Xu Xu 徐訏 (1908-1980) was one of the most widely read Chinese authors of the twentieth century. Starting his career in pre-war Shanghai, Xu Xu became the most celebrated writer of the war years before ending up as an exile in Hong Kong in 1950. This talk explores the ways in which Xu Xu’s fiction responded in highly unusual ways to the revolutionary struggles of pre-war Shanghai, the war against Japan, and finally the experience of Chinese exiles in post-war Hong Kong. In addition, it examines the degree to which Xu Xu’s fiction exemplifies an affinity with European romanticism that links his work to a global literary modernity.

The Speaker

Frederik H. Green is associate professor of Chinese at San Francisco State University. He has published widely on the literature and culture of the Qing dynasty and the Republican period, Sino-Japanese cultural relations, post-socialist Chinese cinema, and contemporary Chinese art. He holds a BA in Chinese Studies from Cambridge University and an MPhil and PhD in Chinese literature from Yale University.

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