About this book
Lu Xun's "Wandering" presents a haunting collection of short stories that captures the profound alienation and spiritual crisis of early twentieth-century China. Through intimate portraits of provincial life, Xun explores the psychological torment of intellectuals returning to their hometowns, caught between traditional customs and modern consciousness.
The centerpiece novella follows a scholar's unsettling homecoming to his ancestral village during the New Year season. Amid festive preparations and ritual observances, he encounters Xianglin's Wife—a woman whose tragic life and desperate question about the existence of the soul after death becomes a mirror for his own existential despair. Each encounter strips away social pretense, revealing the quiet suffering beneath everyday interactions and the impossible gap between the educated and the masses.
Xun's masterful prose captures the oppressive atmosphere of rural tradition, the complicity of Confucian morality in perpetuating suffering, and the paralysis of those who see injustice but cannot act. These stories blend psychological realism with social critique, examining how modernization leaves individuals spiritually adrift.
Perfect for readers seeking profound literary fiction that grapples with meaning, mortality, and the human condition, this audiobook offers timeless insights into the cost of consciousness in a world resistant to change. Lu Xun's work remains essential listening for anyone interested in understanding modern Chinese literature and philosophy.
