《在中国屏风上》中毛姆的中国批判
《在中国屏风上》中毛姆的中国批判
毛姆是20世纪初著名的英国小说家，《在中国屏风上》是他1920年亲历中国后写下的游记，五十八篇长短不一的文章连缀成“一组中国之行的叙事”，其中他以一个旁观者的姿态描述了在中国的所见所闻。文章不乏对中国社会许多方面由衷的赞美，亦不乏对中国形形色色的丑陋现象毫不留情地批判。本文从毛姆笔下中国社会腐败的官僚制度、腐朽的封建思想、男女两性不平等的婚姻制度等角度探讨毛姆笔下的中国批判。从而了解到，毛姆的中国批判，既是特定时代的中国现实，也带些许毛姆作为一个“观光者”的想象意味，毕竟，他是隔着“屏风”看中国。
关键词 毛姆，《在中国屏风上》，批判
1 Introduction1
2 Mysterious But Damaged Buildings2
2.1 Ancient But Abandoned Temples3
2.2 Magnificent While Evil Attractions4
3 Decayed Feudal System..5
3.1 Officials Superior to Common People5
3.2 Woman Subject to Man6
4 Typical Chinese of That Age8
4.1 Conceited But Pitying Scholars... 8
4.2 Cheerful While Oppressed Coolies..9
Conclusion 11
Acknowledgements 12
References13
William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and he died in 1965. He was one of the most famous writers in the history of British and he was also the writer who had a lot of extensive readers in the twentieth century. When Maugham was young, he was short and had a severe stutter. Therefore, Maugham was often bullied and tormented by children. A miserable childhood casted a shadow over his heart which led to his eccentric, sensitive and introverted personality. Obviously, the experience of his childhood had a profound influence on his world outlook and literary creation. This is why Maugham’s novels can be calm, objective and profound analysis the weakness of human nature. So, many of his novels had been published again and sold very well. Nowadays, there are still have a lot of new readers are reading and talking about it. Maugham’s novels have become the classics that can stand the test of time.
Compared with Maugham’s novels, Maugham’s life was full of ups and downs, wonderful and legendary. Maugham was born in Paris. When he was eight years old, his mother died. He lost his father at the age of ten. So he was sent back to Britain and raised by his uncle. Later, he started his way to school. When he published his first novel which was Liza of Lambeth which rose the drama and fiction for nearly half a century. Ted Morgan is a biographer. He had said :“Maugham is a lonely child, a creative novelist, a dissipated and unrestrained prodigal, a successful playwright in the West London and so on.” Therefore, Maugham was a very contradictory existence. It was this contradictory attitude that Maugham was different from some conventional writers. Maugham was full of desire to pursuit of self value in the new era. And exactly because of this kind mentality, Maugham chose to escape and pursue for the self-perfection of humanity. He wanted longs for free from the world.
After the Revolution of 1911, the old authorities had been challenged in China in 1920s. However, the new authority had not been established. Actually Chinese politics was in a very chaotic state. In terms of ideology, the monarchy lost people’s support, but the dictatorship was still the mainstream thought. Democracy was coming into fashion, but most people didn’t really understand the meaning of it. All kinds of political thought and humanistic thought had sprung up, so this was an age of great liberation. But the war often occurred, shooting one after another, and warlords and bandits could be seen everywhere. In terms of economy, the Chinese economy was still downward and people were destitute in many places because of the war. In such a situation, Maugham came to China.
On A Chinese Screen was written in 1922. In 1920, Maugham came to China and he wrote the book. Maugham spent the winter months of 1919 travelling fifteen hundred miles up the Yangtze River. Always more interested in people than places, he noted down finely crafted sketches of those he met on countless scraps of paper. Many western missionaries, army officers and company managers who are culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilization all can be read in the book. Maugham keenly observes, gently ridicules, their dogged and oblivious persistence on the life they know. Maugham described a lot of Westerners who lived in China in the book. There are some examples, for example, some of these Westerners are not the minions of colonists and imperialists, some of them cherish the love of the Chinese people and Chinese culture. They regard these lands as the second home. They learnt to think in Chinese thinking and they became very close to Chinese. He used the western people’s views to describe Chinese various backwardness and corruption at that time.
Therefore, since the publication of the novel, it had been a popular one all over the world. On A Chinese Screen offered materials for British readers to know about ancient and mysterious China. On A Chinese Screen was convenient for foreigners’ imagination of China. Meanwhile, this vivid picture drawn by Maugham was also helpful to today’s Chinese readers’ understanding of China at that time.
