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2025 Vol. 8, No. 3

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From the Natural to the Instrumental: Chinese Theories of the Sounding Voice before the Modern Era
Judith T. Zeitlin
2025, 8(3): 5-25. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258301
Abstract:
The default maneuver in Chinese traditional writings, I argue, is to situate the human voice on a continuum with other sounds, rather than isolating it as a categorically separate phenomenon in its own right. My strategy in this chapter, therefore, is to trace the emergence of different models of the voice over time. There are two diametrically opposed approaches to the voice in canonical writings from early China（fifth century BCE to first century CE）: an expressive model found in Confucian statements on music and poetry and a physiological model found in the volume on acupuncture in The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon（黄帝内经）. I then locate a major turning point in court literature of the Six Dynasties（third to fifth centuries CE）, where a model of voice as a natural musical instrument is developed in several interesting directions, including the carnal voice, voice beyond language and voice as inherently musical. A Pedagogical Method for the Operatic Voice （乐府传声）by the Qing dynasty physician Xu Dachun advocates a modern, technical approach to training the voice as an idealized vehicle for repairing a fatal rupture between the musics of the past and present. In Xu’s view of opera, only two things are fixed and unchangeable: not melodies and rhythms, but the system of keys and modes and the need for mouthing methods. Only the soundproducing voice can bring the human microcosm into harmony with the order of the cosmos and human governance in harmony with the teachings of the sage-kings. And not just this. Only the trained operatic voice can realize this potentiality by perfecting the sounding instrument that all human beings innately possess.
[Abstract](18) [PDF 2101KB](2)
Special Issue: Sino-British Literary Exchange and World Literary Practices
World Literature as Reconstruction: Language Philosophy and Worldview in Xiaolu Guo’s Call Me Ishmaelle
Jane Qian Liu
2025, 8(3): 26-45. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258302
Abstract:
In the newly published novel Call Me Ishmaelle by the British-Chinese writer Xiaolu Guo, there is a clear homage to Moby Dick by the American novelist Herman Melville. At the same time, there is profound transformation and reconstruction on multiple levels. The narrator Ishmael becomes Ishmaelle who is female, and the story is told from a female perspective. Call Me Ishmaelle subverts the worldview of Moby Dick on multiple dimensions, including the symbolic meanings of the white whale, the relationship between gender and identity, race and power, and it subverts the Christian worldview of the latter with Daoism. The way this novel achieves such subversion is closely related to the features of Xiaolu Guo’s recent works, namely, the close interaction between language and worldview, and the importance she places in language in constructing the world. The conception of World Literature as “window on the world” focuses on the heterogeneity of the content of World Literature, particularly literary works from the third world. However, with increasing globalisation, many literary works demonstrate not only heterogeneity of content, but also that of language. Thanks to Xiaolu Guo’s attention to linguistic issues and linguistic experiments, her works provide new insights into theories of World Literature, foregrounding the significance of linguistic heterogeneity, both as opposition to and as bases for the heterogeneity of content, for World Literature. In contemporary World Literature, language is no longer the mere form of literature, but is closely linked to its content, ideas, and themes. Heterogeneous languages embody transcultural lived experiences and identities, hence reflecting and constructing the multidimensional world in which we live.
[Abstract](10) [PDF 2259KB](1)
Exploring the“Cosmopolitan”Innovation of Overseas Chinese Student“Autofiction”: On the Multi-dimensionalities of Lyu Xiaoyu’s Man Under the Water
Flair Donglai Shi
2025, 8(3): 46-66. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258303
Abstract:
Within the tradition of overseas Chinese student literature grounded in the autobiographical style, the protagonists’anxiety over their national-racial identity and their political concern for the motherland in crisis often sit at the centre of the whole narrative. Scholar-writer Lyu Xiaoyu’s debut novel, Man Under the Water, published in 2023, blends elements of fiction and nonfiction to portray the protagonist L as an atypical Chinese international student. More importantly, it depicts an Oxford “community” composed of students from diverse national backgrounds. Through the multi-perspective narratives of this international ensemble, the novel signals a complete shift from the traditional focus on national-racial anxiety in Chinese overseas student literature. Employing firstperson narration throughout multiple contexts featuring memories from imaginary futures, Man Under the Water constantly shifts between the perspectives of the narrator “I,” L, and L’s friends, reiterating —through the overlapping identities of the author Lyu Xiaoyu, the narrator “I,” and the character L—the possibility of understanding the Other and the necessary pursuit of cosmopolitanism.This paper situates the novel within the context of Chinese overseas student literature, with a particular focus on the dialectical tension between its “autofictional” characteristics and its cosmopolitan orientation. By analysing the novel’s textual effects across three dimensions, namely character choices, narrative voices, and linguistic style, the author aims to explain why many readers perceive the book as “narcissistic” and highlight how this attribute of “narcissism” exposes the paradigmatic predicament contemporary Chinese transcultural writing tends to be caught in. While affirming the innovativeness of Man Under the Water in both its narrative forms and thematic concerns, this paper also points out certain limitations in its textual effects. It concludes with the hope that different interpretive modes and receptive horizons may arise from the translation of a new wave of Chinese transcultural writing led by a younger generation of cosmopolitan writers like Lyu.
