~(Index of Site)~
--aim:to attack the abusing times & to express the disatisfaction of the people,desire for reforms against traditional Confucianism & conservatism,just like the other genres of poetry,drama & prose.
Prominent Authors:
1.
Lu Xun
--'The Diary of a Madman': through the eyes of a lunatic,we see how society's evils has encroached him as he believes that 'people are eating people' ('ren chi ren') that humans are preying on one another for their own benefits,hence showing the degeneration & bestiality of society
--'The Story of Ah Q': his representative work that is most popular,his best one.
--the lead male character Ah Q possesses all the negative qualities of the Chinese,like greed,lust,sloth,jealousy,anger.Noted for his self-delusion as an escape from the harshness of reality,through his life till his eventual death,we see the transformation of China from monarchic rule to republicanism,the chaos of old & new China,the Wuchang Revolution of 1911 & the tyranny of the rich
--the author wanted to reveal these faults that afflicted China in order to awaken the people into changing for the better
--one of the most widely translated works
2.Ba Jin (1904-)
--wrote many works like 'Cold Nights' about a poor family oppressed by the rich & eventually dying of tuberculosis on cold nights
--representative work:the autobiographical trilogy 'Torrent' ('Chi-liu San Bu Qu') that consists of 3 volumes,namely 'Chia' ('The Family'),'Chun'('Spring'),'Chiu'('Autumm');attacking the traditional family system & Confucianist Conservatism,as seen in the fall of the wealthy Gao family
--another trilogy he wrote was 'Love' ('Ai Qing San Bu Qu') that consists of 'Wu'('Mist'),'Yu'('Rain') &
'Dian'('Lightning')
3.
Mao Dun (1896-1981)
--generally considered republican China's greatest Realist novelist
--his pseudonym is the Chinese term for contradiction
--representative work:'Tzu-yeh' ('Zi Ye') ['Midnight'],another great Realist novel after 'The Story of Ah Q',hailed as the best by Marxist/Chinese critics.Written in 1932
--content is Marxist in nature,with the oppressed farmers,workers & revolutionaries working together to topple the rich bankers & all capitalists successfully
--Western critics however see his first novel 'Shih' ('Eclipse') about a youth's participation in the KMT's Northern Expedition,with insight to his psychological world.But it is dismissed by Marxists as capitalist in thought
4.
Lao She (1899-1966)
--author of humorous satirical novels & short stories
--wrote a play 'Teahouse' that is similar in thoughts with his masterpiece
--his masterpiece 'Lo-t'o Hsiang Tzu' ('Hsiang Tzu the Camel'),written in 1936 is the tragic story of the trials of a honest & dilligent rickshaw puller in Peking,Hsiang Tzu who attempts to break free of poverty by working hard.Sadly,the importance of the total social environment & the futility of the individual's struggle against such an environment causes him to fail & dooms him to despair.His tragedy lies in the good being oppressed while the bad enjoys life,which is a result of the decadent social environment.
--an unauthorized & distasteful English translation,titled 'The Rickshaw Boy' (1945),with a happy ending quite different from the original & with the author's name anglicized to Lau Shaw,became an US bestseller
--it has also been translated into more than 20 different languages,hence showing to us its popularity & great achievement
5.
Ai Wu (b.1908)
--'Travel to the South' ('Nan Xing Ji') is a short novel that records his travels to the south of China,to Yunan & Burma,experiencing hardships to gain maturity eventually
6.
Xiao Hung (1911-1942)
--female author who wrote 'Life & Death' ('Sheng Si Chang')
--set in a village in Harbin,North China during the Second Sino Japanese War of 1937-45,the oppression of the people by the Japanese forced them to stand up to defend themselves,revealing the destruction of war
--Lu Xun praised the work for its fiery patrioticism & its high literary achievement in the description of events
7.
Xiao Jun (1908-1988)
--representative work: 'Village in August' ('Ba yue de xiang Chun') in 1934
--Lu Xun praised it as the best novel describing the situation in Occupied China (North-Eastern China) during the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945
--story is about the experiences of a group of anti-Japanese guerilla fighters forced to defend themselves
--he describes vividly the cruelity of war,inspiring people to protect China from the Japanese
