DOCSLIB.ORG

Two Tropes in Lu Xun's Fiction

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

TWO TROPES IN LU XUN’S FICTION: THE SICK MAN AND THE CROWD A Thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University A 5 In partial fulfillment of the requirements for io!(, the Degree ,1 Master of Arts In Humanities by Brian Johnson San Francisco, California May 2016 Copyright by Brian Johnson 2016 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read Two Tropes in Lu Xun ’s Fiction: the Sick Man and the Crowd by Brian Johnson, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Art in Humanities at San Francisco State University. Professor of Humanities Laura Garcia-Moreno Ph.D. Associate Professor of Humanities TWO TROPES IN LU XUN’S FICTION: THE SICK MAN AND THE CROWD Brian Johnson San Francisco, California 2016 Lu Xun is considered the most influential modern Chinese writer, likened by many scholars to Tolstoy, Shakespeare and Goethe in both scope and cultural impact. The richness of Lu Xun's writing is predicated upon conflict, symbology and ambivalence. By incorporating both Chinese and European literature, as well as historical and biographical components of Lu Xun's life, this paper discusses two significant themes and characters in Lu Xun's early fiction: the sick man and the crowd. These two tropes figure prominently into his first four stories, all published between 1918 and 1920: "Diary of a Madman," "Medicine," "Tomorrow," and "Kong Yiji." These stories describe Lu Xun's struggle with modern manifestations of Neo-Confucian family and class morality, as well as the aspects of twentieth century modern China that are replacing these mores. I certify that the Abstract is a correct representation of the content of this thesis. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my family and all those who aided in the writing of this thesis. 2 Lu Xun is considered the most influential modern Chinese writer, likened by many scholars to Tolstoy, Shakespeare and Goethe in both scope and cultural impact. The richness of Lu Xun's writing is predicated upon conflict, symbology and ambivalence. To aid in my discussion of Lu Xun’s early fiction, I will incorporate both Chinese and European literature, as well as historical and biographical components of Lu Xun's life. In this paper, I discuss two significant themes and characters in Lu Xun's early fiction: the sick man and the crowd. These two tropes figure prominently into his first four stories, all published between 1918 and 1920: "Diary of a Madman," "Medicine," "Tomorrow," and "Kong Yiji." These stories describe Lu Xun's struggle with modern manifestations of Neo-Confucian family and class morality, as well as the aspects of twentieth century modem China that are replacing these mores. Lu Xun's symbology is a product of the interplay between the character's relationships, their names, vocations, lives and locations, and oftentimes, their deaths. To dissect this at times abstruse symbology, and the conflicts that arise from these symbols, I will use not only texts and ideas that directly influenced Lu Xun, but will also discuss texts outside of Lu Xun's assumed scope of reading that explicate themes in his stories: alienation, isolation, revolution, and death. The texts that have directly influenced Lu Xun are Frederich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883), Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto (1848) and Leonid Andreev's "Silence" (1900). The texts that deal with similar themes, and which may or may not have had a direct influence on Lu Xun, include Tolstoy's Death o f Ivan Ilych (1886) and Chan and Taoist literature. 3 Sickness in Lu Xun is a dynamic trope. My first attempt to discuss sickness is in Lu Xun's story "Diary of a Madman," in which the sickness results from excessive insight. Classical Chinese essays and travel accounts, as well as Nikolai Gogol's short story "Diary of a Madman,” influenced the form of "Diary of a Madman," a depiction of a man's descent into a madness precipitated by his dawning understanding of the violence inherent in the Neo-Confucian family system. In content, Frederich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, a series of parables describing Zarathustra's spiritual ascent, influenced “Diary of a Madman." Both works discuss spiritual evolution by drawing comparisons between humans and animals, as well as children and adults. "Diary of a Madman" compares Neo-Confucian family and class systems to cannibalism, and expostulates against what Lu Xun saw as the negative aspects of Neo-Confucian society, such as subjugation, servility, superstition, and pedantry. In "Diary of a Madman," Lu Xun invests hope in the younger generation because they are not contaminated by these authoritarian collective values that detract from individualism. The May 4th generation's fight against tradition, and belief in the power of the younger generation, was grounded in the major theories of the early twentieth century, primarily the biological ideas of Charles Darwin and the social