Mu Shiying (simplified Chinese: 穆时英; traditional Chinese: 穆時英; pinyin: Mù Shíyīng; Wade–Giles: Mu Shihying) (March 14, 1912 – June 28, 1940)[1] was a Chinese writer who is now best known for his modernist short stories. He was active in Shanghai in the 1930s where he contributed to journals like Les Contemporains (Xiàndài 現代, 1932 - 1935), edited by Shi Zhecun.
He was born in Cixi, Ningbo, Zhejiang and studied Chinese literature at Shanghai Guanghua University (上海光華大學). In 1930, he submitted a short story, "Our World" (Zánmen de shìjiè 咱們的世界) to La Nouvelle Littérature (Xīn wényì 新文藝, 1929 – 1930), a journal which was edited by Shi Zhecun, Liu Na’ou 劉吶鷗, Dai Wangshu, and Xu Xiacun 徐霞村. The work was praised by the editors and Mu Shiying became a protégé of Shi Zhecun.
Mu Shiying moved to Hong Kong in 1938 after the Japanese occupation, but he returned to Shanghai at the invitation of Liu Na'ou who was working with the Japanese. Mu Shiying was seen as a Japanese collaborator and was assassinated by a Nationalist assassin in 1940. However according to Prof David Der-Wang of Harvard University, Mu's family later came forward with evidence of his underground Marxist work, and his role as a Nationalist double-agent.
Mu Shiying had a dandyish image which was reinforced by his writings - often set in the dance halls of Shanghai. His most famous short stories are highly modernist pieces that attempt to convey the fragmented and inhuman nature of modern life in the metropolis. They experiment with expressionistic narrative techniques that break with a standard textual flow by juxtaposing disconnected visual images. His most famous short story, "Five in a Nightclub" (Yezonghui li de wu ge ren 夜總會裏的五個人) is a tableau of the miseries faced by modern urban residents, as five individuals converge on a nightclub, each with their own problems.