Chinese Studies Commons^™

You Can’T Make An Omelette With Only One Egg, Vignesh Pillai

The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012

In her book Egg on Mao, Denise Chong chronicles the life of Lu Decheng, a seemingly ordinary man who committed the very extraordinary act of vandalizing Mao Zedong’s portrait during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. At the heart of the book is an exploration of morality under Communist rule in the Hunanese village of Liuyang, beginning with the lead-up to Lu’s birth in 1963, his formative years, his involvement in the 1989 protests, and his incarceration. Chong draws her narrative both from interviews with Lu, who now lives in Canada, and from interviews she conducted in China in April and …

In Search Of Remembrance: Jia Zhangke’S I Wish I Knew, Ken Kwan Ming Hao

The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012

In his new film I Wish I Knew, a documentary on Shanghai, Jia Zhangke recreates once again, after a detour of sorts with Useless and24 City, that wonderful tension between the biographical and the historical, the primal impetus of his art, that had made Platform,The World, and Still Life, his best films, so memorable. Jia is different from all other well-known mainland Chinese directors, be they of the 5th or 6th generation — his is a singular sensibility that is aware of but not chained to the social-political, which to him are meaningful only to the extent that they are …

China, In Dim Light, Pierre Fuller

The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012

On a train moving across north China last year, a girl, blond hair reaching down to her waist, maybe 15, darted past my bottom perch in the hard sleeper. As much as her hair, it was the colorful ankle-length dress she wore that caught my eye, the kind I’d spotted on girls in places like rural Utah and Nevada. I could have sworn I’d seen an apparition, but settled anyway back into my book.

A Chinese Immigrant Reads Yiyun Li, Xujun Eberlein

The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012

Among the twenty-three people who received MacArthur Fellowships last month was Yiyun Li, a fiction writer based at the University of California, Davis. Born and raised in Beijing before coming to the United States for graduate work (first in immunology, later in creative writing), Li is one member of a growing community of Chinese authors now writing in English. We asked Xujun Eberlein, also part of that group, to reflect on Li’s writing.

Basketbrawls Past And Present, James Carter

The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012

Many readers have by now heard of the brawl that broke out in the first half of an international basketball match between China and Brazil on October 12 in Henan province. The international “friendly” became increasingly chippy as the Chinese side objected to hard fouls and “dirty” play by the Brazilians. Dissatisfied with the officials’ response, the Chinese team (and its American coach, it should be noted) took matters into its own hands:

Book Review: Shanghai World Expo Guide 2010, Adam D. Frank

The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012

On first blush, one would think that reviewing Nick Land’s Shanghai World Expo Guidebook 2010 would be an exercise akin to reviewing a movie poster for Avatar—a kind of 2-D portrait of a 3-D experience.

From Traditional To Today: Revelation From Chinese Gardendesign, Bo Yang, N J. Volkman

Bo Yang

China, like many other nations, struggled in the twentieth century with defining an indigenous landscape design tradition. This was particularly true in addressing urban open space design after China implemented the Open Door Policy in the late 1970s, when Chinese garden design traditions became largely neglected. The objective of this study is to determine whether the traditional design approach could still effectively serve as modern design inspiration. Built upon a previous study by Wu (1999), our study is a reflective critique on modern Chinese urban public space design. We compare major types of traditional and modern Chinese urban open spaces. …

Grounding "Language" In The Senses: What The Eyes And Ears Reveal About Ming 名 (Names) In Early Chinese Texts, Jane Geaney

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Scholarship on early Chinese theories of “language” regularly treats the term ming 名 (name) as the equivalent of “word.” But there is a significant difference between a “word” and a “name.”¹ Moreover, while a “word” is often understood to mean a unit of language that is identifiable in its sameness across speech and writing, there is reason to believe that a ming was mainly used to mean a unit of meaningful sound.² Analyzing the function of ming is a prerequisite for understanding early Chinese theories of “language”—if such a term is even appropriate. Such an analysis will also …

