Reading response

Regarding literature between the May Fourth and the outbreak of Second Sino-Japanese war, there are several features referred to Romanticism in literature—both in literary works and the author’s personalities and personal life. The symptoms of romanticism seem to be embodied in the writing of (autobiographical) romance in early twentieth century China, according to Prof. Leo Lee’s and Prof. Wang’s comments. The depression of sex and the depression of the nation are always among the most important issues in the literary text and the biographical context. Sexual depression and national depression intertwine in the literary writings and convey the confusion of the generation whom Leo Lee generalized as the generation of Romanticism. While Yu Dafu’s “Sinking” related his sinking in the sexual indulgence to the decadent of his homeland, Bai Wei’s “Fight out the ghost tower” displays a ghost tower dominated by the landlord Rongsheng’s longing for women’s body, and fight out the ghost tower is will liberate both the bodies of the women and the nation. The sexual desire and depression, sometimes deprivation dominated the pursuit of the social and national renovation in the literary works of the generation of the Romanticism. While the sexual depression becomes the national depression, or the disasters of the nation are analogized as the sexual depression, the emancipation of the nation will be lead to the extreme pole of the emancipation of the sex.