Selected Prose Works of Li Guangtian

Author: Li Guangtian Cai Qingfu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: Li Guangtian (October 1, 1906 – November 2, 1968) was a native of Zouping, Shandong. In 1923, he entered Jinan Normal School, where he began to engage with the new (new thoughts) and new literature that emerged after the May Fourth Movement. In 1929, he enrolled in the preparatory program of the Foreign Languages Department at Peking University. He published poems and essays in the supplement of the North China Daily News and the Modern magazine, and befriended classmates Bian Zhilin (also in the Foreign Languages Department) and He Qilao (from the Philosophy Department). Later, he published a three-person poetry collection titled Hanyuan Ji, which earned them the nickname "The Three Poets of Hanyuan."
In 1935, after graduating from Peking University, Li returned to Jinan to teach and continued to write numerous essays, which were compiled into GALLERY and SILVER FOX. In the autumn of 1941, he moved to Kunming and taught at Southwest Associated University. In addition to essays, he also wrote a long novel titled GRAVITY. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he taught at Nankai University and Tsinghua University. In 1948, he joined the Communist Party of China. After the liberation, he served as the head of the Chinese Language Department at Tsinghua University. At the first National Writers' Congress in 1949, he was elected as a member of the Writers' Federation and a council member of the Writers' Association. In 1951, he became the deputy director of academic affairs at Tsinghua University. In 1952, he was transferred to serve as the vice president and then president of Yunnan University. He held various positions, including director of the Literature Research Institute of the Yunnan Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, vice chairman of the Yunnan Branch of the Writers' Association, and a council member of the All-China Writers' Association.
GALLERY and WILD INN present social customs and folk art from the author's hometown. The vitality of GALLERY may lie in its truthful reflection of the simple and healthy aesthetic tastes of the rural people. WILD INN depicts the customs of rural inns, allowing readers to appreciate a unique human touch. While times change and people's artistic tastes may evolve, these customs and landscapes, imbued with the characteristics of their era and region, will never lose their value.