Abstract: Chinese Shakespearean criticism from the Marxist perspective is highly original in Chinese Shakespeare studies. Scholars such as MAO Dun, YANG Hui, ZHAO Li, FANG Ping, YANG Zhou-han, BIAN Zhi-lin, MENG Xian-qiang, SUN Jia-xiu, ZHANG Si-yang and WANG Yuan-hua, who adopt basic principles and methods of Marxism to elaborate on Shakespearean works, have made great achievements. With ideas changed in different political climates, they have engaged in Shakespeare studies for over eight decades since the 1930s. At the beginning of the revolutionary age, they advocated revolutionary literature, followed Russian Shakespearean criticism from the Marxist perspective, and established the mode of class analysis and highlighted realism. Before and after the Cultural Revolution, they were concerned about class, reality and people. They also showed the "left-wing" inclination, taking literature as a tool to serve politics. Since the 1980s, they have been free from politics and entered the pure academic realm, analyzing Shakespearean dramas with Marxist aesthetic theories and transforming from sociological criticism to literature criticism.

Key words: China, Marxism, Shakespearean criticism