New Dreams Of Da-tong

Literary utopias are a kind of special texts: As utopias, they contain profound social thoughts; as literary works, they are rich in aesthetic value. In regard to late Ching and early Republic literary utopias, on the one hand, they reflect the social reality of China of that time, expressing contemporaries'comprehension of the society. On the other hand, as a part of the literary transformation in late Ching and early Republic, these works not only respond to the Revolution of Novel, but also represent the continuance and change of the tradition of Chinese and foreign utopias.On the basis of documentary work, this paper makes a detailed description of late Ching and early Republic literary utopias. First, ancient Chinese utopias, with a long history, form a cultural and literary tradition; Second, modern literary utopias, in which Looking Backward, 2000-1887 was the most famous in late Ching China, provide direct textual models; Third, worrying about the hard times in late Ching, Chinese intellectuals were all eager for a prosperous and powerful China, and such hope motivated them to read and write utopias. All above ended in Liang Qichao's carrying forward of the spirit of utopia both in novel theory and novel writing. Thanks to the Revolution of Novel in late Ching and the booming of New Novel, literary utopias had a great development: several important thinkers and writers composed literary utopias, and several valuable literary utopias came out. It is in this period that Chinese literary utopias achieved its modernization and began an influential succession which continues till now. Utopias in the succession exhibit the ideals of Chinese in different times.In addition, this paper analyzes the representation of nation-state, the ideal which dominates late Ching and early Republic literary utopias. Owing to the reality of international competition, these utopias works demand founding of a modern nation-state, then call for necessary reformation of clans and individuals; at the same time, combining the spirit of nationalism and ancient Chinese cosmopolitanism, some works conceive an access to ideal in which human beings achieve a world in great harmony after China has rebuilt its glory. The pursuit of nationalism represented in the late Ching and early Republic literary utopias is reasonable at that time, and these works should be admired for they encourage the people to strive for a wonderful new country. However, they should also be criticized for those biases clearly expressed, including social Darwinism, racialism, cultural chauvinism, etc.