Experience Of Studying In Japan And National Imagination Of The Creation Society Writers

As a literature school founded by the students who had studied in Japan, the Creation Society is a special existence in Chinese literature after the May Fourth movement. The national imagination of its members is not only a reflection of the change in the literature and thought of the Creation Society, but also helps us to understand the thought and mind picture of Chinese intellectuals who has gone though so many trend of thought from the West, including evolutionism, statism, anarchism, individualism, rationalism, romanticism, and nationalism from the late Qing Dynasty to1920s. Research this question can also contribute a new perspective on the "left turn"of the Creation Society. The Creation Society writers’ experience of studying in Japan is an important part in the per-history of the Chinese left-wing literature. When studying in Japan, writers of the Creation Society accepted the modern concept such as nation, state, people, nation-state, and etc. which played a crucial part during their transformation from petit bourgeois writers to revolutionary writers.The Creation Society writers’understanding of nation, state, imagination of the state community, and their idea about the relationship between individual and state, can not be simply concluded as patriotism or nationalism. National imagination, which this dissertation is going to discuss, includes the writers’ acceptance of modern concepts such as state and nation, the formation of their national consciousness, the idea about the relationship between individual, state, nation, and people, and their imagination about the state image. The national imagination of the Creation Society writers is composed by the observation on China in reality, as well as imagination of the state image that should be. The change of the national imagination is also a reflection of the change of writers’national consciousness. It is also represent the identification and departure of the individual of the writer to the state community. Japan offered the writers of the Creation Society the modern concept of state:including the slogan "prosperous country and strong army", evolutionism which highlights the competition between states, statism, and the example of nation-state. Japan gave them Romanism and liberalism too, which later on became the tool of their rethinking on the existence of the state itself. The special situation caused by being an oversea student studying in Japan also influenced their way of seeing and imagining their own motherland. Therefore, this dissertation will focus on the discussion of these three relationships: individual and state, state and nation, individual and the people.Discussion will start on how the alliance between the individual and the state was built on the thought of "prosperous country and strong army" as well as the crisis and fear of the extinction of China as a nation-state. As the central thought of the studying abroad trend from late Qing Dynasty to early Republic of China period,"prosperous country and strong army" was the very reason which encourages the Creation Society writers to study abroad. However, they ended up on criticizing this thought fiercely while in Japan and after backed to China, which shows how deeply they were influenced by this thought. Therefore, the first paragraph is going to focus on the studying abroad trend from late Qing Dynasty to early Republic of China period, the part of which the writers of the Creation Society being. Particularly on the reason made them choose to study abroad, the studying abroad policy enforced by both Chinese and Japanese government, and how they suffered during the financial crisis of the Chinese government in the early1920s. All of this aspect contributed to the writers’identification as well as depart with their country.In the formation of the national imagination, one of the important factors is the consciousness of "what is a state". The second paragraph will study how the Creation Society Writers accept the modern concept such as state, nation, race, people, nation-state, during the crisis and fear of the extinction of China as a nation-state. It will also discuss how the Japanese explanation when they accepted theses concepts, the observation on the modern nation-state system and in Japan, and the theory of national character influenced their understandings of the relationship of individual, state, and the people.Paragraph three will study the way the Creation Society writers’ narrative their experience of backing motherland. Parallel study and influence study will be used. In order to reveal the way the writers see and imagine China in their back-home stories, and how nostalgia, as a classical theme in romanticism, was used by the Creation Society writers in their stories and imagination of their own motherland. Influence from the experience of backing motherland which contributed a lot to cause the division of the writers’national imagination, will also be studied.Paragraph four will focus on how the change of the national imagination caused by the experience of backing motherland reflected in the writing and thinking of the Creation Society Writers. The man who left his/her motherland behind, half blood person, and troubadour are three kinds of images which appear a lot in their works in1920s. These images represent the individual who has severed his connection with state community. Based on these images, the Creation Society writers started to criticize statism.The last question is the relationship between the Creation Society writers and national literature. At the very first, the people are not the heroine of the national imagination of the Creation Society writers. But when they recognized that they need to adjust their relationship with the state, and create a new picture of their national imagination, they started to pay attention to the people. Therefore, national literature served as a media which helps them to divide nation from state. By representing the people, the Creation Society writers create a new alliance of individual and the nation-state. The promotion of national literature symbols that the Creation Society writers begin to rethink the existence of the people, which founded their "left turn"in a few years.