Lu Xun's Old Abode, the childhood residence of Chinese literary pioneer Lu Xun in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, is a hot spot for Chinese tourists, especially parents who bring their children to inspire them.(Photo by Xing Yi/China Daily)
I later visited a museum dedicated to the literary master down the street.
Lu Xun eventually left Shaoxing to receive a Western-style education in Jiangsu province's capital, Nanjing. He departed from there to study Western medicine in Japan in 1902.
His ambition to become a physician changed after he saw a documentary one day after classes at his medical school.
The film about the then-ongoing Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) showed a scene in which a Japanese soldier beheaded a Chinese man. The crowd included many Chinese who had "come to enjoy the spectacle", Lu Xun wrote in the preface of Call to Arms, his first short-story collection.
"Physically, they were as strong and healthy as anyone could ask, but their expressions revealed all too clearly that spiritually they were calloused and numb," he wrote.
He decided then and there to quit medical school and become a "literary physician" to treat the spiritual illness of Chinese people at that time.
Lu Xun repatriated in 1909.
He worked in the new government's education ministry after the Qing Dynasty's (1644-1911) fall. He later taught at several universities, including Peking University and Beijing Normal University, and kept writing until his 1936 death.
Many of his works are based on his early life in Shaoxing.
It seemed as if characters from his works occupied the street when I left the museum.
So I headed to Xian Heng Restaurant－an eatery that features prominently in his works－for lunch. That is, to enjoy an actual meal as well as food for thought.
(By Xing Yi)
If you go
Lu Xun Native Place
393 Luxun Middle Rd, Shaoxing, Zhejiang province. 0575-8513-2080
(The site is admission free, but visitors must show ID.)
