Zhao Shuli

Zhao Shuli ( Chinese  赵树理 , Pinyin Zhào Shùlĭ ) (born September 24, 1906 , † September 23, 1970 ) was a Chinese writer from the People's Republic of China .

biography

Zhao was born in 1906 in Qinshui County, northern China's Shanxi Province, to a poor farmer. 1925–1927 he attended a teacher training college, but was expelled from it for participating in the student movement. From 1930 he began to write short stories. After a short imprisonment, he worked as a teacher and worker until he joined an army unit as a propagandist and editor in 1937 when the war against Japan began. After the founding of the People's Republic of China , he held higher positions in the field of literature in Beijing. However, in the course of the Cultural Revolution he fell from grace and died in 1970 as a result of severe abuse in Taiyuan .

plant

Zhao began short story writing in 1930, but his most important works date from the 1940s and 50s. Best known are his stories, which campaign against superstition and for free marriages, such as Xiao Erhei jiehun ( Chinese  小二黑 結婚 ) ("The Marriage of Xiao Erhei") from 1943. Both in this work and in his novel Lijiazhuang de bianqian ( Chinese  李家莊 的 變遷 ) ("The change in the village of Lijiazhuang") from 1945, he deals with the changes in the country under communist rule in a positive way.

He was also known for the revival of traditional Chinese forms of design, such as in Li Youcai banhua ( Chinese  李有才 板 話 ) ("The Sayings of Li Youcai") from 1943, and the use of a language close to the rural people. This corresponded to Mao's aesthetic specifications from the speeches of Yan'an, although it is not exactly clear whether Mao exerted influence on Zhao's style or whether he developed in this direction independently of his specifications.

An important influence was probably also the current of Chinese village and native prose , the xiangtu wenxue , which Zhao Shuli developed further as the head of the so-called "potato literature school".

Translations

Most of his works have been translated into German. English translations are also available.

• Zhao Shuli: The songs of Yu-tsai. Trans. V. J. Kalmer, Berlin (East) (1950)
• Zhao Shuli: The Changes in Lijiazhuang Village. Trans. V. Tjen Nou, Berlin (East) (1952)
• Zhao Shuli: Changes in Li Village. Intl Law & Taxation Publ (2005)

literature

• Volker Klöpsch, Eva Müller: Lexicon of Chinese Literature. Munich: CH Beck (2004)

Web links

• Literature by and about Zhao Shuli in the catalog of the German National Library