Abstract
Wang Meng's novel Bu Li ("Bolshevistic Salute") is about the loyalty crisis of the protagonist Zhong Yicheng, a Chinese revolutionist. The terror of the loyalty crisis lies in that Zhong can never be an independent being but is totally attached to revolution itself. The faith of a revolutionist and the loyalty to Chinese Communist Party serve as the foundation of Zhong's identity, and his relation with revolution becomes the sole reason and meaning for his life as well as the guarantee for him to be a "human." The only thing he can be is a revolutionist and a son of the Party, otherwise he is nothing. When he is faced with his loyalty crisis, Zhong resorts to the repeated recollection of his revolutionary experience, especially his participation of the first plenary session of the Party during the founding of New China, to reconfirm his cognate relation with revolution. He rebuilds his connection with the laboring people and the labor when he accepts reformation in the countryside, where the people’s support and trust constitute another pivot for his loyalty. This paper tries to argue that his loyalty crisis has never been actually resolved but rather transplaced and the seeming resolution is by far the final.
First Page
156
Last Page
163
Recommended Citation
Tao, Dongfeng. 2014. "A Revolutionist's Loyalty Crisis and Its Dissolution: A Re-Reading of Wang Meng'sBu Li." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 34, (6): pp.156-163. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol34/iss6/3
