Not Afraid of Ghosts: Stories of the Spectral in Modern Chinese Fiction

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Not Afraid of Ghosts: Stories of the Spectral in Modern Chinese Fiction Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2017 Not afraid of ghosts: stories of the spectral in modern Chinese fiction Imbach, Jessica Elizabeth Abstract: This study explores literary representations of ghosts and the spectral in Mainland Chinese fiction from the Republican period (1912-1949) to the present. The first two chapters trace thepoliti- cization of Chinese ghost culture and literature within intellectual debates and fictional writings from the early 20th century. I argue that ghosts and narratives of haunting provided writers with a powerful metaphor and script to reflect on and negotiate a modernization project caught between the rejection and the strategic appropriation of China’s cultural history. Reading ghosts as a fictional space, which challenges normative hierarchies between the past and the present, China and the West, chapter three discusses the phantom romance plot in late Republican Shanghai fiction and the representation of female phantoms as gendered reflections of, and on, Shanghai’s commodity culture, cosmopolitanism, andthe changing real and symbolic roles of women. Chapter four focuses on the conjunction of Chinese ghost culture and classism in Mao-era literary production an analyzes the socialist adaptation of the anomaly account collection in “Stories About Not Being Afraid of Ghosts” (1961). Lastly, chapter five discusses two urban ghost novels from the post-Tiananmen period (1989-) which reimagine older models of cos- mography to reflect on critical issues in China today, such as heritage destruction, migration andair pollution. Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-144209 Dissertation Published Version Originally published at: Imbach, Jessica Elizabeth. Not afraid of ghosts: stories of the spectral in modern Chinese fiction. 2017, University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts. Not Afraid of Ghosts: Stories of the Spectral in Modern Chinese Fiction Thesis presented to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Zurich for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Jessica Elizabeth Imbach Accepted in the spring semester 2017 on the recommendation of the doctoral committee: Prof. Dr. Andrea Riemenschnitter (main supervisor, University of Zurich) Prof. Dr. Angelika Malinar (University of Zurich) Prof. Dr. Meng Yue (University of Toronto) Zurich, 2017 Abstract This study explores literary representations of ghosts and the spectral in Mainland Chinese fiction from the Republican period (1912-1949) to the present. The first two chapters trace the politicization of Chinese ghost culture and literature within intellectual debates and fictional writings from the early 20th century. I argue that ghosts and narratives of haunting provided writers with a powerful metaphor and script to reflect on and negotiate a modernization project caught between the rejection and the strategic appropriation of China's cultural history. Reading ghosts as a fictional space, which challenges normative hierarchies between the past and the present, China and the West, chapter three discusses the phantom romance plot in late Republican Shanghai fiction and the representation of female phantoms as gendered reflections of, and on, Shanghai's commodity culture, cosmopolitanism, and the changing real and symbolic roles of women. Chapter four focuses on the conjunction of Chinese ghost culture and classism in Mao-era literary production and analyzes the socialist adaptation of the anomaly account collection in “Stories About Not Being Afraid of Ghosts” (1961). Lastly, chapter five discusses two urban ghost novels from the post- Tiananmen period (1989-) which reimagine older models of cosmography to reflect on critical issues in China today, such as heritage destruction, migration and air pollution. ii Zusammenfassung Diese Arbeit studiert unter Einbezug unterschiedlicher westlicher Theorien zu Gespenstern in der Moderne und zum Teil noch unerforschter chinesischer Quellen, die ästhetischen wie auch politischen Problemkreise, welche in der modernen chinesischen Literatur über die Figur des Gespenstes verhandelt werden. Die ersten beiden Kapitel analysieren die Auseinandersetzung mit Gespenstern im Intellektuellendiskurs der Republikszeit (1912-1949). Sie zeigen auf, wie anhand der literarischen Figur des Gespenstes unterschiedliche Modernisierungsvorstellungen zum Ausdruck gebracht wurden, welche eine Neuanordnung normativer Hierarchien zwischen China und dem Westen, der Vergangenheit und der Gegenwart anstrebten. Dies lässt sich beispielhaft aufzeigen an der Figur des gefährlich-schönen weiblichen Phantoms aus der vormodernen chinesischen Literatur, welches häufig in der Schanghaier Erzählliteratur der 1930er und 1940er Jahre erscheint und hier geschlechtskonnotierten Deutungsstrategien von Chinas Modernisierungsprozess dient. In ähnlicher Weise analysiert das vierte Kapitel die Adaption vormoderner Gespensterdiskurse in der sozialistischen Literatur im Hinblick auf die Klassenkampfrhetorik der maoistischen Periode. Das fünfte Kapitel schliesslich verortet literarische Auseinandersetzungen mit Figuren des Un- und Nichtmenschlichen in der Post-Tiananmen-Ära (1989-) im Kontext aktueller gesellschaftlicher Probleme wie Kulturgüterzerstörung, Migration und Luftverschmutzung. iii Table of Contents Abstract................................................................................................................................................ii Zusammenfassung...............................