Synopses & Reviews
An anarchist by temperament, the beautiful and talented Ding Ling attempted to find her way in the world alone. She had a few female friends and a few significant male others, but she rebelled against her family. Most importantly, she rebelled against the Chinese Communist Party to which she desperately hoped to belong. The first part of a comprehensive biography of the major 20th century Chinese author, Ding Ling, this work draws not only on her memoirs, but on numerous secondary sources, many of which have become available only in the last two decades.
Though born into a wealthy family, Jiang Bingzi was raised by her mother after the untimely death of her father. She went to school in the May 4 era, when protest was in the air, the radical ideas of Mao were already in print, and her idol, Lu Xun, was making his literary mark. In her late teens she renounced her engagement, changed her name, and fled to Shanghai where she embraced the anarchist movement. The loss of her brother and lifelong friend, Wang Jianhong, and the loss of her significant other, Hu Yepin, all threw her into various states of depression, not to mention her own abduction by the Guomindang.
Nevertheless, Ding Ling wrote her way out of despair and into the public limelight. Her first collection of short stories, In the Darkness, made her famous because of its profound grasp of feminine psychology and its daring treatment of human sexuality. But when Ding Ling attempted to dispel the darkness in Yan'an, she, like everyone else, was told by Mao in his famous TalkS≪/i> to focus on the light. Ding Ling made all the necessary adjustments, literary and political. She survived the rectification campaign and mastered proletarian fiction. Mao loved her novel The Sun Shines on the Sanggan so much that he ranked her third among contemporaries. Soon, she was traveling to Eastern Europe and to Moscow where she consulted with Soviet notables. With the founding of the People's Republic, it appeared her star was on the rise. This study of Ding Ling and China's literary environment in the first half of the 20th century will be useful to scholars and students of contemporary Chinese history, literature, and women's studies.
Review
...offers an engrossing literary history of Ding Ling (1904-86, pseudonym of Jiang Wei, more often known as Jiang Bingzhi), from her childhood to the climactic mid-century point, when her novel in praise of Maoist land reform, The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River (1949; Eng. tr., 1984), received a Stalin Prize....this book makes a significant contribution to modern Chinese literary history and its socio-political backdrop. All academic collections.Choice
Review
Charles J. Alber has written a splendid study of Ding Ling, China's most prominent female writer of the revolutionary era. Beginning with an enticing Preface about how he came to the topic, Alber's book is exhaustively researched, measured in judgment, and well written. He has unearthed some fascinating incidents and quotes, and he gives a clear-eyed picture of the complex and far from angelic Ding Ling. Everyone interested in the Chinese Communist movement, its cultural policies, and its tragic evolution from liberation to repression will find Embracing the Revolution rewarding reading.Ross Terrill author Mao, China in Our Time, and Madame Mao
Synopsis
An anarchist by temperament, the beautiful and talented Ding Ling attempted to find her way in the world alone. She had a few female friends and a few significant male others, but she rebelled against her family. Most importantly, she rebelled against the Chinese Communist Party to which she desperately hoped to belong. The first part of a comprehensive biography of the major 20th century Chinese author, Ding Ling, this work draws not only on her memoirs, but on numerous secondary sources, many of which have become available only in the last two decades.
Synopsis
Looks at Ding Ling's life and work prior to the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Table of Contents
Preface
Clan and Kin
Mother, Daughter and Son
May 4 Movement
Freedom, Golden Word!
Pin, My Love
The Movie Star
Miss Sophie
The Red and Black
The Big Dipper
Kidnapped!
Bastion of Peace
The Front Service Corps
The New Democracy
Scenes from Northern Shaanxi
On the Sanggan River
Travels to Europe
Selected Bibliography
Index