Abstract:

This dissertation investigates the life and thought of Gu Hongming (1857-1928), a cosmopolitan scholar who became a premier exponent of Confucianism to the early twentieth century Western world. In contrast to traditional historiography that portrays Gu as an ultraconservative nationalist, I problematize his "Chinese" identity and reinterpret him as a diasporic and transnational figure, taking into account Gu's childhood experience in colonial Malaya and higher education in Victorian Britain. My dissertation focuses on two questions. First, how did Gu reconstruct an "authentic Chinese" identity when China was undergoing a transition from empire to nation-state? Second, how did he emerge as a representative of "the East" by reinterpreting and propagating Chinese culture to Western audiences in the post-World War I era?

Using Gu as a case study, my project further examines two transnational networks that I term "diasporic Chinese professionals" from Southeast Asia, and "spokesmen for the East" from China, Japan, India, and Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I draw on a wide variety of sources, including periodicals, government documents, school records, literary writings, and personal diaries from national and private archives in China, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and Scotland. These materials reveal the diverse experiences and hybrid identities of overseas Chinese and underscore the ambiguity of the concept of "Chineseness" during this transitional period.

Moreover, I highlight the roles played by Gu and other representatives of "the East" in transforming Western anti-modern discourse by incorporating anti-Orientalist critiques. The irony is that these same intellectuals could not escape the very Orientalist paradigms that they opposed, given the rootedness of their thinking in Western conventions. My dissertation thus provides a concrete example of how intellectuals from "the East" struggled in a problematic relationship with Western cultural traditions and contemporary trends.

I propose a new framework that brings diasporic and cosmopolitan scholars back into the center of modern Chinese history. Through highlighting the multivalent values and hybrid identities of these "cultural amphibians," I not only challenge some prevailing dichotomies such as "Chinese versus Western" and "traditional versus modern," but also expand the scope of the field of Chinese cultural history.