Introduction : stating the problem -- The obscure face of modernity in early 20th-century Chinese literature -- Wenxue and new practices of writing in post-1840 China -- Rethinking the transformation of modern Chinese prose -- 'A whole month of hesitation' : further thoughts on Yan Fu and his translations -- Cultivating the "great divide" : popular literature in early 20th-century China -- The advent of the modern as business venture : the case of the commercial press.
Summary:
"This book looks at the overarching challenge of the "modernity" that continues to be the master discourse of Chinese society. The key to this book, as it is perhaps to all of modern Chinese intellectual history, is the instability and/or fluidity of the key concepts anchored in the basic notion of "modernity" and thus intended to describe, fix and thus lend ostensible certainty to an ongoing historical process that has been bewildering both in the comprehensiveness of its scope and in the rapidity of its onset. This critique is not meant to in any way minimize the enormous and at times insurmountable problems facing modern China or to gainsay the impressive achievements registered in overcoming many of them, it is merely to call attention to some of the inevitable costs associated with attempting to mandate fixed solutions, the cultural ones in particular, to these issues"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.