When Lin Zixuan came to the UK, Xu Zhimo had already returned to China, and his trip to Europe could be said to be very unfortunate.

On March 10, 1925, in order to avoid the limelight, Xu Zhimo left Beiping.

It then passed through Chita, Siberia, Moscow and other places in the Soviet Union, and stayed in Moscow for three days.

In addition to observing, chatting, and watching plays, Xu Zhimo also visited Tolstoy's daughter, contacted some intellectuals, and visited Lenin's mausoleum and Chekhov's cemetery.

During this period, he wrote an article for a domestic newspaper, "A Journey to Europe", which recorded what he saw and thought in the Soviet Union.

His observations, though fleeting, are true records, without fanatical adoration, but only objective narratives.

"The deeper you enter, the more obvious the plight of the local people," said Chita Station, which is full of children between the ages of three and four to five or six, who ask for money and food from passengers, as well as adult men and women in ragged clothes with indifferent expressions doing nothing.

The intellectuals of the Soviet Union "lived like prisoners in prison or hungry ghosts in hell." ”

As for the important Soviet writers, Tolstoy's daughter said: all ran away, and the rest were irrelevant......

It was this trip to the Soviet Union that made him question the utopia of the Soviet Union, which he saw completely different from the Soviet Union propagated in China, and he even thought that such a society would inevitably go bankrupt.

On March 29, Xu Zhimo came to Berlin, Germany, met his ex-wife Zhang Youyi, and learned that his son had unfortunately died.

Battered and guilty, Xu Zhimo wrote an article "My Peter" in memory of his son.

The main purpose of his visit to Europe was to meet with Tagore, but when he arrived in Italy, Tagore left Europe due to illness. Returned to India.

He stayed in Italy for a few weeks and then went to England and France. Meet the literary celebrities of various countries.

Xu Zhimo visited the English novelist Hardy, who was the author of "Tess of the D'Urbergs".

Hardy was also a poet. Presumably there will be a common language with him.

This is a hobby of Xu Zhimo, every time he goes to a place, he will visit local celebrities and write them in his articles as souvenirs, just like stamp collecting, but he collects celebrity stories.

When Lin Zixuan was in the United States, Xu Zhimo had already returned to China.

In this era, there is no global communication, and it is difficult to connect.

Once abroad, they had to rely on telegraph communications, and there was no fixed address. You also have to rely on other people's notifications, and by the time you receive the news, you may have already missed it.

Lin Zixuan only got the news of Xu Zhimo after coming to England, and his arrival was welcomed by the London literary community.

This has something to do with the fact that he sent the New Literature Series to Virginia Woolf.

Woolf printed these novels and plays from China, circulated them in literary circles, and gave them high praise.

In this era, Britain was known as the empire on which the sun never set, with vast colonies in Asia, and unlike American conservatism, Britain has always adopted a policy of foreign expansion.

This may be the island mentality. In his bones, he has a tendency towards foreign expansion and colonization.

Therefore, the British are particularly concerned about what is happening in the Far East, especially ancient India and China, which is the focus of British cultural circles.

Lin Zixuan's new literary series is considered a symbol of the exchange between Chinese and English literary circles.

In particular, Lin Zixuan's dramas "Thunderstorm" and "Sunrise" have attracted much attention.

Theatre in Britain was very prosperous. This stems from the great English dramatist William Shakespeare, who cultivated the British love of theatre and made the British proud of it.

Relative to the brutal rule of the British government in the Far East. The elite of English literature viewed the revolts of the countries of the Far East with humanitarianism.

This is easy to understand, as was the case with the Chinese literati attacking the Beiyang government. The literati in Britain were also extremely dissatisfied with the government.

In other words, as a cultural person. Be independent-minded and not submit to the rule of the government.

Literati should have their own ethics, reflect the true side of society and criticize social injustice.

This is the function of observing and supervising society.

Those who can only sing the praises of virtue are not called literati, because there are too many people who can sing praises of virtue, and only by exposing the darkness of society and criticizing the incompetence of the government can the value of the literati be demonstrated.

Criticising the government's brutal rule over other countries is a current in British cultural circles.

For example, after the "Five Thirties Massacre" in Shanghai, British dramatist George Bernard Shaw issued a manifesto with famous people from various countries, severely condemning the brutal acts of the British authorities and supporting the patriotic movement of the Chinese people.

Virginia Woolf had encouraged her nephew to travel to China to participate in the ongoing Revolution.

It's just that this guy didn't participate in any vigorous revolution after arriving in China, but had a sensational love affair with a married woman.

Lin Zixuan's play Sunrise is considered to be comparable to the novel "The Rise and Fall of Courtesans" by French writer Balzaco, which depicts the cruelty of women in a cruel society, and has been widely praised by the British literary circle.

Virginia Woolf even had the idea of putting this "Sunrise" on the stage of British theater.

Bing Xin's novels have attracted much attention because they depict the emotional and life problems of Chinese women, and Lu Xun and Yu Dafu's revelations of the dark society resonate with these British scholars.

They believe that this set of books is of great value for a more comprehensive understanding of what is happening in China.

As a result, this series of new Chinese literature, which has been neglected in the United States, has been sought after in the United Kingdom.

This has to do with the cultural climate of both countries, with American readers being more interested in best-selling novels and British readers preferring serious literature.

This is precisely why the British consider Americans to be impetuous, and the roots of American literature are not deep enough.

This time, Lin Zixuan brought his latest masterpiece "Lord of the Flies".

This deeply philosophical novel is a favorite of the British, and it is also desert island literature, a symbol of free life for the British who advocate freedom and adventure.

But "Lord of the Flies" subverts the previous desert island literature and presents the ugly side of human nature.

Far from feeling uncomfortable, the elite of the British cultural circle were attracted by the philosophical reflections in it, believing that the novel was a microcosm of the whole world.

After the First World War, British cultural circles began to reflect on the war.

If you think of the countries of the world as children, Britain is undoubtedly one of the strongest children, while the other colonized countries are weak children.

So, how should the mighty Britain manage this desert island and make it prosperous, not ruined?

This posed a conundrum for British colonial policy.

They feel that Lin Zixuan expresses a world problem of ordinary significance in the novel, and "Lord of the Flies" is already a classic novel based on this alone.

With "Lord of the Flies", Lin Zixuan's debut in the British cultural circle can be described as very amazing, shaking the British literary world. (To be continued.) )