Paper Summary:

The paper examines "The True Story of Ah Q", which appeared in 1921 as a story attacking archaic ways of thinking in Chinese society. The paper describes how this book portrays the everyday sufferings of a typical Chinese vagrant and his daily battles to remain alive and to keep his self-respect. The paper explains that, when publishing the story, Lu Xun hoped that it would inspire people of conscience to want to do something towards alleviating poverty and promoting social reform.

Outline:
Introduction
The Story
Political Significance

From the Paper:

"Lu Xun or Lu Hsun was a pen name used by Zhou Shuren (1881-1936) when publishing different short stories that usually offered criticism of Chinese society. Lu Xun wanted a radical change in China that he saw had to remove old and often repressive social customs. His early life allowed him to see a good deal of what life was like for ordinary Chinese as he was born to poor parents yet had an educated mother to encourage his studies. Lu Xun studied at the Jiangnan Naval Academy, the School of Railways and Mines in Nanjing and then became a medical student at Sendai in Japan. He also became familiar with social reform movements in China which he supported and at the turn of the 20th century saw the need for a literary movement to convince more people of what had to leave Chinese culture if the country was to be more humane, let alone to modernize."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Benton, G. "Lu Xun, Leon Trotsky and the Chinese Trotskyists." East Asian History. 7. (1994): 93-104.
• Chisholm, L.W. "Lu Hsun and Revolution in Modern China." Yale French Studies. 39. (1967): 226-241.
• Lu Xun. (1921). "The True Story of Ah Q," in Selected Stories of Lu Hsun. Trans. Yang Xianyi. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1960.

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