Modernity Of Printing And The Birth Of Chinese Modern Literature

In recent years, the disciplinary crisis of Chinese modern literature has accompanied with the question of its birth, which arouses widespread discussions in the academy. The past analytical framework was based on different understandings and interpretations about New Culture Movement and May Fourth Movement. No matter how their positions and viewpoints were different, the debaters were largely concerned about the thought and experience of the elitist intelligentsia. Recently, the emerging Cultural Studies has opened a new space for literature studies. In the new perspective, material production, communication technology, capital and market and others, are also a part of any kind of literature and thought. Whatever related to social and cultural production is also an important component of literature production. During late Qing and early Republican period (around 1897--1927), printing technology changed dramatically from engraving printing to mechanized large-scale printing (including lithography and movable type printing). The form and mechanics of cultural production had a sea change, such as the set-ups of modern printing and publishing institutions, the newly enlarging readership, the new intelligentsia (particularly writers), and the new formation of culture and literature. This research contextualizes the birth of Chinese modern literature in the cultural production of late Qing and early Republican period, and re-interprets how it is born and "modernized", which becomes the specific nature of Chinese modern literature.This thesis is divided into three parts: The first part is composed of two chapters. From a macro level of history of thought and cultural background, the first chapter specially "represents" the intelligentsia of late Qing and early Republican China. It examines the writings of "the elitist" intelligentsia and the relevant discussions, in which how the change of printing technology becomes an important means of social transformation, and analyzes how literature and "its relation to public governance" appears at that moment through printing and publishing. Second, it traces back how printing technology is transformed and then becomes popular in that period, how different kinds of printing technology are related to various cultural products and formations. It then elaborates how the possibility of production of printing technology is transformed into the material force of cultural production.The second part takes Commercial Press as an example, to discuss how the wave of "pragmatism" of that period could consist with the printing technological transformation, and to explain how modernity of printing is born and then develops. It will present how the use of printing technology leads to the appearance of publishing institutions such as the Commercial Press, and also of intellectuals like Zhang Yuanji (1867-1959) who developed modernity of printing through large-scale of publishing institutions, for the purpose of imaging and building nation-state and cultural structure. In addition, it explores how the notion of "modern" penetrates into the organization of cultural production, institutional management, capital operation and management, among others, due to the widely application of printing technology in the process of cultural production.The third part, the situation of "Printing is Larger than Publishing" gave rise to a large number of middle and small scales of arts publishing institutions. The separation of publishing from printing made people with different backgrounds and concerns get involved into the industry of "editing and publishing", which ultimately led to the birth of Chinese modern literature with diversity and vibrancy. It also explains how Chinese modern literature, being the by-product of modernity of printing, is combined "locally" with other social factors, through the means of cultural "production", to makes its own new specific nature and possibility.Finally, this thesis will focus on the relation between literature and mass media, the co-existence of modern literature and modern education, and the possibility of literature with diversity. This will be combined with the theory and methodology of the studies on modernity of printing and then a conclusion will be provided.