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The Autobiographical Writings of Xie Bingying Remembering Herself, Remembering the Nation: The Autobiographical Writings of Xie Bingying Hans Kristoffer Andersen Graff Master’s thesis in East Asian Culture and History EAST4591 – Master's Thesis in East Asian Culture and History (60 credits) Spring 2019 Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS) UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Remembering Herself, Remembering the Nation: The Autobiographical Writings of Xie Bingying Hans Kristoffer Andersen Graff © Hans Kristoffer Andersen Graff 2019 Remembering Herself, Remembering the Nation: The AutobiographiCal Writings of Xie Bingying Hans Kristoffer Andersen Graff http://www.duo.uio.no/ Printed by: Webergs Printshop Abstract This thesis deals with the autobiographiCal writings of the Chinese writer Xie Bingying (謝冰 瑩, 1906-2000). Xie rose to fame after she published her War Diaries (congjun riji 從軍日記) in 1929, a short series of letters Xie wrote while partiCipating as one of the first Chinese women soldiers in the National Revolutionary Army (guomin gemingjun 國民革命軍) during the Northern Expedition (beifa zhanzheng 北伐戰爭). This and later autobiographies assured her plaCe in both history and sCholarship as a representative of the May Fourth generation of radiCal women writers. However, this thesis shows that her later move to Taiwan has been Completely negleCted by western sCholarship. In Taiwan, Xie signifiCantly rewrote important parts of her life story, Creating a narrative that downplayed or removed her early radiCalism, and Conformed to the national memory whiCh was being Constructed in post-war Taiwan under the Kuomintang’s rule. By looking at Xie’s writings through the lenses of autobiographiCal theory, the Concept of national memory, and the question of personal agency, this thesis sets out to explore how Xie’s writing of her life story developed, and how it Changed from the portrayal of a deCidedly leftist self, to a nationalist self. This thesis finds that in Xie’s major rewriting of her life story, she switChes gradually from a leftist disCourse of the “masses” (qunzhong 群眾) and “society” (shehui 社會) to one of “nation” (minzu 民族) and “Country” (guojia 國家). However, equally important, the emphasis on revolution (geming 革命) and rejeCtion of feudal society (fengjian shehui 封建社會) is present throughout Xie’s writings. This thesis argues that in Contrast to the predominant image of the Kuomintang as primarily a Conservative, traditionalist politiCal force, through Xie Bingying’s writings, one Can see the Construction of a Kuomintang as a modernizing, and anti- feudal party whiCh glorified revolutionary rhetoriC, and fought for women’s liberation. I II Acknowledgments I was often told I was lucky to have professor Halvor Eifring as my supervisor, and now I know why. Those lucky enough to have him as their advisor after me will surely hear the same words from me. His always thoughtful Comments and ideas, and his patience as supervisor is what made this thesis possible. I also have to extend my gratitude to professor Mei Chia-ling, who graCiously aCCepted to help me during my five-month research stay in Taiwan while preparing to write this thesis. Her expertise in the subjeCt has been extremely helpful. Additionally, the thesis, and espeCially its disCussion on the question of historiCal Contingency versus personal agency benefited hugely from Comments and suggestions offered by professor David Der-wei Wang at the 2019 Harvard East Asian Society graduate student Conference, where I was lucky enough to present parts of the work included in this thesis. Zhao Xuebing, in addition to friendship, helped me get aCCess to Chinese books not available to me in Oslo. Tsai Sheng-Chi helped me Consult the overview of banned books in the Martial Law era, providing much help for my study. Our excellent librarian Øystein Johan Kleiven at the University of Oslo library has been extremely helpful in helping me get a hold of most other books I have needed. All my fellow students from IKOS deserve their own thanks, and will get so in person, but a few deserve speCial mention here. Guttorm Gundersen, in addition to being a Constant inspiration, encouraged me to attend the aforementioned Conference, for whiCh I am very grateful. Henrik Nykvist provided valuable feedbaCk to this paper, and has been a great friend and mentor since my very first semester as a student of Chinese. Rebekka Sagild has been a Ceaseless source of inspiration, good conversation, and poor Coffee. My family have been a Constant reassuring presence throughout all my (now many) years in university. The support they have offered, and their unwavering Confidence in me, even when I have been in Complete laCk of it myself, has been more valuable than I Can express here. Although I have had the privilege of the support and help from the above, I aCknowledge the possibility of faults and errors in the following pages. For these I take the sole responsibility. III IV Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... I Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................. III Contents .................................................................................................................................... V 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 “Funü wenxue” and feminist politics in modern Chinese and Taiwanese history ...................... 3 2: Autobiography, memory, agency ........................................................................................ 9 Autobiography ................................................................................................................................. 10 National memory ............................................................................................................................. 15 Contingency vs agency: on forced choices ..................................................................................... 23 3: The life and writings of Xie Bingying ............................................................................... 29 Biography ......................................................................................................................................... 29 Literature review ............................................................................................................................. 36 Chinese-language scholarship and Xie’s substantial revisions .................................................... 38 Translations ...................................................................................................................................... 42 4: Writing the present, remembering the past: comparisons of events in early and later writings .................................................................................................................................... 44 Growing up 1906-1926 .................................................................................................................... 45 The Northern Expedition 1926-1927 .............................................................................................. 51 Drifting about 飄流: 1927-1936 ...................................................................................................... 65 War of resistance 1937-1938 ........................................................................................................... 80 5: Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 83 Appendix 1: Chronological biography of Xie Bingying ...................................................... 85 Appendix 2: Bibliography of Xie Bingying .......................................................................... 90 Appendix 3: Comparison between the different editions of Autobiography of a Woman Soldier ...................................................................................................................................... 97 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 157 V 1 1: Introduction Xie Bingying (謝冰瑩, 1906-2000) beCame famous and launched her Career as a writer in 1927, when she wrote a series of diary entries during her time as a soldier in the Northern Expedition (beifa zhanzheng 北伐戰爭, 1926-1928). These diary entries were first published in the Wuhan newspaper Central Daily News (zhongyang ribao 中央日報) from May to June, 1927, and then ColleCted and published as the book War Diaries (congjun riji 從軍日記) in 1929. In one of the letters ColleCted in the book,1 A Gratifying and Funny Story (yi ge kexi er you haoxiao de gushi 一個可喜而又好笑的故事), Xie writes about some of the Hunan farmers she encountered: When it Comes to the loCal tyrants and evil gentry (tuhao lieshen 土豪劣紳), they Care only about ‘beating them to death,’ ‘shooting them to death,’ or ‘stabbing them to death,’ every day we often hear voices calling for the killing of people (sharen de jiaohan sheng 殺人的叫喊聲), and the sounds of guns firing, in our small village the worthless lives (gouming 狗命) of eight or nine loCal tyrants have already been ended, how joyful (hao tongkuai ya 好痛快呀)! (Xie 1933a, 7-8) The leftist revolutionary spirit hardly needs pointing out, and as will beCome Clear in my thesis, Xie remained committed
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