Ling Shuhua, also known as Su-hua Ling Chen after her marriage, was a Chinese modernist writer and painter whose short stories became popular during the 1920s and 1930s. Her work continues to be widely anthologized today.
Biography
Ling Shuhua was born Ling Ruitang in Beijing. Shuhua was the daughter of the fourth wife of a high ranking Qing official from the southern province of Canton, who later served as the mayor of Beijing. Ling never showed her fiction to her father for fear that he would disprove of her use of the vernacular. In 1922 she enrolled, along with fellow female writer Bing Xin, in Yanjing University to pursue a degree in foreign literature. Soon after graduating, she married Chen Yuan, the founder of the important May Fourth Movement journal Contemporary Review. In 1927, the couple moved to Hubei so that Chen could teach at Wuhan University. While at Wuhan University, Ling met Julian Bell in 1935 when he was temporarily an English teacher in China. During his short stay there until 1937, they had a love affair while Ling was still married. In 1999, Hong Ying published , a book based on their relationship that was later banned. Through her connection with Bell, she was able to start a correspondence with Virginia Woolf, Bell's aunt. The two writers maintained their correspondence between 1938 and 1941. Woolf agreed to read drafts of the memoirs Ling had begun writing. This manuscript was published in 1953, with the name Ancient Melodies. Ling dedicated this work to Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, whom she met in England in the 1940s. She moved again to London in 1947, where she became a Chinese representative for UNESCO. She mostly remained in London except for 1956 when she taught at Nanyang University in Singapore. She moved back to China shortly before her death. Shuhua had a daughter named Hsiao-ying Chen. Ling also practiced calligraphy and was a painter of the scholarly tradition. Some of her Chinese books have been published with her own inked paintings on the cover.
''Temple of Flowers''
Published in 1928, Temple of Flowers was Ling's first book of fiction. It includes some of her most famous short stories, including "The Embroidered Pillow" and "On the Eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival".
She often wrote on "feminine" themes of domesticity. Because her short stories first appeared in western journals, Shuhua is often associated with the westernized literary aesthetic. Her Chinese critics have called her the "Katherine Mansfield of China". Ling was aware of Mansfield's fiction and cited it as an influence on her work. Vita Sackville-West, who wrote the introduction for Ling's Ancient Melodies, recommended the book for its "Arabian Nights quality". When the book was published, it received immediate acclaim in the west. J.B. Priestly wrote an essay about Ancient Melodies, calling it "the book of the year".
Criticisms
In her time, Shuhua was called a writer of the Xin guixiu pai, suggesting she was conservative in her choice of subject matter and less defiant in her criticism of tradition.
