Chinese translations of Korean writing in Manchukuo: Reading beyond Chang Hyŏkju

Abstract The Korean writer Chang Hyŏkju, who first rose to fame in 1930s Tokyo, sparked interest, translation, critique, and controversy among intellectuals throughout East Asia. Recent scholarship has conducted comparative studies of the perception of Chang Hyŏkju in Japan, Taiwan, Shanghai, and his native Korea, respectively. The present study brings one more dimension to research on Chang by discussing Chinese translations of his works that appeared in the puppet state Manchukuo (1931–1945). I place these texts in conversation with other local Chinese translations of Korean writing. Central to this story is a debate that surfaced among Chinese writers in Manchuria about what should constitute the literature of the region. Within this debate, the act of translating Korean writing became a space to work out the kinds of narratives that mattered, yet it was inexorably linked with the power struggles inherent to Manchukuo’s racial (dis)harmony as well. The texts discussed throughout this study reveal the value of Chinese and Korean textual exchange in Manchukuo and, by extension, how these intellectuals viewed the purpose of literature vis-à-vis modern nation-building. Such a reading allows for a nuanced understanding of the interplay between ethnic nationalism and cultural production. In the story told here, the Chinese and Korean ethnicities take on distinct political and cultural meanings depending on interlocutor and context, belying post-war narratives of inevitable ethno-nationalist triumph over the Japanese empire.