The Beijing Literary Circle and the Yanjing Literary Society under Japanese Occupation ：Centering on the Translations and Compilations carried out by the North China Writers’ Association

Abstract

During the Sino-Japanese War, the Yanjing Literary Society, a Japanese literary group in Beijing, overcame language and identity barriers to enter Beijing literary circles through its association with the North China Writers’ Association――a local Chinese writers’ group in Beijing. This paper explores two literary compilations containing the work of the Japanese expatriate writers of the Yanjing Literary Society in 1943, published in two Chinese periodicals run by the North China Writers’ Association, East Asian Union and North China Writers Monthly. The selections were translated and compiled by Chinese writers who were proficient in Japanese, including Mei Niang and Yuan Xi. The quality of the exchange between the Japanese writers and the new Chinese writers in the occupied areas of North China can be judged from the process of planning and compiling the two compilations. In a sense their publication broke down the barriers between Chinese and Japanese literature in the literary world of North China, introducing the works of Japanese writers into the Beijing literary circle, which absorbed them.