Critical biography of Shen Congwen, considered to be one of the greatest modern Chinese writers.

Regarded as a pioneering classic study of 20th-century Chinese fiction, this volume covers some 60 years, from the Literary Revolution of 1917 through the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76.'

Four Sisters of Hofei is an intimate encounter with Chinese history, told through the collective memory and stories of four sisters born between 1908 and 1924, and with the benefit of the extraordinary knowledge of Yale historian Annping Chin. Now in their late eighties and early nineties, the Chang sisters lived through a century of historic change in China. In this extraordinary work, assembled with the benefit of letter, diaries, family histories, poetry, journals, and interviews, Annping Chin shapes the story of this family into a riveting chronicle that provides uncanny insight into the old China and its transition to the new. From their father, the Chang sister inherited reason and a belief in the virtues of modern education. From their mother they learned about the human spirit and the art of finding an appropriate path. Their nurse-nannies -- uneducated widows from the Hofei countryside -- contributed their own traditional beliefs and opinions on modern ways. As the sisters grew up, one broke with tradition to marry an actor, one survived the most violent political years of Communist rule, one married one of China's greatest novelists, and one, raised separately by her devout Buddhist great-aunt, was taught to be a rigorous practitioner of China's classical arts. The Chang sisters' prolific correspondence provides a rare glimpse of private life in China during the twentieth century, as well as a chronicle of the country from prosperity to persecution, from foreign wars to Cultural Revolution. In Chin's expert prose, Four Sisters of Hofei is an intensely person story that illustrates the complex history of a complex land.

The most comprehensive and authoritative representation in English of the remarkable Shen Congwen canon, ranging from the polished stories that made him a serious contender for the Nobel literary prize in the 1980s to lesser known, extravagant experimental pieces.

This volume is about studies of Shen Congwen (1902–1988), one of the most important writers in modern China, but more importantly, it is about how Shen Congwen has been received in and beyond Mainland China. By presenting the best literary criticism on Shen Congwen in Mainland China over the past 80 years, and views of how Shen Congwen has been understood, interpreted, and appreciated in Japan, the US, and Europe, the editors propose a new way to approach the topics of canonic writers, modern Chinese literature, and world literature. This is itself a translated project. Its Chinese edition appeared in May 2017. The bilingual rendering of the best criticism of Shen Congwen from a global perspective intends to initiate and advance dialogues between Chinese- and English- language scholarly communities. We strive to explore the complexities of “worldwide” images and interpretations of Shen Congwen. By calling attention to the foreign spaces into which overseas Shen Congwens and modern Chinese literature are reborn as world literature, we acknowledge and celebrate the study of Shen Congwen and modern Chinese literature as ongoing and endless cross-cultural dialogues and manifestations.