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25 March 2021, Volume 41 Issue 2 Previous Issue    Next Issue

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A Study of Socialist Discourse System with Chinese Characeristics

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Popular Literature and Art, National Forms and the Re-presentation of Lyricism Nan Fan 2021, 41 (2):  1-15.  Abstract ( 262 )   PDF (1946KB) ( 97 )   In the 1930s and 1940s, debates about “popular literature and art” and “the ‘national form’ of literature” emerged successively in China. While affirming the popular and national literary forms, the literary form that Chinese intellectuals highly admired served as the “Other” in the debating discourse and thus it has never received positive theoretical account. This article intends to re-present this literary form through an integrated examination of cultural interest, class, and literary form. Thanks to the promotion of the May Fourth New Literature, the radical attitude of petty bourgeois culture and the general conceptualization of enlightenment, this literary form is marked by the surge of lyrical elements. The new type of lyricism breaks various classical restrictions and embodies literature’s aesthetic approaches to “modernity.” However, can lyricism be incorporated into the tradition of epics? What does the psychological nature of lyricism bring to the narrative discourse? What is the gap between lyricism and a series of sociological ideas such as class, the masses, and social relations? What is the significance of modernist introspective fiction? These are some of the questions that need to be addressed in our theoretical investigation. Related Articles | Metrics

Issue in Focus: Studies of Peking Opera

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A Hundred Year Modern Peking Opera: Practices and Experiences Zhu Hengfu 2021, 41 (2):  16-25.  Abstract ( 392 )   PDF (1424KB) ( 141 )   The hundred-year modern Peking opera (jingju) has gone through three stages. In the first stage, ranging from around 1910 to around 1964, jingju was used as agit-prop. In the second stage from 1964 to 1976, there emerged a series of new forms in acting, music, and stage art, with which theatre practitioners strove to use art to perform revolutionary historical stories or the struggle and construction in the socialist period. The third stage from 1976 to the present is characterized by a thematic departure from “politics” and “revolution” to the portrayal of “nobodies” by focusing on characters’ psychology; this stage also features novel and beautiful physical movements in accordance with the performance methods of jingju. The experiences of previous practices mainly include: top-down design for modern-life play creation so as to ensure differences between plays of similar subjects and themes; using theme music throughout the play to shape characters’ musical image; designing individualized singing style for characters; using vernacular and Beijing-dialect rhymed-speech for singing and speaking so as to remove communicative barriers; employing traditional Chinese and Western music. In addition, it also tells the stories of the common people, and creates new performing styles according to the aesthetic principles of traditional jingju conventions. Related Articles | Metrics

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On Wang Yuanhua's Ideas of Jingju and His Reflection on the May Fourth Movement  Li Wei 2021, 41 (2):  26-32.  Abstract ( 230 )   PDF (1833KB) ( 54 )   It is extremely meaningful, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Wang Yuanhua’s birth, to restudy his ideas of jingju. Wang’s thoughts on the revival and development of jingju from the perspective of cultural heritage are highly valuable. He believes that, in terms of moral ideas, jingju is a medium and vehicle in disseminating grand traditions of Chinese culture towards smaller traditions. Meanwhile, considered as a performance system, jingju embodies the “bixing” mindset, the lyrical expression with mind-object interaction, as well as the flexible distance-immersion dynamic among performers and spectators. This results in a complete system of “virtuality, conventionalization, and ideographics” . He therefore maintains that the guideline of the revival and development of jingju should be innovation based on inheritance. Wang’s views on jingju, which underwent an enduring process, primarily stemmed from his reflections on the controversy of new and old theatre during the May Fourth Movement and the subsequent reforms and new practices in xiqu. Although Wang’s thoughts on jingju reform are more preliminary than active, less constructive than destructive, they indeed point a direction for further reflection.  Related Articles | Metrics

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Chinese Peking Opera Anthology: A Text-Centered Study of Peking Opera Li Dongdong 2021, 41 (2):  33-42.  Abstract ( 264 )   PDF (1891KB) ( 61 )   Since 1880, Peking opera (jingju) anthologies have developed rapidly and collected a large number of plays. Therefore, the text-centered study of jingju based on anthologies has been established, which could fulfil the gap in existing jingju studies that focus on performance. Specifically, by outlining the basic forms and evolutionary rules of the selected texts, we can survey the full picture of text-centered anthologies in development. By foregrounding text-centeredness and literariness of playscripts, we can open up a new field of textual studies beyond the studies of performance. The major aspects of theoretical studies of jingju anthologies include theories of anthology, theories of jingju, and theories of canonization.  Related Articles | Metrics

