On the Margins of Modernism: Xu Xu, Wumingshi and Popular Chinese Literature in the 1940s

148 Pages·2019·2.167 MB·English

by  Christopher Rosenmeier

On the Margins of Modernism
Edinburgh East Asian Studies Series
Series Editors: Natascha Gentz, Urs Matthias Zachmann and
David Der-Wei Wang
Covering language, literature, history and society, this series of academic
monographs and reference volumes brings together scholars of East Asia to
address crucial topics in East Asian Studies. The series embraces a broad
scope of approaches and welcomes volumes that address topics such as
regional patterns of cooperation and social, political, cultural implications of
interregional collaborations, as well as volumes on individual regional themes
across the spectrum of East Asian Studies. With its critical analysis of central
issues in East Asia, and its remit of contributing to a wider understanding
of East Asian countries’ international impact, the series will be crucial
to understand the shifting patterns in this region within an increasingly
globalised world.
Series Editors
Professor Natascha Gentz is Chair of Chinese Studies, Director of the
Confucius Institute for Scotland and Dean International (China) at the
University of Edinburgh.
Professor Urs Matthias Zachmann is Professor of History and Culture
of Modern Japan at the Institute of East Asian Studies, Freie Universität
Berlin.
Professor David Der-Wei Wang is the Edward C. Henderson Professor of
Chinese Literature at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard
University.
Editorial Board
Professor Marion Eggert, Bochum University
Professor Joshua A. Fogel, York University, Toronto
Professor Andrew Gordon, Harvard University
Professor Rikki Kersten, Murdoch University
Dr Seung-Young Kim, University of Sheffield
Dr Hui Wang, Tsinghua University, Beijing
Titles available in the series:
Asia after Versailles: Asian Perspectives on the Paris Peace Conference and the
Interwar Order 1919–1933
Urs Matthias Zachmann (Editor)
On the Margins of Modernism: Xu Xu, Wumingshi and Popular Chinese
Literature in the 1940s
Christopher Rosenmeier
On the Margins of Modernism
Xu Xu, Wumingshi and Popular Chinese
Literature in the 1940s
Christopher Rosenmeier
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Contents
Acknowledgments vi
1 Introduction 1
2 Tradition and Hybridity in Shi Zhecun and Mu Shiying 24
3 Wartime Literature between Tradition and Modernity 44
4 Boundaries of the Real in Xu Xu’s Fiction 62
5 Wumingshi and the Wartime Romances 89
6 Opposition, Imitation, Adaptation and Diffusion in Popular
Chinese Literature 113
Bibliography 122
Index 134
Acknowledgements
This book has taken me far too long to complete, and innumerable debts of
gratitude – too many to list in a reasonable manner – have been incurred over the
years. My greatest debt is to Michel Hockx, who supervised the doctoral thesis
at SOAS upon which this book builds. In addition to his invaluable guidance, he
helped to secure financial support without which I would not have been able to
embark on a career studying Chinese literature. Margaret Hillenbrand, Henry
Zhao, Vibeke Børdahl and Susan Daruvala were all very helpful in providing
useful suggestions early on. I am also grateful to the exceedingly competent
and patient staff of Edinburgh University Press, my anonymous readers, the
Edinburgh East Asian Studies series editors – Natascha Gentz, Urs Matthias
Zachmann and David Der-Wei Wang – who, along with my colleagues at the
University of Edinburgh, have helped me in many ways over the years, and,
finally, my students, a source of inspiration and knowledge more often than I
let them know.
vi
Chapter 1
Introduction
The Japanese invasion of China proper on 7 July 1937 heralded yet another
period in a long chain of devastation, suffering and internal displacement. Viewed
from the perspective of literary history, however, the widespread mayhem and
chaos of war became a catalyst for important developments as the established
Chinese cultural field was broken up and fragmented. Old hierarchies were
challenged and overthrown, and some authors and intellectuals took advantage
of the upheaval to experiment with novel ways to cross what had formerly been
sharp boundaries – between the elite and the popular, romanticism and modern-
ism, tradition and modernity. With a focus on popular Chinese literature of the
Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the present study is an examination of
some of these experiments.
Xu Xu 徐訏 (1908–1980) and Wumingshi 無名氏 (1917–2002) were among
the most widely read authors throughout the period, and they remained popular
for many years afterwards. Both of them wrote short stories and novels that
counted among the bestselling works of the time, which at first glance appear
to be simple love stories and romances. Closer reading nonetheless makes it
clear that these writings defy such easy categorisation, touching upon numer-
ous more complex issues, including utopian fantasies, nationalism, sexuality
and questions of identity. Some of these short stories and novels use distinc-
tive narrative techniques bordering on modernist experimentation, echoing the
Shanghai modernist writers of the early 1930s, most notably Shi Zhecun 施蟄存
(1905–2003) and Mu Shiying 穆時英 (1912–1940). On the whole, while Xu Xu’s
and Wumingshi’s works remain melodramatic tales of passionate love and exotic
adventure, at the same time they also demonstrate the diversity and sophistica-
tion that flourished in the popular wartime literature of the 1940s.
Many of China’s literary experiments and new developments during this
period stem from what Edward M. Gunn calls the ‘literature of disengage-
ment’, works produced by authors who refrained from engaging in resistance
and national or social activism.1 A few of these writers remain widely known
today, in particular Zhang Ailing 張愛玲 (or Eileen Chang, 1920–1995) and
Qian Zhongshu 錢鐘書 (1910–1998), who both worked in occupied Shanghai.
The continued popularity of their fiction may be attributable to some extent to
its not being overly concerned with the details of the political ideology and the
1
2 ON THE MARGINS OF MODERNISM
national events of the time. Other popular Chinese authors of the 1940s have
been less fortunate, and most of them are no longer remembered today.
