Chinese+Literature+and+Theatre

Republican Era Chinese Literature By Eric

When people think of Chinese writing, they usually think of the Cultural Revolution and how people couldn’t share ideas. But creative Chinese writing was everywhere just 20 years before communism took over. For you to understand how communism took over, or even books today, you must look at the early republican era, women’s role in writing, and the last years before the Cultural Revolution. After learning about these 3 important events, you can understand how Chinese writing today is connected to the republican era. Writing started to develop in the early 1920’s when a form of Chinese came to be that everyone could understand, or “Standard Written Chinese”, (Wikipedia 1). People could all share their ideas in the same language, so “The late 1920s and 1930s were years of creativity in Chinese fiction, and literary journals and societies espousing various artistic theories proliferated”, (Wikipedia 17). Writing in this period was as normal as today, apparently. From the writing in this era, it would seem that the country would be heading in a much different direction than it did. From May fourth radicalism, a protest by educated students and the types of people to be “re-educated”, came more women writers than before. “To be sure, there were women writers in the late imperial period and in the late Qing, but nowhere near on the scale as during the May Fourth. These writers generally tackled "domestic" issues, such as relations between the sexes, family, and friendship, but they were revolutionary in giving direct expression to female subjectivity”, (Wikipedia 16). “Women writers who grew equally prominent during these decades include Ting Ling, Hsiao Hung, and Chang Ai-ling (Eileen Chang)” (Answers.com 15). The coming of women was something astounding considering women’s role in society- not just in china, but also in all other countries at the time. The republican era gave freedoms that would not be seen again until over 50 years later.

n the growing literature and freedom of ideas was something that could change everything in a matter of years. “The League of Left-Wing Writers was founded in 1930. By 1932 it had adopted the Soviet doctrine of socialist realism that art must concentrate on contemporary events in a realistic way, exposing the ills of nonsocialist society and promoting the glorious future under communism”, (Wikipedia 19). This league eventually got its way and led to the communist changes that took place in the 1960’s and 70’s. From here you can link the Cultural Revolution and things in the present back to this league. Now that you’ve taken a careful look back into this frame of history, hopefully you understand how big a part in history that this period is. Early republican writing, May fourth radicalism and women in writing, and The League of Left-Wing Writers were all pieces in how the past played out into the present.

Sources: -http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/chinlit.html; 2009 -http://www.answers.com/topic/chinese-literature; 2009 - http://www.bjreview.com.cn/culture/images/attachement/jpg/site23/20080213/000c76db430d091cd06e20.jpg; 3/9/09 -http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HwUx50xXMnI/SInsxmnrzjI/AAAAAAAAB90/Yv9TUJSCv74/s400/IMG_2218.JPG; 2009 -http://www1.chinaculture.org/library/att/att/20050930/xinsrc_05090230135561349579.jpg; 2009 -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_literature; 2009

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Fourth_Movement; 2009 -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernacular_Chinese; 2009