Western Knowledge Experience And National Illusion

Since the late Qing Dynasty,in the face of the invasion of Western culture,Chinese society has begun a long and painful modernization transformation.In such a society full of uncertainty,the traditional value system is far from dissipating,the new order of existence has not yet been established,and many contradictions between traditional Chinese culture and Western culture need to be reconciled,and many gaps need to be crossed.All kinds of impacts from the West made this transitional nature inevitably bring the Chinese deep and lasting anxiety of modernity at that time;it was also under the impact of the West that the Chinese nation began to gradually recognize the "self" step by step.The science fantasy novels of the late Qing Dynasty and the early republic of China,where many scientific and "pre-scientific" coexistence,dim reality and light fantasy coexist,seem to be comical and absurd,but in fact project the sincere and eager imagination of a generation of Chinese home country crisis experience and reshaping the "new world".In the continuous experience of Western learning,the group of science fantasy writers in the late Qing Dynasty and the early republic of China constructed a contradictory mentality about the late Qing Dynasty society with a contradictory mentality of both despair and hope,both distress and pride.This paper takes the science fantasy novel of the late Qing Dynasty and the early republic of China,as the research object,takes "anxiety" as the entry point into the problem of early Modernity in China,examines the actual motives of science fantasy in the society of the late Qing Dynasty and the early republic of China,and the characteristics of early Chinese modernity thus revealed.Mainly starting from the changes in various ideological concepts in the late Qing Dynasty,it explores how the Western concepts of time,space and science sprouted in Chinese society,and how they influenced the writing of modernity in the science fantasy novels of the late Qing Dynasty and the early republic of China,as well as the conflicts between China and the West and the contradictions between tradition and modernity implied in them.The whole text is divided into two parts: Introduction and Main Body.The introduction section explains the background of the topic selection,the current situation of research,the research difficulties and methods,and defines the concept of "science fantasy novel in the late Qing Dynasty and e the early republic of China,".The main part consists of four chapters:The first chapter mainly starts from the change of the surface time system of the late Qing Dynasty and the change of the deep concept of time,and explains the unique appearance of the new time experience in the science fantasy novels of the late Qing Dynasty and the early republic of China.The various time narrative paradoxes in the novel show the sensitivity of modern intellectuals to entering modern time and the transitional traces of the time experience of early modernity in China.The second chapter mainly analyzes the modern nation-state imagination in the science fantasy novels of the late Qing Dynasty and the early republic of China from the perspective of the transformation of the spatial concept in modern China.The spatial imagination of the grand plot of "Chinese rejuvenation" in the novel presents the national identity crisis and modernity anxiety experience Chinese in the late Qing Dynasty in the process of modernity’s turn.The third chapter mainly explains the role of modern science in the fantasies of novelists in the late Qing Dynasty and the early republic of China.Novelists use the advanced power of weapons,the spiritual effect of electricity,and the magical means of Western medicine to conceive of the prosperous picture of China in the future,and the passionate fantasy and infinite belief in "science" show that Chinese society is beginning to approach the field of modernity in the concept of science.The fourth chapter analyzes how modern China has struggled to achieve selfidentification and self-reflection in the process of moving toward modernity.The traveler in the novel constantly wanders away from the "West" in space and the "past" in time,and searches for the "mirror image" of the real self in the dialogue with the "other",which implies the collisions and contradictions between China and the West,tradition and modernity.