Year

1989

Text

Type

Publication

Contributors (1)

Mentioned People (6)

Subjects

Chronology Entries (4)

#	Year	Text	Linked Data
1	1910-2013	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.	Document: Pu, Lixin. The critical reception of Nathaniel Hawthorne in China (1910-present). In : The Nathaniel Hawthorne review ; vol. 39, no 1 (2013). http://literature.proquest.com/searchFulltext.do?id=R04973283&div Level=0&area=abell&forward=critref_ft. (HawN70, Publication) Person: Hawthorne, Nathaniel
2	1926-2000	Herman Melville and China : general. Yang Jincai : In the late 1970s wide interest in Melville occurred when China slowly walked away from the shadow of the Cultural Revolution. Throughout the 1980s, Melville studies in China were characterized by little reference to American scholarship. The Chinese critical fervor during the period featured a focus on the 'gloominess of Melville'. From the 1990s on, comparative studies of Melville and his contemporaries or disciples began to claim a fuller place in Chinese academe. These comparative approaches render a wealth of literary material that has helped readers in China understand Melville's writing. The most ambitious Melville publishing venture of the 1990s was the translation of Moby Dick. Heading into the twenty-first century, Melville scholarship in China has advanced in varied ways. The brisk publication of Melville's works has augmented Chinese scholars' unrelenting efforts in Melville studies. In contrast with the comparative approaches, critics now depart from the traditional trajectory of biographical and historicist approaches and focus on Melville's artistic project including his manipulation of narration, characterization, and writing technique. Norman Michael Bock : Melville, Herman. Moby Dick : Chinese do not tend, at least not to the extant westerners do, to accord divinity to a single, conscious being. The Judeo-Christian assumption of monotheism encounters constant challenge even in China today, where small family temples may contain side-by-side statues of Christ, the Buddha, and Guanyin – all of whom are perceived as coequal manifestations of the same diffuse metaphysical presence. As the novel progresses, Ishmael moves away from the most extreme Western proclivity for assuming an anthropomorphized, antagonistic god, but appearances notwithstanding, he does not move toward the Chinese sensibility. Traditional Chinese scholars did not assume that the world is indifferent and nonpurposive, as Melville does. They saw the universe, on balance, as benevolent. At the end of the chase, when Ishmael, the sole survivor of the Pequod's crew, is finally alone in the timelessly rolling ocean, buoyed by the coffin of his lost comrade Queequeg, confrontated by the same heartless immensity that drove Pig mad, the narrator can react constructively to the woe he has felt all along. Ishmael now appreciates himself as representative of the archetypal wandering orphan of Judeo-Christian myth, waiting to be picked up by the Rachel to begin life anew on the lee shore. Chinese readers, accustomed to Chinese novels that detail the protagonist's involvement with the ethical concerns presented by the quotidian, will question why Moby Dick ends at this point. Melville, Herman. The bell-tower : Chinese readers will appreciate the continuities, and subtle differences between Hawthorne' The birthmark and Melville's The bell-tower. Both tales focus on a prideful inventor who seeks to create an object that stands beyond the limitations and imperfections of historical existence. Although Melville warns against what he perceived as a misguided American tendency to strive to transcend the realm of historical limitations, he also recognizes that dreamers such as Bannadonna achieve certain precious perspectives on human experience. For Chinese readers, this paradox repeats a point made in Moby Dick and defines a key feature of American culture. Melville, Herman. Bartleby the scrivener : This tale has proven tremendously intriguing to the generation of Chinese students that passed the first National University Entrance Exam conducted after the Cultural Revolution. These readers often attribute to Bartleby a heroic nihilism. Some Chinese students inclined to find evidence of Bartleby's redemption have argued that the protagonist, in dying, seems to fertilize the prison yard, so that 'by some magic, through the clefts, grass-seed, dropped by the birds, has sprung'. Bartleby the scivener provoked a cult of interest among Chinese undergraduates. Many intellectuals who had lost years of educational opportunity to the tumult of the Cultural Revolution now channeled their previously unarticulated inclinations toward nihilism into their readings of this work.	Document: Yang, Jincai. The critical reception of Herman Melville in China. In : Leviathan ; vol. 14, issue 2 (2012). (MelH2, Publication) Person: Melville, Herman
3	1980-2000	Henry James and China general 1989 Norman Michael Bock : The American : James created a seemingly legendary figure, who incorporates an almost bewildering array of the most attenuated qualities of American selfhood. Chinese readers should not view Newman as a 'realistic' protagonist, but as an aggregate of all the most extreme tendencies of character assumed in a 'national type'. In Newman, we find a man who lacks antecedents, who displays industry and self reliance, who appreciates the future profit to be reaped from present sacrifice, who knows how to persevere, and who is driven to succeed solely for the sweet sake of success. Surreal Newman may seem to Americans, he may seem authentic to Chinese readers possessing little basis for comparison. Daisy Miller : Winterbourne becomes extremely annoyed that Daisy is intimate with him, yet not devoted to him. This brings to mind his colleague's observation that 'American women [are] at once the most exacting in the world and the least endowed with a sense of indebtedness '. Chinese can appreciate in this passage the apparent tendency of Americans to believe that the world owes them much, but they owe the world little in exchange. Although Daisy at times appears shallow to Winterbourne, the mere maintenance of appearances does not satisfy this woman, who illustrates for Chinese readers what James regarded as a characteristic American desire to penetrate the surfaces of 'decorum'. Chinese readers will delight in the Euro-American debate over 'innocence'. When Winterbourne tells his aunt he is not innocent, she responds in typical Old World fashion, 'You are too guilty, then ?' For this man, who retains American sensibilities that even he does not appreciate, innocence connotes 'naivete' ; for his Europeanized aunt, it suggest the opposite of 'sinfulness'. In their understanding of the term 'innocence', Chinese will side squarely with the Americans. Daisy's demise at the end of the story suggests much about James's ambivalence as to the American proclivities toward spontaneity, experience, fresh exuberance, and freedom from social encumbrances. Intriguing these traits remain to him, they seem too impulsive and uninhibited to afford survival amidst a world of harsh physical and social realities. At this point in Daisy Miller, Chinese readers will recognize the many thematic parallels to The American. Some elemental urge in Daisy Miller, this all-too-obvious flowering of American youth, drives her to set aside safety and comfort for new experiences that lead to a fuller sense of being. 