“Mark Twain in China” (Publication, 1987)
Year
1987
Text
Liu, Haiming. Mark Twain in China. In : Chinese literature : fiction, poetry, art ; Autumn (1987). (Twa17)
Type
Publication
Mentioned People (1)
Twain, Mark
(Florida, Missouri 1835-1910 Redding, Conn.) : Schriftsteller
Subjects
Literature : Occident : United States of America
/
References / Sources
Chronology Entries (21)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1852- |
Mark Twain and China : general 1852-2000 1987 Liu Haiming : Mark Twain's first appearance on the Chinese literary scene was not in the role of humorist. The style of his humor was not easy for literate Chinese, with their different cultural traditions, to understand and appreciate. The purpose of many translations of the late Qing was to introduce the social systems and customs of other countries to the Chinese people. Twain is usually termed a humorous satirist' in Chinese literary circles. He was a great literary pioneer and the first writer successfully to express American life using the language of the American people. Twain's humor was a unification, continuation and development of the traditional language, form and content of the American west. 2010 Ou Hsin-yun : Although the actual presence of the Chinese was rare on the American East Coast in the nineteenth century, frontier writings and dramas with Chinese characters were popular, because the readers and audiences were curious about the American West. Twain exhibited his fascination with and sympathy for the Chinese through his attack on the racist practices against the Chinese in his 'Disgraceful persecution of a boy', 'John Chinaman in New York', 'Goldsmith's friend abroad again', his novel 'Roughing it,' and the play 'Ah Sin'. Twain's writings demonstrate American Orientalism as influenced not only by the American's relations with the Orient, but also by their different social ideologies and self-identification of nationality. Since Twain endeavored to understand the Chinese and protest against Western imperialism, his writings offer different perspectives on Asian people. 2010 Martin Zehr : The conclusion that Twain's observations of the Chinese, direct and otherwise, influences his writings, especially in terms of his acute awareness of the roles of race, class, and ethnicity in his characters, is inescapable. One of the less controversial statements one can make regarding his personal and literary evolution is that a change did in fact take place in his personal attitudes with respect to each of these factors, even acknowledging, that Twain is still the subject of occasional charges of racism. A review of his writings on the Chinese reveals the importance of his observations in this regard, even though they rarely constitute a prominent role in his work. Nevertheless, from the time of his first focused writings on the Chinese, during his journalistic apprenticeships in the West, it is apparent that Twain is closely noting and, unlike many of his contemporaries, choosing not to ignore the fate of these immigrants. During Twain's lifetime, it is doubtful that his attitudes toward the Chinese ever represented anything more than a distinctly minority opinion in the United States, where the fears of 'yellow peril' or the protectionist proclivities of organized labor were continually leveraged by clever politicians into support for the official exclusionary policies against Chinese immigration beginning in 1882. |
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| 2 | 1906 |
[Twain, Mark]. Shan jia qi yu. = [Jialifuniya ren de gu shi]. Wu Tao yi. [ID D29421]. Liu Haiming : It is very difficult to trace humor in Twain's tale in the Chinese translation. The translator felt that the theme of the miner's love for his wife and friendship with the other miners was of more interest than the humor, so the translation is full of stirring emotion white the humour of the original has vanished without a trace. Li Xialo : Wu Tao used vernacular Chinese. The Chinese title and the ending line is borrowed from the Japanese version. The sentimental story seemed to have a particular appeal to some Chinese translators and writers. |
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| 3 | 1921 |
[Twain, Mark]. Sheng si zhi mi. Yi Qiao yi. [ID D29442]. Mao, Dun : "Mark Twain has become very popular lately because of his humor, but critics have also changed their opinions of him, realizing that to regard his fiction as mere humor is to do him an injustice. In all of Twain's works, be they long or short, is deeply engraved the ideology of democracy ; this very important feature of his works has been realized only in recent years. This is what makes 'The ordeal of Mark Twain', published last year, well worth reading." |
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| 4 | 1929 |
Zeng, Xubai. Yingguo wen xue ABC [ID D29489]. Liu Haiming : The book mention the accessibility to the common reader of Twain's writings ; it also pointed out their social significance and exceptional artistic merit. The book stressed that The adventures of Huckleberry Finn was not just another children's book but was 'an honest description of human existence as seen through eyes innocent and unsullied by the ways of the world'. |
