Mao Dun

Mao Dun
茅盾
Minister of Culture of the PRC
In office
21 October 1949 – January 1965
PremierZhou Enlai
Succeeded byLu Dingyi
Chairman of the China Writers Association
In office
23 July 1949 – 27 March 1981
Succeeded byBa Jin
Personal details
Born(1896-07-04)4 July 1896
Tongxiang, Jiaxing, Zhejiang, Qing Empire
Died27 March 1981(1981-03-27) (aged 84)
Beijing, China
SpouseKong Dezhi (孔德沚)
RelationsShen Zemin (brother)
Alma materBeijing University
Mao Dun
Chinese茅盾
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinMáo Dùn
Wade–GilesMao Tun
Shen Dehong
Traditional Chinese沈德鴻
Simplified Chinese沈德鸿
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinShěn Déhóng
Wade–GilesShen Te-hung
Shen Yanbing
Chinese沈雁冰
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinShěn Yànbīng
Wade–GilesShen Yen-ping
Mao Dun Memorial at his home town Wuzhen
The primary school Lizhi College where Mao Dun studied in Wuzhen

Shen Dehong (Shen Yanbing; 4 July 1896[1] – 27 March 1981), best known by the pen name of Mao Dun, was a Chinese novelist, essayist, journalist, playwright, literary and cultural critic. He was highly celebrated for his realist novels, including Midnight, which depicts life in cosmopolitan Shanghai.[2][3] Mao was one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party and participated in a number of left-wing cultural movements during the 1920s and 1930s. He was the editor-in-chief of Fiction Monthly and helped lead the League of Left-Wing Writers. He formed a strong friendship with fellow left-wing Chinese author Lu Xun.[4] From 1949 to 1965, Mao served as the first Minister of Culture in the People's Republic of China.[2]

In addition to novels, Mao Dun published a number of essays, scripts, theories, short stories, and novellas. He was well known for translating Western literature, as he had gained academic knowledge of European literature from his studies at Peking University. Additionally, although he was not the first person in China to translate the works of Scottish historical novelist Walter Scott, he is considered to be the first person to popularize Walter Scott's work in China through his "Critical Biography".[2]

He adopted the pen name "Mao Dun" (Chinese: 矛盾) to express the tension in the conflicting revolutionary ideology within China in the 1920s. The name means "contradiction", as Mao means spears and Dun means shields. His friend Ye Shengtao changed the first character from to , which literally means "thatch".

  1. ^ McDougall, Bonnie S. (December 1998). "Disappearing women and disappearing men in may fourth narrative: a post‐feminist survey of short stories by Mao Dun, Bing Xin, Ling Shuhua and Shen Congwen". Asian Studies Review. 22 (4): 427–458. doi:10.1080/10357829808713209. ISSN 1035-7823.
  2. ^ a b c Chiu, Kang-Yen (2020). "Walter Scott's First Chinese Critic – Mao Dun". Scottish Literary Review. 12: 19–34 – via Project Muse.
  3. ^ Chen, Yu-shinh (1989). "Report on the Biannual Scholarly Conference on Mao Dun Studies held at Xiamen University, The People's Republic of China, November 21-27, 1988". Modern Chinese Literature. 5 (2): 357–361 – via JSTOR.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).