theories of Karl Marx. By virtue of Lu Xun's irony and habitual ambivalence, "Diary of a Madman" and "Medicine" offer both positive and negative appraisals of modem and Qing dynasty China. In Lu Xun's "Medicine," the motif of sickness shifts to a polemic exposition of both Qing dynasty China and the social reform of the early twentieth century. In 4 "Medicine," a father tries to cure his young son's illness by purchasing a mantou saturated in the blood of a recently-executed revolutionary. The intended prophylaxis fails, however, and in the final scene, the son's mothers visit the graves, which are unexpectedly adorned by flowers. However, where the psychological sickness of "Diary of a Madman" is the result of critiquing Neo-Confucian mores, the physical illness of "Medicine" examines the critique itself, questioning the value and lasting impact of literature and social revolution. The exposition of China in "Medicine" is rooted in a biographical event: Lu Xun watched his father suffer and die as a result of misdiagnosis and mistreatment by traditional doctors. The exposition of social reform manifests in "Medicine" through the symbol of the crow, which I will discuss in terms of Jungian and Taoist literature. The trope of the crowd is the antithesis to the trope of the sick man. Though the sicknesses in "Diary of a Madman" and "Medicine" represent different social ills, the two stories are joined by their discussion of the crowd. Lu Xun's discussion of the crowd in "Diary of a Madman" and "Medicine" is similar to Marx's sociological representations of the crowd: a social group that that is preventing others from achieving a healthy mode of living. In "Diary of a Madman," the main narrator identifies and attempts to spread his awareness of the crowd's sickness, while in "Medicine," the life (and death) of the sick man is inextricably related to the life of a revolutionary. The sick man's struggle in both stories also mirrors the injunctions made by the eponymous character in Thus Spoke Zarathustra: The crowd and its internalized values must be overcome. The spiritual and 5 sociological distinctions between the sick man and the crowd correspond to the differences between Marxism and Nietzschean philosophy. The trope of the crowd returns in the stories "Tomorrow" and "Kong Yiji," in which the most prominent manifestations of the crowd are the patrons of the Universal Prosperity tavern, a common symbolic locale in Lu Xun's early fiction. In "Tomorrow" the crowd is characterized by its nonchalant approach to the sick man's suffering, a dichotomy mirrored and extrapolated upon in The Death o f Ivan Ilych, as we will see in Section 4. In "Kong Yiji," the titular sick man is a unique confluence of characteristics, for he also bears an uncanny resemblance to the crowd that ridicules him. As such, Kong Yiji provides a valuable insight into Lu Xun's perspectives on the crowd and their values. Leo Lee, author of Voices from the Iron House (1987), argues that Lu Xun's multifaceted use of narrative voice and his distinctive use of both third and first person narration qualifies him as a major innovator in modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun's narration styles create links between stories, which in turn allows the reader to see a dialogue between the conflicts in each story. Both "Diary of a Madman" and "Kong Yiji" are primarily written in the first person, and each contains a physically and psychologically tortured sick man, who then dies. Each sick man is at odds with the crowd, but the sick men exist at two ends of a spectrum. In "Diary of a Madman," the sick man is a harbinger of modernity, as evidenced by his insights into the morals of his family and his examination of the past. In "Kong Yiji," the sick man is a product of the past, unable to reconcile his education and his upbringing with the mores of the 6 succeeding generation. The sick man in each story, one representing the past and the other the future, leads a tortured life that culminates in a miserable death, causing the reader to question the value of modernity. "Medicine" and "Tomorrow" are written in the third person, and both concern a son's illness, and the type of help he receives. Where "Diary of a Madman" and "Kong Yiji" examine the sick man, "Medicine" and "Tomorrow" question the values of the crowd. All four stories ask the questions: What are the virtues of conforming to the crowd? What are the virtues of fighting the crowd? Is it possible to create a society founded upon empathetic and genuine relationships? What are the virtues of modernity, and can these virtues be fully realized? What in the past is worth salvaging, and if there is nothing, how can the prior traditions be fully destroyed? Lu Xun's ambivalence, exacerbated by the similarities in narration styles, offers neither answers nor explications - Lu Xun only evokes discomfort and provides possibilities, demanding that the reader interrogate his own values.
Recommended publications
  • Full Spectrum of Selves in Modern Chinese Literature: from Lu Xun to Xiao Hong

