Shen Congwen's Idealized Ethnic

This article investigates the underexamined ethnic motifs of the modern literary master Shen Congwen's 沈從文 fictional creations. In the field of Chinese literary scholarship, Shen is widely recognized as a leading figure of the May Fourth “native soil” literary tradition and is usually labeled as a “regionalist” writer. Yet as an ethnically hybrid author, Shen's ethnographically inspired, mythologizing accounts of indigenous non-Han tribes place him in a long tradition of searching for moral truths in borderland societies in Chinese literary and cultural history. The article argues that ethnicity is an important motif that runs throughout the early Shen Congwen's literary oeuvre, particularly in the Miao-themed stories that he crafted in the 1920s and 1930s. Shen idealizes non-Han peoples, particularly the Miao in southern China's borderland, as the ultimate source of moral courage and aesthetic perfection in his vision of a wholesome China. Through his ethnically themed novellas and short stories, Shen is both heir to and questions the Confucian tradition of locating a civilizational “other” in the non-Sinitic/non-Han border regions. The article further reveals how Shen embodies contradictory motifs with regard to ethnicity in China: on the one hand, he romanticizes the Miao as moral agents living freely in a timeless society, governed only by divine powers and unruly passions. On the other hand, Shen laments the historical discrimination experienced by the Miao and assumes a sober voice as he calls for ethnic equality. Simultaneously lyrical and political, Shen's ethnically themed works are significant for forming new scholarly understandings of both May Fourth literature and the broader discourse of ethnicity, which underpins the very notion of Chineseness in modern China.

Sinophonic Detours in Colonial Burma

Following his 1925–1931 overland trek across southwestern China to colonial Burma, Ai Wu's 1935 Travels in the South (the author's canonical collection of autobiographical travelogue fiction) represents a Sinophonic detouring of the key literary impulses of the author's May Fourth forebears and his left-wing literary contemporaries, especially with its social realist expressions of gendered frontier primitivism, interethnic romantic desire, and international leftist solidarity. Ai Wu's southbound transborder itinerary and “street education”—marked by a repetition of trespasses and evictions—develop a “counterpoetics of trespass” blurring boundaries between social realist fiction and autobiographical travelogue while intertextually rerouting romantic primitivism in depictions of indigenous women through counterpoetically anemic prose. Initially taking his cue from Lu Xun, Ai Wu similarly inscribes his literary mission as one of national redemption but in a way that conforms to the leftist internationalist ideals of the League of Left-Wing Writers, which Ai Wu joined after he was forcibly repatriated to China by British colonial authorities in 1931. Ai Wu's Sinophone transborder counterpoetics activate latent self-reflections on the narrator's own male Han-centric exoticism toward indigenous Shan and Burman women and on his unfulfilled desire to forge meaningful relationships with them. Rather than assimilating or subordinating his depictions of these women into a projection of a Chinese leftist national cause, Ai Wu ultimately sublimates his romantic desires into an allegory for Burma's anticolonial resistance movement.

Transformation of Diseased Women in Ding Ling’s Novels—Based on the Metaphor of Disease

In Ding Ling’s novels, she repeatedly adopted the diseased woman as the protagonist in order to present her own thinking of gender and social issues. By establishing a chronological reading of three protagonists, this paper will not only discuss the transformation of the metaphoric usage, but also explore socio-historical implications and gender issues in depth. To better understand both the features of Ding Ling’s artistic innovation and the transition of her identity, and more importantly, to reconfiguring the position of gender issues, this paper adopts the method of analysis and have close reading of three short stories written by Ding Ling, which are Sophia’s Diary, Girl Amao and When I Was in Xia Village, and combines the fictional stories with historical facts. In conclusion, Ding Ling’s depiction of diseased women gradually developed from a private narrative and imitation of romantism into a realistic style, revealing the struggles of peasant women who were damaged by the society, which suggested Ding Ling’s deconstruction of May Fourth discourse and exploration of her leftist identity.

‘Modest’ and ‘Faithful’: Centering Pseudonyms in Fiction in Early Twentieth Century Chinese Periodicals

In this article, I attempt to show that literary works produced by authors who have their identities hidden behind pseudonyms may further current understandings of the May Fourth and New Culture literary canon. I examine two fictional short stories, written by Xuxin (‘Modest’) and Zhongyan (‘Faithful’), and explore how these short stories reinforce or nuance established understandings of the May Fourth and New Culture canon. I examine their works within the context of the May Fourth and New Culture movements and attempt to offer a comparative analysis of these two short stories, while suggesting that more attention should be given to authors whose identities were hidden.

THE IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL TEACHING PRACTICE OF THE COURSE "MECHANICAL MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY FUNDAMENTALS" UNDER THE BACKGROUND OF "NEW ENGINEERING"

To optimize the teaching content, it relies on the "New Engineering" project to revise the curriculum syllabus, and integrate the ideological and political elements such as craftsmanship, innovation, and May Fourth spirit into the course teaching of " Basic Mechanical Manufacturing Technology" through actual cases ; in order to finish the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, training students establish correct outlook on life and values, and deliver compound talents that meet social needs.