Sinking

by Yu Dafu

Yu Dafu (1896 - 1945) was a modern Chinese short-story writer and poet. This is a collection of his short-stories, including Sinking, Moving South and Silver-Grey Death.

Genres: Fiction, Chinese Literature, China, Classics, Literature

324 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

See: 郁达夫

Yu Dafu (simplified Chinese: 郁达夫; traditional Chinese: 郁達夫; pinyin: Yù Dáfū; Wade–Giles: Yu Ta-fu) (December 7, 1896 – September 17, 1945). Born in Fuyang, Zhejiang province, was a modern Chinese short story writer and poet.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Connie]

This particular short story reminded me of Holden Caulfield in "Catcher in the Rye". The main character in "Sinking" is very much alike Holden in that they both struggled with isolation and desolation despite being amidst the presence of their peers in school.

[Kirsten Bedford · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for Chinese Lit class. main character is the ORIGINAL incel. Love how it delved into eroticism and sexuality, which was definitely not common to be open about in China during this period.

[gio · Rating 2 out of 5]

sad

[Lordoftaipo · Rating 4 out of 5]

太薄了，也是年底趕目標的絕頂良本。

在日本犯起鬱結的短篇小說，夾雜一絲恨鐵不成鋼的愛國情懷，如此為藝術而藝術，我不禁想起了三島由紀夫。

不過這本書沒有自殺，也沒有過度裸露的描寫。當時算起來仍算先鋒，今天難免乏力。所以我懂無病呻吟的指控是從哪來的。

只是太薄了，再創先河、再多妙筆也難以滿足好些讀者。

[natalia]

yu dafu to naprawde pionier bycia incelem i nienawidzenia japonczykow

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story revolves around the internal struggles of a young man who in a way tries to adhere to its roots and traditions while also having been exposed to a different culture and norms that seem opposite to the latter.

While studying in Japan, a young and indecisive Chinese man tries to finish his education but switches schools/accommodation repeatedly out of a partial paranoia that everyone hates him/belittles him in private and also due to his lack of social graces, ends up being thought as mentally ill, which only makes his anger towards his classmates grow.

While very much interested in girls, he is not able to speak to any and resorts to voyeurism and onanism, for which he feels deeply ashamed but cannot escape the habit, thus he spirals further into depression and self loathing, to the point of suicide.

The story itself is more political than what it appears, showing a country stuck in the past and not being able to break free into modernity.

[Dustin Jaros · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chinese Incel moves to Japan to pursue his studies in the countryside, while hating his nation and ethnicity for the hatred it brings to him (which he never actually experiences firsthand) while also wishing he never left China. He loves the nature around him, and describes it in pretty words, that’s all I managed to enjoy here. His troubles are so mundane ultimately, that it is hard to emphasize with him. That being said, the themes of loneliness are universal, regardless of culture, and that I can and did relate to. This was my introduction to Chinese literature and I hope it leads me to more, further fleshed our works.

[M'aiq the lair · Rating 5 out of 5]

excruciatingly realistic in psychological dynamics for a foreigner from a country facing crises to a land to be surrounded by its pouncing citizens; a marginalized, dejected, forlorn puppet of primitive patriotism and juvenile rebelliousness who could only seek consolation in spiritual realm initially because that was the mindset instilled to him; and who eventually, inevitably, betrayed his code of conduct to placate his natural desires.

[Richard Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who cannot read Chinese, this story has been recently translated into English: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5.... One can see my review there.

It's not the first English translation of this work, but it is a faithful one (having read the Chinese, as well as the English, and having also translated it).

[Barack Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

040-Sinking-Yu Dafu-Novel-1921
Barack

—— “Artists are creators of beautiful things."

The first edition of "Sinking" was in 1921. It is a collection of vernacular short stories, mainly describing the lonely and depressed life state of some young students studying in Japan in the 1920s.

