Our Notes & References

One of the “Four Masters of Modern Chinese Literature” (Hsia).

Rare first edition: we couldn’t trace any copy of this edition in US or European library holdings via OCLC.

The author, Zhang Tianyi (1906–85), was a major Chinese writer recognised by literary historian Hsia Chih-tsing as one of the “Four Masters of Modern Chinese Literature” and among the first to explore the dystopian genre in Chinese fiction. From the early 1950s, Zhang turned to children’s literature, earning wide respect and serving on the All-China People’s Committee for Child Welfare. During the Cultural Revolution, however, he was denounced, his works banned, and he was sent to a cadre school—a rural commune for the “re-education” of Party members through manual labor. After two and a half years, he was released due to ill health but never fully resumed his literary career.

The book presents three stories from 1952 about schoolchildren facing moral choices. In “Xiao Hong Goes to the Movies,” a girl must decide whether to return a lost notebook and miss a film screening. “The Story of Luo Wenying” follows a boy who dreams of joining the People’s Liberation Army but must overcome laziness with the help of his friends. In “Them and Us,” a pioneer group excluded from a concert must choose whether to help the performers when they falter on stage.

The stories were translated by Aleksandr Gatov (pen name Agei, 1913–72), a writer, translator, and Sinologist who served as a war correspondent in China until 1948. Upon returning to the USSR, he taught at Moscow State University and introduced Soviet readers to modern Chinese literature.

The illustrations are by Nikolai Kochergin (1897–1974), a graduate of the Stroganov School of Industrial and Applied Arts and long-time collaborator of the Detgiz publishing house, celebrated for his depictions of Russian and Indigenous folktales.