Modern and Contemporary Literary Theory

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Testimony, Narrative, and History: The Plague and Some Issues of Literature as Testimony Tao Dongfeng 2021, 41 (2):  43-53.  Abstract ( 349 )   PDF (1882KB) ( 96 )   Albert Camus’s The Plague establishes a mode of “literature as historical testimony” and demonstrates a profound shift in the relationship between history and narrative, and it implies that literature (narrative) is inevitably embedded in history. Literature as a testimony to the Holocaust does not record the Holocaust but also offers a new perspective to understand it. This actualizes the transformation of history as it changes the nature of historical knowledge. The history in The Plague is written in the mode of an allegory, and it establishes a profound metaphorical relation between the plague and the Holocaust. As both the plague and the Holocaust are beyond the original cognitive framework of history, The Plague, as literary testimony, witnesses the history of the Holocaust where prior historical concepts and the mode of historical writing failed. Related Articles | Metrics

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Urban Imagination and the Idea of the Nation-State in Modern Chinese Literature Li Yongdong 2021, 41 (2):  54-67.  Abstract ( 233 )   PDF (4140KB) ( 132 )   Cities and nation-states are both substantive and conceptual. The study of urban imagination in modern Chinese literature needs to go beyond the model that builds on the concept of a uniform city and village. It requires an understanding of the limits in interpreting modernity and cultural perspective, and an emphasis on exploring the polysemy and fluidity of city images. Cities and nation-states constitute a “problem field,” in which the way of looking at and imagining cities are often marked by metaphors of the nation-state. Urban imagination and the idea of the nation-state are mutually illuminative. The expression of the idea of the nation-state has its own preferences and choices for cities. For instance, cities at the center of historical turmoil, those invaded by foreign civilizations, or those given high hopes for the rise of the nation-state, are the sites on which discourses and disputes about nation-state are concentrated. Among them, the literary imagination of national capitals and concession cities is especially favored in the expressions of the idea of nation-state. The urban imagination in modern Chinese literature can be studied by focusing on issues of the two identities of the city and the author and by introducing the idea of the mutually mirroring cities as well as transnational and cross-cultural perspectives. Through this, the space of the study on urban imagination and nation-state may be expanded. Related Articles | Metrics

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Imaginations of the Wei and Jin Dynasties in the Time of Historical Fracture: Rereading Zong Baihua’s “On The Tales of the World and the Beauty of the Jin People” in the Context of the Second Sino-Japanese War  Jin Lang 2021, 41 (2):  68-77.  Abstract ( 324 )   PDF (1873KB) ( 63 )   Zong Baihua’s “On The Tales of the World and the Beauty of the Jin People” is the foundation for research on the aesthetics of the Wei and Jin dynasties. It expounds on the aesthetic spirit in the Wei and Jin dynasties with discourses of “consciousness of personality”, which is often traced back to the period of the May Fourth Movement. In fact, this understanding is the result of reinterpretations in the new era. An overlooked fact is that this work was written during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and should be interpreted in the historical and cultural context of this period. The ideological atmosphere during the Second Sino-Japanese War led to a revival of the statement of “empty talk ruins the country”, which not only aroused criticism from Jie Zi after the publication of this work, but also contributed to Zong Baihua’s efforts to incorporate the May Fourth spirit into the War of Resistance, particularly through reinterpretations of Confucian morality and etiquette, as well as an underlying German approach of Renaissance. The absence of these connotations in the ideological structure of the new era precisely reveals the new repression of “enlightenment” on "salvation”. Related Articles | Metrics

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“Poetic Wisdom” or “Poetic Knowledge”: On the Interlingual Transformation of “Della Sapienza Poetica” Lin Weixuan 2021, 41 (2):  78-89.  Abstract ( 221 )   PDF (1478KB) ( 42 )   While the term “Poetic wisdom” as the translation of “della Sapienza Poetica” helps to convey the aesthetic connotation of the original. it shadows the meaning of “poetic knowledge” and its epistemological background. Since René Descartes’s rationality denied the value of philology, Giovanni Battista Vico tried to use “della Sapienza Poetica” as his method to seek truth in philology, and as his determination to defend philology. When approaching “della Sapienza Poetica” from the perspective of “poetic knowledge,” we can understand and justify many of the puzzling arguments in Vico’s New Science and give due respect to the concept which lacks among Western estheticians. The difference between “della Sapienza Poetica” and its Chinese term “poetic wisdom”, this article maintains, provides an example to examine how concepts transform across languages and cast light to the study of how Western theories may localize in China. Related Articles | Metrics

