把中國帶入世界：晚清華工敘事及其南方變奏

Abstract

「華工」是晚清小說反覆出現的主題與題材。隨著華工在全球多地屢遭排斥與虐待，清廷與文藝界開始將目光投向此群體。1905-1906年，中國商界與民間為敦促美國修訂乃至廢除排華條約而發起「抵制美貨運動」。在此風潮下，關於華工的作品應運而生，數量與影響俱增。阿英遂在《晚清小說史》（1937）中專章介紹，後又編纂《反美華工禁約文學集》（1962），輯錄相關文本。 相比其他晚清小說，晚清華工敘事有兩大特徵：一，海外場景與「中國人在海外」的視域；二，透過與社會運動的聯動，以及對西方文明的反思，積極介入世界。另外，華工敘事不僅由中國境內作者撰述，也可見於境外華文報刊——如新加坡《叻報》和澳洲《警東新報》——甚至歸國華僑亦有參與。這類境外與歸僑文本長期被晚清小說研究所忽略，卻在形式與旨趣上呈現出顯著的「南方變奏」。綜上，晚清華工敘事乃在「中國」與「世界」雙重介面的交錯互動中生成，並由此帶動敘事模式、空間建構、文化想像、情感認同、書寫位置等的變化。以「把中國帶入世界」為視角，本文旨在探析晚清華工敘事的「世界化」機制，並從四個層面展開論證： 一、世界看中國：華工敘事如何從「世界」視角形塑華工、打造中國？ 二、中國看世界：作者如何以華工為媒介，描摹西方新世界，揭示現代文明的陰影？ 三、「中國」如何「世界」：華工敘事如何與社會運動聯動，並反思、重構文明？ 四、世界中的複數「中國」：晚清境內、境外與歸僑位置下的敘事在華工與異國書寫上有何不同？ 上述探討旨在揭示晚清華工敘事的動態形構，包括「中國」與「世界」之間的往返牽引，以及跨境流動下的多重面貌。藉此亦嘗試為日後從世界視野重探中國近現代文學，提供可資參考的分析框架與研究進路。同時，引入境外文本亦期望衝擊偏重境內材料的晚清小說研究格局，並推前華文文學的時間起點，使之從晚清時期談起。

The theme of Chinese laborers recurs throughout late Qing fiction. As Chinese laborers faced repeated exclusion and abuse across the globe, both the Qing government and the literary world began to turn their attention to this group. In 1905–1906, in an effort to press the United States to revise or abolish the Chinese Exclusion Treaty, China’s commercial and civil sectors launched the Chinese Anti-American Boycott. Under this wave of activism, works concerning Chinese laborers emerged in significant numbers and with increasing influence. Consequently, A Ying 阿英 devoted a special chapter to this topic in A History of Late Qing Fiction 晚清小說史 (1937) and later compiled A Collection of Anti-American Chinese Exclusion Literature 反美華工禁約文學集 (1962), which gathered relevant texts. Compared with other late Qing fiction, the late Qing Chinese labor narrative displays two salient characteristics: First, it features overseas settings and a perspective on “Chinese abroad.” Second, through its interconnection with social movements and reflection on Western civilization, it actively engages with the world. Furthermore, this narrative was not only written by authors in China but also appeared in overseas Chinese-language newspapers—such as Singapore’s Lat Pau 叻報 and Australia’s Chinese Times 警東新報—and included contribution from returning Chinese migrants. These overseas and returnees texts, long neglected in the study of late Qing fiction, exhibit a distinct “southern variation” in both form and intent. In sum, the late Qing Chinese labor narrative emerged at the intersecting interfaces of “China” and the “world,” prompting transformations in narrative modes, spatial constructions, cultural imaginaries, affective identifications, and writing positions. Examining this process through the lens of “bringing China into the world,” this dissertation investigates the “worlding” mechanism within this narrative from four perspectives: 1. The world looking at China: How does the narrative shape the figure of the Chinese laborer and build the image of China from a “world” perspective? 2. China looking at the world: How does the narrative employ the laborer as a medium to depict the Western “new world” and reveal the ills of modern civilization? 3. How “China” worlds itself: How does the narrative interact with social movements, and how does it reflect upon and reconstruct the notion of civilization? 4. Multiple “Chinas” in the world: How do texts produced in China, overseas, and by returnees differ in their representations of laborers and foreign lands? This study aims to uncover the dynamic formation of the late Qing Chinese labor narrative, including the reciprocal entanglements between “China” and the “world” as well as the multiple faces shaped by cross-border flows. It also seeks to offer an analytical framework and research approach for reexamining modern Chinese literature from a “world” perspective. By incorporating overseas texts, this study further challenges the field’s over-reliance on domestic sources and advances the starting point of Sinophone literature to the late Qing period.