2 . Known as “China’s most popular love comedy”, Romance of the Western Chamber is regarded as one of the best works of its time. The play was written over 700 years ago by Yuan Dynasty dramatist Wang Shifu (1260-1336).

Set in the Tang Dynasty, the play tells the secret love story between a young scholar Zhang Sheng, who is on his way to take the highest imperial exam in the capital city, and Cui Yingying, daughter of a chief minister of the Tang court.

After bandits(土匪) surround Cui at a temple, her mother promises her daughter’s hand in marriage to whoever can defeat them. Zhang manages to drive the bandits away, but Cui’s mother takes back her word because Zhang is poor. However, Zhang and Cui have already fallen in love. With the help of Cui’s maid Hong Niang, the two continue their romance and break many barriers.

The play incorporates much of the beauty of the poetry from the Tang and Song eras in Chinese history. Part of its appeal to readers is found in the style, grace and flow of the language. In fact, the play represents a high mark of achievement in romantic Chinese literature, and is quite popular. It has given rise to many sequels and rewritings, and also influenced countless plays, short stories and novels. The Peony Pavilion and Dream of the Red Chamber probably wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Wang’s classic play.

The play also inspired generations of artists across various mediums such as woodblock prints, paintings and porcelain. This fine art is still on display at places such as Freer Gallery of Art in the US and Kwun Tong’s Sun Museum in Hong Kong.

The ancient porcelain pieces depicting iconic scenes from the tale are indeed impressive. The characters are like “the superheroes from another time”, Rachel Leung, associate curator(副馆长) of Sun Museum told China Daily. “It’s exactly like the Marvel franchise.”

“This story is basically about trying to break the societal strictures. It’s about courage and perseverance to pursue true love,” Leung said. “It’s surprising to know that centuries ago our ancestors imagined a story like that. They proved that they were not rigid or passive and they could be creative enough to make things for themselves.”

Indeed, Romance of the Western Chamber is known for opposing traditional norms associated with marriage and love during a more orthodox era. It has a positive take on marriage, emphasizing that true love should prevail(占上风).

3 . Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding about black culture in America.

Her poems described conditions in the black community. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women. But her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. She was an expert at the language of poetry. She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience.

In her early poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the South Side of Chicago, where many black people live. In her poems, the South Side is called Bronzeville. It was A Street in Bronzeville that gained the attention of literary experts in 1945. Critics praised her poetic skill and her powerful descriptions of the black experience during the time. The Bronzeville poems were her first published collection.

In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks won Pulitzer Prize for her second book of poems called Annie Allen. Annie Allen is `a collection of poetry about the life of a Bronzeville girl as a daughter, a wife and mother. She experiences loneliness, loss, death and being poor. Ms. Brooks said that winning the prize changed her life.

Her next work was a novel written in 1953 called Maud Martha, which received little notice when it was first published. But now it is considered an important work by some critics. Its main ideas about the difficult life of many women are popular among female writers today.

In some of her poems, Gwendolyn Brooks described how what people see in life is affected by who they are. One example is this poem, Corners on the Curing Sky.

By the end of the 1960s, Gwendolyn Brooks’s poetry expanded from the everyday experiences of people in Bronzeville. She wrote about a wider world and dealt with important political issues.