How to Construct a “Race”: “Fujino-sensei,” Lu Xun's Subversive Modern Novel

Abstract

When a certain category of people define themselves as a distinct race, they are always in danger of falling into ethnocentrism. To avoid this sort of essentialist trap, a more flexible notion of “race” is needed. A more flexible notion of “subject” is needed too because any race is composed of subjects who socially, culturally or historically identify with each other. Such a paradigmatic shift presupposes radical relativism mediated by the absolute Other. Lu Xun's “Fujino-sensei” is a subversive modern novel which self-referentially foregrounds the process of telling a story itself. This meta-story provides a relativistic standpoint from which one can construct her or his own self into a racial subject without becoming ethnocentric.