1936, American journalist Si Nuo visited Lu Xun. When she asked who was the best left-wing writer in China at that time, Lu Xun listed Mao Dun, Ding Ling, Zhang Tianyi, Tian Jun (Xiao Jun) and others, and said: "Xiao Hong, Tian Jun's wife, is the most promising female writer in China today. She is probably Ding Ling's successor, and she took Ding Ling's place longer than Bing Xin. Six years later, Xiao Hong died in Hong Kong. War and illness didn't leave her enough time to "replace Ding Ling".
However, even if Xiao Hong's departure takes time, Lu Xun's prediction will eventually fail. Unlike Ding Ling, Xiao Hong seldom directly participated in political activities at that time. Her inclusion in the left-wing camp is mostly based on her relationship with left-wing writers: her lover, friends and mentor all belong to this camp. Xiao Hong's early works, in terms of subject matter, pay attention to the bottom and show the people's life-and-death struggle in the enemy-occupied areas of Northeast China, which certainly meets the expectations of the left-wing literary circles in the 1930 s. Even so, Xiao Hong's creation during this period has brought a lot of confusion and regret to the left-wing critics. While affirming the field of life and death, Hu Feng also emphasized Xiao Hong's weakness. First of all, he didn't organize the theme well enough. Second, the personality is not prominent enough; Third, grammar and syntax are too special. In other words, Xiao Hong's creative theme is not prominent enough, lacking typical characters and inaccurate language. The first two points were what the mainstream of left-wing literature valued most at that time.
For readers, Xiao Hong's personalized writing is really easy to be at a loss. Mei Zhi recalled reading Xiao Hong's novels at that time and was moved to like them. She always feels that her novels are incoherent and incomplete, and they don't look like they are written. This sentence can probably represent the feelings of many people when they first read Xiao Hong. After The Field of Life and Death, Xiao Hong did not change herself according to the requirements of the left-wing literary world. Her response to this is: "There is a kind of novel science, in which novels should have something and be written like Balzac or Chekhov's works. I don't believe this. There are all kinds of authors and novels. " In the 1930 s, when the national war broke out, the central words of the left-wing literary world were politics, saving the country, class, propaganda and the masses ... and Xiao Hong moved from Life and Death Field to Hulan River Biography, which was more poetic, personalized and plain. No wonder critics accused Xiao Hong of being negative and depressed during the Anti-Japanese War, which had nothing to do with the war. It is conceivable that such Xiao Hong is likely to "pass by" Ding Ling.
Although it failed to replace Ding Ling as the most important female writer in the left-wing camp, Xiao Hong was undoubtedly included in the progressive camp of left-wing writers and was affirmed in the writing of literary history after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Among her works, The Field of Life and Death, which is most in line with the left-wing literary standards, is regarded as her masterpiece, while the representative works such as Biography of Hulan River and March in a Small Town are given a cold shoulder at this time. As for her Ma Bole, from its birth to the early 1980s, there was only one comment for forty years.
From the founding of New China to the 1980s, for ordinary readers, Xiao Hong was not only a progressive left-wing young female writer in the history of literature, but also a member of the Northeast writers. Xiao Hong's name is most easily associated with a passage she wrote about "Huoshaoyun", although they may not know that the source of this passage is "Biography of Hulan River". Since 65438+ the early 1950s, this passage has been selected as a primary school Chinese textbook, which has become a childhood memory of several generations.
Ge Haowen, a sinologist, visited the Longwang Temple written by Xiao Hong after translating Biography of Hulan River. It was at 1980, and Longwang Temple is also the location of a primary school in Hulanhe. After saying a few words in a class, he was ready to leave. A child came over and handed Ge Haowen his worn-out textbook. There is a burning cloud inside. This textbook has been kept in Ge Haowen's place.
Since 1990s, as a "female writer", Xiao Hong has suddenly attracted people's attention.
