Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and Individualism in Modern China

The Chenbao Fukan and the New Culture Era, 1918–1928

Xiaoqun Xu

Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and Individualism in Modern China analyzes important aspects of Chinese intellectual life and cultural practices that formed and informed the historical phenomenon known as the New Culture era. Through examining an influential newspaper supplement published in Beijing during 1918–1928, along with other contemporary sources, the book explores the full dimensions and rich textures of the intellectual-literary discourses of the time period and contributes to a re-consideration and re-appreciation of the New Culture phenomenon in modern China. It highlights a key intellectual-moral paradox in Chinese discourses between cosmopolitanism as an idealistic aspiration and nationalism as a practical imperative, both in complex relationship to individualism, a paradox that ultimately speaks to the constant negotiations between Chinese tradition and Western culture in the making of Chinese modernity. These issues have remained vitally relevant to China and the world nearly a century later.

Lexington Books

Pages: 308 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-0-7391-8914-6 • Hardback • May 2014 • $143.00 • (£110.00)

978-0-7391-8915-3 • eBook • May 2014 • $135.50 • (£105.00)

Subjects: History / Asia / China, Literary Criticism / Asian / Chinese

Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and Individualism in Modern China

The Chenbao Fukan and the New Culture Era, 1918–1928

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and Individualism in Modern China analyzes important aspects of Chinese intellectual life and cultural practices that formed and informed the historical phenomenon known as the New Culture era. Through examining an influential newspaper supplement published in Beijing during 1918–1928, along with other contemporary sources, the book explores the full dimensions and rich textures of the intellectual-literary discourses of the time period and contributes to a re-consideration and re-appreciation of the New Culture phenomenon in modern China. It highlights a key intellectual-moral paradox in Chinese discourses between cosmopolitanism as an idealistic aspiration and nationalism as a practical imperative, both in complex relationship to individualism, a paradox that ultimately speaks to the constant negotiations between Chinese tradition and Western culture in the making of Chinese modernity. These issues have remained vitally relevant to China and the world nearly a century later.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 308 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-0-7391-8914-6 • Hardback • May 2014 • $143.00 • (£110.00)

978-0-7391-8915-3 • eBook • May 2014 • $135.50 • (£105.00)

Subjects: History / Asia / China, Literary Criticism / Asian / Chinese

Author

Xiaoqun Xu is associate professor of history at Christopher Newport University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Social Agendas and Personal Tastes: The Chenbao Fukan's Editorial Policies
Chapter 2: Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism: Chinese Responses to Russell, Eroshenko, and Tagore
Chapter 3: Individual Cosmopolitans and Cultural Capital: Debates on Translation Practices
Chapter 4: Placing China in the World of Colonial Hierarchy: Chinese Travelogues in the 1920s
Chapter 5: Cultural Legacy and Scientific Methods: Reorganizing National Heritage
Chapter 6: Life, Love, and Nation: Intellectual and Moral Sensibilities of Educated Chinese

Reviews

[This book] is a thought-provoking addition to the rapidly expanding body of the literature on the history of modern Chinese mass media. . . .The strength of Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism, and Individualism in Modern China lies in the author’s skillful selection of media documents, providing indepth analysis, and setting these historical records in a broader cultural and intellectual context by explaining their role in the emergence of Western style media in China. . . .This research monograph can be considered as a notable contribution to the study of the history of Chinese media and the role of media in shaping modernity and nationalism in 21st-century China.
— Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

This is solidly researched work. The book convincingly points readers to Chinese cosmopolitanism, an important but understudied strand of public discourse that coexisted with other currents including nationalism, individualism, and anarchism in the early twentieth century. Professor Xiaoqun Xu’s incisive analysis brings depth to our understanding of China’s world view today.
— Dong Wang, Research Associate, Fairbank Center of Harvard University

This is a good book, a very good book and a solidly researched one. Through meticulous scholarship Xiaoqun Xu has provided us with an invaluable survey of the Chenbao fukan of the Republican era in China and, at the same time, laid a sound historical basis from which to contemplate cosmopolitanism, nationalism, and individualism in China today. It was a pleasure to read and will make a significant contribution to the study of China in the early twentieth century.
— Denise Gimpel