2002 Dai Xianmei : Henry James remained largely unknown to Chinese readers even after 1949. Henry James studies in China formally began in 1980. With China's policy of reform and opening to foreign countries, James began to find his readers in China and he even became a hot topic of debate among some Chinese doctoral students. Chinese scholars read the foreign literary works for ideological instruction rather than for their aesthetic mould. Under such circumstances, Henry James, with his pursuit of an aesthetic and philosophical appreciation of the cream of life, seemed far away from Chinese needs. Quite a lot of Chinese intellectuals were unavoidably and understandably involved in political activities and political thinking about their country's future. Zhao Luorui, Hou Wirui and Yang Xiaoping believed that Henry James gave preference to American innocence and morality between the conflicts of the two cultures. Almost all of the early Chinese James critics sensed the difficulty of his language and found themselves willing to accept H.G. Wells's view that James's magnificently artistic form is at the cost of life and content. From political rejection to an artistic appreciation of Henry James, we can sense the change of the Chinese mind or China's attitude towards western culture. The conscious appreciation of James and some other western writers of his kind, sufficiently indicates the fact that Chinese people are becoming more and more open-minded in a new century with the development of economy, science and technology, more and more confident in combining her own ancient glorious civilization with all the other cultures to create a more lively Chinese culture, just like Henry James's enthusiastic pursuit of an ideal cultural combination of the cream of both American and European cultures. 2013 Wang, Liya : The past decades have seen enormous efforts in China to study Henry James's corpus , which reflects a persistent enthusiasm on this literary figure among scholars in the field of foreign literature studies. This paper looks back at studies on Henry James in different historical periods, in China and attempts to uncover the interaction between the reception of foreign classics and China's historical background. From a heavy reliance on the 'traveling theories' in the 1980s to a selective use of Western paradigms later on critics of Henry James in China consistently show a general interest in his major novels and his novel theory. This paper is an historical review of studies on Henry James, works in China from the middle of twentieth century up to the present. Both the phase features of these studies and the factors which influence the formation of these features, in particular cultural background, are addressed in this research. Firstly, form 1934 to 1945, Henry James's works had been introduced into the literacy criticism in China by translators, but the research at that time was constrained by the historical conditions. Secondly, from 1949 to the 1970s, there was very little study done regarding Henry James. It was not until 1980's that scholars has begun to discuss Henry James's works from various perspectives. Henry James was originally regarded as a bourgeois writer who idealized the ruling class and neglected the working class. Influenced by the reflection on the political thinking in literature studies during the Cultural Revolution and the nation-wide revival of humanism in culture, Henry James was interpreted as a humanistic writer who had fully explored human consciousness. However, the aestheticism both in his novel theory and his late works was largely absent during that period. Finally, from the 1990s onward, Henry James has been interpreted according to various critical traditions, such as the formalist tradition and the deconstructive tradition .	Document: Dai, Xianmei. From rejection to appreciation : Henry James studies in China. [Paper read at the 2002 International Henry James Conference in Paris]. (JamH3, Publication) Document: Wang, Liya. Xin Zhongguo liu shi nian Hengli Zhanmusi xiao shuo yan jiu zhi kao cha yu fen xi. In : Journal of Zhejiang University (humanities and social sciences). Vol. 43 (2013). [A historical review of Henry James study in China]. http://www.journals.zju.edu.cn/soc/EN/abstract/abstract10700.shtml. 新中国六十年亨利?詹姆斯小说研究之考察与分析 (JamH2, Web) Person: James, Henry (1)
4	1989	F. Scott Fitzgerald and China general Norman Michael Bock : The Chinese university audience is bound to note that Fitzgerald wrote with simultaneous admiration and pity of American Dreamers such as Jay Gatsby and Dexter Freen, whose capacity for imagination brought out the best-and the worst-in them. These Chinese readers, their interest kindled by the controversial anthology Ten great Chinese tragedies (1983), are likely to inquire about Fitzgerald's relation to the 'tragic' tradition of the West. Since the appearance of that volume of famous plays from the classical period, Chinese have debated with increasing intensity whether Western definitions of tragedy apply to their culture. The discussion of culture- and period-specific notions of tragey engendered by the writings of Fitzgerald and oth r classic American authors, promise to initiate and increasingly animated exchange of ideas and attitudes, through which Chinese and American intellectuals gain a better understanding of each other, themselves, and their two cultures. The rich boy appears to focus on the superficial social skirmishing of the privileged classes, a subject that will fascinate Chinese students unfamiliar with class divisions in the United States, but the story also provides keen insight into American conceptions of selfhood and Fitzgerald's preferred ethic of middle class democracy. Babyon revisited gives Chinese readers a glimpse of the American self in disarray.	Person: Fitzgerald, F. Scott

Cited by (1)

#	Year	Bibliographical Data	Type / Abbreviation	Linked Data
1	2013	Université de Genève	Organisation / UG1	Source: Huang, Guiyou. Whitmanism, imagism, and modernism in China and America. (Selinsgrove, Pa. : Susquehanna University Press, 1997). (WhiW102, Publication)