Author Description

Mu Shiying (1912-1940) was born in the town of Cixi, near Ningbo, in Zhejiang Province. He grew up in a world of rapid change, in which traditional ways of life existed alongside political and cultural movements that advocated reform and revolution. The ancient Chinese Empire had collapsed in 1911, and one year later the Republic of China was founded, a state that sought to modernize the country according to Western ideas. Mu Shiying's father was a banker and gold speculator who lost his fortune in the late 1920s and subsequently died of depression. In the early 1930s Mu Shiying moved to Shanghai, China's most Westernized and prosperous city. With a population of about 3 million and a large community of foreigners that lived in the International Settlement, Shanghai's lifestyle was modern and glamorous for those who could afford it, but miserable for the poor and indigent. Mu Shiying perfectly fitted into this world of contradictions. A dandy with permed hair, dressed in Western-style suits, he loved women and nightclubs. In his short stories and novels he depicted the life of the Chinese metropolis with its tall buildings, dance halls, streets full of cars, neon signs and shopping malls. His literary style has been described as modernist or neo-impressionist. His language is vague, full of blurred images and short, often repetitive sentences, which allowed him to portray a world that was fragmentary, a society in which traditional Chinese culture mingled with foreign jazz, cinema, economy, literature, philosophy and new concepts of love and romance. The themes of his works range from love to the emptiness of modern life, from the social injustices suffered by the weak and poor to the dissatisfaction with mainstream political views. Mu Shiying was a man who, like his own time, cannot be identified with one ideology. He is the voice of an uncertain generation in search of the new. During his short lifespan Mu had many political affiliations: as a young author he was