The Cross-Cultural Reception and Literary Influence of Chekhov's “The Death of a Government Clerk” in China and Japan: A Case Study of the 1930s and 1940s

As one of Anton Chekhov's representative early short stories, The Death of a Government Clerk captured the attention of literary circles in both China and Japan during the 1930s and 1940s with its absurd plot—a death triggered by a single sneeze. Drawing on this period, this paper examines the transmission pathways, character construction, and derivative works of this story in both countries. Research reveals that literary figures in both nations, operating within distinct social contexts and historical frameworks, employed divergent translation practices to construct varied interpretations of the protagonist in The Death of a Government Clerk. In the Chinese literary sphere, through translations by Lu Xun, Mao Dun, and others, the “small civil servant” was portrayed as a “victim of the feudal hierarchical system,” serving the causes of enlightenment, revolution, and national salvation—hoping to liberate the people from ignorance. Japanese literary circles, through translations by Shiga Naoya and Ibusuki Masaji, viewed the “little civil servant” as a symbol of “modern loneliness,” emphasizing its existential absurdity to serve social problem studies and artistic research. Writers from both nations drew upon Chekhov's narrative strategy of “anti-climax coupled with mundane details,” transforming it respectively into tools for social critique and psychological portrayal. This reveals a cross-cultural reception landscape characterized by “common origins, divergent streams.”