Chronology Entry
Year
1933
Text
Hong, Shen. Hong Shen xi qu ji. [O'Neill and Hong Shen]. [ID D28773].
The fictive conversation between two representatives of modern American and modern Chinese literature takes place in January 1933 and their meeting place are the opposite shores of the Pacific Ocean. The conversation turns around the question of imitation and originality in the dramatic work and concerns mostly O'Neill's Mourning becomes Electra. At the start Hong Shen reproaches O'Neill with having unduly copied Aeschylus and his Oresteia. Nonetheless, his admiration belongs to O'Neill for he writes ; "I like very much to read your plays. They explain the oldest affairs and conflicts with the aid of the latest scholarly notions. This is very correct and I admire you for it". Yet despite this admiration, O'Neill seems in this conversation to be no more than the speaker of Hong Shen's ideas. O'Neill appears as an older school-fellow. Hong Shen accepts to be instructed by him, but in reality O'Neill says only what suits Hong Shen's ideological and artistic design. This then is equivalent to asserting that the statements in this dialogue are Hong Shen's own statements.
Hong Shen writes : "Food and love are to great needs in human life : man cannot avoid satisfying these two physiological needs. Numerous writers from ancient until modern times have described various murders committed to provide food. But few have described this truthfully and deeply. There are many who have described murders for the sake of love ; however, there the relationships are usually distorted or delineated superficially. It would be very difficult to find one who can describe these conflicts as deeply as did O'Neill."
The fictive conversation between two representatives of modern American and modern Chinese literature takes place in January 1933 and their meeting place are the opposite shores of the Pacific Ocean. The conversation turns around the question of imitation and originality in the dramatic work and concerns mostly O'Neill's Mourning becomes Electra. At the start Hong Shen reproaches O'Neill with having unduly copied Aeschylus and his Oresteia. Nonetheless, his admiration belongs to O'Neill for he writes ; "I like very much to read your plays. They explain the oldest affairs and conflicts with the aid of the latest scholarly notions. This is very correct and I admire you for it". Yet despite this admiration, O'Neill seems in this conversation to be no more than the speaker of Hong Shen's ideas. O'Neill appears as an older school-fellow. Hong Shen accepts to be instructed by him, but in reality O'Neill says only what suits Hong Shen's ideological and artistic design. This then is equivalent to asserting that the statements in this dialogue are Hong Shen's own statements.
Hong Shen writes : "Food and love are to great needs in human life : man cannot avoid satisfying these two physiological needs. Numerous writers from ancient until modern times have described various murders committed to provide food. But few have described this truthfully and deeply. There are many who have described murders for the sake of love ; however, there the relationships are usually distorted or delineated superficially. It would be very difficult to find one who can describe these conflicts as deeply as did O'Neill."
Mentioned People (2)
Hong, Shen
(Wujin, Jiangsu 1894-1955 Beijing) : Dramatiker
O'Neill, Eugene
(New York, N.Y. 1888-1953 Kap Cod bei Boston) : Dramatiker, Nobelpreisträger
Subjects
Literature : Occident : United States of America
Documents (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1986 | Gálik, Márian. Milestones in Sino-Western literary confrontation, 1898-1979. (Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1986). (Asiatische Forschungen ; Bd. 98). S. 132-133. | Publication / Gal9 |