Acculturation and Border-Crossing in Manchukuo Literature

Manchukuo was a colonized state where heterogeneous cultures met, interacted, and collided. The region’s culture and literature formed amidst vexing moral and ethical dilemmas, while new vocabularies and theories were imported from Japan and Europe. Local intellectuals simultaneously felt stimulated and suppressed, while evincing strong desires to express themselves within a diverse colonial culture; their writings therefore reveal border-crossing characteristics. This chapter analyzes multiple entanglements formed amidst that colonial culture - between tradition and modernity, local and international influences, and support for and resistance against colonialism, to reveal the complex features of literary practices in Manchukuo.