Unavoidable Reflection—Contemplating Stories on Intellectuals

Reviewing Zhang Xianliang's novel Half of Man Is Woman,1 I naturally associate it with his Mimosa 2 and "Soul and Body."3 When I ponder the content for a moment, even Shen Rong's At Middle Age 4 and Xu Chi's Gadbach's Conjecture 5 come to mind. I associate them because first, the subject of all these writings is the fate of contemporary Chinese intellectuals, and second, they represent the three types of Chinese intellectual that developed during the three different stages of the New Period literature about Chinese intellectuals. Chen Jingren, who is a "white specialist"6 mathematician devoted to science, represents the literary affirmation of the intellectual who has a simple personality. Lu Wenting, who is an outstanding doctor and responsible wife and mother, represents the complete affirmation of the intellectual who has a complex personality. Xu Lingjun and Zhang Yongling, who are "gifted scholars in dire straits," were created by Zhang to represent the affirmation of intellectual self-transformation...