Title: Introduction to Chinese Cultural History / Slides / 2. Early ROC to 1927

Front: What became of the National Alliance after the founding of the Republic?
Back: Sun Yat-sen's National Alliance was reformed as the Nationalist Party, or Guomindang, or Kuomintang (KMT)

Front: What was Sun Yat-sen's most important political slogan?
Back: The Three Principles of the People or san min zhuyi:
- minzu: nationalism,
- minquan: democracy, "people's power",
- minsheng: socialism ("people's wellfare/livelihood").

Front: Who won the first elections in China and when?
Back: KMT won first elections in 1913, but General Yuan Shi-kai banned the KMT and demanded presidency for himself.

Front: When did Yuan Shikai live and die?
Back: Yuan Shikai lived 1859 to 1916.

Front: Some facts about Yuan Shikai
Back: - Contributed to Cixi's repression of Hundred Days' Reform,
- supported constitutional monarchy,
- forced revolutionaries to elect him as second provisional president in 1913, replacing Sun Yat-sen, Yuan holds position until his death in 1916,
- "traitor to the republic": Continued Cixi's New Policy reforms, but established military autocracy instead of constitutional state,
- had seat of government in Zhongnanhai in imperial city, which is still the seat of government in PRC,
- 1916: tried to establish himself as emperor in a restored imperial system (and failed).

Front: What were major changes in everyday life in the 1910s and 1920s in China?
Back: - Adoption of Gregorian calendar alongside traditional lunisolar calendar,
- Beijing dialect becomes pronounciation standard,
- Yuan Shikai promotes "civilized behavior": handshake instead of kowtow, no farting/blowing nose/spitting in public, forced cutting of queues, western clothing styles.

Front: What new fashion styles emerged in the early ROC?
Back: - Qipao for women, modelled after Manchu Banner men's robe (qi), initially worn loose, later redesigned to fit more tightly (Shanghai 1930s fashion)
- Sun Yat-sen's suit or Zhongshan zhuang for men: modelled after Japanese student uniforms, popularized by Mao

Front: Which flag was used by the ROC in 1912 and until when was it used?
Back: The five-coloured flag or Wu se qi (五⾊旗) was adopted 1912 January 12^th and was used until 1928.

Front: Which flag was used in the ROC from 1928 and until when was it used?
Back: Introduced 1928 and used until 1949, incorporates the KMT symbol, the white sun.

Front: When was foot binding practiced in China?
Back: Upper-class women since the Song (960–1279), later lower classes too with some notable exceptions (Manchu did not practice it at all). It was banned in 1912, but only abolished after 1949.

Front: How long are Lotus shoes?
Back: Ca. 11cm

Front: Why footbinding?
Back: Practice increasingly opposed by reformist thinkers since the late 19^th century, but some of the goals of footbinding have been:
- Erotic appeal,
- to signify womanly virtue,
- to limit women's movement,
- to limit women's social mobility,
- to more easily confine women to "inner chambers".

Front: What was the outcome of World War I for China?
Back: Japan was allowed to keep the German concessions in Shandong that it had occuppied.

Front: The thing with demands shortly after World War I?
Back: Japan issues the Twenty-one Demands, signed by Yuan Shikai in 1915 May 25^th, including special economic privileges and Japanese personnel and police on Chinese soil. It lead to popular protests and anti-Japanese Boycotts and made the day the "National Humiliation Day".

Front: What happened after Yuan Shikai died?
Back: A brief failed attempt to restore Puyi on the throne, then China is divided into zones of military influence.

Front: When was the Warlord Era?
Back: 1917–1927

Front: What is a warlord?
Back: A warlord or junfa is "a commander of a personal army, ruling or seeking to rule territory, acting more or less independently" (James Sheridan)

Front: Rana Mitter quote about 1920s China?
Back: "Warlordism from within, imperialism from without"

Front: What's the New Culture Movement?
Back: The New Culture movement or xin wenhua yundong starts in 1917 in westernized universities with the aim of linguistic and social reform. The idea was to invent a new national culture or minzu wenhua and to import philosophical and political ideas from Europe and Japan.

