The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature

by Joseph S.M. Lau (Editor), Howard Goldblatt (Editor), Ruowang Wang

The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature has long been a definitive resource for Chinese literature in translation, offering a complete overview of twentieth-century writing from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and making inroads into the twenty-first century as well. In this new edition Joseph S. M. Lau and Howard Goldblatt have selected fresh works from familiar authors and have augmented the collection with poetry, stories from the colonial period in Taiwan, literature by Tibetan authors, samplings from the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution, stories by post-Mao authors Wang Anyi and Gao Xingjian, literature with a homosexual theme, and examples from the modern "cruel youth" movement. Lau and Goldblatt have also updated their notes and their biographies of featured writers and poets. Now fully up to date, this critical resource more than ever provides readers with a thorough introduction to Chinese society and culture.

Genres: China, Chinese Literature, Literature, Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Unfinished

737 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would be hard to encapsulate a century of any major country's literature in a single volume, let alone one as diverse and tumultuous as China. The success of this anthology is remarkable. Most of the major names make an appearance, from Lu Xun, who stands at the beginning of modern Chinese literature, through Su Tong, whose novel became the film "Raise the Red Lantern." The omission of Eileen Chang is puzzling, although excusable because this edition was published in 1995, more than a decade before her renaissance after Ang Lee's film "Lust, Caution", an adaptation of one of her novels. The essays are less compelling than the fiction, although they start strong with Li Xun denouncing the arbitrary and racist justice of British Hong Kong, and end strong with Ba Jin's haunting memorial to his wife, who died in the Cultural Revolution.

[Natalie Newell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The collection of stories from various Chinese authors throughout the 20th century in this anthology offers real insight into the political, social, and cultural issues of their times. While many of the readings are depressing due to the struggle of Chinese citizens during these periods, I found them all very captivating and enlightening. I would definitely recommend this anthology to anyone interested in China and its history.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second volume of Chinese literature put out by Columbia University Press that I've read. The first was classic lit; this volume deals chiefly with the literature of the twentieth century. The shame in that is that when the two volumes are put together, the one to two hundred years in between get short shift. Like the previous volume, I was not a fan of the manner in which this volume was put together. As someone who knows little about Chinese literature and who is trying to learn more about it, I would have relished a bit more attention to context. Why these selections? And what do these selections say about the state of Chinese literature at the time? This volume, rather, is set up like a literary anthology in which the editors' voices are relatively muted; the “literature” you're reading is the important stuff, even if you know little about it. There are no headnotes. Instead, there is a set of short biographies placed at the start of the entire book, forcing a reader to go back and forth between the selections and the bios for info. The bios give good life info and sometimes a little info about the selection itself, but it's hard to glean, from the bios and the overall setup, why the editors chose some works or how relatively important the writer or the piece is to the overall body of modern Chinese literature. I found myself no longer checking the bios by about halfway through the volume, as they began to run together.

Intriguingly, the editors chose to provide the volume in three sections, with three subsections each. First, the anthology is split up by genre: Fiction, Poetry, and Nonfiction. Then, it is split up by period: pre-Mao (from 1918), Mao, and post-Mao. Personally, I would have preferred the genres not be split out, so that the work would have been wholly chronological, but I can see the value in the generic splits. The fiction section is the longest, taking up 5/7 of the overall text, with the poetry and nonfiction each taking up about a seventh. Initially, I would have thought the fiction—short stories, not chapters from longer novels—too long, but the editors choice here seems to be wise. It is the stories that are the strongest section of the book. The poetry, I found, though often full of profoundly beautiful imagery did not seem on par, as a whole, to the classic Chinese poetry of years before, the images often not evoking a parallel track of thought about life. The nonfiction was also not so inspiring or interesting to me. As such, the stories proved to be the section that most seemed to reflect the concerns of daily life for modern Chinese.

What is evident in the pre-Mao section stories is the poverty that must have dominated China before the coming of communism. Such helps explain why the revolution came about. One gets the sense in some tales, which present a more communistic view, of the hope some held out for revolutionaries. But mostly, one gets the feeling for the overall povery of the population. The Mao section of stories present only a few of idealism. That's because so much of the literature that the editors have chosen comes out of Taiwan. But there's probably good reason—idealistic stories of Maoist society do not generally make for interesting reading, except maybe the first one or two times. The Post-Mao world is surprisingly open about the failures and horrors of the Cultural Revolution—neighbors turning in/on neighbors to keep from being turned in themselves, no one truly guilty of anything outside a willingness to sell others out for alleged lack of loyalty to save one's own skin; old revolutionaries who have come to see the folly of their hopes; local party leaders who use their authority to perform heinous acts.

My two favorite pieces in the book stemmed from this post-Mao period. The first, “The Tunnel” by Chen Ruoxi, concerns a lonely older man whose adult children are devoted to the party and who are making their way up various government positions. This older man cannot be and is not allowed to have a love interest, since that would interfere with inheritance and potentially with the children's party status. During the course of the story and his service on one of the party committees helping to aid the community, he finds himself falling for a widow, whose husband had been accused of being against the party and had been taken away. The father finds various amusing ways to have small trysts with this woman, sneaking out, for example, to see movies with her. But the family will NOT allow him to remarry—it is simply shameful for an older man and would hurt his children's own economic needs. One day, the couple opts to skip the movie and go for a hike in some lesser known part of the city. They find a tunnel and some alone time. The ending here is heartbreaking, just as the man's experience of being denied love would have been.

The other story, and a very short one at that, that stood out to me was Liu Yichang's “Wrong Number,” not so much for its emotional connection as for its technical trickery. The tale is one told twice, once without the “wrong number” phone call and once with it, showing how a few minutes—a dead butfferfly, if you will, to use the old sci-fi trope—can change the course of one's life.

[John Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good collection, if you can accept lack of coverage of the age of Mao.

[Brendan Trosper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read Yu Dafu's "Sinking" and was especially moved. This anthology is full of great stories with good translations.

[Sydney ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this for my Modern Chinese Lit class and it was okay. Some stories were way better than others but this wasn't really my cup of tea.

[Bobby Bookman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best stories are the early revolutionary ones, and one fanciful tale about a pair of boys who eat iron. Some very interesting essays about the Cultural Revolution. Some absolutely awful essays about nothing, just several pages of meaningless free association drivel. The poems are all forgettable.