    Full Spectrum of Selves in Modern Chinese Literature: from Lu Xun to Xiao Hong

    UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Full Spectrum of Selves in Modern Chinese Literature: From Lu Xun to Xiao Hong Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5022k8qv Author Ho, Felicia Jiawen Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Full Spectrum of Selves in Modern Chinese Literature: From Lu Xun to Xiao Hong A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in East Asian Languages and Cultures by Felicia Jiawen Ho 2012 © Copyright by Felicia Jiawen Ho 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Full Spectrum of Selves in Modern Chinese Literature: From Lu Xun to Xiao Hong by Felicia Jiawen Ho Doctor of Philosophy in East Asian Languages and Cultures University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 Professor Shu-mei Shih, Chair Despite postcolonial theory’s rejection of legacies of Western imperial dominance and cultural hierarchy, the superiority of Euro-American notions of subjectivity remains a persistent theme in third world cross-cultural literary analysis. Interpretations of the Chinese May Fourth era often reduce the period to one of wholesale westernization and cultural self- repudiation. Euro-American notions of the self often reify ideologies of individuality, individualism, rationalism, evolution, and a “self-versus-society” dichotomy, viewing such positions as universal and applicable for judging decolonizing others. To interrogate this assumption, I examine the writing of Lu Xun and Xiao Hong, two May Fourth writers whose fictional characters present innovative, integrated, heterogeneous selves that transcend Western ii critical models. This “full spectrum of selves” sustains contradicting pulls of identity—the mental (the rational, the individual), the bodily (the survivalist, the affective), the cerebral (the moral), the social (the relational, the organismic), as well as the spiritual and the cosmic.
  • Esperanto and Chinese Anarchism in the 1920S and 1930S

    Esperanto and Chinese Anarchism in the 1920S and 1930S

    The Anarchist Library (Mirror) Anti-Copyright Esperanto and Chinese anarchism in the 1920s and 1930s Gotelind Müller and Gregor Benton Gotelind Müller and Gregor Benton Esperanto and Chinese anarchism in the 1920s and 1930s 2006 Retrieved on 22nd April 2021 from archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de usa.anarchistlibraries.net 2006 Zhou Enlai Zhou Zuoren Ziyou shudian Contents Introduction ..................... 5 Xuehui and Erošenko ................ 7 Anarchism and Esperanto in the late 1920s . 16 Anarchism and Esperanto in China in the 1930s 17 Conclusions ...................... 21 Bibliography ..................... 23 Glossary ........................ 25 30 3 “Wang xiangcun qu” wanguo xinyu “Wanguo xinyu”“Wo de shehui geming de yi- jian” Wu Jingheng (= Wu Zhihui) Wu Zhihui Wuxu Wuzhengfu gongchan zhuyi she “Xiandai xiju yishu zai Zhongguo de jianzhi” Xianmin Xin qingnian Xin she Xin shiji “Xinyu wenti zhi zada” Xing Xiwangzhe Xuantian Xuehui Xu Anzhen “Xu ‘Haogu zhi chengjian’” Xu Lunbo “Xu Lunbo xiansheng” “Xu ‘Pi miu’” Xu Shanguang / Liu Jianping / Xu Shanshu “Xu wanguo xinyu zhi jinbu” “Xu xinyu wenti zhi zada” Yamaga Taiji Ye Laishi Yuan Shikai “Zenyang xuanchuan zhuyi” Zhang Binglin Zhang Jiang (= Zhang Binglin) Zhang Jingjiang Zhang Qicheng Zheng Bi’an Zheng Chaolin Zheng Peigang Zheng Taipu “Zhishi jieji de shiming” “Zhongguo gudai wuzhengfuzhuyi chao zhi yipie” Zhongguo puluo shijieyuzhe lianmeng Zhongguo wuzhengfuzhuyi he Zhongguo shehuidang 29 Min Esperanto in China and among the Chinese diaspora was for Minbao long periods closely linked with anarchism. This article looks Ming Minguo ribao at the history of the Chinese Esperanto movement after the Minsheng repatriation of anarchism to China in the 1910s. It examines Minshengshe jishilu Esperanto’s political connections in the Chinese setting and Miyamoto Masao the arguments used by its supporters to promote the language.
  • A Comparative Analysis of the Simplification of Chinese Characters in Japan and China

