Two or Three Things about Mr. Lu Xun

Back when I first came to China, Lu Xun was an inescapable presence – it was almost as though he were still alive. Everyone I knew had a favorite Lu Xun story and many could quote him at length. "The True Story of Ah Q" – a scathing critique of national character that Lu said he wrote to expose "the weakness of my fellow citizens" – was perhaps his best known work, but "A Madman's Diary" with its chilling conclusion – "Save the children..." – was a close second. My personal favorite was "Medicine," the heartbreaking tale of a poor, benighted family desperate to prevent their son from dying of consumption. To this day, thanks to that story, I cannot see a mantou without imagining it soaked in human blood (I don't eat a lot of mantou) and every time I notice a crow on a bare tree branch I imagine a mother in a graveyard praying for a sign from heaven – and not getting it. (Nobel Prize-winning author Mo Yan wrote an updated version of "Medicine" called "The Cure" that is set in new China and is even more harrowing, and damning, than Lu's original.)