A Study On The Overseas Returnees’ Contribution In Late Qing Dynasty To The Evolution And Setback Of Chinese Novel’s Transition

In the Late Qing Dynasty, especially after the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, The catastrophe of military and diplomacy accelerated the pace of China to the world. The input of the culture became consensus of the court and the commonalty. The first large-scale activity of studying abroad rose, and this produced the first batch of Chinese returnees. Their activity influenced on the development of Chinese historical process extensively and profoundly. Their intervention in the field of novel such as introducing, creating, translating, spreading and remarking also influenced the process of Chinese novel. The research object of this paper are the returnees and their activities in Late Qing Dynasty. It will discuss the returnees’writing ability, the theme of their novels, their criticism and inheritance in the tradition of Chinese novel and their contribution and copetitiveness in the market of novel.This article includes five chapters. Introduction explains the theoretical background, including three important problems:the features of the times of Late Qing Dynasty, the transformation of Chinese novel and its ecology, returnees’survival situation and existing state. Chapter One discusses the power of returnees’writing and their friendship and travel. Chapter Two discusses the conception of the returnees’ novels, including four aspects:state and national, society and worldly affairs, interst and leisure, humanitarian and aesthetic. Chapter Three studies the relationship of returnees and the tradition of Chinese novel, including three sections:the choice between the intellectuals and the public;the criticism of classic novels;artistic analysis and tradition of criticism and so on. Chapter Four discusses the returnees’contribution and the success or failure in the market of novel. It includes three problems:making newspapers and publishing novels;founding the press and publishing novels;the competitiveness of their novels in the market of novel. The summary elaborates the relationship of returnees and the transition of Chinese novels, and then raises some questions that have yet to be solved.