Xiao Hong (1911-1942), formerly known as Zhang Yingying, was a native of Hulan County, Heilongjiang. Xiao Hong is her pen name, which was first used in The Field of Life and Death and has been used ever since. In the history of modern Chinese literature, Xiao Hong is a short-lived talented female writer.
At the age of 31, she wrote a considerable number of literary works with unique styles of novels, essays and dramas. In just nine years, eleven collections have been published:
"Trek", "Life and Death Field", "Shangshi Street", "Bridge", "On the Train", "Wild Shout", "Remembering Mr. Lu Xun", "Xiao Hong Prose", "Small Town March", "Hulan River Biography", "Ma Bole" (unfinished), created nearly a million words, showing rare artistic talent and creative passion.
In the 1930s, Xiao Hong was called "the most promising female writer in China today" by Lu Xun. "Small Town March" is Xiao Hong's masterpiece.
Originally published on July 1, 1941 in Hong Kong's Times Literature Vol. 1, No. 2, "March in a Small Town" was a work completed by Xiao Hong during her illness, and on January 22, 1942, only half a year after the publication of this work, the young female writer left the complicated red dust like the heroine of the work, Aunt Cui.
On the surface, this work shows the bright colors that are rare in Xiao Hong's previous works, and Xiao Hong has unusually beautified her family: there is a father who has carried out the "Restoration Revolution", a kind and reasonable mother, an uncle who likes to play musical instruments after dinner, and a beautiful and dashing cousin... Everything is so harmonious.
However, it is in such a "harmonious" home that a very bland tragedy occurs: Aunt Cui and her cousin's love affair did not succeed, and Aunt Cui even solved it with death for love. The peaceful picture in front of her is nothing more than the "spring" of Aunt Cui's short life.
The novel consists of five parts and an ending, the first five natural paragraphs and the ending part of the first part are written about the natural scenery and spring shadow of the northeast plain in early spring, and the middle parts are of different lengths, respectively: (1) Aunt Cui buys fleece rope shoes; (2) Aunt Cui meets her cousin; (3) Aunt Cui is engaged; (4) Aunt Cui's first date with her cousin; (5) Aunt Cui "refuses" to marry until she dies, and goes on a last date with her cousin during illness.
These five fragments are the five points of the concentration of thought content that can connect the whole story. This story, starting from the performance of Aunt Cui's youthful cuteness ——— re-dressing to catch up with the trend of the times, soon enters the budding of Aunt Cui's young girl——— attention and eager to contact the opposite sex, followed by Aunt Cui's youth being tied to the barrier of traditional engagement; The climax was Aunt Cui's first date with her cousin after her engagement; The ending is the last date between Aunt Cui and her cousin, and "refuses" to marry to death.
This young girl who grew up in an old family of feudal traditions felt the breath of modern civilization and wanted to pursue what belonged to her.
The novel mentions many times that Aunt Cui hopes to be able to read, and is very envious of girls who can read. Rather than her thirst for knowledge, it is more about her thirst for modern civilization and modern lifestyle, and one of the reasons she fell in love with "my" cousin was because he was a man who had received new ideas and knew how to respect women.
Aunt Cui's choice in love shows that she wants to change her destiny. But the identity of "daughter of a married widow" makes her inferior, and the constraint of marriage "the order of her parents, the words of the matchmaker" makes love blurred. When her unsuspecting mother got engaged to her until she got married, her reluctance, horror, and pain had nowhere to tell, and she could only silently bleed in her heart.
As the wedding date approached, her illness worsened day by day, and she finally died before getting married. This is actually a very brave woman, she is not willing to give in, not willing to marry someone she does not love against her heart, she said "I do not want to do what I do not want to do." When the ideal love in reality becomes unattainable, it is better to destroy itself.
Xiao Hong's novel "March in a Small Town" is an enlightenment about the awakening of women, a fable about the failure of enlightenment, and the meaning behind it is still worth pondering today.