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Spring Silkworms
''Spring Silkworms'' (''Chun Can'') is a novella by the Chinese author Mao Dun about the experience of Chinese villagers engaging in sericulture. History Mao Dun dates the story November 1, 1932. It is part of a trilogy, together with ''Autumn Harvest'' and ''Winter Ruin''. Subject Matter and Themes The major subject matter of ''Spring Silkworms'' is the difficulty villagers encounter in attempting to profit from their participation in the silk business. The story concludes, "Because they raised a crop of spring silkworms, the people in Old Tung Pao's village got deeper into debt." A major theme of the story is the complexity the villagers face in dealing with inputs to the process (such as eggs, mulberry leaves, and equipment) and the loans they must take out to finance their activities. Complexity is added by the intrusion of foreign-owned silk processing plants ("filatures"). Historical significance ''Spring Silkworms'' deals with economic issues that came to be an import ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts. Definition The Italian term is a feminine of ''novello'', which means ''new'', similarly to the English word ''news''. Merriam-Webster defines a novella as "a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel". No official definition exists regarding the number of pages or words necessary for a story to be considered a novella, a short story or a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association defines a novella's word count to be between 17,500 and 40,000 words. History The novella as a literary genre began developing in the Italian literature of the early Renaissance, principally Giovanni Boccaccio, author of ''The Decameron'' (1353). ''The Decameron'' featured 100 tales (named nov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mao Dun
Shen Dehong (Shen Yanbing; 4 July 1896 – 27 March 1981), known by the pen name of Mao Dun, was a Chinese essayist, journalist, novelist, and playwright. Mao Dun, as a 20th-century Chinese novelist, literary and cultural critic, and Minister of Culture (1949–65), was one of the most celebrated left-wing realist novelists of modern China. His most famous work is ''Midnight'' (子夜), a novel depicting life in cosmopolitan Shanghai. It is also considered to be the work with the greatest influence on his future writing. Furthermore, during the period in which he was writing ''Midnight'', Mao Dun formed a strong friendship with another of China's most famous writers, Lu Xun. Mao Dun also worked in genres other than novels, such as essays, script-writing, 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 in 1913. Additionally, although he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sericulture
Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, ''Bombyx mori'' (the caterpillar of the domestic silkmoth) is the most widely used and intensively studied silkworm. Silk was believed to have first been produced in China as early as the Neolithic Period. Sericulture has become an important cottage industry in countries such as Brazil, China, France, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Russia. Today, China and India are the two main producers, with more than 60% of the world's annual production. History According to Confucian text, the discovery of silk production dates to about 2700 BC, although archaeological records point to silk cultivation as early as the Yangshao period (5000–3000 BC). In 1977, a piece of ceramic created 5400–5500 years ago and designed to look like a silkworm was discovered in Nancun, Hebei, providing the earliest known evidence of sericulture. Also, by careful a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Good Earth
''The Good Earth'' is a historical fiction novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in her ''House of Earth'' trilogy, continued in ''Sons'' (1932) and '' A House Divided'' (1935). It was the best-selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1932, and was influential in Buck's winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. Buck, who grew up in China as the daughter of American missionaries, wrote the book while living in China and drew on her first-hand observation of Chinese village life. The realistic and sympathetic depiction of the farmer Wang Lung and his wife O-Lan helped prepare Americans of the 1930s to consider Chinese as allies in the coming war with Japan. The novel was included in ''Life'' Magazine's list of the 100 outstanding books of 1924–1944. In 2004, the book returned to the bestseller list when chosen by the te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pearl Buck
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China" and for her "masterpieces", two memoir-biographies of her missionary parents. She was the first American woman to win that prize. Buck was born in West Virginia, but in October 1892, her parents took their 4-month-old baby to China. As the daughter of missionaries and later as a missionary herself, Buck spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, with her parents, and in Nanjing, with her first husband. She and her parents spent their summers in a villa in Kuling, Mountain Lu, Jiujiang, and it was during this annual pilgrimage that the young girl decided to become a writer. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spring Silkworms (film)