Western Literary Theory

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Third Reading of Early Film Theory: The Turn to Dispositif, Affect, and Action Comedy Zhang Yingjin 2021, 41 (2):  90-96.  Abstract ( 333 )   PDF (1388KB) ( 159 )   Early film studies has spread rapidly since the 1990s and become a mainstay in film studies in Euro-American academia, bringing technological innovation, visual culture, and urban modernity into film historiography and thus enriching scholarship in a field previously dominated by close textual reading. This article continues my tracking of early film studies but concentrates on methodological issues of the recent focus on “media archaeology.” My “Reading Early Film Theory: Collective Sensorium and Vernacular Modernism” (2005) introduces Miriam Hansen’s theory and Zhen Zhang’s book on reconstructing a cultural history of Shanghai film. My follow-up “Rereading Early Film Theory: In Pursuit of Sensorial Experiences in Urban Modernity” (2008) revisits cultural theories of modernity by Krakauer and Benjamin and the visual turn in modern urban culture. Twelve years later, my third reading of early film theory examines the turn to dispositif in the media archaeology of early cinema. On the one hand, I reference scholars like Weihong Bao in delineating the emergence of dispositif and affect in early Chinese cinema; on the other hand, I tease out instances of filmic affect in Chaplin's action comedy, City Lights. Related Articles | Metrics

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The New Development of Marxist Literary Criticism Today: An Interview with Barbara Foley Zhang Shengzhen, Barbara Foley 2021, 41 (2):  97-105.  Abstract ( 240 )   PDF (1417KB) ( 60 )   This interview with Prof. Barbara Foley covers a wide range of critical approaches and new challenges in the fields of Marxist theory, Marxist literary criticism, and Marxist pedagogy. Prof. Foley holds that Marxism provides a meta-theory, a privileged standpoint from which to study the connections between literature, politics and history. After examining fundamental principles of Marxism — historical materialism, political economy, and ideology critique — Foley analyzes long-standing debates over the nature of literature and sets forth key concerns of Marxist literary criticism. This interview also examines a broad range of literary works — from classical to contemporary, conservative to revolutionary — that displays Marxism’s continuing value in explaining the multiple mediations between abstract social forces and their expression in literary form. Her new book, Marxist Literary Criticism Today is pedagogical in orientation, directed at twenty-first-century readers interested in linking emergent texts, genres, and cultural debates with traditional principles of materialist inquiry. Related Articles | Metrics

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Juxtaposition, Narrative Strategies, and Multimedia Explorations: Representation of Time in Comics Lian Xu 2021, 41 (2):  106-114.  Abstract ( 236 )   PDF (2162KB) ( 104 )   Following the tradition of narratology and comics studies, this article explores various ways of representing time in comics and displays the complexity and diversity of temporal representation in the grammar of comics. It focuses on spatialization, closure, order, speed, and innovation enabled by virtue of multimedia explorations. Spatialization strategies such as juxtaposition and collage are basic ways to represent time in comics, and closure of perception is also critical in understanding time. However, new forms like music comics and webcomics have significantly changed the structure of temporal representation. Related Articles | Metrics

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Fictional Text and Reality of the Possible Zhang Shusheng 2021, 41 (2):  115-121.  Abstract ( 250 )   PDF (1393KB) ( 59 )   This article explores the issue of reference in fictional texts, that is, the relationship between fictional texts and reality. Paul Ricoeur thinks that the reference of poetic language is not cancelled, but only suspended. Through its semantic creativity, it possesses the ability to transform reality and to turn our personal environment into a habitable world. The interpretation of the concept “world/Welt” and “environment/Umwelt” by Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer shed light on the significance of fictional texts in reality, for they propose to us possible modes of existence in the ontological sense.In other words, fictional texts can express the reality of the possible (réalité du possible/Wirklichkeit des Moglichen). This article focuses on the researches by Hans Blumenberg, in order to discuss the influence of the historical evolution of the concept of reality on that of fictional texts. The new idea about the reality enables people to enlarge their zone of possibility through fiction, and to constantly change their perspective and position through the ontological journey of reading. Related Articles | Metrics

