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Li, Shuyan

(um 1998)

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Index of Names : China

Chronology Entries (1)

# Year Text Linked Data
1 1933-1997 Jack London : Chinese commentaries
1933
[London, Jack]. Shen yuan xia de ren men. Jiake Lundun zhu ; Qiu Yunduo yi. [ID D33499].
Qiu Yunduo describes London as an inspiration to socialism : "Dear readers, if you do not shut the door and your eyes, you would know that the dark side and difficulties of life can be seen everywhere. Rotten metal and rubbish, abyss and hell, these are not unique to the East End of London, but are common to modern society. In the so-called best districts of Shanghai, I see with my own eyes the hell-like miseries depicted in this book ; to tell the truth, reality sometimes is much worse than in the book. The only remaining road is to challenge – and in this lies the meaning of this novel".

1935
[London, Jack]. Lao quan shi. Jiake Lundun zhu ; Zhang Menglin yi. [ID D34489].
Zhang compares London in his introduction to an American Gorky.

1935
[London, Jack]. Ye xing de hu huan. Jiake Lundun zhu ; Liu Dajie, Zhang Menglin yi. [ID D34489].
Liu concludes in the preface "The American people and progressive forces worldwide are fighting agains capitalist reactionaries and warmongers, and London's literary legacy has become the former's powerful weapon." Liu identifies in London a contradiction between his "deep, irreconcilable hate for the capitalist world and passion for class struggles".

1943
[London, Jack]. Mading Yideng. Zhou Xing yi. [ID D34490].
Zhou Xing argues that "London is more than a propagandist, he is an artist well versed in depicting characters too". Zhou pays particular attention to characterization of Martin Eden, asserting that his suicide represents a protest against decadent bourgeois society that envelops him He distinguishes London from Gorky by suggesting "There are those who accept collectivism and thus improve themselves, such as Gorky. There are thos who dither between rationalism and sentimentalism and eventually arrive at their own destruction. Jack London is a case in point".

1952
[London, Jack]. Qiang zhe de li liang. Jieke Lundun ; Xu Tianhong yi. [ID D34497].
According to Xu Tianhong, London's political consciousness remains limited by excessive individualism and avoidance of revolutionary struggle through escape into the pristine simplicities of nature. For Xu, while serious flaws remain even in London's most revolutionary works they expose and denounce international imperialism.

1953
[London, Jack]. Tie ti. Lundun zhu ; Wu Lao, Jin Lu yi. [ID D34500].
Wu Lao tells readers that when London published the novel in 1907 it was widely condemned "but the book is hugely popular among Soviet readers, especially the youth".
In the introduction to the 2003 edition Wu Lao and Jin Lu argue that with rapid changes in present-day social structures, the political base of Western communism is shrinking and disappearing. While many workers belong to the working-class in socio-economic terms, psychologically they identify with the middle class. In addition to this shift in the nature of the working class, change can emerge paeacefully in mature democracies. "Even in America, where two capitalist parties rule alternately, such severe class confrontation as depicted in The iron heel that forces revolutionaries to resort to armed uprisings against counter-revolutionary violence is unlikely to occur." Violent anti-government attack would be condemned as terrorism rather than liberation.

1955
[London, Jack]. Mading Yideng. Wu Lao yi. [ID D34496].
Introduction by Wu Lao of the 1981 edition :
For Wu Lao, London was a genuine political revolutionary who might have been at the head of an American proletarian movement were it not for his career as a fiction-writer. He reads Martin Eden as a novel of working class self-identity and as an attack on bourgeois individualism energized by London's intellectual epiphany from reading Marx's Communist Manifesto. Yet Wu criticizes London for his vacillation between Marxism and the subversive attractions of Nietzsche's anti-socialist radical individualism. Even though London was caught in this contradiction, according to Wu Lao, his writing remained firmly committed to the working class and was a source of revolutionary confrontation with American capitalism.

1978
[London, Jack]. Mading Yideng. Pan Shaozhong yi. [ID D34491].
In the preface Pan Shaozhong writes while the novel contributes "a penetrating revelation of the evil and ugliness of the bourgeoisie", its social significance remains limited by harmful individualism.

1981
[London, Jack]. Jieke Lundun duan pian xiao shuo xuan. Wan Zi, Yu Ning yi. [ID D34493].
Wan Zi and Yu Ning appreciated London's critique of capitalism and colonialism while pointing to his 'shortcomings' and 'erroneous attitude of white supremacism', they were the first translators in nearly a half-century to discuss his racism.

1985
[London, Jack]. Re ai sheng ming. Jieke Lundun zhu ; Wan Zi, Yu Ning yi. [ID D34498].
Wan Zi and Yu Ning : "Many of London's best works expost and criticize the darkness of capitalist society, decry the colonial exploitation of imperialism, and sing praise for the audacity of revolutionaries".

