From Revolution to the Republic: Chen Jianhua on Vernacular Chinese Modernity

Abstract

Since the publication of his influential book The Discourse of "Revolution" and Chinese Modernity in 2000, Chen Jianhua, who currently teaches at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, has been acknowledged as a leading scholar in the study of modern Chinese literary culture and thought. The current issue includes three essays taken from the three chapters in his latest book, From Revolution to the Republic: Literary, Cinematic, and Cultural Transformations in the Late Qing and Republican Period, originally written in Chinese. Inspired by Western theory, yet firmly rooted in the modern Chinese cultural context, Chen's inquiry into the dominant modern Chinese discourse of revolution (geming;) demonstrates how the ideology of revolution was formed through a complex translation process and is extremely instructive in redirecting contemporary Chinese thought for those seeking alternatives to such dominant ideas as "revolution."