Xiao Hong (Hsiao Hung) 蕭紅 [real name Zhang Naiying 張迺瑩] 1911-1942
Born in Heilongjiang province, began writing in Harbin in 1932. In 1933 she published a collection of stories and essays together with her then lover Xiao Jun 蕭軍 (1907–1988). The two fled to Shanghai a year later, where Xiao Hong’s first novel Shengsi chang 生死場 [The field of life and death] was published in 1935 with a preface by Lu Xun 魯迅 (1881–1936), marking her rise to eminence on the literary scene. Known as a successful novel-writer, Xiao Hong also authored a considerable number of short stories, essays, poems, and more. Her writing features a unique evocative style, masterful recreations of harsh realities of village life in north-east China, and accent on the plight of women typical of the period during which she lived and wrote.
Works available in English:
Market Street: A Chinese Woman in Harbin (Howard Goldblatt). Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 1986.
Selected Stories of Xiao Hong (Howard Goldblatt). Beijing: Chinese Literature,
1982.
Tales of Hulan River (Howard Goldblatt). Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co.,
1988.
The Field of Life and Death and Tales of Hulan River: Two Novels (Howard
Goldblatt and Ellen Yeung). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979.
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