Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of Chinese Studies Master´s Thesis 2020 Bc. Denisa Máchová Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of Chinese Studies Cultural Studies of China Bc. Denisa Máchová The Self – loathing Discourse in the Theme of Modernisation in the Chinese Literature of the 20th Century Master´s Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. et Mgr. Dušan Vávra, Ph.D. 2020 I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and it contains no other materials written or published by any other person except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis. Brno, May 2020 …..…………………… The thesis was completed within the cooperation framework between the Department of Chinese Studies (Masaryk University) and the Institute of China Studies (Zhejiang University). During my two- semester stay in China, the thesis was supervised by Prof. Jiang Wentao 姜文涛, Associate Professor in School of International Studies at Zhejiang University, China. ABSTRACT This thesis elaborates the self-loathing discourse in the theme of modernization in 20th century Chinese literature. The main question is how the discourse of self-loathing is elaborated in chosen works from the 20th century and how is it evolving during this century. This work is divided into four chapters. The first one contains the definition of self-loathing, the presentation of main historical events of the 20th century and philosophical changes in Chinese society during the 20th century. The second chapter presents the authors, their lives, creation, writing style and general attitude towards modernisation of Chinese society. The third chapter contains the discourse analysis of chosen literature works and presents the concrete examples of discourse of self-loathing, which were found. The cited examples of elaboration of self-loathing are followed by interpretation of these examples based on secondary literature sources. The analysis of examples of self-loathing discourse answers the question how the discourse of self-loathing is elaborated in chosen literature works. Furthermore, the examples set the base for the fourth chapter. The fourth chapter analyses different causes for discourse of self-loathing. The causes for self- loathing are found in concrete elaboration of self-loathing and they evolve during the 20th century. The reasons for self-loathing in general are political or social change, author´s personal experience with modernisation and therefore his attitude towards the modernisation. Finally, the analysis of this thesis proved that the discourse of self-loathing is present during the whole 20th century, the authors feel need to point out the problems of China and to call for improvement of Chinese nation till present. However, the reasons for self-loathing changed over time with evolution of Chinese society and its problems. KEYWORDS Discourse of self-loathing, Chinese literature, 20th century, Modernisation, Chinese nation, Improvement of Chinese nation, Evolution ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. et Mgr. Dušan Vávra, Ph.D. for his guidance, valuable advices, interest, and time. I am also grateful for his help and patience during the writing process. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 9 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 16 1.1 Definition of the discourse of self-loathing 16 1.2 Historical background 20 1.3 Philosophical background 27 2 AUTHORS: BACKGROUND AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS MODERNISATION 33 2.1 Period 1900-1949 33 2.1.1 Huangjiang Diaosou 33 2.1.2 Liu E 33 2.1.3 Yu Dafu 34 2.1.4 Lu Xun 35 2.1.5 Lao She 36 2.1.6 Ba Jin 36 2.1.7 Shen Congwen 37 2.1.8 Chang Eileen 39 2.2 Period 1978-present 40 2.2.1 Wang Shuo 40 2.2.2 Mo Yan 41 2.2.3 Jiang Rong 41 2.2.4 Chan Koonchung 42 2.2.5 Yan Lianke 43 3 ANALYSIS OF THE CONCRETE LITERATURE WORKS 44 3.1 Period 1900-1949 44 3.1.1 Huangjiang Diaosou – Lunar Colony (月球殖民地小说) (1904) 44 3.1.2 Liu E – The Travels of Lao Can (老残游记) (1905) 47 3.1.3 Yu Dafu – Sinking (沉沦) (1921) 48 3.1.4 Lu Xun – Call to Arms (呐喊) (1922) 50 3.1.5 Lao She – Cat Country (猫城记) (1932) 54 3.1.6 Ba Jin – Family (家)(1933) 58 3.1.7 Shen Congwen – Shen Congwen´s Short-story Collection (沈 从文全集) (1928-1935) Seven Savages and the Last Welcome of Spring (1929); Meijin, Baozi and the White Kid (1929); The New and the Old (1935) 61 3.1.8 Chang Eileen – Lust, Caution (色，戒) (1940s-1979) 63 3.2 Period 1949-present 67 3.2.1 Wang Shuo – Please Don´t Call Me Human (千万别把我当人) (1989) 67 3.2.2 Mo Yan – The Republic of Wine (酒国) (1992) 69 3.2.3 Jiang Rong – Wolf Totem (狼图腾) (2004) 73 3.2.4 Chan Koonchung – The Fat Years (盛世一中国 2013 年) (2009) 75 3.2.5 Yan Lianke – The Explosion Chronicles (炸裂志) (2016) 76 4 ANALYSIS OF SELF-LOATHING EXAMPLES 80 CONCLUSION 84 BIBLIOGRAPHY 86 INTRODUCTION