Life and Death Field -- Modern Literature Classics Library

Author: Xiao Hong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Field of Life and Death is a pinnacle of Xiao Hong's early literary works. This work established Xiao Hong's status as an anti-Japanese writer, making her one of the most prominent authors of the 1930s. Especially with Lu Xun's preface and Hu Feng's postscript, Field of Life and Death became a classic text representing the national spirit of its time. The conception of this novel began during the Harbin period, with its first half serialized in the Literature weekly of Harbin's International Herald from April to June 1934. The entire book consists of seventeen sections. In the section Wheat Field to the tenth section Ten Years, the author uses a deeply emotional tone to depict the impoverished and helpless lives of Northeastern farmers. They suffer brutal exploitation by landlords, working six days a week under the sky, facing the earth, toiling tirelessly. Even after bending their backs and limping, they remain hungry and tormented by starvation and disease. In this life no better than that of beasts, some women give birth to deformed children. Using her keen observations as a female author, Xiao Hong vividly portrays the tragic fates of several peasant women.