"Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature" by Li-hua Ying - Part 26 ppt

Chinese girls. This rare accomplishment was due to her own determina- tion as well as the support provided by her father, a well-known scholar and an open-minded educator, and her progressive brothers. Xie’s first success at creative writing is a diary entitled Congjun riji (War Diary) published in 1927 and based on her own experience in the Northern Expedition (1926–1927), a military campaign led by the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party to end the rule of warlords and unify the country under the Nationalist leadership. The work was translated into English by Lin Yutang, winning Xie international fame. When Japan invaded China, Xie resumed her military service, this time heading an auxiliary company of women to provide medical services for the troops and report on the battles. Xie was influenced by Western literature introduced to China during the May Fourth Movement and her two trips to Japan, in 1931 and 1935, allowed her to come into contact with Japanese feminist writ- ings. Nearly all of her publications in the 1930s and 1940s champion women’s liberation from the yoke of traditional morality. Most of Xie’s writings are autobiographical. Nü bing zizhuan (Autobiography of a Fe- male Soldier), Nübing shi nian (Ten Years of a Female Soldier’s Life), and Yige nüxing de fendou (A Woman’s Struggle for Independence) are all drawn from her life. After she moved to Taiwan in 1948 to assume a teaching post at National Taiwan Normal University, Xie continued to be productive, turning out a large number of works, both fiction and prose, consisting of reminiscences of her early life such as Wo de shaonian shidai (My Teenage Years), Guxiang (Hometown), and Wo de huiyi (Remem- brances); travelogues such as Malaiya youji (Travels to Malaysia) and Jiujinshan de wu (The Fog of San Francisco); and novels about roman- tic love, inlcuding Hong dou (Red Beans) and Biyao zhi lian (Biyao’s Love). Xie lived in San Francisco from 1971 to her death in 2000. See also NEW CULTURE MOVEMENT. XU DISHAN (1893–1941). Fiction writer and essayist. Born in Taiwan, Xu Dishan settled in Fujian with his family after Japan occupied the is- land. While a student at Yanjing University in Beijing, he took part in the May Fourth Movement. From 1923 to 1926, Xu studied religion and philosophy at Columbia University and Cambridge University. On his way back to China, he stopped in India to study Buddhism and Sanskrit. Upon his return to Beijing in 1927, he became a professor at his alma 222 • XU DISHAN mater. He left Beijing in 1935 for a job at the University of Hong Kong and died six years later in the midst of the Japanese invasion of China. Xu was a unique personality among his contemporaries. His back- ground as a Christian and scholar of religious studies and his experi- ence in south and southeast Asia gave him a distinctive perspective on life and the world. His early stories are known for their exotic settings. “Shangren fu” (The Merchant’s Wife) is a tale of a Chinese woman who leaves her home in Fujian to look for her husband in Singapore who later sells her to a Muslim merchant from India. While expressing sympathy for the woman, the story does not put emphasis on the exploitation of women, a popular theme among May Fourth writers. Rather it conveys a magnanimous attitude toward life and suffering, revealed through the words of the protagonist. In his works, Xu focused on love, forgiveness, and a sense of harmony, reflecting his religious background. Even in his later and more socially oriented works, Xu adhered to the principle of understanding and kindness. “Chuntao” (Spring Peach) details the life of a woman with two husbands, an unusual arrangement caused by war and poverty and sustained by compassion. Xu created characters with complicated experiences and plots with many twists and turns. In addi- tion to a small corpus of fictional works, Xu published several collec- tions of essays. His best-known essay is “Luohuasheng” (Goober Peas), which has been included in school textbooks. XU KUN (1965– ). Fiction writer. Born in the city of Shenyang in the northeastern province of Liaoning, Xu began writing fiction in 1993, while pursuing an academic career in literary studies. She belongs to the so-called post-1960s generation that ascended to the literary stage in the 1990s. Her writing is often characterized as postmodern whose trademark is satire. Xu’s protagonists are often intellectuals who have lost the center of gravity in their dealings with an unfamiliar cultural environment charged with energy and materialistic desires, a confusing and absurd world that causes her characters a great deal of anxiety. It is in the clashes of values that the “comic” effects of Xu’s stories are achieved. In her stories, idealism surrenders to materialism and high- minded culture gives in to life’s banalities. The intellectual wrestles with the contradictions within society as well as within the self. Xu’s works contain no tragedy or heroism; instead, there is an abundant amount of mockery and cynicism. A winner of the Lu Xun Literature Prize in 2001, Xu writes almost exclusively about contemporary urban XU KUN • 223 existence. Most of her