从假洋鬼子到旗袍:中国近现代租界与被殖民文化的主体性

不同于赛义德后殖民理论突显西方殖民文化的话语霸权,普拉特“接触区”理论和霍米·巴巴“居间”空间理论都强调了被殖民文化的主体性与创造性。中国近现代租界就是中西方文化相互交流的“接触区”或“居间”空间。异质文化冲突有不同应对方式,暴力冲突是历史上常见的但并非唯一应对方式。假洋鬼子和旗袍作为租界新型混合性文化的产物,因其双重文化身份成为联结本土文化和西方文化的纽带,为中国本土文化社群所利用,以此强调自身的主体性和能动性。通过这种方式,中国本土文化社群将对西方文化的消极文化接受转换为对本土文化的积极文化输出,保持了自身的地位,从而在中西文化之间取得了微妙的平衡,其实质是非暴力的文化抵抗和温和的文化合作。这是中国文化在不平等跨文化交流实践中形成的应对策略,对于拓展后殖民理论和推动新世纪中国文化的健康发展,对于其他非西方后发展国家的文化建设提供“中国方案”,均具有某种范式意义。

From Fake Foreign Devil to Cheongsam: Chinese Concessions and the Subjectivity of Colonized Culture

Different from Edward Wadie Said''s postcolonial theory which highlighted the discourse hegemony of Western colonial culture, Mary Louise Pratt''s theory about contact zones and Homi K. Bhabha''s theory about "in-between" spaces emphasize the subjectivity and agency of colonized culture. Concessions in modern China are "in-between" spaces and contact zones of Chinese and Western cultures. There are different ways to deal with the conflict in the communication of heterogeneous cultures. Violence is a common yet fungible reaction in history. As the products of the new hybridity culture in concessions, fake foreign devils and cheongsam, for their dual cultural identities, have become the bond between Chinese local culture and Western culture and have been utilized by local cultural communities to emphasize their subjectivity and agency. By turning a negative cultural acceptance into a positive cultural output, local cultural communities consolidated their status and achieved a delicate balance between compromise and resistance. Essentially, it is a nonviolent cultural resistance and gentle cooperation. This is a coping strategy of Chinese culture formed in the practice of unequal cross-cultural communication, which is of paradigmatic significance for the development of post-colonial theory and Chinese culture in the new century.