"Song of Youth"

Author: Yang Mo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: The Song of Youth is the masterpiece of female writer Yang Mo. It is a long novel that comprehensively reflects the student movement of the 1930s. It portrays the relentless and unwavering struggle of a group of young university students in Beijing during the historical period from the "September 18th Incident" to the "December 9th Movement" to oppose feudal rule, resist Japanese imperialist aggression, and save the nation in peril. The novel truthfully and vividly reveals the necessary path for a generation of intellectuals to join the revolution. The Song of Youth reflects this historical storm through the growth and progress of the young intellectual Lin Daojing. Lin Daojing comes from a wealthy landlord family, but she is unwilling to be a feudal landlord's daughter or a plaything of bureaucratic spies. As she struggles for her personal fate, she faces a series of setbacks—she attempts suicide, is dismissed from teaching, and encounters repeated failures in her search for employment. With passionate and heartfelt writing, the author authentically portrays Lin Daojing's life journey, full of hardships and thorns, yet rich and vibrant, successfully creating artistic images of intellectuals of different types, such as Lu Jiacuan, Jiang Hua, and Yu Yongze. The Song of Youth has a realistic and moving plot, fluent and beautiful prose, a strong sense of the era, and lifelike characters. It has educated generations of young readers and remains a best-selling and excellent youth literature.