Xiao Hong

Xiao Hong, born Zhang Naiying on 1 June 1911 in Hulan, Heilongjiang, was a novelist, essayist, and poet active during China’s Republican era. Critics of the 1930s often called her the “Goddess of Literature,” and she is remembered as a major female voice in modern Chinese literature. Her work, marked by deep sympathy for society’s outcasts and a blend of tragedy with lyrical prose, includes celebrated novels like *Tales of Hulan River* and *The Field of Life and Death*. Her life was defined by constant movement, defiance of traditional gender roles, and turbulent love affairs; she died at age 30 in wartime Hong Kong.

She was born into a wealthy landlord family on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival. Her childhood name was Zhang Ronghua, and her formal school name was Zhang Xiuhuan. In 1916, her grandfather, Jiang Wenxuan, renamed her Zhang Naiying. Her mother, Jiang Yulan, died in 1919. She started school in 1920 at a girls’ class in Hulan County’s Type-B Agricultural School, later moving to Beiguan Primary and Secondary School in 1924, and then to Hulan County First Girls’ School in 1925. During the May Thirtieth Movement that year, she joined student demonstrations, fundraising, and speeches, and performed as a poor girl in a local charity play, *Proud Frost Branch*. After primary school in 1926, she wanted to attend middle school in Harbin, but her father, Zhang Tingju, and stepmother, Liang Yalan, fiercely opposed her. Following a family struggle, she entered the First Girls’ Middle School of the Special Administrative Region of the Eastern Provinces in 1927. On 9 November 1928, she took part in the anti-Japanese railway protection protests in Harbin (the “11-9 Movement”) as a volunteer propagandist.

In early 1929, her father arranged her engagement to Wang Enjia, a young man from a family in Harbin’s Guxiangtun. After her grandfather died in June 1929, she learned that Wang was vulgar and addicted to opium, so she wanted to break off the engagement. In November 1929, during the Sino-Soviet conflict, she took part in charity events for the war effort. In summer 1930, after graduating from middle school, she fled to Beiping (now Beijing) to escape the arranged marriage and enrolled in the high school attached to the Women’s Normal College of Beiping University. There, she lived with her married cousin, Lu Zhesun. Her family was furious and pressured Lu’s family, who cut off his money; by winter, Lu gave in to his family and left her stranded. In early 1931, she returned to Hulan, was briefly under house arrest, then reconciled with her family. She went back to Beiping in February, but Wang Enjia tracked her down. By April, her stepmother confined her in Acheng for six months. On 3 October, she escaped by train to Harbin. Homeless and broke, she briefly reconnected with Wang Enjia. In December, she moved into her cousin’s dormitory at the Second Girls’ Middle School. When she discovered she was pregnant, she abruptly left and moved into the Dongxing Shun Hotel with Wang Enjia.

After the Mukden Incident, Japanese forces occupied Harbin on 5 February 1932. In May, Wang Enjia left the hotel and was detained by his family. His brother, Wang Dacheng, tried to annul the engagement on Wang’s behalf. Xiao Hong sued Wang Dacheng for “divorcing his brother’s wife on his behalf,” but Wang Enjia testified for his brother, and she lost the case. By June, unable to pay her bills, she was held hostage by the hotel owner, who threatened to sell her to a brothel. On 9 July, she wrote a desperate letter to Pei Xinyuan, editor of the literary supplement of the *International Herald* in Harbin. Pei sent Xiao Jun (real name Liu Honglin) to investigate. The two felt an immediate intellectual and romantic bond. On 7 August, the Songhua River flooded Harbin. On 9 August, she escaped the hotel on a rescue boat. In late August, she gave birth to a daughter in a Harbin hospital and gave the child up for adoption. In September, she and Xiao Jun moved into the Europa Hotel, then to a small room on Shangshi Street. Encouraged by Xiao Jun, she began her literary career in early 1933, publishing her first prose piece, *Abandoned Child*. In October 1933, the couple self-published their first joint collection, *Bashe* (Trudging), which caught the attention of Manchukuo’s literary scene. The Manchukuo government banned the book in December for its “anti-Manchurian and anti-Japanese” tendencies.

In June 1934, Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun moved to Qingdao, living at No. 1 Guanxiang Yi Road. There, in September, she finished the manuscript of her novel *The Field of Life and Death* (originally titled *Wheat Field*). After their friend Shu Qun was arrested and the *Qingdao Morning Post* shut down, the couple left for Shanghai on 1 November 1934. In Shanghai, they settled in the French Concession. Xiao Hong wrote to the renowned writer Lu Xun, who responded warmly. On 30 November, the couple met Lu Xun and his family at a café near the Uchiyama Bookstore. With Lu Xun’s support, *The Field of Life and Death* was published in December 1935 as part of the “Slave Series.” Lu Xun praised her “meticulous observations and transgressive brushstrokes.” This publication made her famous and secured her place in modern Chinese literature.