英文摘要
|
This paper intends to demonstrate the versatility of intellectuals' minds by through a case study of the cultural conservative/conservatist Wu Mi's political and cultural reflections during the Anti-Japanese War, with a view to complementing the insufficiency of grand narrative often found in the accounts of intellectuals' patriotic zeal during the period. Being a staunch adherent of the Xue Heng school ideology, Wu advocated a good command of both the eastern and oriental cultures and an open and happy medium. As a result, he could not persuade himself to fully accept the National Government's patriotic proposals, such as the Three Principles of the People and the collectivism supremacy, even during the anti-Japanese War. As to his cultural view, however, Wu persistently rejected the new literature movement proposals at the Southwest Associated University where he taught, making him deviate far from the professors like Wen Yiduo, who spoke for the movement. For several times, he even decided but failed somehow to leave the university. Noticeably, as an active cultural conservative, Wu showed reluctance to make culture a weapon to fight against the Japanese invaders, which led to some gap between him and his group. The abovementioned questions concern an intellectual's reaction to issues like China's survival, Chinese nationalism, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on the one hand, and the conflicts between his academic faith and the new literature movement's proposals, his relationship with the colleagues within the cultural conservatism circle, especially his responses to division of opinions in his group on the other. These are likely to provide some insights into the understanding of the changes or consistency of modern Chinese intellectual thinking in the Anti-Japanese War context. By observing these intellectuals' experiences in the Anti-Japanese War and their decisions when their country was suffering calamity from Wu's specific perspective, a perspective which tends to be conservative academically and stands free from any affiliated influences politically, this paper strives to reveal more humane or homely truths about the intellectuals' characteristics during this critical period.
|