Essay
背影
Not translated into English
Zhu Ziqing · 1925
Synopsis
The grandmother has just died, the father has lost his job, and he sums up these months with “misfortunes never come singly”. The narrator, a student, sets off north again: his father accompanies him across the river to Pukou station, settles him on the train, then crosses the tracks to buy him oranges. The son watches him haul himself painfully onto the opposite platform, and the sight of that back brings tears to his eyes.
Context
Written in 1925, the text gave its title in August 1928 to a volume of prose by Zhu Ziqing, which met with success. Everything in it is concentrated on a single scene, the parting of a father and his son on the north bank of the Yangtze, opposite Nanjing, as the young man returns to Beijing for his studies. Commentators all dwell on the image that gives the text its title, that of a father's back as he climbs over a platform. The BnF knows of the author only a selection of texts in French, published in 1998 by Bleu de Chine.
Who it is for
A few pages, to be read in one sitting; no French translation of the text alone has been found.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the most famous essays of modern Chinese prose, it made its author's success.
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