Frontiers of Literary Studies in China >

2012 , Vol. 6 >Issue 4: 553 - 569

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3868/s010-001-012-0032-2

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The Spread of Cosmopolitanism in China and Lu Xun’s Understanding of the “World Citizen”

  • Fugui Zhang , 1 ,
  • Chuangong Ren , 2
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  • 1. Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
  • 2. Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China

Published date: 05 Dec 2012

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2014 Higher Education Press and Brill
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Abstract

The concept of World Citizen was not introduced to China by Lu Xun, but it is an important term in his thought. The most obvious difference between Lu Xun and other cultural pioneers during the May Fourth period is that rather than understanding and promoting cosmopolitanism as a social or systematic phenomenon, he was mainly interested in human nature and therefore attempted to formulate the concept of World Citizen in terms of a humanistic or spiritual dimension. In so doing, he profoundly expressed an ideological appeal for the significance of the human consciousness, understood within its historical context. This particular conception of cosmopolitanism is symbolically valuable and relevant to the present ideological reality.

Key words： Lu Xun; cosmopolitanism; World Citizen; Chinese; modern transformation

Cite this article

Fugui Zhang , Chuangong Ren . The Spread of Cosmopolitanism in China and Lu Xun’s Understanding of the “World Citizen”[J]. Frontiers of Literary Studies in China, 2012 , 6(4) : 553 -569 . DOI: 10.3868/s010-001-012-0032-2

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