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| 5 | 1931 | Lu Xun's son Haiying had found a copy of Mark Twain's Eve's diary, illustrated by Lester Ralph. Lu Xun immediately arranged for its translation : Xiawa ri ji translated by Li Lan [ID D29490]. In the preface Lu tries to tackle the incongruity in Mark Twain – a popular, humorous story teller, who yet proved to be an inveterate pessimist. To his own question : 'Laughing and joking while full of sorrow and sadness, how come ? ' Lu Xun explained that after the Civil War, America became an industrialized society where it was hard for writers to freely express their true thoughts and feelings because people's minds and personalities were now cast in the same mould. According to Lu Xun's observation of what American writers had become, 'Anyone who dared to assert his self would be persecuted'. Mark Twain chose instead to tell jokes in order to survive as a writer, hence this contradictions : sorrow on the one hand, and satire on the other. | |
| 6 | 1932 |
Zhao, Jingshen. Preface. [Twain, Mark]. Tangmu Shaye. Make Tuwen zhu ; Yue Qi yi. [ID D29491]. Zhao felt that to regard Twain as a mere writer of humorous fiction was to do him an injustice, because 'there are tears in his humor'. In Twain's works, 'humor is merely an adjunct' and 'satire is more important'. 'Calling Twain a humorous American novelist is not as appropriate as calling him a social novelist ; he was also a pioneer in America of realism in writing'. He praised Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn as two 'ever-shining' characters from among the best children's books and provided a bibliography of 29 works by Twain. |
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| 7 | 1933 |
Zhang, Yuerui. Meilijian wen xue [ID D29501]. Liu Haiming : Zhang felt that Twain 'described things realistically' and was 'consistently humorous'. He regarded Twain as a 'humorist' who 'maintained a compassionate, paceful, forbearing attitude towards human weakness'. |
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| 8 | 1935 |
100th birthday of Mark Twain. Several important Chinese periodicals published Twain's works and articles about him. |
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| 9 | 1935 |
Hu, Zhongchi. [The American novelist Mark Twain]. [ID D29505]. Hu Zhongchi called Twain a pioneer of realism and the first representative American writer after Edgar Allen Poe, saying his works embodied 'the spirit of an important period in American history'. He believed that Twain cared more about political and social questions than any other American writer and that 'his humorous, satirical style was imbued with socialist and democratic thought'. In relating Twain's biography, Hu emphasized his compassion for American blacks and his support for the Russian revolution. In speaking of Twain's literary accomplishments, the article referred to W.D. Howell's citation of Twain as the 'Lincoln of American literature' and to John Macy's evaluation of several of Twain's works. |
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| 10 | 1935 |
Hu, Zhongchi. [Commemorating the centennial of Mark Twain's birthday]. [ID D29506]. Hu refers to Twain as 'the greatest literary figure, humorist and socialist to appear in America in recent years'. He also informed readers of Twain's fame in the United States and the world as well as describing the large scale of commemorative activities that year. The greater part of this article was dedicated to a description of the Soviet scholar Dinamov's evaluation of Twain. Hu expressed his regret that Twain died without finishing what he could have accomplished, for Twain grew in his later years more and more courageous and forceful in fighting the 'decadent social system'. |
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| 11 | 1935 |
Huang, Jiayin. [Mark Twain and his works]. [ID D29538]. Huang included several interesting anecdotes which helped readers not only to come to know Twain's life history but also to understand a bit about Twain's powerfully humorous character. He did not describe Twain as a humorist, he also pointed out : 'The author's basic intention in writing was not only to make people laugh ; he had a more important purpose. He wanted to make people think and feel'. |
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| 12 | 1935 |
Li, Bo. [Mark Twain - American common people's satirist]. [ID D29540]. "It can be said there was no American literature before Mark Twain", his predecessors being but 'English imitators'. Mark Twain is the first writer to have met the American demand for a pioneer's spirit and sense of humor, thus embodying the new national consciousness. |
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| 13 | 1936 |
Zhao, Jiabi. Xin chuan tong [ID D29570]. Liu Haiming : Zhao affirmed Mark Twain's status in the history of American literature. In the cours of its development, 'the American novel cleared away a lot of thistles and thorns and charted for itself a correct path. This was accomplished in a number of stages. A number of writers were already following the general direction of this path, but an even greater number changed direction to follow its course. These heroes were all outstanding contributors to the rise of the American novel ; they opened the path which later writers followed and widened. Mark Twain's achievements in this respect make him entirely worthy of the title 'Ancestor of the modern American novel'. |
