"Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature" by Li-hua Ying - Part 5 pot

a story about the sacrifices of the soldiers and officers stationed in Ti-
bet, appeared in 1987 and she continued to write about the hardships
endured by the Chinese military in the Tibetan plateau, especially by
women in a predominantly male world. In recent years, Bi has been
fascinated by the subject of human psychology. Her breakthrough story
“Yuyue siwang” (An Appointment with Death) examines the experi-
ence of patients and their families when faced with incurable illnesses.
Her novel Zhengjiu rufang (Saving the Breasts) explores the effects of
breast cancer on women. Many of these works are based on her direct
encounters with patients in her medical practice. Her recent novel Nü
xinli shi (The Female Psychologist) tells how a psychologist maintains
her professional authority when dealing with her patients who seek her
advice while trying to sort out her own messy relationships with her
husband and her lover.
BIAN ZHILIN (1910–2000). Poet, translator, and scholar. Born in Hai-
men, Jiangsu Province, Bian Zhilin studied English at Beijing Univer-
sity and went on to become a Shakespeare scholar and one of the most
important poets in modern Chinese literature. While translating Western
poetry into vernacular Chinese, Bian began writing poetry. His work
caught the attention of Xu Zhimo, China’s most prominent poet at the
time, who admired Bian’s innovative poems. In 1936, Bian collaborated
with fellow Beijing University students He Qifang and Li Guangtian
on a collection of poetry entitled Hanyuan ji (Hanyuan Collection),
earning them the nickname “Three Musketeers of Hanyuan.” In ad-
dition to writing free verse in the vernacular language, Bian explored
new ways of writing modern regulated verse. Of all the poems Bian
wrote during his career, the most memorable is the quatrain entitled
“Duan Zhang” (The Broken Chapter) composed in 1934. It records the
feelings of one single moment with images of a person standing on a
bridge looking at a scene and another person (or persons) standing by
a window looking at the one on the bridge while taking in the scenery

around him or her.
The political atmosphere after 1949 permitted poets to write only
propagandist poems and Bian soon abandoned poetry writing to fo-
cus instead on translation and scholarly work. His work on William
Shakespeare’s tragedies is considered an important contribution to
Shakespearian studies in China. He is also credited with introducing a
wide variety of Western literary works to Chinese readers.
12 • BIAN ZHILIN
BING XIN, A.K.A. PING HSIN, PEN NAME OF XIE BINGXIN
(1900–1999). Born in Fuzhou, Bing Xin graduated from Yanjing
University in Beijing with a bachelor’s degree in literature and from
Wellesley College in the United States with a master’s in English litera-
ture. She began writing during the May Fourth Movement and had a
long, distinguished career as a writer, translator, teacher, and public fig-
ure. Her creative writing includes poetry, prose, and short stories. In her
early works, Bing Xin encouraged women to get an education not only
as a way to obtain self-fulfillment but also to bring happiness and stabil-
ity to the family. Her first story “Liangge jiating” (Two Families) por-
trays two housewives with different backgrounds: the educated woman
is able to teach her children and provide understanding and comfort for
her husband; the illiterate woman is only interested in spending money
on jewelry and clothes and does not know how to bring up children or
manage household finances. The family with the well-educated wife
is happy while the one with the ignorant wife is unhappy. At a time
when education for women was still rare, Bing Xin attempted to use
her stories as a wake-up call to society. Her writings, as expressions of
a wholesome, healthy, uplifting outlook, generally promote a positive
attitude toward life and advocate love and kindness. Her series of poems
Fan xing (Myriad Stars) are most emblematic of this worldview; she ex-
tols the love of family, the love of friends, and above all maternal love.

