The Transnational Experiences And Literary Writing Of Korean Writers Studying In China During The Republic Of China Era

In the period of the Republic of China,in order to get rid of the Japanese colonial rule,a large number of Korean people came to China,and there were many students among them,among whom emerged more than ten writers,such as Choe Doegyeon,Ju Yohan,Sim Hun,Lee Yuksa,Ju Yoseop,Kim Gwagju,Kang Lawhaung,Pil Chondeuk,Jeong Laedong,Pak Saeyoung,Han Seolya,Hyeon Chingeon and Kim Sooyeop,etc.They came to China to seek knowledge with a strong sense of national consciousness and patriotic enthusiasm.Their experience in China was different from their experience in colonial Korea,which not only broadened their creative space,showed great vitality of the weak nations,but also played a certain role in the inheritance of Korean literature during the colonial period,and left a wealth of research materials for today's study of Sino-Korea literature exchange and cross-border writings.From the perspective of transnational experience,this dissertation comprehensively employs the postcolonial cultural criticism,imagology of comparative literature,gender studies and other theories,using a combination of analysis and case studies,and explores the cross-cultural literary creations of Korean writers from the perspective of the thinking of cultural identity,their value and significance.Korean people studying in China has a special historical context,which is closely related to their national suffering of modern Korean people and a semi-colonial Chinese society similar to that of Korea.After the research,the life course of most Korean writers studying in China can be summarized as follows:To begin with,they were born in a well-off family in colonial Korea and formed anti-Japanese consciousness.They were directly involved in the national independent movement or guided by the pioneers of independence movement,they came to China.The March 1st Movement broke out,and during this time,a large number of students fled to China with rising anti-Japanese consciousness.As a result,their stay in China had a clear purpose of freedom from Japanese colonial rule,so writers usually had strong national consciousness,and this consciousness became their main literary writing tone.In their transnational experience,the Korean writers reflected on their cultural identity,looking back on their homeland,feeling the conflict in the foreign land,and thinking about how to resolve the conflict to form the national unity consciousness.Korean writers came to China to get rid of the colonial rule of Japan,and their literary works usually reflected a strong sense of national consciousness and expressed deep grief for the fall of their motherland.Meanwhile,during the transnational experience,the Korean writers have thoroughly felt the cultural conflict,their marginalized identity,and struggled for the way to prevail over.The transnational experience not only enabled them to face the other Western imperialist forces besides Japan,sharply felt the plight of the poor in the semi-colonial China,sympathized with and concerned about the living conditions of the proletariat,but also based on the common ground of anti-imperialist and anti-colonial,which formed the joint consciousness and a certain international perspective with the possibility of exploring the universal value of mankind.Korean writers studying in China were mainly gathered in Shanghai and Beijing and they integrated the different experiences in the two cities with different atmospheres into literature.These writers sharply felt the modem atmosphere in the Shanghai concession,which is completely different from that of North Korea,with high-rise buildings everywhere,bustling streets and busy traffic,modern prosperity stimulated their eyes,shocked them with heterogeneous civilization,meanwhile raised the questions about the western colonization hidden behind.It can be found in their writings that they tended to equate the urban culture with the Western colonial culture,focused on the description of the dark side of the city.A modern leisure park,a small pavilion,ballrooms and brothels all became their criticism of Shanghai mixed temperament.But it is also regretful that their criticism still stayed in the critical level,barely revealed the city's dark side,but did not form a transcendental understanding.While in Beijing,what they felt was that the ancient historical capital still remained charming,the pavilions in the green poplar shade and the magnificent royal palace gardens,all manifested the ancient rhyme of eastern imperial capital.In their Peking writings,those Korean writers usually placed a special kind of emotion in their writing,for they took Peking as a soul salvation to cure their colonial wound.They would rather turn a blind eye to all sorts of the modern civilization of Beijing because of its profound culture,but particularized the ancient capital rhyme and lingering charm of the imperial palaces.But through the surface of their writing,we can also read their deep sorrow in their heart.They took Beijing as a metaphorical space,meditated on the past and mourned the reality,euphemistically revealed their resistance against the world chaos,warlord warfare and colonial forces.They created literature writing in Shanghai and Beijing with the ultimate purpose of effectively reflecting on themselves,which reflected the deep concerns about the future of their motherland and national salvation.National consciousness occupied a primary position.The transnational experience also enables the Korean writers to confront multiple oppression of class,gender and race.The men and women in their writing suffered multiple pressures,especially the oppression of colonial forces,where the colonists seized absolute hegemony,oppressed the men and women of the colony,and led to gender reconstruction of the colonial men and women.Under colonial rule,men suffered a crisis of self-identity,women fell into multiple dilemmas,which was difficult to break through.The writers' description of this crisis and predicament showed that they were aware of the difficulties in opposing colonial oppression and achieving gender liberation.They manifested and reproduced the subordinates and"otherness" in hardships,showed their conscience as intellectuals.It is because of the transnational cultural experience that the writer actually felt the multiple pressures from the class,the Japanese imperialists,the Western colonial forces and other aspects.It is because of the oppression of multiple contexts that they could deeply explore the plight of the eastern "otherness" as the subordinate class,and showed the efforts of the weak to resist colonial power.The Korean writers who came to study in China during the period of the Republic of China were a special existence of Korean modern literature.A research of them helps to excavate some forgotten facts.A systematic analysis and data excavation also guarantee the creativity of this dissertation.In literary creations,the image of "otherness" is a reflection on ourselves.Similarly,our studies on other countries' literature today are also a better way to examine ourselves,especially the understanding of China.Although this dissertation is a reflection of what has happened in the past,those literary creations and problem consciousness that submerged in history still echo in reality,which provides some references to the construction of the "East Asian Community of Common Destiny".