Selected Prose Works of Lu Yin

Author: Lu Yin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: A book introducing socialist theories. From the early 1920s to 1921, Lu Yin began publishing her early critical essays—essays on social commentary—in periodicals such as The Morning Paper Supplement, Humanism Monthly, Critical Half-Monthly, and The Novel Monthly. These early essays covered a wide range of topics, including women's liberation ("The Hope of Women in the 'Women's Beauty Society'), intellectual reform ("The Causes of Intellectual Reform"), the realization of new social ideals and life values ("The Ideal of a New Village and the Value of Life"), improving the miserable conditions of laborers ("The Mental and Physical Workers"), and how to create new literature ("Organizing Old Literature and Creating New Literature," "My Views on Creation"), among others. These issues were hot topics in the May Fourth New Culture Movement at the time. These critical essays fully demonstrated that Lu Yin was a sharp-minded, innovative thinker with a strong political awareness, social responsibility, and patriotic passion. As she herself said, "Whether it is the country, society, the world, or all things in heaven and earth, none of them are unrelated to my heart's joys and sorrows" ("Egoism and Altruism"). For this reason, it is no surprise that Mao Dun remarked, "Among the female writers of the May Fourth period, Lu Yin is the only one who focused on revolutionary social themes" ("Lu Yin").
In addition to the aforementioned critical essays, Lu Yin's earliest published narrative and lyrical essays were a series of travel writings published in the Xueyi magazine between 1922 and 1923, including "By the Blue Sea," "The Wounds of the Soul," "Gifts from Eastward Travel," "Below the Flower Garland," "Talks by the Sea," "The Day Before Leaving Tokyo," "Imprints of the East," and several others. Another piece, "Recollections Under the Moon," published in The Novel Monthly, also belonged to this series of travel writings. In the spring of 1922, as Lu Yin was about to graduate from university, she traveled to Japan with a few female classmates from the Normal School for Women for observation and sightseeing. On her return journey, she passed through Korea, Fengtian (Shenyang), and Dalian, spending over a month. These travel writings were essentially notes on her observations during this month-long trip. However, apart from "Recollections Under the Moon," which was later included in the collection Old Friends by the Sea, the rest of the essays were rarely mentioned. Even Lu Yin herself, more than a decade later, forgot where these travel writings were published (she mentioned in her Autobiography of Lu Yin that during her third year of university, she had a book titled "Imprints of the East" that recorded her observations in Japan. Unfortunately, it was taken by a friend and lost—without a copy to replace it). Thus, the rediscovery of this series of travel writings half a century later is particularly precious. These travel writings are evident in their casual style and flowing prose. Yet, even today, reading them still stirs our hearts with the patriotic passion revealed by the author.
Only listen to their talk. After a while, the smaller student said, "This is from Beijing in China. Didn’t you see what the teacher wrote on the blackboard?" I heard this tone and found it strange—it was clearly Japanese. Had the people of Dalian already been softened? Soon after, we left that classroom, and the children’s chatter faded away.
That evening, the room where we stayed had exceptionally bright lights. Under the light, a gaunt-faced man was gesturing wildly, delivering a speech: "Fellow citizens! Fellow citizens! Do you know that opium-fruit, when eaten, is more poisonous than a million soldiers' venom? Education is a good name, but this poison-laden education is just like opium fruit. Do you know it? Children in Dalian don’t even know there is a Republic of China! They have already been poisoned by the opium fruit!" No matter how much they are poisoned, it will eventually erupt. Look at that street—West Hill—it has over a thousand brothels. Who opened them? It was the police, who were in cahoots with the secret agents, protecting the peace. The police and secret agents—all graduates of Dalian Public School, who had eaten opium fruit!
He struck his fists repeatedly on the table and cursed uncontrollably, tears streaming down his face, his heart almost leaping out of his mouth! After a moment’s pause, he continued: "I have a friend who, one afternoon, passed by West Hill and saw, at the base of each gray wall, a strange-looking, devilish man squatting at the door. When he walked past, they began to whistle one after another, starting with one person. This strange signal was terrifying, as if a group of demons were about to catch people. Even more strangely, after the whistling, all the doors opened:, stretching their heads out. My friend, seeing their behavior, realized they wanted to keep him, so he lowered his head and hurried past. Some grabbed his sleeves, others teased him, but since he was in a suit, they didn’t dare to overstep, and he managed to escape. Just as he stepped out of the alley, a man in yellow and gray shorts came from the other end, making the same whistling signal. He turned to look, and the man was dragged into the house by a high-cheekboned woman from the second house on the east."
Ah! Isn’t this the seed of opium fruit, blooming into a flower of decline? As I was reflecting on all this, Su Yu tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Why don’t you look at the good moon when you’re under these pitch-black tree shadows, instead of acting so strangely?"