Podcast Summary:
New Books Network – Yu Zhang, "Going to the Countryside: The Rural in the Modern Chinese Cultural Imagination, 1915–1965"
Date: September 20, 2025
Host: Jing Ni
Guest: Dr. Yu Zhang
Episode Overview
In this episode, host Jing Ni interviews Dr. Yu Zhang about her groundbreaking book, Going to the Countryside: The Rural in the Modern Chinese Cultural Imagination, 1915–1965 (University of Michigan Press, 2023). Together, they explore how the concept and role of the rural shaped, and was shaped by, Chinese modernity in literature, theater, and film. Dr. Zhang elucidates how her interdisciplinary approach bridges urban and rural studies, foregrounds multimedia practices, and tracks the evolving symbolism and politics of the 'countryside' during a period of momentous historical transformation.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
Dr. Zhang’s Academic Background and Inspiration
[03:10]
- Dr. Zhang's interdisciplinary training combines literary, cultural, historical, and political analysis in East Asian Studies.
- The idea originated from her MA seminar at UC Santa Barbara, leading her to question why urban/Shanghai studies became so dominant while rural studies lagged behind.
- Quote:
"What I'm really after here is a way to bridge the gap between urban and rural studies globally... looking at the deeper ties between the rural world and Chinese modernity and how those connections actually shape what modernity means in China."
— Dr. Yu Zhang [05:44]
Understanding of the “Rural” and Book’s Central Argument
[06:38]
- “Rural” is more than a spatial category; it encapsulates underdevelopment, shifting emotional experiences, and ongoing tensions in Chinese modernity.
- Dr. Zhang also highlights the circulation of media and culture between town and countryside as crucial for interpreting modernity.
- She analyzes sources across genres and formats: fiction, film, social surveys, lantern slides, opera, posters, etc.
- Quote:
"The village takes on a dual role. It becomes both a transmedial field and a multimedia environment."
— Dr. Yu Zhang [08:07]
Book Structure and Organization
[09:26]
- Six chapters move from personal homecomings and sociological survey essays to collective rural experiments, revolutionary pilgrimage, media practices, youth industrial mobilization, and cinematic portrayals of frontier journeys.
- Two main movements: return to one’s own village vs. venturing into new rural zones—both key to 20th-century modernization.
Chapter Breakdown:
- Ch 1: Personal homecomings and native-place fiction.
- Ch 2: Ding County’s social reform, grassroots media.
- Ch 3: Yan’an as revolutionary destination and symbol.
- Ch 4: Family, law, and love in rural revolutionary culture.
- Ch 5: Cinema and the aestheticization of rural industrialization.
- Conclusion: The journey motif in film and changing attitudes post-Mao.
Chapter-by-Chapter Highlights
Chapter 1: Homecoming and the Social Survey
[11:54]
- Juxtaposition of personal homecoming fiction and early sociological essays from New Youth; both genres blur emotion and analytics.
- Uses Alasdair MacIntyre’s argument on “the socially local and particular” as anchors in moral fragmentation.
- Quote:
"They also reflect a broader effort to resist modernity's disorientation by grounding meaning in the local and the specific."
— Dr. Yu Zhang [14:14] - Draws a line to contemporary filmmakers who return to rural hometowns—framing the countryside as enduring space for reflection and critique.
Chapter 2: Rural Vernacular and Grassroots Media
[17:31]
- Critiques the May Fourth “vernacular” for being elitist and Westernized, ultimately alienating rural people.
- James Yen’s Mass Education Movement develops a “rural vernacular” via innovative media (lantern slides, illustrated primers, spoken drama) targeting peasants.
- Quote:
"Instead of empowering people, this European and Japanese influenced vernacular was worlds apart from what everyday folks actually spoke."
— Dr. Yu Zhang [18:09] - These participatory media forms create shared spaces of empathy and transform rural education and identity.
Chapter 3: Revolutionary Yan’an & Lived Contradictions
[23:28]
- Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China exemplifies “sentimental documentary expression” that blends authenticity, emotion, and fact, shaping domestic and international perceptions.
- Yan’an’s revolution sought future-oriented change but was grounded in agrarian rhythms—a paradox that defied capitalist “clock time” (à la Benedict Anderson).
- Quote:
"This documentary approach was deeply democratic in nature. It prioritized the subjective authenticity over the illusion of objectivity..."
— Dr. Yu Zhang [24:02] - Women writers like Chen Xuezhao offer “a humble personal tone with razor sharp observations of daily life," yielding nuanced critiques of revolutionary grand narratives [28:16].
- On Patience:
Patience is recast as a revolutionary virtue—moving from fiery zeal to deliberate endurance, vital for revolutionary survival amid hardship [29:59].
Chapter 4: Love, Law, Labor & New Cultural Imaginaries
[31:51]
- Stories like Zhang Shuli’s Marriage of Little R He dramatize how legal reform (marriage law) rewired rural customs, making law a vehicle for new citizenship.
- Compares this with Eileen Chang’s urban tales to show how marriage, choice, and law operate across settings.