In her view, love is capable of saving the world. The hero in “Chaoren”
(The Superman), her best-known story, is a man saved by a loving re-
lationship with a little boy. Bing Xin wrote many stories and poems for
children; from the series Ji xiao duzhu (To Young Readers) to tales she
wrote in the 1950s, she shows her young readers how important it is to
love nature, learning, and family and friends.
– C –
CAN XUE, PEN NAME OF DENG XIAOHUA (1953– ). Fiction writer.
Born and raised in Changsha by intellectual parents working for the Hu-
nan Daily, Can Xue moved with her family to a farm in the late 1950s
when her father was labeled a rightist. During the famine that soon fol-
lowed, the family suffered incredible hardships. The onset of the Cul-
tural Revolution permanently ended Can Xue’s formal schooling, leav-
ing her with only a primary school education. Can Xue went to work in a
CAN XUE, PEN NAME OF DENG XIAOHUA • 13
factory and later quit her job to become a seamstress. She began writing in
the early 1980s. A primary advocate for the Chinese avant-garde long be-
fore it became a trendy literary movement in China, Can Xue was a unique
figure among contemporary Chinese writers. She takes pride in writing
“pure literature” and single-mindedly pursues her own artistic vision, com-
pletely unaffected by either her critics or the market. With an imaginative
mind, she has spun some of the most fantastic stories in contemporary
Chinese literature. In her works, one can find traces of influence by Jorge
Luis Borges and Franz Kafka. Her short stories, including “Shan shang
de xiao wu” (A Little Hut on the Hill) and “Feizao” (Soap), and novellas
such as “Canglao de fu yun” (Old Floating Clouds) and “Huang ni jie”
(Yellow Mud Street), all written in the 1980s and variably called “gothic,”
“surrealistic,” and “absurd,” remain her best-known works. In these texts,
dreams and fantasies appear to be tangible and believable. Focusing on
the subconscious of the human mind, Can Xue has created a world that is

invariably irrational, fragmented, and nightmarish, with no clear definition
of time, space, and identity. Among the group of avant-garde writers who
began writing experimental fiction in the 1980s, Can is arguably the only
one who has maintained a cutting-edge approach to literature, continuing
to produce the kind of work that compels the reader to participate in an
intellectual exercise. Bianjiang (The Frontier), a recent novel that portrays
the uncanny life of a small border town whose residents possess extraor-
dinary abilities, is a testament to her sustained creative energy and her
persistent effort at exploring the realm of the human psyche.
CAO JUREN (1900–1972). Essayist and fiction writer. Born in Zhejiang,
Cao graduated from the Hangzhou Number One Teachers’ College,
a magnet for progressive thinkers at the time, and taught literature at
several universities. He was an editor and journalist during the Sino-
Japanese War. Cao moved to Hong Kong in 1950 and in his position
as founder and editor of Re feng (Hot Breeze), a bimonthly literary jour-
nal, he published works of liberal writers who stayed on the mainland
after 1949. Cao wrote a large quantity of works, most of which are es-
says and some fiction. He was also a literary critic.
CAO NAIQIAN (1949– ). A Shanxi native, Cao began his literary career in
the late 1980s when his short stories about rural Shanxi garnered praises
from the veteran writer Wang Zengqi, who wrote an essay introducing
his work to the public. The Wenjiayao stories, totaling more than 20,
are based on life in the village at the border between Shanxi and Inner
14 • CAO JUREN
Mongolia, where Cao lived for a year during the Cultural Revolution
supervising the educated city youths sent there to perform physicial la-
bor. These stories, published in some of China’s major literary journals,
won immediate critical acclaim in both China and Taiwan and attracted
the attention of the Swedish Sinologist Goran Malmqvist, who helped
promote Cao’s work. Cao’s realistic portrayal of destitution reveals

