Jeffrey Kinkley
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231167680
- eISBN:
- 9780231532297
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231167680.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The depiction of personal and collective suffering in modern Chinese novels differs significantly from standard Communist accounts and many Eastern and Western historical narratives. Writers such as ...
More
The depiction of personal and collective suffering in modern Chinese novels differs significantly from standard Communist accounts and many Eastern and Western historical narratives. Writers such as Yu Hua, Su Tong, Wang Anyi, Mo Yan, Han Shaogong, Ge Fei, Li Rui, and Zhang Wei skew and scramble common conceptions of China's modern development, deploying avant-garde narrative techniques from Latin American and Euro-American modernism to project a surprisingly “un-Chinese” dystopian vision and critical view of human culture and ethics. The epic narratives of modern Chinese fiction make rich use of magical realism, surrealism, and unusual treatments of historical time. Also featuring graphic depictions of sex and violence, as well as dark, raunchy comedy, these novels reflect China's recent history re-presenting the overthrow of the monarchy in the early twentieth century and the resulting chaos of revolution and war; the recurring miseries perpetrated by class warfare during the dictatorship of Mao Zedong; and the social dislocations caused by China's industrialization and rise as a global power. This book casts China's highbrow historical novels from the late 1980s to the first decade of the twenty-first century as a distinctively Chinese contribution to the form of the global dystopian novel and, consequently, to global thinking about the interrelations of utopia and dystopia.Less
The depiction of personal and collective suffering in modern Chinese novels differs significantly from standard Communist accounts and many Eastern and Western historical narratives. Writers such as Yu Hua, Su Tong, Wang Anyi, Mo Yan, Han Shaogong, Ge Fei, Li Rui, and Zhang Wei skew and scramble common conceptions of China's modern development, deploying avant-garde narrative techniques from Latin American and Euro-American modernism to project a surprisingly “un-Chinese” dystopian vision and critical view of human culture and ethics. The epic narratives of modern Chinese fiction make rich use of magical realism, surrealism, and unusual treatments of historical time. Also featuring graphic depictions of sex and violence, as well as dark, raunchy comedy, these novels reflect China's recent history re-presenting the overthrow of the monarchy in the early twentieth century and the resulting chaos of revolution and war; the recurring miseries perpetrated by class warfare during the dictatorship of Mao Zedong; and the social dislocations caused by China's industrialization and rise as a global power. This book casts China's highbrow historical novels from the late 1980s to the first decade of the twenty-first century as a distinctively Chinese contribution to the form of the global dystopian novel and, consequently, to global thinking about the interrelations of utopia and dystopia.
Jeremy Tambling
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622098244
- eISBN:
- 9789882207158
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622098244.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
The fiction of Lu Xun (1881–1936) deals with China moving beyond the 1911 Revolution. He asks about the possibility of survival, and what that means, even considering the possibility that madness ...
More
The fiction of Lu Xun (1881–1936) deals with China moving beyond the 1911 Revolution. He asks about the possibility of survival, and what that means, even considering the possibility that madness might be a strategy by which survival is made possible. Such an idea calls identity into question, and Lu Xun is read here as a writer for whom that is a wholly problematic concept. This book makes use of critical and cultural theory to consider these short stories in the context of not only Chinese fiction, but in terms of the art of the short story, and in relation to literary modernism. It attempts to put Lu Xun into as wide a perspective as possible for contemporary reading.Less
The fiction of Lu Xun (1881–1936) deals with China moving beyond the 1911 Revolution. He asks about the possibility of survival, and what that means, even considering the possibility that madness might be a strategy by which survival is made possible. Such an idea calls identity into question, and Lu Xun is read here as a writer for whom that is a wholly problematic concept. This book makes use of critical and cultural theory to consider these short stories in the context of not only Chinese fiction, but in terms of the art of the short story, and in relation to literary modernism. It attempts to put Lu Xun into as wide a perspective as possible for contemporary reading.
Louie Kam (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083794
- eISBN:
- 9789882209060
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083794.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Eileen Chang (1920–1995) is arguably the most perceptive writer in modern Chinese literature. She was one of the most popular writers in 1940s Shanghai, but her insistence on writing about individual ...
