China and the West

Xu, Zhimo. [Prose foreword to poem "Dusk in the West Suburb of Cambridge"]. In : Shi shi xin bao, Shanghai, July 6 (1923). [Geschrieben 1922].
"And there is an Irishman called James Joyce. His name in international literary circles is probably similar to Lenin's in international politics, because he is both worshipped and attracked like him. Five or six years ago he published a book entitled The portrait of an artist as [a] young man, which has a unique style, starting a new epoch in prose – probably an immortal contribution already. Now he has written another book called Ulysses. Nobody in Britain or America was willing or daring enough to publish it, and finally he published it himself in Paris. Now I believe this book is not only a unique work for this year, but will be so for a whole historical period. The last 100 pages of his book (which has more than 700 pages in all) are written in a prose which is absolutely pure – smooth as cream, and clear as the stone front in a church. It is not only free from capital letters, but is totally unburdened with all those tiresome marks like, … ? : - ; - ! ( ) " ". There is neither the division of paragraphs, sentences, chapters or sections. Just a flow of limpid, beautiful, torrential text pouring forward, like a huge bundle of white poplin let loose, a large waterfall coming down without any break. What great masterly art !"