''Spring Silkworms'' () is a 1933 silent film from China. It was directed by Cheng Bugao and was adapted by Cai Chusheng and Xia Yan from the novella of the same name by Chinese author Mao Dun. The film stars Xiao Ying, Yan Yuexian, Gong Jianong, Gao Qianping and Ai Xia and was produced by the Mingxing Film Company. Today the film is considered one of the earliest films of the leftist movement in 1930s Shanghai. Plot The film tells the story of a family of poor silk farmers in Zhejiang province, who suffer hardship and deprivation when their crop of silkworm cocoons die off. The film criticizes not only the harsh market conditions that have forced the family into poverty, but the family's own superstitions and selfishness. Old Tong Bao is the patriarch of a silkworm-rearing family in Zhejiang. He refuses to buy foreign breeds of silkworms for his coming crop. The market conditions are harsh and despite the efforts his family put in rearing the silkworms, the ensuing co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheng Bugao
Cheng Bugao (1898–20 June 1966) () was a prominent Chinese film director during the 1930s. Employed by the Mingxing Film Company, Cheng was responsible for several important "leftist" films in the period, including the ''Wild Torrents'' (1933) and '' Spring Silkworms'' (1933). Both films were based on screenplays by Xia Yan.Pang Laikwan (2002). Chinese National Cinema'. Routledge, p. 67-68. . After the Second Sino-Japanese War, Cheng moved to Hong Kong, where he made films of a purposefully apolitical nature. Partial directorial filmography See also *Mingxing Film Company Mingxing Film Company (), also known as the Star Motion Picture Company, was one of the largest production companies during the 1920s, and 1930s in the Republican era. Founded in Shanghai, the company lasted from 1922 until 1937 when it was close ... References External links *Cheng Bugaoat the Chinese Movie Database Film directors from Zhejiang Hong Kong film directors 1898 births 1966 deaths ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ai Xia
Ai Xia (; 29 November 1912 – 15 February 1934) was a Chinese left-wing silent film actress and screenwriter. She committed suicide in 1934, the first Chinese actor to have done so. Her suicide inspired Cai Chusheng's classic film ''New Women'' starring Ruan Lingyu, who also killed herself soon after the release of the film. Life and career Ai Xia was born Yan Yinan () on November 29, 1912 in Tianjin to a large middle-class family. She attended university. After graduating, she fell in love with her cousin and had a child. Her family disapproved of the relationship, resulting in her lover leaving. In 1928, she was in an arranged marriage but, as a personal protest, left home for Shanghai to pursue a career in film. Ai Xia started her career as a stage actor with the South China Theater Society (''Nanguo jushe''), founded by Tian Han, before joining the Leftists Dramatists League (''Zuoyi juzuojia lianmeng''). She was introduced to Mingxing (Star) Film Company in 1932. She wro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1956 Novels
Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are killed for trespassing by the Huaorani people of Ecuador, shortly after making contact with them. * January 16 – Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser vows to reconquer Palestine (region), Palestine. * January 25–January 26, 26 – Finnish troops reoccupy Porkkala, after Soviet Union, Soviet troops vacate its military base. Civilians can return February 4. * January 26 – The 1956 Winter Olympics open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. February * February 11 – British Espionage, spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean (spy), Donald Maclean resurface in the Soviet Union, after being missing for 5 years. * February 14–February 25, 25 – The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is held in Mosc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Novellas
Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of various ethnicities in contemporary China ** Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in the world and the majority ethnic group in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Singapore ** Ethnic minorities in China, people of non-Han Chinese ethnicities in modern China ** Ethnic groups in Chinese history, people of various ethnicities in historical China ** Nationals of the People's Republic of China ** Nationals of the Republic of China ** Overseas Chinese, Chinese people residing outside the territories of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan * Sinitic languages, the major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family ** Chinese language, a group of related languages spoken predominantly in China, sharing a written script (Chinese c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