More
Eileen Chang (1920–1995) is arguably the most perceptive writer in modern Chinese literature. She was one of the most popular writers in 1940s Shanghai, but her insistence on writing about individual human relationships and mundane matters rather than revolutionary and political movements meant that in mainland China, she was neglected until very recently. Outside the mainland, her life and writings never ceased to fascinate Chinese readers. There are hundreds of works about her in the Chinese language but very few in other languages. This is the first work in English to explore her earliest short stories as well as novels that were published posthumously. It discusses the translation of her stories for film and stage presentation, as well as nonliterary aspects of her life that are essential for a more comprehensive understanding of her writings, including her intense concern for privacy and enduring sensitivity to her public image. The thirteen essays examine the fidelity and betrayals that dominate her alter ego's relationships with parents and lovers, informed by theories and methodologies from a range of disciplines including literary, historical, gender, and film studies. These relationships are frequently dramatized in plays and filmic translations of her work.Less
Eileen Chang (1920–1995) is arguably the most perceptive writer in modern Chinese literature. She was one of the most popular writers in 1940s Shanghai, but her insistence on writing about individual human relationships and mundane matters rather than revolutionary and political movements meant that in mainland China, she was neglected until very recently. Outside the mainland, her life and writings never ceased to fascinate Chinese readers. There are hundreds of works about her in the Chinese language but very few in other languages. This is the first work in English to explore her earliest short stories as well as novels that were published posthumously. It discusses the translation of her stories for film and stage presentation, as well as nonliterary aspects of her life that are essential for a more comprehensive understanding of her writings, including her intense concern for privacy and enduring sensitivity to her public image. The thirteen essays examine the fidelity and betrayals that dominate her alter ego's relationships with parents and lovers, informed by theories and methodologies from a range of disciplines including literary, historical, gender, and film studies. These relationships are frequently dramatized in plays and filmic translations of her work.
Michel Hockx
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231160827
- eISBN:
- 9780231538534
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231160827.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter is about online fiction. It starts with a brief overview of the basic features of genre fiction websites, drawing examples mainly from the highly popular Qidian (Starting Point) site, ...
More
This chapter is about online fiction. It starts with a brief overview of the basic features of genre fiction websites, drawing examples mainly from the highly popular Qidian (Starting Point) site, which is widely believed to have pioneered what is now the most common business model for such sites. The second part of the chapter turns to issues of regulation and transgression, focusing on state attempts to curb what it considers erotic and obscene content. It attempts to understand how this is defined and assessed by looking at examples from the Feilu (Flying Gourd) fiction site, which regularly featured on blacklists published by the state regulator in 2010 and 2011. The third part presents a short case study of the website Heilan (Black and Blue) and its various activities and publications. Black and Blue is the online home of a long-standing avant-garde writing community whose preferred genre is fiction. The chapter also provides further evidence of how Internet literature is moving into new, non-web-based media.Less
This chapter is about online fiction. It starts with a brief overview of the basic features of genre fiction websites, drawing examples mainly from the highly popular Qidian (Starting Point) site, which is widely believed to have pioneered what is now the most common business model for such sites. The second part of the chapter turns to issues of regulation and transgression, focusing on state attempts to curb what it considers erotic and obscene content. It attempts to understand how this is defined and assessed by looking at examples from the Feilu (Flying Gourd) fiction site, which regularly featured on blacklists published by the state regulator in 2010 and 2011. The third part presents a short case study of the website Heilan (Black and Blue) and its various activities and publications. Black and Blue is the online home of a long-standing avant-garde writing community whose preferred genre is fiction. The chapter also provides further evidence of how Internet literature is moving into new, non-web-based media.
Paola Iovene
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804789370
- eISBN:
- 9780804791601
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804789370.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
The chapter discusses forgotten publications dealing with the technological futures of humanity, including popular science magazines, children’s literature, and science fiction and films from the ...
More
The chapter discusses forgotten publications dealing with the technological futures of humanity, including popular science magazines, children’s literature, and science fiction and films from the 1950s through the1980s, showing that Chinese socialist culture participated in an imagination of the future shared across the Eastern and Western blocs during the Cold War. Overcoming distinctions between mental and manual labor was central to the Maoist vision of a future society. Various science-related genres considered this issue, especially at moments of intensified utopian aspirations: the Great Leap Forward (late 1950s) and the beginning of the Reform Era (late 1970s and early 1980s). While narratives of the Great Leap Forward glorify physical labor, post-Mao science fiction subverts this hierarchy by associating manual labor with vulgarity, primitive stages of human evolution, and with defective female robots. The laboring body becomes the residue of a technological regime about to be overcome.Less
The chapter discusses forgotten publications dealing with the technological futures of humanity, including popular science magazines, children’s literature, and science fiction and films from the 1950s through the1980s, showing that Chinese socialist culture participated in an imagination of the future shared across the Eastern and Western blocs during the Cold War. Overcoming distinctions between mental and manual labor was central to the Maoist vision of a future society. Various science-related genres considered this issue, especially at moments of intensified utopian aspirations: the Great Leap Forward (late 1950s) and the beginning of the Reform Era (late 1970s and early 1980s). While narratives of the Great Leap Forward glorify physical labor, post-Mao science fiction subverts this hierarchy by associating manual labor with vulgarity, primitive stages of human evolution, and with defective female robots. The laboring body becomes the residue of a technological regime about to be overcome.