Front: What ideas were popularized by the New Culture Movement?
Back: - Science,
- Democracy,
- Rule of law,
- Civil rights, including for women,
- The Woman Question or funü wenti.
- Iconoclastic spirit,
- Cosmopolitanism,
- Westernization,
- Individualism,
- Anti-Confucianism,
- Intellectual Patriotism / Chinese Renaissance.

Front: What did the New Culture Movement criticize about Confucianism?
Back: Seen as unsuited to modernization of the nation:
- patriarchy,
- social hierarchies,
- strict rituals,
- filial piety,
- moderation,
- loyalty to authority.

Front: Key points about literary reform in the New Culture Movement?
Back: - Literature (esp. fiction) as means to arouse social awareness
- Attacks on old literati/Confucian notions of culture and learning
- Introduction of vernacular (baihua) in education and standardization of “national language” (guoyu)
- Calls for reform of Chinese script.

Front: What is New Youth?
Back: The flagship magazine of the New Culture Movement. Also known as La Jeunesse or Xin qingnian. Existed 1915–1926, founded in Shanghai by Chen Duxiu, later moved to Beijing.

Front: What did New Youth promote?
Back: - Science
- Democracy
- Modernity (Westernization)
- Gender equality
- Women emancipation (education)
- Free love (against arranged marriages)
- Individualism, self-realization
- Vernacular language/literature instead of classical/literary Chinese
- Marxism (after 1917 Russian Revolution)

Front: What did New Youth critique?
Back: - Tradition, Confucianism
- Patriarchal ethics (family) and society
- Literary language (wenyan) as “dead” language, unsuited for modern nation-building.

Front: What's the name of the co-founder and first CCP General Secretary?
Back: The founder and editor of New Youth, Chen Duxiu.

Front: What's "A Call to Youth"?
Back: The first editorial in New Youth by Chen Duxiu. It calls on a "strong, new youth" to rise against the "old and rotten air that fills society". Critiques the confucian gentleman.

Front: In "A Call to Youth", which gentlemen are invoked to save China?
Back: Mr. Science and Mr. Democracy are said to be the only gentlemen that can "save China from the political, moral, academic, and intellectual darkness in which it finds itself".
德先⽣ (德谟克拉西) Mr. “De” (Demokelaxi)
赛先⽣ (赛因斯) Mr. “Sai” (Saiyinsi)

Front: What's Hu Shi's slogan on language?
Back: “Speak in the language of the time in
which you live!”

Front: Eight literary guidelines in "A Preliminary Discussion of Literary Reform"?
Back: 1. Write with substance,
2. Do not imitate the ancients,
3. Emphasize grammar,
4. Reject melancholy,
5. Eliminate old clichés,
6. Do not use allusions,
7. Do not use couplets and parallelisms,
8. Do not avoid popular expressions or popular forms of characters.

Front: What was in the Special issue of New Youth, vol 4, issue 6?
Back: - Issue was on Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1818–1906),
- Hu Shi's essay "Ibsenism",
- other plays on social problems by Ibsen (core texts of "Ibsenism", says Hu Shi).

Front: "Ibsenism": the problem with family?
Back: According to Hu Shi's essay "Ibsenism" family:
- is unbearable,
- is oppressive,
- has "four major evils":
  - selfishness,
  - dependence/slavery,
  - false morality,
  - cowardice,
- being a tranditional wife makes Nora a "slave" and a "plaything" (hypocrisy of marriage).

Front: "Ibsenism": the thing with forces?
Back: Hu Shi's essay "Ibsenism" points out "Three social forces":
- law,
- religion,
- morality/ethics.
Hu Shi critiques morality as "stale old social habits", e.g.:
- marriage customs: "free marriage" is immoral, but concubinage is not,
- superstitions: matchmaking, horoscopes.

