1920-30년대 중국의 서적 광고와 청년계층의 독서 양상 — 『生活』 週刊의 서적 광고를 중심으로

Abstract

This study examines the reading patterns of Chinese youths in the 1920s and 30s from the perspective of popularization of modern knowledge and the formation of modern sensibility through book advertisements during Life weekly. In the 1920s and 1930s, China’s readership class can be said to be the middle class, centered on male office workers in their 20s and 30s, who were newly formed in the southeastern coastal region centered on Shanghai. Their reading patterns were analyzed from two aspects. One is the social science-related books such as Introduction to Social Philosophy, Reinforcement of Socialism, Soviet Impression, etc. in the advertisement contents of social science books analyzed in the aspect of popularization of modern knowledge. This can be seen as a way for the reader to find an alternative to the capitalist way of life as a way of coping with the circumstances of the time, and this demand can be seen as playing an important role in achieving the popularization of modern knowledge. On the other hand, the books of New Life Publishing house are new historically reconstructed and theoretically systematized books of the Three Peoplesism and Chinese society and history from a Marxist perspective. These books can provide theoretical and ideological support on how to view Chinese society from the point of view of elite readers. The other is an analysis of literary advertisements in Life bookstores in terms of the formation of modern sensibility. At this time, the lives of the urban middle class, who were the only masses in China, were unstable in the reality of a capitalist society, so their desire and anxiety for life were expressed as they expanded into the public realm through modern novels. The modern sensibility popularized through double love novels and literary novels can be said to be a kind of desire for success (rising) and anxiety about failure (frustration). It can be said that it played a role in temporarily relieving anxiety and anxiety. In particular, romance novels played a role in resolving the gap between the ideal and reality of love, love, and marriage as a kind of romantic fantasy, which is one of the important elements of modern popular literature.