writings are short stories. Some of the best- known titles include “Xianfeng” (The Avant-garde), “Zaoyu aiqing” (Encountering Love), and “Yi yu” (Sleep Talk). She has written a novel, Nüwa (The Goddess Nüwa), which portrays the life of a woman from 1930, when she was brought at the age of 10 as a child bride into her husband’s family, to 1990, when she reigns over a clan of four genera- tions under the same roof. As a family saga, the novel is often seen as the author’s attempt to establish a feminist cultural nationalism in op- position to the predominant patrilineal and patriarchal discourse. XU SU, PEN NAME OF XU BING (1924–1981). Novelist, essayist, and poet. Born in Jiangsu, Xu Su spent his childhood in the countryside and served in the Nationalist army during the Sino-Japanese War. He arrived in Hong Kong in 1950 and became the editor and founder of several publications. Most of his novels are based on his experience in the army and the patriotic activities of the Chinese youth during the Sino-Japanese War, though a few are about life in Hong Kong. They feature young lovers whose lives are intertwined with the fate of the nation, focusing on themes such as humanism, nationalism, and ethics. Xingxing, Yueliang, Taiyang (The Stars, the Moon, and the Sun), about the romantic relationships of one man and three women, expresses the author’s idealistic conception of human nature. In Yituan (Suspicion), a story about betrayal and revenge, human nature is more complicated and harder to define and friendship is put to the test when the pursuit of love reveals the truth about humanity’s moral weakness. Xu further explores the conflict between sexual passion and social constraints, question- ing society’s role in suppressing basic human instincts, in stories such as “Shi jie” (Ten Commendments) and “Di yi pian qiu ye” (The First Autumn Leaf). In addition to fiction, Xu also wrote many essays and poems. XU XIAOBIN (1953– ). Fiction writer. Born in Beijing and educated at the Central Institute of Finance, Xu Xiaobin began publishing short stories and novels in 1981. Most of her works are semiautobiographical. She belongs to a circle of young women writers who came to fame in the 1990s and who are noted for their introspective, self-focused narra- tives that mix fiction with their personal lives. This group includes some well-known names, such as Chen Ran, Lin Bai, and Hong Ying. Xu’s fictional works not only show a tendency toward autobiography but also a persistent urge to probe into some of the fundamental questions about 224 • XU SU, PEN NAME OF XU BING human existence. Interested in the inner world of women living on the peripheries of society, Xu portrays their feeble revolt against a corrupt world, often in the form of escape. While running away from society, her characters also run away from their true selves. They live in the real world but their souls wander out of their bodies, making them eccen- tric creatures unable to behave according to social conventions. These spiritual wanderings, often attributed to conditions created since time immemorial, endow Xu’s novels with a mythical dimension. What characterizes Xu’s fiction is her probing of the inner world of women, the mystery of their desires and experiences, and their percep- tion of the self in society and in history. Dunhuang yimeng (Lingering Dream of Dunhuang) places a romantic tale in an atmosphere of ancient history and mystic religiosity. The heroine, who seeks the meaning of life, achieves her goal by following her unadulterated instincts. Sh- uangyu xingzuo (Pisces), which explores the despair of women alien- ated from both society and home, is dominated by a sense of doom and fatalism. Xu is interested in history, but one that is personal not official. Yu she (Feathered Snake) tells the lives of five generations of women, spanning 100 years. In this introspective novel, Xu probes the makeup of the female psyche in relation to society and family history. The heroine’s eccentric and violent behavior, representing her desperate attempt to break free from the chains that reined in her predecessors, shocks her family and alienates her from society. Forced to go through brain surgery to treat her insanity, she becomes “normal” but loses her creativity and gradually bleeds to death. Deling gongzhu (Princess Del- ing), a historical novel, is based on the real life of a Manchu diplomat’s daughter, also an author of some repute. The central theme of Deling gongzhu is not driven by great events but by the inner workings of the characters and their emotional journeys through love and interpersonal relationships. For her unrelenting focus on the female perspective, Xu is regarded as one of the foremost feminist writers in China. XU XU, A.K.A. HSU HSU, XU BOXU, XU YU (1908–1980). Novel- ist, playwright, and poet. Xu Xu studied philosophy and psychology at Beijing University and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Paris. He moved to Hong Kong in 1950. A prolific and versatile writer who enjoyed popularity in the 1930s and 1940s, Xu has been somewhat neglected for the last 50 years in China. This lack of attention might have something to do with a widely circulated statement that he made XU XU, A.K.A. HSU HSU, XU BOXU, XU YU • 225 about his change of