Lu Xun and the World: A Two‑Way Journey Across Time
and Space — An Interview with Park Jae‑woo, President of the International Lu
Xun Society
By
Yin Jie, Journalist of This Periodical
"Shuren" (Cultivate Human Beings) is the pen name adopted by Park Jae-woo, a renowned Korean sinologist and Honorary Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Now 72 years old, he has devoted over 50 years to the study of Lu Xun. Choosing "Shuren" as his pseudonym is not only a tribute to Lu Xun, but also a constant self-reminder.
Park Jae-woo also serves as President of the International Lu Xun Studies Association. For decades, he has organized and participated in numerous academic seminars and cultural exchange events on Lu Xun research across the globe, witnessing and driving the enduring vitality of Lu Xun’s writings in the present day — much like the "Wild Grass" depicted by Lu Xun, thriving endlessly through the cycles of heaven and earth.
"Years
ago, some claimed Lu Xun was outdated, yet facts prove that the world still
needs him today. To my mind, Lu Xun first belongs to China, then to East Asia,
and ultimately to the whole world," Park Jae-woo told reporters from Global
People.
"I Also Had a Childhood Friend Like Runtu"
"My encounter with Lu Xun was both a product of the times and a kismet of my life," Park Jae-woo reflected. When he enrolled in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Seoul National University in 1973, South Korea was under military authoritarian rule, marked by sharp social contradictions. Young students widely cared about the nation’s future and social democratization. Park Jae-woo had never heard of Lu Xun before; in his sophomore year, the university academic journal invited him to write a critical essay on the writer. To complete the assignment, he hunted far and wide for resources and paid a visit to Professor Ha Jeong-ok of Sungkyunkwan University, a scholar researching Lu Xun.
"It was then that I truly came close to Lu Xun for the first time. This ‘warrior of the spiritual realm’, who dared to face dark realities head-on and endlessly interrogate his nation’s fate, profoundly shook my younger self. Though immature, that critical essay became a spark that altered the trajectory of my life, leading me down the path of Lu Xun research in the years that followed."
Among all Lu Xun’s works, Park Jae-woo holds Hometown dearest. Every time he reads it, he is transported back to his hometown — Hwangpungni, a rural village in Geumsan, South Chungcheong Province of South Korea. Like Young Xun in Hometown, he says: "I also had childhood playmates just like Runtu, some of whom still live in the countryside to this day. I once set up bamboo screens to catch birds after winter snow, just as described in the story. Even the complex, quiet grief on Young Xun’s mother’s face as she sells the old house and prepares to leave her hometown often reminds me of my own mother." Park Jae-woo later found that countless readers share this feeling: after finishing Hometown, they all recall friends they played with as children, only to lose touch as adults. "This is a fascinating phenomenon. Young foreign readers initially turn to Lu Xun to understand China, yet they invariably end up ‘discovering’ their own lives through his writing."
In 1997, Park Jae-woo visited Shaoxing, Lu Xun’s hometown, for the first time. "That trip was in winter, and I have returned in spring, summer and autumn ever since. Shaoxing teems with tourists in every season. Fortunately for me, Shaoxing is not a place one can fully experience in a single visit," Park Jae-woo smiled. Each return feels like reopening a familiar book that yields new insights upon every reading. The streets and gardens remain unchanged, yet as his life experience deepens and his academic reflections mature, sites linked to Lu Xun continuously reveal new layers of meaning.
When he first stepped into the Hundred-Plant Garden, Park Jae-woo had an immediate impression: it seemed smaller than its depiction in the text. Yet seeing those scenes he had read countless times laid out before him filled him with overwhelming warmth. "A handful of plants, an earthen wall, the chirp of insects and childhood games — immortalized through literature, these have become shared memories for generations of readers across countless nations."
The Three-Flavour Study is a modest room, yet it stirred profound emotion within Park Jae-woo: "This humble study nurtured a writer whose influence spans the globe. A person may start with limited physical space, but if their gaze reaches far into the distance, their spirit can travel the entire world."
