此时此地的现实： 马华文艺独特性论争与香港作家宋芝

The Reality of the Here and Now: The Mahua Literary Uniqueness Debate and Hong Kong Writer Song Zhi

Abstract

左翼马华文学界在 1947、48 年爆发一场持续半年的大论战，论战围绕在“马 华文艺独特性”和“侨民文艺”两个主题开展，论者一般认为，这是马来亚共产 党和中国民主同盟就中国革命和马来亚革命殊先殊次的问题，产生意见分歧所致。 论战两大主将与阵地是吉隆坡《战友报》和《民声报》的周容（另署金枝芒、乳 婴等）和星加坡《南侨日报》和《风下》杂志的沙平（胡愈之）。历来学界对独特 性论战的讨论主要集中于身在新马两地的文人。本文认为，周容在论战期间所提 出的若干概念，包括“此时此地”，早在论战爆发前期就已经出现在新马港等地， 并且进行了充分地理论化工作。其中，“此时此地”的讨论，不仅得到新马两地文 人的讨论，香港南来文人宋芝也在一定程度上介入其中。宋芝，另署司马文森， 二战后活跃于香港左翼文坛，就目前资料所见，他应没有直接参与独特性论战。 但在论战爆发的前期，他曾多次越洋在南洋发表文章，并且透过《文艺生活》杂 志积极与当年的马华文坛建立联系。1947 年，《民声报》发表宋芝的“文艺学习 散记”系列文章，也许受到新马文坛彼时新兴思潮影响，宋芝在文章中处理了 “此时此地”的观念，并引起零散的后续讨论。本文将追溯在独特性论战前期， 香港文人宋芝如何讨论“此时此地的现实”。

关键词：独特性论战前期，此时此地，左翼文学，香港，宋芝

In 1947 and 1948, a major literary debate broke out within the left-wing Mahua literary circle, lasting for about half a year. The debate centred around two main themes: the “uniqueness of Mahua literature” and “diaspora literature”. Scholars generally believe that the disagreement stemmed from differing views between the Malayan Communist Party and the China Democratic League on which revolution – the Malayan or the Chinese – was more important and which should take place first. The two main figures in the debate were Zhou Rong, associated with Zhanyou Bao and Minsheng Bao in Kuala Lumpur, and Sha Ping, affiliated with NanQiao Ribao and Fengxia magazine in Singapore. Previous academic discussions of this “uniqueness debate” have primarily focused on the writers based in Malaya and Singapore. However, this article argues that several concepts raised by Zhou Rong during the debate – such as “here and now” – had already emerged and been theorized earlier in places like Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaya. The concept of “here and now” was not only discussed by writers in Malaya and Singapore, but also engaged with, to some extent, by Hong Kong’s left-wing literary figure Song Zhi. While available evidence suggests that Song Zhi did not directly participate in the uniquenss debate, he was actively involved in Hong Kong’s leftist literary scene after World War II. During the early stages of the debate, he published several articles in Nanyang and actively engaged with Mahua literature through the Hong Kong-based magazine Wenyi Shenghuo. In 1947, Minsheng Bao published Song Zhi’s “Notes on Learning Literature” series, which may have been influenced by the emerging literary currents in Malaya and Singapore. In these writings, he addressed the idea of “here and now”, sparking some scattered follow-up discussions. This article traces how Song Zhi, as a Hong Kong writer, engaged with the concept of “the reality of the here and now” during the early stages of the uniqueness debate.

Keywords: early phase of the uniqueness debate, here and now, leftist literature, Hong Kong, Song Zhi