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| 14 | 1950 |
[Samarin, Roman Mikhailovich]. [The true face of Mark Twain]. [ID D29575]. Liu Haiming : Samarin discussed the essays of Twain's later years that were concerned with political matters, helping Chinese readers gain a deeper understanding of Twain's criticism of the capitalist system. |
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| 15 | 1954 |
[Orlova, Raissa]. [On Mark Twain]. [ID D29599]. Liu Haiming : Orlova discussed Twain in terms of literary tradition and artistic style. She saw Twain as 'the most important representative of critical realism in 19th-century American literature'. Twain's works 'had a democratic character' and displayed many kinds of artistic talent including 'relaxed humor, furious satire, beautiful lyricism, minute psychological analysis and keen-edges politics'. In analyzing Twain's continuation of American literary traditions, she pointed to extreme exaggeration and description of the fantastic as distinctive characteristics in the literature of the American West. Twain was able skillfully to extract their marrow, ornamenting them with his creative art, making them into great literature. The article was one of the more complete and finely analytical pieces about Twain available to Chinese readers at that time, and its influence was quite broad. |
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| 16 | 1958 |
[Twain, Mark]. Zai ya se wang chao ting li de kang nie di ke zhou mei guo ren. Ye Weizhi yi. ID D29600]. Ye Weizhi writes : "Twain not only used sixth-century England as a reflection of European monarchies, but also employed it to allude to the capitalistic United States of America... During the first few years after the Civil War, Americans from certain classes believed that theirs was a free country where everybody had “equal chance.” As time passed, this turned out to be a baseless myth. Although slavery was abolished, the spirit of the slave-owners and their spiritual numbness proved deep-rooted. Having got what they wanted, the northern capitalists allied with reactionary southern plantation-owners" Liu Haiming : Ye Weizhi made a penetrating analysis of the time and setting of the novel, pointing out the book's progressive points, its strong opposition to feudalism and its indictment of Roman Catholicism. He felt the novel was an extremely imaginative work ; Twain's use of the contradictions generated by the juxtaposition of characters from the Middle Ages with one from 19th-century America resulted in a wildly fantastic plot. A literary style full of change and variety also characterizes this work. |
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| 17 | 1959 |
[Twain, Mark]. Hakebeili Fen li xian ji. Dong Hengxun xu. [ID D29404]. Liu Haiming : Dong Hengxun said that Huckleberry Finn is one of the greatest works of American literature ; the scope of life it reflects is very broad, and the thought reflected in its theme is profound. Dong felt that Jim and Huck's friendship was the central theme of the novel. In the introduction he made an analysis of the differences between the images of these two characters. He also devoted quite a bit of space to an analysis of Twain's artistic style. He pointed out that Twain's humor was 'whimsical without becoming tedious, light without becoming shallow', and that the ideological content of Twain's artistic style was put to use to criticize social, class and racial inequalities. This introduction marked the beginning of independent evaluation of Twain's works by Chinese scholars. |
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| 18 | 1960 |
50th anniversary of Mark Twain's death. Meeting in Beijing. Lao She spoke on 'Mark Twain – the man who exposed U.S. $ Imperialism'. Lao She concluded that Twain was a significant, outstanding satirist and realist, not the harmless 'humorist' described by those critics who had been 'bribed' by the Wall Street. Zhou, Jueliang. 'On Mark Twain's work and thought'. Yuan Kejia presented an introduction to The man that corrupted Hadleyburg. These articles reflected the Chinese scholars' movement away from Soviet influences and towards the work of progressive British and American scholars. Reprints of the translations The adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi and The adventures of Tom Sawyer by Zhang Yousong. |
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| 19 | 1977-1982 |
