ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I address Lu Xun’s 魯迅 involvement with and guidance of the Chinese modern woodblock print movement as part of his broader engagement with domestic and international art and literature during the 1920s and 1930s. Following that, I will discuss three specific artists’ absorption and adaptation of Lu Xun’s translations of foreign theoretical texts and the critical guidance of their work. Young woodblock print artists such as Jiang Feng 江豐, Hu Yichuan 胡一川, and Chen Yanqiao 陳煙橋 internalized both ideological guidance from the Chinese League of Left-Wing Writers中國左翼作家聯盟 as well as the images and influences that Lu Xun carefully chose. Texts ranging from A Discussion of the Trends in the History of Modern Art to The Mind and Face of Bolshevism, and artworks from artists such as Käthe Kollwitz and Alexei Kravchenko, all chosen and promoted by Lu Xun, provided these artists with multiple sources of theoretical and visual diversity from which to draw. Incorporating images of urbanization, industrialization, and a humanist perspective on the plight of the urban proletariat, I will argue that, in the context of China during the 1930s, these three artists grappled with conflicting theoretical viewpoints, but were ultimately most deeply affected by Lu Xun’s counsel and perspective, resulting in works that reflect what I would call Lu Xun’s view of a “socialist modernity” for China.
