The most venerated author of Modern Chinese Literature, Lu Xun was a writer of the people whose ideas and works were heavily influenced by the May 4th Movement.
On May 4th, 1919, protests broke out all over China and led to a cultural, political, and economic upheaval. For the quixotic Lu Xun, the May 4th Movement pointed out problems of social injustice and inspired him to revolutionize literature by writing in bai hua, or plain language. An enormous change from the classical Chinese literature (only able to be read and understood by scholars), the first bai hua story was Diary of a Madman, a satire of the Confucian society in China.
Lu Xun is most famous for The True Story of Ah Q, a story of a simple man and an attack on Confucianism. His ideology was used by the Communists as propaganda but Lu Xun never joined the Communist Party and died at a young age from tuberculosis. His house, at No. 9 Lane 132 Shanying Rd, is a simple, unpretentious brick house which conveys the soul of a humble man of the people. Lu Xun resided here from 1933 to his death in 1936.
