Witnesses And Historians Research Paper

Witnesses and Historians

Chu Wang

Professor Lipman

04/27/10

WITNESSES AND HISTORIANS

Witnesses and historians are the two distinctive groups of people in recording important historical moments. Witnesses observe history by living through it. Historians observe history by gathering and analyzing witnesses ' accounts. Yet the major difference between witnesses and historians is the knowledge of what happened afterwards. Historians know more about the aftermath, and this awareness changes their view of what went before. Witnesses, on contrary, have a comparative advantage here: at a given historical moment, they do not know about the future. Thus their account seems less meticulous or anticipated but more natural and realistic.

Acknowledging
the difference between witnesses and historians is crucial in analyzing the books written by Yu Hua and Spence. _To Live_, written by Yu Hua, is a fiction based on near real historical models in 20th century China. Although fictional, the story strikes readers deeply. When reading the story, readers share the sense of worrying the future with the witness, Fu Gui. The unawareness and fear, contrast to historians whose accounts are well structured according to the order of results and consequences, bring readers unexpected resonance in understanding humanity. The chaos, confusion, paradox, perplexity and dark humor that rose up in Fu Gui 's life is portrayed by a collective account of many Chinese witnesses during the second half of 20th century. These vivid experiences allow readers to relate to the characters. Every witness who went through this particular historical period shared memories and feelings with Fu Gui. The novel contains an unexpected first-hand account textbooks can not provide. Comparatively, the textbook written by Spence rarely achieves such resonance. At such expense, Spence avoids the partiality and bias in various accounts of witnesses, and constructs a history with order and reason.

The amazing part of _To Live_, as a narration by witnesses, is that sometimes a glance, a shrug, a chance remark, is more revealing than a hundred speeches.
In another words, witnesses like Fu Gui and his fellows see things historians can not find in any document. Both books describe what happened in Civil War, when Chiang Kai-shek assigned "non-Manchurians to key posts…in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning" (Spence 495). Many officials he assigned "abused their powers" (Spence 495) and forced random people from the streets into troops. Yet the historical description stopped here, providing only a general frame of Civil War. Yu 's novel actively adds detailed images, psychological activities, and missing emotions into the historical contexts. Fu Gui was caught and sent to the front fighting against the Liberation Army. Ironically, Fu Gui and most soldiers around him did not lift their guns and fight fiercely for the unification of China. Instead, they abandoned their weapons and "piled onto the bags of rice" whenever "a plane appeared overhead" (66). After seeing the wounded soldiers being abandoned and screaming in "a combination of crying and laughter", Fu Gui and his companies questioned angrily and bitterly, "how we were supposed to fight this battle" (72). Under such circumstances, Nationalist soldiers had neither the willingness nor the energy to fight. The tiredness and desperation of soldiers directly contributed to the defeat of the Nationalist Army. Fu Gui 's experience teaches the readers something not presented in textbooks: Reading pure historic contexts is 'safer ' because readers do not need to strive for objectivity when the emotions of characters and individual experiences sway them into one way or the other. Readers catch more than numbers, facts and results in witnesses ' accounts. In the study of history, the results themselves are important, but the physical and mental conditions that lead to these results are also
important.

Furthermore, _To Live_ reveals a unique feature of history: history is 'butterfly effect ': it is unpredictable; easy to start, but not easy to stop. The Cultural Revolution is an example. It has been a common sense that Chairman Mao, tempted by his selfishness, started the Cultural Revolution. Why did everyone else follow? Were they stupid? Fu Gui 's story gave us the answer: all power corrupts (Acton). Chun Sheng, kind and good natured, was under the spell of witch craft and committed suicide. Chun Sheng had indirectly killed Fu Gui 's son when he was in power. When he lost power, people rose up in power killed him. The Culture Revolution continued because the new rising power strived to keep power in hand. History was never controlled by one or some, but by all. History was never constructed by order or reason, but by struggles.

Yu 's novel, constructed by account of witnesses, provides an unprecedented vision of 20th century China. Comparing to the textbook, Yu 's story is more convincing because it vividly shows the chaos, perplexity and unpredictable future of history that numbers, maps and facts never achieve. After all, a balance between the information of historians and witnesses is always essential in the study of history.

WORKS CITED

Hua, Yu. _To Live_. New York City: Anchor Books, 2003. Print.

Spence, Jonathan D._The search for Modern China_. N.p.: Norton, 1991. Print.

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