學界研究國族與國族主義，一般都會把焦點放在戰爭、革命或群眾運動等重大歷史事件上，探究兩者之間彼此激盪、相互影響的複雜過程，而很少注意到平淡無奇的日常生活在「國族」此一想像共同體的建構中所扮演的角色。然而，一如Michael Billig所謂「平庸的國族主義」所指出的，國族主義其實早已廣泛地滲透進我們日常生活中習慣性的言行舉止，在習焉不察的情境下，形塑了我們對自身及社會世界的認知與理解。國族認同乃是使得社會大眾日常生活所以可能的基本形式；同時，也只有在國族成員日常的言談與行動中，國族才能不斷地更新與再生。 1930年代，中國面臨內外交迫的深重國族危機，一般民眾的日常生活樣態，因而也成為各類知識權威進行凝視、論述與教化等文化實踐的目標；更成為各種意識形態迥異、利益與立場截然不同的政治力量，從事政治動員來形塑特定國族認同的重要場域。1936年，一批上海左翼知識分子便曾透過全國徵文的方式，編輯出版了《中國的一日》一書。該書收錄了數百篇無名大眾對自身在當年5月21日一天內的生活經驗與所思所感的敘事。本文便是以這批文本為主要討論對象，探析其所以出現的歷史條件、其所運用的敘事策略，以及這套策略所建構出的國族想像。藉由本文粗淺的討論，冀望能對近代中國國族想像與日常生活的複雜關係，提供一些初步的看法。

It is conventional wisdom for scholars doing research on the topics of nation and nationalism to give privileged emphasis to the effects of particular extraordinary events such as revolutions, wars, and mass movements on the construction of national identity. By contrast, the role that everyday life has played in this process is quite often unduly overlooked. However, thanks to the forceful argument that Michael Billig proposes in his seminal book Banal Nationalism, we are rightly reminded that the power of nationalism lies not so much in its occasional spectacular manifestations as in the way that we presuppose nationhood in talking about the mundane phenomena which constitute our everyday life. At the same time, the idea of nationhood is regularly flagged in our routine practices and everyday discourses. Through this kind of flagging, our nations are reproduced as nations, with our citizenries being unmindfully reminded of their national identity. 

China was facing a serious national crisis due to the threat of Japanese imperialism in the 1930s. In order to mobilize popular zeal for the defense of Chinese nation, the constituent details of Chinese people’s daily life were put under the scrutiny of the governing elites and the nationalist intellectuals. Everyday life became the site for contests and negotiations among different national projects proposed by antagonistic power blocs. In 1936, a group of left-wing intellectuals in Shanghai edited and published a voluminous book entitled One Day in China. No less than 480 authors contributed their pieces for this Chinese “Mass Observation” project, recording what they experienced and thought on the day of May 21. Focusing on this archive of the everyday life, this article delineates the historical context of its production, traces the narrative strategies it employed, and finally discusses the imagined Chinese nationhood constructed through this text.

國族想像; 日常生活敘事; 1930年代; 中國的一日

imagination of nationhood; everyday life narrative; one day in China; 1930s China