“Never to Cease Fighting”, a portrait of Lu Xun by painter Tang Xiaoming, is on display at the National Art Museum of China. Photo from The China Project.
Ah Q-ism? Kong Yiji literature? What’s all this talk about the “iron house” and “eating people”? From Maoist appropriations to contemporary internet memes, allusions to Lu Xun’s work are ubiquitous in modern Chinese culture. The first half of this workshop provided a foundational introduction to Lu Xun and his legacy, situating his fiction in its critical historical context and familiarizing participants with some of his most influential characters and ideas. Participants were provided with discussion questions in advance and were invited to share their own questions and insights during the second half of the workshop.
This book club focused on four core texts from Call to Arms, a volume of collected short stories published in 1923: Lu Xun’s “Preface” (pp. 15-20); “Diary of a Madman” (pp 21-31); and “Kong Yiji” (pp. 32-36) and “Medicine” (pp. 37-45). Participants were expected to read these texts and preview the discussion questions on their own before the workshop.
Participants received a free copy of the book The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China: The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun (Penguin Classics) before the program.
Program details
Thursday, March 6, 2025; 4:00 – 6:00 PM (Pacific Time)
This program took place on Zoom.
Program benefits
- Free WA OSPI Clock Hours
- A free copy of the book The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China: The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun (Penguin Classics).
This program was sponsored by the East Asia Resource Center at the University of Washington and funded by a Freeman Foundation grant in support of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA).