Outlining C.T. Hsia (1/2)

I've gone back to that ur-text explaining modern Chinese literature to English readers, C.T. Hsia's A History of Modern Chinese Fiction. Here are a few authors that might be worth considering to understand the position of biography and autobiography in the turbulent 20th century.

Ye Shaojun

"Ye Shaojun's preoccupation with educational problems finally led him to write in 1928 a novel which is more or less autobiographical, Ni Huanzhi."

Bing Xin

Bing Xin is an interesting case -- her position as an elder figure with a childlike mind makes me think of her as a forerunner of Yang Jiang. But C.T. Hsia does not find much worth noting here; commenting on her late story "The West Wind" he says it is "again about loneliness, indicating her inability to develop further." Maybe I need a second opinion?

Su Xuelin, esp. The Bitter Heart (1929, autobiographical novel)

Su Xuelin has gotten more attention in recent years. Hsia barely mentions this, but it might be worth an overview, at least.

Ling Shuhua

Hsia has a very high opinion of Ling Shuhua -- "unlike Bing Xin, she early manifested a more adult sensibility and psychological acumen." Her stories sound worthwhile, but I'm very curious now about her English-language autobiography, Ancient Melodies (1953), which I started but did not finish last year.

Guo Moruo

Nobody likes Guo Moruo, least of all C.T. Hsia, but the man was morbidly interested in autobiography (see volumes 6-9 of his Works (1959)). That there might be something of interest somewhere in there is partly confirmed by some very revealing letters to a friend, which Hsia quotes at length, pp. 98-100. Also note that Guo translated Goethe's Travels of Young Werther -- I wonder how influential this book has been in China.

Yu Dafu

Now here is a really interesting case. Commenting on "Sinking" and other stories, Hsia has that "one notices a kindness and ultimate decency on the part of the autobiographical hero, staying well within the bounds of Confucian propriety." I think this is definitely worth pursuing in more detail. It's interesting that Hsia sees Yu Dafu's career as falling into three stages: a passionate young person, a lackadaisical self-centered middle age, and finally, in a later career that includes books like Footprints Here and There, Yu Dafu takes on some of the persona of a "Taoist recluse;" he "shows a strong affinity with the older travel literature and reasserts his literary importance."

Shen Congwen

Hsia likes him even more than Yu Dafu -- and who wouldn't, he's a more versatile talent with no less an egotism. Hsia says of his work, like Lao She's that it "defies translation;" I now mean to take Hsia's challenge. First off, it will be necessary to see what has been translated into English, beginning with the volume The Chinese Earth. (It's about time I read Jeffrey Kinkley's book, as well.)

Ding Ling

Ding Ling may truly be "a bad writer,"(p. 276), but I think her vision of herself as a public, service-seeking, striving-for-martyrdom sort of identity is definitely worth representing. If not Ding Ling, then perhaps Xie Bingying. This is a vast subject that Hsia barely touches on, because in his anti-Communist mind, one need not spend time on what are "essentially exercises in propaganda clichés." I think that without contradicting this statement in anyway, we will need to find something to help us understand the identity formation revolutionary women (I'm looking at you, Amy Dooling.)