scholarly journals Is “New Culture” a Proper Translation of Xin wenhua?

Asian Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-47
Author(s):  
Joseph Ciaudo
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Semantic Transparency ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
The West ◽  
New Culture Movement ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals ◽  
Proper Translation

For several decades, we have been witnessing a profound renewal in our understanding of the “New Culture Movement”. However, the aptness of “new culture” as a proper translation for xin wenhua 新文化 has almost never been discussed. The present paper argues that uniformly translating xin as “new” and wenhua as “culture” tends to blur the picture instead of making it clearer, for by so doing one unconsciously endorses the narrative of radical Chinese intellectuals while silencing other voices. Furthermore, the article puts forward the idea that terms such as wenhua 文化 encompassed a “multiplicity of potential readings” that have much to do with the transformation of Chinese language at the beginning of the 20th century, and with the emergence of a new conceptual repertoire. In their attempts to appropriate xin wenhua and turn it into a seemingly coherent movement with an agenda, Chinese intellectuals were fighting a war over the topic of “civilization/culture”, but also, and perhaps primarily education. Yet, by employing the term “culture” in academic writing today, we tend to produce a historical dissonance for their use of this term is not our own: we thus fall into the trap of semantic transparency, and forget that the concept of “culture” has a problematic history in both China and the West. By questioning the use of wenhua with regard to the May Fourth Movement, I provide evidence that the accepted translation of culture can be problematic if one does not clearly spell out the meaning located behind it, as the Chinese wenhua often did not mean “Chinese culture” in our modern, all too modern, anthropological sense.

The Power of Position: Beijing University, Intellectuals and Chinese Political Culture 1898–1929. By Timothy B. Weston. [Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2004. xiv+325 pp. $60.00; £39.95. ISBN 0-520-23767-6.]

2004 ◽  
Vol 179 ◽  
pp. 841-843
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Elman
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
New Culture Movement ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals ◽  
The University ◽  
Chinese Political Culture ◽  
The May Fourth Movement

Timothy Weston's study of Beijing University (hereafter, “Beida”) spotlights how modern Chinese intellectuals positioned themselves politically and socially in the early 20th century. Weston relies on the Beida archives, dailies, journals, and many other sources, to make four contributions. First, Beida's early history shows how literati humanists repositioned themselves during a period of great uncertainty. New style intellectuals had influence because they mastered Western and classical learning. Secondly, Beida's complex history did not break sharply with the past. Earlier accounts of the May Fourth movement obscure the efforts of intellectuals since 1898 to redefine their role. Weston suggests that May Fourth amplified a continuing progression of new and old ways of doing things. Thirdly, political tensions emerged when the university increasingly radicalized after 1911. No more than 20 per cent of Beida students were involved in the New Culture movement. A strong conservative undertow continually challenged radical agendas. Often we hear only the voices of the latter. Finally, Weston assesses Beida's history in light of how the May Fourth movement played out in different locations. In the 1920s, Shanghai replaced Beijing as the leading venue for urban China's cultural and intellectual leaders. Beijing increasingly lost status under warlordism, and the Nationalist shift of the capital to Nanjing refocused Chinese intellectual life on the Chang (Yangtze) delta.

scholarly journals Wherever We Find Friends there Begins a New Life: Tagore and China

Asian Studies ◽  
2010 ◽  
pp. 45-56
Author(s):  
Jana Rošker
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Chinese Poetry ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
Rabindranath Tagore ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals ◽  
The Many ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The May Fourth Movement

Tagore made a deep impression upon the Chinese culture and society. In 1923, the Jiangxue she 講學社 (Beijing Lecture Association) invited Rabindranath Tagore to deliver a series of talks. The Jiangxue she Association was established in September 1920 and represented one of the many institutions that came to life in China during the May Fourth Movement. Since then, almost all of his works in English have been translated into Chinese. He came to China just when the latter was beginning her Renaissance and his visit certainly gave a great impetus to this new movement. His poems of Stray Birds and The Crescent Moon have created new styles of prosody in the new Chinese poetry. A Crescent Moon Society (for poetry) and a Crescent Moon magazine were started immediately after this event by Hu Shi 胡适 (Hu 2002: 90). During his visit, Tagore raised two basic questions, one about the relation between tradition and modernity, and the other about the usual identification of modernisation with Westernisation. Since the May Fourth Movement, China has also been concerned with these questions and Chinese intellectuals have come out with different answers. These questions, however, were important not only for China but for India as well. Such debates and the revaluation of various answers represented the most important condition for a consolidation of new ideologies, which formed a political basis for the changing societies of both countries.

