Selected Works of Li Ou-fan

Author: Li Ou-fan
Author Country: China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-05-01
Features: Reading Li Ou-fan requires a touch of romantic sentiment. Even when writing academic papers, his tone is captivating, filled with narrative tension. Interpreting Yu Dafu and Xu Zhimo, the story begins with their childhood and Jiangnan memories, gradually delving into their blooming literary lives. Evaluating Hong Kong cinema, it carries a strong urban atmosphere, as he sees them as existences that showcase satire and allegory. At times, Li Ou-fan slowly unfurls an old Shanghai cultural map, filled with bizarre and alluring sounds, fragments of an ancient yet modern Eastern metropolis.
Xu Zhimo: A Life of Passion
"All my life experiences have their clues in emotion." — Xu Zhimo
In 1910, when Yu Dafu was studying at Hangzhou Middle School, he met a "naughty child with a big head and small tail, wearing gold-rimmed glasses." He often read novels, but his Chinese composition scores were always the highest in the class. This mischievous boy was Xu Zhimo, who later became one of the most important poets in modern China. Yu Dafu and Xu Zhimo were lifelong close friends, but after graduating from middle school, they took different paths. Yu Dafu went to Japan, suffered from severe depression, and spent his days in a daze. Xu Zhimo, on the other hand, studied banking in the United States before transferring to Britain, where he developed a taste for Western culture and returned to China as a renowned poet.
Yu Dafu and Xu Zhimo's different study abroad experiences can be seen as representing two major categories of modern Chinese students: those who studied in Japan and those who were educated in the West. Additionally, Xu Zhimo's thoughts and actions were more aligned with the Western tradition of the United States and Britain, although he was also familiar with French culture, making it possible for him to communicate with those who studied and lived in France and Germany. Perhaps due to their educational backgrounds and personalities, Yu Dafu and Xu Zhimo represented different directions. Both were deeply emotional individuals, but their methods of dealing with emotions were very different. Both were famous literary figures in the 1920s, but they occupied very different positions.
Yu Dafu expanded his subjectivism by means of self-revelation and the "vision of the self," but Xu Zhimo pursued love with a passion, taking this tendency to new heights. Xu Zhimo's talent emerged in his youth. Xu Zhimo and Yu Dafu were born in the same year (1896) and both came from Zhejiang Province. However, Xu Zhimo was very different from Yu Dafu; he came from a wealthy family. His father, Xu Shenru, was a banker and industrialist and also the leader of the trade association in Xianshi Town. One of his friends was Zhang Jian, a famous. Xu Zhimo once said, "I checked my family tree, and since the Yongle era, our family has never written a single line of poetry worth passing down." Xu Shenru might have been the most successful in their family. He opened a money exchange in Shanghai, and during the Xinhai Revolution, he secretly supplied the revolutionaries with weapons to help them seize Hangzhou. Due to his father's foresight and skillful maneuvering, Xu Zhimo enjoyed a happy and peaceful childhood, untouched by the turbulent social and political situation around him. The only sorrow he experienced was the death of his grandfather when he was six years old. "That was the most frightening experience of my life, but when I reflect on my thoughts at the time, my understanding of death was no better than that of Hu's little girl." Therefore, he was very different from Lu Xun and Yu Dafu; he grew up in a warm family, which fostered an optimistic, open, and non-suspicious personality.
Xu Zhimo began his traditional private school education at the age of four and entered Lingshi Kaizhi School at the age of eleven, a modern-style school where he was the top student and earned the title of "genius." In 1909, at the age of thirteen, he had already written well-structured essays in classical Chinese. In 1910, he entered Hangzhou Middle School and was in the same class as Yu Dafu. The introverted and shy Yu Dafu could only envy his lively and outgoing classmate, while Xu Zhimo, with his excellent grades, became the class monitor. At this time, all modern schools in China were influenced by Liang Qichao. Xu Zhimo later became Liang Qichao's disciple and the influence of Liang Qichao was clearly evident in his early writings. He submitted articles to the school newspaper, including "The History of Radium and the Earth" and "On the Relationship Between Novels and Society," which were clearly inspired by Liang Qichao's famous essay "On the Relationship Between Novels and Public Governance."
Xu Zhimo's talent was recognized by Zhang Jiaji, the secretary of General Guo Shu, the military governor of Zhejiang Province. In 1915, when Zhang Jiaji visited Hangzhou Middle School, he read one of Xu Zhimo's essays and was very impressed. He believed that Xu Zhimo would achieve great things in the future and arranged a marriage between Xu and his younger sister. The Zhang family was also a prominent family in Jiangsu Province, with brothers who later became famous philosophers, such as Zhang Junmai, and Zhang Jiazhu, who later published the "New Moon Monthly" with Xu Zhimo. Their younger sister, Zhang Youyi, married Xu Zhimo in 1915 when she was only fifteen years old. Xu's father wanted to make the wedding grand and luxurious, but due to his son's insistence, the wedding was held in a modern style. Xu Zhimo seemed to like his new wife; she was educated, well-mannered, and appeared open-minded.