中國當代故事新編小說研究 (神話傳說類), Wenjun Jiang

Theses & Dissertations

魯迅《故事新編》開創了現當代故事新編小說的先河，亦為後世有關此文類的創作奠下了穩固的基礎，在文學史上形成了重要的流派，其重要性與獨立創作一樣應得到重視。 本論文以神話與文學的研究方式為基礎，研究神話傳說類故事新編小說在 當代作家的創作下如何表現出創新意義。本論文共分為六章，第一章主要探討神話傳說類故事新編小說的特質，以釐定本文的研究範圍；第二章是對神話傳 說類故事新編小說在現當代的發展作概觀式介紹，以及顯示個別作家在故事新編創作上的貢獻；第三章是神話類故事新編小說研究，本文選取五個有關神話人物的改編文本(馬彬〈神農〉、劉以鬯〈盤古與黑〉、董啟章《少年神農》、李 碧華〈嫦娥〉和葉兆言《后羿》)，探討作家如何改變神話人物的形象，以達到新編的效果；第四章是白蛇傳故事的故事新編研究，本文以人妖戀的角度，研究不同文本(劉以鬯〈蛇〉、孔慧怡〈雷峰塔〉、李碧華《青蛇》、和李銳及蔣韻 《人間》)對傳說的新編方式，如何表現出故事新編獨特的一面；第五章是梁山伯與祝英台的故事新編研究，本文疏理出傳說忠貞愛情形象，並以此為基礎， 比較不同文本(張恨水《梁山伯與祝英台》、李碧華〈梁山伯自白書〉及〈祝英 台自白書〉、孔慧怡〈梁祝無恨〉和李馮〈梁〉及〈祝〉)對愛情主題的重新演繹；第六章則以文體討論的形式為基礎肯定故事新編小說的價值作結。

Male Same-Sex Relations In Modern China: Language, Media Representation, And Law, 1900–1949, Wenqing Kang

History Faculty Publications

The article discusses the tension in the Chinese indigenous terminology for male same-sex relations which was similar to Eve Sedgwich's description of the Western modern homosexual/heterosexual definition. It argues that the Western sexological concept of homosexuality was accepted in the early 20th century China and notes that its legal apparatus had no clear stipulations on sex between men. It indicates how writers during the first half of the 20th century were more concerned with the proper gender behavior and the image of the nation than sex itself.

蜚語 (第二期), 嶺南文社

嶺南文社 : 蜚語

No abstract provided.

蜚語 (第三期), 嶺南文社

嶺南文社 : 蜚語

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Ua3/9/2 Chuangxin Cuiba, Wku President's Office

WKU Archives Records

Chinese newspaper regarding Gary Ransdell's visit to China.

Opportunities And Challenges For Gender-Based Legal Reform In China, Rangita De Silva De Alwis

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Carey Law

No abstract provided.

Literary Societies Of Republican China, Thomas D. Curran Ph.D.

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Denton, Kirk A. and Michel Hockx, eds. Literary Societies of Republican China. Lanham: Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.

Contention Of Lust, Caution: Sexuality, Visuality And Female Subjectivity, Yanjie Wang

Asian and Asian American Studies Faculty Works

This paper investigates the ways in which Ang Lee provides new insights into subject formation in his film Lust, Caution (Se Jie, 2007). In the paradigm of structuralism, the subject is defined, as well as confined, by the symbolic order or the dominant ideology. The puzzle therefore rests on how to explain the subject’s negotiation with its normative identity, its denial thereof, or even its subversion of said identity. In a close reading of the female protagonist’s subject formation in Lust, Caution, this paper acknowledges the power of ideology, specifically the power of its interpellative operation, in constructing a subject. …

The Historical Value Of The Chun/Chyou, A. Brooks

A. Taeko Brooks

The Spring and Autumn period (late 08th to early 05th centuries) is of interest in its own right, and for Chinese historiography in general. I here argue that the Chun/Chyou (CC) or “Spring and Autumn” text, ostensibly a Lu court chronicle, is the best, and the only primary, source for the period.1 I also dispute the competing claim of the Dzwo Jwan (DJ), which some view as a fuller, and a more accurate, account of the Spring and Autumn centuries.2

Defeat In The Chun/Chyou, A. Brooks, E. Brooks

A. Taeko Brooks

We here consider how victory and defeat are treated in the Chun/Chyou. We find that the Lu court of Spring and Autumn times viewed military operations not in a chivalric or moralizing way, like characters in Dzwo Jwan (DJ) narratives of Spring and Autumn events, but in a cold-eyed military advantage way.

Military Capacity In Spring And Autumn, A. Brooks

A. Taeko Brooks

It has been said that the states of Spring and Autumn (0770-0479) deployed large armies, drawn in part from the general populace.1 But our only contemporary source, the Lu chronicle Chun/Chyou (CC), implies a more limited situation: small elite chariot forces, few battles,2 and tactical frugality. The size of these forces did increase over the period,3 but no major state was destroyed by them. I here review the major features of the military system of the time, noting the limits on what it could achieve – limits that were surpassed only by reorganizing the state itself, a reorganization which virtually …

Re-Dating The Sources, A. Brooks

A. Taeko Brooks

The sources for history are basic to history, and an accurate idea of the chronology of the sources is basic to the task of understanding the sources themselves historically. We cannot effectively investigate the history of China’s formative Warring States or classical period without knowing which of these texts are earlier and which are later. I here describe a systematic attempt to reach a better understanding of Warring States text chronology. But before saying how we have approached the chronology problem, I should first say why we think there is a problem – a problem that has not been solved …