The Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies school (鴛鴦蝴蝶派) was a popular genre of Chinese fiction in the first half of the 20th century, especially in the 1920s.

Mandarin ducks The mandarin duck (''Aix galericulata'') is a perching duck species native to the East Palearctic. It is medium-sized, at long with a wingspan. It is closely related to the North American wood duck, the only other member of the genus ''Aix'' ...

(which are frequently seen in pairs) and butterflies (from ''

Butterfly Lovers The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend of a tragic love story of a pair of lovers, Liang Shanbo () and Zhu Yingtai (), whose names form the title of the story. The title is often abbreviated to Liang Zhu (). The story was selected as one o ...

'') are traditional symbols of romantic love, but the genre encompassed more than romance stories: scandals and "high crimes" were also favorite subjects. Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies stories were disparaged by progressive writers of the

May Fourth school The New Culture Movement () was a movement in China in the 1910s and 1920s that criticized classical Chinese ideas and promoted a new Chinese culture based upon progressive, modern and western ideals like democracy and science. Arising out of ...

for being essentially escapist and showing no social responsibility. The genre gradually fell out of favor following Japanese invasions in the 1930s.

Zhang Henshui Zhang Henshui (; May 18, 1895 – February 15, 1967) was the pen name of Zhang Xinyuan (张心远), a popular and prolific Chinese novelist. He published more than 100 novels in his 50 years of fiction writing. Early life On May 18, 1895, Zha ...

's 1930 novel ''

Fate in Tears and Laughter ''Fate in Tears and Laughter'' () is a 1930 Chinese novel by Zhang Henshui, set in 1920s Beiping (modern Beijing). A few chapters (Chapters 1, 2, 18, 19) were translated into English by Sally Borthwick for the anthology ''Chinese Middlebrow Fiction ...

'' is a representative work of this school. Su Manshu 's 'The Lone Swan' is another representative work for this genre.

See also

Further reading