In 'Fou Lei: An Insistence on Truth', Mingyuan Hu thinks through the life and work of one of modern China?s most significant public intellectuals, investigating his Shanghai-Paris trajectory and his resistance against cultural barbarism. Using hitherto undiscovered archival documents, Hu presents the first study of Fou Lei?s youth, particularly his formative years in Europe (1928-1931), and analyses the critic-translator?s identity vis-à-vis intercultural friendships and political predicaments. Bringing together previously untranslated material in French and Chinese, 'Fou Lei' paints a man in dark times searching for illumination through words, and invites the reader to reconsider questions, unresolved and unspoken, about his tragic end.

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