was actually the butt of a joke. Ah Q. was looking "scrawny and worn out" so when the old many said "That Ah Q's some worker!" It could only be interpreted as folly, irony, and even though Ah Q. was "pleased as punch" he had been set up to be the fool. Was China, in Xun's estimation, also the fool, the butt of international jokes? It seems likely in a literary way.
While his adversaries taunted him, and he kept losing his fights, he turned to giving dirty looks. And when dirty looks didn't do it for him, he tried "snappy comebacks" and that didn't work either as the villagers continued to beat him up. But even after having his head pounded against a wall, Ah Q. felt victorious -- his way of conjuring up a "psychological victory," something that the Chinese had done during the time Xun was coming of age.
How low can a character go in a novella? Xun's Ah Q. certainly has become a leader in lowness. On page 117 Ah Q. has perched himself next to the lowly Bearded Wang, who was picking lice out of his clothing -- "one after the other and sometimes even two or three at a time." Not only was Bearded Wang finding more lice than Ah Q, the sound that Bearded Wang made when he crushed louse between his teeth ("pow pow") was far better than the sound Ah Q. made when he crushed a louse. This was "nothing short of a social disgrace!" The narrator asserted (p. 117). The humiliation of not matching the size of the lice that Bearded Wang found, and then not match the sound -- this was too much so Ah Q. stood up and begged for a fight. Bearded Wang gave him one, and beat his head against the wall. Previously Ah Q. had taunted Bearded Wang. Now the tables were turned and Ah Q. was defeated and depressed.
It should be mentioned that at the turn of the 20th Century China was in the midst of a cultural conflict between the old school Chinese culture and the more modern Western style industrial style of government. In the traditional culture that the dynasties had ruled over for centuries -- until the Qing Dynasty fell -- people were willing to accept subservience. That subservience looked like ignorance to Xun, and so it is likely that Ah Q. is symbolic of that ignorance.
There can be little doubt that Xun used Ah Q. As a microcosm...
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