Bing Xin is a famous modern Chinese writer who represents all her countrymen. Her last name is Xie, BingXin is her pen name, so there are still some people that call her Xie BingXin.
BingXin is a southerner. She was born in the year 1900, and by the time she began primary school, she’d already read quite a few works of ancient Chinese literature. In 1914, she attended a Christian girl’s high school in Beijing. During the May 4th Movement, she was attending college in Beijing, and she participated in the student movement of that time. At the same time, she also began writing novels and modern poetry. In 1921, she participated in the famous “Literature Research Conference”. In 1923, she left to study abroad in America. In America, she researched literature, and at the same time wrote down the things she saw and heard overseas, sending them back to China. These works later became the basis of the book “To Young Readers”.
In 1926, BingXin returned from abroad. After she returned, she worked at Beijing University teaching Chinese literature. From 1929 to 1933 she wrote the novels “Segregation”, “Aunt”, etc., and at the same time translated the works of a few foreign writers. In 1945, BingXin went to Japan. From 1949 to 1951, she taught Chinese literature at Tokyo University, returning home in autumn of 1951. In 1958, the “People’s Daily” published her work “To Young Readers 2”. BingXin wasn’t only a literature expert, she was also a teacher. She loved children, she loved the offspring of her motherland, and she used her writings to teach children.
In my third year of high school, I read her early poem “Spring Water”. It was written beautifully and was very moving. After that, I always loved to read BingXin’s novels. My college thesis was “On the Aesthetic Style of BingXin’s Novels”. After I graduated college, I went to work for a publishing company. One summer morning this year, I got the opportunity to interview this master writer who is still with us today. That day was cloudy, cold, and rainy. I got up extremely early, put on a light blue suit, got on the bus and at 8:30 arrived at BingXin’s house.
BingXin’s house was fairly far from the city center, near XinJieKou [a subdivision of Beijing]. She lived in a Beijing retirement community. There were many flowers in the yard.
BingXin met me in the living room. The living room wasn’t big, was very clean, and a landscape painting was hanging on the wall. The living room bookshelf held all kinds of books, some were in Chinese, and some were in foreign languages. BingXin had white hair, was short of stature and very thin, but looking at her she didn’t seem like someone who was in her nineties. After we met, I first enquired after her health. She said that she was rarely sick, and though sometimes she caught cold, a little medicine fixed her right up. When I asked her why she was still so healthy, she said it’s because of frequent exercise.
Later, she answered a few of my questions about literature in the thirties. She drank tea as she spoke. When she touched on the topic of modern literature, I asked her, “Do you still write?” She said, “I want to! It’s just that my eyes aren’t so good, I can’t write anymore. Every day I just read the paper or a magazine or something.” When I asked her why she had gone abroad to study, she asked me, “Have you been abroad?” I said, “No.” She said to me, “Go have a look if you have the opportunity, work for a year or two in another country. People who’ve lived abroad know what patriotism means.”
That day, when I got back to my house, I kept thinking about that one thing she’d said: “People who’ve lived aborad know what patriotism means.”
4 replies on “Famous Chinese Authoress BingXin 冰心”
Cool essay, now I am curious about her work.
Thanks,
1914年她到北京一所教会女子中学读书。How did you know that this was a Christian school?
beautiful essay
This is one of the best. I found the account of BingXin’s life and of the writer’s interview with her really accessible.
But I’ve got a question. I’ve noticed that several times 她 changes to 他。 This happens three times in all:
他很少得病… (para 6, line 5)
他一边喝茶 (para 7, line 2)
我问他‘现在还写东西吗?’ 她说…(para 7, line 3)
Is this a misprint? Or have I missed something? I’d love it if you could explain!
Many thanks again for these wonderful readings.