Novel
The Song of Youth
青春之歌
Yang Mo · 1958
Synopsis
In the early 1930s, Lin Daojing, a schoolgirl of Beiping from a wealthy landowning family, refuses the arranged marriage intended for her and flees to Beidaihe, by the sea. On the point of taking her own life, she is saved by a student, Yu Yongze, with whom she falls in love. Back in Beiping as Japan invades Manchuria, she meets Lu Jiachuan, a resistance activist against Japan, who urges her to take part in revolutionary work, while Yu's selfishness gradually drives her away from him.
Context
The novel, partly autobiographical, runs from the Mukden Incident of 1931 to the student movement of 9 December 1935. It appeared in January 1958 from Zuojia publishers and at once aroused enthusiasm. In 1959, a reader, Guo Kai, criticised it in Zhongguo qingnian and Wenyi bao, and Mao Dun as well as He Qifang came to its defence. The author reworked several chapters for the second edition, published in March 1960; added chapters are also mentioned. The 1959 film adaptation had the author herself as screenwriter. The book has been translated into some twenty languages, including English by Nan Ying under the title The Song of Youth.
Who it is for
A long novel of political and sentimental apprenticeship; it can be read in English, no French version has been found.
Prizes and reception
More than five million copies according to the website of the Consultative Conference, and adaptations for the stage and the opera.
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