the
role of literature in exposing social problems and activating future social change (Woesler 2008). In the age of
globalization, new categories of writing that highlight the impact of modernization and consumerism in China’s
sociopolitical environment began to develop on the Chinese literary front. In general, new Chinese writings across
all genres exhibit an increase in conscious attention to aesthetic detail and artistic style (Woesler 2008). Texts that
were produced under the genre of Comrade Literature also bear the mark of this progression.
Chapter One | 44