Liu Zaifu

Liu Zaifu (; born 10 October 1941) is a Chinese author, poet, and professor in literature and the liberal arts. Liu is particularly well known for his work "Reflections on Dream of the Red Chamber", which analyzes the Chinese classic "Dream of the Red Chamber", but with Liu's personal viewpoints and philosophy. He has lectured at the University of Chicago, University of Colorado, Stockholm University, and the City University of Hong Kong, where he served as an honorary professor in 2004.

Biography

Liu was born into a peasant family in southern Fujian in 1941. Liu took particular interest in Marxist literature, but put his own morals and messages behind the pieces, rather than those given by the party.

Liu studied Chinese literature at Xiamen University. After his graduation, he became the editor-in-chief of ''Wenxue Pinglun'' (Literary Review), a Chinese periodical discussing literary works. He worked as an editor for Beijing-based magazine, ''New Construction''.

During the Cultural Revolution, Liu was placed under house arrest for his personal views of Marxist belief and doctrine not matching those of the party. He was given protection by future President Hu Jintao.

Towards the end of the Cultural Revolution, Liu traveled abroad, going to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United States among other places, which would end up influencing his works, along with spreading his literature abroad outside of China.

In 1979, Liu joined to Communist Party and assisted senior literary leaders and writers with their manuscripts and speeches.

From 1985 to 1989, Liu was the director of the Institute of Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. During his tenure, he sponsored academic discussions on cultural liberalization.

Works

Liu's 1986 monograph ''On the Composition of Human Character'' is one of his most acclaimed but also most criticized texts. The text contends that humanist literature should exceed the bounds of Maoist aesthetics and assert the "inner universe".

Liu and Li Zehou wrote '' A Farewell to Revolution'' in 1995. The book, which criticised Mao-era radicalism and mass uprising as violent and called to "bid farewell to revolution" in favor of incremental reform and the development of democratic temperament, became a major text for those who continued to advocate the New Enlightenment ideals. The book also led to the increasing divergence of perspective between liberal intellectuals and New Left intellectuals over the New Enlightenment legacy, as New Left intellectuals viewed the book as a veiled neoliberal effort to depoliticise radical thinking and legitimate end-of-history liberal triumphalism.

Liu's 2002 work with Lin Gang, ''Guilt and Literature'', discusses two categories of individual responsibility for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. ''Guilt and Literature'' distinguishes between a "limited legal responsibility" for imposing judgment based on a person's individual legal and political consequences and an "infinite moral responsibility" through which individual's actions are ultimately judgment by their "inner conscience".

Other works

* ''Lu Xun and Natural Science (Theory)'' (1977)
* ''Comments on Heng Meiji and Yang Zhijie'' (1978)
* ''Rain Silk Set'' (1979)
* ''Lu Xun's Biography'' (1981)
* ''On Lu Xun's Aesthetic Thought'' (1981)
* ''Farewell'' (1983)
* ''Deep Sea Pursuit'' (1983)
* ''Sun? Land? Man'' (1984)
* ''White Rushes'' (1985)
* ''Liu Zaifu's Essay'' (1986)
* ''Reflections on Literature'' (1986)
* ''Human? Mother-in-law? Love'' (1988)
* ''Chinese People and Tradition'' (1988)
* ''On the Design of Human Culture in China'' (1988)
* ''Liu Zaifu's Prose Poem Collection'' (1988)
* ''Liu Zai Collection'' (1988)
* ''Human Goddess of Love'' (2013)
* ''Laughter for the Search'' (2013)
* ''Reading the Bohai Sea Again'' (2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Zaifu
1941 births
Living people
20th-century Chinese writers
21st-century Chinese writers
Xiamen University alumni
Chinese literary theorists