Yu Dafu is formerly known as Yu Wen. Born in Fuyang, Zhejiang Province in 1896, he graduated from Nagoya Eighth Higher School (now Nagoya University) and Tokyo Imperial University (now Tokyo University). He was killed by the Japanese army in the jungle of Sumatra, Indonesia in 1945. Representative works: "The Evening of Spring Breeze", "Sinking", "She Is a Weak Woman", "Autumn in the Old Capital", etc.

The protagonist images in this collection are relatively similar. The protagonist is about 20 years old and has studied in Japan for some time. He is full of eager desire for love at the soul level and the physical level. However, due to the misfortune of the country and his weakness, he can only suppress this desire in his heart. He keeps struggling with instinctive desire and moral torture.

Yu Dafu was only about 25 years old when he wrote these short stories, and his life experience was relatively thin. Therefore, the unity of the protagonist's image can also be understood. However, it is because of the material drawn from his own life experience, the emotion expression is extremely sincere, and the reader can deeply appreciate the protagonist's depression and loneliness.

Today, 100 years later, when an adult with three normal views reads these contents, he will probably smile, and he will not regard the descriptions in the book up to the point of being an adulterer. But I can imagine what kind of uproar would be caused by writing such content 100 years ago.

From my point of view, love is a very different emotion from friendship and affection. Because love must contain spirit and flesh, but friendship and affection only need spirit. Between the opposite sex, if there is the only attraction in spirit, I think it is friendship. Between the opposite sex, there is the only attraction in flesh, which I think is a deal.

In traditional Chinese education in the past, the spiritual part was extolled in literature, but in reality, it was not as good. As for the meat part, it is regarded as a fierce beast of floods, and it cannot be waited for.

Even today, 100 years later, our education is the same. Few parents will seriously exchange their views on love with each other when their children are grown up, as if this is a topic of great injustice.

Usually, parents' performance is extreme. Before a child reaches a certain age, parents are strictly prohibited from talking about love and sex. And after the children are over a certain age, they directly skip the discussion of love and dictate their marriage.

It seems that the most important thing in marriage is how big a house to live in, how spacious a luxury car is, and in which school district grandchildren and grandchildren will go to school. As for whether the children and the other half can achieve happiness in harmony, it seems to be an insignificant detail.

I haven't experienced the stage of being a father, and I don't quite understand the mood of my parents. But my biggest doubt is that any father was a teenager, why did he intentionally or unintentionally forget his passionate throbbing of adolescent girls? Any mother was a girl. Why did she forget her feelings when she first opened her heart to young boys?

When the children are still underage, the parents take strict care of them, I think it is justified. Because minors cannot take responsibility for themselves, how can they be qualified to bear the risk of creating a new life? But when children grow up, they still paint the grounds for them, which is pedantic.

Love and sex is a matter of nature and humanity. The so-called rules and etiquette are ridiculous. Does it mix with the jealousy of middle-aged and elderly people to boys and girls?

15/07/15
20/05/12

[JJS. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very dark, strange, but interesting short, autobiographical novella. It has some very intriguing themes, mostnotable of those is of historical interest, relating to the discontent and sickness seen in Chinese society during Yu Dafu's time, epitimoized in this line:
"China, oh China, how is it you don't grow big and strong!"
These and other similar musings Yu Dafu writes reminded me a little bit of Gogol's musings on Russia in 'Dead Souls,' albeit Yu Dafu is much more minimalist with his words compared to Gogol.
There are other compelling themes in the story as well, such as alienation, loneliness; themes that remain very relevant and relatable today.
I havn't read much Chinese literature before this (save for a few short stories by Lu Xun), but if I can find other works by this author, this work has intrigued me enough to read more of his work, should I find any.

[bella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drowning walked so No Longer Human could run

2.5⭐
"And when he was in school he always had the feeling that everyone was staring at him. He made every effort to dodge his fellow students, but wherever he went, he just couldn’t shake off that uncomfortable suspicion that their malevolent gazes were still fixed on him. When he attended classes, even though he was in the midst of all his classmates, he always felt lonely, and the kind of solitude he felt in a press of people was more unbearable by far than the kind he experienced when alone. "
Such mixed feelings for this one... there were some really good quotes though and Dafu describes the pain of social alienation and social anxiety really well.

