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 Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © Christopher Rosenmeier, 2017 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 10/12 Ehrhardt by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 9636 9 (hardback) ISBN 978 0 7486 9637 6 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 2646 6 (epub) The right of Christopher Rosenmeier to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). 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