Front: "Ibsenism": Where on the individualism-collectivism-spectrum is the essay?
Back: For the relationship of individual to society in Hu Shi's essay "Ibsenism":
- Pursuit of individualism, independence, individual freedom,
- Development of independent personality based on free will and sense of responsibility (e.g. Nora),
- Reform of family and society (in China, society based on patriarchal family) and pursuit of individualism are at the core of Ibsenism (for Hu Shi).

Front: What was the emerging female model in the New Culture movement?
Back: The New Woman or xin nüxing, as an expression of Chinese modernity:
- Ibsen's Nora as the archetype: educated, independent, capable, relevant quotes:
  - "Don't be a man's plaything",
  - "recognizing one's individuality",
  - "women are human",
- New Woman as a model for Chinese women (and men) escapging arranged marriages (a.k.a free love, free choice).

Front: Was there a cultural response to "A Doll's House" besides Hu Shi's essay?
Back: Nora Craze or Noraism in the 1920s and 1930s, inspiring drama, literature and cinema, examples:
- Hu Shi: The Main Event in Life (1919),
- Ouyang Yuqian, Bai Wei, Tian Han: Chinese Noras in plays,
- Wu Yonggang, Cai Chusheng: films,
- Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Ba Jin and others: novels (incl. fictional characters reading the play),
- Trope of "walking out" becomes common, often adapted to China, i.e. walking out on the patriarchal family, so the focus is often on generational conflict instead of the gender question.

Front: During the New Culture Movement, what was the political catchphrase associated with gender equality efforts?
Back: The woman question or funü wenti, also translated as woman problem.
Funü: kinswoman; the collective of all women in patrilineal family.

Front: What did May Fourth intellectuals point out as problematic regarding the situation of women?
Back: Against traditional notions of gender that relegate women to the domestic sphere:
- nei-wai: (lit. inside-outside; domestic sphere vs. public sphere),
- spatial and functional distinctions (men belong to wai and women to nei),
- rules of propriety,
- Three Obediences (to father, husband, son),
- foot binding,
- concubinage,
- chastity cults,
- using women as commodity of exchange in marriage system,
- female illiteracy,
- exclusion of women from social and professional engagement.

Front: What ideas did May Fourth intellectuals have regarding the advancement of women?
Back: - Equality in marriage, marriage freedom,
- supporting (urban) women's access to modern education, as well as professional and social engagement,
- fighting Chinese cultural taboos against female literacy (Confucianism: "Lacking literary talent is the virtue of women"),
- fighting association of women with virtue or de and of men with talent or cai.

Front: Catchy phrase by Yu Dafu about women's suffering?
Back: Yu Dafu, “The Cypress Vine Trip”: “The root of your suffering is to be found in my own inability to right the wrongs that society had done me”

Front: How did new ideas about literature and women spread in the New Culture movement?
Back: Many literary journals were founded after New Youth and a popular press developed in Shanghai. There were also women's magazines and pictorials, such as The Ladies' Journal (1915–1937).

Front: What were popular topics in the journals of New Youth?
Back: - Public forum for “modern ideas”,
- translations of western fiction,
- reports from travellers abroad,
- philosophical-political discussions.

Front: What did C.T. Hsia have to say on New Literature?
Back: - ”What distinguishes this modern phase of Chinese literature is its obsessive concern with China as a nation afflicted with a spiritual disease and therefore unable to strengthen itself or change its set ways of inhumanity. […] The Chinese writer sees the conditions of China as peculiarly Chinese and not applicable elsewhere.”
- study of modern Chinese literature is burdened with China’s modern history or an “obsession with China.”

Front: Name representative writers of New Literature.
Back: - Lu Xun,
- Mao Dun,
- Yu Dafu,
- Ba Jin,
- Ding Ling,
- Guo Moruo,
- Tian Han,
- Xu Zhimo.

Front: Where and in which year did the May Fourth Movement start?
Back: 1919, May 4^th, in Beijing.

Front: How was China involved in World War I?
Back: 150,000 Chinese laborers were recruited by Britain and France to support the war effort against Germany: "Chinese Labor Corps".

