Getting ready to teach Lao She

Cover for the French edition of Under the Red Banner

Interesting: just as with Yang Jiang, Lao She has found a French readership. The "avant–propos" of translator Paul Bady stands out in the CAJ database for being the only article to consider Lao She's text as autobiography (as usual, Chinese scholarship tends to dwell on the ideological significance of the text). Bady emphasizes the subject's unique precocity, his flair for dramatic, and most of all his candid and intimate observations of kith and kin.



Full citation:

Bady, Paul 保尔·巴迪. "Lao She zizhuanti xiaoshuo 'Zheng hong qi xia' de dutexing" 老舍自传体小说《正红旗下》的独特性 [The Uniqueness of Lao She's Autobiographical Novel Under the Red Banner.] Translated by Wu Yongping 吴永平. Studies of Ethnic Literature 民族文学研究 2004, issue 4 [retrieved full-text from CAJ Database].
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Lao She Translations

A quick glance reveals these titles; I'll build on this list. My goal is to determine whether Beneath the Red Banner is the best piece to assign.



Lao, She. Beneath the red banner. Beijing: Panda Books (China Publications Centre), 1982.

Lao, She. The Two Mas. Translated by Kenny K. Huang and David Finkelstein, illustrated by Ding Cong. Hongkong: Joint Pub. Co., 1984.

Lao, She. Blades of Grass: The Stories of Lao She. Translated by William A. Lyell and Sarah Wei-ming Chen. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999.
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