BEIJING, May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the World Anti-Fascist War. Whether it is the translation and dissemination of Chinese wartime literature abroad, or the resonance sparked in China by foreign literary works on World War II, both reflect the shared aspiration for peace among people around the world. At the same time, they bear witness to the ongoing exchanges between Chinese and foreign literature. Let us explore the global journey of these classic works and rediscover their enduring literary charm and spiritual strength.
Chinese anti-aggression literature: A full display of national integrity
Hailed as the “Literary Goddess of the 1930s,” Chinese writer Xiao Hong is best known for her signature work The Field of Life and Death, a searing indictment of the atrocities committed by Japanese invaders and a striking expression of national consciousness. First published in December 1935, the book cemented Xiao Hong’s place in the history of modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun, one of the most revered 20th-century writers in China, included the novel in one of his series and praised the work for capturing “the resilience of the northern people in life and their struggle against death,” noting especially the author’s “delicate observations and unorthodox style” deeply impressed him.
Overseas, US sinologist Howard Goldblatt developed a particular fascination with Xiao Hong. In 1971, he entered the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature at Indiana University to pursue his PhD, and chose Xiao Hong, who was then little known in the US, the subject of his research. In 1974, he completed his dissertation, which later formed the basis of the first comprehensive study of Xiao Hong in the West, Hsiao Hung, published in 1976.
This work played a crucial role in introducing Xiao Hong, who is also known as Hsiao Hung in the West, to the international literary community. The book went through multiple revisions, during which Goldblatt conducted interviews with Xiao Jun, Duanmu Hongliang, Shu Qun, Luo Bingji, Luo Feng, and Bai Lang – all individuals closely connected to Xiao Hong’s life and times.
German sinologist Wolfgang Kubin offers an in-depth analysis of The Field of Life and Death in his book The History of 20th Century Chinese Literature. He argues that the novel not only depicts the Japanese invasion, but also elevates the idea of the “field” into a symbolic space. This symbolic power, he notes, is achieved through the novel’s vivid imagery and masterful technique.
The strong visual quality of The Field of Life and Death gives it clear potential for theatrical adaptation. In 2004, a stage version directed by Tian Qinxin premiered to audiences in China. The following year, this was performed in South Korea by local actors in an intimate theater setting, where it strongly resonated with local audiences.
While The Field of Life and Death focuses on rural life, Four Generations Under One Roof turns its gaze toward the city.
“Judging from the novel’s theme and structure, it is clear that Lao She set out to write an epic work, modeled on 19th-century European historical novels like War and Peace,” remarked literary scholar David Der-wei Wang. As Chinese writer Lao She’s longest novel, Four Generations Under One Roof is rich in meaning and detail, widely regarded as a monumental classic in the history of modern Chinese literature and an integral part of global anti-fascist literary heritage.
Set in a traditional Beijing alley called Xiaoyangjuan Hutong, the novel vividly portrays the lives and resistance of ordinary people in Japanese-occupied Beijing during Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Lao She painfully described how the cultural dignity of the ancient capital was trampled under the boots of Japanese forces, and how generations of peace-loving Chinese people were driven to the point of awakening, resistance, and ultimately, moral renewal.
The English translation of Four Generations Under One Roof was completed with the direct involvement of Lao She himself. In 1946, invited by the US Department of State, Lao She traveled to the US to give lectures. During his stay, he completed the third volume of the novel, Famine, and collaborated with US writer and social activist Ida Pruitt to translate the work into English under the title The Yellow Storm.
Ida Pruitt was born in China to missionary parents. After returning to the US, she joined the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives movement, launched by figures such as Edgar Snow, in support of China’s resistance against aggression. Although she could not read Chinese, she could speak fluently. Lao She would read passages aloud, and Pruitt would translate them into English, confirming the meaning with him as they worked through the text together.
In February 1951, the English version of Four Generations Under One Roof was published. On February 11, The New York Times and New York Herald Tribune both ran reviews of the book. US writer Pearl S. Buck remarked that Lao She’s firmly rooted Chinese perspective enabled Four Generations Under One Roof to “transcend a single nation, a single war, or a single era.”
French Nobel laureate Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio held Lao She’s work in high regard. In the preface to the 1996 French edition of this work, Le Clezio referred to Lao She as a “teacher.” Though Four Generations Under One Roof is a novel about war, it ultimately transcends war itself. The book has since been translated into Japanese, Russian, and several other languages.
Foreign World War II literature: A multidimensional depiction of war and humanity
During the World Anti-Fascist War, a US writer’s anti-war novel resonated widely in China. The novel was The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck, a renowned US novelist and a Nobel Prize laureate, enjoyed immense popularity in China during the 1940s, rivaling even Ernest Hemingway in fame.