some of the most horrific conditions of rural life in northern China. As
a true realist, Cao presents Wenjiayao as it is—a village debilitated by
poverty, with food and sex dominating the thoughts and conversations
of the men. The stories contain unfiltered local ballads that express in a
vivid and crude language sexual desire that burns inside the men in the
village. “Nüren” (Women) and “Da pinhuo” (Bachelors’ Potluck) are
two of the stories in the Wenjiayao series. Dao heiye xiang ni mei banfa
(When I Think of You Late at Night, There’s Nothing I Can Do), a novel
composed of five short stories, is arguably the best of Cao’s work. It
tells how the hunger for food and sex that ravages Wenjiayao turns one
man into a criminal who rapes his own mother and forces a woman to
offer her own body to alleviate her son’s pent-up desire. It also exposes
the abuse of power in the hands of village leaders. Cao’s unfinished
semiautobiographical novel, Shangshi jiuzhang (Nine Chapters of the
Bygone Times), consists of eight short stories and one novella. In 2005,
Cao was invited to participate in the International Writers Workshop at
Hong Kong Baptist University.
CAO WENXUAN (1974– ). Fiction writer. Born in rural Jiangsu, Cao
Wenxuan graduated from the Chinese Department of Beijing University
in the late 1970s. Since then, he has been teaching modern Chinese lit-
erature at his alma mater. A strong advocate for children’s literature and
a winner of several literary awards, including the Song Qingling Litera-
ture Prize and Bing Xin Literature Prize, Cao has published numerous
stories and novels about Chinese adolescents. He writes in a lyrical style
that appeals aesthetically to traditional sensibilities and his works por-
tray everyday characters who experience life in its many facets and learn
lessons about love, sacrifice, hard work, dignity, and judgment.
Shanyang bu chi tiantang cao (Goats Do Not Eat the Grass in
Heaven) portrays the hard life of a boy as he follows adult migrant
workers into the city; Cao fangzi (A Thatched House) examines the six

years of elementary school life from the perspective of a little boy as he
struggles to understand the world of the adults; Hong wa (Red Tiles),
CAO WENXUAN • 15
which won the National Book Award and Beijing Literature and Arts
Award, portrays the simple and pure life of the countryside described in
the words of a middle school student; Xi mi (Fine Rice), also set in rural
China during the Cultural Revolution, tells how a country boy falls
in love with a schoolteacher. Most representative of Cao’s aesthetics
is Tian piao (A Downpour), a novel about a love triangle between two
men and one woman. In this book, Cao describes more than a dozen
forms of rain in a style that accentuates his traditional sensibility. While
situating a story of desire and human nature in the midst of the Cultural
Revolution, Cao minimizes the historical background, skirting around
the social destruction and political turmoil, and chooses to focus on a
love story in which personal ambition pales next to romantic sentiments
and even death is turned into an artistic experience.
CAO YU, A.K.A. TSAO YU, PEN NAME OF WAN JIABAO (1910–
1996). Playwright. Born in Tianjin into an official family, Cao Yu was
the most important playwright in 20th century China and the driving
force behind the success of hua ju (spoken drama), a transplanted the-
atrical form introduced from the West to China during the first decade
of the 20th century. Some of his plays, particularly those written in
the 1930s, including Leiyu (Thunderstorm), a four-act tragedy about a
family ripped apart by secret lives and opposing ideologies, and Richu
(Sunrise) about the contrasting worlds of a society woman and a prosti-
tute both driven to death by dark social forces, are Chinese classics and
are still performed in China’s theaters. Beijing ren (Peking Man), which
portrays an old declining family, is considered the best play he wrote
during the 1940s. Cao Yu’s dramatic skills were influenced by Greek
tragedies and works by Henrik Ibsen and Eugene O’Neill. However,

