Master’s Dream Come True

The Chinese writer Ba Jin said someone once approached him during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) who asked, idn our ancestors leave us anything from hour heritage that was worthwhile Is it true that all modern literature after 1919 is rubbish? Are your works all poisonous drugs?

He said he could not, dared not answer.

Ba Jin was born in 1904 in Sichuan. He ran away from his eudal home in 1923 and studied in Shanghai and Nanjing. He is now being treated in a hospital in Shanghai.

He published his first long novel istruction in 1927, but his most famous works were published between 1928 and 1937, including ome. Together, they influenced the lives of several generations of youths. He was good at revealing strong feelings using simple words. His stories mainly told about how youths fought to change a traditional and outmoded social system. After 1937, when the Japanese attacked and invaded China, Ba Jin spent his time running magazines and writing essays and short novels. After 1949, Ba Jin became vice chairman of the China Literature Association and president of the China Writers* Association. He also served as editor-in-chief of China most authoritative periodical about novels, harvest.

During the Cultural Revolution, he was kept in the owshed. Literature became one of the our olds,and he was forced to burn his letters, books and drafts. He engaged in complete self-denial, and he admitted he had never done one thing right in his whole life. He kept his head down and avoided others. He avoided his past and did not consider the future. He was afraid to hear people mention his name or talk about his work.

Despite this, in 1979, after the country opening up began in 1978, the idea of building a modern museum dedicated to Chinese literature came to mind. He wanted to use this vehicle to bring credit to China literary workers, to show that they had done something right and to show their works were not poisonous.

Ba Jin wrote 60 letters to people and departments he thought might be interested asking for support. One of those was China President Jiang Zemin, who wrote back to say, very civilized country in the world allocates a sum of money to support the arts and literature. I have demanded that related departments to give all-out support.*

Ba Jin donated 7,700 books, letters, magazines, photos that he had collected through the years. He fought hard for six years to find a location for the museum. In 1985, the museum opened at the Wanshou Temple on the West Third Ring Road, but in the end, it proved to be to small and restrictive. He donated 150,000 yuan to the museum at its opening and would later add another 200,000 yuan to that sum.

In 1998, the central government invested 150 million yuan (US$18 million) to establish a new literary museum on 30,000 square meters of land in Shaoyaoju in northern Beijing.

The first-phase 14,000-square-meter National Museum of Modern Chinese Literature opened to the public in May. It features an in-depth explication of the evolution of modern Chinese literature from 1919 to 1949. It serves as a museum, archive, library and literary research and exchange center.The main part of the garden-style building the exhibition section occupies three giant halls. he Masters Bearing exhibition features the lives of some of China's most influential literary masters such as Lu Xun (1881-1936), Mao Dun (1896-1981), Bing Xin (1900-99) and Lao She (1899-1966).he Contemporary Literature History Show* focuses on the evolution of modern Chinese literature. More than 80,000 works by modern Chinese writers and objects of interest, all donated, are on display in the third exhibition hall. About 300,000 manuscripts, translations, letters, diaries, photos, audio and videotapes, relics, books, magazines and newspaper clippings related to modern Chinese writers are on exhibit.

The museum is filled with various artistic creations. A full-length mural in the lobby details the social background of the museum and colorful mosaic glass pictures adorn the front entrance area. In addition, copper, stone and wooden sculptures scattered inside the hall and around the surrounding portray historical scenes.