    A Comparative Analysis of the Simplification of Chinese Characters in Japan and China

    CONTRASTING APPROACHES TO CHINESE CHARACTER REFORM: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE SIMPLIFICATION OF CHINESE CHARACTERS IN JAPAN AND CHINA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ASIAN STUDIES AUGUST 2012 By Kei Imafuku Thesis Committee: Alexander Vovin, Chairperson Robert Huey Dina Rudolph Yoshimi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express deep gratitude to Alexander Vovin, Robert Huey, and Dina R. Yoshimi for their Japanese and Chinese expertise and kind encouragement throughout the writing of this thesis. Their guidance, as well as the support of the Center for Japanese Studies, School of Pacific and Asian Studies, and the East-West Center, has been invaluable. i ABSTRACT Due to the complexity and number of Chinese characters used in Chinese and Japanese, some characters were the target of simplification reforms. However, Japanese and Chinese simplifications frequently differed, resulting in the existence of multiple forms of the same character being used in different places. This study investigates the differences between the Japanese and Chinese simplifications and the effects of the simplification techniques implemented by each side. The more conservative Japanese simplifications were achieved by instating simpler historical character variants while the more radical Chinese simplifications were achieved primarily through the use of whole cursive script forms and phonetic simplification techniques. These techniques, however, have been criticized for their detrimental effects on character recognition, semantic and phonetic clarity, and consistency – issues less present with the Japanese approach. By comparing the Japanese and Chinese simplification techniques, this study seeks to determine the characteristics of more effective, less controversial Chinese character simplifications.
  • University of California Riverside

    University of California Riverside

    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Uncertain Satire in Modern Chinese Fiction and Drama: 1930-1949 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature by Xi Tian August 2014 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Perry Link, Chairperson Dr. Paul Pickowicz Dr. Yenna Wu Copyright by Xi Tian 2014 The Dissertation of Xi Tian is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Uncertain Satire in Modern Chinese Fiction and Drama: 1930-1949 by Xi Tian Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Comparative Literature University of California, Riverside, August 2014 Dr. Perry Link, Chairperson My dissertation rethinks satire and redefines our understanding of it through the examination of works from the 1930s and 1940s. I argue that the fluidity of satiric writing in the 1930s and 1940s undermines the certainties of the “satiric triangle” and gives rise to what I call, variously, self-satire, self-counteractive satire, empathetic satire and ambiguous satire. It has been standard in the study of satire to assume fixed and fairly stable relations among satirist, reader, and satirized object. This “satiric triangle” highlights the opposition of satirist and satirized object and has generally assumed an alignment by the reader with the satirist and the satirist’s judgments of the satirized object. Literary critics and theorists have usually shared these assumptions about the basis of satire. I argue, however, that beginning with late-Qing exposé fiction, satire in modern Chinese literature has shown an unprecedented uncertainty and fluidity in the relations among satirist, reader and satirized object.
  • Research Report Learning to Read Lu Xun, 1918–1923: the Emergence

