Luo Binji Biography

As a modern writer, Luo Binji did not receive the respect what he deserved. In themodern literature history, only his reportage was mentioned, which was just his primitive andinattentive work. Among the "group of northeastern writers", his repute was not as good asXiao Jun or Duan Mu. However, this was just because of the insufficient knowledge of hisworks. The researchers of Luo Binji are quite few, and the attention to him in China is farless than that in Japan. It has been thirteen years since his death in 1994, but there is notreatise completely describing his life and works except Han Wenping's one biographyconcerning his life in 1982. My thesis aims to offer a factual basis for the future researchersin aspect of materials, and the writer focuses on the systematical research of his works andtries to find out his writing characteristics through the work analysis so as to probe into hisworks' due significance and status in literature history.Luo Binji, a modern writer, came from the northeast, which was occupied in The Eventof September 18th and he was a good writer even though he participated late. He joined theliterature during the anti-Japanese war period. At the very beginning, he got recognition inliterature by the reports which swiftly reflected the reality of the anti-Japanese war. As aresult, Luo Binji's creation had a lot with the fate of our country and nation, and also had alot with the process of Chinese history. His creation kept pace with the times, so there weredistinct brands of times in his works during different periods. Researching Luo Binji's lifeand creation process, we can feel the changes of the times clearly, and the projection of thosechanges in the souls of intellectuals, solders and the common people.From the prospective of all his life: Luo Binji was born in a border city with a specialgeographical location. The complicated national relationship made him get rid of the narrownation concept, and pay attention to the differences between classes instead. The drift careerand the background as an immigration offspring made both his works and his life full ofmuch nostalgia, which was mainly to the black soil in the northeast and the local people inJiao Dong. Drifting in Shanghai and joining the anti-Japanese war not only caused his worksto be filed with tempest, but also helped him build a close relation between literature andpolitics in concept and focus on the publicizing function of literature. In 1938, he joined theParty because of his excellent job in saving the country from extinction in the east ofZhejiang Province, while in 1940 he lost relation to it as a result of his pursuit of literaturecase. This big hit made him fall into the pang. During the period of drifting in Hong Kong,he accompanied Xiao Hong in the last 44 days of her life in the whomp of guns in the Pacificwar. Xiao Hong's deep understanding and persistent pursuit of literature art provoked histhinking of life, widened his way of thinking in his creation and enabled him to have a bigleap in quality. From 1942 to 1944, Luo Binji was in a deep lonely mood among thedepressing political atmosphere. But this lonely feeling helped him focus on theself-examination and animadvert on human nature, and he saw the social irrationalitythrough the weakness of human nature. In this way, he achieved the animadvert on the socialreality. In this lonely feeling, Luo Binji also recalled his childhood, cast back the life origin,and at last he got the self-recognition through the sweet memory. He was captured twice andhad the experience in imprison—these persecution in Cultural Revolution could never harmhis persistent belief and his glary character. During the life process, Luo Binji was anovermatch, a persistent "fighter".From the prospective of his creation: in the 1930s, he entered the Warfield and at thesame time he joined literary circles, so in his works, there were full of the contrast betweenblood and fire, life and death, bravery and coward, revolution and retroaction, elevation andlowliness, all with a bright color, broken language created a tense, furious war atmosphere.The value of the early reportage which was recognized and praised, like One day inShanghai and Special Detachment in the eastern Warfield, was not in their artistic value butin their publicizing function. In the 1940s, the author gradually calmed down from theexcited mood of joining the war directly. He transferred from the Warfield to the daily life inthe rear area, the superficial things to people's heart;the medieval novel Wu Feiyou was thework during his turning period. Thereafter, he began to research on the souls of people, tolook for the meaning of life, and to pursue the will for nation survival. The works like Themeaning of life, loneliness, Spring in Beiwang Yuan, He Dajie's messuage, Fellowcountyman—Kang Tiangang and The old maid, were all the reflection of Luo Binji's thinkingtowards the real gray life. In order to further probe into the origin of gray life, in the works ofThe Event of 1944 and The statement of an honest person , Luo Binji extended the criticize tothe dark society. Facing the dark reality, Because of love showed the history bounded tooppose. Luo Binji's short stories during the 1940s generally reflected his creation thinkingand style, and they were his best works.Of course, his creation direction was not single. As a drift writer, his works had thethought and attaching to his hometown;as an antiwar writer, he had the sense ofresponsibility to the country and the nation;as a progressing proletariat writer, he focused onthe publicizing function of literature;as an intellectual, he showed his thinking towards lifeand attention to souls, and he also owned the traditional enlightenment during The May 4thMovement as other intellectuals.Special life experience formed his special creation characteristics. His vivid descriptionof the mental thinking of all kinds of people during the anti-Japanese war made a new pagein the anti-Japanese war literature history. He was a very special writer in the modernliterature history in China.