the lyrical sensibility and the dramatic language as well as the social
consciousness expressed are quintessentially Chinese.
After 1949, Cao Yu served as president of the Central Institute of
Theater and Beijing People’s Art Theater and continued to write, but
none of the plays he produced during this period reached the same level
of success and popularity as his earlier works.
CAO ZHILIAN, A.K.A. JERLIAN TSAO (1969– ). Fiction writer.
A graduate from National Taiwan University and the University of
California at Berkeley, Cao Zhilian represents the new generation of
“Internet writers” whose works are published online before they are
picked up by traditional print publishers. Cao has written two novels
16 • CAO YU, A.K.A. TSAO YU, PEN NAME OF WAN JIABAO
and some short stories; they all can be found in paper form. Mou dai
fengliu (The Romance of a Certain Era), published online in 1996, was
conceived when she was researching for her Ph.D. dissertation on the
social transformation in the city of Suzhou during the Ming dynasty
(1368–1644). Set in the 16th century, it depicts the nebulous relation-
ships among several characters. The experimental book resembles a col-
lection of stories or essays rather than a traditional novel. The structure
is loose and free, typical of Web writings, allowing the reader to read
in a random order. The book is filled with details of landscape, food,
clothing, entertainment, and other aspects of life in the Ming, and the
tales of romance, political intrigue, and family feuds are woven in a
language of classical grace and refinement. There is also a great deal of
latitude and fluidity when the narrative travels through time and space.
Yinxiang shu (A Book of Impressions), a more extreme experimenta-
tion than her previous work, is a novel without a story. The central
theme of the book is the changing cultures of the living environment
and the individual’s relationship to them, focusing on Taipei, Berkeley,
Hong Kong, and mainland China but without mentioning their specific

names. The narrative strategy is designed to foreground the intimate,
experiential connection between the self and the physical locale. What
propels the narrative movement, however, is the language, the written
word. In this work, Cao sets out to prove that a novel can be made with
only words and imageries. Without the development and climax of a
storyline, and without a protagonist, the novel relies on the beauty of
the language to create humor, irony, and a sense of sorrow. Tang chu
de huaban (Pedals of the Early Tang) is a collection of her early stories.
See also WOMEN.
CHEN BAICHEN (1908–1994). Playwright and fiction writer. Chen
Baichen was born into a merchant family in Huanyin, Jiangsu Province.
Influenced by the May Fourth Movement, Chen began writing new
poetry and fiction in middle school. His first work, a short story, was
published in 1925 in Xiaoshuo shijie (Fiction World). Chen attended the
Shanghai Institute of Arts and the South China Institute of Arts, working
closely with Tian Han and others to promote a new theater and to build
the Chinese film industry. A member of the Left-wing Association of
Chinese Writers, which he joined in 1930, Chen worked with progres-
sive theater troupes including Minzhong jushe (The Mass Theater),
Nanguo (South China), and Modeng jushe (Modern Theater). He joined
CHEN BAICHEN • 17
the Communist Youth League and was arrested in 1932 for his politi-
cal involvement. While serving his prison sentence, Chen wrote short
stories and some one-act plays.
When the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, Chen moved to
Sichuan and continued his work in the theater, leading and performing
with troupes such as the Shanghai Film Troupe and the China Dramatic
Arts Society. Many of the plays he wrote during this period denounced
Japanese atrocities and aimed at boosting national morale. After the
war, Chen returned to Shanghai and helped found the Kunlun Film Stu-

dio. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1950 and was appointed
art director of the Shanghai Film Studio. He moved to Beijing in 1952
to take up the position of director of playwriting under the Ministry of
Culture and later he was transferred to the Chinese Writers’ Association.
In 1966, Chen moved to Nanjing and worked in the Jiangsu Provincial
Association of Culture. He left his government job in 1978 to become
a professor of dramatic arts and chairman of the Chinese Language and
Literature Department of Nanjing University, a position he held until
his retirement.
Chen had a long and productive career. From the 1930s to the 1980s,
he wrote more than 50 plays and screenplays. He is best known for his
comedies and historical plays. Many of his comedies fall into the cat-
egory of political satire, poking fun at the absurdities found in society
under the Nationalist government. Luan shi nannü (Men and Women
in Wild Times) mocks the degeneration of social mores; Jiehun jingx-
ingqu (March to Marriage) disparages the repressive Nationalist regime;
Sheng guan tu (Becoming Officials), a three-act play, satirizes the bu-
reaucracy and corruption at the local level; Sui han tu (A Tale of Winter)
centers on the futile effort of an idealistic medical doctor determined
to eradicate tuberculosis. Chen’s films include Xingfu kuangxiangqu
(Rhapsody of Happiness), about the miserable urban life after the Sino-
Japanese War, and Wuya yu maque (The Crow and the Sparrow), which
presents the total collapse of the economy and social order under Chiang
Kai-shek’s government on the eve of the Communist victory. Chen’s
historical plays are critiques of some well-known figures in China’s
past, focusing on the power struggle at the highest level. Shi Dakai de
molu (Shi Dakai at the End of His Life) and Jintian cun (Jintian Village)
deal with conflicts within the leadership of the Taiping uprising in the
19th century; Da feng ge (Ode to the Gale), written in 1979, portrays the
18 • CHEN BAICHEN

