Series Khudozhestvennaia literatura sovremennogo Kitaia. 

Translation from Chinese. 

Edited and preface by A. Kharkharov. 

Afterword by V. Kolokolov. 

In original pictorial boards. 

In good condition, overall wear, corners bumped, small losses to cover edges, staining.  

First edition of this translation of Lu Xun’s 'The True Story of Ah Q'. Early collection of Chinese modern prose in Russian. Very rare. One of 5 000 copies published. 

This collection of stories and novels by young Chinese authors marked the beginning of a thorough examination of contemporary Chinese fiction in the USSR, with particular emphasis on its connection to the May Fourth Movement—a Chinese cultural and anti-imperialist political initiative that arose from student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919.

The book includes Russian translations of works by the following writers: Li Jinming (黎錦明, 1905-1999), Zhang Ziping (张资平, 1893–1959), Yu Dafu (郁达夫, 1896–1945), Teng Gu (滕固,1901–1941), Zhang Wentian (张闻天, 1899–1976), Jian Xianai (蹇先艾, 1906–1994).

Among others, it's necessary to highlight the translation of Lu Xun’s works, including 'The True Story of Ah Q' (阿Q正傳; 1921-1922) and 'Kong Yiji' (孔乙己, 1919).

Zhou Shuren, known by his pen name Lu Xun (鲁迅; 1881-1936), was a prominent Chinese writer, essayist, and literary critic, widely recognized as a key figure in modern Chinese literature and often referred to as the 'father of modern Chinese literature'. Mao Zedong himself was an enduring admirer of Lu Xun's writing. In 1927, Lu Xun was even considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature for 'The True Story of Ah Q', although he rejected the possibility of accepting the nomination.

For Russian readers, Lu Xun became one of the most well-known Chinese writers of the 20th century. The same year as this collection appeared, Lu Xun’s first Russian book was published but in a different translation. These two books were among the earliest translations of Lu Xun’s works into any European languages.

Unfortunately, information about the translators is missing from this book. However, according to some researchers, the translations of Lu Xun were likely prepared by the orientalist and historian Mikhail Kokin (1906-1937). In 1926-1927 he served as an adjunct graduate student at the Department of Chinese History at the Communist University of the Working People of China, with Karl Radek as his supervisor. During the late 1920s to the mid-1930s, Kokin was involved in scientific activities, teaching, and made significant contributions to the first Soviet monograph on the history of China. In 1937, he was arrested and subsequently executed.

OCLC locates only one copy of this edition: in the New York Public Library.