Yu Dafu

Yu Dafu (born December 7, 1896, Fuyang, Zhejiang province, China—died September 17, 1945, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies [now in Indonesia]) was a popular short-story writer of the 1920s in China, and one of the founding members of the Creation Society, which was devoted to the promotion of modern literature.

Yu received his higher education in Japan, where he met other young Chinese writers with whom he founded the Creation Society (Chuangzaoshe) in 1921. His first collection of short stories, Chenlun (1921; “Sinking”), was written in vernacular Chinese, as advocated by the new generation of writers. Chenlun became a popular success in China because of its frank treatment of sex; when Yu returned to his country in 1922, he was a literary celebrity.

Yu continued his work with the Creation Society and edited or contributed to literary journals. He also continued to write short stories, but in 1923, after contracting tuberculosis, he abruptly changed his major theme from one of self-preoccupation to one of concern with the state of the masses. In 1927, following a disagreement with the communist members of the Creation Society, Yu attempted to reorganize the group but was forced to resign.

Yu’s first novel appeared in 1928 and was only moderately successful; his second followed four years later. In 1935 his last and major work of fiction, Chuben (“Flight”), was published. During the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), Yu wrote anti-Japanese propaganda from Wuhan and Singapore. When Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, he fled to Sumatra, only to be executed by Japanese military police there shortly after the end of the war.

Of Yu’s many works the most popular was Rijijiuzhong (1927; “Nine Diaries”), an account of his affair with the young left-wing writer Wang Yingxia; the book broke all previous sales records in China. The critics’ favourite is probably Guoqu (1927; “The Past”), praised for its psychological depth. Yu also wrote essays and classical poetry.