Ling Shuhua (1900-1990)

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

Click [1] for original source

Ling Shuhua Mattstrock 16:31, 9 October 2012 (UTC)

Life of Ling Shuhua

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.

Ling Shuhua with Chen Yuang. Click [2] for original source]

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. Although she wrote with a modern emphasis she was a passionate artist and actually chose to paint in the more traditional style.

Controversy

Ling Shuhua was the daughter of a high official (Ling Fupeng) and married a man (Chen Yuan) that was heavily involved in the May Fourth movement or the New Culture Movement. As such, she herself was active in protesting the imperialist China along with the traditional cultural aspects that resulted. She wrote primarily on the traditional feminine role in China and the shortfalls of the traditional Chinese culture. She was very articulate in her writings so not to be explicit with her protest, rather she drew depictions of the contrasts of modern and traditional female roles through her characters and their stories.

Ling Fupeng with two daughters and another couple. Click [3] for original source]

Legacy

Ling Shuhua wrote three compilations of short stories (Temple of Flowers (1928), Women (1930), and Two Little Brothers (1935)) as well as a autobiography in English (Ancient Melodies (1953)).

English-language publications by Ling Shuhua

• 1956 - “Orchids and Bamboo.” Translated by Ling Su-hua. Oriental Art 2 (4): 57.

Ling Shuhua (Chen, Su Hua Ling). 1950a. “The Red Coat Man.” The Spectator, no. 6387 (November 24): 540-41.

• 1950 - “Childhood in China.” The Spectator, no. 6391 (December 22): 724.
• 1951 - “Our Old Gardener.” Country Life, no. 2822 (February16): 466-67.
• 1951 - “Happy Days in Kiating.” Country Life, no. 2857 (October 19): 1304-5.
• 1952 - “Visit to a Royal Gardener.” Country Life, no. 2884 (April 25): 1242-43.
• 1953 - “Rock Carvings 1,800 Years Old.” Country Life, no. 2936 (April 23): 1236-38.
• 1956 - “Chinese Woodcuts of Three Centuries.” Country Life, no. 3084 (February 23): 332-33.
• 1969 - Ancient Melodies. 2d ed. London: The Hogarth Press.
• 1988 - Ancient Melodies. Reprint. New York: Universal Books.

Chinese-language publications by Ling Shuhua

• Ling Shuhua. 1928. Hua zhi si (Temple of flowers). Shanghai: Xin yue shudian.
• 1930 - Nüren (Women). Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan.
• 1935 - Xiao ge’er lia (Little Brothers). Shanghai: Liangyou tushu gongsi.
• 1986 - Ling Shuhua xiaoshuo ji (The collected fiction of Ling Shuhua). 2 vols. Taibei: Hongfan

shudian.

• 1994 - Gu yun (Ancient melodies), translated from the English by Fu Guangming. Beijing:

Zhongguo huaqiao chubanshe.

• 1995 - Ling Shuhua Chen Xiying sanwen (Essays by Ling Shuhua and Chen Xiying), edited by Liu

Hong and Xia Xiaofei. Beijing: Zhongguo guangbo dianshi chubanshe.

• 1997 -Ling Shuhua, edited by Zhongguo xiandai wenxueguan (Chinese modern literature

museum). Beijing: Huaxia chubanshe.

• 1998 - Aishanlu mengying (Dreams from a mountain lover’s studio). Beijing: Yanshan

chubanshe.

• 1998 - Ling Shuhua wencun (Collected writings of Ling Shuhua), edited by Chen Xueyong. 2

vols. Chengdu: Sichuan wenxue chubanshe.

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.