LITERATURE IN CHINA

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22517, 27 September 1938, Page 6

LITERATURE IN CHINA

MODERN MOVEMENTS

REVOLT FROM CLASSICAL TRADITIONS

The way in which the literature of modern China had grown up alongside the revolt against the classical Chinese language and the movement in favour of a Romanised alphabet, was described by Mr H. Winston Rhodes, lecturer in English at Canterbury University College, in an address to the Workers' Educational Association.

In spite of the popular idea of the Chinese as a strange and mysterious people their problems were really very much like our own, said Mr Rhodes. China had changed vastly in the last 20 years, and the old classical attitude was rapidly passing away. Something of a literary revolution had followed the political revolution in 1911, and it was from 1917 that modern Chinese literature might be said to date. It was then that the two editors of a magazine in North China Started to advocate a break with the difficult Chinese classical language, and the adoption of the pai-hua, the simpler language spoken by the common people

A Modern Masterpiece

The most prominent figure in modern Chinese literature. Lu Hsun, whose death occurred in 1936, was in 1917 a professor in Pekin. In "New Youth'' he b:gan to wr.te in the pai-hua stories about the life and suffering of _ihe Chinese "everyman": and with many others he worked feverishly at transkiting the best works of foreign writers into Chinese. With the "Story of Ah Q," written in 1921. he had created +ne first masterpiece of modern China—if story that had been translated into most of the languages of the world. Though it did no more than describe the sufferings of a typical Chinese man, it lost Lu Hsun his job. A warrant for his arrest had been issued, and he fled. The two main groups of Chinese writers between 1920-25. Mr Rhodes continued, could be paralleled in most countries of the world. The Creationist Society, led by Quo Mo-jo, believed In m't for art's sake and interested Itself in the personal problems of the people as personal problems: the Literary Research Society, of which Mao Tun was a leader, felt that literature should be more social in character. Lu Hsun, at first standing aside, gradually allied himself wtih this group. ! Writers Persecuted

By this time, said Mr Rhodes. Sun Yat Sen was almost in control of China, and a boycott movement' against foreign powers had spread throughout the country. Chinese writers came closer together, achieving some sort of unity; in 1927 most of them supported the Kuomintang. Then Sun Yat Sen died, and Chiang Kai-shek, the new leader, carried out a blood purge which again sent many writers into hiding. But it meant their consolidation, and in 1930 a united left' wing body was formed with Lu Hsun at its head and a membership that included almost every writer of note in China. It was violently attacked and Anally dissolved, and at least 30 of its leading members had been decapitated, imprisoned, or tortured. The attempt made in 1935 to bring back the old classical language, Mr Rhodes said in conclusion, had been answered by a drive in favour of a Romanised alphabet, the teaching of which had spread throughout the country. A year later, faced by Japanese aggression, the Chinese left writers had asked- for unitv with the Kuomintang. In that year, when the bans on their activities were lifted, writers' leagues were formed everywhere. To-day the barriers between the writers and the people were being dropped, and the writers found themselves free to say what they wanted to say about the life of their country. , The address was illustrated by readings from modern Chinese writers by Mr O. I* Simmance.