Qian Xingcun
Following the May Fourth Movement, he began writing extensively as a member of the leftist Sun Society [zh] and League of Left-Wing Writers; he also joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1926.He penned several screenplays for the Mingxing Film Company in the 1930s as well as reviews of contemporary Chinese literature, which were followed during the Second Sino-Japanese War by anti-Japanese periodicals and stage plays.He was critical of fellow leftist writers Lu Xun and Mao Dun, while upholding Jiang Guangci as an early proponent of revolutionary literature.[2] After the failure of the Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1927, Qian returned to Shanghai, where he became part of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions' propaganda department.[3] In the late 1920s, he was part of a broad discourse on the revolutionary literature movement and its leadership, which saw the leftist Creation and Sun societies writing extensively on the merits of their own allies.[13] With the commencement of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Qian established a series of periodicals that advocated for armed resistance to the invading Imperial Japanese Army.[15] Qian argues that this is most evident in the biography of Zheng Chenggong, wherein the general is shown turning against his father to uphold the Ming dynasty while simultaneously attempting to observe filial piety by allowing his patriarch an escape.[16] The moral standing of these leaders was further supported by the modernization of female characters' roles in their societies, with the historical Zheng Chenggong's concubine being depicted as his daughter.[2] Borrowing the concept of "proletarian realism", first espoused in the Soviet Union, Qian advocated for a class-conscious style of literature that was communal and activist.