''Spring Silkworms'' (''Chun Can'') is a

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 ...

by the Chinese author

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 Minist ...

about the experience of Chinese villagers engaging in

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 studie ...

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 important factor in the worldview of the Chinese Communist Party—and hence of the Chinese government after the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

Comparative Perspective

''Spring Silkworms'' bears comparison with other works of modern literature, particularly literature dealing with the lives of people living on China's economic margins.

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) ...

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 ...

describes the lives of Chinese peasants, and their economically precarious condition, during the period roughly contemporary with the story related in ''Spring Silkworms''.

English translations

Foreign Languages Press (Beijing) published an English translation by Sidney Shapiro in 1956, which includes the rest of the trilogy and other stories.

Other Adaptations and Related Works

The work was adapted into a

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

in 1933 by director

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) ...

. It is a masterpiece of cinema starring

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' ...

, the first female screenwriter who starred in this film.

Notes

1956 novels Chinese novellas Chinese novels adapted into films {{1950s-novel-stub