Author ｜
Andrew F. Jones, translated by Wang Dun & Zheng Yi-ren
Abstract ｜
This essay examines the figure of the child in modern Chinese literature in its charged and dialectical relation to the vernacularization of evolutionary thought in the Republican period. The period between the advent of the New Culture Movement in 1917 and the outbreak of full-scale war with Japan in 1937 witnessed an unprecedented interest in and explosion of discourse for and about children, childhood, and child development. Figured as an emblem of the unfolding of national history,the child was singled out as an object of intense interest and intervention on the part of intellectuals and cultural entrepreneurs. And yet, as shown in a symptomatic reading of Zhou Zuoren's advocacy of children's literature and Lu Xun’s canonical calls to “Save the children!” in his “Diary of the Madman,” these efforts often foundered upon the internal narrative contradictions of developmentalist logic.
keywords ｜
children’s literature, developmentalism, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, evolutionary thought, The Diary of a Madman