Turgenev’s traditions and motifs in the collection “Dragons, Tigers and Dogs” by Ba Jin

The subject of this research is the adoption and development of the motifs of I. S. Turgenev’s “Poems in Prose” in the lyrical collection “Dragons, Tigers and Dogs” by Ba Jin, who was dubbed “China’s Turgenev”. Attention is focused on the analysis of literary techniques adopted by Ba Jin from Turgenev, such as: narrative methods, motifs of the dreams, latent psychologism and profound psychologism of the landscape, symbolism, and fundamental musicality of the text. The research material contains the lyrical cycles of both writers, author's commentaries, journal articles published in Russia and China dedicated to examination of Turgenev's impact upon the Chinese writers. The article employs the historical-functional and comparative methods of analysis. The author is first to explore the influence of Turgenev's “Poems in Prose” on the works of Ba Jin, which defines the scientific novelty of this research. Ba Jin's scrutiny of Turgenev's “Poems in Prose”, during his work on translations, is reflected in his collection on the level of symbolism and the choice of motifs, command of language and literary style overall. The musicality of Turgenev's “Poems in Prose” encouraged Ba Jin to pursue the new artistic expressiveness of the language. The aesthetic peculiarities of Turgenev's “Poems in Prose” are consonant with the traditions and aesthetic requests of the Ancient Chinese literature, which justifies the enduring popularity of Turgenev’s works in China.

Ba Jin, “Offspring of May 4th”, Time Bomb and Utopian Impulse

Ba Jin 巴金 (1904-2005) is well-known for his adherence to anarchist ideas in his youth, which actually hides a profound utopianism characterized by a social revolution without purpose and end. By a detailed examination of A Dream on the Sea, a novel published in the beginning of 1930’s, this paper aims to rehabilitate such an utopian spirit as it formulates criticism of reality, oppressive and inegalitarian, by adopting an otherness which warns against both revanchist statism and voluntary servitude. The author’s loyalty to the legacy of May 4th will be highlighted as his work embodies an ever renewed desire for the freedom of thinking and imagining, if not of acting.

REMEMBERING XIAO SHAN IN BA JIN ESSAYS THE WOUNDS OF THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION

The Cultural Revolution era was a dark period in Chinese history. The resistance to the power of Chairman Mao by literati people has resulted in deep wounds, as a result of intimidation, bad stigma, exclusion, and even imprisonment which often ends in death. Ba Jin's essay Remembering Xiao Shan can be seen as a mirror reflecting the deep wounds experienced by the author who is accused of being part of a counterrevolutionary group. Not only himself, but his beloved wife also had to bear the wounds of the Cultural Revolution. This study uses a hermeneutical analysis model to explore the author's "living world" in the text Reminiscing Xiao Shan about the sorrow experienced by himself, his fellow authors who were labeled as part of right-wing resistance, and the people he loved during repressive times under the control of Mao Zedong. The Cultural Revolution was long gone, but the wounds it caused were not easy to heal, and so Ba Jin documented it in the text in the form of an essay. In the end, time has proved that the idea of ​​resistance carried out by people like Ba Jin is irresistible, as has been proven by the current capitalistic economic style in China. The close people, even Ba Jin's wife were indeed neglected by the Red Guards, but their thoughts are still alive today.

I. S. Turgenev’s Novel “Fathers and Sons” in Chinese Translation and Research Reception

The previously not considered question of the reception of the novel “Fathers and Sons” by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev in the Chinese research tradition and in translations is considered. The novelty of the work is seen in the fact that at present in the Russian and Chinese literary environment there is no detailed study devoted to the perception of the novel “Fathers and Sons” in China. The relevance of the article is due to the need to study the significance of I.S. Turgenev for the Chinese cultural process in order to understand the specifics of Russian-Chinese literary relations, which corresponds to the trends of modern comparative literature. The most important issues are those related to the study of Russian literature in the Chinese context. It is noted that, based on the work of Chinese researchers and translators, it is possible to draw conclusions, firstly, about the popularity of the work “Fathers and Sons” in the Chinese readership, and secondly, about the special merits of the translations of Ba Jin, Li Ni, Zheng Bin and other translators to distribute the works of I. S. Turgenev in China. It is shown that not only scientists and translators, but also cinematographers turn to the work of the classic, which also testifies to the great interest of the Chinese audience in the classical heritage of Russian literature.

Authorial Self-Fashioning in a Global Era

The authorial preface to works of fiction provides a unique space for exploration of authorial self-fashioning and author-reader mediation. This article argues that, when works of fiction are translated and new prefaces written for a new readership, these prefaces can provide extra insights into the perceptions, expectations, and constrictions of both producing and consuming literature in a global era. Recent debates on world literature have centered mainly on issues of reception and circulation, preferring to define its scope in terms of the reader and the reading context rather than by the author or production process. This study considers the changing role of authors who consciously attempt to locate themselves within this contested and reconfigured field and how they construct a persona to address a newly defined world readership. This article explores the changes throughout the twentieth century by analyzing a selection of authorial prefaces to translated editions of three influential authors: Lu Xun 魯迅 (1881–1936), Ba Jin 巴金 (1906–2005), and Yu Hua 余華 (1960–). All prolific preface writers, they each have, in different ways, in different periods, engaged with the concept of a global literary readership and marketplace and negotiated their respective places within it.

May Fourth and Postwar Hong Kong’s Leftist Cantonese Cinema

Chapter 3 examines the legacy of the May Fourth Movement in the context of postwar Hong Kong’s golden age of cinema. It argues that the May Fourth project was an unfinished one and was carried forward by progressive Cantonese filmmakers who were the torchbearers of its ideology. This chapter focuses on the careers of left-leaning filmmakers such as Ng Cho-fan, one of the founders of the Union Film Enterprise Ltd., and their emergence as postwar Hong Kong’s new cultural elites. Through a close reading of Union’s film adaptations of the Ba Jin trilogy, Family (Jia, dir. Ng Wu, 1953), Spring (Chun, dir. Lee Sun-fung, 1953), and Autumn (Qiu, dir. Chun Kim, 1954), this chapter demonstrates the transformative nature of the moral message of postwar Hong Kong’s cultural elites. Not only did left-leaning film talent repurpose core tenets of May Fourth, they also sought to reinterpret the spirit of vernacular modernism for the colony’s audiences through their film productions. Although May Fourth precepts were brought to Hong Kong by China’s nanlai cultural elites and leftwing film talents, the May Fourth spirit underwent a creative translingual appropriation during the 1950s as local Hong Kong leftwing companies such as the Union and Xinlian emerged.