Classical Literary Theory

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A Paranoid Anxiety of Life and Its Artistic Expression: A Thematic Study of the Story of Zhuangzhou Drumming the Basin Jing Yugui 2021, 41 (2):  122-136.  Abstract ( 338 )   PDF (1950KB) ( 166 )   The original story of “Zhuangzhou Drumming the Basin” as first appeared in the Stories to Caution the World has been circulated both in China and abroad, and the motif of “unfaithful widow” is given distinctive artistic forms of expression. Zhuang’s wife, the female protagonist in the story is constructed as an embodiment of carnal desire. Such representation reflects the status and tragic existence of women in a patriarchal society. Zhuangzi, who tests his wife’s faithfulness, is in fact a representative figure of ancient scholars of little means who are separated from society and family, and a sexually jealous character of Othello syndrome. To put it bluntly, the story of “Zhuangzhou Drumming the Basin” is a story of abandoning the husband in the form of a husband faking his death, which is underlined by the strongest anger and horror of male as the strong man in the traditional sense. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Aesthetic Concept of On the Absence of Sentiments in Music and a Reflection on the Construction of Chinese Aesthetics Lin Kai 2021, 41 (2):  137-145.  Abstract ( 266 )   PDF (1864KB) ( 94 )   Ji Kang’s (223-263) On the Absence of Sentiments in Music has three types of aesthetic concepts. First, listeners of sorrowful music release his emotions through listening. Second, peaceful listeners obtain aesthetic pleasure through appreciating the beauty of musical form. Thirdly, peaceful listeners focus specifically on moderate music, in order to acquire peace and preserve his health. Going beyond utilitarian emotions, Ji Kang laid more emphasis on the second type of aesthetic concept, which was close to Kant’s definition of disinterestedness. Yet, he regulated desire due to vigilance, rather than stressing “aesthetic freedom” like modern aesthetics. Therefore, Ji Kang’s three concepts embodied his unique thinking on aesthetics, and his perception of the structure of musical appreciation and value orientation of musical aesthetics were different from the West. It is problematic to judge Ji Kang’s aesthetics by the standards of Western concepts such as formal beauty and aesthetic freedom. When constructing Chinese aesthetics by reference to the West, it is necessary to be aware of the differences in cultural contexts and to absorb the common wisdom as much as possible. Related Articles | Metrics

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Multidimensional Construction and Deconstruction of the Claim that the Eight-Legged Essay Was Epitomized in the Ming Dynasty Zheng Xiong 2021, 41 (2):  146-157.  Abstract ( 257 )   PDF (1956KB) ( 202 )   The claim that the eight-legged essay was epitomized in the Ming dynasty was solidified by scholars of the Ming and Qing dynasties with the belief that each generation had an exemplary genre since the Yuan dynasty. The claim was constructed from four dimensions of the three relationships between writing and, respectively, societal politics, scholar’s vitality, and tradition of adhering to the classics and doctrines, as well as generic transformation and its value. The value of the eight-legged essay in the Ming dynasty had also been criticized in the abovementioned four dimensions by the Ming and Qing dynasty scholars. However, the criticism did not undermine the meaning of the claim about the epitomized status of eight-legged essay in the Ming dynasty, because of the endorsement of imperial examination and the old literary evaluation framework. Some ideas from the criticism were nevertheless picked up by the critics in late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China, who, against the background of the abolition of the imperial examinations, the transformation of literary concept and the change in the paradigm of literary research, the claim that eight-legged essay was epitomized in the Ming dynasty was entirely undermined when literary history was being reconstructed. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Breakthrough and Limitations of Qi Biaojia’s Xiqu-play Criticism Zhang Shiyang 2021, 41 (2):  158-166.  Abstract ( 226 )   PDF (1865KB) ( 66 )   In his letters to friends, Qi Biaojia expressed his hope to compile a collection of xiqu-plays in the Ming dynasty to promote contemporary xiqu-plays with textual criticism of the manuscripts. Qi inherited Wang Jide’s idea of being the first to bridge the gap in the xiqu world and Lv Tiancheng’s “intention to be close to the secular.”Therefore, he tried hard to collect all the xiqu-plays in the Ming dynasty available to him, and compiled a monograph on xiqu-plays. Qi focused on manuscripts rather than on the playwrights or actors as his basis of evaluation. As opera music meters and performance were not his expertise, Qi paid more attention to the structure and narrative of the plays. Before Li Yu in the Qing dynasty with his theorization of structure, Qi considered narrative structure as the primary element in dramatic works, and this was a typical characteristics of literati evaluation. Limitations aside, Qi’s criticism can be argued as an indication of transition from the study of the music to the study of the play in the late Ming dynasty. Related Articles | Metrics

