Chronicles the genesis and development of modern Chinese literature during the tumultuous period of radical self-awakening between the watershed literary revolution of 1917 and the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Writing in Turbulent Times is the first complete English-language translation of (Thirty years of modern Chinese literature), which chronicles the genesis and development of modern Chinese literature from the literary revolution of 1917 to the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Providing a panoramic view of various literary genres and works produced during this tumultuous period by such prominent writers as Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, and Ba Jin, the book traces how homegrown calls for innovation combined with the active reception of foreign literary trends led to the modern literary rebirth of China. In vivid detail, the book portrays how the intimate and often contradictory confluences of domestic and global literary cultural forces, forged through ink and ideology, further fueled the epochal shifts in that era, contributing to the dynamic formation of modern Chinese identities. Written by three of the most distinguished Chinese scholars of modern Chinese literature, the book offers a mainland Chinese scholarly perspective on this period of radical self-awakening, one that has been, until recently, relatively understudied in Anglophone scholarship.

Qian Liqun ( ) is Professor Emeritus of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University. His major publications include On Zhou Zuoren; Between the Grand and Petty Stages: A New Study of Cao Yu's Drama; and Encountering Lu Xun. Wen Rumin ( ) is Chair Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Shandong University. He is the author of The Evolution of Realism in Modern Chinese Literature and A History of Modern Chinese Literary Criticism. Wu Fuhui (, 1939-2021) was Deputy Director of the National Museum of Modern Chinese Literature. An English version of his work A Cultural History of Modern Chinese Literature was published in 2020. Li Zhimin is "Guangzhou Scholar "Distinguished Professor of English at the School of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou University. He is the author of China Being Led and Leading: A Literary and Cultural Interpretation (with Daniel Braun), The Law of Freedom in Modern Poetry, and several other monographs. Ni Xiuhua is Associate Professor of Translation Studies at the School of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou University. She is the author of A Study on Outward Translation of Chinese Literature (1949-1966). Kyoo Lee is Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York. She is the author of Reading Descartes Otherwise: Blind, Mad, Dreamy and Bad and the editor of Queenzenglish.mp3: poetry, philosophy, performativity.