The Unworthy Scholar from Pingjiang: Republican-Era Martial Arts Fiction by John Christopher Hamm

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Unworthy Scholar from Pingjiang: Republican-Era Martial Arts Fiction by John Christopher Hamm Lehyla G. Hewardlehyla.heward@um.edu.mt John Christopher Hamm. The Unworthy Scholar from Pingjiang: Republican-Era Martial Arts Fiction. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. 299 pp. $70.00 (cloth). John Christopher Hamm's The Unworthy Scholar from Pingjiang: Republican-Era Martial Arts Fiction brings the topic of genre fiction off the sidelines of modern Chinese literature and into center field. The clever and perceptive narrative revolves around the novelist Xiang Kairan (向愷然 1895–1957), who wrote under the pen name Buxiaosheng (不肖生) or "The Unworthy Scholar" and is considered to be the father of Republican-era martial arts fiction (武俠小說 wuxia xiaoshuo). John Christopher Hamm establishes a scholarly approach to Xiang Kairan that, on the one hand, pays homage to the nostalgia that martial arts fiction often evokes in general readers and, on the other, newly conceptualizes the oft-discussed foundations of modern Chinese literature. Moreover, Hamm presents an enlightening characterization of the publishing networks that formed the basis for Chinese genre fiction. The book is a relevant reminder that Chinese genre fiction, especially considering our current age of translating and promoting it to global audiences, came of age during the commercialization of literature in 1920s Shanghai. Hamm uses the discussion about Republican-era modes of production as a springboard to theorize about what he calls "the poetics of xiaoshuo," especially "the value of xiaoshuo and presumptions about its limitations that echo critiques by contemporary progressive critics yet derive from premodern discourse on the genre" (12). One of the central arguments in The Unworthy Scholar is that xiaoshuo inherently invites transmission, a crucial facet of literary discourse. The theoretical crux of this research centers on "a moral ambivalence woven into the poetics of xiaoshuo" (185). Hamm demonstrates that xiaoshuo was historically seen as corrupt due to its commitment to the strange and its representation of unofficial histories. The irony is that the term xiaoshuo came to be used by May Fourth intellectuals as a tool not only to represent reality but also to inculcate modern values into society. Although May Fourth intellectuals redefined and reappropriated xiaoshuo to align their pursuit of writing fiction with Western practices, Hamm stresses that the idea of fiction itself was subject to debate. Hamm successfully shows how the literary discourse around xiaoshuo impacted the way that Xiang Kairan's work was produced and received (2). Here transmission plays an important role. Unlike May Fourth and New Literature intellectuals, who expressly elevated their individual subjectivity, the author-narrator Xiang Kairan was a chain in the link of transmission, not the "unitary source" (52). Hamm states that Xiang Kairan "makes no claim to be moved to write by any need for self-expression; nor does he present writing fiction as a vital tool for the advancement of any of the political or societal agendas…much less of the enlightenment agenda claimed by the New Literature" (38). Hamm's arguments produce an equilibrium (as opposed to a continuum of sorts) between the literary discourses of the Ming and Qing periods and that of the May Fourth era. Hamm recognizes parallels that shine a spotlight onto Xiang Kairan's performance upon the tightrope of changing literary values. In terms of methodology, Hamm's most notable contributions are the middle chapters wherein he discusses the publishing networks and periodicals through which Xiang Kairan gained his reputation. These chapters provide readers, especially those wanting to know more about Republican-era mass media, with a realistic portrait of how popular literature [End Page E-26] was marketed and disseminated. Hamm argues that a new notion of genre was deployed as a marketable category and that crucial to its success was the confluence of a high-profile author using a distinct medium, form, and theme (12). The economics of the publishing world thus illustrate how wuxia fiction and xiaoshuo as a concept passed from the traditional realm into the modern era, which is a vital element in Hamm's conceptualization of transmission in the poetics of xiaoshuo. Indeed, Hamm's heterodox arguments about how Xiang Kairan participated in modernity would have run the risk of...