Shen Congwen and His Border Town
2 min readBoth Shen Congwen (1902－1988) and his work Border Town are unique in the history of modern literature. Shen Congwen was born in Hunan Province, where for generations the Miao and Tujia peoples have lived together. When he was 20, he suddenly decided to explore the world through writing. Border Town is the most famous story by Shen Congwen. With nearly 70,000 words, it is said to be “the shortest novel but the longest poem”.
The heroine of Border Town, Cuicui, is an orphan of 16. She lives with her grandfather, who makes a living by ferrying villagers in a little boat. Both the two sons of Shunshun, the pier attendant, are in love with her, but Cuicui has fallen in love with Nuosong, the younger son who she met at the age of 13. She turned down the matchmaker sent by the elder brother Tianbao. Tianbao then is killed while sailing down the river. Nuosong leaves his hometown due to his brother’s death. The old boatman dies on a stormy night, leaving Cuicui alone, waiting for Nuosong, who “might never come back or just appear tomorrow” .
In Border Town, Shen Congwen spent more time painting for our eyes the natural beauty and customs of the countryside in Hunan Province, enabling us to understand a more complete sense of a world. Wang Zengqi , Shen’s pupil and also a writer later, interprets Border Town as not only a geographic concept, but also a concept in terms of time and space.
Border Town mingles both the author’s hope for his hometown when he lived in the city, along with his bitter sympathy for the beauty of human nature as it is eroded by modern civilization.
