The dark night lifts at last! 1976 marks the end of both the Cultural Revolution and the Maoist era. It also marks the beginning of one of the most remarkable periods of literature of Taiwan. Today we look at an underground poet in China and a Taiwanese short story writer. Join us to find out […]
Today, we take a look at one of the more interesting works of literary analysis to come out on left-leaning literature in 20th Century China. Roy Bing Chan has done close readings of dreams in the works of Lu Xun, Mao Dun, and writers from the PRC.
You want a hard period for a good literary discussion? Then this is your port of call. The 1960’s wasn’t just a bleak literary landscape in China; it was practically nonexistent. We got around the problem by going across the Straits or underground. Join us to find out more!
…And then there were the Maoist years. Following the Chinese Communist Party’s victory in 1949, literature was tightly controlled until 1976. That means, well, it’s a pretty rough period to discuss. But we still found some gems! Join us to find out more!
Song Dynasty Children’s literature + Communist propaganda + global pandemic = today’s discussion. Last week, we talked about the Three Character Classic (三字經). It is a work of probably Song Dynasty children’s literature that functioned as many young Chinese children’s first Confucian text to memorize. The book is written with three Chinese characters in each […]
When most folks outside of China hear of the Tiananmen Square Incident, and most people either think of the massacre that occurred in 1989. But there was an earlier incident. In 1976, people were getting tired of the Cultural Revolution, but any one who stepped out of line could be criticized. Zhou Enlai, the premier […]
Today, we look at one of the most popular writers during socialist China (1949-1976). His name is Lei Feng. He wrote poetry about dump trucks, but he was killed when a dump truck backed up into a telephone pole which came crashing down on him. As they were cleaning up the deceased earthly possessions, they […]
Today, Nick Stember, the expert on Chinese Manhua (similar to Japanese Manga), joins us as we discuss a short manhua cartoon booklet that was published in 1950. The booklet was meant to be a simple way to explain the 1950 Marriage Law, one of the first acts passed by the new Communist government. The Law […]
Look, just because it’s depressing doesn’t mean it isn’t also great. We bear that in mind as we discuss a truly great short story from the equally great Ding Ling, the writer of Miss Sophie’s Diary, another podcast post on the site. In it, a visiting writer takes stock of the way the Japanese invasion […]
At the 1942 Yan’An Forum on Literature in Art, held in the Shaanxi city of Yan’An, Mao Zedong delivered a series of lectures on the role played by the literary arts in shaping, and being shaped by, the “soldier, farmer, and worker.” While not literature per se, they still played a huge role in Party […]