Beijing Image In1930s: Through Literary Perspective

As an ancient capital for thousands of years, Beijing, with its long history, richculture and magnificent character, has attracted generations of men of letters. With thecontinuous influx of modern civilization around1930s, men of letters in Beijing haveinfluenced the formation of the city’s image through various activities such as startingpublications, holding art salons and creating literary works. According to theirindividual experience, the remaining charm of the ancient capital has been reproducedunder the city’s physical space in literary works. Meanwhile, with Beijing as aprototype and basis, many kinds of literary imaginations have been derived in theprocess of seeking “where is my hometown.” As a scholar puts it,“Beijing, as acultural community, has replaced the national and cultural position of rural China andbecome the spiritual hometown of Chinese men of letters. From the above perspective,Beijing is also a city in imagination, a city that exists in reality yet at the same time isbuilt to be a textual image by literature.”A large number of landscapes and folk customs of the ancient capital are directreflection of the city’s image in literary works and also the material basis forexchanges and dialogues between writers and the city. On such a basis, modernwriters have created lots of literary works which have established fundamental linksamong the city, writers and their works. That’s why we’ve seen landscapes andcultural customs of modern Beijing embodied in these works. For example, uniquebuildings such as the lofty Forbidden City, elegant courtyards and winding Hutongs;images of residents such as worldly petty bourgeois, broken-down banner offspring,poor people of the lower class like the rickshaw boy and extravagant and falseofficials of the upper class; human customs full of Beijing flavor such as special food,nifty Beijing words and slang, and different temple fairs, etc. Except the real Beijing, writers endeavor to shape in their literary works aBeijing in imagination. Such imaginary image can be mainly attributed to politicalinstability, the darkness of war as well as the sentimental feelings of literati. Throughsuch spiritual ballast and the Beijing in imagination, writers express their loneliness,lingered feelings about home or wishes for national revival. Therefore, Beijing hasbecome the desolate “battlefield” for “frontier poets”, the spiritual home for writers ofBeijing school, and the ideal urban countryside garden which stays close to thoughtsand pays attention to nature, culture, charm and the way of living for writersrepresented by Lin Yutang and Yu Dafu. All in all, Beijing bears more writers’spiritual pursuit of “Where is my hometown” in this aspect. Such image,complemented by the landscape and historical legacies of the ancient capital,constitutes the literary image of Beijing in1930s.