Description: What do Chinese literature and film inspired by the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) have in common with media of the May Fourth movement (1918-1930)? This book demonstrates several shared aims: to liberate narrative arts from aesthetic orthodoxies, to draw on foreign sources for inspiration, and to free individuals from social conformity.
Brief description: Ellen Widmer is Mayling Soong Professor of Chinese Studies and Professor of East Asian Studies at Wellesley College.
Review Quotes: From May Fourth to June Fourth will be warmly welcomed. It should be of great interest to all concerned with literary developments in the contemporary world on the one hand, and on the other with the enigmas surrounding China's alternating attempts to develop and to destroy herself as a civilization.--Cyril Birch, University of California, Berkeley