毛姆是20世纪初著名的英国小说家，《在中国屏风上》是他1920年亲历中国后写下的游记，五十八篇长短不一的文章连缀成“一组中国之行的叙事”，其中他以一个旁观者的姿态描述了在中国的所见所闻。文章不乏对中国社会许多方面由衷的赞美，亦不乏对中国形形色色的丑陋现象毫不留情地批判。本文从毛姆笔下中国社会腐败的官僚制度、腐朽的封建思想、男女两性不平等的婚姻制度等角度探讨毛姆笔下的中国批判。从而了解到，毛姆的中国批判，既是特定时代的中国现实，也带些许毛姆作为一个“观光者”的想象意味，毕竟，他是隔着“屏风”看中国。
关键词 毛姆，《在中国屏风上》，批判
1 Introduction1
2 Mysterious But Damaged Buildings2
2.1 Ancient But Abandoned Temples3
2.2 Magnificent While Evil Attractions4
3 Decayed Feudal System..5
3.1 Officials Superior to Common People5
3.2 Woman Subject to Man6
4 Typical Chinese of That Age8
4.1 Conceited But Pitying Scholars... 8
4.2 Cheerful While Oppressed Coolies..9
Conclusion 11
Acknowledgements 12
References13
William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and he died in 1965. He was one of the most famous writers in the history of British and he was also the writer who had a lot of extensive readers in the twentieth century. When Maugham was young, he was short and had a severe stutter. Therefore, Maugham was often bullied and tormented by children. A miserable childhood casted a shadow over his heart which led to his eccentric, sensitive and introverted personality. Obviously, the experience of his childhood had a profound influence on his world outlook and literary creation. This is why Maugham’s novels can be calm, objective and profound analysis the weakness of human nature. So, many of his novels had been published again and sold very well. Nowadays, there are still have a lot of new readers are reading and talking about it. Maugham’s novels have become the classics that can stand the test of time.
Compared with Maugham’s novels, Maugham’s life was full of ups and downs, wonderful and legendary. Maugham was born in Paris. When he was eight years old, his mother died. He lost his father at the age of ten. So he was sent back to Britain and raised by his uncle. Later, he started his way to school. When he published his first novel which was Liza of Lambeth which rose the drama and fiction for nearly half a century. Ted Morgan is a biographer. He had said :“Maugham is a lonely child, a creative novelist, a dissipated and unrestrained prodigal, a successful playwright in the West London and so on.” Therefore, Maugham was a very contradictory existence. It was this contradictory attitude that Maugham was different from some conventional writers. Maugham was full of desire to pursuit of self value in the new era. And exactly because of this kind mentality, Maugham chose to escape and pursue for the self-perfection of humanity. He wanted longs for free from the world.
After the Revolution of 1911, the old authorities had been challenged in China in 1920s. However, the new authority had not been established. Actually Chinese politics was in a very chaotic state. In terms of ideology, the monarchy lost people’s support, but the dictatorship was still the mainstream thought. Democracy was coming into fashion, but most people didn’t really understand the meaning of it. All kinds of political thought and humanistic thought had sprung up, so this was an age of great liberation. But the war often occurred, shooting one after another, and warlords and bandits could be seen everywhere. In terms of economy, the Chinese economy was still downward and people were destitute in many places because of the war. In such a situation, Maugham came to China.
On A Chinese Screen was written in 1922. In 1920, Maugham came to China and he wrote the book. Maugham spent the winter months of 1919 travelling fifteen hundred miles up the Yangtze River. Always more interested in people than places, he noted down finely crafted sketches of those he met on countless scraps of paper. Many western missionaries, army officers and company managers who are culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilization all can be read in the book. Maugham keenly observes, gently ridicules, their dogged and oblivious persistence on the life they know. Maugham described a lot of Westerners who lived in China in the book. There are some examples, for example, some of these Westerners are not the minions of colonists and imperialists, some of them cherish the love of the Chinese people and Chinese culture. They regard these lands as the second home. They learnt to think in Chinese thinking and they became very close to Chinese. He used the western people’s views to describe Chinese various backwardness and corruption at that time.
Therefore, since the publication of the novel, it had been a popular one all over the world. On A Chinese Screen offered materials for British readers to know about ancient and mysterious China. On A Chinese Screen was convenient for foreigners’ imagination of China. Meanwhile, this vivid picture drawn by Maugham was also helpful to today’s Chinese readers’ understanding of China at that time.
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