The Study Of Guangdong And Hong Kong Novels In Late Qing Dynasty

Guangdong and Hong Kong stood as a hotbed of novels together with Shanghai which was the capital of novel writing and publication in late Qing dynasty.The novels in Guangdong and Hong Kong in late Qing dynasty mainly existed in two forms,novels published in newspaper and magazine columns and the separate editions.A thorough survey found that there are 50 newspapers and magazines which published over 506 pieces of novels in late Qing dynasty in Guangdong and Hong Kong region.There were 22 publishing houses published altogether 48 separate editions.This thesis did a comprehensive study from the geographic perspective.on the novels published in Guangdong and Hong Kong in late Qing dynasty.This thesis is comprised of 4 parts,the introduction,main body,conclusion,and appendixes.The main body is composed of 5 chapters.The introduction part gave a description of the rationale,the research object,status quo of relative studies and the general framework of this thesis.On the basis of a thorough investigation into the literature about Guangdong and Hong Kong novels in late Qing dynasty,Chapter One depicted the overall characteristics of such novels.The development and geographical allocation of the Guangdong and Hong Kong novels in late Qing dynasty was introduced from the dimensions of time and space,with the possible causes illustrated.Chapter Two studied the Guangdong and Hong Kong novel writers in late Qing dynasty.The author probed into the signatures of writers for each novel of this field,to figure out the life and experience of writers.The author then identified the correlation between writers' community and the general trend and characteristics of novels from the perspectives of a place of residence,writing years,political preferences and other aspects of similarity.Chapter Three discussed the mainstream thoughts reflected in the Guangdong and Hong Kong novels in late Qing dynasty,mainly propaganda about anti-Manchuism and the ways of expression.To realize the purpose of promoting anti-Manchuism,writers had a specific preference selecting the types and the protagonists of the novels.The prevalent types of novels included history-based novels on anti-foreign race reign and communist revolution,romance novels combining "revolution" and "love",allegorical novels to spread the thoughts,and others.The main types of protagonists were the heroes of anti-Qing reign and their offspring,revolutionists in late Qing dynasty,and royalists of late Ming dynasty.Most writes held a sarcastic attitude toward the royalists of late Ming dynasty and glorified the other types of protagonists in their novels.Chapter Four expounded in an all-around way on the other themes of Guangdong and Hong Kong novels in late Qing dynasty,besides propaganda for revolution.Such themes mainly covered critics of the vile social evils and people,promotion of industrial development,criticism of opium and prostitution,sharing of knowledge and experience,and entertainment and pleasure.Chapter Five conducted a case study of two writer Wang Fu and Huang Boyao who were both productive but less studied among other writers of the Guangdong and Hong Kong novels in late Qing dynasty.Their novels and general features were discussed in this chapter.The conclusion part summarized the geographic features and historical significance of Guangdong and Hong Kong novels in late Qing dynasty.Two main features of such novels are that thoughts reflected in such novels were mainly to promote anti-Manchuism revolution and the novels mainly focused on Guangdongese people and their activities.The reasons for such features are that most of such novel writers were originally active revolutionists themselves,and most of the writers were Guangdongese people.From the historical perspective,the Guangdong and Hong Kong novels in late Qing dynasty interacted with novels at the same period in other regions and contributed to the prosperity of Chinese novels in late Qing dynasty,which further generated great influence on Chinese novel writing in south China sea region(Nanyang)in late Qing dynasty.Secondly,late Qing dynasty was recognized as a new climax of the Guangdong and Hong Kong novels writing.The prosperity of novels writing tradition is of positive and long-standing significance to the later creation of the novel in Guangdong and Hong Kong region.The appendixes are detailed recordings of the literature of novels and writers in Guangdong and Hong Kong in late Qing dynasty,which forms the foundation for this thesis.There are five parts in the appendixes: a brief list of newspapers and magazines which published Guangdong and Hong Kong novels in late Qing dynasty,statistics of the newspapers and magazines and the Guangdong and Hong Kong novels they published in late Qing dynasty,publishing houses which published Guangdong and Hong Kong novels in separate editions and the novels published,profiles of Guangdong and Hong Kong writers in late Qing dynasty,introduction of Guangdong and Hong Kong novels in late Qing dynasty.