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Lu Xun, a writer who lived in early of last century, criticized Chinese traditional culture in a way like nobody else. He was almost the only one I consider as a true individual thinker during modern Chinese history. He was called "Nietzsche in China".
In one of his articles he mocked about someone who tried to write a book about chinese history:
(These are not the original words but what i remembered)
Why do we need to write a BOOK about Chinese history? that's a waste. 2 sentences will do it: the eras that everybody were enslaved happily, and the eras that everybody desperately wanted to be slave but couldn't.
I think this explained how difficult for the democracy to be prevailed China.
The link of Lu Xun in Wikipedia:
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Hilarious! I'll have to find out more about him. Have you read anything by Lin Yutang? His books were very popular when I was younger.
ReplyDeletethanks NP.
ReplyDeletei am impressed you know Lin Yutang. yes i read some of his works. most of them are good. he claimed he was the one who introduced the east to the west, also introduce the west to the east. but i doubt. and i still like Lu Xun way better.
i just add the link of him from wikipedia.
my favorites of his works (also the most famous works) are:
"The madman's diary" (this was the first short story ever written in modern Chinese language and well known in the western world by it's "stream of consciousness" style. it somehow reminds me Edgar Allan Poe's "tale told heart", but is more toward the whole Chinese culture than to individual);
"The true story of Ah Q". this one is funny and sharp!
ironically, as such a genius independent thinker, Mao somehow was able to distort Lu Xun's idea and made him a "red author". He became an icon of communist literature and was banned in Taiwan. But the real tragic fact is, most Chinese people are unable to recognized Lu Xun's genius thoughts and that's why Mao could easily fool Chinese people.
well, i better write another post about him:-).
thanks again!
another thing i have to mention is his incredible sense of humor, which has being seen often in all Chinese cultural history.
ReplyDeleteThat's very good! Now I have a new discovery. :-)
ReplyDelete