Revolution and Lyricism: Cultural Politics of the Southern Society and Chinese Modernity, 1903-1923

The Southern Society (Nanshe, 1909-1923) has usually been regarded as one of the most important literary and political groups from the late Qing to the early Republican period. The society members involved themselves, widely and deeply, in political and cultural movements, having contributed significantly to the formation of the then political and cultural trends as well as the realization of a revolutionary discourse therein. They revitalized the local knowledge and historical tradition of the Jiangnan area (the Yangtze River Delta), thereby transforming them into an impetus for buiding a nation state within the context of globalization. Different modes of cultural practices and strategies, such as reorganizing the language, the emotion, and the symbol of a revolutionary culture, were also creatively developed as an effort to cope with the crisis China was confronting with. The Southern Society, therefore, at once witnessed, participated in, and shaped the cultural politics of China in a transition period.;The Introduction reflects upon existing scholarships on the culture of late Qing and early Republican China, in general, and on the Southern Society, specifically. The key concepts of my study are also defined in this part. Chapter One analyzes the activities and the significance of the Southern Society in the cultural field of the late Qing period. The way the Society invented a series of traditions, including historical memory, local tradition, and guoxue (national learning) will be explored in Chapter Two. Chapter Three discusses such political agendas of the Society as "anti-Manchuism" and "enlightening the people," the members' efforts in popularizing the discourse of revolution, and their criticism on contemporary politics in the context of a global scene. While Chapter Four focuses on the Society's depiction of "revolution" in the forms of drama, ritual, and photography, Chapter Five will analyze its influence on modern Chinese media, especially newspapers and magazines, and its impact on the formation of a/the Chinese public sphere. By analyzing the members' understanding of the function of poetry, the emotional politics in their works, and the political unconsciousness implied in the debate of "Tang poetry vs. Song poetry," Chapter Six explores the specific means the Society inherited and transformed Chinese lyrical tradition. And finally, Chapter Seven summarizes the significance of the Southern Society in the formation of Chinese modernity.;This dissertation explores the way the members of the Southern Society dealt with the arrival in China of a translated modernity and the corresponding tradition in the context of revolution and lyrical tradition. It poses and endeavors to respond to the questions that how did the members shape the structure of feeling during a period of political turmoil, and by what means they managed to involve themselves in politics when the crisis of the republican system was at stake. I examine the complexity of Chinese modernity by focusing on a triad that I think is key to a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of the object in question: political and cultural identities, the politics and structure of feeling, and the fate of the Southern Society in Republican China. This study, I wish, will supply a nuanced perspective on the subject, a perspective that differs from extant paradigms of studying revolution and modernization, and so can further our understanding of modern China and its problematic.