Past as future: The discourse of Chuantong in twentiethcentury China1

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-186
Author(s):  
Pi Li
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
The Other ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
New Wave ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
New Era ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals ◽  
The One

Abstract This article discusses the approaches of Chinese intellectuals and artists to tradition throughout the twentieth century. Tradition in China is understood, on the one hand, as a notion born in a framework constructed by twentieth-century Chinese intellectuals and their realm of senses and concept of time, on the other hand as a notion driven by modernity and capitalism to anchor a work of art to a distinguishable point of time. Hence, the article will first review a series of debates on old and new culture that have taken place since the May Fourth Movement. It will then move on to discuss how contemporary artists made peace with tradition since the '85 New Wave, a new era when artists are also subject to market forces of supply and demand.

Enlightenment and Unity: Language Reformism in Late Qing China

2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 469-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. K. CHENG
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Modern China ◽  
New Culture Movement ◽  
Language Reform ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
Late Qing China ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals

The movement to create a phonetic script for the Chinese language was arguably one of the most arresting and exciting engagements in modern China. While generations of Chinese intellectuals tirelessly applied themselves to sorting out the linguistic technicalities in devising a Chinese phonetic system, what made language reform—or, depending on the perspective taken, revolution—historically so intriguing was that it had been a fiercely contested domain where a fascinating array of ideological positions was staked and contended. As John de Francis has observed, there had always been ‘a significant correlation between attitudes toward social change and attitudes toward linguistic reform in China’. Indeed, Qian Xuantong insisted at the height of the May Fourth New Culture Movement that to destroy Confucianism, one must ‘first dispose of the Chinese language’, whereas the Communist-led latinization movement of the 1930s, for its part, was meant to create a medium for the emergence of a true proletarian culture.

scholarly journals The Cultural Spirit of the “May Fourth Movement” and Lu Xun’s Ambivalent Thinking

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-382
Author(s):  
Fugui Zhang ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Lu Xun ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
Logical Connection ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
The May Fourth Movement

The “May Fourth Movement” is undoubtedly a turning point in the history of modern Chinese society and culture. It must be acknowledged that the direction of development of Chinese culture was largely influenced by famous Chinese writer, educator and revolutionary Lu Xun (1881–1936). The structure of Lu Xun’s ideas and the influence of Lu Xun’s ideas today have shaped the ever-living “Lu Xun’s culture”. The main essence of Lu Xun’s culture is embodied in many important judgments regarding the development of the nation, society and culture. These judgments are aimed not only at the past, but also at the future and the present. Many of his thoughts were a century ahead their time. Speaking about Lu Xun’s anti-traditionalist approach to the development of new culture, one cannot ignore the rationalistic cultural spirit of the enlightenment ideology behind it. Lu Xun’s pessimism at the beginning of the “May Fourth Movement” and the subsequent bitterness can serve as a key to understanding the cultural spirit of the “May Fourth Movement” and its logical connection with Lu Xun’s culture. Analyzing Lu Xun’s criticism of China’s unrealized democracy and his skepticism about the new culture, one can see that Lu Xun’s inner mood is shrouded in a shadow of disappointment. Moreover, until the end of his days, he was accompanied by pain caused by too sober and deep perception of life. In addition, the reason for Lu Xun’s distrust is that too often, due to his decency and simplicity, he was deceived. We believe that the spiritual world of Lu Xun has always been characterized by the presence of two levels: Lu Xun is open, throwing loud calls, and Lu Xin is hidden, suffering and lonely. At the same time, his inherent sharpness stems from a deep understanding of the situation, and his bitterness comes from a firm will and an uncompromising attitude to his views. The reason for such bitterness is due to the strength and immensity of the objects of his resistance. Lu Xun’s views have enriched the thinking of China and all mankind.

The Literati and the Dao

2019 ◽  
pp. 373-392
Author(s):  
Scott Lash
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The West ◽  
Imperial State

This chapter develops the argument that China is a civilizational state and follows a trajectory different from that of the Western nation-state. Weber is correct in selecting features of Chinese culture and social and political structure that stand in contrast to Western forms of rationalization: the role of magic, the particularism of guilds, the absence of the Western polis and Roman law, and the universalism demanded of Christianity in contrast to the religions of southeast Asia. Following Sheldon Pollock’s The Language of the Gods in the World of Men, the nature of language itself differentiates Latin in the West, Sanskrit in south and southeast Asia, and Chinese analogical language in China. Language, or langue-pensée, has a determining effect on stratification and configurations of power, especially in the development of the vernacularization of language as a precondition for the nation-state. China, in contrast to India and the West, resisted vernacularization. It is as if the West had kept to the Latin of the Holy Roman Empire. The nature of Chinese language therefore is intrinsic to the civilization and imperial state in China to this day.

