报人作家李定夷与《新上海现形记》中的上海社会

Newspaper Writer Li Dingyi and Shanghai Society in The New Shanghai’s True Features

李定夷是民初活跃在上海文坛的报人作家,曾参与编辑《民权报》《小说丛报》《小说新报》等刊物,任国华书局总编辑,以哀情小说名世,著述颇丰。《新上海现形记》记述了二十多件上海社会的骗局,着力于批判民初上海社会的黑暗面。作品揭露了民初上海社会中存在的一些重大现实问题,同时也展现了当时的都市文化与风俗场景。作家对都市上海表现出复杂的情感:一方面,上海是他年少求学之地,此后旅居于此,以编刊与创作为生;另一方面,他又对上海心有隔膜,存在身份疏离感,斥之为罪恶渊薮。小说为读者揭示出民初上海社会尔虞我诈的重重黑幕,描绘了五方杂处的都市社会各阶层人物侧影,其中所呈现的都市景观、社会风潮亦具有一定的史料价值。

Li Dingyi was a newspaper writer who was active in the literary world of Shanghai in the early Republic of China.He edited such publications as Civil Rights,Novel Cluster and New Novel,and was the editor-in-chief of Guohua Book Bureau.Known for his sad novels,he was a prolific writer.The New Shanghai s True Features describes more than 20 scams of Shanghai society,which criticizes the dark side of Shanghai society at that time.It exposes some major realistic problems of Shanghai society in the early Republic of China,and also shows the urban culture and customary scenes at that time.The author expresses complex emotions toward Shanghai.On the one hand,Shanghai is the place where he studied when he was young,where he resided and made a living by editing and writing.On the other hand,he was distant to Shanghai and had a strong sense of identity alienation,blaming it for the crimes.The novel reveals the dark and cheating scenes of Shanghai society and depicts the profile of people from all walks of life in the urban society,in which the urban landscapes and social trends are also of certain historical value.