Lu Xun Remembered as Global Literary Giant

Despite his death over 80 years ago, Lu Xun's literature and thought still receive great attention and his popularity appears unlikely to die out.

"His works do not merely belong to one nation, but are of global value, Feng Tie, a scholar of Chinese nationality now at Germany said at a recently held international academic symposium entitled The World of Lu Xun and the Lu Xun of the World.

Lu Xun, born in Shaoxing County of east China's Zhejiang Province on September 25, 1881 and died on October 9, 1936, was Chinas greatest thinker and man of the letter in the 20th century.

Lu wrote a number of literary classics including The True Story of Ah Q, A Madman's Diary, Kong Yiji and Medicine which exposed the ugly side of human nature and emancipated people's minds.

When he was still alive, his works stood out like a lighthouse providing a guiding light for perplexed Chinese youths who were passionate about China's future.

After he passed away, the Japanese found from his works the strength to rejuvenate their country, which was shattered during World War II.

In the early 20th century, Lu Xun was named a Nobel nominee, but he refused to accept the glory.

The country celebrated his 120th birthday this week.

Over the past decades, ten thousand of experts and scholars across the world have engaged in the studies, from almost every possible angle such as culture, psychology, arts, linguistics, the outlook of love and the attitude toward life, on the kernel of Lu Xuns works and thoughts.

In 1909, a brief article recording the literary works of Lu Xun and his brother, Zhou Jianren, written while they were in Japan, was published. Since then, the adoration of Lu Xun in the literary circle of the world has never slackened.

In China, studies of Lu Xun have flourished into a special academic field, which holds such a position that it can be paralleled to that of the Dream of the Red Mansion, which is one of the four classical literature masterpieces in China.

In Japan, dozens of societies and research institutes study the literary history of modern times starting with the study of Lu Xun. Many postgraduates working on either master degrees or doctorates in South Korea prefer to choose works of Lu Xun as their subjects for graduation dissertations.

"No other writers in China have been so involved in the development of Chinese history, literature and culture," said Agnes Smedley, a famous American journalist and author, in her book On Lu Xun.

According to Kitaoka Masako, initiator of the Ya Sou, Japan's largest research institute on Chinese literature in modern times, most contemporary foreign scholars gained their first insight on China through the works of Lu Xun.

"Without a thorough understanding of Lu Xun, it's impossible to know about China," said Masako.

Lu Xun's influence has spread fast as his works have been translated into various foreign languages like English, Russian, German, and Korean and distributed throughout the world.

To date, Lu Xun's works have been published in more than 30 countries in about 50 languages.

Yoko Kishi, a law professor at Waseda University in his senior years, said that he is still fascinated by Lu Xun's works and quotes his lines from time to time.

Many experts believe that Lu Xun's thoughts are still valuable in the 21st century, an era that is filled with material and money but lacks real wisdom.

"The works of Lu Xun and the spirit they carried have transcended every impediment on ideology and last far beyond his age," Maruyama Noboru, professor of Japanese Oumeirin University, said.

"The study of Lu Xun has drawn people together and broken through national boundaries," he said.