A Fine Pen

‘Because hers is pure literature, its brilliance not shown, it is hidden deep within. It required careful perusal to reach the essence.’ – Xu Zhimo (1923)

‘With remorseless irony she lays bare the hypocrisy and shallowness of the leisured class and their men of letters …’ – Tang Baoxin (1982)

For almost 80 years, Katherine Mansfield’s stories and poems have been popular with Chinese readers and she has had a significant influence on a number of short-story writers. In this book Shifen Gong selects and introduces twenty texts about Mansfield and her work, translated into English for the first time. Together they bring fresh insights to the largely Eurocentric criticism of Mansfield’s work, and at the same time provide a commentary on Chinese literary history. The story of the rises and falls in Mansfield’s popularity is fascinating, as it shifts with the major social, political and literary trends which have been given rise to modern China and its literature.

‘… fresh and enlightening’ – Dennis McEldowney, NZ Listener