A General Review of Oversea Researches on Yu Dafu

The existent earliest pieces of poetry written by Yu Dafu at age 15 are the three poems published in 1911 by Shenzhou Daily of Shanghai, entitled Yong Shi (Ode to History). Mainland attention began to be paid to Yu Dafu in 1915, almost the same year Yu began his writing career. Overseas research on Yu was started in the mid-20th century chiefly by three representative academic communities in Japan, Southeast Asia, and Europe and the United States. Their researches which last for over 50 years, have produced fresh ideas, unique perspectives, and different characteristics and focuses. Their academic results in various aspects have really amazed their Chinese colleagues in the Mainland.Take Japanese scholars’ positive criticism. In Japan, Yu Dafu has been regarded as a renowned writer who represents Chinese new literature, and played a central role in Sino-Japan cultural exchanges, and even as the equal of the great Chinese writer Lu Xun. The academic research done by Japanese colleagues mainly focuses on positive criticism. From the 1920s to the early 21st century, three generations of scholars represented by Takeo Oda and Yoshimi Takeuchi, Toramaru Ito and Masao Suzuki, and Kuwashima respectively have paid particular and detailed attention to Yu’s life story, such as his experience in Japan, the relationship between his novels and modern Japanese literature, especially the private novel, and his missing and being murdered in Sumatra. Nanyang or Southeast Asia is where Yu settled down after wandering overseas for years. Therefore, the research done by the academic community in Nanyang is characteristic of being emotional, memorial, sentimental, and mysterious. The pity is that the sentimental criticism on Yu’s literature overshadowed that on a large quantity of political comments, poems, and travelogues Yu had written in his remaining years, which should have been studied in a deeper, fairer and more objective manner. The European and American scholars’ research focuses on text criticism. After the 1950s or the 1960s, Europe and the United States have become a new source for new criticism and ideas. As far as research approaches to Yu Dafu is concerned, individual criticism is a major one, coupled with structuralism and prototype criticism. Besides, particular attention is paid to intertextuality, the forms of expression and artistic techniques of the text. Generally speaking, researches done by overseas scholars regarding Yu Dafu can match those done in the Mainland, as viewed in whatever way. Furthermore, they have demonstrated many advantages that the Chinese colleagues find it difficult to match, such as the employment of resources, new critical approaches, academic liberty, and devotion.