Shen Congwen

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Shen Congwen (Traditional Chinese: 沈從文; Simplified Chinese: 沈从文; Hanyu Pinyin: Shěn Cóngwén; Wade-Giles: Shen Ts'ung-wen) was the pen name of a Chinese writer from the May Fourth Movement. He was known for combining the vernacular style of writing with classical Chinese writing techniques, and his writing also reflects a strong influence from western literature. He was born as Shen Yuehuan on 1902 December 28 in Fenghuang County in Hunan Province. He died on 1988 May 10 in Beijing.

Shen was initially trained for a career in the military. As a soldier in the Chinese army, he observed border fighting and the lives of the Miao tribesmen, which would later become the subject matter of his early short fiction stories. He began writing fiction in 1922 and wrote almost continually until 1949. He taught Chinese literature at various universities during the Second Sino-Japanese War out of monetary necessity.

Originally an apolitical writer, he suffered a breakdown after the Communist Revolution in 1949 and the subsequent restrictions on writing. He recovered by 1955, but he never again published another work of fiction. He was given a staffing post at the Palace Museum at the Forbidden City in Beijing, about which he wrote a non-fiction work in 1957. Afterwards, he also published a famous study of Chinese costume and dress.

Ch'ang ho (“The Long River”), written during the Sino-Japanese War, is generally considered the best of his long fiction. Ch'un-teng chi (“Lamp of Spring”) and Hei-feng chi (“Black Phoenix”) are his most important collections of short stories.