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Informationen zum Autor Bonnie S. McDougall is Professor of Chinese at the University of Edinburgh. During her career she has lectured at the University of Oslo, College of Foreign Affairs, Peking, Harvard University, and the University of Sydney, in addition to holding research positions at a number of international institutions. Her research interests include modern and contemporary Chinese literature, performing arts, and intellectual history; women in China; human rights, dissent literature, and censorship in China; and privacy. She has authored, edited, and translated numerous books and journal articles in these areas, including the award-winning The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century with Kam Louie (1997). Klappentext This book opens up three new topics in modern Chinese literary history: the intimate lives of modern China's most famous literary couple, Lu Xun and Xu Guangping; real and imagined love-letters in modern Chinese literature; and the contents, functions, and values of privacy held by one couple in twentieth-century China as shown by a comparison between the edited and unedited versions of their letters. Zusammenfassung This book opens up three new topics in modern Chinese literary history: the intimate lives of Lu Xun and Xu Guangping as a couple; real and imagined love-letters in modern Chinese literature; and concepts of privacy in China. The scandalous affair between modern China's greatest writer and his former student is revealed in their letters to each other between 1925 and 1929. Publication of the letters in a heavily edited version in 1933 was intended partly to profit from a current trend for literary couples to publish their private letters, but another reason was to assert control over their love story, taking it away from the gossip-mongers.The biographies in Part I, based on the unedited letters, reveal such hitherto neglected information as Xu Guangping's early tendencies towards lesbianism; her gender reversal games and Lu Xun's willing participation in them; Xu Guangping's two early attempts at suicide; and Lu Xun's attempts to play down Xu Guangping's political activism and to impress readers with his own militancy. Part II shows how Lu Xun chose to publish their edited letters in the context of current Chinese epistolary fiction and love-letters published by their authors. Part III provides unique evidence on the nature of privacy in modern China through a comparison between the unedited and edited correspondence. Textual evidence shows their intimate secrets about their affairs, their bodies, and their domestic lives; their fear of gossip; their longing for a secluded life together; and their ambivalent attitudes towards the traditional conflict between public service and private or selfish interests. Although it has sometimes been claimed that Chinese culture lacks a sense of privacy, this study reveals the contents, functions, and values of privacy in the early twentieth century. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1: Introduction Part I: Intimate Lives 2: Xu Guangping 'In the Front Row': 1898-1925 3: Lu Xun's 'Live Without Love': 1881-1925 4: Courtship: March 1925-August 1926 5: Separation: September 1926-January 1927 6: Living Together: January 1929-June 1929 7: Birth and Death: 1929-1968 Part II: Real and Imagined Letters 8: Traditional Chinese and Western Letters 9: Modern Chinese Letters and Epistolary Fiction 10: The Making of Letters Between Two 11: Frequency, Appearance, and Terms of Address 12: Defining Identities, Testing Roles Part III: Searching for Privacy 13: Mapping Personal Space 14: Sex and Sexual Relationships 15: Bodies, Bodily Functions and Activities, and Hygiene 16: Domestic Life and Habits 17: Family Matters 18: Friends and Enemies 19: Political Opinions, Observations, and Activities 20: Thoughts and Emotions 21: Rumour and Gossip