    Research Report Learning to Read Lu Xun, 1918–1923: the Emergence

    Research Report Learning to Read Lu Xun, 1918–1923: The Emergence of a Readership* Eva Shan Chou ABSTRACT As the first and still the most prominent writer in modern Chinese literature, Lu Xun (1881–1936) had been the object of extensive attention since well before his death. Little noticed, however, is the anomaly that almost nothing was written about Lu Xun in the first five years of his writing career – only eleven items date from the years 1918–23. This article proposes that the five-year lag shows that time was required to learn to read his fiction, a task that necessitated interpretation by insiders, and that further time was required for the creation of a literary world that would respond in the form of published comments. Such an account of the development of his standing has larger applicability to issues relating to the emerg- ence of a modern readership for the New Literature of the May Fourth generation, and it draws attention to the earliest years of that literature. Lu Xun’s case represents the earliest instance of a fast-evolving relationship being created between writers and their society in those years. In 1918, Lu Xun’s “Kuangren riji” (“Diary of a madman”) was published in the magazine Xin qingnian (New Youth).1 In this story, through the delusions of a madman who thought people were plotting to devour other people, the reader is brought to see the metaphorical cannibalism that governed Chinese society and tradition. It was a startling piece of writing, unprecedented in many respects: its use of the vernacular, its unbroken first person narration, its consistent fiction of madness, and, of course, its damning thesis.
  • “Preface to a Call to Arms ” and “A Madman's Diary”

    “Preface to a Call to Arms ” and “A Madman's Diary”

    “Preface to A Call to Arms” and “A Madman’s Diary” By Lu Xun Krissa Goncher Elida High School July 2014 12th grade World Literature or English 12 One 50-minute class period Goncher 2 Summary: In the auto-biographical “Preface to A Call to Arms” Lu Xun describes why he began writing. He recalls a scene when his father was ill and Lu Xun was required to obtain the medicine for his recovery. Upon receiving the list of medicines, Lu Xun became angered and began to blame traditional medicinal methods for his father’s illness and eventually, death. He was inspired to enter the medical field. The turning point of his career as a medical student occurred when he witnessed a film about the Russo-Japanese war. He watched many classmates blindly cheering on death. He was appalled by this blind show of loyalty and decided to switch the focus of his studies to literature. His goal was to “change their spirit.” Lu Xun’s attempts to promote literacy and literary ideals were met with failure. At this discouragement, he began to copy writings for the sake of copying them, with no real intended purpose. A friend of his began to question his methods and enlightened Lu Xun into the reality of the power of writing. He was able to see writing and literature as a means of bringing about hope for the future of his nation. “A Madman’s Diary” begins as an unknown narrator returns home. He hears that one of his childhood friends has been ill and decides to visit.
  • Reading the Short Stories of James Joyce and Lu Xun

    Reading the Short Stories of James Joyce and Lu Xun

    Nationalism as Dilemma in (Semi)Colonial Contexts: Reading the Short Stories of James Joyce and Lu Xun Politically ZOU, Meiyang A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in English (Literary Studies) © The Chinese University of Hong Kong August 2008 The Chinese University of Hong Kong holds the copyright of this thesis. Any person(s) intending to use a part or whole of the materials in the thesis in a proposal publication must seek copyright release from the Dean of the Graduate School. ^^X^BSSem/M Thesis/Assessment Committee Professor Timothy Francis WEISS (Chair) Professor CHING Mimi Yuet May (Thesis supervisor) Professor LI Ou (Committee Member) Professor WONG Pui Ling Linda (External Examiner) Contents Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv 翻 vi Abbreviations viii Chapter One: Introduction 1 Nation and nationalism: problems and dilemmas 2 James Joyce and Lu Xun 10 Critical / ironical nationalism? 16 Chapter Two: Negative Images of the Homeland 21 Haunting death and insanity 22 Problematic national identity and "backward" national character 33 Chapter Three: Doubts Towards the Foreign Powers 39 Criticizing the self-imposed inferiority 42 Failed intellectuals 53 Chapter Four: Rescuing the Nation Through Language 63 Disillusionment with political revolutions 63 Literary experimentations as alternative salvation 76 Chapter Five: Conclusion 83 After the short stories 83 Exile and role of the intellectual 89 Literature and politics 96 WORKS CITED 99 ii Acknowledgements This thesis was made possible by the tremendous generosity, encouragement and patience of my supervisor, Prof. Ching Yuet-May. I have benefited enormously from her passionate and unfailing support.
  • Chinese Alphabetization Reform: Intellectuals and Their Public Discourse, 1949-1958 Wansu Luo Iowa State University

