Mu Shiying

Who was Mu Shiying?

Mu Shiying was a Chinese writer who is now best known for his modernist short stories. He was active in Shanghai in the 1930s where he contributed to journals like Les Contemporains, edited by Shi Zhecun.

He was born in Cixi, Ningbo, Zhejiang and studied Chinese literature at Shanghai Guanghua University. In 1930, he submitted a short story, "Our World" to La Nouvelle Littérature, a journal which was edited by Shi Zhecun, Liu Na’ou 劉吶鷗, Dai Wangshu, and Xu Xiacun 徐霞村. The work was praised by the editors and Mu Shiying became a protégé of Shi Zhecun.

Mu Shiying moved to Hong Kong in 1938 after the Japanese occupation, but he returned to Shanghai at the invitation of Liu Na'ou who was working with the Japanese. Mu Shiying was seen as a Japanese collaborator and was assassinated by a Nationalist assassin in 1940. However according to Prof David Der-Wang of Harvard University, Mu's family later came forward with evidence of his underground Marxist work, and his role as a Nationalist double-agent.