Lao She's Rickshaw: Allegory for 1930s China's Plight
This essay examines Lao She's novel Rickshaw (Lo-t'o Hsiang Tzu) as an allegory for China's social and political condition during the 1930s. Through close reading of key chapters, the paper traces how protagonist Hsiang Tzu's doomed pursuit of independence symbolizes the individualism that Lao She identifies as China's central failing during the Nanjing decade. Drawing on historical context — including the Guomindang's rule, rapid coastal industrialization, and Peking's economic stagnation — the essay argues that Hsiang Tzu's progressive degradation from ambitious rickshaw owner to humiliated laborer mirrors the broader failure of self-interested individualism to sustain a modernizing nation.
- Introduction: Individualism as China's Central Failing: Thesis: Hsiang Tzu embodies China's individualism flaw
- Historical Context: China During the Nanjing Decade: Guomindang rule, industrialization, and Peking's stagnation
- Hsiang Tzu's Independence and Its Limits: Early ambition gives way to dependency and obstacle
- The Erosion of Self-Confidence and Agency: Tzu loses autonomy working under Mr. Ts'ao
- Surrender, Degradation, and the Breaking of the Individual Spirit: Tzu's spirit collapses; seeks agency employment
- Conclusion: Allegory and the Call for Collective Progress: Individualism fails; China needs collective unity
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What makes this paper effective
- It grounds literary analysis in specific historical context — the Nanjing decade, Guomindang rule, and Peking's economic stagnation — giving the allegorical reading credibility and depth.
- It progresses methodically through the novel chapter by chapter, allowing the reader to trace Hsiang Tzu's decline in a structured, evidence-based way.
- It uses direct quotations from both the novel and the translator's introduction to anchor every interpretive claim, balancing primary-text evidence with scholarly framing.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates sustained allegorical reading: it treats a fictional character not merely as an individual but as a representative symbol for a nation's social condition. By mapping Hsiang Tzu's psychological and economic deterioration onto China's historical struggles with modernization, the essay shows how literary symbolism and historical argument can reinforce each other.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a framing thesis drawn from the translator's introduction, then supplies historical background on the Nanjing decade before moving into sequential close readings of Chapters 1, 6, 7, 12, 13, and the novel's conclusion. Each chapter analysis builds on the previous one to chart Hsiang Tzu's decline. The final paragraph synthesizes the literary and political arguments into a concise thematic conclusion.
Introduction: Individualism as China's Central Failing
In the introduction to Lao She's novel Lo-t'o Hsiang Tzu, first published in serial form between September 1936 and May 1937, the translator relates that Lao She's message in his previous works had explored "the conservatism of the traditionally educated… and their blindness to the necessity to modernize China… with the Chinese as the obstacle to progress." Yet in Rickshaw, Lao She focuses on "the self-centeredness of the Chinese which he calls Individualism… being their crucial failing" (viii). The main character, Hsiang Tzu, a rickshaw puller, appears to be the "personification of this great flaw" — namely, individualism. Thus, Hsiang Tzu "is not a victim of a sick society but one of its representatives, a specimen of a malady that must be cured" if China is to become modernized and take its place in the modern world.
Without a doubt, Hsiang Tzu stands as a symbol for China's plight in the late 1930s, when the country faced many social and political problems. Since the setting of the novel is Peking, it is clear that Hsiang Tzu, in order to survive as a member of China's uneducated and underprivileged class, is attempting to make a decent living in the city — the capital of China until governance was shifted to Nanking in 1928. However, Peking, "the great city, is neutral toward him. It neither helps nor hinders; all it gives him is a slightly better chance to survive" (Introduction ix). In order to better understand Hsiang Tzu's position in Peking as a rickshaw puller, a brief look at the history of China during the 1930s is necessary.
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