Wars and Ideas: A Transcultural Reading of European War-narratives in Colonial Hong Kong during the Second Sino-Japanese War
Refereed conference paper presented and published in conference proceedings
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AbstractThe outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War caught the immediate attention of a great number of Chinese intellectuals who thus devoted themselves to national salvation. They largely responded to the call of the All-China Resistance Association of Writers and Artists to resist Japanese imperialism and to construct Chinese revolutionary literature and art. The Anti-Japanese war literature has become an important chapter of the Twentieth-century Chinese literature. Previous studies have demonstrated the significance of the Chinese Anti-Japanese war literature, mainly written by left-wing writers, and its contribution to the construction of national identity. However, there is little discussion of the diverse perspectives on war politics and aesthetics introduced to the Chinese literary community.
This paper aims at investigating the “negotiating space” in the literary field of Hong Kong between the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and the Japanese military occupation in 1941. Focusing on renowned literary journals and newspapers’ supplements of the time, it will reexamine Chinese intellectuals’ criticism and reinterpretation of the European anti-fascist movement and war-narratives from different political views, including those of humanists and pacifists, socialists, anti-fascists, and communists. It will also investigate how they use the translation of the war literature to fulfil their purposes in the anti-Japanese resistance movement in Hong Kong, a movement that struggled to survive under the pressure of the pro-Japanese “Peace Movement” and of the political censorship imposed by the British colonial government.
This paper aims at investigating the “negotiating space” in the literary field of Hong Kong between the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and the Japanese military occupation in 1941. Focusing on renowned literary journals and newspapers’ supplements of the time, it will reexamine Chinese intellectuals’ criticism and reinterpretation of the European anti-fascist movement and war-narratives from different political views, including those of humanists and pacifists, socialists, anti-fascists, and communists. It will also investigate how they use the translation of the war literature to fulfil their purposes in the anti-Japanese resistance movement in Hong Kong, a movement that struggled to survive under the pressure of the pro-Japanese “Peace Movement” and of the political censorship imposed by the British colonial government.
All Author(s) ListKwong Ho Yee Connie
Name of ConferenceXXIVth Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS)
Start Date of Conference24/08/2022
End Date of Conference27/08/2022
Place of ConferenceOlomouc
Country/Region of ConferenceCzech Republic
Proceedings TitleXXIVth Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS)
Year2022
Month8
PublisherDepartment of Asian Studies, Palacký University
Place of PublicationOlomouc, Czech Republic
Pages1 - 15
LanguagesEnglish-United States
KeywordsNegotiating Space of Literary Field, Political Censorship, Second Sino-Japanese War, European War Literature, Chinese Anti-Japanese War Literature
