Includes bibliographical references and index.

Front Matter -- Preliminary Material / Shuk Man Leung -- Copyright Page / Shuk Man Leung -- Acknowledgements / Shuk Man Leung -- Introduction / Shuk Man Leung -- Chapter 1 Establishment: New Fiction, Utopian Imagination, and the Generic System / Shuk Man Leung -- Chapter 2 Dissemination: the Generic Features of the Utopian Imagination / Shuk Man Leung -- Chapter 3 Channels: the Political Function of Utopian Fiction and the Chinese Public Sphere / Shuk Man Leung -- Chapter 4 Origins: Liang Qichao and Chinese, Japanese, and Western Epistemology / Shuk Man Leung -- Chapter 5 Borderless Nations? Cosmopolitan Utopias with Anarchist and Socialist Faces / Shuk Man Leung -- Chapter 6 Crossing the Border: Chinese Settler Colonialism and a Borderless National Imagination / Shuk Man Leung -- Conclusion The Dual Community of New Fiction’s Utopian Imagination: Writing, Reading and Imagining / Shuk Man Leung -- Back Matter -- Appendix / Shuk Man Leung -- Bibliography / Shuk Man Leung -- Index / Shuk Man Leung.

Unlike previous studies that have examined the late Qing utopian imagination as an ahistorical motif, a literary theme, and a translation phenomenon, in this book Shuk Man Leung considers utopian fiction as a knowledge apparatus that helped develop Chinese nationalism and modernity. Based on untapped primary sources in Chinese, English, and Japanese, her research reveals how utopian imagination, blooming after Liang Qichao’s publication of The Future of New China , served as a tool of knowledge formation and dissemination that transformed China’s public sphere and catalysed historical change. Embracing interdisciplinary approach from genre studies, studies on modern Chinese newspapers and intellectual history, this book provides an analysis of the development of utopian literary practices, epistemic meanings, and fictional narratives and the interactions between traditional and imported knowledge that helped shape the discourse in early 20th century China.

English

Description based on print version record.