[Abstract](8) [PDF 1860KB](1)
Creating Chinatown: Three Cultural Paradigms in Burke’s “Limehouse Nights”Stories
ZHANG Hongliang
2025, 8(3): 67-80. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258304
Abstract:
In late 19th and early 20th-century British popular literature, the rhetoric of “Yellow Peril” and Sinophobia was prevalent, portraying China as a barbaric and dangerous entity. However, with the outbreak of World War I, British intellectuals began to actively study and borrow from the spiritual essence of classical Chinese culture, leading to a fascination and admiration for China. Positioned between these two contrasting literary trends, Thomas Burke, through his writings on London’s Limehouse Chinatown, embraced multiple cultural influences, resulting in novels that exhibit a fusion of cultures. Burke’s short story collections “Limehouse Nights” and “More Limehouse Nights” present three cultural paradigms: firstly, Burke absorbs and reconfigures the aesthetic heritage of the 18th-century “Chinoiserie” ; secondly, influenced by popular culture elements such as melodrama and the working-class struggle for cultural hegemony, Burke integrates urban melodrama and slum romance narrative elements into his “Limehouse Nights” stories; thirdly, traditional Chinese cultural elements such as ancient folk tales, ethics, and aesthetic techniques also influenced Burke’s later Limehouse writings.
[Abstract](8) [PDF 1743KB](0)
Invisible Twins: The British SF Boom and the Chinese SF New Wave
LYU Guangzhao
2025, 8(3): 81-100. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258305
Abstract:
Since the late 1980s, simultaneous science fiction movements have emerged in both China and the UK, known as the “British SF Boom” and the “Chinese SF New Wave,” yet they remained almost invisible to each other. This article examines their political and economic backgrounds, arguing that the British SF Boom offered a “political high ground” for left-wing intellectuals during the UK’s neoliberal transformation, making post-Thatcherite or even postcapitalist utopias possible. Meanwhile, in China, the 1980s’ “top-down” elitist discourse lost appeal in the 1990s, replaced by a “bottom-up” mass culture driven by the socialist market economy, giving rise to the Chinese SF New Wave. Although the booms did not influence each other directly, they are connected to the late 20th-century global political and economic changes, and in this way develop a poetics and historiography of science fiction based on “local” experiences in understanding “world science fiction.”
[Abstract](12) [PDF 1912KB](2)
Magic，Milarepa and Nirvana: Iris Murdoch’s Rewriting of Tibetan Buddhism in The Sea，the Sea
YUE Jianfeng
2025, 8(3): 101-119. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258306
Abstract:
Iris Murdoch holds lifelong interest in Tibetan Buddhism, which has been elaborated and explored in the author’s Booker Prize-winning novel the Sea, The Sea. The novel is replete with elements of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly when the protagonist James Arrowby, a Tibetan Buddhist, frequently performs magic spells and names a Sherpa guide Milarepa after the revered figure of the Kagyu school. Ultimately, James departs in a manner reminiscent of “nirvana,” leaving behind a series of unresolved discussions about Tibetan Buddhism: First off, why James, the Tibetan Buddhist practitioner, failed in most of his magical practices？ Next, why James named sherpa the guide after Milarepa, the esteemed saint from Kagyu clan of Tibetan Buddhism？ Furthermore, as James made his exit in a mystical manner, the final question is whether James was really dead or not. The article rivets on “magic,” “Milarepa” and “nirvana,” three key Tibetan Buddhist symbols in the fiction, tracks the origins from where Murdoch has obtained such inspirations, and eventually, to re-demonstrate how Murdoch subtly rewrites aforementioned symbols. Unveiling rewritings and untold motivations, the study not only reveals Murdoch’s attitudes upon Tibetan Buddhism and Tibet, but also her moral-philosophical stance. This paper explores the themes of “magic,” “Milarepa,” and “nirvana” in The Sea, the Sea, re-envisioning the sources underlying the author’s creative inspiration regarding Tibetan Buddhism and how she subtly and insightfully reinterprets these symbols. On one hand, Murdoch’s rewriting involves borrowing concepts from Tibetan Buddhism, such as the allure of “power” underpinning the act of “magic” and interpreting the concept of “fantasy” through the figure of “tulpa.” On the other hand, the rewriting process highlights the divergence between Murdoch’s moral philosophy and Tibetan Buddhist doctrines, including the distinction between “goodness” and religious “asceticism,” as well as the difference between “nirvana” and “void.” Not only do these rewrites reflect Murdoch’s attitude towards Tibetan Buddhism and Tibet, but they also evince the author’s moral and philosophical concerns through the motives behind her rewrites.