    Chinese Alphabetization Reform: Intellectuals and Their Public Discourse, 1949-1958 Wansu Luo Iowa State University

    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Digital Repository @ Iowa State University Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2018 Chinese alphabetization reform: Intellectuals and their public discourse, 1949-1958 Wansu Luo Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Luo, Wansu, "Chinese alphabetization reform: Intellectuals and their public discourse, 1949-1958" (2018). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 16844. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/16844 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Chinese alphabetization reform: Intellectuals and their public discourse, 1949-1958 by Wansu Luo A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major: History Program of Study Committee: Tao Wang, Major Professor James T. Andrews Jonathan Hassid The student author, whose presentation of the scholarship herein was approved by the program of study committee, is solely responsible for the content of this thesis. The Graduate College will ensure this thesis is globally accessible and will not permit alterations after a degree is conferred. Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2018 Copyright ©Wansu Luo, 2018. All rights reserved. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................
  • Adaptation to World Trends: a Rereading of the May Fourth Movement Radicalization Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2013, 236 P

    Adaptation to World Trends: a Rereading of the May Fourth Movement Radicalization Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2013, 236 P

    JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN EDUCATION, PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL RESEARCH 463 Jarkko Haapanen Adaptation to World Trends A Rereading of the May Fourth Movement Radicalization JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN EDUCATION, PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL RESEARCH 463 Jarkko Haapanen Adaptation to World Trends A Rereading of the May Fourth Movement Radicalization Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston yhteiskuntatieteellisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston vanhassa juhlasalissa S212 maaliskuun 23. päivänä 2013 kello 12. Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Jyväskylä, in Auditorium S212, on March 23, 2013 at 12 o’clock noon. UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2013 Adaptation to World Trends A Rereading of the May Fourth Movement Radicalization JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN EDUCATION, PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL RESEARCH 463 Jarkko Haapanen Adaptation to World Trends A Rereading of the May Fourth Movement Radicalization UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2013 Editors Jussi Kotkavirta Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä Pekka Olsbo, Harri Hirvi Publishing Unit, University Library of Jyväskylä URN:ISBN:978-951-39-5114-6 ISBN 978-951-39-5114-6 (PDF) ISBN 978-951-39-5113-9 (nid.) ISSN 0075-4625 Copyright © 2013, by University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 2013 ABSTRACT Haapanen, Jarkko Adaptation to World Trends: A Rereading of the May Fourth Movement Radicalization Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2013, 236 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Education, Psychology and Social Research, ISSN 0075-4625; 463) ISBN 978-951-39-5113-9 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-5114-6 (PDF) This thesis is a rereading of the May Fourth movement radicalization. Instead of studying ideologies as such, the study examines the political languages that were used in May Fourth Movement journals in China before the official establishment of the Chinese Communist Party in July 1921.
  • Intersecting Nations, Diverging Discourses: the Fraught Encounter of Chinese and Tibetan Literatures in the Modern Era Christoph

    Intersecting Nations, Diverging Discourses: the Fraught Encounter of Chinese and Tibetan Literatures in the Modern Era Christoph

