Week Four: Modern Chinese Literature

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

2. Shu Qingchun (simplified Chinese: 舒庆春; traditional Chinese: 舒慶春; pinyin: Shū Qìngchūn, Manchu: Sumuru, February 3, 1899 – August 24, 1966), better known by his pen name Lao She (Chinese: 老舍; pinyin: Lǎo Shĕ) was a notable Chinesewriter. A novelist and dramatist, he was one of the most significant figures of 20th century Chinese literature, and is perhaps best known for his novel Rickshaw Boy and the play Teahouse (茶館). He was of Manchu ethnicity. His works are known especially for their vivid use of the Beijing dialect.

3. He went on to serve as lecturer in the Chinese section of the (then) School of Oriental Studies (now the School of Oriental and African Studies) at the University of London from 1924 to 1929. During his time in London, he absorbed a great deal of English literature (especially Dickens, whom he adored) and began his own writing. His later novel 二马 (Ma and Son) drew on these experiences.

4. Beijing dialect typically uses many words that are considered slang, and therefore occur much less or not at all in Standard Chinese. Speakers not native to Beijing may have trouble understanding many or most of these. Many of such slang words employ the rhotic suffix -r. Examples include: 倍儿 bèir – very, especially (referring to manner or attribute) 别价 biéjie – do not; usually followed by 呀 if used as an imperative (Usually used when rejecting a favor or politeness from close friends) 搓火儿 cuōhuǒr – to be angry 颠儿了 diārle – to leave; to run away 二把刀 èrbǎdāo – a person with limited abilities, klutz

5. Several of his stories have been made into films, including This Life of Mine (1950, dir. by Shi Hui), Dragon Beard Ditch (1952, dir. by Xian Qun), Rickshaw Boy (1982, dir. by Ling Zifeng), The Teahouse (1982, dir. by Xie Tian), The Crescent Moon (1986, dir. by Huo Zhuang), The Drum Singers (1987, dir. by Tian Zhuangzhuang), and The Divorce. The Lao She Literary Award (zh:老舍文学奖) has been given every two to three years starting in the year 2000. It is sponsored by the Lao She Literature Fund and can only be bestowed on Beijing writers.

8. An Old and Established NameLao She For the purposes of comparison and/or contrast, discuss “irony”, “rootlessness/homelessness”, “credit”, “honesty”, “gentlemanliness”, “honour”, “decency”, “dignity”, “grace under the pressure” and “sense of loss” as manifested in Hemingway’s A Clean and Well-lighted Place. -- protagonist: Xin Dezhi (senior apprentice) -- narrative point of view: third-person central/partial omniscient -- conflicts: Xin Dezhi vs. other characters (vs. society, vs. himself, vs. his fate) Is the conflict between the old and the new resolvable? Can he take the middle ground (the Golden Mean)? -- local colour (humour): Beijing dialect

9. -- setting (a microcosm of the competitive modern business world ): the Fortune Silk Store, the Village Silk Shop, and the Heaven Silk Store -- “gentlemanly style” vs. dirty tricks/deceptions -- social milieu: the 1930’s (boycotting Japanese goods) -- linear plot-development rising actions, climax, denouement (falling action), resolution -- A tragic end (understatement and structural irony): “Yet after a year, the Fortune Silk Store was bought out by the Heaven.” -- the general orientation of the modern society? -- Plato: the World of Becoming vs. the World of Being? Change vs. Changelessness?