Front: When and where was the Peace Conference after World War I?
Back: 1919, in Paris.

Front: How did the Paris Peace Conference play out for China?
Back: The Treaty of Versailles leaves the former German protectorate of Shandong in Japanese control instead of returning it to China.

Front: How did Chinese react to the Treaty of Versailles?
Back: With a feeling of betrayal and national humiliation by foreign imperialist powers. Popular outrage expressed in student demonstrations in Beijing on 1919, May 4^th.

Front: How did the May Fourth and New Culture movements relate to each other?
Back: May Fourth Movement upholds the New Culture Movement’s ideals of political, social, and educational reform for the purposes of cultural enlightenment and national salvation.

Front: What's the Chinese name for the May Fourth Movement?
Back: wu si yundong

Front: Apart from demonstrations, how did Chinese people protest the Shandong Problem?
Back: Pamphlets called for boycott of Japanese goods. They also burned Japanese goods.

Front: How is the May Fourth Movement viewed in China after 1949?
Back: As part of the Chinese "revolutionary history". There is also a monument commemorating it on Tiananmen Square:

Front: When and where was the CCP founded?
Back: 1921 in the Shanghai French Concession.

Front: How many delegates were present for the founding of the CCP? Who was notably absent?
Back: 13 delegates were present, including Mao Zedong, who worked at Beijing University Library at the time.
Notably absent were Li Dazhao (CCP founder, University librarian), and Chen Duxiu (first Party General Secretary).

Front: As what is Lu Xun revered?
Back: Lu Xun is revered as "the father of modern Chinese literature".

Front: When and where was Lu Xun born, when did he die?
Back: Lu Xun (1881–1936) was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang as Zhou Shuren.

Front: What's the story of how Lu Xun turned to literature?
Back: As a medical student in Japan, Lu Xun watches a newsreel of a Chinese man being beheaded during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), with an apathetic Chinese crowd watching. The story is that this made him turn to literature.

Front: Did Lu Xun have important siblings?
Back: Yes, his brother Zhou Zuoren was another famous writer of the May Fourth Movement and a contributor to New Youth magazine.

Front: What did Lu Xun publish besides his original fiction?
Back: Translations of foreign works from Japanese into English.
(The slides also mention that he knew English and German, but sounds like he only professionally translated from Japanese)

Front: How did Lu Xun like to frame his mission?
Back: As a literary physician aiming to heal China's spiritual problems.
Side factoid: Ba Jin also refers to himself as an incompetent doctor in a preface to a book, I think it was to Jia, but don't quote me on that.

Front: Did Lu Xun contribute to a magazine?
Back: Yes, he was invited in 1917 to contribute to New Youth, but was intially reluctant.

Front: Lu Xun crafted a famous metaphor on the state of China. What is it?
Back: Lu Xun proposed the Iron House Mataphor in the preface of Call to Arms in 1923:
“Imagine an iron house: without windows or doors, utterly indestructible, and full of sound sleepers – all about to suffocate to death. Let them die in their sleep, and they will feel nothing. Is it right to cry out, to rouse the light sleepers among them, causing them inconsolable agony before they die?”
“But even if we succeed to wake only a few, there is still hope – the hope that the iron house may one day be destroyed.”

Front: When did Lu Xun first adopt his pen name?
Back: Lu Xun calls himself that for the first time in 1918 when he publishes the short story Diary of a Madman or Kuangren riji in New Youth. This was before the May Fourth Movement. The story makes him a leading figure of the movement.

Front: What's the name and year of a collection of important early works of Lu Xun that were all published in New Youth?
Back: Call to Arms or Nahan (1923)

Front: What was Lu Xun's main literary style/genre?
Back: Realism.

Front: What are some main themes of Lu Xun's writing?
Back: - Anti-authoritarianism,
- anti-traditionalism,
- satires of traditional Chinese (patriarchal) society,
- Confucian ethics and dogmas,
- critique of social apathy, “national character” (guomin xing),
- motif of the loner vs. the crowd.