[Abstract](6) [PDF 1962KB](0)
From Report to Description: Translation of Dialogue Tags in“The Adventure of the Final Problem”and Its Reflection of the Change of Translation Norms，1897-1916
ZHANG Yuqing
2025, 8(3): 120-136. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258307
Abstract:
This paper examines the 1897 and 1916 Chinese translations of “The Adventure of the Final Problem,” with a particular focus on the rendering of dialogue tags. I argue that the translation of dialogue tags functions not only as a linguistic task, but also as a lens through which the evolving literary and cultural norms that informed translation practices in late Qing and early Republican China can be observed. Dialogue tags, often dismissed as peripheral or mechanical elements of narrative, in fact play essential roles in shaping characterisation and managing the plot progression. The choices that translators make in rendering these elements reveal broader assumptions about the role of translation in the target culture and the expectations of the target readership. Drawing on Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies（1995）, I undertake a close textual analysis of both translations. This analysis is further supported by an investigation of relevant extratexts, including prefaces, epilogues, and translators’notes. The 1897 translation tends to omit the descriptive elements embedded in dialogue tags, such as the portrayals of tones and psychological nuances. These omissions often result in a flattening of characterisation and a reduction of narrative complexities. This tendency evinces the prevailing translation practices of the 1890s, when Chinese translators enjoyed considerable freedom to rewrite the source texts and were often encouraged to prioritise the didactic function of foreign fiction over its literary qualities. By contrast, the 1916 translation represents more of the descriptive subtleties and narrative dynamics of Doyle’s work. This shift aligned with the move towards “literal translation” and the increasing recognition of the entertainment value of fiction in the 1910s. By tracing the way in which dialogue tags were rendered into Chinese over nearly two decades, this paper offers insights into the transformation of translation norms in late Qing and early Republican China, as well as the historical, social, and cultural dynamics that shaped the introduction and reception of foreign literature at the time.
[Abstract](6) [PDF 1833KB](0)
Reviving Modern Verse Drama: T. S. Eliot’s Dramatic Theory and Practice
LIN Chen
2025, 8(3): 137-149. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258308
Abstract:
At the beginning of the twentieth century, in response to the dominance of prose drama since the Romantic period, a movement to revive verse drama emerged in Western modernist literature. The revival was not merely a formal return but also part of modernism’s broader endeavor to renew language and redefine the essence of art. Among its leading figures were W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot. Yeats promoted verse drama primarily through theatrical practice, emphasizing the poetic power of performance, while Eliot sought to construct a systematic theoretical framework. Drawing on literary history, genre, and the nature of literature, Eliot argued for the feasibility and necessity of verse drama: first, that English literature preserved an unbroken tradition of verse drama; second, that poetry and drama are not opposites but complementary forms of artistic expression; and third, that verse drama, compared with prose drama, is better suited to achieve a heightened unity of language and emotion on stage. The sources of Eliot’s theory are manifold. It arose, first, from his critical response to contemporary theater, especially the limitations of prose drama in form and language. Second, he was influenced by ritualist theories of drama advanced by Cambridge anthropologists such as F. M. Cornford, Jane Ellen Harrison, and Gilbert Murray, which stressed the religious and communal dimensions of performance. Third, his views developed through his own creative experiments in poetry and drama, where practice informed theoretical reflection. Although Eliot’s experiments in verse drama did not win widespread critical recognition and often faced challenges in stage realization, they opened new directions for twentieth-century theater. His interventions helped break the long-standing dominance of prose drama and provided inspiration for later playwrights, thereby enriching the formal and thematic diversity of modernist theater.
