Person who adopts the fashions of the West. Just referred to as the "Imitation Foreign Devil", an affluent Chinese Looked to Western ways to overthrow ancient Chinese traditions rooted Period that Lu Hsun was writing, placing the tale of Ah Q in the turmoil Revolution set China on a different path. On a mass scale were to follow before the eventually victorious Maoist Several more decades of political upheaval and bloodshed In 1919 the famous May Fourth movement began with a student protest
However, the new government could not throw off foreignĭomination or bring about needed reforms to improve the lot of the people. The last imperial dynasty and setting up a republican government theįollowing year. Had just gone through a bourgeois democratic revolution in 1911, overthrowing To really get this, you must understand the historical context. This all seems to be anarchic, black humour half a centuryīefore the style took hold in the more advanced West. Nor his victims seem to be people of any integrity. Ah Q is motivated by self-interest,Įven when he tries (and fails) to join the revolution. Isn't it? Once again he is spiritually superior to his persecutors.įor the Western reader, The True Story of Ah Q may be confusingīecause it seems to have no moral centre. Self-belittler"-and certainly being "foremost" in anything is admirable, Yet he keeps turning the situation around in his head afterwards.įor example, while being beaten by idlers, he loudly denigrates himselfĪs being as low as an insect, thus showing himself to be the "foremost In the story Ah Q is continually defeated, by his fellow lowlifes, by respectable people and by revolutionaries. "Ah Quism" is the attempt find spurious moral victory in a defeat. The character of Ah Q in Lu Hsun's long story (or short novel) has given rise to a unique expression in China.
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