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgments...............................................................................................................................vi List of Illustrations.............................................................................................................................vii Summary...........................................................................................................................................viii Chapter 1: The new ghosts of a new China..........................................................................................1 1 Getting serious about ghosts: anti-spiritualism and ghost rhetoric from 1918-1949..................11 2 Making the case for ghosts: putting the project in context.........................................................19 Chapter 2:...........................................................................................................................................34 Ghost talk in 1936: “Living ghosts” and “real ghosts” in Republican-era literary discourse and the two Analects Fortnightly ghost story special issues...........................................................................34 1 Entertaining ghosts.....................................................................................................................34 2 Living with ghosts.......................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................................36 2.1 Phantom relations................................................................................................................39 3 Theorizing ghosts........................................................................................................................41 3.1 Shao's new ghost story: dead upon delivery?......................................................................43 4 Writing ghosts.............................................................................................................................51 4.1 Shao Xunmei: Listening to transgression...........................................................................52 4.2 Lu Jun: Old stories, new ghosts..........................................................................................55 4.3 Lin Weiyin: Losing sight of human(ity)..............................................................................57 4.4 Bi Shutang: Learning from “real ghosts”............................................................................60 5 In the company of ghosts............................................................................................................63 Chapter 3:...........................................................................................................................................67 Ghost Trouble: Female ghosts, fetishism and spectral subjectivity in Shanghai fiction from the Republican period...............................................................................................................................67 1 Keeping dreams of phantom love alive......................................................................................67 2 In love with ghosts: the phantom romance plot in 1930s Shanghai fiction................................71 2.1 Ye Lingfeng's “Luoyan”......................................................................................................77 2.2 Zhang Kebiao's “Mirage”....................................................................................................83 2.3 Shi Zhecun's “Witchcraft”...................................................................................................86 2.4 Xu Xu's “Ghost Love”........................................................................................................96
Recommended publications
  • The Funeral of Mr. Wang Was Typical
    6 Of Rules and Regulations Governing Mourning Grief involves the loss of a social relationship that had served as an anchor. This loss disorients. Not knowing what to do, the grief-stricken want to be showed what to do, told what to do. A standardized ritual to follow step by step and a person to guide one through it can help. In the language of “governmentality” theorists, grief is a time to be governed, whether this governing is to be done by familial elders, religious specialists, secular ritual practitioners, or government employees.1 In this regard, the funeral of Mr. Wang was typical. Mr. Wang’s children, espe- cially his younger daughter, were exhausted from the extra work of caring for their father during his dying days. In this period, the children avoided discussing death. While they told the middle daughter to return from England, too much talk of dying and funerals would have made it seem like they had abandoned all hope of a cure and were wishing their father dead. Mr. Wang himself was never directly told of his prognosis. When death occurred, the children were exhausted, bereaved, and unprepared. They needed someone to tell them how to proceed. A little nudge from their helper led them to Mr. Chen. They were more than happy to have him to guide them through the process. While all rituals might involve standardized procedure, funerals especially are times for limiting choice. Here a contrast with weddings illuminates. In modern marriages, choice is a necessary component. When the Communist Party came to power in 1949, it banned purely arranged marriages.
