Zhou Zuoren

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Zhou Zuoren

Zhou Zuoren ( Chinese  周作人 , Pinyin Zhōu Zuòrén , W.-G. Chou Tso-jen ; born January 16, 1885 in Shaoxing , Zhejiang Province ; † May 6, 1967 in Beijing ), brother of Lu Xun ( Chinese  鲁迅 ; actually : Chinese  周樹 人 , Pinyin Zhōu Shùrén , 1881–1936), was a Chinese translator and writer. He was an important representative of the Movement for a New Culture and is considered a key figure in the first Chinese mass protest movement, the May Fourth Movement .

Life (chronology)

  • 1901 Joined the Nanking Naval Academy
  • 1906–1911 studied in Tokyo
  • 1909 marriage to Hata Nobuko (1887–1962)
  • May 4, 1919 Student delegation in Beijing in the wake of the Versailles Peace Treaty
  • 1923 falling out with Lu Xun over his wife
  • 1941 Joined the pro-Japanese parliament ( Wang Jingwei 1883–1944)
  • Captured by Red Guards in August 1966 and locked in a shed.

Zhou grew up in Shaoxing, a city in east China. His family was wealthy, and his paternal grandfather, Zhou Fuqing, held a high position as an imperial official. Zhou Zuoren received private lessons in traditional Confucian Chinese culture. In 1901 he followed his brother Lu Xun to the naval academy, where he learned about technical equipment in English specialist literature. In 1906 he followed his brother to Japan to study architecture and engineering. In 1909 his first book of short stories was published. Numerous translations of literature from English into Chinese followed.

In 1911 he moved back to China and became an English teacher, and in 1918 professor of Greek and Roman literature. He founded the Institute of Oriental Languages ​​at Beijing University.

reception

Zhou Zuoren has so far been overshadowed by his brother Lu Xun in the west. However, it is currently being rediscovered. After training at the Jiang Nan Academy, he followed his brother to Japan, where he learned English and (ancient) Greek. It was there that the first translations into Chinese were made. Even after returning to China, the brothers remained closely connected. They lived in the same house in Beijing until a falling out broke out in which Hata Nobuko is believed to be responsible.

In contrast to Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren was a localist. He attached great importance to a form of diversity that honored the experiences of home and local peculiarities. He criticized elitist Chinese traditions like the Peking Opera and called them "disgusting, nauseating, boastful" and their sound "pathologically inhuman". After the Second Sino-Japanese War, Zhou was arrested in 1945 by the nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek for treason due to his alleged collaboration with the Wang Jingwei government during the Japanese occupation of northern China. Zhou was sentenced to 14 years in prison but was released in 1949 by the communist government after a pardon. He then returned to Beijing but wrote little and concentrated on translating. He died during the Cultural Revolution after being arrested and later beaten by the Red Guards. In the early decades of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Zuoren's writings were not accessible to Chinese readers due to his alleged collaboration (this was also the case in Taiwan). It was not until the relatively liberal 1980s that his works became available again. Chinese scholar and former Beijing University professor Qian Liqun 錢理群 published an extensive biography of Zhou Zuoren in 2001 entitled 周作人 传.

Works

  • Yuwai xiaoshuoji

literature

  • Georges Bê Duc: "Zhou Zuoren et l'essai chinois modern", L'Harmattan, Paris, 2010 ISBN 2-296-11221-8 .
  • Susan Daruvala: "Zhou Zuoren and an alternative Response to Modernity". Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. [u. a.] 2000. (Harvard East Asian monographs; 189) Zugl .: Univ. of Chicago, Diss., 1989 ISBN 0-674-00238-5 .
  • Michael Leonard Laurens Gerard Hockx: "A snowy morning: eight Chinese poets on the road to modernity". Center of Non-Western Studies, Leiden, Leiden Univ., 1994. @ CNWS publications, ISSN  0925-3084  ; 18 ISBN 90-73782-22-8 - ISBN 90-73782-21-X .
  • David E. Pollard: "A Chinese look at literature: the literary values ​​of Chou Tso-jen in relation to the tradition". University of California Press, Berkeley 1973. ISBN 0-520-02409-5 .
  • Ernst Wolff: "Chou Tso-jen." Twayne, New York 1971. Twayne's world authors series ; 3.
  • Lawrence Wong (Wang-chi Wong): "" The Beginning of New Literature from Exotic Countries into China ": Zhou Zuoren and Yuwai xiaoshuoji." Hong Kong ??.

Chinese literature

  • Zhang Enhe: "Zhou-Zuoren-sanwen-xinshang", Guangxi Jiaoyu Chubanshe, Nanning 1989. (Zhongguo-xiandai-zuojia-zuopin-xinshang-congshu) ISBN 7-5435-0710-2 .
  • Qian Liqun: "Zhou-Zuoren-lun." Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, Shanghai 1992. (Renwen yanjiu congshu) ISBN 7-208-00502-8 .
  • Ni Moyan: "Zhongguo-de-pantu-yu-yinshi-Zhou-Zuoren". Shanghai Wenyi Chubanshe, Shanghai 1990. (Zhongguo xiandai wenxue yanjiu congshu - Translator of the main: A Chinese renegade and hermit: Zhou Zuoren) ISBN 7-5321-0387-0 .
  • Qian Liqun: "Zhou-Zuoren-zhuan". Beijing Shiyue Wenyi Chubanshe, Beijing 1990. (Zhongguo xiandai zuojia zhuanji congshu - Transl. D. Main: Biography of Zhou Zuoren) ISBN 7-5302-0175-1 .
  • Zhao Jinghua: "Xunzhao-jingshen-jiayuan. Zhou Zuoren wenhua sixiang yu shenmei zhuiqiu". Zhongguo Renmin Daxue Chubanshe, Beijing 1989. Transl. D. Hauptsacht .: In search of the spiritual home ISBN 7-300-00701-5 .
  • Li Jingbin: "Zhou-Zuoren-pingxi". Shanxi Renmin Chubanshe, Xi'an 1986. (Zhongguo xiandai zuojia yanjiu congshu - Translation of the Main: Critical Analysis of Zhou Zuoren).
  • Zhang Juxiang: "Zhou-Zuoren-yanjiu-ziliao". Tianjin Renmin Chubanshe, Tianjin (Zhongguo xiandai wenxueshi ziliao huibian: Yizhong).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nicholas D. Krsitof: Beijing Opera Is 200 and Facing a Crisis . In: The New York Times, Nov. 1, 1990
Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Zhou is the family name here, Zuoren is the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Zhou Zuoren
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese translator and author
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Shaoxing , Zhejiang Province , China
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 1967
Place of death Beijing