Abstract: That the author’s own experience and transient emotions shed an obious and immediate light on her work is the what one feels when comparing Hong Ying’s autobiographical novels Daughter of the River and Good Children of her Flowers to her two collections of short autobiographies Little girl and 53 Kinds of Departures. The influence one sees is a mixture of nihility and reality. All that is reflectd in the artistic structuring, detailed story-telling and concise rational imagery in her autobiographical novel.

Key words: Hong Ying; the autobiographical novel; the real; imaginative

Zhu Xuchen is Professor of Chinese Literature atYanshan University,China. She gains a PhD fromFudan University,China. Her publications include The Autumn Waters and the Slanting Sun: A Study of Modern Chinese Women Life Writings (2006) and The Aesthetics of Novel Writing (2002). Her research Areas: Modern Chinese Literature, Overseas Chinese Literature, Biography Studies, Film & Media Studies.