The1940s South China Literature

Art of life issue is a major literary periodical (1941.9to1950.7) which was edited by Sima Wensen and published and distributed in South China (Guilin, Guangzhou, Hong Kong). It footed in South China, facing all areas of China. Its tortuous journey of life thought out the1940s companying continuous wars. We can find its strong footprint anywhere along the main line of the1940s South China literary map. As a literary journals walking in southern China in the1940s, Art of Llife itself and the literary hosted on the journals was a characterization of the times to some extent, because it had characteristics of times and regional obviously. In the sense the article is trying to "Glimpse" South China Literature in the1940s, regarding Art of Llife as the cases.This article includes four parts:introduction, body, epilogue and the Schedules. In the introduction section we comb the researches about literary journals in the1940s, pointing out that the existing studies on1940s literary journals can only reflect part of the1940s, and do not reflect the whole characteristics of the1940s——most of the studies on1940s literary journals is about the Anti-Japanese War. Being at war environment, the1940s literature shows localization and flowing characteristics. It is helpful to make the1940s literary studies abundant that we study the literature of a certain region through a mobile publication. Due to its existence of walking South China throughout the1940s and the rich material, Art of Life has the feasibility to study southern literature in the1940s as a case. The introduction section also contains the carding of the studies on Art of Life, as well as the goals, ideas and significance of this study.The body part is constituted by the four chapters. The first chapter describes the overview of the Art of Life. It stresses on the initial, the process and the end of Sima Wensen establishing the Art of Life, as well as the unique editorial policies taken by Sima Wensen during in Hong Kong. Our intend is to outline the tortuous journey of Art of Life, and the decisive role that its publications editor played in the course. Chapter Ⅱ compares the versions of Art of Life and points out that it has the South China direction. In this section, we also introduce the general situation of the cultural center the1940s including Guilin, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, compare each edition of Art of Life in order to highlight its distinctive times, and analyze the clarity South China direction from both subjective and objective. The third and fourth chapters are the focus of this article. Chapter III analyzes the literary texts of Art of Life, including to show the life and soul experience of intellectual during the wartime s in the Nationalist Party State areas who was between despair and hope, to expose and satire the various disease social phenomena during the wartime in the Nationalist Party State areas, to write the fate of the crowded who were squeezed by the war and had little power to deal with the life and the society, to concern the growth proposition about the female who had knowledge during the wartime and to analyze the new China habitude and the southern colors of the postwar Hong Kong Literature as well. Chapter IV analyzes the texts on the theory of Art of Life thoroughly, focusing on the post-war, namely the late1940s. From the specific point of view, it is including three theoretical issues:People’s Literary Thought extolled and criticized in southern, postwar thought reform movement of the petty-bourgeois intellectuals in Hong Kong and the limited legitimacy of South China dialect literature movement.The epilogue points out the two direction that the study of modern literary journals should contain:Firstly, we should try to peruse literary texts and theoretical texts of the publications, aiming at rendering the changing look of the era literature and the spirit psychology of the era crowd; Secondly,we also should try to analyze the other texts of the publications (such as first issue, resuming publication words, after words, literary news, books introductions, etc.) as well as a number of things around the publication, intending to grasp the cultural and ecological environment of the times of the publication. The latter exists as a way of rendering the former. Just holding these two points we made the article be a text. The epilogue also makes a general description to the the1940s’South China literature:as one of the important components of the regional literature of the1940s,1940s’South China literature not only follows the trend of historical changes but also exhibits its own unique local color in the complex historical period in the1940s. The postwar Hong Kong’s special status makes its postwar literary creation and contestation have the localization factors of South China, at the same time, it becomes a preview of the new Chinese literature in the1950s. Because of this, the1940s South China literature is more nearly from the contemporary literature than other region’s (except Yan’an area).Schedules part sorts out the articles on the Art of Life, the leading authors, publication funds and the publication and distribution, a total of4categories and10forms contained.