heart about Marxism: “Those who are not moved by Marxism at a young age are cold-blooded, but if they still make a fetish of it at middle age, they are idiots.” His scope of writing includes poetry, prose, drama, and literary criticism, but his main achievements are in fiction. During his stay in France, Xu wrote Gui lian (Ghost Love), his first novella, which earned him his reputation as a writer. It is a tale of a young man’s fortuitous meeting with a woman in black who calls herself Ghost. This woman, originally a revolutionary and an assassin, escaped from prison and after spending several years abroad in exile has returned to China. Faced with the failure of the revolution and her lover’s murder, she becomes withdrawn. Disguising herself as a ghost, she lives a reclusive existence in a dreary old house in the suburbs of Shanghai, and through the practice of meditation and yoga, she has gained a serene and elegant appearance. The young man woos her en- thusiastically only to be refused. This novella contains all the ingredi- ents of a popular story: a fantastic tale, intrigue, modern romance, and even a trendy revolutionary theme. It fully demonstrates the author’s imagination and talent as well as his political instinct. Xu’s best-known novel is Feng xiaoxiao (The Wind Soughs and Sighs), published in 1943. Applying his favorite features of detective and romantic fiction combined with a patriotic message, the author tells the story of an individualistic young philosopher living in Japanese- occupied Shanghai and his relationships with three beautiful women: a Chinese dancing girl and two American women he has met at a birthday party at the home of an American couple, a military medical doctor and his Secret Service agent “wife.” These romantic relationships are com- plicated by international and political intrigues. The novel ends with the protagonist joining the American Secret Service to fight the Japanese. The popularity of Xu’s fiction largely rests upon his ability to sustain complex plots and his clever mixture of exoticism and a lyrical and philosophical mode of expression, which helps to avoid the triteness of the common detective plot or romantic story. The major shortcoming of his works, however, lies in their excessively stereotypical characters, which reduces their realistic impact. Among Xu’s large corpus of fiction are Jibusai de youhuo (Gypsy Temptation), Yi jia (A Family), Beican shiji (The Century of Misery), and Wulan de emeng (Wulan’s Nightmare). Xu’s plays include Yue guang qu (The Moonlight Sonata), Ye hua (Wildflower), Gui xi (Ghost 226 • XU XU, A.K.A. HSU HSU, XU BOXU, XU YU Play), and Xiongdi (Brothers). His poems appear in several collections, including Jie huo ji (Borrowing Fire) and Deng long ji (The Lamp). See also SPOKEN DRAMA. XU ZHIMO, A.K.A. HSU CHI-MO (1897–1931). Poet. Xu Zhimo was born in Haining, Zhejiang Province, to a well-to-do family. In 1918, af- ter studying at Beijing University, he went to the United States to study economics and finance, but a brief stint at Clark University only con- firmed his distaste for the course of study his banker father had chosen for him. He subsequently transferred to Columbia University to study political science. Still unsatisfied, he left the United States to study at Cambridge University, where he fell in love with English romantic poetry. Inspired by poets such as Lord Byron, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he began to write his own poems. His two years in England were crucial in making a poet out of a young man who seemed to be drifting without a clear sense of direction. Both spiritually and emotionally, Xu became attached to Cambridge, to which he dedicated several lyric pieces, the best known among them being “Farewell, Cam- bridge” and “To Mansfield.” In 1922, he returned to China and joined the New Culture Movement as its best poet. Comparable to his literary reputation is the notoriety of Xu’s en- tanglements with three women, a topic of several books, and recently, a movie and a television series. He married twice, first to Zhang Youyi, sister of a friend of his, whom he divorced while in Europe, angering his father. At Cambridge, he courted Lin Huiyin. Back in Beijing, he fell in love with Lu Xiaoman, who broke her engagement to a high-ranking government official to marry Xu. Although his divorce and second mar- riage went against social norms and aroused the wrath of conservatives, such as his own father and his mentor, Liang Qichao, Xu was accepted and even admired in intellectual and literary circles. He was considered a true romantic who not only embraced the romantic ideal in his poetry but also practiced it in his life. Xu’s poetry, though modern in its thematic and formal features and its vernacular language, retains the musicality of classical Chinese poetry. At a time when it was in vogue to align poetry with everyday speech, discarding formalistic concern with rhyme and rhythm, Xu be- lieved that modern poetry had its own internal aesthetic principles that were different from those of prose. A prolific poet, Xu also worked as an editor for literary journals and taught at several universities before dying XU ZHIMO, A.K.A. HSU CHI-MO • 227 in a plane crash in 1931 at the age of 34. He left behind