Bird Talk and Other Stories by Xu Xu: Modern Tales of a Chinese Romantic

Xu Xu (1908-1980) was an influential Chinese writer who enjoyed tremendous popularity from the late 1930s through the 1960s. After graduating from Peking University, he moved to Shanghai in 1933 to begin his literary career. He left for Paris in 1936 to continue his studies, but soon returned to China after the outbreak of war with Japan. He moved to Hong Kong in 1950 where he continued to publish copious amounts of fiction, poetry, and literary criticism. Xu Xu’s works were banned on the mainland from 1949 until the 1980s, but his work is now widely read in China and is a frequent source material for television and the stage. In Hong Kong, Xu Xu also edited several literary journals and taught Chinese literature at different colleges and universities, eventually chairing the Chinese Department at Hong Kong Baptist University until his death in 1980.