What does it mean to live morally in an uncaring society? The question is deeply embedded in any culture that has an enduring creative legacy, and China is no exception. For some years, especially from the late 1940s until Mao's death in 1976, the question was sidestepped as the Party imposed its own vision of Soviet-inspired socialist realism. But for the generation of Chinese born during the 1940s, who reached adulthood in the mid-1960s during the fiercest years of the Cultural Revolution, the question reappeared with new insistence. Extremist left-wing ideologies were discredited, relaxed sexual mores began to reassert themselves, and the possibilities of political participation were probed once more.

LRB 6 September 2007 | PDF Download