[G.S. Richter · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting historical premise treated so minimally that it is, in reality, just a few random chapters arranged in the vaguest chronological order. Gaping holes galore.

A short story stretched by blank space to the length of a novelita, with bizarrely pedantic footnotes inserted by the translator.

Still, there are a handful of clever turns of phrase. As an artifact, it is worth an afternoon's read.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

To paraphrase Sting he's "a China man in Japan." The young narrator feels alien and carries around guilt from his Catholic school years and adolescent angst. As with Shusaku Endo's Silence, both describe this unusual East Asian religious legacy. Gripped by national inferiority, only his love of romantic poetry and nature offers any succour. The translation is a little dry but I will upgrade Sinking to four stars.

[Abdullahi Gelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked it up one morning weeks ago, read the first chapter, and put it down—it was way too early to start the day like that. So instead, I picked it up this evening to finally read it.

With each chapter, I kept waiting for something different to happen. Still, it was a well-written story about a deeply disturbing young man—oddly funny at times as he struggled to come to terms with the world around him.

The ending felt right for the story as a whole—especially for the antagonist.

[Anahita · Rating 4 out of 5]

He took a walk by the seashore. From afar the lights on the fishermen
boats seemed to be beckoning him, like the will-o’-the-wisp, and the waves
under the silvery moonlight seemed to be winking at him like the eyes of
mountain spirits. Suddenly he had an inexplicable urge to drown himself in
the sea.

[Jonathon Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story was overall pretty well written and interesting although to me this book had the feel of a poor man’s version of No Longer Human by Dazai. If you haven’t read it I encourage you too before checking out this one.

[ckm · Rating 3 out of 5]

不是我取向。當初是看翻譯小說看得頭痛，打算看一些原文就是中文的小說，給果可能因為年代久遠，依然有咬文嚼字的難度感，於是斷斷續續用了大半個月才看完。
這本是一本散文集，大多主角的共同點是內向，身體虛弱，讀很多詩書，常流淚，留過學，懷才不遇。大概是反映作者自己，跟他身處那個大時代的人。

[CP · Rating 4 out of 5]

郁达夫的笔墨颇有些深邃之感。故事本身很简单，就是写了（半自传体）作者本人去日本留学的心里活动。这是一种孤独，以及对中国的叹息。简单的短小说，不过深邃地叹息让人感同身受

[Nile Sykora · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.4/5

[Ruijie · Rating 5 out of 5]

個人認為是誠實放大自己內心的一部作品. 小說裡主人公的種種選擇在我今日的解讀是創傷反應，一個內向尷尬的遊子獨自在異鄉的孤單與掙扎，深陷泥沼裡而不自知，無法自我認同，並反應當時社會、教育羞辱青年必經的生理發展（直至現今）的趨勢與傷害. 雖然情節在書裡化為永恆，但亦如這本書的篇幅，慶幸結局並沒有確定性，讓我們有餘裕能解讀為作者或主人公人生裡深刻卻短暫的一幕插曲.

[Nightkid · Rating 2 out of 5]

這是我沒法體會的無病呻吟之作。

[muni · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

he's literally me

[Jennifer He · Rating 3 out of 5]

有点矫情

[Serena Argyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty sad book definitely needed to be a longer read

[Dark Arrow · Rating 2 out of 5]

Foreshadows the incels mindset in great insight for the historical context, but storytelling wise meh.

[Else Lolkema · Rating 3 out of 5]

crimsoned 1 van mn favoriete woorden

[Mediuschung · Rating 3 out of 5]

read in 2019
肺炎、枯白、單薄，係佢自己嘅寫照。
銀灰色的死寫得最好，恰到好處。

之後嗰啲都太單寡私慾無處發洩轉化成仇敵的偽政治情緒，唔理智嘅文人，空有sentimental

[Fatima · Rating 4 out of 5]

what zero pussy does to a mf