SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis deals with Fei Ming (the pen-name of Feng Wenbing, 1901-1967), a writer who was active mainly in the 1920s and 1930s and who has been disregarded since 1949 until only recently. Fei Ming's works include stories, essays and poems, and this thesis concentrates on his pastoral stories written between 1923 and 1932. The aim of this thesis is threefold. First, it attempts to illuminate the individuality of Fei Ming's pastoral stories by analysing their thematic and stylistic characteristics. The second objective is to examine the influence of foreign modern pastoral stories and Chinese traditional pastoral works on Fei Ming. The third is to outline the changes in his pastoral fiction writing. In so doing, I hope this thesis will invite a fresh look at this writer who is barely mentioned in China, Japan and the West, and has never been made the subject of a systematic critical study. The thesis consists of seven chapters: Chapter One describes the literary life of Fei Ming. Chapter Two introduces an outline of Fei Ming's creative writings. Chapter Three discusses the thematic characteristics of his stories about the countryside in Southern China. Chapter Four investigates the pastoral elements in his stories. The term, 'pastoral' is defined, and the argument on influences on Fei Ming's work is developed. Chapter Five analyzes the stylistic characteristics of his pastoral stories. Chapter Six explores the novel. The Life of Mr Maybe, which I define as 'mock-pastoral'. Chapter Seven examines the serial published in 1947-1948, "After Mr Maybe Flew in an Aeroplane" to see how Fei Ming's views of country life changed after 1932. The conclusion discusses Fei Ming's influence on Chinese writers from the late 1920s onwards and sums up Fei Ming's achievements as a fiction writer.