Abstract

The critics of modern Chinese literature estimate that Xiao Hong and Lu Xun have the common feature. Both great writers investigate the radical and fundamental issue, "the history of human mind, the history of the social relationship" rather than the historical main discourse, the revolution and the resistance. When Xiao Hong made her debut on the literature stage in the 1930s, the situation of woman writers was different from that of the period of the May 4th movement. They had to live as a member of the people who struggled on the resistance to Japan and the revolution confronted with their country rather than as a woman of the liberated intellectual. Xiao Hong not only criticizes the main discourse of the history but also reveals the human nature, the contradiction and the complicated matters that exist in the marginal part of the history with the deeper and wider insight. She understands that the problems of nation, gender and social class have got complicated in the human mind. The theme of her novel is too multi-layered and complex, so that we do not approach it in the one single direction. The greatest spiritual pivot of the novel of Xiao Hong is the love of life and human beings. Moreover she describes the individual characters and their psychology prominently through her insight with gender perspective into marginal beings of history. This paper, based on the above point of view, examines the life of Xiao Hong and the characteristics of her works. Through this study, we expect to understand Xiao Hong's literature more profoundly and to evaluate its literary value.