Imagining India in Modern China: Literary Decolonization and the Imperial Unconscious, 1895–1962

264 Pages·2022·12.344 MB·English

by  Gal Gvili

Imagining India in Modern China

IMAGINING INDIA
IN MODERN CHINA
Literary Decolonization and the
Imperial Unconscious, 1895– 1962
GAL GVILI
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK
Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation for assistance given by
the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange and Council for
Cultural Affairs in the publication of this book.
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup . columbia . edu
Copyright © 2022 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Gvili, Gal, author.
Title: Imagining India in modern China : literary decolonization and the imperial
unconscious, 1895–1962 / Gal Gvili.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022000878 (print) | LCCN 2022000879 (ebook) | ISBN 9780231205702
(hardback) | ISBN 9780231205719 (paperback) | ISBN 9780231556125 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Chinese literature—Indian influences. | Chinese literature—19th century—
History and criticism. | Chinese literature—20th century—History and criticism. |
India—Civilization. | China—Foreign relations—India—History. | India—Foreign
relations—China—History.
Classification: LCC PL2274.2.I5 G85 2022 (print) | LCC PL2274.2.I5 (ebook) |
DDC 895.109/005—dc23/eng/20220330
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000878
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000879
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid- free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover image: Autumn in Rajgir. Copyrights belong to Chang Zheng and Wang Cizhu
For my grandmothers, Ines Gvili and Lea Avrech, who taught
me strength and perseverance

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: South- North- South 1
one Unsettling the Violence of Comparison 23
Two What Is Rising There in the East? 61
Three Folklore, (Il)literacy, and Cyclical Realism 89
Four  Śakuntalā in China 125
Epilogue: After 1962: The Ongoing Literary Work of Mourning 158
Notes 167
Bibliography 211
Index 233
[ vii ]

Acknowledgments
This book represents the end of a long and winding road. I originally
had another final destination planned, but then detours presented them-
selves and I felt compelled to follow them. Sometimes you can’t stick to a
plan. And I am so happy that I didn’t. What began as a dissertation- to- book
project slowly crystallized to form a different story. I used two dissertation
chapters, and wrote two more, so I could talk about something more impor-
tant: how Chinese writers turned to India to effect literary decolonization.
In this ten- year process, I have had the amazing luck of having the support
of many wonderful colleagues, friends, and family members. I am thrilled
to thank them here.
I was immensely fortunate to receive graduate training at the Department
of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. My advisor,
Lydia H. Liu, has been a constant source of inspiration. I am grateful to her
for having pushed me, since my very first semester, to do new things, to step
out of my comfort zone, and to think critically and rigorously about litera-
ture. I am also thankful to Shang Wei, Eugenia Lean, and Stathis Gourgouris,
my dissertation mentors, for their tireless advice and exemplary scholarship.
Gil Anidjar was not only a thoughtful mentor during my years at Columbia
but remained a careful and generous reader. We share an obsession with
decolonizing Christianity, and it was heartening to discover that I am not
alone on this one. I am grateful for Weihong Bao’s critical eye and support-
ing words and letters during and after her stint at Columbia. I also thank
[ ix ]
Acknowledgments
Zvi Ben- Dor Benite, Bob Hymes, Rebecca E. Karl, Dorothy Ko, and David
Lurie for their timely advice and encouragement. Haruo Shirane believed
in me and made sure I stayed at Columbia to teach after I graduated until I
found a tenure- track position. It was a lease on life in the most palpable way
and I can’t thank him enough. I thank the wonderful friends— now col-
leagues— I made at Columbia, who made my years there a memorable expe-
rience: Sayaka Chatani, Anatoly Detwyler, Yumi Kim, Brian Lander, Liza Law-
rence, Myra Sun, Nate Shockey, Brian Tsui, and Sixiang Wang. To Yurou
Zhong, my dearest and first friend at Columbia, I owe so much. Thank you
dear for years of reading drafts and commiserating.
I consider it a privilege to have joined the faculty of McGill University. I
am grateful to my colleagues at the Department of East Asian Studies for
their ongoing support and patience, for feedback on my drafts, and for a
spirit of collegiality and friendship that keeps our small department strong
and forward- facing. I am grateful to Kimberly Chung, Grace Fong, Yuriko
Furuhata, Jeehee Hong, Maria Hwang, Rongdao Lai, Tom Lamare, and Robin
Yates. At McGill, I also thank Michelle Hartman, Cecily Hilsdale, Poulami
Roychowdhury and Jeremy Tai for reading drafts, for coffee and wine, and
for taking long walks up Mount Royal with me. I thank my MA students, Hon-
gyang Cai, Weiyu Dang, and Edna Wan, who had contributed research assis-
tantship for the book.
None of this research would have been possible without the help of librar-
ians. I am so very lucky to have had the kind and patient support of Colum-
bia University’s CV Starr librarian Chengzhi Wang and McGill East Asian
Studies librarian Macy Zheng. I cannot thank them enough for facilitating
access to everything I wanted to read. My research has been generously sup-
ported by a Columbia University GSAS Travel Grant, as well as research
grants from the Fonds de recherche du Québec and the SSHRC. I am thank-
ful for these funds, as they allowed me to research, write, and workshop this
book from its initial stages in graduate school to its finalization.
A China- India studies group entered my life in summer 2018. Together
with its members I presented at the Association for Asian Studies meeting
in New Delhi, and then we took a ten- day trip to Darjeeling to study Chinese-
Indian interactions and sites. We have been collaborating ever since and
are constantly adding more members, finding more projects to pursue, and
writing together. I am grateful to Tansen Sen who first brought us together
and always finds ways to fly us out to different parts of the world for
[ x ]