Bao, Weihong, Fiery Cinema： The Emergence of an Affective Medium in China,1915-1945.

Entided Fiery Cinema： The Emergence of an AtTective Medium in China, 1915-1945, from the very beginning Weihong Bao＇s fascinating book emphasizes that the medium under discussion is not a singular medium or media technology in an empirical sense, and not limited to ＂any particular set of media technology, material support, operational procedure or aesthetic codes,m Instead, she rethinks cinema in relation to a complex set of both discursive and nondiscursive （orces that shapes the understanding, the practices, and the instrumentation o（the medium. In this sense, ＂fiery cinema＂ indeed should always be in the plural form--＂fiery cinemas＂--as the medium named ＂cinema＂ is always evolving and mutating in historically specific social and political contexts.

Instructions for Contributors

Frontiers of Literary Studies in China （FLSC） is a fully refereed English- language academic journal published four issues annually by Higher Education Press （HEP） and Brill. The journal publishes original research articles, review articles, research notes, and book reviews covering all areas and historical periods of Chinese literary studies, especially those reflecting new developments in the field. Articles will be reviewed anonymously by external referees.

The Rise of Xiaoshuo as a Literary Concept： Lu Xun and the Question of ＂Fiction＂ in Chinese Literature

Originally derived from historical and philosophical writings, xiaoshuo is the modem Chinese term for fictional work of any length. However, how this term came to be used to translate the Western concepts of ＂fiction＂ and ＂novel＂ is a question that remains to be fully explored. This paper focuses on Lu Xun＇s seminal work Zhongguo xiaoshuo shilue （A brief history of Chinese fiction; 1925） so as to investigate the ways in which the Western concept of fiction is built into Lu Xun＇s historicization of xiaoshuo. I argue that Lu Xun＇s articulation of xiaoshuo is distinguished by his emphasis on both the term＇s universality and its ＂Chinese-ness.＂

Instructions for Contributors

Frontiers of Literary Studies in China （FLSC） is a fully refereed English- language academic journal published four issues annually by Higher Education Press and Brill. The journal publishes original research articles, review articles, research notes, and book reviews covering all areas and historical periods of Chinese literary, especially those reflecting new developments in the field. Articles will be reviewed anonymously by external referees. Article manuscripts,

The Transmediality of Anachronism: Reconsidering the Revolutionary Representations of Antiquity and the Leftist Image of Qu Yuan

"Make the past serve the present!"Thus goes Mao Zedong's slogan on how to appropriate the ancient in revolutionary times.In my previous studies,I have argued that the Chinese writers,engagement with the an cient gave rise to a platform of"necessary anachronism"in cultural transformation.This new project carries further this argument and draws attention to the transmediality in the leftist historical imagination.From the 1940s through the 1970s,the revolutionary representations of the ancient were simultaneously poetic,theatrical,intellectual,and cinematic,to say nothing about the calligraphic and visual adaptations they elicited.This current of reinventing the ancient man tested itself in the historical drama in wartime China and found a coda in the anti-colonial leftist cinematic adaptation of the historical play Qu Yuan in 1970s Hong Kong.Starting with a broader theoret:ical intervention into the issue of media,this paper emphasizes that the transmedial reinterpretation of the ancient in fact formed a mode of mediaUon between revolution and history,between politics and aesthetics.In the cultural regime of China's long revolution,the transference or translation of the allegorical-anachronistic energies among different media was a key site of signification,contestation,and crisis.

The Rescue Truck

There was a period of time that was completely hidden from his memory. The last thing he remembered was racing through the longtang alleyways, a mighty army following close on his heels-a "mighty army” that consisted of his brother and the other neighborhood boys.

Beyond Boundaries： Women, Writing, and Visuality in Contemporary China

This special issue offers explorations of women, writing, and visuality in contemporary Chinese literature and culture, following up on a previous issue titled ＂Nation, Gender, and Transcultural Modernism in Early Twentieth- Century China,＂

Maintaining Purity in the Midst of Filth

In his story ＂The Vegetable Garden,＂ Shen Congwen depicts the cabbage-raising Yu family by employing many different images of purity. When describing the potentially communist youth who sacrifices himself at the end of the story, for instance, Shen writes that ＂a young person＇s heart is as pure as the feather of a dove.＂ For many years ever since, every time I see that sort of wonderfully pure character in a theme drama, this evocative metaphor comes to mind.

