摘要
The Chinese script has been contradictorily associated with the identity and alterity of the Chinese people in intellectual and popular imaginations. Against the background of China＇s ＂belated＂ transformation from a multilingual and multiethnic empire into a modern nation-state, the Chinese script was approached by intellectuals within and outside China as part of an anachronistic Confucian and imperial culture separating China from modern nationalism and global modernity. In today＇s world, where China reinvents itself as a civilizational-national entity dreaming of an alternative global future the Chinese script is recast as a possibly universal--and yet neo-imperial--medium on the cutting edge of literary-aesthetic innovations, popular cultures, and communication technologies that supersede cultural isolation and elitism. Yet cultural particularity continues to lurk behind the Chinese script, unfolding a global imaginary defined by an unyielding sense of foreignness and exoticism, while also problematizing the relative unity of mainland Chinese, diasporic Chinese and Sinophone communities. This new scene of cultural configurations on a global scale calls for our critical engagement.
The Chinese script has been contradictorily associated with the identity and alterity of the Chinese people in intellectual and popular imaginations. Against the background of China＇s ＂belated＂ transformation from a multilingual and multiethnic empire into a modern nation-state, the Chinese script was approached by intellectuals within and outside China as part of an anachronistic Confucian and imperial culture separating China from modern nationalism and global modernity. In today＇s world, where China reinvents itself as a civilizational-national entity dreaming of an alternative global future the Chinese script is recast as a possibly universal--and yet neo-imperial--medium on the cutting edge of literary-aesthetic innovations, popular cultures, and communication technologies that supersede cultural isolation and elitism. Yet cultural particularity continues to lurk behind the Chinese script, unfolding a global imaginary defined by an unyielding sense of foreignness and exoticism, while also problematizing the relative unity of mainland Chinese, diasporic Chinese and Sinophone communities. This new scene of cultural configurations on a global scale calls for our critical engagement.
