Modern Chinese Stories

One way of seeing modern China in human terms is through the short story, but few Chinese tories have been readily available to the English-reading public. The authors of the twenty pieces in this collection include peasant storytellers relating the heroic exploits of their rebel ancestors (reminiscent of the Robin Hood tradition) as well as writers whose work reflects the changing rural scene of the 1950s and 1960s. There are also three stories by the great Lu Xun, one of the literary giants of the twentieth century. Themes range from the joys and sorrows of childhood to youth and love in a northern village to the wars that have made up much of modern Chinese history, and from quack doctors fleecing the rich in old Peking to the worries of a young accountant in a people's commune who has to deal with a crooked uncle.

The stories, written and published in Chinese over the last half-century, are here translated by W. J. F. Jenner and Gladys Yang. Mr. Jenner, who has lived and worked in China and is now a Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Leeds, provides notes on the authors and stories as well as an introduction and a note on pronunciation of names.