Paper short abstract:

This article aims at investigating two distinct literacy practices, basing on a study of area history in China: one endeavors to represent local people, the other to produce nationalistic ideologies. It especially looks into the role of circulation leading to diversified historical narratives.

Paper long abstract:

China has experienced great political and social transitions in the first half of the 20th century, which have deeply influenced modern nationalistic ideology. This article endeavors to examine two literacy practices in Xiangxi which brought about considerate influences on the historical interpretations of local images.

The first is an analysis of literary works of a Chinese writer, Shen Congwen, which indexes a purified peasantry morality through his literary style in which the voices of local people are believed to be presented. The role of literary texts is examined as interventions in broader cultural and ideological dynamics, which, through circulation, generating power on cirtain historical images. The popularity and vicissitude of Shen's works during the 20th century also implied the change of attitudes towards the positive locality implicated.

The second study is an examination of local historical archives in Early Modern Period and their circulation. Through reading the national and local propaganda, one can see these archives as efforts of advocating local educational experience and equaling it as an image of pioneer educational system which may well fit into the Chinese nationalism in Early Modern Period; the local image in relation, however, is contrary to Shen's ideology of positive locality.

Two parallel analyses here exemplify the diversified historical narratives, which base on the special structure of Chinese society. Both the writer Shen Congwen and clerks documenting local archives were analyzed to describe this structure, which, through circulation process, lead to different patterns of creating locality.