Hu Yamin is a prominent Chinese scholar specializing in comparative Marxist literary criticism. Her recent work, The Contemporary Construction of the Chinese Form of Marxist Literary Criticism, offers a historical-geographic comparative analysis of Western and Chinese Marxist literary theories. Her previous translated work includes a two-volume edited set titled Keywords in Western Literary Criticism and Contemporary China (Routledge, 2020).
The new book revisits these theoretical systems with a fresh reading of classical Marxist literary theory. It systematically examines Chinese Marxist literary criticism, highlighting the unique historical and cultural trajectories that have influenced its development in China’s revolutionary process over the past century.
The Contemporary Construction is organized into seven chapters, each concentrating on a fundamental term or concept essential to contemporary Chinese theory: “the people,” “the nation,” politics, praxis, technology, the capitalist market, and value theory in literary criticism. Hu argues that China’s historical traditions and evolving social conditions cannot be fully comprehended through Western Marxist frameworks. She explains that these frameworks fail to capture the complexities of China’s anti-colonial roots, revolutionary era, and socialist-oriented modernization.
Although she does not provide a specific definition of Western Marxism, the context suggests it refers to the body of Marxist thought produced by individuals whose political and intellectual work primarily occurs in imperialist or imperialist-adjacent countries. In fact, Hu discusses the work of prominent academics who associate themselves with Marxian thought but generally distance themselves from Communist Parties and the numerous workers’ or socialist parties that exist in imperialist countries. (This particular flaw in the book’s argument reinforces vogue academic designations of Western Marxism as purely a theoretical stance uninterested in political struggle.)
Hu positions Chinese Marxism as historically and ideologically distinct from Western Marxism, challenging the idea that Western theoretical models can be universally applied to all societies. In her comparative approach, Hu engages with Western Marxism but situates it as a foil for understanding the particularities of Chinese Marxist thought. In drawing this comparison, she notes the significant shift in Western Marxism in the early 20th century from focusing on class and revolution to emphasizing culture and technology. This shift, she argues, diverges from the concerns that have shaped Chinese Marxist literary theory, which remains focused on revolutionary and social struggles.
Hu also distinguishes her work from earlier models of the “Sinification” of Marxism, which sought to adapt Western Marxist ideas to Chinese conditions. Instead, she contends that Chinese Marxist literary criticism has developed unique problems and frameworks separate from Western thought that no longer qualify as simple adaptations. Chinese Marxist literary criticism possesses its own identity. Hu’s analysis highlights the critical role of Chinese literary criticism in supporting socialist construction in China, urging vigilance against capitalism’s corrupting values while balancing aesthetic, social, and economic values in the market context. As China begins the process of socialist construction, Hu argues, the Chinese form’s critical role is to study literary developments to maintain “vigilance against the hegemony of capital and pursuing the contradictory unity of aesthetic value, social benefit, and economic benefit, while fully considering market factors and understanding market mechanisms” (7-8).
The book is structured to present this comparison measured by what Hu calls “classical Marxism,” which she defines as the original thinking of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. However, it is critical to understand that Hu’s work aims not to rehearse dogmatic readings of old texts. Instead, Hu’s comparisons reveal the relative differences and similarities through which each modern system might absorb fresh insights from the others.
The first four chapters of The Contemporary Construction explore comparative readings of classic Marxist thought, 20th-century Western Marxism, and Chinese theories of four central categories in Chinese Marxist literary criticism: “the people,” “the nation,” politics, and praxis. Hu states that “the people,” the aggregation of those revolutionary and progressive classes who supported the revolution, China’s independence, and now socialist construction, is “the pivotal concept” and “constitutes the primary and focal point” of Chinese Marxist literary criticism (15). While present in early Marx’s writings and his thoughts on anti-colonial struggles and the Paris Communards, this concept essentially vanished in Western Marxism. (Hu doesn’t account for recent Marxian and Marxian-adjacent philosophers such as Bruno Bosteels, Wendy Brown, Alain Badiou, and others who have tried to resuscitate a “people” concept progressively. (See What Is a People?)
Hu connects Mao’s focus on “the people” during Japan’s invasion of China to Lenin’s multi-class coalition that backed the Russian Revolution. She views “the people” as “a fundamental historical force of the Chinese revolution” and as “the main body pushing forward history and national liberation” (28). Hu claims that “people’s politics is the transition from class politics to politics of human emancipation, as Marx predicted” (118). Such an assertion acknowledges a radical shift in the geographical location of the world’s socialist trajectory. Hu devises a “people-scale,” a people-centered creative methodology, to assess an author’s treatment of “the people” in a narrative. Works that disdain the people, deny their historic role in modernization and socialist construction, or reduce them to a consuming mass rank low on this scale.
