Recollections of Western Hunan by Shen Congwen. Panda, 1st Edition, 1982. Translated by Gladys Yang.

Recollections of Western Hunan is a collection of the letters and essays of Chinese novelist Shen Congwen, in English, describing his childhood and life in Western Hunan between 1902 and 1937, this collection paints a vivid picture of both the idyllic beauty and turmoil of life in a province once known as the “bandit area,” a countryside shrouded in mystery, mysticism, and chaos.  Regional culture and identity plays a much bigger role in his writing than that of other major early modern Chinese writers. He was known for combining the vernacular style with classical Chinese writing techniques. Shen is the most important of the "native soil" writers in modern Chinese literature. 

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