Acceso usuarios
José Chávarry
This article examines the Chinese chronicles of Argentine traveler, writer, and editor Bernardo Kordon (1915–2002), produced during his three decades of travels to the Popular Republic of China and as a reflection of a larger network of contact between both regions beginning in the late 1950s. An enthusiast of Chinese millenarian culture and the Maoist Revolution, Kordon, distancing himself from the Communist Party of Argentina and the aesthetics of social realism, saw in China an alternative model for intellectual commitment and revolutionary solidarity. I argue that, rather than falling back on the exoticism of sinology or professing a complete support of Maoist ideology, Kordon’s approach to China, especially to its urban planning program and millenarian theater, is permeated by a vitalist atmosphere and sensibility. Vitalism, a philosophical experience significant for thinkers such as Nietzsche and Bergson, saw a constructive revolutionary force in the energy and creative potential of human beings, especially youth. In my reading, Kordon acquires this vitalist sensibility through his participation in political and cultural associations with ties to the Student Reform Movement of 1918. Kordon’s chronicles allow us to examine sites of revolutionary cultural production in Argentina and Latin America beyond party lines or hegemonic discourses.
