尹县长 (1978)

《尹县长》是陈若曦所著的短篇小说，1974年首先发表于《明报月刊》，成为中国大陆“伤痕文学”的先声。

1976年，《尹县长》连同《晶晶的生日》、《值夜》、《查户口》、《任秀兰》、《耿尔在北京》六篇短篇小说收录于《尹县长》小说集中，由远景出版社出版。

这小说问世后反响很大，赞美与诽谤并起。该小说在1999年《亚洲周刊》“二十世纪中文小说一百强”名单中排列第89名。

内容简介

这篇小说写的是文化大革命初期发生于陕西省兴安县的一个悲剧。故事主角是中华民国国军上校尹飞龙，国共内战时他领军攻打桂林，为了保存部队队员生命而向共产党投诚。尹飞龙在“新中国”循规蹈矩，努力工作十多年，最后当上了陕西省兴安县的县长。可一到了文革，他仍然难逃冤死的厄运。终因发生在国共内战时的“历史问题”而被红卫兵批斗，打成反革命，最后被枪毙。枪毙时他仍高喊“毛主席万岁！共产党万岁！”。据陈若曦介绍，尹飞龙原型为一雷姓人物，经历几乎未作改动，以血的真实来揭露文革谎言。

The Execution of Mayor Yin (Chinese: 尹縣長; pinyin: Yǐn xiànzhǎng) is a 1978 collection of short stories by Chen Ruoxi, based on her experiences in mainland China during the 1960s and 1970s before she came to Taiwan.

The collection was published in English under the title The Execution of Mayor Yin and Other Stories from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978. Tr. by Nancy Ing and Howard Goldblatt. The English language translation attained wide recognition, as its publication occurred at a time when U.S. President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China, the death of Mao Zedong, and the thaw in diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China all generated widespread interest in China in the United States. A revised edition of the book with a new introduction by Perry Link was re-issued by Indiana University Press in 2004.

Context

The Execution of Mayor Yin contains stories set during the period of the Cultural Revolution in China, approximately 1965–1975.

Themes

Major themes of the stories in the collection include freedom vs. conformity, disillusionment, bewilderment, trauma, disgust, and political persecution.

Motifs

Major motifs include the steady stream of political campaigns and the Cult of Mao, as well as many quintessential features of life in China and of Chinese culture.

A leitmotif running through the stories is the United States. Chen Ruoxi lived in the United States for a period, and many of the characters in her stories remark on contrasts between their experiences in the United States and in China, as well as between their expectations of life in the "new" China and what they observe of the "real" China.

Short Stories Synopses

The Execution of Mayor Yin consists of eight stories:

The Execution of Mayor Yin (first published in 1974)

"Chairman Mao is a Rotten Egg"

Night Duty

Residency Check

Jen Hsiu-lan

The Big Fish

Keng Erh in Peking

Nixon's Press Corps

Brief synopses follow.

The Execution of Mayor Yin

During a visit to a rural area outside of Xi'an, the narrator sees how political violence during the Cultural Revolution finds escalates through a series of victims, culminating in "Mayor Yin" -- "Yin Xianzhang" or more literally "county magistrate" Yin.

Some of the characters in the story conclude that there is simply no way to understand all of the political campaigns, or to see their consequences in any logical framework.

The alludes to one of Mao Tse-tung's most famous speeches: Serve the People. The speech is about finding meaning in life by sacrifice.

"Chairman Mao is a Rotten Egg"

In this story, adults discover the absurd ends that a child's indiscretion can lead in the context of the Cult of Mao.

"Night Duty"

An idealistic teacher from Taiwan, who has also lived in the United States, now lives and works in China. In the course of service on a rural farm associated with his school in Nanjing—a variant on the Down to the Countryside Movement—he makes some discouraging observations. These include a former book lover who has given up on books, and members of the "red" (proletariat) class who steal from the community.

"Residency Check"

This story turns on accusations of infidelity made against the narrator's (female) neighbor.

"Jen Hsiu-lan"

A (woman) political prisoner makes an "escape."

The story is highly symbolic, with pastoral scenes of children combing a hillside in search of the escaped prisoner. The "escapee" turns out to have drowned herself in a cesspool.

Mao Tse-tung's speech, Serve the People, is alluded to again in this story.

A theme of the story is women's liberation (or lack of it) in the "new" China.

"The Big Fish"

A man enjoys the sensual thrill of hunting down, negotiating for, and purchasing a small luxury - a large fish of a kind seldom available—from his local market. His joy is short-lived when he is told that the fish must be returned, in order to preserve the appearance of abundance for visiting reporters.

"Keng Erh in Peking"

This story describes the life of a Chinese man who, after living in the United States for twenty years, moves to China.