| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Charles A. Laughlin. Chinese Reportage: The Aesthetics of Historical Experience. (Asia-Pacific: Culture, Politics, and Society.) Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. 2002. Pp. xii, 334. Cloth $64.95, paper $21.95.

In modern journalism, fact and fiction represent two divergent ends that ought to be kept far apart. But in this well-researched book, Charles A. Laughlin shows us that, in modern China, there has developed a unique literary genre, or "reportage literature" (baogao wenxue), in which the presentation of factual events and figures not only dovetails congenially with literary embellishment but also achieves a special, better resonance with readers. Moreover, Laughlin tells us that this genre is not an entirely Chinese invention (although he seems tempted to make such a claim) but had existed in some European countries and was also practiced, to some extent, in Japan (p. 13). He traces the development of Chinese reportage literature from its origin in the late Qing period to the 1950s, with a focus on how it was favored and promoted by left-wing and communist writers. He avoids the 1980s, when reportage literature experienced its heyday in China through Liu Bingyan and Su Xiaokang and he treats it simply as a literary genre (a decision with which I agree), glossing over Liu's opposite claim without showing much interest in engaging a serious debate (p. 264).

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