Front: Describe the short story that made Lu Xun a leading figure of the New Culture Movement.
Back: The Diary of a Madman is a short story first published in New Youth in 1918, making Lu Xun a leading figure of the movement. Some key aspects of the story:
- “Found text”, discovery of a diary by the “mad” brother (the titular “madman”) of the young man who finds it,
- Chinese civilization depicted as cannibalistic: discovery of cannibalistic messages (“eat people”) written between the lines of Confucian texts = China has been “eating” her young generations throughout history,
- Cannibalism = metaphor expressing New Culture Movement's critique of traditional society and culture and Confucian ethics, which suppress innovation, individualism, and new ideas to perpetuate old values,
- Famous ending: “Perhaps there are still children who have not eaten men? Save the children…”, became slogan in Social Movements,
- madman = new, enlightened man,
- but eventually he “recovers” and becomes an official: Defeat? Victory of the ”crowd”?

Front: Describe the story "Medicine".
Back: - Published in New Youth in 1919,
- Death of a boy from Hua family and of a young revolutionary from Xia family. The boy’s tuberculosis was supposed to be “cured” by a bun soaked in the blood of the dead revolutionary,
- Buried next to each other: their combined surnames, engraved on the tombstones, read “Huaxia”, a traditional name for China,
- Both represent future of China and both victims of old system: reactionary politics and superstition,
- Both deaths signify death of China, unless it rejects reactionary and old-fashioned values.

Front: Describe “The True Story of Ah Q”.
Back: - Novella,
- published serially between 1921 and 1922 in Beijing Morning News,
- Written entirely in vernacular Chinese, spoken language,
- Set at the end of the Qīng Dynasty,
- Allegory of failure of the 1911 revolution,
- Parody of traditional culture and attitudes.

Front: Describe the character traits of Ah Q and in broad strokes how the story plays out for him.
Back: - Chinese anti-hero, Chinese everyman
- Obsession with “saving face” (mianzi)
- Subservient to the powerful and bully with the weak
- Self-deception, self-delusion, defeat as mental victory, moral superiority
- Embodiment of worst aspects of “national character” (guomin xing): in denial of his true situation, ignorant, superstitious, opportunistic, coward, but also a victim,
- Barred from the revolution (which he first condemns but then wants to join as he thinks it will succeed),
- Eventually executed when the revolution fails although he is innocent (scapegoat),
- “The grand finale”: spectacle of public execution in front of a crowd of onlookers (voyeurism, passivity and cruelty of the crowd).

Front: What did The True Story of Ah Q critique?
Back: - traditionalism,
- revolutionaries who prioritize ideology and personal ambitions over the fate of the nation,
- sexism, e.g. when Ah Q tries to rape a nun and then wants to marry her.

Front: In The True Story of Ah Q, what is the attitude towards Westernization?
Back: Ambiguous. Seen in parody of the village elite (Mr Zhao) and character of “Imitation Foreign Devil”, a returned student who shows off in Western clothing and manners.

Front: What kind of a name is Ah Q?
Back: A made-up one, using the latin letter also in the Chinese original: 阿Q.
Chinese character 阿: Used in transliterations of foreign terms or as a sign of endearment
Latin letter Q:
- Looks like a head with a Manchu queue,
- Suggests anonymity, China-West interaction.

Front: What did Lu Xun contribute to the New Woman debate?
Back: One important thing was “What Happens after Nora Leaves Home?”:
- delivered in Beijing Women’s Normal College in 1923,
- Activist students had recently (and controversially) staged Nora, based on A Doll’s House (1879) by Henrik Ibsen,
- Sceptical voice in the debate: essay questions the May Fourth / New Culture Movement romantic and largely apolitical view of the New Woman, based on Nora,
- Pragmatic/pessimistic vision: “Dreams are fine, but otherwise money is essential”,
- Nora cannot survive in a social and political vacuum. Without money, Nora either goes back home or “goes to the bad”: “the crucial thing for Nora is money”,
- Need for “awakened conscience” = social and political awareness,
- Advocates equal economic and social rights; economic emancipation and self-sufficiency also needed, in addition to individualism, rebellious character, etc,
- Need for wider social reform and change in economic system,
- Basis for later class-based, leftist reimaginations of new Chinese womanhood in the 1930s (e.g. Shanghai “golden age” cinema: New Woman/New Women, 1935).