four collections of verse and several volumes of translations from various languages. See also CRESCENT SOCIETY. – Y – YA XIAN, A.K.A. YA HSIEN, PEN NAME FOR WANG QINGLIN (1932– ). Poet. Born in Nanyang, Henan Province, Ya Xian, which means “mute strings,” joined the Nationalist army in 1949 right before it retreated to Taiwan. He participated in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa and received his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He edited the literary supplement of the United Daily in Taipei. He rose to fame in the 1950s, at a time of political oppression by Chiang Kai-shek’s government, and continued to lead a productive career through the next two decades. Part of a modernist movement, Ya Xian’s poetry bears evidence of a strong influence by European surrealism, with its heavy emphasis on allusion, metaphor, irony, and symbolism. Some of his poems, such as “Ru ge de xingban” (An Andante Ballad), “Yindu” (India), “Zai Zhonguo jie shang” (In the Streets of China), which are modernist reconstructions of folk ballads, make references to dreams and the subconscious, allowing the poet to move at will between the real and imagined world in order to reach an aesthetic realm beyond rationality and language. YAN GE, PEN NAME OF DAI YUEXING (1984– ). Fiction writer. One of the post-1980s generation writers, Yan Ge began publishing stories online at www.rongshuxia.com as a high school student. She later entered Sichuan University to study comparative literature and Chinese. She has won several awards, including first prize for the New Concept Composition Competition, which made her a popular name among young readers. From the Chinese avant-garde writers, especially Yu Hua, Su Tong, Ge Fei, and Ma Yuan, Yan Ge learned narrative techniques to create stories that border on fantasy and reality, a style that is most evident in Liangchen (Good Times), generally considered her best work. The novel consists of ten independent stories centering on one character named Gu Liangcheng, who has multiple identities: as a librarian who loves his colleague simply because they are both outsiders in a suffocating small 228 • YA XIAN, A.K.A. YA HSIEN, PEN NAME FOR WANG QINGLIN town, a beekeeper who possesses not a single bee, a playwright whose ideal of love can only be realized on stage, and a funeral home worker who keeps his profession a secret for fear of being rejected. According to the author, the ten manifestations of unattainable love described in the novel all come down to the longing she has for her mother whose death inspired her to write the book. Among Yan Ge’s other works are Yi shou zhi (The Tale of Strange Animals), a fantastic story about animals with various human personalities, and Guan He (The Guan River), a novel set in ancient China that deals with separation, longing, betrayal, deception, and death in a sensual and languorous language. See also WOMEN. YAN GELING (1956– ). Novelist. Born in Shanghai, Yan Geling joined a military performance troupe as a dancer at the age of 12. This expe- rience provides the background for some of her early work including “Mai hong pingguo de mang nüzi” (The Blind Woman Selling Red Apples), a gripping tale set in Tibet about cultural conflicts between the Han soldiers and local Tibetans. She began writing in the 1970s as a journalist covering the Sino-Vietnamese border war. Her first fic- tional story was published in the 1980s after she left the armed service. When she went to the United States in 1989 on a student visa, Yan was already a familiar name in China. She received her master’s of fine arts in creative writing from Columbia College, Chicago. She currently lives in the United States and makes frequent trips back to China. Her books are written in Chinese and occasionally in English. Her writing is brisk, spare, and fluid. Yan has written several stories about urban youth sent to China’s far-flung countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Cixing caodi (Female Grassland) relates the heartbreaking fates of a group of city girls left on a remote grassland to raise horses for the cavalry. “Tian yu” (Celestial Bath) centers on a vulnerable city girl living among coarse herdsmen who exchanges her body for the opportunity to get back to the city. Yan’s protagonists are often young, vibrant, innocent women thrown into the company of unscrupulous men in a corrupt world. The protago- nist of “Shaonü Xiaoyu” (A Girl Named Xiaoyu) is a simple-minded, good-hearted immigrant forced into a fake marriage by her boyfriend for the purpose of obtaining legal status. “Shui jia you nü chu zhangcheng” (Good-by, Innocence) tells a wrenching story about a gullible rural girl YAN GELING • 229 kidnapped and sold into prostitution who later becomes a murderer. Fusang (The Lost Daughter of Happiness), a novel set in the 19th century, features a young woman from a Chinese village who is sold into prostitution in San Francisco’s Chinatown. While telling the rivet- ing story of the heroine’s entangled relationship with a white man, the narrator frequently interrupts the narrative to speak directly with the protagonist, sharing feelings about her own interracial marriage. Yan’s most recent novel, Xiaoyi Duohe (Aunt Duohe) is a moving tale about a young