Encountering Lu Xun: Speeches at Peking University

Author: Qian Liqun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: Our generation experienced (Lu Xun) through the Cultural Revolution. Before that, we couldn’t understand. After going through that disaster and entering a state of despair, we finally found and met him. My most recent encounter with, however, was during this serious illness, when I too had a life experience of despair. In a sense, this course is a record of that encounter. This may just be the experience of our generation. I don’t know how or when your generation will meet.
In the past two decades, Qian Liqun’s "Studies on (Lu Xun)" has been a popular elective course at Peking University, cherished by students who have come and gone from the campus. Unlike academic research, which seeks emotional detachment, Qian chooses to pour his heart into it. When he feels trapped by life or troubled by reality, he always turns to for answers. As a result, his interpretation of goes beyond the realm of knowledge and academia: his classroom is a place where lives console each other, minds speak to minds, and ideas collide.
This book is a transcript of Qian Liqun’s "Last Lecture" before leaving the Peking University lecture platform. Qian attempts to place back in his historical context and era, conducting a close reading of his life’s journey, intellectual development, and literary works. The faint echoes of Qian’s aged and hoarse voice, lingering between these pages and words, connect the no longer mythical to young students in the classroom under the endless spring sunlight. It was in 2001, the year of Qian’s "Swan’s Final Song."