The Study Of Chinese Overseas Students’ Literary Image In Twentieth Century Under The Cross-culture Context

Accompanied by the pain of modern Chinese society, Chinese overseas students had boarded the stage of history. They go overseas and wanted to seek some kinds of effective prescriptions to save the old China. At the same time, as an important force of society, those overseas students recorded their lives and spiritual worlds with their special life and emotional experiences, and the overseas students’literature had come up and developed after those activities. After hundreds years’development, the overseas students literature had been an important part of the modern Chinese literary history. It not only shows Chinese people the other different world, but also records the journey of China-foreign cultural exchange, and witnesses the develop progress of the Chinese modernization.Therefore, the overseas students’literature development progress can be divided into four stages:The first stage is the late Qing and early Min, which is the embryonic stage of overseas students’literature. The second stage is1920s-1930s, which is the flourishing stage. The third stage is1950s-1960s, which is the transitional stage, and the last stage is1980s-1990s, which is revival stage. This passage will choose some typical and classic overseas students’novels from every stage, and study the overseas students’ images; them conclude the features of each kind of images, and reveal the literary and social significance of them.The overseas students’images in the late Qing and early Min can be concluded into two kinds:one is western culture’s propagator, and the other kind is degenerate who is corrupt and incompetent. Even though both kinds of images are described in those overseas students’ literary works, the first kind is also the major image of overseas students. And the authors wanted to enlighten people by writing the second image, and also showed their discontent and irony to the whole society. The overseas students’images in the1920s to1930s can also be concluded into two kinds:one is seeking loner, and the other is sanctimonious hypocrite. Although overseas students’images are divided to two kinds just like the first stage, they have many differences. The positive image of the first stage is more confidence and optimistic, and they find some chances to do right things to save the old China. However, those positive images in the second stage cannot have chances to contribute to society, and they also had to put up with foreigners’discrimination, so they became a kind of seeking loner. The negative images in both stages are used to enlighten people, but the second stage’s negative images contained the authors’suspicion and confession to western culture, which make it more profound and meaningful.The overseas students’literature in1950s to1960s are mainly in Taiwan, and its overseas students’images almost show the same features, which can be concluded to wanderers who didn’t have roots. The reasons why this kind of images come up is that many overseas students had been through two times of moving, one is from Chinese Mainland to Taiwan, and the other is from Taiwan to foreign countries. These two moving made they cannot find their real homeland, and the collision of Chinese and western culture also made them can’t integrated into the western society. At last, they had to become the lonely wanderers.The overseas students’ literature in1980s to1990s has to be divided into two phases:in1980s, the images are presented as marginal men who are squeezed by heterogenic culture. Those overseas students had just experienced the Great Cultural Revolution, they went abroad for the first time with such memories, and they felt different culture’s collision, which made them confused and anxious, so they became the marginal men. In1990s, the images can be concluded to open-mind international men, because people’s awareness of globalization in this phase had strengthened and they had identified with western culture. They had found a balance between the two cultures, and they held a more inclusive attitude to the western culture’s influences. They began to think and live as international men, and made contributions to China-foreign cultural communications.The overseas students’ images has changed a lot, and it change from western culture’s propagator to seeking loner, then to wanderer, at last to open-mind international man. From those image changes, we can smell the new times of the overseas students’literature. And we can also find that the Chinese literature’s development, which is from conservative to open. And at the same time, those image changes also show the spiritual changing path of those overseas students, who were under the transformation of times and cross-cultural context. The new period’s works described more about the overseas students’nature and mentality, which can show its modern value and social meaning.The overseas students’ literature has its social educational functions just as other kinds of literatures, but its contributions to China-foreign cultural exchange are very remarkable, which cannot be surpassed by others. The world today is going to become a pattern of globalization, and many kinds of cultures mingle and join in it, more and more people choose to go overseas, becoming the new generation of overseas students. Without doubt, the overseas students’ literature will have a further development in this big trend, and continue contributing to China-foreign cultural exchange.