The 20th century in China was a century of a rapid change in all aspects of life. Not only was the political system of a country changed, but also the way of thinking, the structure of the Chinese society and the language. At the beginning of the century, China was still an empire ruled by the Qing dynasty and the social roles were established according to Confucian norms. The official written language, wenyan (wenyan 文言) in Chinese, was archaic and not understandable without many years of studying and education was inaccessible to the majority of people. In the end of the 20th century, China was already a modern state with fast economic development and western-type education. The transformation of China during the 20th century was marked by several wars and social instability. Besides the rapid change, the 20th century was also the century of humiliation and shame for Chinese nation. The two thousand years old Chinese culture, considered by Chinese people themselves as the only one existing and as a perfect one, was for a long time dominated by the foreign powers. (Bakešová, 2001, pp.5-6) China was divided and unable to fight the foreigners. Because of all mentioned above, China realised that change is necessary and started to search for an approach towards modernisation. The turbulent nature of the century is the reason why the 20th century literature is unique. The term of modernisation can be used with two connotations but in this thesis „modernization is used not strictly as a sociological term, but rather as a philosophical-sociological term in a broader sense. As a sociological term, it refers to various types of social change and their related issues or problems. As such, modernization entails multidimensional factors: scientific, technological, political, economic, institutional, etc.” (Soo,1989, p.4) And „as a philosophical term, it refers to intangible (or non-material) factors of social change, such as values, modes of thinking as well as the historical, cultural and spiritual heritage.” (Soo, 1989, p.4) Shortly, „…we consider China's modernization as a historical process of transformation from a 'traditional society' to a 'modern society'.” (Soo,1989, p.4) The intention of this thesis is to analyse selected literature works from the 20th century written by different Chinese writers and to compare the way each writer shows, writes and perceives the modernisation of the Chinese society, more precisely the self-loathing discourse in the theme of modernisation. The term “self-loathing” is used by Geremie Barmé in his work In the Red: On Contemporary Chinese Culture. Geremie Barmé describes the self-loathing as „introspection”, „self- reflection” or „self-criticism” (Barmé, 1999, p.266) of Chinese nation and society by Chinese intellectuals and scholars. It describes the particular characteristics in the literature works and also certain attitudes towards China and her inhabitants which can be found in Chinese literature written by Chinese writers from the 20th century. The particular characteristics and attitude toward China mentioned above are the feelings of self-hate and disgust toward the current state of China. The focus of this thesis are 9 the concepts used by Chinese authors in their own works to describe self-loathing in the modernisation process. The main questions are firstly, how the discourse of self-loathing is produced by Chinese authors and secondly, how is it evolving during the 20th century. The discourse of self-loathing arises from the feeling of insufficiency of China, which is strong during the 20th century because of the character of the century mentioned above. (Barmé, 1999, pp.266-267) Finally, the influences on the evolution of discourse of self-loathing will be presented in the last chapter. All the selected examples will be completed with accurate analysis of self-loathing examples. The main purpose of this thesis is to analyse the chosen literature works from the 20th century and to create a complex image of the feelings and approaches of the different writers towards the self- loathing. The intention of this thesis is to search for common points and for differences of self-loathing examples and clearly identify them. Because even until the present day the discourse of modernisation and self-loathing is still alive in Chinese literature and creates an important part of the discussion in society and still can evoke strong and antagonistic feelings. The discourse of modernisation and self-loathing of Chinese society are traditionally discussed in the context of historical events or in concrete literature works. It is not common to analyse examples from the entire 20th century. The most common approach is to divide the 20th century into shorter periods, for example The May Forth Movement, The Communist Literature, The Cultural Revolution etc.