1938, when Nie Gannu and Xiao Hong broke up, he made a flying gesture, pointing to the sky. This action originated from a conversation between two people a few days ago. Nie Gannu encouraged Xiao Hong to fly high like a golden-winged bird in Dapeng. Xiao Hong replied, "Do you know? I am a woman. A woman's sky is low, her wings are thin, and the burden around her is heavy ... Yes, I want to fly, but at the same time I think ... I will fall down. " Some of her friends once said that the biggest tragedy of Xiao Hong's life was that she was a woman.
From 65438 to the early 1990s, as a "female writer", Xiao Hong suddenly attracted attention, and more and more people began to pay attention to the relationship between Xiao Hong's "female" identity and her writing. 1989, mainland scholars Meng Yue and Dai Jinhua interpreted The Field of Life and Death as women's questioning and trial of history in the course of its occurrence, and thought that Xiao Hong's female subject thought was mature by the time of Biography of Hulan River. For academic circles, reinterpreting Xiao Hong from the aspects of women's writing, women's position and feminism has become a hot topic, and this research craze continued until the publication of Liu He's Cross-Language Practice in 2002. Liu He's wonderful interpretation of life and death based on feminist standpoint shows how male literary criticism obliterates Xiao Hong's subversion of mainstream discourse.
The interpretation of Xiao Hong's female identity really reshaped Xiao Hong. Her words, her family, her feelings and her fate are all given new explanations under the care of this perspective. However, in the face of overwhelming interpretation of Xiao Hong from a female perspective, perhaps Xiao Hong herself will not be satisfied. After all, her literary ambition is not here. She was angry that Xiao Jun and Duanmu Hongliang valued their creations more than their own. I once told my friends that I want to surpass Lu Xun and create a novel that is more remarkable than The True Story of Ah Q ... As she herself said, "There is no difference between men and women in' life'."
Contrary to the upsurge of academic research on Xiao Hong, the number of ordinary readers who are familiar with Xiao Hong seems to have decreased in the 1990s. In an academic lecture, critic Moro asked the students present how many people had seen Xiao Hong, and found that only a few people raised their hands. Moro believes, "This just shows that since the 1990s, the distance between Xiao Hong and everyone is really a little bigger. If in the 1980 s, most people who came to care about Xiao Hong's lectures would have read her novels. " This situation may be related to the new literary evaluation criteria that gradually appeared in the1980s. With the change of social ideology, the rewritten history of modern literature chose to shelve or downplay political standards and emphasize art. Shen Congwen, Zhang Ailing and Qian Zhongshu, who had been snubbed before, became popular writers, but the creation of left-wing writers was questioned. Xia Zhiqing, who caused this change, only "forgot" Xiao Hong in the history of modern novels in China. "Xiao Hong's novel" Field of Life and Death "is very realistic, and its artistic achievement is higher than Xiao Jun's" Village in August ",which is the only comment he left to Xiao Hong in this literary history.
In fact, shortly after writing this book, Xia Zhiqing added in the preface of the Chinese translation that his negligence of Xiao Hong was a mistake, and later mentioned that "I believe Xiao Hong's book will become a classic for generations to read." Nevertheless, Xiao Hong missed the reading craze driven by rewriting the history of literature. In Lin Xianzhi's view, Xiao Hong once again became a victim of this literary trend of thought, just like being underestimated in the left-wing literary camp.
However, it is undeniable that since the 1990s, Xiao Hong's uniqueness in literature has attracted more and more people's attention and understanding, and those works with distinctive personality that were once considered out of date, such as Biography of Hulan River, have gradually been pushed to the position of modern literary classics. While Zhang Ailing became the first female writer in the Republic of China, the charm of Xiao Hong spread quietly in the relatively small and literary reading circle.
After the rise of the Republic of China fever, the complexity and fuzziness of Xiao Hong's emotional world and the lack of relevant historical materials triggered the "Xiao Hong fever" to some extent.
The emergence of "Xiao Hongre" is somewhat sudden.
20 1 1, Xiao Hong's centenary birthday, the convening of various academic conferences and the publication of papers and materials are all proper meanings in the title; In the same year, the film Xiao Hong, which was filmed in memory of Xiao Hong, was turned off. 20 13, this film was released on March 8. Although it is a standard "unpopular film", some publicity work was done before the release. One of the hot spots of publicity is the romantic love story of Xiao Hong, the "goddess of literature and art"-how she "ignited six men".
