Lu Xun In Modern Chinese Literature

Widely recognized as the greatest figure in modern Chinese literature, Lu Xun is revered as the voice of the nation’s consciousness. While many of fictional works of social criticism written by others during the 1920s and 1930s has been at least partially discredited or criticized during the political movements in China since 1949, Lu Xun’s reputation has remained consistently distinguished. Although he was one of the critics of the Chiang Kai-shek regime, he himself never joined the Communist Party during his lifetime. Yet, we are normally taught that he is the “young patriot,” “revolutionary democrat,” and “great communist fighter.” Even Mao Zedong highly regarded him as the forerunner in the Cultural Revolution and “the chief commander

That I’m still living, still saying things people don’t want to hear is proof that I’m not a real revolutionary.” It is no doubt that Lu Xun has made significant contributions to the realist and revolutionary modes; however, there is no domination of one mode to the exclusion of others in modern Chinese literature but rather a combination of different modes. In this paper, I will first explicate Lu Xun’s use of realism and then argue that his literary works also have traces of nativist lyricism.

Of all the May Fourth writers, Lu Xun provides the most specific description of the deplorable nature of the Chinese people. He is particularly remembered for his attacks on the old Chinese society. “Diary of a Madman,” one of his earliest and most popular literary works published in 1918, expresses aspirations for modernity during the New Culture movement of the May Fourth period. This is a short story of a man who keeps a journal

Many of his short stories have some relevance to his hometown Shaoxing in Zhejiang province. Out of the twenty-five stories written by Lu Xun, at least three, “My Old Home,” “The New Year Sacrifice,” and “In the Tavern” deal with different facets of his own hometown . In these works, Chinese rural life is depicted so as to demonstrate not only the emergence of new political and economic forces into the traditional Chinese agricultural society, but also the inevitable breakdown of the ethical and cultural structure as well as human relations in that old society. For all their thematic and stylistic differences, these stories emphasize various motifs and images that are all part of the bitter experience called nostalgia: the passage of time; the clash between old and new values; yearning for the lost days of innocence or childhood; (re)encounters with quaint, backward country figures; observations of customs; anxieties about impending change; and mixed feelings of homesickness and fear of going home .

Among Lu Xun’s stories that illustrate the village life of China, none seem to be as influential as “My Old Home,” a short story that captures the decline of rural life during the May Fourth Movement period. The narrator Mr. Xun returns to his old home, only