The Moon Is Down was published by the literary star in 1942. It is an anti-war novel set in a small town in Northern Europe, depicting the local people’s resistance against German fascist invasion. The author drew inspiration from firsthand accounts of refugees who had witnessed wartime’s painful reality, the novel thus carries echoes of real-life struggles. Upon its release, The Moon Is Down quickly sold 500,000 copies and was adapted into both a play and a film.
Steinbeck’s novel also attracted extensive attention from the Chinese intellectual community. The very next year after its publication, at least five Chinese translations emerged, including ones by translators such as Hu Zhongchi, Zhao Jiabi and Liu Zunqi.
Among these translators, Zhao had mostly profound interest in US literature. He developed such an interest as early as the 1930s, having immersed himself in Steinbeck’s works including Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. In 1942, he encountered The Moon Is Down and devoured it in a single sitting. The novel’s depiction of invaders’ brutal oppression and the resilience of people being oppressed struck Zhao with uncanny familiarity – as if Steinbeck had written about China’s own wartime story. This powerful resonance compelled Zhao deeply.
The emergence of anti-fascist literature in the Soviet Union almost coincided with the Soviet Union’s Great Patriotic War. During the war, over 1,000 Soviet literary figures joined the Red Army and guerrilla forces, while numerous writers supported frontline efforts from the rear. Writers who experienced the war firsthand or participated indirectly produced a remarkable body of internationally acclaimed anti-fascist literature.
China’s translation and introduction of these works were remarkably timely. From its inaugural issue in May 1941 until the victory in its War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Jiefang Daily that was established in Yan’an published 152 translated Soviet literary works and related critical essays. Between 1980 and 2005, nearly 100 Chinese translations of novels on the Soviet Union’s Great Patriotic War were published.
The Dawns Here Are Quiet stands out as the most popular among them. It was written by Boris Vasilyev. The story follows a sergeant and five female military warriors who engage in a desperate struggle against enemy forces in a dense forest. As each of the five vibrant young women – distinct in personality yet united in courage – falls in battle, a profound sense of tragedy and heroism emerges.
In 1977, after the relaunch of the journal World Literature, the book was serialized as a featured work in its first two issues. The novella’s first standalone Chinese edition was published in 1980 by the Hunan People’s Publishing House, followed by multiple reprints under the People’s Literature Publishing House, becoming a long-term bestseller. In 2023, the Shanghai Translation Publishing House released a fresh translation, reintroducing the classic to a new generation of readers.
The Dawns Here Are Quiet has demonstrated remarkable artistic vitality through its adaptations into film, television series, picture books, and stage plays – reaching audiences far beyond the original readership. In 2015, the 70th anniversary of the victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts premiered an original opera adaptation of the work, which later toured Russia in 2018.
The enduring impact of the original work stems fundamentally from Vasilyev’s firsthand experience as a combatant during wartime, which enabled his unflinchingly authentic portrayal of war’s brutality. More significantly, he achieved an extraordinary artistic synthesis – seamlessly fusing the grandeur of a heroic epic with the intimacy of lyricism.
German anti-fascist literature has also gained remarkable prominence in China, with Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum standing as its most celebrated representative.
This novel, published in 1959, immediately garnered critical acclaim. Its 1963 English edition remained on The New York Times bestseller list for nine consecutive weeks, and the 1980 film adaptation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The Nobel Prize committee hailed it as “one of the most significant literary works since World War II.”
The novel follows the life journey of a boy named Oskar, who decides to stop growing after experiencing family and wartime trauma. In 1990, translator Hu Qiding’s translation of this novel was published by the Shanghai Translation Publishing House. It caused a sensation, sparking a nationwide trend in China of emulating Grass’s distinctive dark humor.
Mentioning The Tin Drum, it brings to mind another novel that was even more influential worldwide. The book Schindler’s Ark was written by Australian writer Thomas Keneally.
Based on true events, the novel, whose US edition was titled Schindler’s List, profoundly explores why Oskar Schindler, a Nazi Party member, risked everything to save upwards of 1,000 Jewish laborers. Keneally masterfully portrays his protagonist shifting between “righteous gentile” and “complicit opportunist,” crafting a morally ambiguous yet ultimately heroic figure.
The book’s Chinese translator was Feng Tao, the editorial director at the Shanghai Translation Publishing House. He once shared a story describing how he had arrived in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, as a student in 1995. The timing coincided with the release of the film Don’t Cry, Nanking (the old translated name of Nanjing), which left him emotionally unsettled just as much as the movie Schindler’s List had done.
Feng then felt that he wanted to do something after watching Don’t Cry, Nanking. With meticulous care, he undertook the translation of Schindler’s Ark. The Chinese edition, first published in 2009, has since undergone multiple reprints, selling approximately 80,000 copies.
These works mentioned above represent merely the tip of the iceberg in the vast ocean of global anti-fascist literature, within which many of them have been translated and published in China. These texts, imbued with profound moral urgency and unyielding righteousness, have served as calls to resistance and profound reflections on war’s distortion, and encouraged people nowadays to pursue justice, harmony and freedom.
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SOURCE Global Times
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