Literary Revolution in "Eye", Literary Revolution in "Ear" --The Development of Auditory Media and the Experiment of "National Language" in the 1920's China--

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Other Title
  • 目の文學革命・耳の文學革命 : 一九二〇年代中國における聽覺メディアと「國語」の實驗
  • 目の文學革命・耳の文學革命--1920年代中國における聴覚メディアと「国語」の実験
  • メ ノ ブンガク カクメイ ・ ミミ ノ ブンガク カクメイ 1920ネンダイ チュウゴク ニ オケル チョウカク メディア ト コクゴ ノ ジッケン
  • 目の文学革命・耳の文学革命 : 一九二〇年代中国における聴覚メディアと「国語」の実験

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Abstract

There was an mutual interrelation between the Literary Revolution and the National Language Movement in China. The aim of this paper is to summarize the development of auditory media (Westernized Drama, Broadcast, and talking film) in 1920's and 1930's China, evaluate its influence on the formation of the National Language, and delineate the characteristics of the Literary Revolution in "Ear". In the Late Imperial China, the Mandarin Chinese (guanhua) was a kind of creole language, it had no strict linguistic standard, did not expect spoken by women and the lower class, so it should not be qualified as a pseudo-National Language. After the 1911 revolution, the Republic of China intended to establish a strong centralized nation-state, reformist intellectuals started building a National Language on the bases of the Mandarin. Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu proposed and theorized the Literary Revolution from 1917, the classical language was replaced as the literary standard with the vernacular language. But in their discussion the viewpoint was restricted to the field of print-language, substantially the standard of "spoken language" was left untouched. When the modern auditory media introduced to China in the middle of 1920s, people immediately perceived the necessity of spoken National Language, and attempted to create a standard of "natural speaking". Its process of construction was executed by dramatists and linguist trained in USA--Hong Shen, Xiong Foxi, and Yuen Ren Chao. Especially Chao integrated his linguistic studies into the dramaturgy, while described and established the standard of spoken National Language using the modern theatrical movement in Beijing as his stage of experiment. This reform can be defined as "the Literary Revolution in 'Ear' (spoken language)". The created standard of spoken National Language worked to guard the national identity against the aggressor throughout the Sino-Japanese war. It spread out from the center into the local areas, permeated the mainland China in the 1950s, and functioned as supporter of the nation-state during the late twentieth century.

Journal

  • 中國文學報

    中國文學報 58 75-114, 1999-04

    CHINESE LITERATURE ASSOCIATION, DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, FACULTY OF LETTERS, KYÔTO UNIVERSITY

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