Description
Writing Manchuria details the lives and translates a selection of fiction from one of the mid-twentieth century’s "four famous husband-wife writers" of China’s Northeast, who lived in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo: Li Zhengzhong (1921–2020) and Zhu Ti (1923–2012).
The writings herein were published from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, in Manchukuo, north China, and Japan; their writings appeared in the most prominent Japanese-owned, Chinese-language journals and newspapers. This volume includes materials that were censored or banned by the Manchukuo authorities: Li Zhengzhong’s "Temptation" and "Frost Flowers," and Zhu Ti’s "Cross the Bo Sea" and "Little Linzi and her Family." Li Zhengzhong has been characterized as "an angry youth" while Zhu Ti’s work questioned contemporary gender ideals and the subjugation of women. Their writings – those that were censored or banned and those published – shed important light on Japanese imperialism and the Chinese literature that was produced in different regions, reflecting both official support and suppression.
Writing Manchuria is the first English-language translation of their writings, and it will appeal to those interested in Chinese wartime literature, as well as contribute to understandings of imperialism and the varied forms it took across Japan’s vast war-time empire.
Table of Contents
Part One: Lives and Literature
Historical Setting
The Li Family
The Zhang Family
Two Lives Entwined
Civil War
The "Mao Years"
Life in "The Opening Up"
Conclusions
Part Two: A Gender Questioner: Zhu Ti’s Fiction
What I Wrote and Why: Preface to Cherry
A Pensive Life: Dreams and Youth
Dance Hall Daze: The Joy of Life
The Lure of Love: Shooting Star in a Distant Sky
A Teacher’s Dilemma: Me and My Children
Broken Lives: Melancholy on the Mighty Black Dragon River
From Home to Hell and…?: Cross the Bo Sea
The Human Costs of Sex Work: Little Yinzi and her Family
Rationalizing Rations: Little Scene of the Neighbors
Part Three: An Angry Youth: Li Zhengzhong’s Fiction
What I Wrote and How: Literature and My Life
Caught in Generational Change: Bamboo Shoot
A Quest for Love, A Quest for Revenge: Rude Reality
Urban Decadence, Rural Decline: Nostalgia
An Illicit Affair: Temptation