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Mao Qiling’s Comments on The Romance of the West Chamber and the Value of His Concept of “Lyric Example” in Literary Criticism Yang Xurong 2021, 41 (2):  167-178.  Abstract ( 252 )   PDF (1963KB) ( 63 )   Theatre critics of the Ming dynasty spoke only occasionally about the “example (li)” of the Yuan-dynasty plays (za ju). In early Qing dynasty, Mao Qiling proposed “lyric example (ci li)” as the primary commentary approach to The Romance of the West Chamber. The concept of “lyric” refers to the Yuan-dynasty plays, and the concept of “example” refers to the conventions, commonalities, laws and paradigms. Mao's concept of “lyric example” provided a comprehensive analysis of the language, the temperament, the system, and the performance as well as the critical standards in evaluating not only The Romance of the West Chamber but also the Yuan-dynasty plays in general. Mao’s concept was used both to criticize The Romance of the West Chamber but also to establish the norms for the Yuan-dynasty plays and even for Chinese plays in general. In other words， Mao’s engagement with The Romance of the West Chamber is his effort to establish a general theory for the criticism of Chinese theatre. Mao’s concept of “lyric example” is of great significance in the history of classical Chinese literary criticism and deserves great attention in contemporary scholarship. Related Articles | Metrics

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Wang Guowei’s Theory of Intuition and New Practice of Symbolizing with Affective Image in Ci-poetry Yang Boling 2021, 41 (2):  179-192.  Abstract ( 247 )   PDF (1524KB) ( 91 )   The category of “perceiving” runs through all the fields and the whole process of Wang Guowei’s research. He insists that art is based on intuition， but this does not mean that he is an anti-rationalist. He is not opposed to the use of bi (comparison) and xing (affective image) in classical Chinese poetry, yet reforms these methods with his theory of intuition, thereby giving them connotations of symbolism in modern Western poetics. Taking sorrows for the change of seasons, observations of moonlights, and astronomical phenomena as examples, this article analyzes the symbolic means of intuitive cognition embodied in Wang Guowei’s statement, “all words of scenes are those of sensations”. Taking the image of beautiful women as an example, this article also analyzes his development of the traditional way of metaphor through the statement, “pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy， are all realms in human mind”. Taking interrogative, negative, and affirmative sentence structures as examples, this article further argues that key to the term “non-ambiguity” in the statement, “non-ambiguity means that utterance seems to be in front of eyes”, is whether utterance can be perceived through intuition. Wang Guowei prefers intuitive words and phrases that transcend accustomed and inertial thinking. Related Articles | Metrics

Aesthetic Studies

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Nelson Goodman on Exemplification Zhang Hui 2021, 41 (2):  193-202.  Abstract ( 290 )   PDF (1403KB) ( 38 )   Nelson Goodman holds that there are two forms of symbolizing, namely, denotation and exemplification. In denotation, a symbol is used to refer to an object, while in exemplification the exemplifier has a label or is referred to by a label. Exemplification explains how abstract works perform symbolic functions and express metaphorical exemplifiers. Being highly creative and influential, Goodman’s theory is valuable and can serve as a reference for Chinese scholars. Related Articles | Metrics

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“Inaesthetics” and the “Passion for the Real”: Alain Badiou on the Avant-Garde Art Xia Kaifeng 2021, 41 (2):  203-210.  Abstract ( 295 )   PDF (1840KB) ( 46 )   Alain Badiou distinguishes between the didactic schema, classical schema and romantic schema in art, and further suggests that the avant-garde art does not create a new schema, but synthesizes the previous schemata into a didactico-romantic schema. Badiou strives to propose a new schema, the “inaesthetics” schema, which is both immanent and exclusive, that is, taking art as a truth-procedure. The inaesthetics schema is actually modeled around the avant-garde art, as Badiou believes that the avant-garde art embodies the “passion for the real,” which implies two approaches of “destruction” and “subtraction.” When Badiou attempts to combine these two approaches in his theory, he actually acknowledges that “inaesthetic” art is grounded on the avant-garde art. To put it alternatively, his combination of destruction and subtraction offers a new model of the avant-garde art. Related Articles | Metrics

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The Somaesthetics of the Multitude: The Politico-Aesthetic Logic of Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt in Constructing the Subjecthood Li Jinying 2021, 41 (2):  211-224.  Abstract ( 246 )   PDF (1398KB) ( 43 )   ”The Multitude”, a concept reconstructed by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt after the deconstruction of the subjecthood by post-structuralism, is a combination of singularity and commonality, and physicality and affection, and it is the subjecthood of postmodern society that overthrows the control of the empire and constructs the commonwealth. In the early days, Negri began to explore social issues from the perspective of the relationship between art and the multitude. From this perspective, his logics in constructing the multitude can be summed up as aestheticization and bio-politicization, and its inner trajectory of reasoning can be summarized as a transformation from the ”somaesthetics of multitude” to the ”poetics of body”, and to the ”body/singularity politics”. Related Articles | Metrics