    Intersecting Nations, Diverging Discourses: The Fraught Encounter of Chinese and Tibetan Literatures in the Modern Era Christopher Peacock Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2020 © 2020 Christopher Peacock All Rights Reserved Abstract Intersecting Nations, Diverging Discourses: The Fraught Encounter of Chinese and Tibetan Literatures in the Modern Era Christopher Peacock This is a two-pronged study of how the Chinese and Tibetan literary traditions have become intertwined in the modern era. Setting out from the contention that the study of minority literatures in China must be fundamentally multilingual in its approach, this dissertation investigates how Tibetans were written into Chinese literature, and how Tibetans themselves adopted and adapted Chinese literary discourses to their own ends. It begins with Lu Xun and the formative literary conceptions of nation in the late Qing and Republican periods – a time when the Tibetan subject was fundamentally absent from modern Chinese literature – and then moves to the 1980s, when Tibet and Tibetans belatedly, and contentiously, became valid subject matter for Han Chinese writers. The second aspect of the project situates modern Tibetan-language literature, which arose from the 1980s onwards, within the literary and intellectual context of modern China. I read Döndrup Gyel, modern Tibetan literature’s “father figure,” as working within unmistakably Lu Xun-ian paradigms, I consider the contradictions that arose when Tsering Döndrup’s short story “Ralo” was interpreted as a Tibetan equivalent of “The True Story of Ah Q,” and I analyze the rise of a “Tibetan May Fourth Movement” in the 2000s, which I argue presented a selective reading of modern China’s intellectual history.
  • 153 Party Conference Level Leads to Successful Implementation. a Comparable Study of the Nationalist Period Would Show That

    153 Party Conference Level Leads to Successful Implementation. a Comparable Study of the Nationalist Period Would Show That

    BOOK REVIEWS 153 party conference level leads to successful implementation. A comparable study of the Nationalist period would show that the Nationalists also had a penchant for elaborate planning, only to see the plans unfulfilled because of wrong application or lack of appropriate personnel. And while the author has successfully integrated the factor of personalities into her presentation (her appendix is especially useful), actual political dynamics in China generally involved a great deal more personal interactions than this book suggests. These are, however, minor criticisms. Given the fact that Southwest China has remained closed to outsiders even in this time of frequent visitors to China, this book is the most penetrating analysis of the subject we have. It is a definite con- tribution to our understanding of the political workings of China. Ohio State University SAMUELC. CHU Columbus, U.S.A. Merle Goldman (ed.), Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1977, viii, 464 pp., $ 15.00. This volume, a compilation of seventeen scholarly articles plus an introduction by the editor, Merle Goldman, is the much anticipated result of a conference held at Endicott House in Dedham, Massachusetts in August of 1974 and of a workshop which had preceded it at the Harvard East Asian Research Center. The distillations of painstakingly thorough research into this much talked about but little understood era in Chinese literary history, performed by "scholars of Chinese literature as well as historians
  • Script Crisis and Literary Modernity in China, 1916-1958 Zhong Yurou

    Script Crisis and Literary Modernity in China, 1916-1958 Zhong Yurou

    Script Crisis and Literary Modernity in China, 1916-1958 Zhong Yurou Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 © 2014 Yurou Zhong All rights reserved ABSTRACT Script Crisis and Literary Modernity in China, 1916-1958 Yurou Zhong This dissertation examines the modern Chinese script crisis in twentieth-century China. It situates the Chinese script crisis within the modern phenomenon of phonocentrism – the systematic privileging of speech over writing. It depicts the Chinese experience as an integral part of a worldwide crisis of non-alphabetic scripts in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It places the crisis of Chinese characters at the center of the making of modern Chinese language, literature, and culture. It investigates how the script crisis and the ensuing script revolution intersect with significant historical processes such as the Chinese engagement in the two World Wars, national and international education movements, the Communist revolution, and national salvation. Since the late nineteenth century, the Chinese writing system began to be targeted as the roadblock to literacy, science and democracy. Chinese and foreign scholars took the abolition of Chinese script to be the condition of modernity. A script revolution was launched as the Chinese response to the script crisis. This dissertation traces the beginning of the crisis to 1916, when Chao Yuen Ren published his English article “The Problem of the Chinese Language,” sweeping away all theoretical oppositions to alphabetizing the Chinese script. This was followed by two major movements dedicated to the task of eradicating Chinese characters: First, the Chinese Romanization Movement spearheaded by a group of Chinese and international scholars which was quickly endorsed by the Guomingdang (GMD) Nationalist government in the 1920s; Second, the dissident Chinese Latinization Movement initiated in the Soviet Union and championed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the 1930s.