中國定居殖民主義與去邊界的國族想像：論旅生的《痴人說夢記》

Chinese Settler Colonialism and the Borderless National Imagination in Late Qing Utopian Fiction: A Case Study of LüSheng's A Madman's Dream

有關晚清中國國族主義論述的研究，經常強調反殖民主義是當時主要的意識形態來源，往往忽略了「定居殖民主義」(settler colonialism)在國族主義論述所發揮的作用。本文通過探討晚清烏托邦小說中的定居者殖民主義如何塑造出一個去邊界的中國，藉此指出晚清國族主義論述中有著超越「殖民者—被殖民者」二元對立的可能。本文認為旅生的《痴人說夢記》是一個明顯的案例，用作探討中國定居殖民主義如何發展跨國想像。作為一個非西方的定居殖民者，中國具有雙重身份：它被西方殖民，同時自己亦成為定居殖民者，致力在海外宣揚「新中國」，試圖與其他受過殖民壓迫的國家連成一線。因此，本文希望藉由揭示晚清中國的殖民主義論述中的內部張力，以此探究清代擴張主義與殖民主義關係的研究，並說明中國定居殖民主義所展現出的獨特論述關懷：結合著拒絕過去清代擴張思想，以及反思清末當下的苦難經歷，來建構對未來的國族想像。

Studies on Chinese nationalist discourse in the late Qing era rarely consider the role of settler-colonialism in the development of nationalism, instead assuming that anti-colonialism was the dominant ideological source. This article transcends the traditional binary discourse of the colonised and the coloniser by exploring how settler-colonialism helped to project a borderless China in late Qing utopian fiction. I argue that this body of literature, as exemplified by LüSheng's A Madman's Dream, is a useful lens for exploring how Chinese settler-colonialism developed a (trans)national imagination. China, as a non-Western settler-colonist, had a dual identity: its experience of being colonised by the West resulted in its acting as a settler-colonist, while its efforts to promote a“new China”overseas were intended to create solidarity with others who had suffered from colonisation. This article thus contributes to the growing body of scholarship about Qing expansionism as an instance of colonialism by demonstrating the internal tensions within Chinese discourse on colonialism in that era. I illustrate that Chinese settler-colonialism displayed a unique blend of discourse about expansion in the past, the experience of suffering in the present, and imagining the future.