Front: Where was Lu Xun on the political left-right spectrum?
Back: - growing interest in Marxism since mid-1920s,
- had connections with CCP but never joined,
- reads and translates Marxist works,
- promotes proletarian arts and literature,
- mostly essay writing (polemical, reflective),
- 1930: leader of League of Left-Wing Writers,
- promotes woodcut movement as medium for proletarian / leftist ideology.

Front: When and how did Lu Xun die?
Back: Lu Xun dies in 1936 of tuberculosis.

Front: When did Ding Ling live?
Back: Ding Ling lived 1904–1986.

Front: Name some of Ding Ling's important life events.
Back: - Convention-defying lifestyle in Shanghai,
- 1932: Joins CCP,
- 1936: escapes KMT prison and travels to CCP revolutionary base areas in Yan’an,
- 1949: official posts in PRC literary and cultural organizations,
- 1958: victim of intellectual purge, sent to re-education (internal exile) as a “rightist”,
- 1979: rehabilitated.

Front: Who wrote Miss Sophia's Diary, when and where was it first published?
Back: Ding Ling published Miss Sophia's Diary in Fiction Monthly magazine in 1928.

Front: What kind of language does Miss Sophie's Diary use?
Back: Ding Ling writes Miss Sophie's Diary in modern vernacular Chinese (colloquial/modern).

Front: Who is the protagonist of Miss Sophie's Diary named after?
Back: Sophia Perovskaya, Russian revolutionary who coordinated assassination of Tsar Alexander II.

Front: Style-wise, how did the writing in Miss Sophia's Diary compare to other women's writing in the period?
Back: Reflects characteristics of other women's writing of the period:
- autobiographical or semi-autobiographical,
- personal,
- intimate self-examination,
- exploration of female subjectivity.
But some themes were shocking for the time:
- sexual desire,
- bisexuality,
- premarital sex.

Front: How does Miss Sophie's Diary fit into the broader discourse on women in China?
Back: - Sophia torn between two men, one Westernized (from Singapore, who is mean to her) and one Chinese (who is kind to her, and she despises),
- Representative of May Fourth tension between Chinese and foreign cultures, ambiguity toward Westernization,
- like China, Sophia finds that neither tradition nor Westernization respond to her needs,
- like China, Sophia is doomed (she is dying of tuberculosis), i.e. China not ready for emancipated, individualist, and progressive women (Cf. Bonnie McDougall’s concept of “disappearing women” in May Fourth literature),
- May Fourth themes of modernity, nationalism, and revolution from a gendered and personal perspective,
- Story reflects rise of modern urban culture of cosmopolitan and Westernized cities like Shanghai.

Front: How would you describe 1920s Shanghai? How did Mu Shiying call it?
Back: Shanghai: centre of urban culture, wealth, modernity, decadent lifestyles.
Mu Shiying:
- “Paris of the East”,
- “the most cosmopolitan city in the world”,
- “a heaven built on hell”.

Front: You are stranded on an island, and you can take the collected works of just one author with you, who do you pick?
Back: Obviously Ding Ling.

Front: What are some of the shortcomings of male intellectuals of May Fourth culture with regard to the woman question?
Back: For instance:
- Male intellectuals championed equality, education, modernization, and freedom for women, but did not envision a political role for them,
- Political/intellectual leadership still dominated by men,
- Women secondary or instrumental to issues of nation and class (woman as trope, symbol, allegory for the nation, male intellectuals’ anxieties).
Ding Ling reflects on this in her own work.

