粉墨中國：性別，表演，與國族認同

Impersonating China: Gender, Performance, and National Identity

在全球政治舞臺上，究竟誰更有資格「代表」／「呈現」（represent）中國？國族（nation）與扮裝（impersonation），性別表演與政治表述，這些問題成為革命時代中國文人一個特殊的關懷所在。在演繹何者為真，何者為假的過程裏，傳統戲曲男女反串的行當一再受到矚目，因此可以理解。本文集中討論兩個事例：巴金（90-00）的短篇小說《第二的母親》（9）和秦瘦鷗（90-99）的長篇小說《秋海棠》（9）。巴金名列五四人道主義文學的先驅，秦瘦鷗則以抗戰時期上海鴛鴦蝴蝶派大家而聞名。無論是文類選擇，政治歸屬和社會視野，或是寫作技巧和預期讀者群，二人之間少有共同之處。然而在面對男扮女裝的主題，並藉以觀照中國國民性問題時，他們卻不期而遇。這兩部作品，一部「嚴肅」，一部「通俗」，在中國現代文學史上自被視作對立的兩極。本文將其並列作為考察的對象，以期探討這兩部作品是如何彼此呼應對方在民族主義規劃中的性別與文類特徵。以一種與伶界反串表演不無相似的方式，兩部小說均釋放了一種激進的潛質，以之顛覆傳統規範，發掘常規之外的能量。巴金和秦瘦鷗在魯迅一輩視為性別和民族表述的死角探尋出路，而且別有所獲。因此，他們為中國現代文學燃起了最為引人側目、也最具解放意識的瞬間。

On the world stage, who is best suited to represent/re-present China? Nation and impersonation, sexuality and political representation, are peculiar concerns of Chinese writers of the revolutionary age. And among these contests for leadership positions, traditional theatre and its transvestite dramaturgy are continuously called on, as true or false impersonations of China in the theatre of the world. This essay concentrates on two cases: Ba Jin’s (1904-2005) short story “Dier de muqin” (The Second Mother, 1932), and Qin Shouou’s (1908-1994) novel Qiuhaitang (Begonia, 1943). Whereas Ba Jin ranks among the forerunners of May Fourth humanitarian literature, Qin Shouou earned his fame as the leading Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies fiction writer of Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The two share little in common—in generic preferences, political alliances, social vision, writing skills, or intended readership. But their paths cross when they confront the subject of female impersonation and bring it to bear on the question of the Chinese national character. The two works, one “serious” and one “popular,” have been seen at opposite ends in the spectrum of modern Chinese literature. My reading brings them together and in due course I ask how they reciprocate each other’s gender/genre traits in the project of nationalism. In a way not unlike the theatrics of impersonation, each of the two works lets loose a radical potential, traversing established boundaries, and assuming powers other than those conventionally assigned to it. This, I argue, enacts some of the best and most emancipating moments in modern Chinese literature.