He naturally made a stop at the iconic Xianheng Tavern. Professor Zhang Xinying from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Fudan University accompanied him and treated him to Shaoxing rice wine and fennel beans. Later, someone asked Park Jae-woo: "Does drinking at Xianheng Tavern make Lu Xun easier to comprehend?" He laughed and replied: "The Shaoxing wine can be sipped to the last drop, and Kong Yiji’s plight is understandable, yet the questions Lu Xun raised remain relevant a hundred years later."
In 2011, Park Jae-woo founded the International Lu Xun Studies Association alongside international academic peers in Shaoxing.
"I
have delivered more than 100 lectures on Lu Xun and modern and contemporary
Chinese literature at over 70 universities and research institutions worldwide.
I deeply perceive that readers from all cultural backgrounds can frame their
own contemporary questions through Lu Xun. We established the International Lu
Xun Studies Association to unite scattered research forces across the world,
building an international academic platform for equal dialogue and shared
progress. It enables global interpretations of Lu Xun to converge, exchange and
flourish, propelling vibrant growth in international Lu Xun studies."
"Mr. Gálik Has Walked This Path, Mr. Feifel Has
Walked This Path"
Overseas dissemination and international research on Lu Xun’s works span over a century, dating back to the 1920s. In Park Jae-woo’s view, Lu Xun’s journey to the world is a "two-way rendezvous": global audiences read and understand Lu Xun, and in turn, examine and re-evaluate themselves through his writings.
"Lu Xun’s influence transcends national borders, ethnic groups and races. Today, we ought to move beyond merely cataloguing ‘which countries Lu Xun has spread to’, and instead focus on how diverse civilizations interpret him," Park Jae-woo stated.
Beyond East Asia, European scholarship on Lu Xun has a long and profound history. Park Jae-woo singled out two prominent European sinologists for the reporter: Marián Gálik and Rudolf Wagner Feifel.
Marián
Gálik, a Slovak sinologist and pivotal figure in European Lu Xun studies, first
met Park Jae-woo in Beijing decades ago. In 2010, Park invited Gálik to write
an academic essay titled Lu Xun in Bohemia and Slovakia, which Gálik
readily agreed to complete. He also recommended a leading scholar researching
Lu Xun’s reception in German-speaking regions: Swiss sinologist Rudolf Feifel.
Park emailed Feifel, whom he had never met, and Feifel quickly accepted the
commission to write Lu Xun in Germany.
"Though we lived at opposite ends of the vast Eurasian continent back then, our academic work had already brought us together through Lu Xun," Park Jae-woo sighed with emotion.
Shortly afterward, he traveled to Europe for a sinology conference and made a special trip to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, to visit Gálik. "It was my first visit to a European sinologist’s home. Outside lay the quiet charm of a Central European city, yet stepping inside felt like entering an entirely different world: bookshelves crammed full of Chinese texts, volumes on Chinese literature, Chinese thought and Lu Xun research lined every surface. Though the homeowner was European, his study filled me with an indescribable sense of kinship."
That day, Gálik specially invited Feifel and another Slovak sinologist, and the group enjoyed a rich, lively conversation. Park recalled: "Feifel was tall with a straight nose, appearing at first glance a quintessential Westerner. Yet the moment he spoke, fluent, natural Chinese rolled off his tongue, and our discussion centered on sinology, Lu Xun and Chinese literature. His expressions, tone and even manner of interacting carried subtle echoes of traditional Chinese literati."
The group sat around the study table, drinking wine and discussing Lu Xun late into the night. Park retains a vivid memory of the scene: "Several Eastern and Western sinologists gathered around a table, conversing in Chinese about a Chinese writer who had passed away decades prior. The faint buzz of wine, the scent of Chinese books and the tranquility of a foreign night wove together a warmth I can still feel clearly to this day."
Feifel then showed Park around local landmarks, their conversation never straying far from Lu Xun: they talked about Lu Xun’s impact on modern Chinese literature, translations and reception of his works across German-speaking countries, and European sinological research traditions. Mid-walk, Feifel suddenly halted, smiling and pointing toward the sidewalk. There stood a bronze sculpture: a worker wearing a safety helmet, half-emerging from a sewer, gripping the edge of the manhole cover with both hands, a mischievous, gentle smile on his face as if quietly observing passersby. Feifel told Park the artwork was titled The Watchman, which Park found delightful. The two crouched beside the sculpture like children and asked a stranger to take a photo of them together.
