Ling Shuhua(1900–1990) was a Chinese modernist writer whose short stories became popular during the 1920s and 30s.

Biography

Ling 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

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

. In 1922 she enrolled, along with fellow female writer Bing Xin

Bing Xin

Bingxin was one of the most prolific and esteemed Chinese writers of the 20th Century. Many of her works were written for young readers...

, 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

May Fourth Movement

The May Fourth Movement was an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement growing out of student demonstrations in Beijing on May 4, 1919, protesting the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, especially the Shandong Problem...

 journal Contemporary Review. In 1927, the couple moved to Hunan

Hunan

' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...

 so that Chen could teach at Wuhan University

Wuhan University

Wuhan University is a university located in Wuchang, Hubei, China. It is directly under the administration of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. It is regarded as one of the top ten universities in China, and its history dates back to 1893, making it one of China's...

.

Through contacts she made with other writers in the same literature department at Wuhan University, Ling was able to start a correspondence with Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....

. 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

Vita Sackville-West

The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...

, whom she met in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

in the 1940s.

Publications

• Temple of Flowers (1928)
• Women (1930)
• Two Little Brothers (1935)
• Ancient Melodies (1953)