This monologue podcast is a lecture by David Der-wei Wang on modern Chinese literary culture. The lecture is structured around three key moments in 20th and 21st-century Chinese literature: the pre-May Fourth Movement period, the pre-1949 period, and the contemporary era. Each period is analyzed through the lens of specific figures and literary movements, exploring the interplay between literature and politics. For example, the lecture examines Lu Xun's concept of the "Mara spirit," a destructive yet transformative force in literature, and the impact of Mao Zedong's Yan'an Talks on the literary landscape. The lecture concludes by discussing the changing significance of the Nobel Prize in Chinese literature and the proliferation of literary awards in contemporary China. The overall effect is to provide a nuanced historical overview of the evolution of Chinese literary culture.
