The Rebellion of Words 文字的反叛
by Sherry, 2024
During a conversation with a friend from Taiwan about our respective hometowns, she mentioned her ancestral roots in Shandong, and her family moved to Taiwan after the mainland's "occupation." Recollecting various historical events related to the mainland's "occupation," I curiously asked which specific instance she referred to. She replied, "The occupation in 1949." It suddenly dawned on me, and I remarked, "What you call 'occupation' is, in my cognitive context is 'liberation.'" We exchanged a knowing smile. It is undeniable that “language is constituted of a varying, conflictual, and power-laden set of relations, mirroring the status of its various speaker groups. (Ghosh, 2006:2) It evolves with changes in the political environment in which individuals find themselves, reflecting the identities, classes, and historical contexts of different speaking groups (Ghosh, 29).
For instance, the artwork Memorial for Revolutionary Speech, (2007) (Appendix 1: Fig. 17) by Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie employs rubbings to layer 16 political slogans from various historical periods in China, ranging from the Warring States era to the Mao era. The slogans evolve from emphasising wealth equality and social fairness, such as “ “王侯将相宁有种乎？(Doth noble birth decree their lofty station, or can we challenge this divine foundation?) ” to highlighting the expansion of the wealth base, as seen in Deng Xiaoping era “允许一部分人先富起来。(Allow some people to get rich first.)” This transition represents a shift from "dividing the cake" to "making the cake”. Although Qiu Zhijie's works do not cover political slogans from Deng Xiaoping to the present, the current ubiquitous propaganda slogan in China, "Building the Chinese Dream Together," indicates a shift in Chinese politics from the stage of making the cake to the stage of guarding the cake. During the era of Xi, there has been an emphasis on the redistribution of wealth through anti-corruption campaigns. In socialist countries, various slogans often emerge in daily life, with each stage typically characterised by a single slogan that spans a wide range of aspects, from political revolutions to dietary habits. For example, Slogan during culture revolution from 1966: “造反有理，革命无罪。(Rebellion is justified, and revolution is not a crime.) ”Slogan in Reform and Opening-Up from 1990: “少生快富小康之路。(The path to prosperity through fewer births and faster wealth.)” Slogan from 2013: “节粮从我做起，建设节约型社会(Starting with myself to save food, building a thrift-oriented society.)” Slogan from 2018: “青山绿水就是金山银山。(Green mountains and clear waters are indeed mountains of gold and silver.) ” The everyday life, Chinese people are filled with various slogans to turn left together, turn right together, until they are swept away by the torrent of the times, making it difficult to see the direction clearly. The Chinese artist Zhang Huan expresses resistance against a singular collective social order through the performance art piece Family Tree (2000) (Appendix 1: Fig. 19) He asked someone wrote discourse on his face with black ink until the words become blurred, and his face goes from distinct to unrecognisable. The work showed that “more culture is slowly smothering us and turning our faces black. It is impossible to take away your inborn blood and personality.”(Zhang, 2000) Chinese artists’ works in 20 and 21 century, from Xu Bing's 4000-word A Book from the Sky, (1988) (Appendix 1: Fig. 20) to Qiu Zhijie's Writing the Orchid Pavilion Preface” One Thousand Times, (1990-1995) (Appendix: Fig. 21), until Zhang Huan’s Family Tree, (2000) (Appendix 1: Fig. 19). Their works always seem to carry an invisible and overwhelming force that “you can do nothing about, you can do nothing to control it”. However, as Deleuze (1995) pointed out, the same thing never repeats. Chinese artists, like any other Chinese, firmly believe that “if you really want to do something, then it could really happen”, like "Move the Mountain by Fool (Yu Kong Yi Shan) by repetition, again and again. (Zhang, 2000)
In contrast to the socialist collective discourse of "We," slogans under the capitalist system often emphasise "I" and "You," focusing more on individual or specific group issues such as eradicating racial discrimination, protecting vulnerable groups, feminism, and preserving traditional culture. Furthermore, in are works, like Sophie Calle's Take Care of Yourself, (2007) (Appendix 1: Fig. 22), Lee Jung's I Love You with All My Heart, (2020) (Appendix 1: Fig. 23) Jenny Holzer's Protect Me From What I Want (198) (Appendix 1: Fig. 24), are more like dialogues and confrontations between individuals and society. Words as a carrier of information, directly participating in the struggle for discourse authority in western art works, unlike Chinese artists who resist the hidden power behind the words by changing its form itself. The reasons behind this can be attributed not only to the rich visual expressiveness of Chinese logograms and the weight of collective historical memory mentioned in the first chapter but also to the closer association with the capitalist society's greater tolerance towards words and discourse. Artists like Jenny Holzer, representing Western artists deeply entrenched in the capitalist game, continuously emit various words such as ROMANTIC LOVE WAS INVENTED TO MANIPULATE WOMEN (1983) and ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE (1983). (Appendix 1: Fig. 25) These words undoubtedly constitute powerful and impactful works, causing individuals to momentarily pause and reflect within the cyclic social order.
However, At the same time, some argue that individuals living under the capitalist system seem to have more power and greater freedom to use words equally, but in reality, words influence and even control each individual in a broader, more concealed manner. Just as Lefebvre (1991) argued the mode of production in the capitalist system exhibits characteristics of unlimited expansiveness and self-transcendence in spatial terms. When artists present new perspectives or engage in new actions, capitalist society consistently succeeds in absorbing them. In the process of resistance, artworks ultimately become tools that constitute, and sometimes even reinforce, the flexibility within the capitalist order. Due to the highly rebused Latin alphabet, western contemporary artists under the capitalist system find it more challenging to trigger human perceptual abilities through the textual form itself, breaking through existing norms and deeply ingrained cognitions. Instead, they tend to treat words as liquid weapons, quietly dissolving into the gaps of the space of social order, leveraging habitual practices arising from conscious human subjectivity. Not only in the West, but also for Chinese artists, they face similar issues. As Xu Bing discusses, contemporary art is like a new virus(Xu, 2022). When a new virus emerges, the body reacts, transitioning from resistance to coexistence. Similarly, when an artwork is introduced into society, it initially evokes resistance and aversion, only to be eventually accepted and normalised. (Xu, 2022) Hence, As Marr claimed that the models of discourse are similar between socialism and capitalism , despite superficial variations in realisation (Irigaray, 2002). Whether it is capitalism or communism, which employ the universal lexical stock in variable combinations essentially determined by the socio-economic infrastructure (Irigaray, 2002).
Words are different codes. For Western society, popular terms like LGBTQ, feminism, immigration, cultural heritage, etc., continuously give voice to and seek power for various groups through words. However, when same-sex marriage is legalised or when immigrants gain political power, it raises questions about whether the result is a victory for the respective group or a successful expansion and reinforcement of the existing capitalist system. Does the resistor truly seek to create a life scenario according to their own desires, or do they become embedded in the current social structure as beneficiaries? For Chinese society, concepts like "harmonious society”, "respect for teachers and traditions," "starting a family and establishing a career," represent collectively abstracted ideals of an ideal life. But are these ideals truly the path to a happy life, or are they merely discourses to maintain social order? Is the societal operating state of pursuing harmonious happiness, which requires constantly compressing individual life personalities and stifling human emotional perceptions, a case of putting the cart before the horse? Lefebvre (1991) mentions that humans will rediscover the joyful feelings and festive scenes of agricultural or ancient societies, creating their own living spaces according to their desires. Abram (1996) advocates for a life characterised by "living words," connecting with vibrant nature to generate a state of living emotions, be it joy or sadness. So, where is the emotional outlet for artists in the process of continuous rebellion against words?