author
Manshu Su
1884–1918
A restless, romantic voice of early modern Chinese literature, this writer moved between poetry, fiction, translation, painting, and revolutionary circles. His short life gave rise to work remembered for its emotion, elegance, and unusual blend of cultural influences.
1 Audiobook
斷鴻零雁記
by Manshu Su
About the author
Born in Yokohama in 1884, Su Manshu was a Chinese writer, poet, painter, translator, and Buddhist monk. He was born Su Xuanying and is often listed in Western catalogs as Manshu Su. Sources describe him as the son of a Cantonese merchant and a Japanese mother, a background that helped shape the cross-cultural texture of his life and work.
He became known in the late Qing and early Republican period for poetry and romantic fiction, and he was also active as a translator and painter. His life was marked by travel, journalism, and involvement in revolutionary circles, but he is especially remembered in literary history for the sensitivity and melancholy of his writing.
Su Manshu died in 1918, still young, yet his reputation endured as that of a striking and unconventional figure in modern Chinese culture. Readers are often drawn to him not only for his literary talent, but for the sense that his life and art were closely intertwined.