China’s quest for modernity: a critical review of its philosophical and cultural backgrounds in the early twentieth century (1905-1919)

FLORES, VERÓNICA

Taipei

Encuentro; Taiwan Fellowship Program; 2011

Center for Chinese Studies

Abstract   Over the last twenty years the question on Chinese modernity has raised an extended scholar debate which has deepen its definition and thought over its analytical strength to study China´s intellectual changes during the early twentieth century. In a first stage, this study reviews this recent historiografical trends as they have contributed to revise and overcome the classic Euro-centric perspectives upon this subject and have enriched and problematized our understanding of China’s quest for modernity from an approach that emphasize a more dynamic East-West cultural communication. Based on this scope, in a second stage our focus is narrowed down to analyze the discursive practices and political pronouncements of two generations of representative Chinese intellectuals as Zhang Binglin, Liang Qichao, Liang Shuming and Hu Shi during the late years of Qing dynasty and the first decade of the Republican era. Our research problem consists on demonstrating how a common theoretical framework to define modernity was built during these years, through an array of representations, cognitive understandings and heterogeneous discursive practices that shaped an intellectual community rather than individual singularities. Since this process involved creating, undermining, affirming or re-composing –new and traditional- specific categories, our final purpose in this instance is to clarify the cultural identity and philosophical stances underlying those actions to better comprehend their conceptions of modernity, as autonomous responses to China’s integration to the world but also as divergent pathways of concrete social and political mobilization in the veering early years of the twentieth century.