In 1915, after graduating from Hangzhou Middle School (which was renamed Hangzhou Middle School after the Xinhai Revolution), Xu Zhimo first went to Shanghai and studied at Shanghai University for a short time before transferring to North China University in Tianjin. In 1916, the law school of North China University merged with Peking University, and Xu Zhimo became a student of the law and political science department at Peking University. It was in Peking that, through the introduction of the Zhang family, Xu Zhimo became Liang Qichao's disciple. It is said that when Xu Zhimo met Liang Qichao, he was shy and uneasy in front of this cultural giant, unable to showcase his usual eloquence. After returning, he wrote a humble letter to Liang Qichao, expressing his respect and discussing his ambitions. Liang Qichao later said that Xu was one of his most beloved disciples. Xu Zhimo also began to study Liang Qichao's works deeply, moved by them, and even borrowed phrases from "Dream of the Red Chamber": "Disciples should also burn their books."
In the spring of 1918, Xu Zhimo's son with Zhang Youyi was born, and the whole family was overjoyed at the arrival of this new life. That summer, Xu Zhimo boarded a ship and crossed the Pacific to study in the United States. Faced with the surging waves, the young man's ambition was, and he wrote a long letter to his family and friends, whose thoughts fully reflected the influence of Liang Qichao:
"Today's world is plagued by internal and external troubles, and it is the duty of the righteous to rise and meet the challenge. It is said that times create heroes. Xu Zhimo, filled with sorrow, did not notice how long his words were or how passionate his tone was. Gazing at the waves, his heart was agitated, and he felt compelled to express his thoughts to my esteemed predecessors. I, a humble person, knew little of the world and was overwhelmed by its evils. How many times have I lost my way and fallen into a life of oblivion? This self-pity only made me more determined to strive, to be sincere and loyal, to fulfill the words I spoke. If I succeed, it will be a small way to repay the expectations of my esteemed predecessors."
On August 31, Xu Zhimo wrote this letter while on the Pacific Ocean.
The letter expressed nothing more than a vague, naive political enthusiasm, which was common among young people at the time. Since his father had originally intended for him to inherit the family business and manage the money exchange, Xu Zhimo registered as a major in banking and sociology at Clark University in the fall of 1918. His studies in sociology probably reflect Xu Zhimo's desire to reform the "tendency of social evils," while his choice of Clark University might have been for other reasons. Clark University was founded in 1887 by the businessman Jonas Gillman Clark and the educator Granville Stanley Hall. It initially only offered graduate courses and was one of the earliest graduate schools in the United States, alongside Johns Hopkins University. Under the leadership of President Granville Stanley Hall, Clark University attracted many renowned scholars, including Freud, who came in 1910 at Hall's invitation to give five lectures on psychoanalysis. When Xu Zhimo entered Clark University, it offered a three-year undergraduate program funded by a fund left by Clark and provided scholarships for financially struggling students, with a simpler application process. Perhaps Xu Zhimo and other Chinese students were drawn to Clark University for these practical reasons. Since Xu Zhimo had only completed three years of high school, he probably transferred there in a similar way. Due to Clark University's rigorous academic standards, Xu Zhimo and his four roommates from China (one of whom was Li Ji, who later became a famous archaeologist) set up a strict schedule: "Wake up at six, attend morning assembly (to inspire shame), sing the national anthem at night, go to bed at half past ten, study diligently during the day, exercise, run, and read the news."
Although he was far from home, Xu Zhimo continued to live under the shadow of his teacher, Liang Qichao. In addition to studying sociology with Frank H. Mankins and history with Harry E. Barnes, he immersed himself in Liang Qichao's "Biographies of the Three Greats of Italy," a work that introduced the heroic deeds of Cavour, Mazzini, and Garibaldi to the Chinese people. In a letter to Liang Qichao, Xu Zhimo recorded his feelings upon arriving in Massachusetts, Worcester: "There are fewer than a hundred Chinese here, and only ten scholars. The people here are deeply concerned about the war, their patriotic fervor is awe-inspiring. The city supplies are limited, prices are rising, and life is difficult."
At the time, the war had just ended, and he was immersed in the excitement and joy of the entire town. However, when he heard that the Paris Peace Conference had decided to transfer Germany's interests in Shandong to Japan, he felt indignant.
In 1919, China erupted in the May Fourth Movement, protesting the decision of the Paris Peace Conference. Xu Zhimo, however, could only respond from a corner of New England on the East Coast of the United States.
In June 1919, Xu Zhimo graduated from Clark University with honors and transferred to Columbia University to study political science, earning a master's degree a year later. His political passion did not diminish. It is said that he organized many extracurricular activities for Chinese students and was an active member of the "Support Committee for the Washington Conference of Chinese Students in the United States." His bookshelf was filled with books about the Soviet Union, earning him the nickname "Bolshevik" among his peers. He was also attracted to socialism, saying, "My first encounter with socialism was Marx's early works, the Robert Owen school, humanitarianism, charity, and utopianism all mixed together. It suited my taste. I am easily moved by emotions."
The radicalism of young Xu Zhimo was actually very common among Chinese students at the time. Their political orientation was to build a "new" China, with a blueprint borrowed from abroad. The political radicalism, as demonstrated by young Xu Zhimo, was to serve the country, not to oppose it. For Xu Zhimo and other students, studying abroad was a practical training process to prepare them for important roles back home. The sense of mission he revealed in letters to his family and friends, his rigorous schedule at Clark University, and the Western socialist works he absorbed all pointed toward this practical direction.
With his family background and network, Xu Zhimo could have easily made a name for himself in politics or finance without experiencing the setbacks that Yu Dafu did. However, according to Xu Zhimo himself, his shift from politics to poetry was entirely unexpected: "Before the age of twenty-four, my interest in poetry was far less than my interest in relativity or social contract theory. My highest ambition was to be a Chinese Hamilton! If such a person as I could truly succeed as a poet—what more could be said?"