Between Human and Animal： A Study of New Year＇s Sacrifice, Kong YijL and Diary of a Madman

A subtle aspect of Lu Xun＇s writing, running through several of his works of fiction, is his animalistic portrayal of some of his most well-known characters. Scraping away their humanity as he writes, Lu Xun depicts Kong Yiji, Xianglin Sao, and the infamous Madman crawling on their hands and knees, working like draught animals, and abandoning all rational thought. In short, all three end up occupying an ambiguous space between the realms of human and animal. This paper attempts to examine how Lu Xun＇s description and situation of these characters suggests, aside from the standard agendas of May Fourth writing in general, a certain, shared metaphysical conundrum. Drawing on the work of Giorgio Agamben to take the hiatus between human and animal as an occasion for ontological possibility, I will investigate how the dehumanized portrayal of these characters situates them at the threshold of a new becoming： one which has not yet been realized, but which is also rendered impossible either through the character＇s death or return to health. Examining Lu Xun＇s works in this way not only recognizes his major emphasis on social critique, but suggests both that his thought on Chinese society pierces through to the level of metaphysical inquiry, and that the relationship between human and animal marks a productive entry point for this sort of questioning.

Geopolitics, Moral Reform, and Poetic Internationalism： Liang Qichao＇s The Future of New China

Liang Qichao＇s novel The Future of New China views culture and commerce in international contexts under the rubric of datong. While the novel begins with a scene of cultural exchange and commerce, it soon centers on the foreign education and travel of two young protagonists, who are to become the founding fathers of a constitutional nation-state. The urgency of nation building plays out in the two young men＇s over the political, moral or populist means of achieving the nation. How does nation-state building relate to the initial datong cosmopolitanism？ This paper suggests that Liang＇s nation contains international dimensions. The new Chinese nation is situated in a geopolitical network o（ nation-states, but it also aspires to self-determination and equality with other nations. The nation is to be built by resorting to a moral reform that contains the idea of tianxia （all under heaven）. In his Discourse on the New Citizen, Liang calls for personal outlooks based on culture and morality rather than institutions or actual politics. The novel analyzes China＇s debates on reform and revolution; the present paper traces the connection between this moral quality of a nation and internationalism. I contend that Liang＇s nation-building projects an international type of aspiration toward tianxia.

"Food" and"History": A Perspective on Paper Hawk

Since its publication in 2016,Paper Hawk has been studied by literary critics from different angles,such as its inheritance of the Chinese classical literature tradition,its conception of language and structure form,and even its usage of imagery.The historical imagination in the novel has also attracted great attention in academic circles.As one of the clues in the novel,Chinese cuisine enables the writer to outline the setting of the era and human nature,and reflect on traditional culture with a keen insight.Taking food as a starting point,I explores the path of historical evolution,its development as well as its ups and downs.A warm thanks also goes out to Dr.Xu Shiying for her interview on historical writing(Appendix follows),which represents the historical depth of Paper Hawk in a dialogue format.

The Distinctiveness of Chinese Culture,and Cultural Confidence and Strength in Literary and Artistic Creation

In the Report to the 2oth National Congress of the Communist Party of China(CPC),Xi Jinping,General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee,puts forward the missions and tasks of the CPC on the new journey of the new era and the Second Centenary Goal:“"From this day forward,the central task of the CPC will be to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realize the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization."1 To realize the grand goal of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,Chinese modernization is the only path and the basic connotation.What are its characteristics?

Pursuit of the Modern While Preserving Tradition： The Japan Poems of Huang Zunxian

Huang Zunxian, member of the staff of the Qing legation in Tokyo （1877-82）, became acquainted with prominent Japanese literati （bunjin）. His experiences provide a window of information and insight into the cultural atmosphere of early Meiji Japan and the attitude of progressive and Chinese intellectuals then resident there. With the skills of a literatus, Huang had access to the modes of discourse and thought of his hosts, so formed discriminating views of almost all aspects of Japanese life in an era of change. His experience is captured in some 200 quatrains in the two editions of his Riben zashi shi （Poems on miscellaneous subjects from Japan, 1879 and 189o）, whose contents overlap to include different poems and different versions of same poems. The poems were intended to have more than literary impact--to enlighten those in power in China by casting Japan in a positive light and promote Japan as a model for reform and modernization. Huang linked Japanese tradition with the Chinese, which he did in poems emphasizing their common high culture. The scope of the poems is quite broad： Japanese history and geography, Sino-Japanese cultural relations, Chinese culture in Japan, poetry （kanshi） and prose （kanbun）, painting and calligraphy, Confucianism and Buddhism, the Meiji Restoration and modernization, new political and social institutions, the Diet, local government, political parties, museums, taxation, education reform, women＇s education. Many subjects were unknown to earlier tradition but now topical and urgent as China began to shed old ways and embrace the new.

