Professor Senno Takumasa (Waseda University, Japan), Professor Alexey Rodionov (St. Petersburg University, Russia), Professor Sebastian Veg (School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS), Professor Jiang Yixin (Beijing Lu Xun Museum), Dr. Hemant Adlakha (Jawaharlal Nehru University), Dr. Devendra Singh Rawat (Jawaharlal Nehru University) and Dr. Raman Sinha (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

The True Story of Ah Q first appeared as a 9-part series in Morning News (晨报), Beijing between Dec 1921 and Feb 1922. Lu Xun, fearing rebuke and rejection from traditional literary scholars, chose Ba Ren (巴人 or commoner) as the pseudonym to hide his identity and protect his literary image. He was overwhelmed when the series became a sensation among people from all walks of life. During the past century, scholars and critics in China, Japan and the West, have relentlessly upheld 'The True Story of Ah Q' as not only Lu Xun’s best but also modern China’s most soul-stirring, most condescending to traditional Confucian values, most politically sensitive, most pro-people, most anti-feudal and anti-rulers, most anti-revolution Revolutionary, most anti-modern Modernist, most anti-Classics classic, most “ordinary” and most tragic work of fiction. This Conference will examine questions which need to be addressed in order to objectively analyse and evaluate Lu Xun, Ah Q, and the future of China.