"For years afterward, I cannot help smiling every time I see that photograph. Looking back now, that quiet worker keeping watch over the street bears a striking resemblance to Feifel, who quietly toiled away at European Lu Xun research," Park Jae-woo said.
That European trip drove home a profound truth for Park Jae-woo: Lu Xun studies is not merely scholarship confined to one nation or one language, but an undertaking to be jointly advanced by academics from every corner of the globe.
Upon the founding of the International Lu Xun Studies Association, Gálik and Feifel were among the first European sinologists to offer their full support. They actively took part in academic events and continuously encouraged more European scholars to join this cross-border academic community. Both scholars have since passed away, yet Park still often looks back at their old photographs and mourns his dear friends.
"Lu
Xun wrote, ‘Originally there were no roads on the earth; when many people walk
along the same track, a road comes into being.’ The path of international Lu
Xun research was trodden by Mr. Gálik and Mr. Feifel, and I still walk it
today. I am confident that countless young scholars from across the world will
continue down this road in the future. This path carved out by successive
generations of Lu Xun researchers leads not only to Lu Xun himself, but also to
understanding, friendship and dialogue between diverse civilizations,"
Park Jae-woo remarked.
"If You Were Lu Xun, What Would You Write About
Today?"
At present, Park Jae-woo is based primarily at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, Shaanxi Normal University. He has spearheaded a series of international academic events including the International Lu Xun Forum at the university, and established a joint office in collaboration with the Lu Xun and World Literature Research Institute of Shaoxing University to advance cross-border Lu Xun research and exchange initiatives.
"Over the years, I have noticed that no matter which country or region I lecture in, students always stay behind to ask further questions after each talk. Sometimes I even feel the real classroom only begins once the formal lecture ends," Park Jae-woo shared.
In 2011, while delivering a lecture at the University of Warsaw in Poland, a local student posed a question: "If Lu Xun were alive today, what would he write?" Instead of answering directly, Park countered: "If you were Lu Xun, what would you most want to write about today?" The student pondered for a moment and replied: "Perhaps still humanity — human loneliness, fear, and the courage to refuse silence in the face of reality."
This reply stayed etched in Park’s memory for a long time. "Times have changed, yet the fundamental questions remain unchanged: how people confront darkness, maintain clarity of mind, and shoulder their responsibilities."
On another occasion, while teaching The True Story of Ah Q at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Park posed a discussion question to his students: "Does Ah Q still exist today?" Initially, most students believed Ah Q was merely a character from old Chinese society, with little relevance to young South Koreans in the present. But as the discussion deepened, a normally quiet student suddenly stood up and said: "Professor, I believe Ah Q has never vanished. When we suffer failures, we constantly search for excuses to comfort ourselves; when faced with pressure, we choose to evade reality. Perhaps a part of Ah Q dwells deep within every person’s heart."
The classroom fell silent the moment the student finished speaking. The students then began drawing connections between Ah Q and academic competition, employment stress, interpersonal relationships and the spiritual predicaments of modern society. The latter half of the class unfolded into increasingly in-depth discussion. At that moment, Park truly realized that Lu Xun created far more than a literary character — he forged a mirror that reflects all facets of human nature.
Numerous South Korean students have traveled all the way to Shaoxing after reading Hometown, The True Story of Ah Q and Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk, eager to see the Hundred-Plant Garden, the Three-Flavour Study and Lu Xun’s former residence with their own eyes. They told Park: "Only after coming here do we truly grasp that Lu Xun is not just a name printed in textbooks, but a man who lived, thought and fought for truth."
"Lu Xun’s greatness lies in his ability to transcend eras and national boundaries, touching upon shared spiritual struggles of all humanity. What truly captivates young foreign readers is not merely the China depicted in his writing, but the eternal question of ‘humanity’ that Lu Xun relentlessly pursues. The most precious spiritual legacy Lu Xun left to the world is a spirit of clarity, honesty, independence, critical thought, resilience and profound humanistic care. No matter how times shift, no society, nation or civilization can afford to lose the capacity to face reality squarely, reflect upon itself and renew from within. This is Lu Xun’s most fundamental spiritual value for our contemporary world," Park Jae-woo concluded.
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