Home › Forums › Teaching About Asia Forums › Web Resources › Baidu Library website and a published article, "Appreciation and Analysis of THE NEW YEAR'S SACRIFICE 《祝福》"
Website URL: https://wenku.baidu.com/view/1db0267e03d8ce2f006623b0.html###
This website, Baidu Library, publishes articles and materials in humanities, science, tests, professional development, and life activities. People can search articles by entering key words in the search bar. Articles are categorized into sections. For example, this article, “Appreciation and Analysis of THE NEW YEAR'S SACRIFICE 《祝福》”, is published in the Education section of the Baidu Library. The main audiences are the high school students in China learning the Chinese literature. In this article, the author analyzes and comments on the novel, THE NEW YEAR'S SACRIFICE 《祝福》, written by Lu Xun, a Chinese literary giant.
First, the author provides an abstract of the article and asks a question - what does the death of Hsiang Lin's Wife (the main female character) mean to a woman’s life as well as to the society at the time? Secondly, the author briefly introduces Lu Xun and states that his novel reveals facts of the rural areas of China and people’s lives. Thirdly, the author analyzes the main female character in the novel - Hsiang Lin's Wife. He also explains three reasons that drive Hsiang Lin's Wife to death. Forth, the author analyzes the literary arts and writing styles demonstrated in the novel from these perspectives: a) facts of the story; b) how Lu Xun selects stories to depict the characters’ personalities and the rich cultural content about the society; c) how Lu Xun describes details to portrait a character; d) how Lu Xun uses his pen to vary tones of voices, styles and settings; e) the purpose of Lu Xun’s writing - to tell stories of the unfortunate ordinary people in a dysfunctional society. Further more, some key words in the novel are listed for the high school students. The whole article can be downloaded from the site. It is a good reference material to help high school students understand THE NEW YEAR'S SACRIFICE because the author analyzes important elements of the novel - characters, social background, setting, literary style. Students can use the article as a guideline to decode the rich content of the novel. However, the author barely discusses the plot. It would be more helpful if plot is analyzed.
The article is meant for high school students who have studied Chinese at the intermediate level or plus and can read and write in Chinese. But students can read the English translation of the novel online at the website, English Garden for Everyone: < http://blog.163.com/richard_zhou@126/blog/static/5652375420105269417133/>. The translator, Young Xianyi, is credited as a translation expert in China.