Cultural Politics Of Railway

As one of the most important achievements of the Industrial Revolution,the railway was the most representative and key sign of Victorian age.The dispute,suspect,rejection as well as admiration and infatuation about it has never ceased since it was born.Those sensitive artists and thinkers immediately realized that it started a new era in which people's concept of time and space,life style,and social relation would be fundamentally changed.Generally speaking,the railway has gone beyond the simple signifier as a means of transportation,and has become the symbolic index of such problems like a country's comprehensive strength,social and cultural atmosphere,and national character of a country.Its cultural impact is still widely reflected in all kinds of works of literature,art,film and television.If steamships and artillery were the modern technology Qing Dynasty initiatively imported with the hope of self-improvement after its military defeat to Western powers,opium was the evil material that Britain enforced on China in order to paralyze and corrupt the soul and body of its people,the railway arbitrarily built by Western powers in the territory of China without authorization was the media by which the western countries tried to integrate China into the capitalist economic system.Chapter 2 will discuss the attitude of the late imperial China towards railways.Firstly,since about 1863,the late Qing Dynasty had been faced with the problem of building or not building railways.With the connecting thread of the phenomenon of demolishing railways,this dissertation takes Woosung Railway and the Boxer as the study cases to explore the cultural imagination and perception of railways from the late Qing Government,officials and common people respectively.Also these two incidents are compared with the Railway Guerrilla,which shows great differences in the valuation of ideology and cultural influence.Secondly,the great humiliation from being defeated in Sino-Japanese War led to the unprecedented “railway fever”.In the speech of some Qing officials and the Reformists,the image of railway was shaped into another material myth after steamship and artillery and all of them were believed to make the nation prosperous and people strong.The Qing Dynasty had intended to build railways independently,but because of the shortage of fund which subverted its attitude of self-esteem previously reflected in demolishing railways,ultimately resulted in unprecedented split by cession of territory and division of spheres of influence in accordance with railway lines occupied by different Western powers.The Western empires represented by Japan made some countries within a country.Here,taking the Lu-han Railway and South Manchurian Railway Company as the study cases,this section analyzes the important role of railways as a media in the process of imperialist colonization and indicates that the severe loss of right of railways caused the trauma so difficult to heal in our national cultural psychology.This section also will compare the Qing Dynasty's railways with the Indian railways in the roughly same period,hoping to find their different attitudes of acceptance towards this colonial media.Thirdly,as a national large-scale infrastructure project,railway lines' planning is based on political centre.When the railways truly intruded into the kernel and forbidden district of this old feudal empire,it means that the Qing Government completely lost the ability to resist,the right to speak,not only in military,but also in technology and politics.The full-length masterpiece of Da Bo composed by Li Jieren and the historical facts of Protection Movement reveals that railway incidents also intensified the conflict of power among the centralized government,local government and the public.The initial fear of great disorder that railways possibly brought to China eventually turned into reality.Following concern about the grand narrative,Chapter 3 will discuss the relationships between railways and some modern experiences,including railways and time,railways and space,railways and discipline,railways and democracy.The massive expansion of railways prompted the emergence of standard time and accordingly has reorganized and reshaped modern life.People who lived in Shanghai between 1876 and 1877 were lucky enough to enjoy this modern means of transport and to enjoy the pleasure of space compression.As we can see,a painful process of negotiation,redemption and removal for a country turned out to be a one-day trip for the commons even though it lasted only one year and a half.Railways indeed contributed a lot to the mass tourism and civilian travel in the modern society,which has constituted a very important stage in the process of mass democracy.Also various grades of trains play an important role in differentiating and integrating social hierarchy.As a collective,large-scale operating system,railways also have exerted great influence on the disciplinary atmosphere of our modern society.This dissertation believes that there are many similarities and correspondences between the operating system of railways and Foucault's discipline mechanism,especially reflected in those strict regulations developed both on railway workers and passengers.Such phenomenon of sitting long time while staring at strangers for minutes or even hours on end caused many psychological problems including anxiety,suspicion,hostility,and watching,etc.Finally,this dissertation has to point out that “the age of the railway” has gone.For China it means the age of regarding railways as the colonizing media and the sign of national humiliation,and believing that railways can save the nation has gone.For the West,it means the age of respecting railways as the most important mode of transport,the powerful symbol of progress,enlightenment and modernity,and universally fascinating with railways has disappeared in the memories of history.In the contemporary era the railways are facing some new opponents like automobiles,aeroplanes,internet and mobile phones,and all of them provide more flexible,autonomous and convenient mobilities.The romantic poetry carried by trains is gradually overshadowed by the flying high-speed trains,but there will be always an important place for railways in our national cultural memories.