This talk focuses on the reception and continued popularity of Chinese vernacular fiction in Meiji- and Taishō-period Japan, with special focus on the novel “The Water Margin” (Ch. “Shuihu zhuan,” Jp. “Suikoden”). The story of 108 outlaw gallants who band together in the marshes of northeastern China, “The Water Margin” reached new heights of popularity in the modern era, when authors as disparate as Mori Ōgai, Tokutomi Sohō, Masaoka Shiki and Akutagawa Ryūnosuke presented the novel as an uncannily proto-modern example of literary realism, as well as a key point of entry into understanding a putative Chinese national ethos.
William Hedberg of Arizona State University will discuss this intertwined discourse of novels and nationhood and examine the processes by which “The Water Margin” was selected as a window into contemporary China newly open for firsthand experience, exploration and colonization.
Join the event via Zoom using the meeting ID 839 5922 7878 and the passcode 2020.