On the edge of the orient: english representations of Japan, circa 1895–1910
On the edge of the orient: english representations of Japan, circa 1895–1910
复制标题
在东方的边缘：日本的英语表述，约 1895 年至 1910 年
DOI：
10.1080/10371399908727675
复制
发表时间：
1999
期刊：
影响因子：
0.5
通讯作者：
P. L. Pham
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
P. L. Pham
日本人不是本地人，也不是老爷……[1]鲁德亚德·吉卜林的话表达了世纪之交人们普遍感到的一个问题：应该把日本放在哪里？1902年与英国正式结盟，1905年战胜俄罗斯帝国，日本被公认为世纪早期的“大国”之一。尽管日本被接纳为西方国家的友好伙伴，但它仍然坚决地置身于“西方”之外。日本的特殊地位给它的外部观察者带来了一个特殊的问题。日本既不是完全的东方，也不是完全的西方，既不是东方也不是西方，既不是本土也不是亚萨希布，它挑战了帝国主义世界观的共同范畴。爱德华·赛义德在他现在的经典著作《东方主义》中描述了这种世界观。[2]赛义德认为，西方话语中那些否定“东方”的表征和知识体系，将其构建为西方统治的对象。通过将“东方”构成“西方”的对立面和“他者”，通过将其定义为落后的，仰卧的，可塑的，东方主义成为帝国创建的文化附属品。在萨义德之后，这一理论被广泛应用于欧洲帝国主义（尽管主要是英国帝国主义）的历史。大量的学术研究已经证明，对非西方“他者”的代表和研究是如何参与殖民主义计划的。然而，很少有人考虑过一个被称为“东方”的国家所带来的问题，然而，西方的权力和特权的一方--在没有政治统治的情况下，“东方主义”的命题如何成立的问题;换句话说，日本的问题。在世纪之交，日本在非“西方”、“东方”国家中享有独特的地位。在非“西方”国家中，日本几乎是独一无二的，它既不是殖民地，也不是殖民扩张主义者贪婪目光的猎物。在过去的几十年里，一些西方列强成功地从日本手中夺取了贸易特权和治外法权，但到了19世纪90年代中期，日本成功地取消了这些权利。[3] 1895年战胜庞大但摇摇欲坠的中华帝国，1905年战胜俄罗斯帝国，使其成为“大国”之一。随着1902年与英国正式结盟，在“帝国时代”的高峰时期，西方和非西方大国之间没有比英国和日本之间更密切和平等的关系。4
'The Japanese isn't a native, and he isn't a sahib either...'1 Rudyard Kipling's remark expressed a problem commonly felt at the turn of the century: where should one place Japan? In formal alliance with Great Britain from 1902, victorious over the Russian Empire in 1905, Japan had been recognised as one of the'Great Powers' by early into the 20th century. Although admitted into this pleasant comity of Western nations, Japan nevertheless remained decidedly outside the'West'. The exceptional position of Japan posed a peculiar problem to its external observers. Neither fully Oriental nor Occidental, neither Eastern nor Western, not a native nor asahib, Japan challenged the common categories of an imperialist world view. This world view has been described by Edward Said in his now classic work Orientalism. 2 Those systems of representation and knowledge in Western discourse which denned the'Orient', Said argued, constructed it as an object of Western domination. By constituting the'Orient'as opposite and'Other'to the'West', by defining it as backward, as supine, as malleable, Orientalism served as cultural adjunct to the creation of empire. In Said's wake, this thesis has been widely applied across the history of European—though mostly British—imperialism. An enormous body of scholarship has come to demonstrate how the representation and study of non-Western'Others' was complicit in the project of colonialism. Few, however, have considered the problems posed by a country designated'Oriental', yet party to the power and privileges of the West—the question of how the thesis of'Orientalism'might hold in the absence of political domination; in other words, the question of Japan. Around the turn of the century, Japan enjoyed a status unique amongst non-'Western','Oriental'countries. Almost alone amongst non-'Western'countries, Japan was neither a colony nor prey to the greedy eye of colonial expansionists. While a number of Western powers had succeeded in extracting trading privileges and extra-territorial rights from Japan in previous decades, by the mid-1890s the country was succeeding in having these rights rescinded. 3 Its victories over the immense but faltering Chinese Empire in 1895, and over the Russian Empire in 1905 led to its achieving the status of one of the'Great Powers'. With the establishing of a formal alliance with Great Britain from 1902, there existed no closer and more equal relationship between a Western and non-Western power at this moment, the height of the'Age of Empire', than that between Britain and Japan. 4