ABSTRACT
Writing Manchuria details the lives and translates a selection of fiction from one of the mid-twentieth century’s "four famous husband-wife writers" of China’s Northeast, who lived in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo: Li Zhengzhong (1921–2020) and Zhu Ti (1923–2012).
The writings herein were published from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, in Manchukuo, north China, and Japan; their writings appeared in the most prominent Japanese-owned, Chinese-language journals and newspapers. This volume includes materials that were censored or banned by the Manchukuo authorities: Li Zhengzhong’s "Temptation" and "Frost Flowers," and Zhu Ti’s "Cross the Bo Sea" and "Little Linzi and her Family." Li Zhengzhong has been characterized as "an angry youth" while Zhu Ti’s work questioned contemporary gender ideals and the subjugation of women. Their writings – those that were censored or banned and those published – shed important light on Japanese imperialism and the Chinese literature that was produced in different regions, reflecting both official support and suppression.
Writing Manchuria is the first English-language translation of their writings, and it will appeal to those interested in Chinese wartime literature, as well as contribute to understandings of imperialism and the varied forms it took across Japan’s vast war-time empire.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|48 pages
Lives and Literature
chapter 1|46 pages
Historical Setting
part II|77 pages
A Gender Questioner
chapter 2|3 pages
Preface to Cherry
chapter 3|6 pages
Dreams and Youth (1943)
chapter 4|7 pages
The Joy of Life (1944)
chapter 5|7 pages
Shooting Star in a Distant Sky (1944)
chapter 6|6 pages
Me and My Children (1943)
chapter 7|12 pages
Melancholy on the Mighty Black Dragon River (1943)
chapter 8|18 pages
Cross the Bo Sea (1945)
chapter 9|10 pages
Little Yinzi and Her Family (1944)
chapter 10|6 pages
Little Scene of the Neighbors (1944)
part III|92 pages
An Angry Youth