Journal Entries for Chan Lao-shi Mad Mans Diary The thing that struck me most in this, my third

reading of Lu Xuns Mad Mans Diary was his repeated use of animal imagery and metaphor that I had not noticed either of the other two times I read it. It begins in the mad mans very first entry with the sentence, Otherwise, how do you explain those dirty looks the Zhao familys dog gave me (30). This initial glimpse of animal usage sets up Lu Xuns argument; the mad man fears that the dog wants to eat him; ergo the reader understands that animals eat people. When the mad man later reveals his different understanding of the history book, seeing the words Eat people on every page, Lu Xun links animal behavior to Chinas history, arguing that the China has created a culture that dehumanizes, numbs, and ultimately self-sabotages its people. The animal imagery echoes and reverberates throughout the piece, from the mad mans citing of the cannibalistic incident in Wolf Cub Village to the cryptic fragment, Savage as a lion, timid as a rabbit, crafty as a fox (35). The mad mans meal of fish is a particularly powerful metaphor; the fish with its blank, lifeless eyes that can do nothing but stare open-mouthed at its devourer mirrors the photographs of onlookers at executions that Lu Xun found so repulsive. Those people are no better than dead fish, he says. Also of note, translator William Lyell remarks in a footnote that Darwins theory of evolution was immensely important to Chinese intellectuals during Lu Xuns lifetime and the common coin of much discourse (38). From a certain direction, Darwins theories can be used as evidence to indicate that humans evolved from animals and therefore must have animal qualities; that the human is only as much above the animal as science has allowed it to become. This Western thought, seen again in the phonetic spelling of hyena as hai-yi-na on page 36, then indicates an extremely strong advocacy to modernize Chinas sciences and technologies, as these things are a direct path away from animal behavior and away from self-destructive backwardness. Hometown Ah-Q The Real Story In further readings of Ah Q The Real Story, I was struck by several things: the recurring concept of dirtylookism, the incredible amount of grotesque images and scenes, and again, Ah Qs unflappable belief in his own superiority he always wins.