20th Century Chinese Literary Classics

Author: Wu Xiuming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features:
1. The purpose of this book's selection. Looking back at a century of Chinese literature, this book selects some outstanding works to reflect, from one perspective, the achievements of 20th-century Chinese literature.
2. The nature of this book's selection. This book is the result of years of teaching experience accumulated by teachers from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Zhejiang University who teach modern and contemporary Chinese literature. Therefore, it is primarily a concise and practical teaching book: it provides a compact and concise anthology of 20th-century Chinese literary works for humanities students and those receiving humanities education, to adapt to the ongoing renewal of university education concepts and curriculum knowledge system reforms; it also provides a classic text showcasing the personality and charm of modern Chinese literature for an increasing number of foreign students studying Chinese and Chinese majors in China. At the same time, it is suitable for reading and collecting by a broad audience of literature lovers.
3. The scope of this book's selection. Representative Chinese literary works since the 20th century are the objects of selection in this book, including poetry, prose, fiction, and various modern literary forms. Due to space limitations, the texts published in this book are mainly short and medium-length works. Most of the selected long novels and dramas are appended in an index form for readers to find and read on their own; some longer works that cannot be helped must be selected in an excerpted manner.
4. The principles of this book's selection. The selected works take into account both their literary status and their representativeness in literary trends and schools, while placing greater emphasis on the acceptability and expressiveness of the texts themselves, i.e., the rich connotations within the texts. We believe that a simple yet substantial text serves as a self-sufficient space for teachers to demonstrate their academic interests and individuality, while also being conducive to students' free and quick immersion in it, and can become the primary platform for communication and dialogue between teachers and students. Therefore, this book does not include author introductions or work reviews to guide readers back to the original texts themselves, thereby reflecting our teaching philosophy of extensive, close, and in-depth reading of texts.
5. The order of this book's compilation. Arranged in chronological order according to the original creation and publication dates of the works. Of course, as everyone knows, an anthology of over 300,000 words cannot fully reflect the entirety of 20th-century Chinese literature; and our selection concepts and the works chosen may not be all-encompassing or universally applicable. It is merely a summary of our experience in literary teaching and our understanding of "classic texts." We hope that readers will, while appreciating and using the book, provide constructive and valuable suggestions.