Search results
Ziye (子夜), or known by it English translated title as Midnight: A Romance of China, 1930, is a 1933 novel by Chinese author Mao Dun. It is a realist depiction of life in contemporary Shanghai.
Aug 2, 2023 · This is an important political and cultural novel by famed Chinese author Mao Dun (1896–1985). The story surrounds the business tycoon Wu Sun-fu and his struggles in China during the great changes in the country during the 1930s.
- About The Author
- The Book in 150 Words
- Your Free Takeaways
- Why This Book Should Be on Your China Bookshelf
- Next Time
Shěn Yànbīng 沈雁冰, a.k.a., Máo Dùn 茅盾 (1896-1981), was born in Zhejiang Province and was largely raised and educated by his mother. In 1913 he entered Peking University to study both Chinese and Western literature. Later he became a journalist, editor, and columnist, mostly expressing his social thoughts and criticisms. He was active in the May 4th ...
Originally published in 1933 and then published in English in 1957 by Foreign Languages Press, Beijing (translated by Hsu Meng-hsiung, later editions revised by Archie Barnes), Midnight (子夜 zǐyè)is generally regarded as Mao Dun’s masterpiece, a realist depiction of life in contemporary and cosmopolitan Shanghai. Mao Dun declared that literature sho...
On a Shanghai amusement park: Wu Sunfu, an industrialist and a Nationalist, desires to rebuild his home village of Shuangqiao into a model town:
The subtitle given to Midnightin its first English translation, “A Romance of China,” may appear odd given that the novel is a searing indictment of capitalism in the International Settlement of Shanghai between the world wars. But Mao Dun was one of a number of contemporary modern Chinese writers who were left-wing, embraced realism, and wanted to...
Mao Dun’s searing indictment of Shanghai’s naked capitalism and exploitation hit a chord with many on the left in China and globally. Other novels also examined Shanghai, often from a more outsiders’ perspective. Since the Second Sino-Japanese War, and World War Two generally, relations between China and Japan have been poisoned. All too often the ...
Ziye (子夜), or known by it English translated title as Midnight: A Romance of China, 1930, is a 1933 novel by Chinese author Mao Dun. It is a realist depiction of life in contemporary Shanghai. In addition to the full edition, there were also abridged editions of the novel in publication.
A novel about the violence and corruption in Nationalist China in the 1930's by Shen Yanbing (1896-1981), better known by the pen name Mao Tun, was a member of the generation that created...
Mao Dun: 子夜 (Midnight) Mao Dun’s novel is set in the late 1920s-early 1930s in and around Shanghai and clearly aims to show the decadence of the bourgeoisie at that time. He himself says in his introduction that he would have liked to give more prominence to the revolutionaries but was prevented from doing so by the censors.
“I think Mao Dun’s Midnight is the best Chinese view of the city in the 1930s. Dun looks at the two sides of the Chinese experience in Shanghai: the terrible and awful conditions in the factories that lead to the organisations of trade unions and socialist and communist organisations; and, at the other side, the incredibly wealthy class of ...