Xin Zhongguo weilai ji

Xin Zhongguo weilai ji (traditional Chinese: 新中國未來記; simplified Chinese: 新中国未来记; pinyin: Xīn Zhōngguó wèilái jì; Wade–Giles: Hsin Chung-kuo wei-lai chi "The Future of New China") is an unfinished 1902 novel by Liang Qichao. Liang described a China in 1962 that was a utopia,[1] a world power,[2] wealthy,[3] Confucian, and a constitutional monarchy.[2] He believed that it would be in a "perfect mood".[3]

Author David Der-wei Wang described most of the novel as "an instructional political treatise where the virtues of various modes of government are lucidly debated."[4]

Plot

The novel begins at the ending and then continues at the beginning of the story; this is called the "flashback technique", a concept that was newly introduced in late Qing China.[5]

The novel begins in 2062 and shows a 50th anniversary celebration of a Shanghai-based reform movement in which a World Expo and peace treaty signings occur.[6] In Chapter 2,[5] Kong Hongdao (孔弘道; meaning "expander of the Dao"), style name Juemin (覺民; 觉民; meaning "enlightener of the people"[7]), a 72nd generation descendant of Confucius,[4] gives a lecture in which he discusses how a reformed China came to be,[7] covering the period 1903-1962.[5] The audience includes students from various countries,[4] who have fluency in Chinese.[7] This section includes debates between the characters Huang Keqiang (黄克強) and Li Qubing (李去病), who had traveled around the world and discuss whether China should experience a revolution or be reformed.[8]

Kong Hongdao had studied in the West before returning to China.[7] Kong Hongdao describes the genesis of the Constitutional Party (Xianzheng dang), which guides China's reform.[9] Kong Hongdao states that China underwent six stages before being reformed, but the novel describes only a portion of the first stage. Kong states that the stages are: preparation, autonomy of various districts, unification of all of China, building things and producing goods, competing with other countries, and finally becoming the global superpower.[5]

There is no more content after Chapter 5. David Wang stated that the absence of the middle portions of the storyline means that the novel does not have its "progressive narrative" or "the historical time to make the future accessible and intelligible."[5]

Development

Liang Qichao, who believed that China would later adopt a parliamentary democracy as its form of government,[1] was influenced by the 1888 American novel Looking Backward and the 1886 Japanese novel Setchubai ("Plum Blossoms in the Snow").[3] As part of his research he visited Australia for six months.[1] Liang Qichao considered making two sequels, with the second being The Future of Old China, and the third being New Peach Blossom Spring. The second would be about a China that decides not to adapt to a new era and therefore falls into ruin, while the third would be about the descendants of Chinese who had established a civilization on an island away from China; these people come back to China to improve it.[4]

According to Chloë F. Starr, the author of Red-light Novels of the late Qing, the novel stopped publication due to a decline in the sale of serial magazines.[10] David Wang stated in Fin-de-siècle Splendor: Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction, 1849-1911 that Liang Qichao had changed his vision of how a new China would be established, and that this and several other factors resulted in a halt in the novel's development. David Wang concluded that the fact that the book was never completed was "symptomatic of Liang's inabilities to come to terms with a new temporal paradigm."[5]

Reception

David Wang compared this novel with Taiwan Straits: 1999 by Yao Chia-wen arguing that they both had nationalistic elements.[2]

Several works had been inspired by this novel, including Xin Zhongguo, a 1910 novel by Lu Shi'e;[11] and New Era, a 1908 novel by Bigehuan zhuren.[12]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Keane, John. The Life and Death of Democracy. Simon and Schuster, June 1, 2009. ISBN 1847377602, 9781847377609. Google Books PT 636. "Liang Qichao (1873-1929), the peasant boy[...]respect for the constitution."
  2. 1 2 3 Wang, David Der-wei. "Return to Go: Fictional Innovation in the Late Qing and the Late Twentieth Century" (Chapter 7). In: Doleželová-Velingerová, Milena and Oldřich Král (editors), Graham Martin Sanders (assistant editor). The Appropriation of Cultural Capital: China's May Fourth Project (Volume 207 of Harvard East Asian monographs, ISSN 0073-0483). Harvard University Asia Center, 2001. ISBN 0674007867, 9780674007864. Chapter start: p. 257. CITED: p. 286.
  3. 1 2 3 Wang, David Der-wei. "Chinese literature from 1841 to 1937" (Chapter 6). In: Sun Chang, Kang-i and Stephen Owen (editors). The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume II: From 1375 (Complete Cambridge histories online. Literary studies). Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 0521855594, 9780521855594. Chapter start: p. 413. CITED: p. 453.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Horner, Charles. Rising China and Its Postmodern Fate: Memories of Empire in a New Global Context (Studies in security and international affairs). University of Georgia Press, 2009. ISBN 0820335886, 9780820335889. p. 103.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wang, David Der-wei. Fin-de-siècle Splendor: Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction, 1849-1911. Stanford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0804728453, 9780804728454. p. 304.
  6. ↑ Wang, Ban, p. 2-3.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Wang, Ban, p. 3.
  8. ↑ Wang, Ban, p. 3-4.
  9. ↑ Wang, Ban, p. 4.
  10. ↑ Starr, Chloë. Red-light Novels of the late Qing. BRILL, April 24, 2007. ISBN 9047428595, 9789047428596. p. 241.
  11. ↑ Wang, David Der-wei. Fin-de-siècle Splendor: Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction, 1849-1911. Stanford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0804728453, 9780804728454. p. 306.
  12. ↑ Wang, David Der-wei. Fin-de-siècle Splendor: Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction, 1849-1911. Stanford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0804728453, 9780804728454. p. 306-307.

References

Further reading

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