    [Show full text]
  • American and Chinese Literature. Behind the Mask of Postmodernism: a National Failure
    Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 6 (2018 11) 903-926 ~ ~ ~ УДК 141.78:82.0(1-927/-928)(510) American and Chinese Literature. Behind the Mask of Postmodernism: a National Failure Alberto Castelli* Hainan University China Received 01.05.2018, received in revised form 23.05.2018, accepted 06.06.2018 The article is less an investigation of American, and Chinese postmodern fiction from a comparative perspective, than it is an acknowledgement of postmodern fiction as a representation of national failure. Besides the well-known attributes of black humour, fantasy and dreams, fragmentation, meta- fictional elements, intertextuality, parody, radical irony, literature lavishes a violent attack on what, at different degrees, could be understood as a postmodern society. The aesthetic of social protest such as deviant sexuality, drug and alcohol addiction (America), and expressions of insanity, historical decadence (China) are to be read as the sense of tragedy binding tightly two civilisations never so similar at any stage in history. Keywords: american dream, cultural revolution, maoism, post-modernity, postmodernism. DOI: 10.17516/1997-1370-0279. Research area: philology. Postmodern Dynamics of his meaningless state, to meet a child. Let us Let us imagine for a while that Raskolnikov frame that each time he pushes the insignificant is lying sick on his couch of poverty, using old stone, a child is waiting for him at a different time clothes as a pillow, just after plotting the murder and space of the slope. He would start caring for of the old pawnbroker for the common goods, the child; inevitably, because of the child, the but before committing it received a letter with a punishment would assume some degrees of considerable monetary donation for his previous relevance, not least a never discovered secret merits as a student.
    [Show full text]
  • Sunday Morning Grid 5/1/16 Latimes.Com/Tv Times
    SUNDAY MORNING GRID 5/1/16 LATIMES.COM/TV TIMES 7 am 7:30 8 am 8:30 9 am 9:30 10 am 10:30 11 am 11:30 12 pm 12:30 2 CBS CBS News Sunday Face the Nation (N) Paid Program Boss Paid Program PGA Tour Golf 4 NBC News (N) Å Meet the Press (N) Å News Rescue Red Bull Signature Series (Taped) Å Hockey: Blues at Stars 5 CW News (N) Å News (N) Å In Touch Paid Program 7 ABC News (N) Å This Week News (N) NBA Basketball First Round: Teams TBA. (N) Basketball 9 KCAL News (N) Joel Osteen Schuller Pastor Mike Woodlands Amazing Paid Program 11 FOX In Touch Paid Fox News Sunday Midday Prerace NASCAR Racing Sprint Cup Series: GEICO 500. (N) 13 MyNet Paid Program A History of Violence (R) 18 KSCI Paid Hormones Church Faith Paid Program 22 KWHY Local Local Local Local Local Local Local Local Local Local Local Local 24 KVCR Landscapes Painting Joy of Paint Wyland’s Paint This Painting Kitchen Mexico Martha Pépin Baking Simply Ming 28 KCET Wunderkind 1001 Nights Bug Bites Space Edisons Biz Kid$ Celtic Thunder Legacy (TVG) Å Soulful Symphony 30 ION Jeremiah Youssef In Touch Leverage Å Leverage Å Leverage Å Leverage Å 34 KMEX Conexión En contacto Paid Program Fútbol Central (N) Fútbol Mexicano Primera División: Toluca vs Azul República Deportiva (N) 40 KTBN Walk in the Win Walk Prince Carpenter Schuller In Touch PowerPoint It Is Written Pathway Super Kelinda Jesse 46 KFTR Paid Program Formula One Racing Russian Grand Prix.
    [Show full text]
  • Gothic Riffs Anon., the Secret Tribunal
    Gothic Riffs Anon., The Secret Tribunal. courtesy of the sadleir-Black collection, University of Virginia Library Gothic Riffs Secularizing the Uncanny in the European Imaginary, 1780–1820 ) Diane Long hoeveler The OhiO STaTe UniverSiT y Press Columbus Copyright © 2010 by The Ohio State University. all rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data hoeveler, Diane Long. Gothic riffs : secularizing the uncanny in the european imaginary, 1780–1820 / Diane Long hoeveler. p. cm. includes bibliographical references and index. iSBn-13: 978-0-8142-1131-1 (cloth : alk. paper) iSBn-10: 0-8142-1131-3 (cloth : alk. paper) iSBn-13: 978-0-8142-9230-3 (cd-rom) 1. Gothic revival (Literature)—influence. 2. Gothic revival (Literature)—history and criticism. 3. Gothic fiction (Literary genre)—history and criticism. i. Title. Pn3435.h59 2010 809'.9164—dc22 2009050593 This book is available in the following editions: Cloth (iSBn 978-0-8142-1131-1) CD-rOM (iSBn 978-0-8142-9230-3) Cover design by Jennifer Shoffey Forsythe. Type set in adobe Minion Pro. Printed by Thomson-Shore, inc. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the american national Standard for information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSi Z39.48-1992. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is for David: January 29, 2010 Riff: A simple musical phrase repeated over and over, often with a strong or syncopated rhythm, and frequently used as background to a solo improvisa- tion. —OED - c o n t e n t s - List of figures xi Preface and Acknowledgments xiii introduction Gothic Riffs: songs in the Key of secularization 1 chapter 1 Gothic Mediations: shakespeare, the sentimental, and the secularization of Virtue 35 chapter 2 Rescue operas” and Providential Deism 74 chapter 3 Ghostly Visitants: the Gothic Drama and the coexistence of immanence and transcendence 103 chapter 4 Entr’acte.
