The role of intellectuals in the process of modernization: Case studies of Natsume Soseki and Lu Xun in the era of the Enlightenment

Modern intellectuals occupy a privileged status and tend to exercise their power in the private, not the public, interest. Nevertheless, as Edward W. Said insists, it is still possible for intellectuals to behave in the public interest by questioning and challenging status quo, by breaking down stereotypes and by expanding limited boundaries of human thought and communication. This study analyzes a Japanese and a Chinese intellectual in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to reexamine the role of intellectuals in the process of building modern nations, in these case nations which resulted in rises of militaristic nationalism and Maoist communism. Among significant intellectuals, Natsume Soseki and Lu Xun criticized the Japanese and Chinese governments by avoiding the central powers, and stressed individualism. Both of them utilized the idea of individualism as a key for the solution of problems which Japan and China faced. With their core messages of individualism and their intellectually exiled roles, Natsume Soseki and Lu Xun, are useful to reexamine in the context of the modern Japanese government-led politics and the Chinese communist system.