Bruce Humes

Julia Lovell, translator of Lu Xün’s The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China, on the therapeutic qualities of the author:

With the PRC now in its swaggering 60s, I would prescribe – to counter the excesses of Beijing bombast – a stiff dose of Lu Xun: for his intensely crafted, sympathetic insights into the blackness of modern China; and as a biographical lesson in the Communist party’s energetic, though unsuccessful efforts to neutralise the country’s critical conscience.

Read the full text of China’s Conscience in The Guardian.