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The earliest modern novels are short ones. During the "May 4th" Movement, realistic creations represented by Ye Shengtao and romantic creations represented by Yu Dafu were mostly short works. Lu Xun was very good at writing short and concise novels. The epoch-making work A Madman's Diary and later collections Call to Arms and Wandering featuring diversified methods and styles can be called the peak of modern short novels. Around the 1930s, more and more medium-length and long novels emerged, and Midnight by Mao Dun, The Family by Ba Jin, Rickshaw Boy by Lao She, Border Town by Shen Congwen, etc. pushed modern novels to a mature state. In the 1940s and 1950s, long novels developed constantly, and both new and old writers published successful works such as Cold Night by Ba Jin, Four Generations under One Roof by Lao She, Fortress Besieged by Qian Zhongshu, The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River by Ding Ling, The Hurricane by Zhou Libo, Red Crag, Red Sun, Keep the Red Flag Flying, Song of Youth, etc. In the "Cultural Revolution" period, the long novels Sunny and Golden Road created by Haoran became typical works of that period.
Lu Xun, with the original name of Zhou Shuren, was born in a declining scholar-bureaucrat's family. "Lu Xun" is the pen name used by him for the first vernacular novel A Madman s Diary published by him. In his youth, he studied in an old-style private school, took an imperial examination, and was well grounded in traditional culture. In 1898, he left home to pursue new learning in Nanjing and other places. From 1902 to 1909, he studied in Japan. In this period, he increasingly realized that it was more important to cure Chinese people's spiritual ills rather than their physical diseases, so he abandoned his medical career and selected literature as his path of saving Chinese people's spirit. Read more
Ba Jin (1904-2005), with the original name of Li Yaotang, was born in a big feudal family in Chengdu, Sichuan. In his literary career of more than 80 years, Ba Jin completed the "Torrents Trilogy" (The Family, Spring and Autumn), famous novels such as A Garden of Repose and Cold Night and prose works such as Travel Notes, Confessions of Living and Random Thoughts, and translated and introduced a lot of famous foreign works such as Fathers and Sons by Turgenev and The Happy Prince by Wilde. Read more
Lao She (1899-1966), with the original name of Shu Qingchun, was a native of Beijing and a Manchu. He extensively practiced many artistic and literary styles, and his long novels and stage plays were most influential. His.early works are long novels The Philosophy of Old Zhang, Zhao Zi Says and Ma and Son written during his teaching in Britain between 1924 and 1929 and revealing his unique artistic personality: he was good at depicting Beijing citizens' life humorously with broad vision. The period from his return to China in 1930 and the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan in 1937 is the second stage of Lao She's creation. During this period, he created long novels The Tale of Cat City, Divorce and Rickshaw Boy, medium-length novels The Life of Niu Tianci and This Life of Mine, short novel Crescent Moon, etc., sighed for the hardships of citizens at the bottom of the society, cried out against injustice, and built his unique Beijing citizens' society. After 1940s, Lao She's creation entered the stage of in-depth development. Representative works include long novels The Drum Singers, Cremation and Four Generations under One Roof etc. Read more
Shen Congwen (1902-1988), with the original name of Shen Yuehuan, was born in Fenghuang County, Hunan. In his youth, he went to the borders of Hunan, Guizhou and Sichuan to learn about the social life, folkways and customs of Miao, Han and Tujia peoples. This became the life basis of his later literary creations, and formed his unique "rural" perspective of observation. Eulogizing and manifesting human nature was the consistent aesthetic ideal in Shen Congwen's creation. He idealized the "world of west Hunan" he was familiar with, eulogized its natural and simple folkways and manifested its harmonious and primitive beauty of human nature to resist the ugly social reality. Read more
Eileen Chang (1921-1995), a native of Fengrun, Hebei born in Shanghai, became eminent and world-renowned almost overnight in Shanghai occupied by the enemy in 1940s. From 1943, her excellent works such as novel Aloeswood Ashes "The First Incense Brazier and the Second Incense Brazier," Jasmine Tea, Love in a Fallen City and The Golden Cangue emerged one after another. Later she published her novel collection Legends and her prose collection Floating Words. Read more