Xiao Hong (Hsiao Hung) [real name Zhang Naiying] 1911-1942

Born in Heilongjiang, she left home to avoid an arranged marriage, and passed the entrance exams for the high-school affiliated with the Beiping Women's Normal University in 1931, but was forced to return to Harbin in 1932. There, she met Xiao Jun and in the following year wrote her first story. In 1934, the pair went to Qingdao, and it is here that Xiao Hong completed her novel Sheng-si chang [The field of life and death]. This was published in 1935 in a series edited by Lu Xun. Other works written in the last part of her brief life include the short story Shou [Hands], the prose collection Shangshi jie [Market street] and the novel Ma Bole. She died in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation.

Works available in English:

  • Market Street: A Chinese Woman in Harbin (Howard Goldblatt). Seattle:
       University of Washington Press, 1986.
  • Selected Stories of Xiao Hong (Howard Goldblatt). Beijing: Chinese Literature,
       1982.
  • Tales of Hulan River (Howard Goldblatt). Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co.,
       1988.
  • The Field of Life and Death and Tales of Hulan River: Two Novels (Howard
       Goldblatt and Ellen Yeung). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979.

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