ABSTRACT
Shen Congwen's creativity was prolific and uneven. Short stones were his forte. Among his best-loved longer works are his autobiography (1934) and the novel Bian cheng (Border town, 1934). After the Communist victory in 1949, Shen Congwen was viciously attacked. He attempted suicide and stopped writing. Later, he occupied himself by publishing scholarly research on painting, lacquerware, bronze mirrors, textiles, costumes, and other relics in the ancient Peking palace. To the editors of this volume he expressed only contempt for the Communist government up until his dying days; the Nobel Prize in literature, for which he was nominated several times, would have been an embarrassing experience for the Chinese government had he been awarded it.
