Shanxing's Dream Life


Book Description

The blue sky, the blue water, the rows of fields, the rows of vegetables, and the fresh air and the fragrance of the grass — this was the life that the apricot once dreamed of, but when he was inside it, it was no longer the same feeling. His family wasn't ruined, but he still couldn't get enough food. His mother was sick, and his brother was still young. How was he going to deal with the six year old Little Hill Apricot?




Traces of a Daoist Immortal


Book Description

Traces of a Daoist Immortal is a Daoist-infused tour de force on the Daoist mountain hermit Chén Tuán 陳摶 (Xīyí 希夷 [Infinitesimal Subtlety]; d. 989) and his fellow “hidden immortals.” Breaking various academic taboos, including hyper-historicism, social constructivism, and conformist mentalities, here Komjathy, in an aspirational gesture towards unbridled inquiry, offers annotated translations and scholarly introductions to ten major works associated with the Daoist immortal. The book also contains a cutting-edge, mythopoetic introduction that addresses the life and legend of Chén Tuán, his connection to the Western Marchmount of Huàshān 華山 (Mount Hua; Huàyīn, Shǎnxī), Daoist views about sleeping, dreaming, waking, as well as Daoist time-being.




The Authorship of Place


Book Description

The Authorship of Place is the first monograph dedicated to the study of the politics, history, aesthetics, and practices of location shooting for Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese, and coproduced art cinemas shot in rural communities since the late 1970s. Dennis Lo argues that rural location shooting, beyond serving aesthetic and technical needs, constitutes practices of cultural survival in a region beset with disruptive and disorienting social changes, including rapid urbanization, geopolitical shifts, and ecological crises. In response to these social changes, auteurs like Hou Xiaoxian, Jia Zhangke, Chen Kaige, and Li Xing engaged in location shooting to transform sites of film production into symbolically meaningful places of collective memories and aspirations. These production practices ultimately enabled auteurs to experiment with imagining Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese, and cross-strait communities in novel and contentious ways. Deftly guiding readers on a cross-strait tour of prominent shooting locations for the New Chinese Cinemas, this book shows how auteurs sought out their disappearing cultural heritage by reenacting lived experiences of nation building, homecoming, and cultural salvage while shooting on-location. This was an especially daunting task when auteurs encountered the shooting locations as spaces of unresolved historical, social, and geopolitical contestations, tensions which were only intensified by the impact of filmmaking on rural communities. This book demonstrates how these complex circumstances surrounding location shooting were pivotal in shaping both representations of the rural on-screen, as well as the production communities, institutions, and industries off-screen. Informed by cutting-edge perspectives in cultural geography and media anthropology, The Authorship of Place both revises Chinese-language film history and theorizes groundbreaking approaches for investigating the cultural politics of film authorship and production. “This extraordinary book discusses the uses of location shooting in films by contemporary Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese directors ranging from Li Xing to Jia Zhangke. It highlights the ways in which place, memory, and identity stances respond to social changes and geopolitical disparities. In a world full of uncertainty, the argument about the imaginary homeland as an experienced cinematic reality only renders it more urgent and universally relatable.” —Ping-hui Liao, University of California, San Diego “The Authorship of Place is certainly a welcome intervention into the study of Chinese cinemas and their auteurs that further contributes to the wider study of location shooting as well as cultural geographies and place-based imaginaries of film. It is rare to find a book dealing with space/place in and around cinema that is this inventive and nuanced in its methodologies.” —Stephanie DeBoer, Indiana University




The Man Awakened from Dreams


Book Description

A vivid study of China’s modernization through the lens of one schoolteacher’s life: “A tour de force of originality, clarity, and skillful organization.” —Chinese Historical Review In this beautifully crafted study of one emblematic life, Henrietta Harrison addresses large themes in Chinese history while conveying with great immediacy the textures and rhythms of everyday existence in the countryside in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Liu Dapeng was a provincial degree-holder who never held government office. Through the story of his family, the author illustrates the decline of the countryside in relation to the cities as a result of modernization, and the transformation of Confucian ideology as a result of these changes. Based on nearly four hundred volumes of Liu’s diary and other writings, the book illustrates what it was like to study in an academy and to be a schoolteacher, the pressures of changing family relationships, the daily grind of work in industry and agriculture, people’s experience with government, and life under the Japanese occupation. “Should be on any short-list of ‘necessary’ books on modern China.” —American Historical Review “Harrison does nothing less than open up for us a whole new world.” —Journal of Asian Studies




The Rushing on of the Purposes of God


Book Description

This sweeping survey is the first complete account of nearly 150 years of Protestant missions in Shanxi Province, China. Beginning with the arrival of the Protestant missionaries during the 1878 North China Famine and the fiery test of the 1900 Boxer Uprising and subsequent martyrdom of hundreds of Shanxi Christians, this important book brings together the historical accounts of the spread of Christianity in the province all the way up to the present. From the personal papers and contemporary records of the missionaries, Kaiser draws a vivid picture of the women and men who devoted their lives to advancing the cause of the gospel in Shanxi. He weaves the stories of bold local Christians like Pastor Hsi and such notable missionaries as Gladys Aylward, Timothy Richard, Hudson Taylor, and the Cambridge Seven into the broader tapestry of China missions, tracing the birth and development of a thriving and dynamic Shanxi church. Drawing on mission archives, academic studies, and firsthand knowledge, this fusion of scholarly inquiry with missionary biography aims to both inspire and inform, making the lessons of the missionary past available to a new generation of readers.




Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature


Book Description

Modern Chinese literature has been flourishing for over a century, with varying degrees of intensity and energy at different junctures of history and points of locale. An integral part of world literature from the moment it was born, it has been in constant dialogue with its counterparts from the rest of the world. As it has been challenged and enriched by external influences, it has contributed to the wealth of literary culture of the entire world. In terms of themes and styles, modern Chinese literature is rich and varied; from the revolutionary to the pastoral, from romanticism to feminism, from modernism to post-modernism, critical realism, psychological realism, socialist realism, and magical realism. Indeed, it encompasses a full range of ideological and aesthetic concerns. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature presents a broad perspective on the development and history of literature in modern China. It offers a chronology, introduction, bibliography, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on authors, literary and historical developments, trends, genres, and concepts that played a central role in the evolution of modern Chinese literature.




Holy People of the World [3 volumes]


Book Description

A cross-cultural encyclopedia of the most significant holy people in history, examining why people in a wide range of religious traditions throughout the world have been regarded as divinely inspired. The first reference on the subject to span all the world's major religions, Holy People of the World: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia examines the impact of individuals who, through personal charisma and inspirational deeds, served both as glorious examples of human potential and as envoys for the divine. Holy People of the World contains nearly 1,100 biographical sketches of venerated men and women. Written by religious studies experts and historians, each article focuses on the basic question: How did this person come to be regarded as holy? In addition, the encyclopedia features 20 survey articles on views of holy people in the major religious traditions such as Islam, Buddhism, and African religions, as well as 64 comparative articles on aspects of holiness and veneration across cultures such as awakening and conversion experiences, heredity, gender, asceticism, and persecution. Whether exploring by religion, culture, or historic period, this extensively cross-referenced resource offers a wealth of insights into one of the most revealing—and least explored—common denominators of spiritual traditions.




A History of Modern Chinese Popular Literature


Book Description

The first English translation of one of the most authoritative and significant studies in the field of modern Chinese literature.




Yuan


Book Description

A monumental illustrated survey of the architecture of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century China The Yuan dynasty endured for a century, leaving behind an architectural legacy without equal, from palaces, temples, and pagodas to pavilions, tombs, and stages. With a history enlivened by the likes of Khubilai Khan and Marco Polo, this spectacular empire spanned the breadth of China and far, far beyond, but its rulers were Mongols. Yuan presents the first comprehensive study in English of the architecture of China under Mongol rule. In this richly illustrated book, Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt looks at cities such as the legendary Shangdu—inspiration for Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Xanadu—as well as the architecture the Mongols encountered on their routes of conquest. She examines the buildings and monuments of diverse faiths in China during the period, from Buddhist and Daoist to Confucian, Islamic, and Christian, as well as unusual structures such as observatories, archways, stone and metal buildings, and sarcophaguses. Steinhardt dispels long-standing views of the Mongols as destroyers of cities and architecture across Asia, showing how the khans and their families built more than they tore down. She demonstrates that the stipulations of the Chinese building system were powerful and resilient enough to guide the architecture that rose under Mongolian rule. Drawing on Steinhardt’s groundbreaking textual research in numerous languages as well as her pioneering fieldwork at sites across East Asia, Yuan will become the standard reference on this critical period of cultural and artistic exchange.




The Story of China


Book Description

A single volume history of China, offering a look into the past of the global superpower and its significance today. Michael Wood has travelled the length and breadth of China, the world’s oldest civilization and longest lasting state, to tell a thrilling story of intense drama, fabulous creativity, and deep humanity that stretches back thousands of years. After a century and a half of foreign invasion, civil war, and revolution, China has once again returned to center stage as a global superpower and the world’s second largest economy. But how did it become so dominant? Wood argues that in order to comprehend the great significance of China today, we must begin with its history. The Story of China takes a fresh look at the Middle Kingdom in the light of the recent massive changes inside the country. Taking into account exciting new archeological discoveries, the book begins with China’s prehistory—the early dynasties, the origins of the Chinese state, and the roots of Chinese culture in the age of Confucius. Wood looks at particular periods and themes that are now being reevaluated by historians, such as the renaissance of the Song with its brilliant scientific discoveries. He paints a vibrant picture of the Qing Empire in the 18th century, just before the European impact, a time when China’s rich and diverse culture was at its height. Then, Wood explores the encounter with the West, the Opium Wars, the clashes with the British, and the extraordinarily rich debates in the late 19th century that pushed China along the path to modernity. Finally, he provides a clear up-to-date account of post-1949 China, including revelations about the 1989 crisis based on newly leaked inside documents, and fresh insights into the new order of President Xi Jinping. All woven together with landscape history and the author’s own travel journals, The Story of China is the indispensable book about the most intriguing and powerful country on the world stage today.