Chinese Literature Podcast

Today, we have author, translator and teacher, Professor Bryan Van Norden, on the podcast to discuss Lu Xun's short but fascinating story of Kong Yiji (鲁迅 - 孔乙己), the book-stealing scholar who Lu Xun imagined to be the symbol of the true state of China's elite culture. Professor Van Norden, Rob and Lee walk through the symbolism of the story and discuss its wider importance. This is #5 in our Lu Xun Series. 

Here we are at what is arguably Lu Xun's most important text. Rob and Lee discuss this text in terms of content, language and modernity. 

In Episode 3 in our Lu Xun Series, we interview one of the experts in the field of Lu Xun studies (and advisor to both Rob and Lee) about the Preface to Lu Xun's most important collection of short stories War Cry (Nahan). This preface has been the subject of numerous debates in China and in literary circles outside of China. We tried to break down some of the most important parts of that debate in our discussion. 

Today, we have our second installment in the Lu Xun series. This week we are joined by Professor Theodore Huters, Professor Emeriti in UCLA's Asian Languages and Cultures Department and Chief Editor, Renditions, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the author of several books, including Bringing the World Home: Appropriating the West in Late Qing and Early Republican China and Taking China to the World: The Cultural Production of Modernity, soon to be released by Cambria Press. Professor Huters was generous enough to give his time to talk about one of Lu Xun's less-well known early works: "Towards a Refutation of Malevolent Voices," published originally in 1908. Professor Huters convincingly argues that though this work is not well known, it is important for understanding the arc of Lu Xun's work. 

This is the first episode in our series on Lu Xun, and, for this episode, we are going to look at some of the earliest aspects of Lu Xun's career, both his time growing up in Shaoxing, his time in Japan and his attempts to become a translator.  

This week, we change up the format a bit. Instead of talking about a specific text, we catch on our personal lives a bit, talking about grad school, what we learned in finishing our Ph.D.'s and a few other things. The podcast is also a bit longer than our normal format. 

A disturbing if sometimes trite story of a country girl who goes to boarding school in 1930's China, gets treated like crap and is eventually pushed out of the school, all because she is low class and her hands, stained by the dye her family uses to put her through school, are ugly. Rob and Lee unpack this story of class and mistreatment for this week's podcast. 

This week, we look at one of the most famous writers in modern China. It is surprising that we have not tackled Shen Congwen before...he was in contention for China's first Nobel Prize for Literature until his death in 1988. The reason we have not discussed him is, despite his importance to Chinese literature, neither of us really like him. Listen as we work through why Shen Congwen is really valuable to read, even if we don't like him. 

This week, we are discussing a story from Ken Liu's Invisible Planets, a collection of science fiction short stories that he recently translated and published. Chen Qiufan's "The Year of the Rat" is a weird story that may or may not be science fiction but is definitely worth reading for everything it tries to say about Chinese politics.

Part Two of our miniseries on Bai Juyi: this week we look at a poem of biting satire that is a good example of Bai's more polemical poetry. Bai was eventually exiled for some of the poetry he wrote (not this poem, but an equally cutting poem). Listen as we try to work through Bai Juyi's artistry and politics in this week's edition of the Chinese Literature Podcast.

A seasonal poem? A meditation on death? What does one do with Bai Juyi's poem Autumn Thoughts (秋思)? Rob and Lee hash it out as they watch the leaves fall on two different continents. 

Zhu Ziqing (朱自清) wrote a short, touching essay on his father. In the essay, Retreating Figure (背影), Zhu grows up a great deal by watching his father grow old.

We thought we were done with the Song, but we just cannot get enough of it. Now, we are going back to Ouyang Xiu with a poem that features in a translation of a late Qing thinker that Rob is working on. The poem is by Ouyang Xiu, and Rob and Lee disagree about how to read it...no surprises there. 

It has happened again. For the second time this year, a billionaire has used a Chinese poem on social media in a newsworthy way. And you know we had to deal with it! This week, the world's richest man, Elon Musk, tweeted a Chinese poem about fraternal problems. The poem, which he titled "Humankind" (in English). It is not hard to understand the poem, but it is a little mysterious as to why Elon Musk is tweeting it. We tackle both problems on this week's podcast. Seven Step Poem One boils beans by igniting beanstalks The beans in the kettle sob “We were born out of the same roots to fry together, why be this rash?” Lee’s Translation Original: 七步诗 煮豆燃豆萁 豆在釜中泣 本是同根生 相煎何太急？

We have another spooky story for Halloween, this time a story from Lu Xun. This story, "White Light," is not as discussed as it ought to be, but it has a skull, a suicide and a question of China's future direction. 

We always come back to Pu Songling. This week, we are looking at his story "The Magic Sword and the Magic Bag," which actually has little to do with either, but rather is a story about love, prostitution and a ghostly woman...join us for a spooky episode of the Chinese Literature Podcast. 

This week, we take a look at on of the great writers from Shanghai's 1930's modernist moment. Shi Zhecun is one of the New Sensationalist (新感觉派), and his story, "One Evening in the Rainy Season" follows the story of a man who is following a woman one rainy Shanghai night. Is he a creeper? Is he just a normal person in this metropolis? We stay inside the character's head, but we never really get a grasp on what is going on. 

This week, Rob and Lee go back to the very first poem in all of Chinese literature. The first poem in the Classic of Poetry, "Guan, Guan Goes the Osprey" has been interpreted and reinterpreted so much that it has become a staple of the canon. Rob and Lee discuss this, though, of course, this cannot be done without a few Beatles references. 

Today, Rob and Lee change the format and have a debate about China and innovation, with Rob defending China and Lee arguing that there is something in Chinese culture that does not value innovation. Lee references Huang Tingjian and Su (Dongpo) Shi. Su Shi, the famous Song poet they did podcasts on before here and here.

This week, we take our final look at the Journey to the West, fast-forwarding all the way to the end. Today, we will look at the last three chapters of the novel, Chapters 98-100, thinking about how this passage sums up the journey, and discussing questions of Chineseness in the novel.