Chinese 503 (OSU)

Shen Congwen

I. Introduction

Considered by Kinkley to be a regional writer who not only portrayed his region for its particularity (what set it off from the rest of China) but what made it typical of the Chinese countryside and of universal qualities of life in general. Though he was a nationalist (as all Chinese writers concerned with the fate of the entire nation) he nonetheless was equally "obsessed" with his regions "habits, speech, manners, history, folklore, or beliefs". Region plays more of an important role in the writing of Shen Congwen than any other modern writer.
The region about which he wrote is West Hunan (known as Xiangxi) the mountainous area close to the border of Guizhou. This is remote mountainous region in which the upper areas are occupied by Miao minority people and the lower by Han (or a mixture). This region was part of the ancient state of Chu, viewed by the more northern cultures of the time as barbaric and uncivilized.

II. Biography
A. Childhood

-Born Fenghuang County, Hunan, 1902
-extreme Western portion of Hunan, bordering on Guizhou
-Grandfather member of local military elite who fought the Taipings; grandmother was Miao; mother was of the Tujia minority group; learns enough Miao to get along in the market
-1915 enters modern school; claims in his biography to have spent most of his school days playing by the river (which later forms an important locale and symbol in his fiction)
-little formal education

B. Military life

-1918 joins military unit of a local militia
-transcribed prisoner confessions as he witnessed their torture; claims to have witnessed 700 executions by beheading
-became the personal clerk of the local warlord Chen Quzhen who remained in control of the region (through opium traffic) from 1920 to the mid 30s

C. Beijing (1922-27)

-1922 leaves Western Hunan and goes to Peking; fails university entrance exam; studies on his own
-very little formal education in classical literature and Western subjects; knows no foreign languages; can be said to be the most "conspicuously provincial" of the modern intellectuals (Kinkley)
-actively begins writing around 1925
-wrote and published more than perhaps any other modern writer
-becomes friendly with Yu Dafu, Ding Ling
-1925 first story published in Chenbao fukan (edited by Xu Zhimo)
-1926 publishes collection of folk songs Ganren yaoqu from the Sino-Miao cultural area of West Hunan (many are malang songs sung by young potential lovers in minority peoples of the southwest; strong use of botanical imagery for sexual innuendo

D. Shanghai

-1928 goes to Shanghai with friends Ding Ling and her husband Hu Yepin where they edit Hong yu hei
-Ailisi Zhongguo youji (Alice's Travels in China) published serially in Xinyue (satire of the cult of etrangerie, fawning on things foreign)
-three collections of short stories published Laoshi ren, Ruwu hou, Yu hou ji qita
-mostly autobiographical (from life in Peking or military life in Hunan); characterized by subjectivity, consolation and self-justification; many not too different from other May Fourth subjective texts
-wrote many stories in the style of Yu Dafu with whom he was friends in Peking
-from this point on his is publishing at least one volume of fiction a year
-1929 teaches writing at Wusong (Kinkley says Shen was insecure about his lack of education and felt scorned by other writers; he valued his teaching jobs as a kind of sel-justification)
-by 1928-29 his stories focus more on the Miao, urban/rural schisms, uninhibited sexual customs of the Miao

E. Regional Writing period

-1930 lectures in the Chinese dep't at Wuhan Unversity
-1931 teaches at Qingdao University
-1932 more short stories; biography of Hu Yepin, Ji Hu Yepin, published shortly after execution
-1933-34 returns to visit hometown in West Huanan
-1934 his most famous novella Biancheng (Border Town) is published in Guowen bao
-autobiography Congwen zizhuan
-biography of Ding Ling Ji Ding Ling (2 parts)
-1935 Ba jun tu published (Shanghai wenhua)
-1936 collection of essays on West Hunan Xiang xing sanji (based on letters to wife from 33-34 trip to Hunan; very pessimistic, for the Miao were on the verge of rebellion and the Han forces were being brought in to oust to local warlord Chen Quzhen)

F. Kunming during the War

-1937 goes to Kunming with Qinghua and Beijing U.
-openly opposed propaganda literature of the War while in Kunming; maintained a pacifist stand
-1938 another collection of essays on West Hunan Xiangxi

G. Post War: Beijing

-late forties, teaches at Beida
-1948 novel Changhe; last work of fiction

H. PRC period

-1949 suicide attempt; as Peking was about to captured by the CCP, Shen was coming under increasing pressure from party intellectuals like Guo Moruo and Xia Yan; he was labelled a "peach-pink" writer (pornographic) and a political independent who in not supporting the stance of the party was an enemy
-1950 works in the Chinese Museum of History (studies archaeological artifacts; silk and Chinese costume, recent publication
-1951 confession to CCP "Wode xuexi"
-1967 sent to the countryside
-1978 rehabilitated; works at the History Research Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences
-died 1980s

"Xiao Xiao" by Shen Congwen

Introduction:

-written in 1929; first published in Xiaoshuo yuebao (Short story monthly; 1930)
-Shen's most important and well-known story

Questions:

1. Describe the region in which this story is set. Like other stories in the 30s it is describing peasant life, but are there differences with a story, say, like Mao Dun's "Spring Silkworms"? What is the view of the peasantry in this story? Is it patronizing, romanticized?

2. What is the child bride custom and how is it thematically important to the story?

3. What kind of character is Xiaoxiao?

4. What is the nature of Shen Congwen's language in this story?

5. What is the narrative voice of the story?

6. How are dreams used in the story? What do the images in the dreams suggest?

8. What is the symbolic significance of the "coed" (or girl student)? To the villagers? And to Xiaoxiao?

9. What is Shen Congwen's view of the West in this story? Does it mark a change from the May Fourth view?

10. Why a happy ending?

11. What are the broad themes of the story?