Paola Iovene
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804789370
- eISBN:
- 9780804791601
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804789370.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Twentieth-century Chinese literature has been characterized by an obsession with the future, an obsession that is often commented on but rarely scrutinized. Most studies of Chinese literature ...
More
Twentieth-century Chinese literature has been characterized by an obsession with the future, an obsession that is often commented on but rarely scrutinized. Most studies of Chinese literature conflate the category of the future with notions of progress and nation-building, and with the utopian visions propagated by the Maoist and post-Mao developmental state. The future thus understood has often been seen as a “destination” a preconceived endpoint that is propagated, at times even imposed, by a center of power. By contrast, Tales of Futures Past introduces the concept of “anticipation” as a lens through which to reexamine the textual, institutional, and experiential aspects of Chinese literary culture from the 1950s through the first decade of the twenty-first century. Anticipation names the “future in the present,” the expectations that permeate life as it unfolds and that are often mediated by literary texts. Each of the book’s five chapters details how different modes of anticipation find expression in contemporary Chinese literature, with a focus on fictional genres. Each chapter explores how emotions such as hope and fear as well as ideas on “what may come next” find concrete expression in a variety of Chinese texts and institutional contexts, ranging from science fiction to translation journals and from modernist writing to environmental literature, with the aim of tracing overlooked continuities throughout the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, and thus refining our understanding of Chinese socialist and postsocialist literary modernity.Less
Twentieth-century Chinese literature has been characterized by an obsession with the future, an obsession that is often commented on but rarely scrutinized. Most studies of Chinese literature conflate the category of the future with notions of progress and nation-building, and with the utopian visions propagated by the Maoist and post-Mao developmental state. The future thus understood has often been seen as a “destination” a preconceived endpoint that is propagated, at times even imposed, by a center of power. By contrast, Tales of Futures Past introduces the concept of “anticipation” as a lens through which to reexamine the textual, institutional, and experiential aspects of Chinese literary culture from the 1950s through the first decade of the twenty-first century. Anticipation names the “future in the present,” the expectations that permeate life as it unfolds and that are often mediated by literary texts. Each of the book’s five chapters details how different modes of anticipation find expression in contemporary Chinese literature, with a focus on fictional genres. Each chapter explores how emotions such as hope and fear as well as ideas on “what may come next” find concrete expression in a variety of Chinese texts and institutional contexts, ranging from science fiction to translation journals and from modernist writing to environmental literature, with the aim of tracing overlooked continuities throughout the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, and thus refining our understanding of Chinese socialist and postsocialist literary modernity.
Christopher Rosenmeier
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748696369
- eISBN:
- 9781474434805
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748696369.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter provides a broad overview of popular Chinese literature during the wartime years, including relevant historical context, such as the attempt at reconciliation between different factions ...
More
This chapter provides a broad overview of popular Chinese literature during the wartime years, including relevant historical context, such as the attempt at reconciliation between different factions and groups of writers in October 1936. Several authors are discussed, including Zhang Henshui, Ping Jinya, Jin Yi, Wang Dulu, Qin Shou’ou, Zhang Ailing, Cheng Xiaoqing, and Yu Qie. It demonstrates that the popular literature of the time was highly diverse and frequently explored aspects of tradition, modernity, nationalism, character psychology and various narrative styles. Tradition and history were freed from being seen as the enemies of progress and were now used for playful entertainment as well as fostering national pride. Overall, the wartime period saw a collapse of the formerly sharp distinction between “new” and “old” literature and this allowed numerous authors to straddle such divides in novel ways.Less
This chapter provides a broad overview of popular Chinese literature during the wartime years, including relevant historical context, such as the attempt at reconciliation between different factions and groups of writers in October 1936. Several authors are discussed, including Zhang Henshui, Ping Jinya, Jin Yi, Wang Dulu, Qin Shou’ou, Zhang Ailing, Cheng Xiaoqing, and Yu Qie. It demonstrates that the popular literature of the time was highly diverse and frequently explored aspects of tradition, modernity, nationalism, character psychology and various narrative styles. Tradition and history were freed from being seen as the enemies of progress and were now used for playful entertainment as well as fostering national pride. Overall, the wartime period saw a collapse of the formerly sharp distinction between “new” and “old” literature and this allowed numerous authors to straddle such divides in novel ways.
Peter Francis Kornicki
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- February 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198797821
- eISBN:
- 9780191839139
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198797821.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter follows on from Chapters 8 and 9, which were devoted to Buddhist and Confucian texts, and applies a similar analysis to a variety of other texts with a focus on those that were subjected ...
