Ling Shuhua (1900-1990)

Ling Shuhua Modern Writer and Artist Mattstrock 16:26, 9 October 2012 (UTC)

Lu Xun smoking as always. Click here for original source

Lu Xun Root 21:14, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Childhood

Ling Shuhua was born in Panyu Beijing in the year 1900. She was the daughter of the fourth wife of a high ranking Qing official from the southern province of Canton who later served as the mayor of Beijing. Panyu remained consistent as birthplace, but Ling Shuhua and her sister changed their dates of birth on multiple occasions. Most of Shuhua's life she claimed to be the fourth child born in 1904. Shuhua even once attempted a literary usurpation of her sister's position as the family's youngest child. It wasn't until shortly before her death in 1990 when she admitted that her birth year was 1900. This original uncertainty might seem an accident of life before birth certificates; however, these manipulations of age can be recognized as a strategy of control over the presentation of their lives. They became adept at this trick of flexibility and used it to their own advantage. Shuahua spoke Cantonese at home, Mandarin outside, and later English and Japanese at school. In 1922 she enrolled, along with fellow female writer Bing Xin, in Yanjing University to pursue a degree in foreign literature. Soon after graduating, she married Chen Yuan, the founder of the important May Fourth Movement journal Contemporary Review. One can denote by this fact that she was heavily involved in politics. In 1927, the couple moved to Hunan so that Chen could teach at Wuhan University. Through contacts she made with other writers in the same literature department at Wuhan University, Ling was able to start a correspondence with Virginia Woolf. She continued her correspondence with writer Virginia Woolf from 1938 until 1941. Woolf was instrumental in Shuhua's writing of her autobiography as it was written in English. Woolf was sent portions of this manuscript throughout their three year correspondence to edit and give her opinion. Ling Shuhua while living in the United States decided she wanted to spend the rest of her life in her motherland. She later Died in 1990 in Beijing.

Motivations

Ling Shuhua vividly described the traditional female and the contrast of the modern female. She payed attention to the feminist consciousness and in her writing attempted to obtain the introspection and reflection of the female consciousness itself. She criticized and exposed the deep traditional female consciousness in order to have a new perspective and reflection of the nature of women's liberation and the liberation of personality; thus making her works have deeper historical sense and cultural implication.

A Madman's Diary - Lu Xun

While most writers focused on immediate change in the people of China, Lu Xun had different ideas. Lu Xun believed that change was to be gradual, and that it would start by teaching the children. While studying literature, Lu Xun translated works from Russian, German, and Japanese into Chinese. He felt that these translations would help open the minds of his people to the outside “cures” for their political disempowerment.

Most of Lu Xun’s works were essay type writing when he first began, but after some time his ideas became unpopular, and therefore dangerous to publish so openly. In 1918, Lu Xun wrote “Diary of a Madman,” a short story which allegorically described the barbarian culture that China had made from tradition. He described the people in his book as cannibalistic, and looking to feed off of each other at every turn. The short story was a hit, and kicked of Lu Xun’s career to new heights. “A Call to Arms” was written 4 years later, and also became an influential force in Chinese Literature.

Controversy

Shanghai - Lu Xun statue

Legacy

Temple of Flowers (1928), Women (1930), Two Little Brothers (1935), Ancient Melodies (1953)

Sources

Lau, S.M. Joseph, and Goldblatt, Howard. The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature 2nd Edition. Columbia University Press. New York. Print D., Amy, and Kristina M. Writing women in modern China: an anthology of women's literature from the early twentieth century. Columbia Univ Pr, 1998. 177. Print.