Book Review--The Literature of Leisure and Chinese Modernity

The bustling literary scene of Republican period China has consistently been attracting much scholarly attention, and as a consequence we continue to see new literary anthologies and research monographs addressing various aspects of the cultural life of this complex period. Charles A. Laughlin’s monograph chooses the short essay genre xiaopin wen小品文 to probe issues of modernity, tradition, leisure, and self-expression, and aims to illuminate the diverse and multifaceted nature of literary production during the 1920s-1930s, a period when the writing and publishing of short essays reached its peak. The modern essay emerged in the atmosphere of the Literary Revolution, or May Fourth Movement, and aligned itself with European belles letters while distancing itself from premodern guwen古文 (ancient style prose) and bagu wen八股文 (“eight-legged essays”). Prominent figures Zhou Zuoren周作人 (1885-1967) and Lin Yutang林語堂 (1895-1976) were actively involved in the promotion of this genre, and influential literary journals of that time, such as Yu si語絲 (Threads of Conversation), Lunyu論語 (The Analects), Renjian shi人間世 (This Human World), Yuzhou feng宇宙風 (Cosmic Wind), and Taibai太白 (Venus), gave much space over to xiaopin wen; publishing activity became most intensive in the year 1934.