Front: Name some important women writers of the Republican era.
Back: - Bai Wei (1894-1987),
- Bing Xin (1900-1999),
- Ling Shuhua (1900-1990),
- Lin Huiyin (1904-1955, also important architect, first female arch. in modern China),
- Ding Ling (1904–1986),
- Yang Jiang (1911-2016),
- Xiao Hong (1911-1942),
- Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang) (1920-1995).

Front: When was Mao Dun born and under which name? When did he die?
Back: Mao Dun lived 1896–1981 and was born Shen Yanbing in Zhejiang.

Front: What's up with the name Mao Dun?
Back: Mao Dun (茅盾) is a pen name, and it's homophonous with “contradiction”, ⽭盾.

Front: What made Mao Dun a notable person?
Back: Some important things:
- His cultural output:
  - Novelist,
  - literary and cultural critic,
  - translator (e.g. at Shanghai Commercial Press),
  - chief editor (Fiction Monthly, People's Literature),
- being a key figure in the New Culture Movement,
- being close to Lu Xun,
- co-founding The Literary Association or Wenxue yanjiu hui in Beijing,
- joining the CCP 1921 in Shanghai,
- participating in Northern Expedition in 1926,
- being Minister of Culture 1949-1965.

Front: How is the style of Mao Dun's writing called? Did he promote other writers that used that style?
Back: Mao Dun was a promoter of European realism and naturalism, especially:
- Zola,
- Balzac,
- Flaubert,
- Chekhov,
- Tolstoy.
Mao Dun himself wrote in a realist style, sometimes called revolutionary realism.

Front: What are some important points in Mao Dun's biography, with years?
Back: - 1913: starts studying at Peking University,
- 1916: Shanghai Commercial Press (English editor and translator, editorials),
- 1920–23: Chief Editor of pioneering literary journal Short Story/Fiction Monthly (Xiaoshuo yuebao),
- 1921: Joins the CCP,
- 1926: Participates in Northern Expedition,
- 1930: joins League of Left-Wing Writers,
- 1949–1965: PRC Minister of Culture, chief editor of main literary journal People’s Literature (Renmin wenxue),
- 1981: dies.
Some other facts that are not in the slides but good to know:
Mao Dun was denounced and dismissed from his position in 1964. The 1965 end year given above is used in the slides and several other sources, I'm not sure how he could still be minister after being dismissed? Anyway he was rehabilitated later (unsure about the year), and even held political positions again after that. There is also a Mao Dun Literature Prize.

Front: What does it mean to say that Mao Dun was interested in contradictions?
Back: Mao Dun had an interest in contemporary social reality and exposure of social problems and “contradictions”:
- left-wing ideology,
- critique of capitalism,
- imperialism,
- social and gender injustice.

Front: Give three key works of Mao Dun, with years and key topics.
Back: - Novella: Eclipse (trilogy, 1927-28); about experiences and disillusionment of intellectuals in the Northern Expedition
- Novel: Rainbow (1930), challenges of modern women in 1920s Shanghai, example of his interest in “new women” and engagement with “woman question”, gender discourse (inequality, patriarchy),
- Novel: Midnight (1933): life of capitalists in the modern, cosmopolitan metropolis, Shanghai; expression of leftist ideas.

Front: Give two Mao Dun short stories that were made into films.
Back: - Spring Silkworms (1932 story; 1933 film),
- The Lin Family Shop (1932 story; 1959).

Front: Under which name, when and where was Ba Jin born, when did he die?
Back: Ba Jin lived 1904–2005 and was born Li Yaotang / Li Feigan in Chengdu, Sichuan.

Front: What's up with the name Ba Jin?
Back: Pseudonym Ba Jin (adopted late 20s) from first and last characters of transcriptions of Russian anarchists Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin.

Front: What are some important works of Ba Jin?
Back: Short stories:
- 1931: Dog,
- 1934: The General.
Novels:
- "Torrents":
  - 1933: The Family,
  - 1938: Spring,
  - 1940: Autumn,
- 1947: Bitter Cold Nights

Front: What's the author and plot of Spring Silkworms?
Back: Spring Silkworms is a 1932 short story by Mao Dun adapted to film in 1933.
Summary on slides:
- Story of Old Tong Bao, a silkworm farmer, and his family,
- they struggle to produce a successful silkworm harvest,
- Old Tong Bao is a type:
  - Totality: shows the inevitable links between this family and the wider nation, economy and world,
  - Transition: narrates the struggle between old traditions and historical realities, new technologies, new economic situation,
  - Contradiction: Family struggles to adapt.

