Mao Dun

Mao Dun (Chinese: 茅盾, pinyin: Máo Dùn, Wade-Giles: Mao Tun) (Tongxiang, China; July 4, 1896 - Beijing; 27 March 1981) was a contemporary Chinese writer, one of the leading Chinese-language writers of the 20th century.

Linked to the Chinese Communist Party since its founding, he is considered a representative of Chinese socialist realism. His main work is the novel Midnight, a naturalistic-style story about the capitalist society of Shanghai at the turn of the century XX.

Name

His real name was Shěn Déhóng (沈德鴻 / 沈德鸿), and his courtesy name zì was Shěn Yànbīng (沈雁冰). As a writer he used the pen name Máo Dùn, pronounced the same as the Chinese word & # 34;contradiction & # 34; (矛盾), although replacing the first character 矛 with the homophone 茅. Sometimes his name is written in pinyin as Maodun , which highlights the fact that the two syllables form the pseudonym inseparably. It is not, therefore, a surname and a given name, as in other Chinese names, but the full form must always be used.

Biography

Lizhi Primary School where Mao Dun studied in Wuzhen

She was born in Tongxiang County, Zhejiang Province. His father is in charge of his education in the early years of his life, until he passed away when little Shen Dehong was ten years old. His mother continues the young man's education until he moves to Hangzhou for secondary school. By this time he had already read a large number of Chinese classics which will influence his future literary style. In 1913 he went to Peking, where he entered a preparatory school to enter Peking University, although he did not complete his studies. After that stage in Beijing, he moved to Shanghai, where he began working at the publishing house La Prensa Comercial (商務印書館 / 商务印书馆 Shāngwù Yìnshū Guǎn).

In Shanghai, he began writing articles in the Student Magazine (學生雜誌 / 学生杂志 Xuésheng Zázhì). He participated in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, which would mark the beginning of a new era in Chinese culture and, in particular, in Chinese literature. Starting in 1920, he took charge of the Monthly Fiction Magazine (小說月報 / 小说月报 Xiǎoshuō Yuèbào), one of the main Chinese literary magazines of the time, which published numerous translations of Western writers, and of which he was editor until 1923. In 1921 he participated in the founding of the Communist Party of China together with Chinese historical communists such as Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. Since then, his figure will be linked to that of the party.

In 1923, on the occasion of a visit he was to make to China the following year, he wrote a harsh diatribe against the Indian writer Rabindranath Tagore, denouncing his orientalism: «We are determined not to give the Welcome to Tagore who loudly sings the praises of oriental civilization. Oppressed as we are by the militarists from within the country, and by the imperialists from without, this is no time for daydreams."

In 1925 he published a highly influential essay in the development of communist revolutionary literature: On the Literary Art of the Proletariat. Between 1926 and 1928 he participated in the Northern Expedition of Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist government. At the time, the Nationalist government was collaborating with the Communist Party, but when Chiang Kai-shek consolidates his power, he launches a crackdown on the Communists, and Mao Dun is forced to flee to Japan. He returned to China in 1930, and joined the Left Writers' League founded that same year.

His most prolific time as a writer was between 1927 and 1933. His best-known works were published during this period. Between 1927 and 1928 he published three short stories, Fade , Shake and Seek , grouped as a trilogy under the title Eclipse . In 1930, her novel Arco Iris was published, which tells the story of an upper-class woman who joins the revolutionary movement. In 1932, his stories The Lin Family Shop and "Spring Silkworms" were published. In 1933, his masterpiece Midnight was published, a naturalistic-style novel highlighting the cruelty of Shanghai businessmen towards workers.

After the Sino-Japanese war was declared, Mao Dun left Shanghai in 1938. During the following years, he would reside in various parts of China, successively passing through Changsha, Wuhan, Canton, Xinjiang, Yan'an, Chongqing, Hong Kong and Guilin. In Wuhan and Hong Kong, he was involved in editing various literary publications.

After the Japanese defeat in 1945, Mao Dun continued his support for the Chinese Communist Party, in the midst of the civil war against the Kuomintang, and visited the Soviet Union in 1946.

Monument in memory of Mao Dun in Wuzhen.

In 1949, after the victory of the communists in the civil war, the People's Republic of China was founded, and Mao Dun became minister of culture, a position he would hold until 1964, when he was relieved of his position amidst the chaos ideology of the moment. Like so many other Chinese writers, Mao Dun was criticized during the Cultural Revolution. Later he would be rehabilitated. During his later years he ran a children's magazine. He passed away in Beijing in 1981.

Mao Dun is one of the most renowned contemporary writers in the People's Republic of China, where the highest literary award, bestowed annually, is precisely called the "Maodun Literary Prize".

Work

Essays

• About the Literary Art of the Proletariat (無 SC.文. / מווווווה Lùn Wúchănjiējí Wényì), 1925.

Stories

• Trilogy Eclipse (Sh /), Shí), 1928, composed of the stories Get lost (), /),の Huànmiè), Agitar (动 / 4.00 Dòngyáo) and Search (Zhuīqiú).
• The Lin Family Shop (source子і / sourcing..і Lín Jiā Pùzi), 1932.
• The Spring Silk Worms 1932.

Novels

• Arco Iris (), Hóng), 1930.
• Midnight (1933).