Japanese woman named Duohe who is sold at the end of World War II to be the second wife of the second son of the Zhang family. The Zhangs suffered many losses in the war: the eldest son was killed by the Japanese and the second son’s first wife miscarried when the Japanese invaded their village, rendering her unable to bear children. The burden to ensure that the family line would continue falls on Duohe. She does not disappoint the Zhangs and in the end gives them three children. Since polygamy is outlawed in the new China, the family has to present Duohe to the outside world as the sister of the second daughter-in-law. To avoid suspicion, this unconventional family moves several times. Duohe, with her high standard of hygiene and a strong principle of right and wrong, and the Zhangs, who adopt a philosophy of life that takes things as they come and accepts life’s adversities with no resistance, manage to stay to- gether as a family for 40 years. Several of Yan’s works have been turned into movies, including “Shaonü Xiaoyu,” “Tian yu,” “Shui jia you nü chu zhangcheng,” and Fusang. See also WOMEN. YAN LI (1954– ). Poet, fiction and prose writer, artist. Born in Beijing, and a member of the Misty poetry movement, Yan Li began writing po- etry in the early 1970s while being “rusticated” in rural Hebei. Friends with some of the major Misty poets, including Bei Dao, Mang Ke, and Duo Duo, Yan was active in promoting a modernist poetry with his in- novative verses, which emphasize wit and black humor, by juxtaposing seemingly unrelated images to reveal the absurdity of the human condi- tion. “Yi renlei de mingyi shengcun” (Surviving in the Name of Human- ity), “Niuyue” (New York), and “Hei’an zhi ge” (Song of Darkness) are some of his best-known poems. As an organizer and participant in the Star art exhibitions, Yan, along with other artists, represented significant breakthroughs in post-Mao modern art. Yan’s straddling of both poetry and art gave him a unique spot in the unofficial avant-garde movement. Although he is primarily recognized for his poetry and painting, Yan 230 • YAN LI has also written essays and fiction. He moved to New York in 1985 and continued to write and paint. Two years later, he founded Yi hang (One Line), a poetry journal based in New York. He currently lives in New York and Shanghai. YAN LIANKE (1958– ). Novelist. Born in a small town in Henan Prov- ince, Yan Lianke joined the army in 1985. He later studied political science at Henan University and literature at the Military Institute of Arts. Yan began his career by writing about rural and army life. Zuihou yiming nü zhiqing (The Last Female Educated Youth) deals with the prices individuals have to pay due to forces beyond their own control. It focuses on a woman whose decision to leave the village, along with the rest of the urban youth, is complicated by her marriage to a local peas- ant. Other novels about rural China include Riguang liunian (Sunlight and the Fleeting Time), about a small village’s painful and courageous journey to modernity, and an allegorical novel, Shouhuo (The Village of Shouhuo), in which the author uses a farcical and hyperbolic language to tell a sad tale of how a remote village inhabited by disabled residents is discovered and used for developing the economy of the county. Both of these two novels examine suffering and the meaning of life. In dealing with military themes, Yan focuses on interpersonal rela- tionships and the common concerns of daily life. Xia Riluo (Xia Riluo), set against the background of the border clash between China and Viet- nam, focuses on two low-ranking military officers whose friendship is threatened when they are faced with the prospect that one of them could be promoted and the other forced to return to farming. The best known of his military fiction is Wei renmin fuwu (Serve the People), which tells the story of a soldier from the countryside who gains military honors and promotions by providing sexual favors to his commander’s bored wife. The exchange of sex for political status makes a mockery of Mao’s teaching, “Serve the people.” For sexual arousal, the protagonists come up with “counterrevolutionary” acts such as smashing Chairman Mao statues. By turning Mao Zedong and the lofty Communist ideals into a game of debauchery, the novel offended the sensibilities of the authori- ties and was subsequently banned. On Yan’s long list of publications are Jinlian nihao (Hello, Jinlian), a parody of the tale about China’s most infamous seductress, Pan Jinlian, who is featured in classical novels and operas, and Jianying ru shui (As Hard as Water), a story of two young Red Guards during the Cultural YAN LIANKE • 231 . statues. By turning Mao Zedong and the lofty Communist ideals into a game of debauchery, the novel offended the sensibilities of the authori- ties and was subsequently banned. On Yan’s long list of. Del- ing), a historical novel, is based on the real life of a Manchu diplomat’s daughter, also an author of some repute. The central theme of Deling gongzhu is not driven by great events but by. decades. Part of a modernist movement, Ya Xian’s poetry bears evidence of a strong influence by European surrealism, with its heavy emphasis on allusion, metaphor, irony, and symbolism. Some of