Transcending the Nationalist Conception of Modernity: Poetic Children's Literature in Early Twentieth-Century China

Autor/in	Shen, Lisa Chu
Titel	Transcending the Nationalist Conception of Modernity: Poetic Children's Literature in Early Twentieth-Century China
Quelle	In: Children's Literature in Education, 49 (2018) 4, S.396-412 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Shen, Lisa Chu)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0045-6713
DOI	10.1007/s10583-016-9311-5
Schlagwörter	Childrens Literature; Authors; Nationalism; Social Change; Imagination; Poetry; Singing; Educational Environment; Patriotism; Romanticism; Translation; Humanism; Case Studies; History; Foreign Countries; Social Attitudes; Teaching Methods; Chinese; China + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? 'Children''s literature'; Kinderliteratur; Author; Autor; Autorin; Nationalismus; Sozialer Wandel; Lyrik; Poesie; Gesang; Lernumgebung; Pädagogische Umwelt; Schulumwelt; Patriotismus; Romantik; Humanismus; Case study; Fallstudie; Case Study; Geschichte; Geschichtsdarstellung; Ausland; Social attidude; Soziale Einstellung; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; China; Chinesen
Abstract	Modern children's literature in China has largely been dominated by narratives of the nation and nationalism. The present article sets out to question the dominance of that nationalist stance as the country transitioned into the modern era in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By examining poetic children's literature, the author unravels distinct non-nationalist intellectual sentiments in competition with the mainstream nationalist discourse that point to an imaginative envisioning of modernity. The article starts with a discussion of children's poems and school songs imbued with a strong patriotic zeal in the late Qing and early Republican periods, and then moves on to the May Fourth period when lyricism and romanticism drew the attention of children's literature advocates. Romantic-minded translators and writers, such as Bing Xin, embraced love as a humanist cosmopolitan vision while others, such as Zhou Zuoren and Liu Bannong, turned to local literary heritage, giving rise to a form of children's songs with strong local consciousness. The article concludes by addressing the relevance of the insights derived from the historical case studies for contemporary children's literature in China and beyond. It highlights the possibilities of envisaging modernity in non-nationalist terms and stresses the importance of cultivating in children alternative sentiments in the age of rising nationalism, both past and present. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01