Xu Xu and Wumingshi similarly stayed outside politics, emerging in the
late 1930s as two of the most widely popular authors of the wartime period.
Regrettably, they have now been largely forgotten, and this study attempts to
remedy that situation. Both writers played important roles in China’s wartime
literary field, publishing works in Chongqing and elsewhere in the early 1940s.
Much like the better-known authors who worked in Shanghai, Xu Xu and
Wumingshi sought new ways to straddle the divide between the elite and the
popular in their fiction, and succeeded in producing material with wide appeal
that managed to offer some literary depth as well.
After the fall of Shanghai to the Japanese in 1937, a great number of Chinese
authors and intellectuals left the city for the free areas in the hinterland,
Wumingshi and Xu Xu among them. Wumingshi first moved to Hankou and
later relocated to Chongqing to take up journal ism.2 Xu Xu 徐訏 remained in
Shanghai until 1941 before moving inland. After a stint as a university lecturer
in Chongqing, he took up journalism as well, including a period as a foreign cor-
respondent in the United States.3
Both writers produced hugely successful bestsellers. Xu Xu’s novella Ghostly
Love (Gui lian 鬼戀) from 1937 was a roaring success, and his novel The Rustling
Wind (Feng xiaoxiao 風蕭蕭), a love story-cum-spy thriller, sold so well in 1943
that some publishers called it ‘the year of Xu Xu’ (‘Xu Xu nian’ 徐訏年).4 His
novels feature a full panoply of popular stereotypes, including pirates, prosti-
tutes, corrupt officials, female assassins and passionate lovers. Wumingshi’s two
novels, North Pole Landscape Painting (Beiji fengqing hua 北極風情畫) and The
Woman in the Tower (Tali de nüren 塔裡的女人), from 1943 and 1944, respec-
tively, were also among the bestselling works of the wartime period. Yet despite
their fiction containing a good deal of narrative experimentation, they are still
principally romantic tales of love, jealousy and escapist fantasy.
The works of these two authors are notable in terms of style, navigating the
border between romanticism and modernism. Aspects of both are found in
their writings, exemplifying the fluidity of such classifications in the literature
of the day. While Xu and Wumingshi stayed outside the political factions and
groups that engulfed many other intellectuals and writers at the time, the echoes
of earlier modernist styles and tropes marked their political independence and
served to lend their novels and short stories an air of sophistication. In this
study, their fiction will be analysed in some detail, partly to shed overdue light
on these authors in their own right and partly to illustrate a broader pattern in
Chinese literature of the 1940s.
More specifically, three recurrent themes will be traced in this study: the
role of tradition and the supernatural, the reaction against realism, and the use
of psychology. Readers will recognise these themes as the hallmarks of Chinese
modernist writing from the 1930s, particularly that of the New Sensationists
(xinganjuepai 新感覺派), including Shi Zhecun and Mu Shiying.5 One of the
INTRODucTION 3
main points that will be argued is that much of the Chinese popular literature
of the 1940s was indebted to the modernist Shanghai authors of the 1930s in
various ways. New Sensationist writings are rarely seen as having much impact
on later Chinese literature, but I believe that their style was an important influ-
ence on the popular wartime literature of the following decade: the latter was
partly built upon aspects of Shanghai modernism, appropriating both content
and narrative style. In order to outline this development, I will also be dealing
with a few works by Shi Zhecun and Mu Shiying.
This next section presents a brief discussion of what constitutes popular
literature in 1940s wartime China, as well as an overview of the several ways in
which Xu Xu and Wumingshi have been classified and evaluated. In Chinese
literary scholarship they are often discussed together and represented as relating
to certain other categories and groupings in Chinese literature. Some of these
categories merit further discussion and critique, particularly the notion of haipai
海派, Shanghai School fiction, which incorporates practically all literature of the
late Republican period not deliberately engaging with social or national issues.
Chapter 2 is intended to provide context through discussion of several works
by Shi Zhecun and Mu Shiying, two of the most prominent modernist writers of
the early 1930s. A few works are analysed to highlight the hybrid nature of their
writings, showing how they frequently rely on cultural tradition, legend and
tropes from popular literature. The main purpose of this section is to put down
some markers for later comparison.
Chapter 3 discusses wartime popular literature more generally, touching
upon the works of a few other authors. This section also sets out some context
for the literary field and the changes within it happening at the time. In addition
to showing the diversity of popular literature during the war, some background
is provided for the more specific analyses of works in subsequent chapters.
Chapters 4 and 5 focus on Xu Xu and Wumingshi, respectively. I analyse
their works in roughly chronological order and argue two more general points:
first, that both authors incorporated elements of modernism into their highly
romantic popular novels and short stories, thereby crossing such categories
in new ways; and, second, that they were indebted to the 1930s modernists,
echoing their works in both style and content. The two authors also show
an interesting trajectory, starting with more modernist works and eventually
writing popular romances.
Functioning largely as a conclusion, Chapter 6 is more comparative, mapping
out characteristics of the principal authors presented here. This section also
expands upon and highlights some of the more general points or themes that as
mentioned above recur throughout this study:
1. The use of cultural tradition and the supernatural in popular literature. The
wartime years have been seen as a period during which Chinese tradition
was re-appropriated and revitalised, mainly in drama.6 Yet apart from pro-
moting nationalism, this aspect of Chinese writing has rarely been explored