A Short History of Modern Chinese Literature

'China's national industry. The story woven around thischaracter is a complicated one fully reflecting the contradictions of the time. Among the things described arethe economically ruined countryside and peasant uprisings, the decline of national industry under the pressureof imperialist economic aggression, the capitalist exploitation of the workers, the Workers' protests and strikes,the all-powerful stock exchange, the life and quarrelsof the families of the capitalists, and so forth. Thecharacters include national capitalists, compradorcapitalists who are the brokers of the American imperialists, Communists leading the workers' movements,lackeys who organize ''yellow'' trade unions for thecapitalists, die-hards of the feudal society, loafing intellectuals of the petty bourgeoisie, women of the bourgeoisie, and workers and peasants. In all, Midnight,with its skilful weaving of all these characters and scenesinto one long, complicated story, was the first novel ofits kind in the history of Chinese literature. Through these many big, contradictory, and complexevents and characters, the author succeeded in realizinghis plan. He drives home one important truth and thatis that the imperialists, to save themselves from collapse,strengthen their hold on semi-colonial countries, makethem more and more colonial, and hold them back fromtaking the road to capitalism. For this reason the nationalindustry of semi-colonial and semi-feudal China was notonly unable to develop but had to accept imperialistcontrol and suffer imperialist encroachment. To savethemselves from ruin the national capitalists had to increase their exploitation of the workers on the one handand compromise with the feudal forces, give way to theimperialists, and act as compradors on the other.'