    [Show full text]
  • Heroes, Hooligans, and Knights-Errant: Masculinities and Popular Media in the Early People’S Republic of China
    _full_journalsubtitle: Men, Women and Gender in China _full_abbrevjournaltitle: NANU _full_ppubnumber: ISSN 1387-6805 (print version) _full_epubnumber: ISSN 1568-5268 (online version) _full_issue: 2 _full_issuetitle: 0 _full_alt_author_running_head (change var. to _alt_author_rh): 0 _full_alt_articletitle_running_head (change var. to _alt_arttitle_rh): Heroes, Hooligans, and Knights-Errant _full_alt_articletitle_toc: 0 _full_is_advance_article: 0 NAN N Ü 316 Nan Nü 19 (2017) 316-356 Wang brill.com/nanu Heroes, Hooligans, and Knights-Errant: Masculinities and Popular Media in the Early People’s Republic of China Y. Yvon Wang University of Toronto [email protected] Abstract This article is an exploration of media and gender in urban and peri-urban China dur- ing the 1950s and early 1960s – specifically, the persistent trope of the “hooligan,” or liumang. Since at least the late imperial period, Chinese authorities had feared unmar- ried, impoverished, rootless men as the main source of crime, disorder, and outright rebellion. Yet such figures were simultaneously celebrated as knights-errant for their violent heroism in cultural works of enormous popularity across regions and classes. As the ruling Chinese Communist Party attempted to reshape society and culture after 1949, it condemned knight-errant tales and made hooliganism a crime. At the same time, the state tried to promote a new pantheon of vigilante-like men in the guise of revolutionary heroes. But the state’s control over deeply rooted cultural markets and their products was incomplete. Moreover, the same potent tools that had empowered the Party, in particular its rhetoric of revolutionary subjectivity and its harnessing of modern media technologies, were open as never before to being adopted by the very targets of its efforts at control and censure.
    [Show full text]
  • OMEN Laptop 15-Ek0019nr
    OMEN Laptop 15-ek0019nr Turn heads wherever you game A thin and light premium gaming experience in an elevated design so you can play everyday. Product overview Additional product features • Big things come in small packages: The OMEN 15 is a perfect example of how there can never be • Single access panel: Easy access to your PC’s internals make upgrades and maintenance simple. too much of a good thing. With a powerful Intel processor and NVIDIA® graphics cooled by OMEN • Effortlessly connected: Enjoy a smoother wireless experience with Wi-Fi 6 (2x2) and Bluetooth® Tempest Cooling, it makes you think how it all fits into such a tiny little package 5.0 combo, all your connections are solid and up to 3x faster file transfer speeds than • Looks do matter: We don’t need to tell you how good it looks and feels to play on, but we’re going Wi-Fi 5.(19e)(19f)(26) to do it anyways. It’s easy on the eyes with a luscious design and fast display. Crafted with Audio by • Gigabit Wi-Fi: Ultra-fast Wi-Fi supporting gigabit speeds.(7) Bang & Olufsen and super long battery life, so that means you won’t stop farming those wins or • DTS: X® Ultra Technology: Authentic, spatially accurate 3D sound to provide the best those admiring looks. entertainment experience.(47) • Customized to your settings: The OMEN 15 doesn’t just stop at having powerful specs and an • An exceptionally rich audio experience: HP Dual Speakers, HP Audio Boost, and expert tuning by amazing look.
