Lu Xun The True Story of Ah Q Swordsmanship: An Anthology of Modern Writers

Author: Lu Xun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-11-19
Features: Reading Lu Xun can almost serve as a compulsory course for generations of Chinese people to understand our nation and its culture, literature, and history, as well as to grasp the modern civilization process we have undergone and are currently part of. Even young singers with only basic education, no matter how nervous or embarrassed they are in front of comprehensive exam questions on television competitions, have read novels like (My Old Home), (Kong Yiji), and (Blessing). I remember those years leading up to the turn of the century when media outlets conducted various polls titled "Centennial" (e.g., "Top 100 Writers of the Century" or "Top 100 Works of the Century," even including both Chinese and foreign authors). Even if debates erupted and opinions differed from the second-place onwards, the renowned writer and his work were always Lu Xun and The True Story of Ah Q! We cannot find another person who could replace Lu Xun as a truly renowned century writer. He is the classic of classics. Has the era of "Ah Q" passed, and does the famous "spirit of victory" still hold meaning today? Can the character of "Ah Q" fully capture the essence? Such questions have never ceased since Lu Xun's lifetime, when radical young men with a "creative spirit" either attacked him openly or subtly criticized him. Today, some young writers and scholars, for various reasons, occasionally emerge to question Lu Xun, calling him "eager for revenge," "harsh in criticism," or "lacking great long-form works," among other things.
Discussing these issues is naturally beyond the scope of this preface. Moreover, I believe that these criticisms can only be resolved by young readers themselves—generation after generation—reading Lu Xun and thinking for themselves, without anyone stepping in to meddle. With Lu Xun's works still in circulation across centuries, isn't that enough to prove the point?