Zhou Teana Literary Creation

In the history of modern Chinese literature, Zhou Tianlai is a re-discoveredShanghai-school writer. In his early years, he contributed to the literary world bywriting several works for children, which were well received by readers. In the1930sand1940s, he turned to popular literature and wrote serialized novels for tabloids andjournals. After he moved to Hong Kong and later to Taiwan, he was less productive;however, three of his essays written in this period are still worth reading. Because ofthe lack of literature documents, Zhou’s overall literature has not been known so far.Based on first-hand documents while combining the methods of cultural studiesand media studies, this article sorts out for the first time the whole literature of ZhouTianlai, studies the context of literary history as well as the impact of the times, andexplores Zhou’s unique writing style and literary achievements.Chapter One divides Zhou’s literary career into three stages: children literature(1924-1938), popular literature (1938-1949), Hong Kong and Taiwan period after1950s (1951-1982). Chapter Two takes Zhou’s popular novels as examples to analyzethe city scenes and women images in his literature world. Chapter Three mainlystudies the popular characteristics of Zhou’s popular novels as a citizen literature,with a conclusion that his popular literature is a trace of the ancient citizen literature,close to citizens of middle and low strata, marked with an emphasis on fun and plot,and a feature of categorization. Chapter Four mainly elaborates the modern elementsin Zhou’s writing. Section One discusses that his children literature was influenced bythe May4thnew ideas. Section Two reveals that his tabloid literature depended onthe tabloid medium. Section Three says that his works have characteristics andfunctions of exposure, criticism and enlightenment.Although his works have shortages, Zhou’s contributions to modern childrenliterature and popular literature cannot be ignored, as they are significant not only inliterary values but also in folklore and society studies.