Activity: Talk/lecture or presentation › Talk/lecture
Description
This lecture re-evaluates the literary phenomenon of the “Chinese Northeastern Writers Group,” a group of young writers who were both exiled from and wrote about Dongbei from the 1930s to the 1950s. Well-known group members include Xiao Hong, Xiao Jun, Duanmu Hongliang, and Luo Binji. Focusing on their moments of emergence into Chinese literary circles, this project intends to account for the astonishing similarities that exist in their literary debut and life decisions. Despite distinct upbringings and backgrounds, they all fell into the “rabbit hole” of the Chinese Communist Revolution (un)intentionally. Identifying them as biomarkers makes it possible to decipher the hidden networks that help channel the exchange among people and books, as well as the transmission of knowledge and information built by the Comintern, the Chinese Communist Party, and its peripheral organizations. Narratives authored by Dongbei writers testify to the multi-dimensional interactions between the Chinese (also Global) left-wing literature movement and the Communist Revolution.