One Million Characters

The stories were written in 1931

One of the things I most enjoyed about reading literature from early last century was seeing how certain aspects of Chinese culture hadn't changed despite the huge upheaval China went through in latter half of the century.  Not sure if any of that came across from these writings?

There's a lot of stuff by 沈从文 (Shen Congwen) in Ximalaya, most of it free.

https://www.ximalaya.com/search/album/沈从文

(removed a link because it doesn't seem to be right, text and audio don't match)

 

On 2/25/2019 at 10:56 PM, imron said:

One of the things I most enjoyed about reading literature from early last century was seeing how certain aspects of Chinese culture hadn't changed despite the huge upheaval China went through in latter half of the century.

 

@imron,

 

While thinking about your question it struck me that most Chinese fiction I’ve read was written before 1949. The stories I’ve been reading—by 沈从文, 丁玲, 萧红, 老舍, 施蛰存—are now nearly one hundred years old.

 

The themes in these old stories are pertinent to China today. Some examples: the relative simplicity of life in the countryside compared with life in the city; idyllic portraits of rural living; the poverty of farmers; parochialism and superstition among the 老百姓; the neurosis of modern city life; young people falling in love but never saving so out loud; crowds of people, bright lights, fireworks, bustle, etc. Many of the events described in these stories could plausibly occur in China today. The entire plot of 萧红’s 《手》, for example.

 

These old Chinese stories are 非常中国 in another, hard-to-describe way. (Sorry for the tautology.) They would not be the same if they were written in a different country. Take 沈从文’s 《牛》. The story has this universal, parable-like quality. But no one would think it was written in France.

 

I think part of the reason that these stories do not seem dated is because they were written pre-Liberation. They are not political—not overtly, at least. The stories were written before authors really had to grapple with the actions and ideas of Mao and the CCP. So they seem timeless in a way that a land reform story or a Great Leap Forward story or a Cultural Revolution story might not.

3 hours ago, murrayjames said:

Many of the events described in these stories could plausibly occur in China today.

This was one of the things that struck me too.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

3 hours ago, murrayjames said:

So they seem timeless in a way that a land reform story or a Great Leap Forward story or a Cultural Revolution story might not.

This is an insightful observation.

 

3 hours ago, murrayjames said:

These old Chinese stories are 非常中国

中国可中国，非常中国