浮城•鬼城•滅城：20世紀末以來華文小說中的城市想像

Abstract

本論文為一次「跨地域」研究，從「浮城」、「鬼城」和「滅城」三個城市意象，探討20世紀末以來香港、中國、台灣和新馬的華文小說，如何「彼此凝視，各有所思」，在世變之際，共用強烈憂患意識的文學想像，處理各自的內憂（現代化問題）外患（「中國」問題）。20世紀末以來，隨著冷戰逐漸結束，東亞和東南亞華人地區的政經局勢發生一大變化，如中國改革開放、台灣解嚴、香港百年回歸、新馬政府提倡「亞洲價值」（Asian values）、馬共解除武裝、中國崛起和台灣政黨輪替等。當華人世界紛紛響起開放、自由、和平、進步和統一的大聲響，各地華人小說家保持戒慎態度，以曖昧的、陰暗的、荒誕的小說敘事，檢視政經模式轉型過程中，對個體與集體所造成的衝擊，處理20世紀末以降華人特殊的空間感和身體感——漂浮感、侵入感和消失感。本文論述分三大部分： 第一部分的「浮城」，本文從香港西西、中國梁曉聲和新加坡希尼爾在20世紀80年代至90年代所提出「浮城」的小說景觀，觀察當中國向外開放並計劃收回香港，如何刺激三地作家作出各種「之間」的游移表述：殖民宗主國和祖國之間、資本主義和社會主義之間、中華文化和西化之間。本節特別強調三座「浮城」的關係：香港因九七回歸而成為「問題城市」，促動梁曉聲想像由社會主義至資本主義的「中國浮城」，以及希尼爾想像「孤島寡居」的「新加坡浮城」。 第二部分的「鬼城」，本文將討論21世紀初的中國崛起，如何讓香港和台灣女作家，把握住鬼魅的「邊緣性」和「排他性」特質，建構與中國保持距離的「鬼城」，分別回應「一國兩制」和「一個中國」的問題？如何讓中國和馬華作家，把握住鬼魅的「穿越性」，擬定「城/鄉」和「故鄉/原鄉」往返移動的「鬼城」敘事，各別引出「城包圍鄉」和華人離散的課題？ 第三部分的「滅城」，本文首先對華文小說中的「滅城」敘事，作一次跨界的鳥瞰，說明自20世紀末至21世紀初，各地如何藉由「滅城」想像，表達具有在地特色的憂患。其次，以兩個引爆「毀滅」幻想的時間點「1984」和「1989」為主題，思考中港「八0後」和台灣「七年級」作家，如何挪用「1984年」這象徵監控和威權的時間符號，處理他們成長期間政經變革的關鍵時刻？1989年的天安門事件、鄭南榕自焚事件和《合艾和平協議》簽署，如何讓中國、台灣和馬來西亞華人作家，想像注定敗亡、碩果僅存或失敗主義的「共和國」？

This thesis acts as a form of cross-regional research, using three city-related imageries: ‘Floating City’, ‘Ghost City’ and ‘City Destruction’, to discuss the way Sinophone literature from different areas, mainly Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, gaze upon each other and think in their own context. The selected texts fall on the late twentieth century, whereby these novels present a strong sense of urgency upon the occasion of generational alteration, to deal with their own internal worries (such as modernization) and external problems (such as their identity and ‘China’ problem). Since the late twentieth century, as the cold war had gradually ended, the geopolitical situation of the Chinese in East Asia and Southeast Asia had changed drastically, in the events of China’s ‘reform and opening’, Taiwan’s end of the martial law, and Hong Kong’s return after 100 years. Furthermore, the promotion of ‘Asian values’ by Singapore and Malaysia government, the disarmament of the Malayan Communist, the rise of China and the political party alternation in Taiwan, have played a major part in these changes too. As people in the Sinophone world had been advocating the values of openness, freedom, peace, progress and unity more and more actively, the sinophone writers however were more cautious, using ambivalent, dark or even absurd style in their narration, examining the individual and collective impact during the geopolitical transformation in the late twentieth century, and specifically deal with the unique sense of space and sense of body: floating, invasion and evanescence. The first part, ‘Floating City’, plans to discuss the ‘floating city’ novel landscape presented by three novels from different areas, written by XiXi from Hong Kong, Liang Xiao-sheng from China, and Chia Hwee-pheng (Xi Ni Er) from Singapore, to observe the way writers were stimulated to make wavering 'in-between' expressions, when China opens up and plans to regain Hong Kong territory: between the colonial sovereign state and the motherland, between capitalism and socialism, between Chinese culture and westernization. This chapter emphasizes on the relationship between three ‘floating cities’: Hong Kong were marginalized as ‘Problem City’ because of its identity crisis during the reunification, which spurs Liang Xiao-sheng to imagine a ‘Chinese Floating City’ that transits from socialism to capitalism state, and in turn affects Neil to visualize a ‘lonely island’ of a ‘Singapore Floating City’. The second part focuses on ‘Ghost City’. With the rise of China during the twenty-first century, Hong Kong and Taiwan female writers has managed to grasp on the marginal and exclusive traits of ‘ghost writing’, built a ‘ghost city’ in their literature that kept distance from China, to act as a response of the problems within ‘one country, two systems’ and ‘One China’ policy. This chapter also shows that Chinese and Malaysian writers has managed to seize on the ‘crossing’ traits in ‘ghost writing’, to discuss the flow between urban and rural areas, and also between homeland and hometown, to give rise to the topic on ‘city surrounding the rural’ and also Chinese diaspora issues. The third part, ‘City Destruction’, will first describe how different region present the ‘destruction’ image in their own novels from the late twentieth century to the early twenty-first century, to display their concern and uncertainty in their local context. Next, this chapter emphasizes on the year ‘1984’ and ‘1989’, which both signifies destruction in various areas. 1984 acts as the Orwellian symbol that signifies monitoring and authoritarian, to be used to discuss how the ‘Eighties’ generation in China and Hong Kong, and the ‘Seventh Grade’ writers in Taiwan handle their own ‘crucial moment’, as they witness the drastic changes in the political and economic aspect in their society that accompany their lives throughout these years. The major events in 1989, such as Tiananmen Square incident, the self-ignition by Cheng Nan-jung, and the signing of Peace Agreement of Hat Yai, had also incited a series of imagination by writers from China, Taiwan and Malaysia, to recreate a virtual republic that is doomed to fail.