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Lusin: Part One

© David Poulson

I ended my last article in this series with a description of how Eroshenko quickly established himself as an active and productive figure in the Esperanto movement in Shanghai. However, even before he got to the "cradle of the Chinese Esperanto movement," his arrest in Japan and the deportation which followed had not gone unnoticed in China.

One very influential individual who knew all about it was the writer, Lusin. Not very long after Eroshenko was forced to leave Japan, (which, as you may recall, was in May 1921), Lusin sent a copy of one of Eroshenko's books - a collection of fables written in the Japanese language - to his brother. In a letter which accompanied the book, Lusin wrote:

"Today (ie August 30th) I received a book by the persecuted blind poet and I am sending it to you to read...I don't think it is dangerous enough to warrant the deportation of the author with such a great commotion. I will probably translate it into Chinese."

In fact, even before Lusin sent off that book to his brother, he had begun to translate Eroshenko's fables into Chinese, as he continued to due for some time after. (It is interesting that he refers to Eroshenko as a "poet.") I have mentioned Lusin several times before in this series of articles and, although he himself was not an Esperanto-speaker, his strong support for the Chinese Esperanto movement, and his friendships with other Esperantists was so important that I want to tell you a bit more about this interesting and renowned writer whose reputation in China reached great heights, even during his relatively short life-time.

Outside of the Esperanto movement, Lusin (some of whose work appeared in English translation) is better known as Lu Sin, and his real name was Chou Shu-jen. He has been described as "the founder of modern Chinese Literature and enjoyed enormous prestige in Chinese literary circles for three-quarters of a century. Wang Hanping, writing in 1992, claimed that Lusin's works have been translated into fifty national languages and have been published in thirty different countries. ("Karmemore al Lusin," El Popola Cxinio 3:1992 pp 14-15)

Lusin was born in 1881 in Shaohing in the province of Chekiang, now known as Zhejiang or, in Esperanto, as Gxegxjang. (Parenthetically, let me remark, with sincere apologies to my readers, that the task of achieving consistent transliteration of Chinese proper names is probably beyond my competence. I will do my best and welcome any corrections from those more skilful than myself).