scholarly journals The Failure of the May Fourth Movement and My Two Struggles

Prism ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-142
Author(s):  
Liu Zaifu ◽  
Yijiao Guo
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
New Culture Movement ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
Aesthetic Practice ◽  
Complete Failure ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
The May Fourth Movement ◽  
The New Culture Movement

Abstract In this speech, Liu Zaifu thoroughly discusses the history of the May Fourth movement and the New Culture movement in the whole last century and the circumstances of humanity in China. In his explanation, May Fourth could be conceptualized through three different groups of concepts: the cultural May Fourth and the political May Fourth, the New Culture movement and the New Literature movement, and the masculine May Fourth and the feminine May Fourth. Liu regards the May Fourth spirit as a complete failure, in terms of six symbolic signs: (1) the mass spiritual suicide of Guo Moruo and the Creation Society, (2) the failure of humanity, (3) the elimination of individuality and personality, (4) the reversal of the enlightenment subject, (5) the devastation of the world vision, and (6) the failure of aesthetic practice. Liu also shares his two struggles. The first struggle in the 1980s was to reconstruct the subjectivity and dignity of people. After going abroad, he started the second struggle in exiling the gods, by which he endeavored to free himself from the four major spiritual chains: revolutionary thinking, the idolatry of nation, all the political ideologies, and dualistic thinking.

The Radicalization of China in the Twentieth Century

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying-shih Yü
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
Intellectual Elite ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals ◽  
Radical Ideas

This essay portrays the radicalization of the Chinese mind in the 20th century as a strategic move from “interpretation” to “discovery” on the part of the Chinese intellectual elite. It shows how step by step, from the National Essence group through constitionalists, revolutionaries, May Fourth Movement to Mao Zedong, the radical ideas held by Chinese intellectuals rose and fell in quick succession according, by and large, to the inner logic of the world of thought. It sees this radicalization of the Chinese mind as growing out of the marginalization of China in the world and the marginalization of intellectuals in Chinese society.

Constructing Chinese Masculinity for the Modern World: with Particular Reference to Lao She's The Two Mas

2000 ◽  
Vol 164 ◽  
pp. 1062-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kam Louie
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The West ◽  
Western Imperialism ◽  
Chinese Masculinity ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals ◽  
East West ◽  
European Civilization

In the early decades of the 20th century, Chinese identities were subjected to profound challenges posed by the West. Traditional Chinese linkages between gender and power were shaken by contact with aggressive western imperialism. Although there are numerous studies on this impact, almost nothing has been written on its effects on the Chinese constructions of masculinity. Did East-West contact significantly change the male ideal? If so, how did the new image integrate traditional and Western gender configurations? This article first examines the theoretical basis of masculinity models in traditional China, and then analyses the ways in which a Western context could alter the ways Chinese intellectuals reconstruct these models to arrive at a new male prototype. As one of the best known examples of the interface between East and West, Lao She's (1899–1966) novel Er Ma (The Two Mas) will be used as a case study. The 1920s was a time when many Westernized intellectuals such as Xu Zhimo were totally enamoured by European civilization, to such an extent that Xu's influential friend Hu Shi once called for a “wholesale Westernization” of Chinese culture. While there was a great diversity of masculine ideals in this period, the effects on the male identity from contact with the West were fundamental and enduring, and the images presented in The Two Mas were in many respects typical of the Republican era.

Witness Against History: Literature, Film, and Public Discourse in Twentieth Century China. By Yomi Braester. [Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003. 264+xii pp. ISBN 0-8047-4792-X.]

2004 ◽  
Vol 179 ◽  
pp. 813-815
Author(s):  
Chris Berry
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Stanford University ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
Literature And Film ◽  
The May Fourth Movement

Do not be fooled by the modest, precise, and careful tone of Yomi Braester's prose. In Witness Against History, he makes a powerful contribution to the transformation of scholarship on modern Chinese culture. In recent years, scholars such as Leo Ou-fan Lee and David Der-wei Wang have argued that the focus on the May Fourth movement has been too singular, obscuring important schools and authors that do not fit that agenda. Braester takes this argument home to May Fourth culture and its inheritors in literature and film. This work has been assumed to uphold the standard of modernity as nationalism, realism, rationalism, and humanism. This makes it part of a larger reform or revolution effort to reinsert China into “history,” understood as Hegelian progress. Braester understands the shock of the modern new as trauma, and this is reflected in all the works he has chosen.

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