Linguistic Hybridity, Transnational Connectivity, and the Cultural Territorialization of Colonial Literature

Abstract

This chapter examines conceptualization and use of a hybrid Chinese language by a leading Manchukuo Chinese writer, Gu Ding (1914/1916–1964). This hybrid language references a type of vernacular Chinese, mixing elements of Japanese vocabulary and syntax, classical and local Chinese, and other linguistic elements from the Manchurian frontier into standard vernacular Chinese, resulting in a collage of different literary styles. By investigating Gu’s theory and practice of this experimental language, the chapter demonstrates how a transnational literary form shaped within the colonial frontier lent voice to a colonial writer’s political agenda for cultural survival, and the limits of this linguistic strategy under political domination. It therefore provides a new way to understand Chinese intellectuals’ collaboration with and resistance to the Japanese in the Manchukuo context.