More
This chapter follows on from Chapters 8 and 9, which were devoted to Buddhist and Confucian texts, and applies a similar analysis to a variety of other texts with a focus on those that were subjected to a process of vernacularization. The first genre discussed is that of primers, which initially existed solely to teach the young the elements of Sinitic. Second, medical texts are examined in some depth, for the botanic and linguistic diversity of East Asia necessitated the production of glossaries giving the local names for plants appearing in Chinese pharmacopoeia and later the development of local pharmacopoeia based on locally available plants. Third, conduct books for women are taken up, for the different expectations of women in East Asian societies made Chinese imports unsuitable. Subsequently, a Tang-dynasty manual of statecraft, a manual of forensic medicine, Chinese vernacular fiction, and books about the West are discussed.Less
This chapter follows on from Chapters 8 and 9, which were devoted to Buddhist and Confucian texts, and applies a similar analysis to a variety of other texts with a focus on those that were subjected to a process of vernacularization. The first genre discussed is that of primers, which initially existed solely to teach the young the elements of Sinitic. Second, medical texts are examined in some depth, for the botanic and linguistic diversity of East Asia necessitated the production of glossaries giving the local names for plants appearing in Chinese pharmacopoeia and later the development of local pharmacopoeia based on locally available plants. Third, conduct books for women are taken up, for the different expectations of women in East Asian societies made Chinese imports unsuitable. Subsequently, a Tang-dynasty manual of statecraft, a manual of forensic medicine, Chinese vernacular fiction, and books about the West are discussed.
Christopher Rosenmeier
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748696369
- eISBN:
- 9781474434805
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748696369.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
The popular literature of the 1940s often crossed boundaries between the popular and the elite as well as between modernism and romanticism. New positions became possible in the literary field, and ...
More
The popular literature of the 1940s often crossed boundaries between the popular and the elite as well as between modernism and romanticism. New positions became possible in the literary field, and writers like Xu Xu and Wumingshi exemplify these trends. They appropriated styles and tropes from earlier modernist writings in Chinese literature, thereby creating hybrid works that were among the most popular of the age. This chapter compares the writers covered in this study in terms of their depiction of modernity, narrative style, representation of the supernatural, and position in the literary field. Overall, the differences are found to outweigh the similarities, but the comparison highlights how various themes were adopted and adapted into popular literature of the 1940s from the New Sensationist writers of the preceding decade, showing their lasting impact.Less
The popular literature of the 1940s often crossed boundaries between the popular and the elite as well as between modernism and romanticism. New positions became possible in the literary field, and writers like Xu Xu and Wumingshi exemplify these trends. They appropriated styles and tropes from earlier modernist writings in Chinese literature, thereby creating hybrid works that were among the most popular of the age. This chapter compares the writers covered in this study in terms of their depiction of modernity, narrative style, representation of the supernatural, and position in the literary field. Overall, the differences are found to outweigh the similarities, but the comparison highlights how various themes were adopted and adapted into popular literature of the 1940s from the New Sensationist writers of the preceding decade, showing their lasting impact.
C. T. Hsia
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231153973
- eISBN:
- 9780231527194
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231153973.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the comic fantasy, Journey to the West (Xi yu ji) by Wu Cheng-en (c.1506–1582). The novel is crowded with characters and episodes; it features pilgrims who are objects of ...
More
This chapter examines the comic fantasy, Journey to the West (Xi yu ji) by Wu Cheng-en (c.1506–1582). The novel is crowded with characters and episodes; it features pilgrims who are objects of continual attention while the assorted gods, monsters, and human characters they meet on the road claim only secondary interest. Its author, while building an earlier, simpler version of the story, proves his originality in his subordination of story as such to the larger considerations of theme and character and in his firm comic portrayal of the main pilgrims—Tripitaka, Monkey, and Pigsy. The last two, in particular, are as memorable as another pair of complementary characters famed in world literature: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. As a satiric fantasy grounded in realistic observation and philosophical wisdom, the Journey does suggest Don Quixote—two works of comparable importance in the respective developments of Chinese and European fiction.Less
This chapter examines the comic fantasy, Journey to the West (Xi yu ji) by Wu Cheng-en (c.1506–1582). The novel is crowded with characters and episodes; it features pilgrims who are objects of continual attention while the assorted gods, monsters, and human characters they meet on the road claim only secondary interest. Its author, while building an earlier, simpler version of the story, proves his originality in his subordination of story as such to the larger considerations of theme and character and in his firm comic portrayal of the main pilgrims—Tripitaka, Monkey, and Pigsy. The last two, in particular, are as memorable as another pair of complementary characters famed in world literature: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. As a satiric fantasy grounded in realistic observation and philosophical wisdom, the Journey does suggest Don Quixote—two works of comparable importance in the respective developments of Chinese and European fiction.
