Readers in Modern Chinese

An advanced reader in modern Chinese, giving a text in a modern written Chinese, reproduced photographically from an original Chinese edition, together with an introduction, bibliography and notes on difficult points of language and allusions to the cultural and historical context. Lu Hsün (1881–1936) was important both politically and from the literary standpoint. He crystallized in his writings the vague aspirations of the generation of progressive young Chinese in the first cultural revolution of the 1920s; and he was a pioneers in the formulation of a new literary style which broke away from the sacrosanct formulae of classical Chinese. This reader gives three of his short stories. Mr Kratochvil's English introduction comments generally on the difficulties facing Chinese writers who wished to find a style related more closely to spoken Chinese, and then considers the three stories here reproduced.