Chinese Characters

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Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

Series of essays exploring Chinese history through the life stories of key personalities.

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Chinese Characters: Lu Xun: Compassionate Cynic

Lu Xun: Compassionate Cynic

BBC Radio 4 - Chinese Characters, Lu Xun: Compassionate Cynic

A writer still read by every Chinese pupil and considered China's greatest modern author.

The writer who is still read by every Chinese schoolchild - and has the reputation of being the country's greatest modern author.

To create one character who says something profound about the society you live in might be a stroke of luck. To create three suggests you really do have your hand on the nation's pulse. That creator was Lu Xun, widely regarded as modern China's greatest writer. His pithy, astringent short stories showcased figures who held a merciless mirror to China's people: Ah Q, the vainglorious everyman who treats every disaster as a triumph, Kong Yiji, the pathetic Confucian scholar reduced to begging for pennies, and the Madman, a character whose insanity allows him to spot cannibalism where his fellow-citizens see only Chinese tradition. Lu Xun is read by every schoolchild in China today - and his puncturing of pomposity still has continuing relevance.
Presenter: Rana Mitter
Producer: Ben Crighton
Researcher: Elizabeth Smith Rosser.

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