Front: What's The Family?
Back: A novel by Ba Jin, published serially 1931–1932. It reflects the struggles within his own family and highlights the need for social change. Two sequels followed later: Spring (1938) and Autumn (1940), making it the Torrents or Turbulent Stream trilogy.

Front: Describe the plot of Ba Jins Family.
Back: - Gao family, traditional household,
- Three brothers under authority of old family patriarch (grandfather),
- Social convention, family obligation,
- Confucian values, ethics, and rituals as instruments of oppression and control,
- Younger brother (main character) Gao Juehui partly autobiographical, leaves family and moves to Shanghai,
- Middle brother Gao Juemin flees the patriarchal household to avoid arranged marriage, then succeeds in marrying the woman he loves (cousin),
- Elder brother Gao Juexin victim of system, suffers huge personal tragedy due to inability to resist.

Front: What's the aim of The Family?
Back: Encouragement to young people to stand up to family obligations and traditional social system.

Front: Tell me about Ba Jin and the Cultural Revolution.
Back: - Ba Jin persecuted during Cultural Revolution: works banned, wife died for refusal of medical treatment,
- Loved and well-respected public figure after rehabilitation,
- Noted for outspoken public criticism of the CR (collective responsibility),
- Call for establishment of a CR museum,
- Collection Random Thoughts (Suixiang lu), 1978-1986 (memoir, autobiographical reflections, many on the Cultural Revolution, including his own role in it).

Front: What's the First United Front, and when?
Back: In 1923, KMT (under Sun Yat-sen) and CCP ally to reunify China.

Front: There is another important date in May for the early ROC, what is it?
Back: 1925: May 30^th Incident in Shanghai:
- labour dispute,
- Japanese guard kills Chinese worker in Japanese factory,
- British police fires on protesters, 9 dead, several wounded,
- nationwide anti-foreign demonstrations.

Front: What happens in 1925?
Back: - May 30^th Incident,
- Sun Yat-sen dies of cancer at age 58, resulting in a succession struggle between Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei.

Front: What's the name of Chiang Kai-shek in Standard Chinese?
Back: 蒋介石, Jiǎng Jièshí

Front: Who was Sun Yat-sens wife, who did she side with in the KMT succession struggle?
Back: Sun's widow is called Soong Ching-ling (or Song Qingling) and she lived 1893–1981. She supports Wang Jingwei in the succession struggle and later sides with the CCP.
Soong Ching-ling opposed about Chiang Kai-shek:
- right-wing politics,
- extreme anti-Communism,
- alliance with conservative bankers and industrialists.

Front: KMT succession struggle after Sun Yat-sen's death: who comes out on top and who was the opponent?
Back: Chiang Kai-shek takes control of the KMT against his opponent Wang Jingwei.

Front: What does Chiang Kai-shek do after taking control of the KMT?
Back: - 1926: leads the Northern Expedition (beifa, 1926-1928) against the warlords (KMT and CCP armies),
- 1927: turns against his CCP allies, start of extreme anti-Communist violence, execution of unioninsts and (suspected) Communist sympathizers in Shanghai Massacre (12 April 1927) and “White Terror” (April to December 1927),
- 1927 December: Marries Soong Ching-ling’s younger sister, Soong Mei-ling (1898–2003),
- Wealthy magnate H. H. Kung (1881–1967, husband of elder sister Soong Ai-ling (1888–1973) becomes Chiang’s finance minister,
- Chiang becomes Generalissimo of the Nationalist Army, chair of the KMT’s Central Executive Committee, head of government in new capital Nanjing (1927), marking the start of the Nanjing Decade.