Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.4, 2021

A Century-Long Travel of the Concept of “Type” in Modern China: An Example of the Localization of a Foreign Theory

(Abstract)

Wang Yichuan

The concept of “type”（Dianxing） in modern Western literary theory has been introduced into China since the May Fourth period. It has gone through five stages of development, namely, periods of transition, formation, finalization, variation and re-construction. It has become one of the core categories of China’s mainstream literary theory and criticism system. The flourishing of the concept of “type” in modern China was because of, first, an urgent need to grasp the creation of new types of characters, represented by those in Lu Xun’s works; and second, the timely importation of the powerful Western theory of “type.” At the same time, “character” (xingge) and other related theories in classical Chinese fiction criticism provided an unconscious foundation for modern Chinese writers to accept the Western theory of type.