形構「女界」：從《中國新女界雜誌》論晚清女性國族主義

Abstract

新的知識分子在甲午戰敗、維新變法失敗等國族危機中企圖建構新詞、挪用西洋思想，以求理解中國所走向的新的近代世界，並改變中國社會現況。在此背景下，《中國新女界雜誌》與其他以國族為主的晚清婦女報刊，其女權觀被視為附屬於當時的國族運動，並被認為它們盲目地跟隨男性知識分子，主張中國走向近代世界的必要性。是故，女權倡議與女性本身並不相關。 本文在探討國族運動與女權運動之間相互作用時，強調女性知識分子的角度，運用「女性國族主義」的視角重新解讀燕斌女士（1869–1931?）1907年創辦的《中國新女界雜誌》，思考女性作者如何不僅將其女權倡議指向國族主義，亦能夠挪用此國族傾向來合理化女權的爭取，進而自我賦予女權。筆者發現，作為新詞的「女界」在《中國新女界雜誌》中恰恰正是「女性國族主義」的展現。由於「界」當時帶有「合群」、「競爭」等國族內涵，燕斌刻意將「女」與「界」相結合，進而形構想像的女性共同體——「女界」，藉由蘊含國族與女權論述的「女界」表達其雙重目標：其一，提昇中國在當時世界各國秩序中的位置；其二，敦促中國女性走向文明，迎頭趕上他國女界及男界，並爭取男女兩性平等。 儘管「中國女界」包含所有中國女性，燕斌以是否受（新）教育之界限，將「中國女界」中的女性區分為兩種不同女性群體：受過新教育、已開明的女性作者，以及未受新教育、非開明的「女同胞」。由此分別，《中國新女界雜誌》能夠闡明兩方對於振興「女界」的義務：女性作者必須將關於女權的西洋「新學說」輸入給中國女性；女同胞則被期待共結為一體，進而加強女權運動的動力。然而，由於這個想像出來的「中國女界」一直以來仍然處於「黑暗」之中，燕斌將「中國女界」分成為「留日女界」與「國內女界」。「留日女界」透過其對於他國的觀察，能夠挑選適合應用在中國的新的西洋思想，並決定「中國女界」仍須依賴何種舊的本土元素。筆者發現，此種「選擇性」使「留日女界」不僅持有女權運動的話語權，並可自己發明中國本土女權主義，進而敦促中國女性轉變為新女界分子。

A new class of intellectuals emerged in the late Qing period within the contexts of the Qing dynasty’s defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War and the failure of the Hundred Days of Reform. Faced with a nationalist crisis, these intellectuals began constructing neologisms and appropriating Western thought in attempts to engage with the modern world that China sought to enter, and thus, transform Chinese society. Within this context, appeals for women’s rights found within Zhongguo xin nüjie zazhi 中國新女界雜誌 and other nationalist-leaning women’s magazines have been mostly viewed as being subordinate to the nationalist movement. In this way, these appeals blindly complied with those made by male intellectuals and merely advocated for the necessity of China to enter the modern world. In a word, appeals for women’s rights during the late Qing were unrelated to women’s issues. This thesis aims to emphasize female intellectual perspectives when discussing the relationship between the nationalist and women’s movements, and employs a “female nationalism” perspective to reconsider appeals for women’s rights in Yan Bin’s 燕斌 (1869–1931?) Zhongguo xin nüjie zazhi, published during 1907. This perspective encompasses how Chinese women writers not only orientated their claims for women’s rights with nationalism, but also appropriated this nationalist orientation to rationalize and justify their appeals, and ultimately, attempt to realize their idea of women’s rights. The author has discovered that the constructed neologism nüjie 女界 (women’s world) used throughout Zhongguo xin nüjie zazhi exhibits this “female nationalism.” Due to jie 界 (world) denoting “grouping,” “competition,” and other nationalist meanings, Yan Bin purposefully combined nü 女 (woman) and jie to construct an imagined women’s community—nüjie. Through this construction, Yan Bin was able to express the periodical’s two primary goals: improving China’s position within the evolutionary competition between nations, and also urging women to step into modern civilization and compete with the enlightened nüjie of other countries as well as nanjie 男界 (men’s world) to strive for equality. Although China’s nüjie was imagined to include all Chinese women, Yan Bin utilized (new) education as a means to demarcate women into two separate groups: the educated and enlightened women writers as well as the uneducated and unenlightened “female compatriots.” Through this distinction, Zhongguo xin nüjie zazhi elucidated the two groups’ responsibilities for the strengthening of nüjie. First, women writers required themselves to import new Western thought concerning women’s rights into China. Second, female compatriots were expected to “group” together, mobilizing for the women’s movement. However, due to China’s nüjie being trapped within the “darkness” of oppression, Yan Bin also split China’s nüjie into a “nüjie studying abroad in Japan” 留日女界 and a “domestic nüjie” 國內女界. Specifically, female students abroad were to observe foreign countries, and thus, select which elements of Western thought were suitable and which local Chinese features were needed to be retained to strengthen China’s nüjie. This thesis argues that this “selectivity” allowed these women writers to not only possess an authority over discourse, but personally develop a form of local feminism that could directly benefit Chinese women, which would encourage them to transform into enlightened members of nüjie.