新加坡报刊小说的政治工具性转向以《中兴日报》与《南洋总汇新报》的论战为中心 The Turn toward Political Instrumentality in Singapore Newspaper Novels: Centering on the Polemics between Chong Shing Yit Pao and Nanyang Zonghui Xinbao

摘要： 本文以1907-1911年新加坡《中兴日报》与《南洋总汇新报》的论战为切入点，探讨论战如何影响此时期报刊小说的创作，使其沦为政治斗争的直接武器。在革命党与保皇党的激烈论战中，两报刊登的小说呈现出鲜明的“政治工具性”特征：《中兴日报》通过《想入非非》《保皇党真哭》等作品对保皇党展开攻势，对其“乞开国会”“妄图立宪”进行嘲讽，以寓言体等形式嘲讽立宪运动；《南洋总汇新报》则以《大话报》《纪侦探申与堡事》等小说揭露革命党“敛财革命”的“真相”，对革命党人进行人格诋毁与腐败指控，予以激烈回击。这种将小说社会功用性推向极致的现象，是“小说界革命”在南洋的特殊回响，当中国大陆的小说已经从“开口见喉舌”转向通俗化时，新加坡因特殊的政治生态形成“滞后性繁荣”，成为政治小说最后的实验场。尽管此类小说艺术性薄弱，但其强烈的现实介入精神，为马华文学的现实主义传统埋下伏笔。 Abstract This article takes the polemics between Chong Shing Yit Pao and Nanyang Zonghui Xinbao in Singapore (1907–1911) as its point of departure, examining how these debates shaped the creation of newspaper fiction in the Singapore during this period and turned it into a direct weapon of political struggle. Amid the fierce confrontation between revolutionaries and monarchists, the serialized novels published in the two newspapers displayed a pronounced “political instrumentalism.” Chong Shing Yit Pao launched attacks on the monarchists through works such as “Xiang ru feifei” and “Baohuangdang zhen ku”, ridiculing their advocacy for “petitioning for a parliament” and their constitutionalist aspirations, often through allegorical forms. In response, Nanyang Zonghui Xinbao countered sharply with novels such as Dahua bao and Ji zhentan Shen yu Bao shi , which sought to expose the “truth” of the revolutionaries’ “fundraising revolution” while engaging in personal defamation and accusations of corruption. This extreme instrumentalization of fiction represented a distinctive echo of the “Revolution in the World of Fiction” in the Singapore. While fiction in mainland China was shifting from explicit political advocacy to popularization, the unique political ecology of the Singapore fostered a form of “belated prosperity,” making it the last experimental ground for political fiction. Despite their limited artistic value, such works embodied an intense spirit of social engagement, laying the groundwork for the realist tradition in Malayan Chinese literature.