When late Qing and early Republican-period Chinese reformers grappled with the challenges of creating a new poetic language and form in the early decades of the twentieth century, Zhou Zuoren （1885-1967）, one of mod...When late Qing and early Republican-period Chinese reformers grappled with the challenges of creating a new poetic language and form in the early decades of the twentieth century, Zhou Zuoren （1885-1967）, one of modern China＇s most influential intellectuals, believed that much could be learned from the experiments of modern Japanese poets who had overcome similar challenges in the decades following the Meiji restoration. Of all the verse forms Japanese poets were experimenting with, Zhou was particularly interested in modern haiku and tanka. Zhou felt that the modern haiku and tanka＇s rootedness in tradition on the one hand and their ability to express modern sensibilities on the other could offer a model for Chinese poets seeking to create a poetic voice that was at once modern, but also anchored in traditional poetics. This article will analyze some of Zhou＇s translations of modern haiku and tanka and illustrate how these translations led him to promote a new poetic form in China, typically referred to as ＂short verse＂ （xiaosh0. By further reading Zhou＇s critical essays on modern Japanese poetry against the writings of a number of Western modernist poets and translators who themselves were inspired by East Asian verse forms--Ezra Pound in particular--I will comment on the degree to which Zhou＇s promotion of short verse inspired by modern Japanese haiku and tanka challenges a perceived Western role in legitimizing East Asian forms as conducive to modernism.展开更多
This essay explores the poetic responses of several Qing-dynasty poets to their encounter with Western-style oil painting. Unfamiliar with Western post-Renaissance techniques, most notably the use of perspective and o...This essay explores the poetic responses of several Qing-dynasty poets to their encounter with Western-style oil painting. Unfamiliar with Western post-Renaissance techniques, most notably the use of perspective and of oil paints, these poets expressed their anxiety, distaste, curiosity and appreciation of Western aesthetics and cultural practices through their poems. By focusing on previously un-translated poems of Weng Fanggang 翁方纲 （1733-1818）, Li Xialing 李遐龄 （1768-1832）, Kang Youwei 康有为 （1858-1927） and others, I argue that these poems function as metaphors for the complex ways in which China＇s late imperial elites negotiated their country＇s encounter with the West, both as a tight-knit group bound by dynastic conventions and as a loose network of individual thinkers whose varied talents allowed for highly original reflections on the cultural potential of East-West encounters. I will show that--while strictly adhering to traditional Chinese prosodic conventions--these poets through their creative and nuanced poetic commentaries on Sino-Western relations achieved an unusual degree of cultural cross-fertilization. Intrigued by the ＂foreignness＂ of the art works they set their eyes on, these poets, I will illustrate, were able to expand the horizons of poetic discourse without surrendering to the lure of the foreign or abandoning indigenous formal conventions.展开更多
This essay explores the wartime fiction and drama of Xu Xu （徐訏, 1908-80）, one of China＇s most widely read authors of the Republican-period （1912-49）. By placing Xu Xu＇s popular spy fiction into the context of ...This essay explores the wartime fiction and drama of Xu Xu （徐訏, 1908-80）, one of China＇s most widely read authors of the Republican-period （1912-49）. By placing Xu Xu＇s popular spy fiction into the context of literary production during the war years, the essay illustrates that Xu Xu＇s oeuvre protested against an ideology of moral collectivism in which the individual had to submit self to a higher political authority that professed to represent the will of the nation. Through a literary aesthetic that largely defied the demands for a literature of resistance that subjugated the individual self to the national collective, Xu＇s ostensibly autobiographical I-novels brought comfort to urban readers whose personal salvation was rarely addressed in official wartime narratives depicting the nation in peril and calling for collective sacrifice. At the same time, Xu＇s confident cosmopolitan heroes satisfied urban readers＇ desire for political agency in the raging international conflict. Furthermore, this paper explores Xu Xu＇s wartime drama through which Xu attempted to piece together a quasi-existentialist vision of the individual and human experience that was revealed only under the extreme condition of war.展开更多
文摘When late Qing and early Republican-period Chinese reformers grappled with the challenges of creating a new poetic language and form in the early decades of the twentieth century, Zhou Zuoren （1885-1967）, one of modern China＇s most influential intellectuals, believed that much could be learned from the experiments of modern Japanese poets who had overcome similar challenges in the decades following the Meiji restoration. Of all the verse forms Japanese poets were experimenting with, Zhou was particularly interested in modern haiku and tanka. Zhou felt that the modern haiku and tanka＇s rootedness in tradition on the one hand and their ability to express modern sensibilities on the other could offer a model for Chinese poets seeking to create a poetic voice that was at once modern, but also anchored in traditional poetics. This article will analyze some of Zhou＇s translations of modern haiku and tanka and illustrate how these translations led him to promote a new poetic form in China, typically referred to as ＂short verse＂ （xiaosh0. By further reading Zhou＇s critical essays on modern Japanese poetry against the writings of a number of Western modernist poets and translators who themselves were inspired by East Asian verse forms--Ezra Pound in particular--I will comment on the degree to which Zhou＇s promotion of short verse inspired by modern Japanese haiku and tanka challenges a perceived Western role in legitimizing East Asian forms as conducive to modernism.
文摘This essay explores the poetic responses of several Qing-dynasty poets to their encounter with Western-style oil painting. Unfamiliar with Western post-Renaissance techniques, most notably the use of perspective and of oil paints, these poets expressed their anxiety, distaste, curiosity and appreciation of Western aesthetics and cultural practices through their poems. By focusing on previously un-translated poems of Weng Fanggang 翁方纲 （1733-1818）, Li Xialing 李遐龄 （1768-1832）, Kang Youwei 康有为 （1858-1927） and others, I argue that these poems function as metaphors for the complex ways in which China＇s late imperial elites negotiated their country＇s encounter with the West, both as a tight-knit group bound by dynastic conventions and as a loose network of individual thinkers whose varied talents allowed for highly original reflections on the cultural potential of East-West encounters. I will show that--while strictly adhering to traditional Chinese prosodic conventions--these poets through their creative and nuanced poetic commentaries on Sino-Western relations achieved an unusual degree of cultural cross-fertilization. Intrigued by the ＂foreignness＂ of the art works they set their eyes on, these poets, I will illustrate, were able to expand the horizons of poetic discourse without surrendering to the lure of the foreign or abandoning indigenous formal conventions.
文摘This essay explores the wartime fiction and drama of Xu Xu （徐訏, 1908-80）, one of China＇s most widely read authors of the Republican-period （1912-49）. By placing Xu Xu＇s popular spy fiction into the context of literary production during the war years, the essay illustrates that Xu Xu＇s oeuvre protested against an ideology of moral collectivism in which the individual had to submit self to a higher political authority that professed to represent the will of the nation. Through a literary aesthetic that largely defied the demands for a literature of resistance that subjugated the individual self to the national collective, Xu＇s ostensibly autobiographical I-novels brought comfort to urban readers whose personal salvation was rarely addressed in official wartime narratives depicting the nation in peril and calling for collective sacrifice. At the same time, Xu＇s confident cosmopolitan heroes satisfied urban readers＇ desire for political agency in the raging international conflict. Furthermore, this paper explores Xu Xu＇s wartime drama through which Xu attempted to piece together a quasi-existentialist vision of the individual and human experience that was revealed only under the extreme condition of war.
