The Imagination Of China In Chinese Poetry Of Southeast Asia

Imagination is the soul of poets, is also the source of literature and art. Chinese poetry in Southeast Asia narrated "China" through the imagination of art, at the same time, they told more information about social history, cultural background and Chinese destiny in Southeast Asia. In the process of Chinese poetry creation far away from China, poets in Southeast Asia of different generation imagined "China" in the different aspects of geography, politics and culture, which was not only pure literary aesthetic activity, but also closely related to the real survival circumstances and cultural situations in a particular power space, and the specific contexts of political and cultural ecology in different historical periods and countries of Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, the imagination of China in Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia was rooted in racial identity and cultural memory insurmountably, and reflected the deep pursuit of subjective of imagination constructing the racial attributes and identity. Therefore, tracing the aesthetic values and cultural meanings of the imagination of China in Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia in the interdisciplinary perspective of comparative literature is the ultimate goal of this thesis.This thesis attempts to take the imagination of China in Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia with an open and objective attitude and an multidisciplinary vision of research, in order to build up a tridimensional system of research which combines literary aesthetic and cultural criticism together, the literature in Southeast Asia as a whole and individual country. This thesis conducts a close reading of the Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam as more as possible, and employs theories and methods of other disciplines of social science such as sociology, psychology, culturology, linguistics, geography and so on, in order to interpret the multiple meanings of Chinese poetry in Southeast Asia about China in the region, ethnic, social and cultural layers.Introduction of this thesis explores the peripheral factors which influence and restrict the development of Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia on the historical and sociological view. The study of context and history is the premise which the thesis continues to explore the imagination of China in Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia. The imagination of Chinese poetry in any other country of Southeast Asia was the result of the competition among various relationships in the specific field and structure. Meanwhile, the imagination of China in Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia is a historical process which Chinese in Southeast Asia mixed the Chinese complex and experience in Southeast Asia together continuously.The first chapter of this thesis explores the imagination of Chinese geography in Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia in the perspective of cultural geography. China is a geographical space objectively getting a meaning of'space'in cultural geography by poet's artistic imagination in Southeast Asia. The image's systems of South of Yangzi River and North of the great wall were the physical objects which Chinese poetry in Southeast Asia cognized, felt and imagined the geographical China. The genius loci of classic and romantic China with the strategy of ancient-costume and drama were the soul which Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia imagined the geographical China. At last, the structure of feeling composed of memory and identity in overseas Chinese society of Southeast Asia is crucial to the imagination of Chinese poetry about China.The second chapter explores the meaning of the imagination of China being a nation-state in the perspective of nationalism. Constructing nation-state is the primary appeals of politic and ideals of existence to the countries of Southeast Asia in the patterns of international politic of the 20th century, and therefore reconstructs the imagination of peoples in Southeast Asia about themselves and the world. Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia originating in the 1920s was destined never to get away from the historical flood of modernity, and constructed the imaginary space of China in its special way. The imaginative resources come from the history reconstruction to racial memory of overseas Chinese of Southeast Asia. The imagination itself is a concentrated reflection of patriotism in Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia, and nostalgia become the classical subject of the imagination of Chinese poetry in Southeast Asia about China being a nation-state.The third chapter explores the imagination of Chinese poetry in Southeast Asia about Chinese traditional festivals such as spring festival, dragon festival and mid-autumn festival in the inspective of semiology. Culture is a web of meanings weaved by human, and the festival is a cultural text written by a people via actions and symbols. In the imagination of Chinese poetry in Southeast Asia about the Chinese traditional festivals such as spring festival, dragon festival and mid-autumn festival, China has been a blend of myth, folk-custom and ceremony, and a world of symbols filled with representations and meanings. Actually, the imagination of Chinese poetry in Southeast Asia about the Chinese traditional festivals is essentially an artistic manifestation by which the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asian construct their national cultural structure and consolidate the racial boundary through collective memory and affective commitment of the Chinese nation in the multi-racial society of Southeast Asia.The fourth chapter explores the imagination of Chinese history in Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia in the perspective of the New Historicism. The Chinese poems of Southeast Asia are classified as lyric, narrative and meta-narrative according to the tactics and styles of imagination about Chinese history, The lyrics expresses the feeling of pride and affection to the Chinese history and culture via imagination about the achievements and heroes of ancient China. The narrative indulges the poets' violent passion into the account of historical event and characters and pile on a classic atmosphere of times. The meta-narrative deconstructs and reconstructs the traditional narrative of history, in order to reveal the imaginary appearance of history.The epilogue explores the complexity and liquidity of the overseas Chinese identity in Southeast Asia between natural identity and given identity from the theory of identity in anthropology. Overseas Chinese of Southeast Asia are subjects of the Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia, therefore, the identity of Chinese in Southeast Asia is essential to the imagination of China in Chinese poetry of Southeast Asia. It is the identity that Chinese poets accomplish the transformation and sublimation from the outside to the inside, from the non-literature to literature by use of imagination.