    [Show full text]
  • Fortean Times 338
    THE X-FILES car-crash politics jg ballard versus ronald reagan cave of the witches south america's magical murders they're back: is the truth still out there? phantom fares japan's ghostly cab passengers THE WORLD’S THE WORLD OF STRANGE PHENOMENA WWW.FORTEANTiMES.cOM FORTEAN TiMES 338 chimaera cats • death by meteorite • flat earth rapper • ancient greek laptop WEIRDES NEWS T THE WORLD OF STRANGE PHENOMENA www.forteantimes.com ft338 march 2016 £4.25 THE SEcRET HiSTORy OF DAviD bOWiE • RETuRN OF THE x-FiLES • cAvE OF THE WiTcHES • AuTOMATic LEPREcHAuNSP • jAPAN'S GHOST ACE ODDITY from aliens to the occult: the strange fascinations of daVid b0Wie FA RES bogey beasts the shape-shifting monsters of british folklore mystery moggies on the trail of alien big MAR 2016 cats in deepest suffolk Fortean Times 338 strange days Japan’s phantom taxi fares, John Dee’s lost library, Indian claims death by meteorite, cretinous criminals, curious cats, Harry Price traduced, ancient Greek laptop, Flat Earth rapper, CONTENTS ghostly photobombs, bogey beasts – and much more. 05 THE CONSPIRASPHERE 23 MYTHCONCEPTIONS 05 EXTRA! EXTRA! 24 NECROLOG the world of strange phenomena 15 ALIEN ZOO 25 FAIRIES & FORTEANA 16 GHOSTWATCH 26 THE UFO FILES features COVER STORY 28 THE MAGE WHO SOLD THE WORLD From an early interest in UFOs and Aleister Crowley to fl irtations with Kabbalah and Nazi mysticism, David Bowie cultivated a number of esoteric interests over the years and embraced alien and occult imagery in his costumes, songs and videos. DEAN BALLINGER explores the fortean aspects and influences of the late musician’s career.
    [Show full text]
  • Omens of the Deep
    My dear friend Harold, it is with great regret that I must inform you that the almanac about which I previously wrote you was lost to the depths when the Kaiser Drake sank beneath the waves. With its loss, I fear we may never know the location of the lost city of R'lyeh. ® However, it is some matter of consolation that the leader of the expedition did survive the wreck. Upon his recovery, he presented me with a strange amulet, an unusually vibrant jewel inlaid in one of its sockets. While normally I would not consider such a trinket worth mention, something about its presence worries me. We must meet in person...and soon. - Dr. MasonPhillips Expansion Overview Based on The Call of Cthulhu expansion for the Elder Sign: Omens digital application, Elder Sign: Omens of the Deep challenges intrepid investigators to uncover the secrets of a mysterious amulet and seal away the eldritch threat that lurks within the corpse-city of R'lyeh. Components 6 60 PACIFIC 4 SPECIAL 3 ANCIENT 8 INVESTIGATOR 40 STAGED ADVENTURE CARDS ADVENTURE CARDS ONE CARDS CARDS MYTHOS CARDS 12 SKILL 3 COMMON 3 UNIQUE 3 ALLY 3 SPELL 1 “THE ULTIMA THULE” CARDS ITEM CARDS ITEM CARDS CARDS CARDS ENTRANCE CARD 3 BROKEN 1 OMEN 5 MISSION 15 MONSTER 8 INVESTIGATOR AMULET TOKENS TOKEN MARKERS MARKERS MARKERS 1 SCENARIO CARD 1 Using This Expansion OMENS OF THE DEEP EXPANSION ICON Omens of the Deep provides a new way in which to enjoy Most components in this expansion Elder Sign—the R'lyeh Rising game mode.
    [Show full text]
  • Conflict Between Science and Superstition in Medical and Dental
    Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 25 January 2021 doi:10.20944/preprints202101.0502.v1 Conflict between science and superstition in medical and dental practices Donat Uwayezu (1), Eustache Ntigura (1), Agnes Gatarayiha (1), Sarah Erem (2), Anwarul A. Majumder (3), Mainul Haque (4) & Mohammed S. Razzaque (1, 2, 5) 1Department of Preventive & Community Dentistry, University of Rwanda School of Dentistry, Kigali, Rwanda 2Department of Pathology, Saba University School of Medicine, Saba, Dutch Caribbean 3Medical Education, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Cave Hill Campus, University of the West Indies, Barbados 4Unit of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine and Defense Health, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (National Defense University of Malaysia), Kem Sungai Besi, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 5Department of Pathology, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Erie, PA, USA Address of correspondence: Mohammed S. Razzaque, MBBS, PhD, Department of Pathology, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, 1858 West Grandview Boulevard, Room: B2-306, Erie, PA 16509, USA. E-mails: [email protected] 1 | P a g e © 2021 by the author(s). Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY license. Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 25 January 2021 doi:10.20944/preprints202101.0502.v1 Abstract Superstition is a belief that is not based on scientific knowledge. Traditional healers usually use superstition in their practices to manage human health problems and diseases; such practices create a conflict with the medical profession and its evidence- based practices. Medical professionals confirm that this kind of practice is not safe to human health as it is done by untrained people (e.g., tradition healers) utilizing unsterilized instruments within unhygienic environments.
