“Local Ups and Downs” and the Language Movement in China in the 20th Century—— Centered on Mao Dun’s Dialect View and Its Evolution

Mao Dun’s views on dialects and their evolution are closely related to the language movement in 20th century China.His views on dialects show a closeness or rejection of “places”,reflecting the different choices of a generation of intellectuals in the era of great changes and the differences in their ways of imagining China.On the one hand,from a macro perspective,the “place” in Mao Dun’s dialect view has gone through a process of ups and downs from advocating dialects to abandoning dialects,demonstrating the norms of the spirit of the times and the formation process of modern nation-states.On the other hand,from the analysis of micro details and internal motivations,the friction between “locality” and “imagined community” in Mao Dun’s dialect view constructs the complexity and multiplicity of the proposition of “locality” in the history of modern and contemporary Chinese literature,becoming a traceable cause and clue in the debate between “dialect and local language” and “locality”.In addition,the attention paid to the differences between the dialects of the north and the south and the praise of the language strategy of “impure Mandarin” in Maodun’s dialect view are related to the dialect writing craze and the debate on dialect issues since the new century,and form an effective cross-time dialogue.