The Highs and Lows of the Reception to the Works of Lu Xun in Middle School Chinese Textbooks from the 1920s to 2017

Abstract

Lu Xun (1881-1936) is one of the most important Chinese twentieth century cultural figures who had addressed a number of social concerns in his works and attracted numerous readers both in China and abroad. He is such an iconic figure in China that he is easily identifiable by the following description of this Chinese saying: “His short hairs stood up like brushes. His thick moustache looked like a character “一” of the calligraphical style used in Han Dynasty...” The paper discusses how Lu Xun was so highly regarded in China in the context of the roles and functions of intellectuals in the country. But while outside China literature scholars and students generally see Lu Xun’s reputation in the Chinese literary canon as solidly established, in China, that did not seem to not have been the case historically. This apparent instability in his status in the Chinese canon is what this paper tries to investigate as may be gleaned from the controversies surrounding the alleged “retreat of Lu Xun in China.” In particular, this paper focuses on the changes in the representation of Lu Xun’s works in the Middle School and High School Chinese textbooks from the 1920s to 2017 owing to conflicting attitudes and ideas in Chinese history, society, and politics. Finally, it analyses the competing positions over the Yang Ke Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China