    [Show full text]
  • A Qualitative Analysis of Superstitious Behavior and Performance: How It Starts, Why It Works, and How It Works
    Western Washington University Western CEDAR WWU Graduate School Collection WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship Spring 2015 A Qualitative Analysis of Superstitious Behavior and Performance: How it Starts, Why it Works, and How it Works Alexandra A. Farley Western Washington University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet Part of the Health and Physical Education Commons Recommended Citation Farley, Alexandra A., "A Qualitative Analysis of Superstitious Behavior and Performance: How it Starts, Why it Works, and How it Works" (2015). WWU Graduate School Collection. 408. https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet/408 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in WWU Graduate School Collection by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Qualitative Analysis of Superstitious Behavior and Performance: How it starts, why it works, and how it works By Alexandra Farley Accepted in Partial Completion of the Requirements for the Degree Masters of Science Kathleen L. Kitto, Dean of Graduate School Advisor Committee ___________________________ Chair, Dr. Linda Keeler ___________________________ Dr. Michelle Mielke ___________________________ Dr. Keith Russell Master’s Thesis In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree at Western Washington University, I grant to Western Washington University the non-exclusive royalty-free right to archive, reproduce, distribute, and display the thesis in any and all forms, including electronic format, via any digital library mechanisms maintained by WWU.
    [Show full text]
  • Durham E-Theses
    Durham E-Theses Rethinking Binarism in Translation Studies A Case Study of Translating the Chinese Nobel Laureates of Literature XIAO, DI How to cite: XIAO, DI (2017) Rethinking Binarism in Translation Studies A Case Study of Translating the Chinese Nobel Laureates of Literature, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12393/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 RETHINKING BINARISM IN TRANSLATION STUDIES A CASE STUDY OF TRANSLATING THE CHINESE NOBEL LAUREATES OF LITERATURE Submitted by Di Xiao School of Modern Languages and Cultures In partial fulfilment of the requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Durham University 2017 DECLARATION The candidate confirms that the work is her own and that it has not been submitted, in whole or in part, in any previous application for a degree.
    [Show full text]
  • Reimagining Riben Guizi: Japanese Tactical Media Performance After the 2010 Senkaku/Diaoyu Boat Collision Incident
    International Journal of Communication 11(2017), 344–362 1932–8036/20170005 Reimagining Riben Guizi: Japanese Tactical Media Performance After the 2010 Senkaku/Diaoyu Boat Collision Incident YASUHITO ABE1 Doshisha University, Japan This article investigates a Japanese online participatory community, the Hinomoto Oniko project, that emerged after the Senkaku/Diaoyu boat collision incident of 2010 in the East China Sea. Drawing on tactical media as a conceptual framework, this study analyzes how the project challenged the prevailing meaning of a Chinese slur against the Japanese via tactical use of visual media and examines how its cultural and aesthetic performances were reproduced in the Japanese media landscape. This facilitates analysis of the implications of its cultural and aesthetic performances in a networked era. Keywords: tactical media, moe, history, Japan, China This study examines a Japanese online participatory community that emerged in Japan after the Senkaku/Diaoyu boat collision incident of 2010 in the East China Sea: the Hinomoto Oniko project. The project remade a Chinese term into various images of that term though visual media; specifically, the Hinomoto Oniko project transformed the pronunciation of the Chinese term into a Japanese reading and substituted cartoon-like characters for the term. In doing so, the project sought to create an alternative space for communication between Japanese and Chinese people, albeit briefly. The project did not necessarily succeed in making the most of an opportunity for promoting communication between Japanese and Chinese people, but the project highlights the characteristic of tactical media performance in East Asia. The Chinese term temporarily disrupted by the Hinomoto Oniko project is 日本鬼子 (Riben Guizi), which originally meant “Japanese are devils” in Chinese.
    [Show full text]