Lu Xun Hometown

In the autobiographical narrative Hometown, the great Chinese writer Lu Xun created two literary figures, namely the farmer’s son Runtu and the “Tofu Beauty” Madame Yang, which belong to the Chinese cultural memory.
The first-person narrator visits his hometown to dissolve the household of his now impoverished family. He was in a sad mood, partly because the homeland he had left more than twenty years ago was no longer that of his childhood. His friend Runtu, the radiant hero of his childhood, who now addressed him with “my master”, suffered from hunger and the turmoil of war. Nevertheless, there should be hope. At least that is what the first-person narrator wishes for at the end of his journey.
Hometown is a particularly lovingly told story of Lu Xun. The style is unusually gentle for this sharp-tongued critic, and the construction of the sentences more simple und fluid. This is typical of Lu Xun when he writes about the landscape and the people of his homeland.