BOOKSTORES OF SINGAPORE AND LITERARY ARTS FROM HONGKONG: WENYI SHIJI (1957-1969)’S CONSTRUCTION OF NATIONAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITIES

Abstract

This thesis conducted a case study on Wenyi Shiji, a left-leaning literary periodical published in Hong Kong from 1957 to 1969. Its 12 years of publication with few delays marked it to be one of the earliest and most persistent literary periodicals in Hong Kong’s left-wing field of literature. As a publishing platform for editors and left-wing writers, Wenyi Shiji targeted overseas readers, attempting to construct a China-oriented cultural identity. On the other hand, its Qingnian Wenyi Zhuanye (Youth Literature Section) dedicated to young writers from overseas (places including Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Malaya (Malaysia) and Indonesia), showed that this regional heterogeneity actually brought about even more complex national and cultural identities. This periodical could serve as a perspective for us to observe and reconstruct a transregional literary landscape in the 50s and 60s. Furthermore, it could allow us to take a closer look on topics such as the corresponding relationship between literary publishing and overseas Chinese social state and ethnic identity, anti-colonial discourse, and the complexity of national identity in the left-wing literary publications during the Cultural Cold War.