September 27th, 2009
Simone de Beauvoir and China : Mao Zedong, Chou-En-Laï, and colonial humiliation
in Simone de Simone de Beauvoir, modernité et engagement, Simone de Simone de Beauvoir, modern and committedClaudine Monteil, Ed L’Harmattan ISBN 978-2-296-10025-1
I made a trip to China in 1979, shortly after Mao Zedong’s death and the end of the cultural revolution when the Chinese government was starting to open up to the western world. Shortly after my return, I had had the occasion to discuss Beauvoir’s essay on China, La Longe Marche, with her. In my critique, I analyze her political, economic, and sociological perspectives on the Cultural Revolution, and include details of the meeting she and Sartre had with Mao Zedong. My essay includes analysis of the French diplomatic reports, from a geostrategic point of view, of the perceived motivation for the Chinese invitation of Beauvoir and Sartre at a time when France and China had not yet established diplomatic relations.
I also provide details of my meetings with the Dutch movie director Joris Ivens, a friend of Chou En Laï, who filmed parts of the Long March, and his wife who I befriended in the student movement. I also pay tribute to Marceline Loridan-Ivens’s recollections on directing movies with Joris Ivens in China in the 1970’s, and her surprisingly revealing conversations with Chou-En-Laї about the French student movement. The fact that three of my books on the lives and work of Beauvoir and Sartre have been quickly translated into Chinese, confirms the interest and reverence that Chinese intellectuals have for them. Beauvoir’s intellectual commitment and political activism against the possible colonialism of China by the Western world provides new insights to a more nuanced understanding of modern China.