Art and Activism in the Ruins： Guerrilla Urbanism and the Nangang Bottle Cap Factory

The controversy over the partial demolishment of the Nangang Bottle Cap Factory for redevelopment is a prime example of the ongoing public debate about urban renewal in Taipei. The controversy crystalizes the tension between a growing public desire for historical preservation in Taipei to safeguard shared history and restore collective memory, and profit-driven capitalistic development. The transformation of the factory over the past decade--from disused public property to a city-operated Urban Regeneration Station for fostering art and innovation, and finally to a demolition site that is being readied for new construction--illustrates the tug of war between the exigencies of cultural/historical preservation and urban renewal in Taipei. During the process, not only did citizen activists play a maior role in raising the public＇s awareness of the unique value of the Nangang Bottle Cap Factory as one of the last major relics of Taipei＇s industrial heritage, graffiti artists also created works in the abandoned factory that dialogued about its contested future under a neoliberal capitalist regime. By tracing the origins of the controversy, I argue, through a photo documentation of the accumulated graffiti inside the factory before demolition began, that the factory ＂ruin＂ has functioned as a theater for diverse forms of guerrilla urbanism, including engaged art, urban exploration, and community organization.

Wengongtuan and the Rural Literary Popularization Movement in Yan＇an

This paper takes the folk song collection movement in Yan＇an as an example to examine the role of the wengongtuan （The League of Literary and Artistic Workers） in organizing the rural literary popularization movement in the 1940s. Dispatched by the Communist Party of China （CPC）, wengongtuan members took on the task of mobilizing peasants into cultural production, and realized a self-reconstruction in the process of integrating themselves into the lives of revolutionary peasants. The idea of the wengongtuan derived from the CPC＇s theory of the mass line--＂from the masses and to the masses＂--which laid the foundation of New Democratic culture in the 1940s.

Capturing the Historical Poetry of the Period of"Great Social Transformation"-An Essay on the Creation Motive behind Lu Yao's Ordinary World

The birth of an outstanding literature is closely related to a writer's creation motive,thought and expression.Lu Yao's masterpiece Ordinary World(Pingfan de Shijie)spans a period of ten years and reflects panoramically the myriad of social formations,lifestyles and patterns of thought during China's social transformations between 1975 and 1985.Via an analysis of first-hand materials such as the memoirs and correspondences of Lu Yao,his relatives and editors,this essay systematically unravels the writer's main motive for composing the novel Ordinary World,in a renewed effort to unravel the mystery behind the creation of this literary classic.

Hearing(Technological)Anomalies:An Analysis of Han Song's"The Rebirth Bricks"

Contemporary Chinese science fiction author and journalist Han Song's works often cross the lines dividing reality from imagination,science fiction from literary mainstream,technology from the supernatural.This article,focusing in particular on Han's novella"The Rebirth Bricks"(Zaisheng zhuan),aims to investigate the role played by the senses in a shift from the science fictional novum to the fictional"uncanny."Featuring technological bricks,haunted by sounds of the dead which are perceived through sight and hearing,this novella is analyzed from the standpoint of this perceptual complementarity which expresses Han Song's"science fictional re-enchantment,"a re-use of supernatural themes of the past that allow him to express the(technological)anomalies of China's current reality.

Open Letter of Apology

As editor-in-chief of the journal of Frontiers of Literary Studies in China (FLSC), and on behalf of the managing editor, I would like to issue an open apology to the following colleagues in the field whose names have recently been listed, without their explicit prior agreement, as members of the Editorial Collective or Advisory Board.

WANG Anyi ＆ Todd Foley （Translator）Mother

Mother had arrived. She showed up wearing an immaculate black coat just as clean and smooth as her evenly combed hair, and carrying with her a load of fried pancakes, dried shrimp, jellyfish, and pickles. But her complexion was a bit washed out, most likely owing to a sauabble with my sister-in-law.