A Study On The Introduction And Acceptance Of Korean Modern Literature In China (1926～1949)

This paper provides an overview and information about the Korean modern literature that were introduced and published in Chinese before1949. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of the different trend that Chinese writers translated or commented on the Korean modern literature. It will also contain a discussion on how Chinese writers understand the Korean modern literature under the name of "weak and small national literature". The ultimate goal of this paper is to present how Korean modern literature was introduced in modern China in a general way. By illustrating Chinese writers’ understanding of Korean modern literature, we can figure out its motivation and mechanism as well.Previous works, unfortunately, do not collect the related materials that published in the Chinese newspapers and magazines completely and have, therefore, not yet presented the acceptance of Korean modern literature in a general way. In order to overcome this limitation due to incomplete materials collections, a thorough investigation has been made, which bases on the catalogs of Chinese modern literary magazines, various E-journal database and library collections. Up to the present, we have collected9books that included the translation works of Korean modern literature and72pieces of translation and critical essays from magazines and newspapers.Most of the translations published in different books were extracted from the articles printed in the newspapers and magazines mentioned before. Thus this study will mainly focus on the related materials that appeared in the press to outline the situation of the acceptance of Korean modern literature in Chinese before1949. The structure of this paper is as follows.To begin with, we will list a collection of materials and provide a detailed interpretation in four catalogs (period, genre, author-translator and press). It showed that the first modern literary work translated in China was Park Young Hee’s novel Fight (translated by Chwi Saeng) in the Oriental Magazine (Vol.23-21) in1926. In the1930s, the acceptance and dissemination of Korean modern literature increased a lot but began to decrease after1937. Most works were translations and critical essays. The former one varied in many forms including novels, poems, dramas, criticisms and so on. While the latter one consisted of reviews, literary world news and critical articles that presented the overall situation of Korean modern literature. The authors, whose works were translated, are included Lee GwangSu, Kim DongIn, Lee TaeJun, Yang JuDong, Jang HyukJu etc. It was worth noting that the literatures of Jang HyukJu were most translated. On the other hand, most of the translators were the Korean students or patriots who stayed in China (E.g. Chwi Saeng and Yu SuIn) and the Chinese writers (E.g. Hu Feng and Ye Junjian) who were proficient in Japanese or Esperanto. Yet there was a considerable part of translators and authors who were unidentified. In addition, there were53different types of newspapers and magazines that appeared related materials. The majority of them were published in Shanghai.In the next section, we will first discuss three basic factors that triggered the literary communication between Korea and China briefly and then try to illustrate how the Korean modern works were introduced in different phase. Generally, it can be broadly classified into the following periods. In the first phase (1930-1936), Korean proletarian literature works were translated for the first time, driven by the ideological trend of the Chinese Left-Wing literature. The novels, whose topics reflected social-class contradictions and contained the revolutionary spirit, were the main objectives to be translated.In the second phase (1937-1944), the Korean modern literature was divided into two different images as a result of the outbreak of Japan’s invasion of China. Since Korean modern literature represented as a modern national literature that encouraged people to fight for national independence, the Chinese and Korean writers used it to express the spirit of resistance. However, as a regional literature of Japan at that time, the rulers of Japan applied Korean modern literature to enhance its image of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere as well as to propagate and rationalize the authority of Japan.In the third phase (1945-1949), Japan surrendered and the war was ended. Under the peaceful environment of the early stage, Korean patriot Yu Suin and other Chinese and Korean scholars found a magazine called The Chinese-Korean Culture Monthly, which intended to prompt the communication between Chinese and Korean cultures and introduced Korean modern literature actively. Yet ultimately, as the result of the ideological contradiction between the two regimes, Korean modern literature separated into two parts which were North Korean literature and South Korean literature. The former’s translation and introduction still could be seen in newspapers and magazines, while the latter disappeared from the public since then.The introduction of Korean modern literature in modern China was controlled by the intense political and social situation of Asia and therefore, its process was filled with difficulties. Korean modern literature was not able to build up an integrated image but was rewritten and shaped by different discourse powers. Despite what we discussed above, it should be noted that the Chinese writers still could not have enough chances to approach Korean modern literature. As a result, Chinese writers’ perceptions of Korean modern literature were ambiguous and sporadic. However, it also made the Chinese writers to use their imagination to interpret and supplement the connotations of Korean modern literature. In most cases, Chinese writers named Korean modern literature as the "small and weak national literature." We assume that this view influenced their ways of appreciating Korean modern literature.First, it made the novels, which described lower class’s life and revealed Colonial Chosun’s social problems, to be translated most. Inversely, as those kinds of literary works appeared frequently, the image of "small and weak national literature" reinforced. In this evaluation standard, Jang Hyukju was the Korean writer that introduced the most. The fact that he became a pro-japanese writer was ignored and his collections of works were still published in1940s, which showed that the image of "the small and weak national literature" was too firm to change. Chinese writers could not have a dialectical perception about the modern Korean literature and somehow lost into the mythos of nationalism.Second, it simplified Chinese writers’ understanding of the Korean modern literature. They were not cultivated to pay attention to other aspects of Korean modern literature and just focused on the realistic literary works that contained the defiant attitude towards imperial Japan. In this way, Chinese writers’understanding of Korean modern literature was more ambiguous and sporadic. Besides, under the impact of literary evolutionism, the view that Korean modern literature was literally backward was enhanced. Chinese writers used Russian and Japan writers as referents to describe the characteristics of Korean famous writers, such as Lee GwangSu, Lee TaeJun, Yeom Sang Seob. The perception of Korean writers was stuck into the dualistic frame of literary evolutionism.Third, though the concept of "small and weak national literature" indicated that Chinese writers considered Korea as a modern nation, yet, the Sino-centrism was adopted to interpret Korean modern literature to some degree. The idea that Korean modern literature was deeply influenced by Chinese literature made sense to some Chinese writers.Hence, the view of "small and weak national literature" did push forward the introduction of Korean modern literature in the initial stage. In the name of "small and weak national literature", Chinese writers realized that the Korean modern literature was worth introducing because it helped advocating people’s rebellious spirit. However, this view was not without its disadvantages. It helped enhanced the backward image of Korean modern literature and prevented Chinese writers to pay attention to other types of Korean literary works.To sum up, the introduction and translation of Korean modern literature was not easy to be conducted under the harsh environment in modern China. However, the literary works and critical essays could be regarded as the meaningful historical texts. They indicated that since the power relation among China, Japan and Korea was out of balance, their literary communication was unequal either. Though there is no doubt that a strong desire for mutual communicating existed between Chinese and Korean people.The desire of communication pointed to their Utopia imagination of achieving modernization of their country.