Spring Silkworms
Encyclopedia
Spring Silkworms is a novella
by the Chinese author Mao Dun
about the experience of Chinese villagers engaging in sericulture
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A major theme of the story is the complexity the villagers face in dealing with inputs to the process (such as eggs, mulberry leaves, and equipment) and the loans they must take out to finance their activities. Complexity is added by the intrusion of foreign-owned silk processing plants ("filatures").
The Good Earth
by Pearl Buck describes the lives of Chinese peasants, and their economically precarious condition, during the period roughly contemporary with the story related in Spring Silkworms.
in 1933 by director Cheng Bugao
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Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
by the Chinese author Mao Dun
Mao Dun
Mao Dun was the pen name of Shen Dehong , a 20th century Chinese novelist, cultural critic, and journalist. He was also the Minister of Culture of China from 1949 to 1965. He is currently renowned as one of the best realist novelists in the history of modern China...
about the experience of Chinese villagers engaging in sericulture
Sericulture
Sericulture, or silk farming, is the rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk.Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, Bombyx mori is the most widely used and intensively studied. According to Confucian texts, the discovery of silk production by B...
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History
Mao Dun dates the story November 1, 1932. It is part of a trilogy, together with Autumn Harvest and Winter Ruin.Subject Matter and Themes
The major subject matter of Spring Silkworms is the difficulty villagers encounter in attempting to profit from their participation in the silk business. The story concludes, "Because they raised a crop of spring silkworms, the people in Old Tung Pao's village got deeper into debt."A major theme of the story is the complexity the villagers face in dealing with inputs to the process (such as eggs, mulberry leaves, and equipment) and the loans they must take out to finance their activities. Complexity is added by the intrusion of foreign-owned silk processing plants ("filatures").
Historical significance
Spring Silkworms deals with economic issues that came to be an important factor in the worldview of the Chinese Communist Party—and hence of the Chinese government after the establishment of the People's Republic of China.Comparative Perspective
Spring Silkworms bears comparison with other works of modern literature, particularly literature dealing with the lives of people living on China's economic margins.The Good Earth
The Good Earth
The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. The best selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932, it was an influential factor in Buck winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938...
by Pearl Buck describes the lives of Chinese peasants, and their economically precarious condition, during the period roughly contemporary with the story related in Spring Silkworms.
English translations
Foreign Languages Press (Beijing) published an English translation by Sidney Shapiro in 1956, which includes the rest of the trilogy and other stories.Other Adaptations and Related Works
The work was adapted into a silent filmSpring Silkworms (film)
Spring Silkworms is a 1933 silent film from China. It was directed by Cheng Bugao and was adapted by Cai Chusheng and Xia Yan from the novella of the same name by Chinese author Mao Dun....
in 1933 by director Cheng Bugao
Cheng Bugao
Cheng Bugao was a prominent Chinese film director during the 1930s. Employed by the Mingxing Film Company, Cheng was responsible for several important "leftist" films in the period, including the Wild Torrents and Spring Silkworms...
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