This book studies the intertextuality between colours and modern Chinese literature. By discussing the application of colours in literature and the role of literature in the promotion of new aesthetic connotations of colours, it presents the astounding similarities between the expressive force of colours and the spirit of literary expression.
The book is divided into six chapters, of which the first studies the artistic formation of literary colours, the second studies the colour resources in modern Chinese literature, the third and fourth study the intertextuality between traditional colour notions and modern Chinese literature, and the fifth and sixth study the intertextuality between modern colour notions and modern Chinese literature. The appendices at the end include a chronological table of writers’ art activities, mental associations connected with colours, and shapes of colours, etc.
In the book, the author puts much emphasis on the discussions of Lu Xun and the Woodcut Movement, of “native soil” novelists represented by Shen Congwen, of the localization of modern Western artistic colour notions in China, and of Eileen Chang and modernist art, etc. Through case analyses, the book displays the interaction between colour notions and literature. Reading this book makes you feel like swimming unrestrainedly in the colourful world of literature and art.

Yin Chengjun is an associate professor and graduate student tutor in the Art Department of Beijing Language and Culture University, a visiting professor in People’s Liberation Army Academy of Art, the deputy secretary general of Jiang Zhaohe Artist Studies, China Artists Association, an editorial member and academic moderator of Journal of Chinese Painting, a member of International Artist Association and a post-doctoral researcher of Art Theory in Tsinghua University, whose research focuses on Chinese art history, Chinese art theory, Chinese art criticism and Chinese aesthetics. In addition to more than 50 academic papers, Ms. Yin has also published several books, among which Planting a Tree of Life—A Study on the Artworks of Jiang Zhaohe was a key project approved by the Ministry of Culture of PRC to promote Chinese culture and art and Colours and Modern Chinese Literature (English Edition) was a project of 2013 China Classics International. As a moderator, Ms. Yin has presided over projects of Ministry of Education such as Artistic Criticism since the Founding of PRC and Chinese Artistic Criticism in the 20th Century as well as Artists and Schools of Painting in Beijing—Jiang Zhaohe’s Artistic Creation and Its Influence, a planned fund program of humanities and social sciences of Beijing, etc. Ms. Yin has also participated in six programs at or above the provincial level.