According to Hu, the concept of “the people” is closely linked to “the nation” in Chinese Marxist thought. The Chinese understanding of “the nation” differs dramatically from the ethno-racial concept developed by Europeans, where classical Marxism exposed the connections between racist nationalisms, imperialism, and internal class collaboration (61). In Chinese thought, this idea is more closely related to a vision of the people from a specific place, illustrated by the “strong inclusiveness” of the several dozen ethnic groups that inhabit Chinese territory (57).
Hu effectively rejects national chauvinism and racism as inconsistent with the Chinese revolutionary concept of the nation. Furthermore, in our current circumstances, “the nation” (in its revolutionary Chinese form) confronts globalization. Here, she addresses the universalizing values not only of the hegemonic cultural forces of the West but also of the similar tendencies in Western Marxist thought. The sheer magnitude of Western publishing and media capitalism acts as a destabilizing force on national identities in developing countries.
False internationalism or generic cosmopolitanism—modes of thought where a powerful nation or group of nations insists on the conformity of others to its cultural values, levels of development, or perspectives—are symptoms of globalization. Spokespersons in Western countries relish denouncing nationalisms in non-Western countries but are almost always aligned with advancing their own national interests. Genuine internationalism recognizes that different conditions and trajectories of development are unique factors and qualities of strength.
The nation serves as a material fiction connecting the individual and their locality with the state, enabling both to relate from a position of strength to the world system. Revolutionary nationalism strives for autonomous material and cultural development—without artificial border closures—in the economic, spiritual, and cultural life of the people. Literature’s role is to present historical memory in narrative form, promoting a national unity of diverse creative expressions that reflect the nation’s ethnic diversity. This approach of “open nationalism” rejects national isolation in a globalizing world while carefully preserving valuable aspects of historical memory and tradition, applying them creatively to new conditions of existence (77).
Hu’s exploration of “politics” and “praxis” in literary criticism will likely resonate with Western Marxist critics, as much of her theoretical framework draws on familiar sources. Politics refers to the struggle for power within the ideological superstructure, including literary practice. Ideology informs and constitutes material social development, with literature aiming to shape the social sphere as part of that process (110). Good literature recognizes its historical and social role, serving the people and the nation in modernization and socialist construction (praxis).
Hu examines trends in Chinese literary criticism from the May Fourth Movement through Mao’s leadership to the 1980s reform era, the latter of which had briefly been influenced by French postmodern thought. Chinese criticism has maintained a close relationship between literature and political ideas, reaffirmed in the 2000s in response to global cultural homogenization and a renewed vigilance for literary quality. It rejects treating artistic texts as isolated objects; instead, it engages with them as intertwined with historical, cultural, and social factors, forming a social network linked to praxis. Literature functions within the superstructure (125), and criticism fosters critical subjectivity and collective action. Hu states, “The practical dimension of literary criticism is to inspire individuals to develop according to human needs through literature and art” (163).
Chapters five and six explore the conditions of modernity under globalization, focusing on high-tech realities and market forces. In each chapter, Hu examines these categories through three different lenses: classical Marxism, Western Marxism, and Chinese Marxism. While Marx could not address highly technologized realities such as artificial intelligence, quantum information, and digital and virtual realities, his discussion of complex mechanical production emphasized alienation as a condition of capitalist development. He argued that this alienation could only be overcome through a revolutionary process that allows the proletariat to gain control over machinery and market forces through socially constituted collective empowerment and class struggle.
Hu argues that Western Marxists have deviated from Marx’s focus on class struggle and revolutionary change, opting instead for “aesthetic salvation” and harm reduction, as they fear the rapid technological progress could harm literary creation and human integrity. When considering Chinese Marxism, it’s important to note that Hu believes “the people” and “the nation” in China possess social power essential for human liberation, influencing technology and market forces. Although globalization may limit this control and exists within a complex imperialist system, Hu emphasizes the distinct role of people and the nation in shaping their future, a viewpoint that Western Marxists may view skeptically, often overlooking that significant global changes originate from China.
Because The Contemporary Construction of Chinese Marxist Literary Criticism does not define modernization and socialist construction, interested readers can explore detailed political-economic analyses in China’s Economic Dialectic by economist Cheng Enfu. Monthly Review and Science and Society regularly publish scholarly articles on various aspects of China’s modernization and socialist construction. Australian scholar Roland Boer’s Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: A Guide for Foreigners explores Chinese Marxist theory more broadly. A new book by Danish author Torkil Lauesen titled The Long Transition Towards Socialism and the End of Capitalism also illuminates and contextualizes Chinese political and economic developments. The Qiao Collective and the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research serve as vital resources for well-documented research on many topics and issues related to China. Along with Hu’s impactful study of Chinese Marxist literary criticism, these resources may help Western Marxists discover a more nuanced understanding of Chinese Marxist theory.
Hu Yamin
The Contemporary Construction of the Chinese Form of Marxist Literary Construction
Palgrave MacMillan, Singapore, 2023, 312 pp., $49.99 paperback (OpenAccess format)
ISBN: 9789819929474
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