Abstract
Zhou Shuren (1881–1936), known by his pen name Lu Xun, was a pioneering Chinese writer and intellectual who became a symbol of spiritual enlightenment and cultural revolution in twentieth‐century China and East Asia. He was one of the founding fathers of what came to be known as China's “New Culture” (xin wenhua). Since his death, he has been accorded the status of the “soul of the nation.” Mao Zedong praised him as the “giant of Chinese cultural revolution,” and during the heyday of Maoism in the 1960s–70s, the iconic status of Lu Xun's image was second only to Mao's own. Even today, Lu Xun's works continue to stir controversy and invite reinterpretation.