受伤的身体,复杂的现代性——以1906年吕美荪电车事故为个案的分析

The Injured Body, the Shadowed Modernity——Reading the 1906 Street Car Incident in Late-Qing China

作为理解中国晚清政治、社会和思想变化的关键词之一,"现代性"被赋予了各种可能性,亦因此呈现出含混、模糊和多义的特点。1906年,时任天津公立女学堂教习的吕美荪被电车撞翻在地,致左手骨折。此一交通事故展现出晚清现代性在中国/西方、传统/现代这两大历史脉络缠绕中的复杂面向。在此事件中,现代性首先表现为天津地方士人对以电车为象征的西方殖民力量一种隐晦的抗拒和挑战。其次,此一事故亦展现出近代女性和媒体以女学为契机进行身份建构所面临的机遇。但是,吕美荪在日后回忆时,既没有控诉电车,亦没有宣扬女学,反而将这次事故归因于历劫命运。本应该是最新的人物,但却选择了一种"落伍"的表达方式。通过三个不同视角的阅读,这一电车事故所展现出的现代性既是器物层面的、又是感知层面的,既具有建设性、又具有摧毁力,而这些混杂恰恰构成了晚清中国现代性的内在张力和动力,使之成为一种喧嚣的现象和经验。

As one of the key concepts to comprehend politics, society, and culture in late-Qing China, ＂modernity＂ reveals its ambivalence and multiplicity in the traffic incident of Lu Meisun. In 1906, Lv, a female teacher of the Tianjin Public Women＇s School, was hit by a street car while she was pulled by a rickshaw to her destination. This incident became a site of contestation of Chinese modernity, being questioned, being appropriated, and being repressed in three discourses： the accident was first the embodiment of the strong anti-street car and anti-foreign sentiment in the local society of Tianjin. Meanwhile, the incident also projected the complicated trajectories that the rising women＇s education encountered in the urban settings. Finally, for Lv Meisun, modernity was interpreted as the karma and mysticism that predestined her injury. Modernity was thus unfortunately, but understandably, shadowed in this crossed snatch of a woman＇s personal life, a city＇s space, and a historical moment.