- “Love/labor” motifs (recalling ancient “man ploughs/woman weaves” archetypes) become collective, political forces—personal affection is redirected to fuel revolutionary productivity and public good.
- Quote (on gossip):
"Normally we think of gossip as something that happens in the background... But... revolutionary fiction's move to elevate gossip into public trials is so striking."
— Dr. Yu Zhang [38:47] - Follows how real legal events become stories, opera, and cinema, showing how multimedia retellings give lasting, mythic significance to revolutionary moments [40:55].
Chapter 5: Youth, Industrialization & Socialist Emotion
[42:04]
- Homecoming becomes “a state crafted ascetic summons,” not just nostalgia but duty—most visible in policies urging educated youth to the countryside [42:34].
- Mao-era films like The Young People in Our Village portray collective labor as playful, utopian, and exuberant—turning hardship into communal joy to mobilize socialist spirit.
- Quote:
“These films celebrate human inventiveness as the real engine of progress... factory spaces are depicted as liminal zones, places where labor merges into liberating play.”
— Dr. Yu Zhang [44:22] - Love and romance are not erased but funneled into collective, productive settings; relationships are legitimated only via contribution to socialist goals.
- Stark contrast with post-Mao narratives focused on bodily exhaustion and the limits of human effort (as in Wu Tianming’s Old Well)—marking an ideological shift toward acknowledging human vulnerability [49:23].
Chapter 6 & Conclusion: Movement, Mobility, and Memory
[50:33]
- Trains and trucks in cinema symbolize optimism and forward momentum; journeys to the frontier represent both literal and emotional investment in national construction.
- The construction site is rendered as both a real and symbolic—almost mythic—space for revolutionary intimacy, often abstracted from regional specificity [53:08].
- After Mao, these motifs shift: the train moves from a symbol of collective journey to an object of nostalgia and alienation. “Taking the train” gives way to simply observing it—modernity becomes distant and material rather than participatory [54:36].
- Later works turn their gaze to marginality and the overlooked, marking a transformation from monumental state-driven projects to the everyday struggles of the disadvantaged.
Memorable Quotes & Moments
-
On bridging urban and rural studies:
"It's about looking at the important connections between urban and rural spaces and how those connections play out over time and across different historical contexts."
— Dr. Yu Zhang [04:49] -
On redefining morality/locality:
"His insights that the socially local and the particular acts as a kind of anchor resisting the chaos and confusion of modernity..."
— Dr. Yu Zhang [13:38] -
On the rural vernacular:
"They created new forms of cultural production aimed at transforming rural life from the ground up."
— Dr. Yu Zhang [19:10] -
On the myth-making of revolutionary literature:
"What I'm really interested in is how revolutionary literature managed to take the recent, the fleeting, and even the outdated and transform them into something legendary, memorable and lasting."
— Dr. Yu Zhang [41:13] -
On ideological turn post-Mao:
"For the first time, there was official recognition that humans have limits, both physical and psychological."
— Dr. Yu Zhang [49:43]
Timestamps for Key Segments
- 03:10 – Dr. Zhang’s academic background and book inspiration
- 06:38 – What “the rural” means in Chinese modernity
- 09:26 – Book’s chapter structure and analytic approach
- 11:54 – Chapter 1: Homecoming in literature and social surveys
- 17:31 – Chapter 2: Rural vernacular, grassroots media, Ding County
- 23:28 – Chapter 3: Yan’an as revolutionary symbol and lived experience
- 29:59 – Patience as revolutionary virtue
- 31:51 – Chapter 4: Law, love, labor, and gossip in cultural practice
- 40:55 – Multimedia transmission of revolutionary stories
- 42:34 – Chapter 5: Rural industrialization in cinema
- 44:22 – Portrayal of youth labor as joyful mobilization
- 47:12 – Love and labor dialectic in Maoist narratives
- 49:23 – Ideological shifts from boundless energy to bodily exhaustion
- 50:33 – Conclusion: Trains, mobility, and changing memory
- 54:36 – Post-Mao nostalgia, marginalization, and memory
- 57:02 – Dr. Zhang’s next project: history of telephony and sentiment
Final Reflections & Next Steps
The conversation closes with Dr. Zhang discussing her next book project on the media history of the telephone in China, promising a fresh angle on communication, emotion, and technology.
[56:30] Jing Ni:
"Your book gives us not only history, but also a new way to think about the rural as a modern cultural and political vision..."
For Listeners
This episode provides a rich, multi-layered exploration of how the Chinese countryside functioned as a site of modern aspiration, tension, media experiment, and political contestation from the early 20th century through the Maoist era. Dr. Yu Zhang’s interdisciplinary and multimedia approach reveals the countryside’s enduring significance for understanding Chinese culture, history, and the ongoing negotiation of what “modernity” means.
Whether you're a student, scholar, or curious listener, Dr. Zhang’s analysis offers powerful methods and frameworks for re-examining the ordinary and the overlooked in the making of modern China.