The great romantic martyr of contemporary Chinese poetry, who killed himself at the age of 25 in 1989, Hai Zi is one of the most studied, recited, and well-known poets of the 20th century in China. Positioned alternately as the bard of the countryside or a "pure" poet, he is a figure believed to have been outside the hurly-burly of Chinese political life. Yet his unfinished epic work, The Seven Books of the Sun, which has little to no scholarship, problematizes that idea.
How does a low-life moron become one of the great tragic figures in modern Chinese culture? Lu Xun's 1921 novella The True Story of Ah Q, a masterpiece of the May 4th Movement, presents just such a situation. We discuss the story's unique narrative choices, and Lu Xun's varying reception in Taiwan and mainland China.