Unexpected Canonisation: Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in Maoist China

In 1959, a Chinese translation of Robinson Crusoe was included in the Party-sponsored Masterpieces of Foreign Classical Literature series. The choice, however, is unexpected, given the novel's glorification of the capitalist ethos, which would seem to contradict the communist ideology of Mao's regime. This article examines the socio-political motivations behind the canonisation of this English novel in Maoist China. Robinson Crusoe 's Maoist canonisation was premised on Chinese critics’ interpretive manipulation of it. What would have been seen as the prototype of the capitalist New Man was recast as a role model for the communist New Man. Robinson Crusoe may have been selected for its relevance to Mao's utopian project. The primary reason for its canonisation was its consonance with the Maoist spirit of asceticism that was considered necessary for the realisation of a communist society. Its circulation can be seen as part of a propaganda push to back the Communist Party's New Man project and the Great Leap Forward movement. In investigating the use of Robinson Crusoe in Maoist China, this study demonstrates how an eighteenth-century English novel could take on new significance in a new cultural context and helps redress the dominant tradition of Orientalist readings of Defoe.