EVENTS

Abstract

The True Story of Ah Q first appeared as a nine-part series, a-chapter-a-week, in the Literary Pages of the Morning News or Chenbao, published from Beiping (now Beijing) between December 1921 and February 1922. Lu Xun, fearing rebuke and rejection from the so-called guardians of the traditional literary scholars, chose Ba Ren (in Chinese Ba Ren meant a ‘commoner’) as the pseudonym for the column – to both hide his identity and to protect his literary image. What was most overwhelming for Lu Xun was the chapter by chapter publication of The True Story of Ah Q becoming a sensation among people from all walks of life, especially among intellectual circles. Since 4 December one hundred years ago, scholars and critics in China, Japan and in the West, have relentlessly upheld True Story of Ah Q as not only Lu Xun’s best but modern China’s most soul-stirring, most condescending to the traditional Confucian values, most politically sensitive, most pro-people, most anti-feudal and anti-rulers, most anti-revolution Revolutionary, most anti-modern Modernist, most anti-Classics classic, most “ordinary” and most tragic work of fiction. Our planned Ah Q Centenary Online Conference will examine questions which need to be addressed in order to objectively analyse and evaluate Lu Xun, Ah Q, and the future of China.

Conference Schedule

Session 1 (10:30 AM IST- 11:50 AM IST)

• Dr. DS Rawat: The Image of Lu Xun in the Eyes of Hindi Writers
• Dr. Raman Sinha: The True Story of Ah Q - Fiction or Metafiction

Session 2 (12:00 PM IST - 1:20 PM IST)

• Prof. Sebastian Veg: Lu Xun, Ah Q and the Hidden Tradition of minjian Intellectuals
• Prof. Jiang Yixin: The True Story of Ah Q - An anti-Sages Novel

Session 3 (1:30 PM IST - 2:50 PM IST)

• Prof. Senno Takumasa: Exploring the Birth of Modern Literature from The True Story of Ah Q
• Prof. Alexey Rodionov: On Five Translations of The True Story of Ah Q into the Russian Language
• Dr. Hemant Adlakha: 1911 Revolution and Lu Xun’s A Madman’s Diary, Kong Yiji and The True Story of Ah Q Trilogy