Around this time, "women in the Republic of China" became one of the reading fashions. Whether it's because of the word "green tea bitch"; Or the four sisters in Hefei who are regarded as the "last family"; Or the reading craze triggered by the publication of Zhang ailing's posthumous works; Driven by the popularity of the Republic of China, textbooks and the history of the Republic of China, the talents of women in the Republic of China have become the object of "gossip", and Xiao Hong's life is also full of such "talk about capital".
As a woman, Xiao Hong's complicated and ambiguous emotional world and the lack of relevant historical materials provide endless imagination for this round of Xiao Hong fever. The love relationship between Xiao Hong and Wang Enjia, Xiao Jun, Duanmu Hongliang and Luo in the Song Jia version of Xiao Hong is full of drama. The ambiguous expression of the relationship between Xiao Hong and Lu Xun in the film makes Xiao Hong's private life a hot spot of consumption.
In fact, there have always been doubts and speculations in Xiao Hong's speech and writing. As far as the relationship between Lu Xun and Xiao Hong is concerned, in the study of Xiao Hong before 1980, Lu Xun's guidance or spiritual inspiration to Xiao Hong's literary creation was emphasized, and their friendship was mostly defined as "teacher-student love". Since then, the interpretation of the relationship between the two is more complicated. Yu Jie claimed in the article that he suspected that the emotions of Lu Xun and Xiao Hong were beyond teachers and students, and "there were other spiritual and emotional influences"; Hong Ying also made a bold guess on the relationship between them in the literary way in his novella "The Woman Returning to the Native". The basis also comes from Xiao Hong's memories of Lu Xun and the "clues" in the memories of Xu Guangping and others.
It is also in this round of Xiao Hong fever that the voice of dissatisfaction and reprimand for Xiao Hong's private life is getting louder and louder. In "Red in the Republic of China", Zhang Yaojie directly summed up Xiao Hong with "extremely high IQ and extremely low EQ" and called it "life base"; Duanmu Cixiang claimed to have "peeled off Xiao Hong's onion" and thought that Xiao Hong "only had rebellious heart and indulgent desire, that is, body and mind without self-reliance and self-esteem"; Zhang Xiaodong, Jin Yi's daughter, told Southern Weekend that she admired Xiao Hong's writing style, but "as a woman and a mother, I despise her very much" because Xiao Hong gave up her children in despair.
I wonder how Xiao Hong will feel in the face of these moral condemnations from the younger generation and the same sex. However, in the early 1960s, her husband, Duanmu Hongliang, responded when he saw people belittling Xiao Hong's life and works: those who "thought themselves innocent" and "held their eyelids high" devoured the poor on the ground and the poor on earth with their teeth like swords.
The meaning of Duanmu is very clear. Xiao Hong's hardship and poverty have become the capital that those who think they are honest look down on her.
Xiao Hong's figure will be depicted forever.
Women, revolution, freedom, love, rebellion, escape, loneliness, warmth ... every word in Xiao Hong has its own meaning. Ge Haowen once said that it is difficult for us to judge Xiao Hong's position in China's literary world in the 20th century, but she left at least three or more masterpieces. Biography of Hulan River, March in a Small Town, Listing Street and Remembering Mr. Lu Xun ... With these, Xiao Hong's figure will be painted forever.
My favorite story about her is:
Lin Jinlan recalled that he decentralized his farm during the Cultural Revolution, and was sent to the orchard for vigil and chatting in the dark. When it comes to female writers in 1930s, Xiao Hong was the first one with literary talent. Some people think about it, including women writers. Luo shouted: where is the male writer? This momentum seems exciting. The answer is that the ranking of male writers has been decided, Lu and Ba Lao Cao. Luo held her breath in one breath and breathed in her throat.
I think that Luo's unwillingness is also the unwillingness of Xiao Hong's life.