China’s Youth: A Preliminary Inquiry into the Discourses on the Initiation of Youth and the New Nation in Modern Chinese Fiction(II)
Date Issued
2002-01-31
Date
2002-01-31
Author(s)
DOI
892411H002051
Abstract
This project attempts to explore the questions pertaining to the relationship between
the “discourse on the initiation of youth” and “discourse on New Nation”.
The idea of “ New Nation” comes from the political and cultural ideals pursued by the
Chinese intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty. It arose as a reaction to the strong
Western impacts upon China in terms of political, economical, cultural, and military
aspects. In turn, China intends to affirm itself through constructing national
subjectivity. The hope of building new China lies in its youth. Thus the growth of
youth and the growth of nation are two sides of a coin. The “discourse on initiation of
youth” is also considered the basis of a reconstructed and renewed China in literary
imagination.
The longing for a New China can trace back to the anxiety of world change. Along
with the political up and downs, the cultural trends also fluctuated. The idea of
China’s Youth, thus became the major literary subject from the late Qing Dynasty all
the way to the Culture Revolution. To follow the development of “Modern China”,
one can not possibly neglect the clues imbedded in the concept of “China’s Youth”,
which are frequently underestimated in contemporary literature research.
This project will allocate two years in time to focus on the essential literary works
between the May Fourth Movement and the 1940s. After the paths of analytical
thinking are clearly set, the development of the Western initiation novels will be taken
into account. The project will use the relevant discussions in journals such as “The
New Youth”, “Morning Bell” and “The Young China” to clarify the central ideas of
“the Young China”. Explicit examples from Lu Xun(魯迅), Mao Dun(茅盾), Ba
Jing(巴金), and Lu Ling(路翎)'s novels will also be cited to investigate the relations
between the practice of “the initiation of youth” and its “modernity”.
Subjects
China’s youth
youth
initiation
New Nation
modernity
Publisher
臺北市：國立臺灣大學中國文學系暨研究所
Type
report
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