Week Five: Modern Chinese Literature

1. Week Five: Modern Chinese Literature Fylde Building, Room 412 Wednesday, 1-1:50 pm Instructor: Gang Sui

2. Li Yaotang (simplified Chinese: 李尧棠; traditional Chinese: 李堯棠; pinyin: Lǐ Yáotáng; Wade–Giles: Li Yaot'ang, November 25, 1904 – October 17, 2005), courtesy name Feigan (芾甘), is considered to be one of the most important and widely read Chinese writers of the 20th century. He wrote under the pen name of Ba Jin (Chinese: 巴金; pinyin: Bā Jīn), Pa Chin, Li Fei-Kan, Li Pei-Kan, Pa Kin, taking his pseudonym from RussiananarchistsBakunin and Kropotkin. Ba Jin started composing his first works in the late 1920s.

3. Ba Jin’s works were heavily influenced by foreign writers, including Emile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, Alexandr Herzen, Anton Chekhov, and Emma Goldman, and a substantial amount of his collected works are devoted to translations. His writing style, characterized by simplicity, avoids difficult, abstruse words, and makes him one of the easiest modern Chinese writers to read.

4. Novels and Novellas: Destruction 《灭亡》, 1929 The Dead Sun 《死去的太阳》, 1931 The "Love" Trilogy 《爱情的三部曲》 (1931-5) Fog 《雾》, 1931 Rain 《雨》，1933 Lightning 《电》，1935 New Life 《新生》，1933 Miners 《砂丁》，1933 Germination 《萌芽》，1933 A Dream of the Sea 《海的梦》，1932 Autumn in Spring 《春天里的秋天》，1932 The "Torrents" Trilogy 《激流三部曲》 The Family 《家》，1933 Spring 《春》，1938 Autumn 《秋》，1940 Lina 《利娜》，1940 Fires 《火》(in three volumes)，1940—1945 Stars 《星》(English-Chinese bilingual)，1941

5. A Garden of Repose 《憩园》，novella，1944 Ward No 4 《第四病室》，1946 Cold Nights 《寒夜》，1947 Nonfiction Random Thoughts 《随想录》，1978-86 Thinking Back on Writing 《创作回忆录》1981 Exploration and Memories 《探索与回忆》，1982 Afterwords: A Collection 《序跋集》，1982 Remembrance: A Collection 《忆念集》，1982 Ba Jin: On Writing 《巴金论创作》，1983 Literature: Recollections (with Lao She) 《文学回忆录》1983 To Earth to Dust 《愿化泥土》，1984 I Accuse: A Collection 《控诉集》，1985 In My Heart 《心里话》，1986 Ten Years, One Dream 《十年一梦》，1986 More Thoughts 《再思录》，1995

6. Ba Jin died of cancer in Shanghai at the age of 100. His death marked the end of an era for Chinese literature, especially since he was the last major writer to live through the May Fourth Movement.

7. DogBa Jin For the purposes of comparison and/or contrast, discuss “identity”, “dehumanization”, “racial inequality”, “social injustice”, “hypocrisy”, “brutality”, “apathy”, “hatred”, “distortion of religious institutions/beliefs” and “absence of a sense of belonging/safety/personal worth” as manifested in Langston Hughes’s On the Road. On the Road -- protagonist: Sargeant (a black hobo) denied access to … -- an antagonist: the Reverend Mr Dorset -- the images of the four doors -- illusion vs. reality -- Christ: to save, or to be saved? God: speaking in black English?

8. Dog -- setting: the 1930’s; a concession? (a tract of land in a Chinese city supposedly on lease to a foreign power) -- the “I”: a beggar denied access to … -- the “I”: retrogressing to a dog (or even less) -- antagonists: a tall, thin, wrinkled old man, a young man dressed in a handsome Western suit, a middle-aged man in an elegant long robe, a tall, robust young man, a pair of beautiful legs, the white puppy, people with fair skin, blond hair… speaking in a language (that is beyond me) -- the Holy One (disabled, and demystified): a loving father for all? A futile dummy? What is the use/function of religion? -- the end: captured (like Sargeant)