National Crisis and Masculinity in China’s 1920s: Weak and Painful Men in Yu Daifu’s Novellas

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-440-2_82How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Masculinity; Yu Dafu; Modernity; Nationalism; Chinese Literature

Abstract

This article focuses on the male images in Yu novels and explores their significance from the perspective of gender studies. Traditionally, in the research on Chinese masculinity, the focus has mainly been on the pre-modern and contemporary periods, with relatively little research on the Republican period. As an important writer in modern Chinese literature, Yu Dafu’s works reflect the mentality of men in a specific era. This study analyzes the male images in Sinking, The Silver-Grey Death, and Southern Exodus, showing that overseas students who faced loneliness and depression in a foreign country were trapped in spiritual dilemmas partially due to the weakness of their motherland. Yu’s novels reflect the transformation of male images from traditional literature to modern literature. He depicted the inner contradictions of men through psychological realism. His works demonstrate the resonance between the fates of male figures on the margins of society and the fate of nation. His works not only shed new light on the study of masculinity and the evolution of male images in Chinese literature, but help deepen our understanding of the transformation of contemporary gender culture in China.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Can Wei
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/07/10
TI  - National Crisis and Masculinity in China’s 1920s: Weak and Painful Men in Yu Daifu’s Novellas
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 11th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research（ICHSSR 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 721
EP  - 730
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-440-2_82
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-440-2_82
ID  - Wei2025
ER  -