[Abstract](9) [PDF 1805KB](0)
A Study on the Mythic Images of Li Yan’s Chinese-English Poetry in Brushstrokes
WANG Ling, XIAO Chunduan
2025, 8(3): 150-168. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258309
Abstract:
Mythic images are the unique Chinese cultural codes in the British Chinese, Li Yan’s Chinese-English poetry. This article mainly analyzes three typical Chinese mythic images in Li’s works published in Brushstrokes, a British Chinese bilingual literary magazine, i.e. the crow, the fish, and the dragoness. The essay elucidates their multi-cultural, social and historical implications, revealing the correlation between the poet’s creation of bilingual poetry, and British Chinese’ diasporic dilemma. It argues that, through these prehistoric Chinese mythic images, Li’s bilingual poetry records the diasporic state of silence, survival, and self-salvation of the British Chinese, and unmasks their past of being marginalized and discriminated as well as their diasporic life. Drawing inspiration from traditional Chinese myths, the article shows the poet’s identification with and active inheritance of traditional Chinese culture, and proves that traditional Chinese culture provides ideological guidance for overseas Chinese’s self-positioning in the diasporic dilemma. Meanwhile, by writing prehistoric Chinese mythic images into his bilingual poetry, not only does Li enrich the content and form of British Chinese diaspora poetry, but he also expresses contemporary British Chinese’s strong desire for the promotion of traditional Chinese culture overseas.
[Abstract](9) [PDF 1816KB](1)
Featured Articles
On the Theoretical Construction of Revolutionary Innovations in the Vietnamese Literary Forum at the Beginning of the 20th Century
NGO
2025, 8(3): 169-183. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258310
Abstract:
At the dawn of the 20th century, amidst social upheaval, Vietnamese literature underwent theoretical constructions marked by revolutions in poetry and fiction, signifying a profound collision and fusion of tradition and modernity. In the realm of poetry, literary figures like Phan Ke Binh and Pham Quynh delved into the aesthetics, functions, and forms of poetry, drawing from national traditions. By embracing French literature and Baudelaire’s theories, they facilitated the modern transformation of Vietnamese poetry, highlighting its diverse aesthetic values and realistic sensitivity. This laid the groundwork for the evolution of new poetry from 1932 to 1945. In the literary sphere, modern Vietnamese novels, as a nascent genre, incorporated traits from Western novels. Represented by Nguyen Trong Quan, these writers championed a creative approach centered on everyday language and genuine emotions, underscoring the social function of novels and their depiction of real life. Through critiquing traditional novels and studying modern Western novels, these innovations broke new ground in narrative style, character development, and language usage, gradually shaping the modern prototype of Vietnamese national language novels. Overall, theoretical innovations in both poetry and fiction circles propelled the transition of literature from tradition to modernity, effecting multi-level innovations in both content and form. This not only perpetuated Vietnam’s traditional literary legacy but also integrated and expanded global literature. The new literary endeavors of this era provided theoretical buttressing and practical momentum for the modernization of Vietnamese literature, establishing crucial foundations for the subsequent development of realism, revolutionary literature, and new poetry schools.
[Abstract](6) [PDF 1832KB](0)
Deconstruction and Affirmation: Anti-Heroic Writing in Faulkner’s Soldiers’Pay
LIANG Jiashang, LI Mengyu
2025, 8(3): 184-199. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258311
Abstract:
As William Faulkner’s first full-length novel, Soldiers’Pay focuses on the impact of World War I and explores themes such as war, trauma, which heroism, which stands as a significant contribution to the literature of the American “Lost Generation.” By depicting war, desire, and heroic ideals through a critical lens, Faulkner constructs a distinctive mode of anti-heroic writing. On the level of war narrative, the novel rewrites the Homeric motifs of “wandering” and “homecoming” found in the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey, creating an anti-heroic account of war. In comparison with Ulysses, another parodic reworking of The Odyssey, Faulkner’s understanding and redefinition of heroism are brought into sharp relief. In its treatment of desire, the novel offers a realistic and daring portrayal of soldiers’impulses, thereby dismantling the heroic ideal and showing that they possess no greater moral resolve than ordinary individuals. A comparative reading with The Sun Also Rises further illustrates Faulkner’s unique approach to the representation of sexuality. On the level of heroic values, the novel depicts the estrangement between civilians and soldiers, thereby exposing the external erosion of heroism. When placed alongside Hemingway’s fiction, Faulkner’ s dialectical reflection on war and heroism becomes particularly evident. As the starting point of Faulkner’s novelistic career, Soldiers’Pay lays a conceptual foundation for his enduring engagement with the themes of war, sexuality, and heroism—topics that would come to shape the thematic architecture of his broader literary corpus. In this novel, Faulkner deconstructs the traditional, externally constructed image of the hero and begins to reimagine heroism from within, forging a spiritual core that underlies his subsequent works.
[Abstract](8) [PDF 1827KB](1)
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