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Continuity and change : Chen Yingzhen’s fiction and the May Fourth literary tradition

University of British Columbia

The separation of Mainland China and Taiwan may be seen as a tragedy in the history of modern China. Taiwan, under the fifty years' colonial rule of Japan and the authoritarian rule of the Nationalist government for over thirty years, has been cut off from China politically and culturally since 1895. Over the years, however, there have been writers in Taiwan who struggle to search for their Chinese cultural roots and attempt to break this political gap. Chen Yingzhen [Chinese Characters] (1936—), an ethnic Taiwanese writer who spent most of his lifetime in Taiwan, is one of them. This thesis analyses twenty stories written by Chen Yingzhen from 1960 to 2001. It aims at showing that Chen Yingzhen's fiction not only inherits the core spirit of the May Fourth literary tradition that emerged in Mainland China in 1917, but it also makes a creative transformation of that tradition. In other words, Chen Yingzhen's fiction reveals both a continuity and change of the May Fourth literary tradition. My analysis begins with the historical background of the May Fourth literary tradition and its transmission in Taiwan, which is followed by a brief introduction of Chen Yingzhen's background with emphasis on his pursuit of Lu Xun's literary spirit. Chapter three discusses Chen Yingzhen's "obsession with China"—the May Fourth core spirit that continues to permeate Chen Yingzhen's fiction. Chapter four examines Chen Yingzhen's attitude towards Chinese and Western culture, which marks a significant change from the May Fourth literary tradition. Chapter five is an analysis of Chen Yingzhen's formal techniques. Within the framework of realism, the writing style that dominated May Fourth literature, Chen Yingzhen makes creative changes by telling his stories in innovative ways. In this thesis, I hope to show that Chen Yingzhen's fiction fills in the cultural gap between Mainland China and Taiwan. His fiction embodies a vision that crosses the boundary of time and space, and tells us that although Taiwanese and Mainlander are divided politically, they still share the same cultural roots.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-11-21

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/15398

Asian Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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