The Modern Subject with Chinese Characteristics : The Chinese Assimilation of“ Social Class”

초록

Based on a historical examination of the intellectual and popular discourses onsocial class in early twentieth century China and also a trans-regional survey ofthe Korean and Japanese usages of the Chinese-character word, this paperexplores the sociopolitical context and characteristics of Chinese appropriation of“social class” (jieji ). This study focuses on the early period of its appropriation,that is, from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century before1949. This article examines representative writings on social class by Chen Duxiu,Li Dazhao, Sun Yat-sen, Cheng Fangwu, Guo Moruo and Mao Zedong. Byilluminating their different approaches to the concept, it tries to present a dynamicunderstanding of the class discourses in modern China and to answer thequestion of how the class discourse contributed to the particular way ofconstructing the modern subject in China. At the turn of the twentieth century, theancient political ideal of “great harmony” (Datong ) was replaced by “competition” and “survival” of the social evolution theory and then yielded to “contradiction”and “struggle” of the Marxist class theory. The modern Chinese discourses ofsocial class were never detached from political turmoil of revolution and war. Asseen in Mao’s historic article of “Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society”(1925), the urgent task of separating “enemy” from “friends” and “us” at thebattlefront, or more practically that of deciding whether to form the united frontwith the KMT, dominated the social class discourses. Confronting imperialistinvasions, Chinese intellectuals/activists also applied the notion of “classes” to theinternational context and Mao’s “New Democracy” (1940) almost finalized suchan approach. This study also approaches the “social class” in relation to therelevant notions of the modern times such as “self,” “society,” “nation” and“imperialism.”

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