From Ithaca to Beijing: Hu Shih's Peripheral Centrality

Abstract

"Hu Shih’s work undercuts any simplistic opposition between comparative or world literature and the study of a national tradition. For Hu, there was no question of abandoning Chinese traditions in order to adopt Western modes, or of creating a cosmopolitan alternative to nationalism. Instead, the European vernacular revolution provided a comparative perspective from which to serve China by revaluing the Chinese tradition itself...."