China and the West

Nathaniel Hawthorne and China : general.
1989
Norman Michael Bock : Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The scarlet letter.
Chinese readers unfamiliar with the religious traditions of the West should understand that the sense of essential selfhood in The scarlet letter builds directly upon the tenets of Calvinist religious doctrine, which Hawthorne secularized in order to express his ideal of the American.
Heather's reaction to public condemnation will puzzle Chinese readers. The motivations behind Hester's affair with Dimmesdale hold no mystery for Chinese readers : she seeks a quality of love her husband can not provide because of his age, his temperament, and his physical absence. Chinese readers will find fascinating the complex, culture-specific implications of Hawthorne's vision. Hawthorne touches upon sever cultural ironies in The Scarlet letter. When Hester humbles herself before the community, her self effacement appears to be more consistent with traditional Chinese sensibilities than American. But contrary to what we would expect in a traditional Chinese environment, Hester's actions do not lead unambiguously to the rectification of her public roles as wife, mother, and citizen.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The may-pole of Merrymount.
This tale highlights for Chinese students certain subtly concealed authorial sympathies that result from the paradigmatic tension between the individual's visceral desires and the external 'realities' of the physical and metaphysical realms, as perceived according to characteristic American cultural assumptions. Chinese readers, so accustomed to listening to common wisdom about the primacy of personal sentiment in America, will find illuminating Hawthorne's insinuated plea to resign certain of those feelings before the demands of the nonself. This story demonstrates for Chinese students that Hawthorne, displaying a tendency found throughout classic American fiction, seeks to develop his personal approach to life independently, rather than follow established models slavishly.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The birth-mark.
Chinese readers committed to a vision of China resurgent upon a wave of supposedly apolitical scientific discovery and technical advance will find fascinating Hawthorne's deeply ambivalent attitudes toward the scientist Aylmer. In what Chinese will identify as the characteristic American proclivity toward striving taken toward its monomaniacal extreme, Aylmer insists upon an ethereal, flawless goddess for a wife, not a being subject to diurnal change.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The artist of the beautiful.
The novel illuminates for Chinese readers the culturally distinctive 'sumbjunctive' dimension of American thought.

2013
Pu Lixin :
First period : 1910-1949.
China chose Hawthorne, and paid attention to The Scarlet letter and his other writings because Chinese inellectuals wished to learn from Hawrhorne to build a new China. Hawthorne studies in China began in the 1910s and developed quckly in the following decades. Two elements stimulated the study. One, China was enthusiastic about the introduction of American literature into China because Chinese intellectuals believed it was of great importance for them to buils up their own national literature. American literature, because it had broken away from the tradi6tions of British literature, embodied the spirit of independence and revolution. Chinese scholars still held the idea that Hawthorne had helped to initiate a new tradition of the 'Great American novel'. The second element involved a desire, on the part of Chinese intellectuals, for solutions to social problems. Chinese intellectuals wanted to learn something from American literature that might be applied to solve problems in China.
Second period : 1949-1979.
China rejected Hawthorne. During this stage, Hawthorne studies were inged by ideological concerns. Chinese scholars could still translate The scarlet letter and other works without running any political risk. Besides translatioins of Hawthorne's works, Hawthorne studies almost came to a halt in the frozen period. There were no academic articles except a few prefaces in the translations.
Last period : 1979-present.
Chinese studies of Hawthorne flourished and became increasingly complex. Critical attention has been focused on Hawthorne's thought. Puritanism exerted a great influence upon Hawthorne. When exploring the relationship between Puritanism and Hawthorne, Chinese scholars usually place it in the context of the history of New England in general and Hawthorne's own family in particular. Chinese scholars are also interested in Hawthorne's attitude toward women. Some hold to the idea that Hawthorne is a feminist and even glorify Hester as 'a feminist myth'. Others argue that The scarlet letter is not a construction of, but rather a deconstruction of, a feminist ideal in the nineteenth century. Chinese schlolars lack an independent and profound examination of Hawthorne, and they blindly follow the ideas of foreign scholars, losing themselves in a sea of opinions and theories.
Chinese scholars also came to realize that Hawthorne is a writer who makes canny observations about political isssues and social reforms.