Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t7: Mao Dun
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t7
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Mao Dun
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Mao Dun 茅盾 (pen name of Shen Yanbing 沈雁冰, July 04, 1896 – March 27, 1981) was an outstanding Chinese writer, translator, literary critic and social activist. He is considered to be one of Republican China's greatest realist writers. In India, his works are included in the syllabus of courses on Chinese Literature and History of Chinese Literature, and taught in university departments and centres of Chinese language, literature and culture. He translated into Chinese the short story *Skeleton* (*Kankal*) by Rabindranath Tagore.
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Mao Dun was born in an elite family in the town of Tongxiang in Zhejiang Province, and received a good education in his early years. But his college education was brought to an abrupt end because of their poverty-stricken situation. Therefore, he began to make a living by joining Shanghai Commercial Press in 1916. From the time of the May Fourth Movement, he played a leading role in China's literary circles. He served as Chief Editor of *The Short Story Magazine* (《小说月报》), and established *The Society for Literary Studies* (《文学研究会》) and *Translation Magazine* (《译文》). After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, he was appointed Culture Secretary. A literary career
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Mao Dun
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*‘Midnight (Ziye)’, front cover*
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spanning over half a century created in him a mature man of letters who shouldered responsibilities of high office and displayed great patriotism. After his death in 1981, the Mao Dun Literature Award was set up with Mao Dun's own savings to reward excellence in novel-writing in China.
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His major works include the novels *Three people walking* (《三人行》), *The Shop of the Lin Family* (《林家铺子》), *Spring Silkworms* (《春蚕》), *Autumn Harvest'* (《秋收》), *Rainbow* (《虹》), *Midnight* (《子夜》). His literature of realism focussed especially on the factors that influenced him most in the course of his life: Foreign authors and ideologies, Chinese tradition and politics, class struggle and the emergence of feminism in China.
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In his lifetime, Mao Dun also translated more than 240 pieces of literary works involving over 150 writers from 30 countries, covering diverse literary subjects and literary genres such as science fiction, drama, poetry, prose, social criticism and literary theory. Apart from the hugely successful translation ventures that he undertook, he put forward a number of insightful ideas on translation theory and practice, including theories of "artistic and creative translation" and "systemic translation" which had a great impact on the development of translation practice in China during the first half of the 20th century.
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Through his work Mao Dun greatly influenced the development of China's New Literature Movement in the early 20th century. Simultaneously, he made a great contribution to the development of scientific, revolutionary and democratic thought in China.
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*(Sabaree Mitra)*