Chinese Literature

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Four Great Men of World Art

Tn late November 1953 the World Peace Gouneil, meeting in Vienna, passed a resolution to commemorate in 1954 four supremely gifted representatives of human culture whose anniversaries fell that year. So this year the Chinese people commemorated the 200th anniversary of the death of Henry Fielding, English realist writer; the 50th anniversary of the death of Antonin Dvorak, Gzechoslovak composer; the 50th anniversary of the death of Chekhov, Russian dramatist and writer of short stories; and the 2,400th anniversary of the birth of Aristophanes, the great comic dramatist of ancient Greece.

In the past six months every important newspaper and literary magazine in China has published articles on the life and work of these great men, making their names household words. In many

cities public libraries organized exhibi-.

tions around them. Publishing houses

issued their works and biographies in

great numbers, and they enjoyed wide and instant popularity. In Peking, Shanghai and other large cities Chinese artists gave concerts of Dvorak’s music, and two

plays of Chekhov, The Proposal and Unele Vanya, have been playing to packed houses. The celebrations, in fact, came as a fitting climax to fifty years’ endeavour to bring the achievements of these great men to the notice of the Chinese public.

Antonin Dvorak died on May 1, 1904. On May Day this year, fifty years later, a great memorial meeting was held in Peking. It was sponso red jointly by the Chinese People’s Committee for World Peace, the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the Union of Chinese Musicians, and the Chinese People’s Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. In the course of the meeting, Ting Hsi-ling, Vice-President of the last-named body, said: “Dvorak is a great Czech composer who loved his country and people. His brilliant works have not only enriched the musical heritage of the Czechoslovak people, but have become the common treasure of people throughout the world.” He was followed by Ma Szu-tsung, famous violinist and Vice-Chairman of the Union of Chinese

The orchestra of the Central Song and Dance Ensemble performing Dvorak’s Fifth Symphony (‘From the New World”)

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