The Advent of duanpian xiaoshuo: A Combination of Western Discourse and Chinese Legacy in the Early Definitions of the Modern Short Story

During the late Qing, a thriving transcultural interaction across China and the West determined a burgeoning cultural environment in which new forms of appreciation and critique contributed to the development of a new sense of literary modernity and new ways of conceiving and classifying literature (wen) distant from the “canon”. From the mid of XX century, in Chinese newspapers and magazines literature and leisure reading became a regular section. Shenbao was also one of the first papers which recognized the attractive power of literature and of the so called duanpian xiaoshuo 短篇小說 (Chen 2009, p. 117). In those years, Shenbao introduced new contents and form of reception that were already familiar to the Western audience but still unknown in China, which included serialized long novels, short stories and a prolific translation of Western fiction, acting as an incubator for a new sense of awareness toward literary innovations (Vance Yeh 2015, 175-6). As early as 1872, it had already published the first three short stories ever translated into Chinese: Tan ying xiaolu 談瀛小錄 (A Voyage to Lilliput from Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels), Yi shui qishi nian 一睡七十年 (Rip Wan Winkle from Irving’s The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon), and Naisuguo qiwen 乃蘇國奇聞 (Story of the Greek Slave from Marryat’s The Pacha of Many Tales) (Hanan 2005). Moreover, the first catalogue of literary works mentioning duanpian xiaoshuo was Shenbao Publishing House’s Shenbaoguan congshu 申報館叢書 (Collectanea of Shenbaoguan publication), which was published between 1860s and 1900 and included 203 books in 2,986 juan. Among those dedicated to fiction, there was the first formal distinction between short stories or novelettes and full length novels (Vance Yeh 2015, p. 199-200). Later, as a fiction genre, duanian xiaoshuo has been mentioned and described in several Chinese scholars and intellectuals’ theoretical works as one of the main branches of Chinese fiction. Among them we have Liang Qichao, Lu Xun and Hu Shi. Undoubtedly, in their words this literary genre was inherited from the ancient literary tradition of popular tales and short stories, but at the beginning of the 20th century the strong influence exerted by the newly introduced Western fiction, popularized by the means of the modern press, propagated new forms and methods of literary reception. As a new form of reading, enjoying literature and absorbing his moral messages, duanpian xiaoshuo contributed to shape a modern literary taste. Although at a more superficial sight, duanian xiaoshuo’s main features might be measured based on its length only, this article will try to demonstrate how it actually came out with a plurality of features formulated thanks to the contribution of the most outstanding intellectuals of that time. As for now, no study has focused on the emergence of the genre of duanpian xiaoshuo at the beginning of the 20th century, neither on its theorization, popularization and effects on the Chinese readership. Therefore, this paper will attempt to illustrate how, through the influence of western literature, the innovative initiative of the local printing industry and the original contribution provided by the perspective of Chinese literary theory, duanpian xiaoshuo affirmed as a new popular literary genre shaping from the mix of local tradition and foreign novelties.