political struggle within the imperial court in the beginning years of the
Western Han (206 B.C.–23 A.D.).
In addition to his plays, Chen also wrote novels and short stories,
most of which expose social ills and express sympathy for the work-
ing poor. His first novel, Xuanwo (Whirlpool), was published in 1928,
followed by three more: Yige kuanglang de nüzi (An Unruly Woman),
Zui’e zhi hua (Flowers of Evil), and Guilai (Homecoming), all written
under the influence of the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies school. All
would be later dismissed by him as nothing but “making a fuss about
an imaginary illness” with no relevance to reality. See also SPOKEN
DRAMA.
CHEN CUN, PEN NAME OF YANG YIHUA (1954– ). Fiction writer.
A Shanghai native, Chen Cun was sent in 1971 to a village in Anhui,
where he stayed until 1975, when an illness allowed him to return to
Shanghai. He studied political science at Shanghai Teachers’ College
and worked for several years in the city government. He is currently
a member of the Shanghai Writers’ Association. Because of a spinal
disease that has permanently bent his back, he jokingly calls himself
“Curve Man,” a nickname he sometimes uses as a pen name.
Chen Cun deals with issues in everyday urban existence, and his
stories are populated by ordinary folks who lead mundane lives without
apparent drama. He is best known for his portrayals of teenagers in
Shaonan shaonü yigong qige (Young Men and Women: Seven in Total),
which tackles dilemmas faced by high school graduates who fail the
notoriously grueling college entrance exams. In his characteristically
humorous and mocking tone, he conveys the despair and rebelliousness
of youths who try to maintain their equilibrium under tremendous social
and parental pressure. His stories are not plot driven; the fragmented
parts are connected by an ironic language that serves to direct and ener-
gize the narrative. Xianhua he (Fresh Flowers) is typical of Chen’s style.

Without major events or a sustained plot, the book is a journal kept by a
writer, sick at home, who records what he does and sees everyday, such
as eating, drinking, sleeping, shopping for groceries, brushing his teeth,
taking a bath, writing letters, making love, watching TV, and other such
trivial occurrences. By cataloging banal trifles, Chen Cun aims to strip
life of its pretense and return it to its essence, laying bare man’s vulner-
abilities.
CHEN CUN, PEN NAME OF YANG YIHUA • 19
Chen Cun is also a prolific essayist. He has written biting but good-
natured satires, creating a persona who does not take himself too
seriously while making fun of other people’s follies. His essays are
collected in Wanren zishu (Confessions of the Curve Man) and Sishi
hushuo (Making Nonsense at Forty).
CHEN DONGDONG (1961– ). Poet. Born in Shanghai, Chen Dongdong
graduated from Shanghai Normal University with a B.A. in Chinese
literature. Considered a representative of the Generation III poets and
often put in the camp of xueyuan pai (academic school), a loosely con-
nected group based in college campuses that includes Xi Chuan, Zang
Di, and Wang Jiaxin, Chen has worked as a teacher, an editor for opera
and poetry journals, and a website designer among other careers. He be-
gan writing at the age of 20 and is known for having invented the terms
xiju gan (comic effect) and lishi changjing hua (dramatized history). In
poems such as “Xi ju” (Comedy) and “Chuntian: dubai he changing”
(Spring: Monologues and Scenes), he creates a dreamy, dramatized
world constructed with exquisite images, descriptions of scenes, and
dialogues. The measured rhythm, refined musicality, and elegant sensu-
ality that characterize Chen’s work are reminiscent of classical Chinese
poetry. In “Shuzhuang jing” (Mirror) and “Dian deng” (Lighting the
Lamp), the poet sets up vignettes of domestic intimacy, similar to those
found in Song dynasty Ci poetry. Chen’s experiment with dramatization

