Zhang Henshui

In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisZhang.

Zhang Henshui(Chinese:Trương hận thủy;Wade–Giles:Chang Hen-shui;May 18, 1895 – February 15, 1967) was the pen name ofZhang Xinyuan( trương tâm viễn ), a popular and prolific Chinesenovelist.He published more than 100 novels in his 50 years offictionwriting.

Zhang Henshui
Chinese:Trương hận thủy
Born	Zhang Xinyuan (1895-05-18)May 18, 1895 Nanchang,Jiangxi province,Great Qing
Died	(1967-02-15)February 15, 1967 Beijing,People's Republic of China
Occupation	Writer

Early life

On May 18, 1895, Zhang was born inNanchang,Jiangxi province,China. Zhang was educated until age 16 in Suzhou, China. At age 16, Zhang's father died. Zhang moved toQianshan,Anhui,his ancestral home.

Career

Keen in classical vernacular (baihua) literature since youth, he began composing in the vein ofzhanghui xiaoshuo( chương hồi tiểu thuyết ), novels written in vernacular style usingclassical Chinese poetryas chapter headings.

Zhang started his career as a member of a theatre troupe. Zhang joined the press in 1918 as an editor. Zhang became a journalist in Wuhan. In 1919, Zhang became a newspaper editor in Beijing, China.

Zhang took up novel-writing as a hobby. The first of his novels serialized wasA Pining Song for the Southern Country( nam quốc tương tư phổ,Nanguo xiangsi pu,1919). After departing forBeijingin 1919 to work as a newspaper editor, his first major long work,An Unofficial History of Beijing( xuân minh ngoại sử,Chunming Waishi,1929), was serialized between 1924 and 1929. It was a huge success and established him as the pre-eminent popular novelist of his generation. His masterpiecesA Family of Distinction( kim phấn thế gia,Jinfen shijia,1927–32) andFate in Tears and Laughter( đề tiếu nhân duyên,Tixiao Yinyuan,1930) were much more perspicaciously planned than his earlier books. At the height of his popularity he concurrently worked on six novels on serialization, in between his career as a press-man and editor.

The fourth of his major works,Eighty-One Dreams( bát thập nhất mộng,Bashiyi meng), was published in 1941. This work, perhaps the most representative of his 40-odd novels set during theWar of Resistance against Japan,usesparablesanddream sequencesto satirize the corrupt bureaucracy. Suffering astrokein 1949, Zhang temporarily lost the ability to walk, but continued to write.

It is estimated that throughout his life Zhang wrote a total of some 30 million Chinese characters in over 110 novels. His works emphasize realistic dialogue, often interposing people from different social strata and were thus hugely popular amongst the Chinese public from 1920s to 1940s.

Works

Translated works

• Fate in Tears and Laughter,trans. by Sally Borthwick
• Shanghai Express: A thirties novel,trans. by William A. Lyell (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997).

Personal life

On February 15, 1967, Zhang died of abrain hemorrhageas he was getting out of bed in Beijing, China.

Media adaptations

Some television series are based on works by Zhang.A Family of Distinctionhas been adapted at least twice, once during the 1980s, whenHong Kongtelevision broadcasterTelevision Broadcasts Limitedproduced the seriesYesterday’s Glitter,and during the 2000s, with the Mainland China television seriesThe Story of a Noble Family.

See also

• Literature of China

Additional sources

• Zhang Henshui and Popular Chinese Fiction, 1919-1949by Thomas Michael McClellan (Edwin Mellen Press,2005)

External sources

• Shanghai Express