Winter in Jinan

Winter in Jinan is one of the first titles in the "Qianmo Library · Lao She Collection" series, jointly planned by Shandong Pictorial Publishing House and Qianmo Bookstore, compiled to commemorate more than ninety years since Lao She came to Jinan and the 125th anniversary of his birth. The book collects more than twenty essays, mainly centered on Jinan: famous pieces describing the city's seasonal scenery and character such as the widely loved "Winter in Jinan," "Summer in Jinan," "Arriving in Jinan," "Spring at Daming Lake," "Admiring Baotu Spring," and "Mourning Jinan," as well as texts recording daily life and street life in Jinan such as "Guangzhi Institute," "Jinan's Medicine Market," "The Unofficial Park," "A Week in Summer," "Monkey Shows," and "Secondhand Clothes." Also included are "Spring Wind," "How I Wrote 'Daming Lake,'" "How I Wrote 'Cat Country,'" "After Having a Child," "Lord Rabbit," and "Self-Account," offering a glimpse of Lao She's creative work and life during his Jinan years. Lao She came to Jinan around 1930 to teach at Cheeloo University and later went on to teach at Shandong University in Qingdao; he called Jinan his "second hometown." He wrote this golden period of settling down and building a career into essays, and his small hills under heavy snow, mild sunny winters, clear springs, and lively streets combine plain, friendly Beijing colloquial speech with gentle, restrained humor and understanding of people and affairs. "Winter in Jinan" has long been included in middle-school Chinese textbooks and is a shared literary memory for generations of readers. This is a small pocket-sized book, easy to carry, suited to using Lao She as a city guide and revisiting the spring city through his words.