Translation and Introduction of Eastern European Literature in the 1930s and 1940s

In the 1930s, shortly after the Northern Expedition, the KMT government controlled and unified most of China, much of which had previously been ruled by various military cliques. This was the prime of Chiang Kai-shek’s rule and has been referred to as “the Golden Decade” of the Republic of China (also known as the “Nanking Decade”). But during this period, China was faced with complex political situations on all sides. Conflicts between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were growing in intensity. The left-wing cultural movement in China, supported by the International Leftist Movement, was the most active movement nationwide. Western powers still enjoyed many political and economic privileges in China, but closer to home, Japan, an East Asian imperialist power, having initiated the “September 18 Incident” (the Mukden Incident) in 1931, started its territorial expansion from Manchuria, and launched a full-scale invasion of China, first through the “Marco Polo Bridge Incident” on July 7, 1937, and then with the “Battle of Shanghai”, which began on August 13 in the same year. Japanese military occupied Northern China, the Central Plains and, eventually, all of China apart from her south-western and north-western territories. In response, the Chinese people embarked on the War of Resistance. While it was resisting a foreign invasion, China was experiencing civil war, with conflict and then cooperation between the KMT and the CCP. But throughout this time, the translation of Eastern European literature into Chinese continued to develop much as it had in the 1920s. This situation changed, however, after war broke out in 1937, when the major cultural centres of China, such as Beiping (Beijing) and Shanghai, became unable to support regular cultural movements and maintain conditions conducive to the publication of literary works. Consequently, the translation of Eastern European literature was greatly affected, and the number of translated works obviously decreased.