海外华人社群的分化与维新文人的文学记忆——以晚清驻新总领事黄遵宪的创作生活为讨论对象

The Differentiation of Overseas Chinese Community and the Literary Memories of a Pro-Reform Literati——A Case Study on the Creative Writing Life of Chinese Consul-General of Singapore Huang Zunxian

黄遵宪从清光绪十七年(1891)到清光绪二十年(1894)出任首任驻新加坡总领事一职,此时正逢晚清洋务运动变法自强,以及中日战争爆发之前的政治危局,而作为英殖民地新加坡的驻外领事,黄遵宪的维新人士和外交人士的双重身份,也使得他置身于新旧时代的夹缝之中。本文以晚清时期黄遵宪在新马地区的活动及其与华人之间的关系为基础,在重新建构清末驻新领事南洋生活的历史大背景下,以海峡殖民地华人社群分化和传统知识分子视野的双重视角,探讨黄遵宪这一时期的社会和文学活动,期望能建构出清末新马华人社会的多元构成的特点,也试图钩沉出晚清知识分子在特定时代的心路历程。

Huang Zunxian was appointed as the Chinese Consul-General of Singapore from 1891 to 1894.Not only was his term of office amidst the late Qing Self-Strengthening Movement,but it was also on the cusp of the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War.As a Chinese consul in British colonial Singapore,Huang Zunxian’s dual identity as both a reformer of the Qing court and a diplomat made him trapped between two different eras,one old and one new.In this essay,I focus on Huang’s activities in Singapore and the Malay peninsula as well as his relations with the local Chinese community in late Qing.Beside reconstructing the consul’s life in Nanyang,I adopt the double vantage points of both a person living in the highlydifferentiated Chinese community in the Straits Settlement and a traditional intellectual,and examine Huang’s social and literary activities in order to illuminate the multi-dimensional formations of the late Qing Chinese community in Singapore and the Malay peninsula.By doing so,I seek to chart Huang’s mental and emotional landscape at this historical juncture.