Martin Woesler

Martin Woesler (born 29 September 1969 in Münster, West Germany) is a German sinologist, cultural scientist and translator of Chinese literature.

Woesler translated works from the Chinese authors Lǔ Xùn 魯迅, Zhōu Zuòrén 周作人, Xǔ Dìshān 許地山, Yù Dáfū 郁達夫, Zhū Zìqīng 朱自清, Bīng Xīn 冰心, Bā Jīn 巴金, Qián Zhōngshū 錢鍾書, Wáng Měng 王蒙, Zhāng Jié 張洁, Liú Zàifù 劉再復, Jiǎ Píngwā 賈平凹, and Hán Hán 韓寒 into English and German as well as of Cáo Xuěqín 曹雪芹 into German.

These short first-person narratives, which mostly appeared in newspapers between the May-4th-movement 1919 and the beginning of the 1930s, were a new form for the awaking civil society to express its views and feelings.

Woesler drew attention to the essayistic work of Zhōu Zuòrén, the younger brother of Lu Xun, who was ostracized due to his positive attitude towards Japan and his independence from daily politics and propaganda.

As the main trend of Chinese literature, Woesler sees young authors describing their everyday life in a rapidly and excitingly changing reality.

[3] Woesler has set different traditional models of comparison of cultures in the framework of a related system and further developed them in front of the background of globalization, mobility, and the internet.