Lu Yin

Lu Yin (1898–1934) was a Chinese feminist writer of the 20th century. Her extensive body of work includes novels, short story collections and essays that explore the lives and hardships of Chinese women in the early 20th century. Lu Yin is often associated with the May Fourth movement due to her support and espousing of its ideals during her academic career and its influences that are found in her literary works. During her writing career Lu Yin advocated for women's liberation through education and wrote many critical essays on what the steps to women's emancipation in China should look like. Due to the content of her work often reflecting feminist theory and her May Fourth movement involvement, Lu Yin is cited as a prominent figure in both the canon of May Fourth writers and notable women writers of China.

Life

Early years Lu Yin was born in the Chinese province of Fujian in 1898 however, the exact date of her birth remains in question. Lu Yin's tense relationship with her mother and the neglect she faced as a child would inform the themes of many of her future writings that explored characters with unhappy childhoods. These two women shared many of the same romantic experiences, with both women becoming involved with married men who died suddenly and around the same time. and the two writers often publicly displayed their friendship through their published poems, essays and stories. Lu Yin gravitated towards its principles, the influence of which can be seen in her early writings that contributed to her prominence as a May Fourth woman writer. This female subjectivity allowed Lu Yin to depict more sentimentally themed works centred on female friendships in a style that distinguished her work from that of her male counterparts and contributed to the evolution of Chinese women's writing into forms such as novels and longer works.

Notable works This is a list of some of Lu Yin's major works including her autobiography, novels, essays, poems and letters.

Old Friends by the Sea Shore (1925) Manli (1928) A Returning Wild Goose (1930) Thorns of Roses (1933) A Woman's Heart (1933) The Ivory Ring (1934) Lu Yin's Autobiography (1934) Glimpse of Tokyo (1935) Flames (1936)