Lu Xun

Overall summary of stories

Diary of a Madman

(1918)

• First major modern Chinese short story written in vernacular Chinese (baihua)

• Presented as diary entries of a paranoid narrator

• The narrator believes everyone around him practices cannibalism

• Cannibalism becomes a metaphor for traditional Confucian society consuming individuals

• Ends with the famous plea: “Save the children”

My Old Home

(1921)

• Narrator returns to hometown after many years

• Reflects on childhood friendship with Runtu

• Shows emotional and social distance created by class hierarchy and modern change

• Nostalgia is undermined by disappointment and alienation

• Ends ambiguously with hope as a “path made by walking”

Historical background

• New Culture / May Fourth Movement (1917–25)

• Vernacular language reform

• Intellectual rejection of Confucianism

• Concern with “saving” China through culture

• Influence of Western realism and modern psychology

• Republican China instability after Qing collapse (1911)

Dates

• 1881–1936: Lu Xun’s lifespan

• 1918: Diary of a Madman

• 1921: My Old Home

• 1915: New Youth founded

• 1919: May Fourth protests

Important names

• Chen Duxiu

• Hu Shi

• Zhou Zuoren

• Nietzsche

• Gogol (influence on Diary of a Madman)

Theories / concepts

• Iconoclasm

• Enlightenment discourse

• National character critique

• Vernacular literature (baihua)

• Cannibalism metaphor

• Literary realism

• Intellectual nationalism

Themes

• Critique of Confucianism

• Madness and truth

• Isolation

• Failure of communication

• Modernity vs tradition

• National weakness

• Memory and nostalgia

• Social hierarchy

• Hope and pessimism