China and the West

Xiao Qian and Maurice by E.M. Forster.
Lien Wen-shan : The most intriguing feature of the correspondence between E.M. Forster and Xiao Qian is their repeated discussions of Forster's novel Maurice. Some of their discussions touch upon issues that Forster had never discussed before with his other British friends and critics. Xiao recalls his reading of Maurice : "He let me read his novel about homosexuality, Maurice, which was locked in a safe and not to be published until a hundred years later". Forster said : "As for my unpublished novel, you are welcome to read it whenever you like. It is almost publishable, but not quite. There is a MS down here if you would car for it at any time." Letter from E.M. Forster to Xiao Qian ; 17 April 1943 : "Shall be interested when we meet what you think of Maurice. It seems to me in retrospect very English, and there is no harm in that, but for the Moment I am tired of what is very English."
Xiao Qian to Forster : "There is no law in China forbidding this more severely than seduction. In Shanghai & Tientsin, there are even such Brothels, who are know as 'rabbitts'. One of the Emperors of ours was known to be fond of 'plucking the flowers in the back garden'. In the Imperial court, there used to be dramatic repertories. The boys playing feminine parts used to be seduced either by their own co-actors or by men in the Forbidden City". "I told him [Forster] the blackmail scene in Maurice should serve as a lesson to all homosexuals, hence, the novel is beautiful. I seem to have told him that the novel (especially the blackmail scene) discourages homosexuality. Hence, I regarded it as healthy, I was shocked by the blackmail scene".
Forster to Xiao Qian : "As you say, one characteristic of Maurice is his maturity. And another is his liking for happiness and his dislike for self-pity. If I had had to end the book sadly or tragically for him, I should not have thought it worth writing. We have in England (as in France) good studies of immaturity, some tiresome self-pitying, some tiresome proclamations of the Cause, and some pornography which, like most pornography, fail to be graphic."