Culture as history: envisioning change across and beyond 'eastern' and 'western' civilizations in the May Fourth era

摘要

This essay examines an influential debate that took place during China’sMay Fourthudera (circa 1915–1927) concerning the character of ‘‘Eastern’’ and ‘‘Western’’udcivilizations. In this debate, both moderates and radicals wrestle with a growingudawareness that cultures have not only a spatial existence but also a historical career,udwhich has encouraged the development of certain institutions and attitudes anduddiscouraged others. Spatial terms mark not only the places where knowledgeudcirculates, but also the particular pasts-and thus futures-toward which Chineseudthinkers align themselves. This way of figuring ‘‘East’’ and ‘‘West’’ enables MayudFourth thinkers to do more than sort civilizational characteristics into categories ofudthe inevitably universal and the irredeemably particular, as many commentatorsudhave assumed. It also facilitates the travel of cultural products and practices acrossudthe spatial as well as temporal boundaries originally seen to contain them.