1988
Li, Shuyan. Jieke Lundun yan jiu. Li Shuyan xuan bian [ID D34600].
Li Shuyan dismisses London as 'no great thinker', one influenced by pseudo-science as well as science, narrow-minded patriotism as well as internationalism, and by white supremacy. "Quite a few ideas in his works would turn out to be wrong. Some were confused and simplistic even at his time".

1994
[London, Jack]. Jieke Lundun duan pian xiao shuo xuan. Jiang Jiansong yi. [ID D34494].
Jiang notes the racist themes of London's writing and attributes political contradictions to his 'eclectic reading'. Jiang distances himself from the selection contained in this collection of short stories with a caution that "We may not agree with ideologies reflected in certain works".

1995
[London, Jack]. Yi kuai niu pai : Jieke Lundon zhong duan pian xiao shuo jing xuan. Jieke Lundon zhu ; Yu Bin, Wen Hong bian. [ID D34502].
[Enthält] : London, Jack. A piece of steak.
The enthusiastic indtroduction of Yu Bin and Wen Hong suggests that the reading public and critics were re-evaluating London to appreciate him more for narrative aesthetics, less as a propagandist. They too respond to the internationalism of London's writing : "Jack London is called a Red writer and he would call himself a socialist on account of the fact that he supported social revolution and hoped that the class into which he was born could lead a better life. What is more praiseworthy is that London also wrote stories such as The Mexican that commended socialist revolution and supported weak nations seeking independence. Stories on such topics have had huge influence on the under-class in America's readers, on the working class, and on readers in other countries who either belong to the working class or sympathize with social revolutions."

1996
[London, Jack]. Jieke Lundun zhong duan pian xiao shuo jing xuan = Selected novelettes and short stories of Jack London. Jieke Lundun Zhu ; Lu Weimin yi [ID D34495].
Lu Weimin's afterword to a collection of stories argues "London's masterpiece Martin Eden and his political dystopian novel The iron heel both demonstrate certain proletarian characteristics. The former is penetrating in criticizing the decadence and emptiness of capitalist society, whereas the latter, besides denouncing the oligarchy of American capitalists, specifically opposes opportunism in workers' movements and is thus the first American literary work of proletarian character."

1996
[London, Jack]. Mading Yideng. Jieke Lundun zhu ; Zhang Xumei, Xi Qingming deng yi. [ID D34492].
Zhang and Xu states that the novel "directly challenges the values of the bourgeoisie and has exposed the hypocrisy and decadence of the upper class", forming a dramatic contrast with conemporary "smiling faces" novels. For such critics, London represents a political cutting edge that can renew a lacking spirit in recent fiction.

1997
[London, Jack]. Re ai sheng ming. Jieke Lundun zhu ; Hu Chunlan yi. [ID D34488].
Hu Chunlan suggests that contemporary Chinese readers can benefit from more balanced political appreciation of London : "During the McCarthy era when the Cold War mentality prevailed, views on Jack London's works once served as a benchmark dividing literary critics into leftists and rightists. Until this day America's mainstream critics still hold a lower evalutation of London than he deserves. But Chinese readers do not have to undervalue London's achievements on this account, nor do we have to ideologize overly Jack London and his works."
  • Document: Lockard, Joe ; Qin, Dan. Jack London, anti-Chinese racism, and structural censorship in Chinese translation. In : Translation quarterly ; no 69 (2013). (Lond6, Publication)
  • Document: Lockard, Joe ; Qin, Dan. Translation ideologies of American literature in China. [Not yet publ.]. (Lond7, Publication)
  • Person: Hu, Chunlan
  • Person: Jiang, Jiansong
  • Person: Jin, Lu
  • Person: Liu, Dajie
  • Person: London, Jack
  • Person: Lu, Weimin
  • Person: Pan, Shaozhong
  • Person: Qiu, Yunduo
  • Person: Wan, Zi
  • Person: Wen, Hong
  • Person: Wu, Lao
  • Person: Xu, Qingming
  • Person: Xu, Tianhong
  • Person: Yu, Bin
  • Person: Yu, Ning
  • Person: Zhang, Menglin
  • Person: Zhang, Xuemei
  • Person: Zhou, Xing

Bibliography (2)

# Year Bibliographical Data Type / Abbreviation Linked Data
1 1988 Li, Shuyan. Jieke Lundun yan jiu. Li Shuyan xuan bian. (Guilin : Lijiang chu ban she, 1988). (Wai guo wen xue yan jiu zi liao cong shu). [Abhandlung über Jack London].
傑克倫敦硏究
Publication / Lond117
2 1998 [London, Jack]. Re ai sheng ming : Jieke Lundun ji. Li Shuyan zhu bian. (Beijing : Beijing da xue chu ban she, 1998). (Mei guo zhu ming zuo jia ming pian xuan zhu ; 2). Übersetzung von London, Jack. Love of life. (New York, N.Y. : Macmillan, 1907).
热爱生命 : 杰克伦敦集
Publication / Lond76