IAH 204 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Vernacular Literature, May Fourth Movement
15 Jul 2019
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White lotus(qing"s army reputation ruined b/c they claimed they were invincible but lost) & the opium war(when china signed nanjing treaty and opens ports which begins foreign trade), the qing court was unable to cope with the historical crisis. China wasn"t an isolated country anymore, instead a nation of many. Began to write literature like the west. Use uplifting powers of fiction to change people"s spirit and reshape the world with new ideas, western fictions. Intellectuals started translating foreign works on science, politics, and literature. "dickens took pains to select some long-standing defects of society present among the lower classes and dramatize them in novels, so that government would find out about them and put them right" People w/ lots of money use their power to abuse the poor. The wealthy steal because they think they are better. Not limited to just china but the whole world.