About 70 articles discussing Mark Twain and his works appeared in magazines, academic journals, collections of literary criticism and histories of foreign literature : general introductory articles, including some pertinent chapters on Twain's creative artistry and style of humor, articles on his works, biographical articles and articles describing Twain's role as an author of children's literature, his sympathy and support for the Chinese people and his letters and unpublished manuscripts. Zhou, Weiyu. Lun Make Tuwen zuo pin de ren ming xing [ID D30621].. Zhou concretely analysed Twain's affection for the laboring people, his sympathy for blacks and his support of all the oppressed peoples of the world,, including the Chinese people. Gan, Yunjie. [A brief discurssion of the ideological implications of Mark Twain's fiction]. Gan discussed Twain's exposure and satire of American politics, his criticism of racism and his satirical indictment of avarice and imperialism. Zhang, Tingcheng. Make Tuwen Zhongguo ren ren min de peng you [ID D30622]. The article completely and systematically discusses Twain's sympathy and support for the Chinese people. |
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| 20 | 1982 |
Hou, Guoliang. Shi lun Make Tuwen you mo de te se [ID D29606]. The writer of the article made a convincing analysis of Twain's continuation and remoulding of the traditions of folk literature. He also analysed the interaction of tragedy and comedy in Twain's humor, pointing out that it contains the beginnings of 'black humor'. |
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| 21 | 2013 |
Zhang, Menglin. [On the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain's birth]. [ID D29539]. Zhang made Twain out to be a writer with a double character : although his works contain quite respectable satire, he himself was a despicable sort of man : "His fiery satire was born of postbellum American society as well as his personal character and spirit. On the one hand he so skillfully and caustically lampooned society, in his personal life he was as timid as a mouse, henpecked and scrupulously observant of the rules of propriety. If Twain has been born in China, his behavior would certain.ly have been looked down upon, and this scorn would have sounded the death-knell for is works." |
Sources (13)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1906 |
[Twain, Mark]. Shan jia qi yu. = [Jialifuniya ren de gu shi]. Wu Tao yi. In : Xiu xiang xiao shuo ; no 70 (1906). Übersetzung von Twain, Mark. The Californian's tale. (New York, N.Y. : Harper, 1902). [Übersetzung aus dem Japanischen]. 加利福尼亚人的故事 |
Publication / Twa86 | |
| 2 | 1921 |
[Twain, Mark]. Sheng yu si yu. Yi Qiao [Gu Yiqiao] yi. In : Xiao shuo yue bao ; vol. 7, no 12 (1921). Übersetzung von Twain, Mark. Is he living or is he dead ? In : Cosmopolitan ; September (1893). [Enthält eine Biographie von Twain und eine Einführung in die Novelle von Mao Dun]. 生欤死欤 |
Publication / Twa107 | |
| 3 | 1935 |
Hu, Zhongchi. Meiguo xiao shuo jia Make Tuwen. In : Wen xue ; vol. 4, no 1 (1935). [The American novelist Mark Twain]. 美国小说家马克吐温 |
Publication / Twa153 | |
| 4 | 1935 |
Hu, Zhongchi. Make Tuwen bai nian ji nian. In : Wen xue ; vol. 5, no 1 (1935). [Commemorating the centennial of Mark Twain's birthday]. 马克吐温百年纪念 |
Publication / Twa154 | |
| 5 | 1935 |
Zhang, Menglin. Make Tuwen dan sheng bai ni an ji nian. In : Xin zhong hua ; vol. 3, no 7 (1935). [On the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain's birth]. 馬克吐温誕生百年紀念 |
Publication / Twa183 | |
| 6 | 1936 |
Meiguo duan pian xiao shuo ji. Ouwen [Washington Irving] deng zhu ; Chen Jialin, Jian Xian'ai yi. (Shanghai : Sheng huo shu dian, 1936). (Shi jie wen ku). [Übersetzung von amerikanischen Short stories]. 美國短篇小說集 [Enthält] : Twain, Mark. Bai huai ha de lan bao de ren. Übersetzung von Twain, Mark. The man that corrputed Hadleyburg. In : Harper's monthly ; Dec. (1899). 败坏哈德兰堡的人 |
Publication / Twa186 | |
| 7 | 1939 |
Meiguo duan pian xiao shuo ji. Fu Donghua, Yu Xijian xuan yi. (Shanghai : Shang wu yin shu guan, 1939). (Shi jie wen xue ming zhu). [American short stories]. 美国短篇小说集 [Enthält] : [Twain, Mark]. Kalaweilasi Jun chi ming de tiao wa. Übersetzung von Twain, Mark. The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras county and other sketches. (New York, N.Y. : C.H. Webb ; London : G. Routledge, 1867). |
Publication / Twa214 | |
| 8 | 1950 |
[Samarin, Roman Mikhailovich]. Zuo jia zuo pin : Make Tuwen de zhen mian mu. In : Ren wu za zhi ; no 7 (1950). [The true face of Mark Twain]. 作家作品:马克吐温的真面目 |
Publication / Twa218 | |
| 9 | 1954 | [Orlova, Raissa]. [On Mark Twain]. In Yi wen ; Aug. (1954). | Publication / Twa239 | |
| 10 | 1960 | Lao, She. [Mark Twain : exposer of the U.S. dollar Empire]. In : Shi jie wen xue ; no 10 (1960). [Rede National Association of Writers in Beijing zum 50jährigen Todestag von Mark Twain]. | Publication / Twa241 | |
| 11 | 1960 |
Zhou, Jueliang. Lun Make Tuwen de chuang zuo ji qi si xiang. In : Shi jie wen xue ; no 4 (1960). [On Mark Twain's work and thought]. 论马克吐温的创作及其思想 |
Publication / Twa242 | |
| 12 | 1982 |
Hu, Pan. Make Tuwen Zhongguo ren ren min de peng you. In : Shi jie tu shu ; no 1 (1982). [Mark Twain : friend of the Chinese people]. 马克•吐温--中国人民的朋友 |
Publication / Twa243 |
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| 13 | 1982 |
Hou, Guoliang. Shi lun Make Tuwen you mo de te se. In : Huadong shi fan da xue xue bao ; no 2 (1982). [A trial analysis of the special characteristics of Mark Twain's humor]. 试论马克•吐温幽默的特色 |
Publication / Twa245 |
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Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
|