Home>RPG Students>Jiawen WU

After completing my undergraduate thesis on the films of Wong Kar-wai, I came to recognize that Nanyang, situated at the confluence of Eastern and Western civilizations, possesses a distinctive modernity. My research now concentrates on Nanyang literature and its associated cultural practices within the modern literature of the late Qing Dynasty and the May Fourth Period. I intend to use Xu Dishan’s writing and experiences as a case study, examining not only his work as a novelist but also his profound reflections on traditional Chinese civilization. Xu’s background in Nanyang prompted him to engage with the cultural foundations of both Eastern and Western civilizations—such as Confucianism, Taoism, and Christianity—resulting in a depiction of the self as an “individual” at this crossroad of cultures, illustrating the theme of “nothing to return to” in modernity. By exploring Xu Dishan’s and others’ experiences at this cultural juncture, I aim to reassess the concept of modernity within traditional Chinese civilization and examine it from a broader perspective. This includes reflecting on how modernity reshapes the relationship between community and individual identity.