and ancient Chinese materials is most evident in “Liu shui” (Flowing
Water), a long poem inspired by an ancient melody based on a legend-
ary tale about music. Among the Generation III poets, Chen is believed
to have the most classical sensitivity; however, the interplay between
reality and imagination in his works is undoubtedly modern, and the
syntax of his poems, along with his unconventional use of punctuation,
reveals an experimental poet at work.
CHEN JIANGONG (1949– ). Fiction writer, essayist, and screenplay
writer. Born in Guangxi Province, Chen Jiangong moved to Beijing in
1957, when his economist father took a teaching position at the People’s
University. In 1977, Chen was admitted to Beijing University, ending
his 10-year career as a coal miner. In the early 1980s, several of his
short stories won prestigious awards, establishing him as a promising
young writer. Chen writes in the realistic mode and his works reflect
his experience as a laborer and college student. He is particularly noted
for his Beijing-flavored stories. Influenced by Lao She, also a Beijing
20 • CHEN DONGDONG
resident, Chen uses an urban, street language consisting of traditional
expressions and trendy slang, vividly capturing the unique features of
the witty Beijing vernacular. His works include Miluan de xingkong (A
Star-studded Dazzling Sky), Danfeng yan (Beautiful Eyes), Quanmao
(Curly Hair), and Beijing ziwei (Beijing Flavor).
CHEN RAN (1962– ). Fiction writer. Born and raised in Beijing, Chen Ran
is considered one of China’s foremost feminist writers. She has written a
number of stories that examine aspects of a woman’s role and her shifting
relationship to the world and the individuals around her. Chen’s female
protagonists, all educated urbanites, are spiritual wanderers alienated from
the outside world—depressed, lonely, hypersensitive, and rebellious. Her
best-known work is Siren shenghuo (A Private Life), a psychological
portrayal of a precocious, idiosyncratic adolescent girl growing up in an

era of political upheaval. In this novel, the historical realities recede into
the background, and the focus is on the coming of age of the protagonist,
most notably her sexual awakening and youthful individuality. A Freudian
psychoanalytic overtone and homoerotic sensuality give the novel a unique
perspective into the inner world of the individual. Likewise, Shengsheng
duanduan (Broken Sounds), a fictional account told in the diary form,
presents the author’s observations on accidental occurrences in everyday
life. In a distinctly intellectual voice, the narrator comments on seemingly
randomly selected topics, often trivial events that trigger her thoughts and
imagination, and frequently digresses from the mundane details to enter
into a philosophical discourse.
Other works by Chen include short stories “Wunü yu tade meng-
zhong zhi men” (The Witch and the Door in Her Dream), “Maishui nü
he shougua ren” (The Wheat-ear Woman and the Widow), “Fan qiang
dou shi men” (All Walls Are Ears), “Ling yi zhi erduo de qiaoji sheng”
(The Knocking Sounds of the Other Ear), and “Pokai” (Broken). These
tales feature single women who live by themselves, foregrounding a
woman’s lonely battle against the outside world and the dysfunctional
human relationships characterized by betrayal, suspicion, and miscom-
munication. As Chen moves further into the inner world of her char-
acters in her exploration of the female body and the human mind, her
writings become more probing and pensive, noted also for their unique
imageries and the contrast between the lived and dreamed realities.
These are characteristics that help put Chen in the ranks of China’s
avant-garde writers.
CHEN RAN • 21