想像中國的另一種方法：論劉吶鷗、穆時英和張愛玲小說的「視覺性」

An Alternative Imagination of China: A Study of ‘Visuality’ in Liu Na'ou, Mu Shiying and Eileen Chang's Fictions

小說作為現代中國人想像、敘述「中國」的開端，由梁啟超提倡「新小說」起，經歷了過百年的變化。不論在形式或內容上，小說的種種改變均與現代中國社會各方面的變化息息相關。王德威在1993年提出關注「想像中國」的議題，思考國人怎樣通過小說這種敘事模式去想像中國的過去、現在與未來。本文以「視覺性」的角度，審視小說另一種想像中國的方法，目的在於重現當時在殖民地臺灣和半殖民地上海中成長的新一代作家，他們「想像中國」的「新」角度。本文重點分析劉吶鷗、穆時英和張愛玲的小說，觀察這些小說怎樣以「視覺」的方式來想像中國，這種方式又如何反映和形塑中國的現代經驗。中國三○年代興起於上海的新感覺派，當中劉吶鷗和穆時英的小說具有強烈的視覺化表述特徵。究其來源，這種小說表述模式並不是完全由中國本土文化場域所孕育，而是由劉吶鷗這位臺灣人經過迂迴的路線引入。這種新的小說表述模式帶來了新的想像方法，原因在於它是經由帝國主義、殖民主義到本土化的複雜過程而生成。那麼，是經由怎樣的路徑，配合怎樣的政治和文化的刺激和制約，使劉吶鷗的視覺化小說會在三○年代登陸到半殖民地上海租界？這一種小說又有怎樣複雜的歷史面貌？本文首先探討日治時期臺灣作家劉吶鷗在臺灣和日本的文學經歷，討論他把「殖民者凝視」這種新的「想像中國」的方法引入中國的開創性。接著，本文討論穆時英和張愛玲怎樣改造和「模擬」「殖民者凝視」，表現出新一代對「現代」中國的想像。穆時英運用小說視覺化表述表現三○年代上海貧富懸殊的半殖民地處境，張愛玲則以這種方法對傳統和現代中國作出觀察和反思，並且反過來對殖民者作出「凝視」，質疑了這種觀看背後的權力構成。本文認為劉吶鷗、穆時英和張愛玲三位作家的「模擬」策略由於時代和位置的不同而顯出差異，但是這種「模擬」並不是純粹的複製，而是一種再創造，顯示的是有別於主流的「另一種」想像中國的方法。

Fiction has emerged as a major medium for modern Chinese to express their imagination and ‘narrate’ the country since Liang Qichao advocated the importance of ‘New Fiction’. Over the past century, fiction （including both its form and content） has undergone various changes in response to the transformation of the modern Chinese society. In 1993, David Der-wei Wang initiated a discussion on ‘Imagination of China’, examining how Chinese people imagined the past, present and future of the country through fiction as a means of narration. Based on the notion of ‘visuality’, this paper strives to examine an alternative approach to imagine China. The goal is to highlight how a new generation of authors from colonial Taiwan and semi-colonial Shanghai ‘imagined China’ by adopting a ‘new’ perspective. Through analyzing the fictions of Liu Na'ou, Mu Shiying, and Eileen Chang, this paper demonstrates how ‘visualization’ was used to imagine China and how this approach reflected and shaped China's modern experience. The rise of Neo-Sensationism in Shanghai in the 1930s motivated writers such as Liu Na'ou and Mu Shiying's to incorporate a wealth of visual elements into their fictions. Tracing the origin of this narrative strategy, we could conclude that it was not generated by the local cultural community in China, but was inspired by Liu Na'ou, a Taiwanese author. This new narrative approach（having evolved from the intricate processes of imperialism, colonialism, and localization ） indeed revolutionalized the way people imagined. So, how did Liu Na'ou's fictions gain recognition in semi-colonial Shanghai in the 1930s? What were the political and cultural factors that facilitated and impeded this writing style? In addition, what kinds of historical framework were manifested in his fictions? This paper first examines the literary experience of Liu Na'ou in both Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period and Japan. Special emphasis was put on how he introduced ‘colonial gaze’ to China as an innovative approach to imagine the country. Then, the paper further discusses how Mu Shiying and Eileen Chang modified and ‘mimicked’ the ‘colonial gaze’, which in turn shows how this new generation of writers imagined the ‘modern’ China. Mu Shiying used the technique of visualization to illustrate the disparity in wealth during Shanghai's semi-colonial period in the 1930s. On the other hand, Eileen Chang employed the same narrative strategy not only to examine and reflect on the traditional and modern China, but also to question the underlying authority conferred by the colonial gaze through ‘gazing’ at the colonizer. It is believed that Liu Na'ou, Mu Shiying, and Eileen Chang's strategies of ‘mimicry’varied due to different periods of time and diverse perspectives. However, such‘mimicry’ was not mere ‘replication,’ but a new form of creation, which was deviated from the mainstream and represented an ‘alternative’ approach to imagine China.