The big red book of modern Chinese literature : writings from the Mainland in the long twentieth century

This revelatory volume brings together significant works in translations from nearly fifty Chinese writers. It includes poems, essays, fiction, songs and speeches written in an astonishing array of moods and styles, from sublime lyricism to witty surrealism, poignant documentary to the ironic, the absurd, the transgressive and the defiant.Yunte Huang provides essential context in an opening essay and in headnotes, timelines and brief introductions to the Republican, Revolutionary and Post-Mao eras. Both personal and authoritative, his selections make for a joyously informative read. From belles lettres to literary propaganda, from poetic revolution to pulp fiction, The Big Red Book is an eye-opening portrait of China in the tumultuous twentieth century.

• Acknowledgments p. xi
• Introduction p. xiii
• Part 1 1911-1949
• Introduction to the Republican Era p. 5
• Lu Xun p. 9
• Preface to Call to Arms p. 9
• A Madman's Diary p. 15
• Hu Shih p. 27
• The Butterflies p. 27
• Dream and Poetry p. 28
• One Smile p. 28
• To the Tune of Shengzhazi p. 29
• Guo Moruo p. 30
• The Streets of Heaven p. 30
• The Sky Dog p. 31
• The Nirvana of the Feng and Huang: Prelude p. 32
• Liu Bannong p. 35
• How Can I Not Miss Her p. 35
• Paper Thin p. 36
• Xu Dishan p. 37
• The Peanut p. 37
• I Think p. 38
• Bing Xin p. 40
• A Maze of Stars (selections) p. 40
• Spring Water (selections) p. 42
• Li Jinfa p. 44
• The Abandoned Woman p. 44
• The Expression of Time p. 45
• Yu Dafu p. 48
• Malady of Spring Nights p. 48
• He Haiming p. 61
• For the Love of Her Feet p. 61
• Zhu Ziqing p. 72
• The Moonlit Lotus Pond p. 72
• Xu Zhimo p. 77
• Second Farewell to Cambridge p. 77
• By Chance p. 79
• Wen Yiduo p. 80
• The Dead Water p. 80
• Perhaps (A Dirge) p. 81
• Confession p. 82
• Ding Ling p. 83
• Miss Sophia's Diary (excerpt) p. 84
• Mao Dun p. 107
• Painfoow (excerpt) p. 107
• Ba Jin p. 140
• Family (excerpts) p. 140
• Dai Wangshu p. 166
• Rainy Alley p. 167
• I Think p. 168
• Shen Congwen p. 169
• Border Town (excerpts) p. 169
• Zhou Zuoren p. 187
• Reading in the Lavatory p. 187
• Lin Yutang p. 193
• My Country and My People (excerpt) p. 193
• Lao She p. 206
• Rickshaw (excerpts) p. 207
• Bian Zhilin p. 229
• Evening p. 229
• Dream of the Old Town p. 230
• Fragment p. 231
• Loneliness p. 231
• Xiao Hong p. 233
• Tales of Hulan River (excerpt) p. 233
• Part 2 1949-1976
• Introduction to the Revolutionary Era p. 273
• Mao Zedong p. 276
• Changsha p. 277
• Mount Liupan p. 278
• Snow p. 278
• Quotations from Chairman Mao (excerpts) p. 279
• Ai Qing p. 282
• Wheelbarrow p. 283
• Dayanhe-My Wet Nurse p. 283
• On a Chilean Cigarette Package p. 287
• Wang Meng p. 289
• The Young Man Who Has Just Arrived at the Organization Department (excerpts) p. 290
• Zhao Shuli p. 308
• The Unglovable Hands p. 308
• Anonymous p. 321
• The Red Lantern: A Revolutionary Peking Opera in Eleven Acts (excerpt) p. 321
• Part 3 1976 - Present
• Introduction to the Post-Mao Era p. 339
• Bei Dao p. 342
• The Answer p. 343
• Let's Go p. 344
• Notes from the City of the Sun p. 345
• The Red Sailboat p. 347
• City Gate Open Up (excerpt) p. 348
• Gu Cheng p. 356
• A Generation p. 356
• Nameless Flowers p. 357
• Farewell, Cemetery p. 357
• I'm a Willful Child p. 365
• Mo Yan p. 368
• Red Sorghum (excerpts) p. 369
• Shu Ting p. 386
• To an Oak p. 386
• A Roadside Encounter p. 388
• Assembly Line p. 388
• Where the Soul Dwells p. 389
• Liu Suola p. 391
• In Search of the King of Singers (excerpts) p. 391
• Yang Lian p. 412
• Norlang p. 413
• Burial Ground p. 420
• The Book of Exile p. 423
• Masks and Crocodile (selections) p. 424
• Can Xue p. 425
• Hut on the Mountain p. 425
• Wang Anyi p. 431
• Love in a Small Town (excerpt) p. 431
• Zhai Yongming p. 460
• Premonition p. 460
• Hypnosis p. 461
• The Language of the '50s p. 462
• Hai Zi p. 464
• Your Hands p. 464
• Facing the Ocean, Spring Warms Flowers Open p. 465
• Spring, Ten Hai Zis p. 466
• Ma Yuan p. 467
• Thirteen Ways to Fold a Paper Hawk p. 467
• Che Qianzi p. 486
• The Night in the End p. 487
• Sign: Inspired by a Letter p. 488
• A Chinese Character Comic Strip p. 489
• An Antique Style Door Screen p. 490
• Yu Jian p. 491
• File o p. 492
• Chi Zijian p. 512
• Night Comes to Calabash Street p. 512
• Yu Hua p. 525
• On the Road at Eighteen p. 525
• Su Tong p. 534
• Raise the Red Lantern (excerpt) p. 534
• Zhang Zao p. 560
• A Starry Moment p. 560
• Into the Mirror p. 561
• Elegy p. 562
• Xi Chuan p. 564
• On the Other Side of the River p. 564
• Blackout p. 565
• Far Away p. 566
• Yu Xinqiao p. 568
• If I Have to Die p. 568
• Epitaph p. 569
• The Dead Are Mourning the Living p. 570
• Self-Introduction p. 570
• Gao Xingjian p. 572
• Soul Mountain (excerpts) p. 573
• Cui Jian p. 601
• Nothing to My Name p. 601
• Permissions p. 603