Chinese Studies Commons^™

A Re-Examination Of "Imagistic Thinking": With A Focus On Zhu Guangqian And Li Zehou, Qian Cao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Zhu Guangqian's and Li Zehou's concepts of "imagistic thinking" were formed in the 1950s and the Post-Mao Period, with each having distinctive characteristics and both having common ground. While both equal "imagination" with "imagistic thinking," Zhu had always been taking them as the same and Li’s concept has evolved into using imagination to replace imagistic thinking. Although imagistic thinking is a transitional concept in the history of contemporary Chinese aesthetics, its theoretical value and significance are highlighted in the present context of linguistic turn and visual culture.

Between Medusa And Nymph: On Agamben's Theory Of Image, Jiang Lan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Image is born as a technology of memory, that is, the image realizes the possibility to access a disappeared past from the perspective of our finite present. However, the original image, as an object petrified by Medusa, has frozen a past which we cannot penetrate from our finitude. Indeed, Agamben doesn't think that the existence of image will thoroughly petrify our past; on the contrary, there are crevices between the petrified stones. It is in these crevices that lies the possibility to dialectically articulate the images, that is, Walter Benjamin’s dialectical image. Nevertheless, what fascinates Agamben most is not the …

Foucault And Damnatio Memoriae: An Introduction To The Mnemo-Government Of Cinema, Yang Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Foucault published several interviews and articles about cinema in 1970s, and he took the cinema as one of the dispositifs codifying the popular memory. The working class in 19th century invented many ways to write their own memory, but the cinema, by way of popular historical narration, ended the history of the people from the lower depths to write their memory. Foucault analyzed how the controversial (retro and erotic) films in 1970s represented desire and power in historical narration. This paper tries to combine Foucault's "dispositif of popular memory" with the biopolitics, and claims that the memory is also the …

Ideology In Narrative And The Surpass Of It: A Discussion Based On Ricoeur's Lectures On Ideology And Utopia, Xin Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper bases its discussion on Paul Ricoeur's Lectures on Ideology and Utopia and investigates how Ricoeur proposes his own dialectical conceptualization upon his own reading of Marx's classical texts and constructs his dimension of reflection in his poetics of narrative. Narrative, when bringing logic structure into events, becomes a process of rationalization or legitimization, and in this process the reality is distorted. Before it becomes absolute distortion, Ricoeur claims, the representation itself is one part of the materialistic and linguistic activities of a human person, a language of real life existed before distortion. When narrative links to such function, …

Gao Ershi's Concept Of The Refined And The Mundane In Calligraphic Art, Bin Zhou, Shuqiang Cui

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The concepts of the refined and the mundane are a pair of important category in calligraphic aesthetics and Gao Ershi's ideas on this are reflected in three aspects. The first is to regard the classical as the refined and the contemporary as the mundane. This is realized by reviving and studying the cursive style for official writing. The second is to regard the cultured to be refined and the crafted as the mundane. This emphasizes the cultural and aesthetic implications and attributes of calligraphy. The third is to take the clear to be refined and the turbid to be mundane. …

Ironical Appropriation Of Revolutionary Signs: For Memories Buried In Forgetting, Jiwu Zhou

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The ironical appropriation of revolutionary signs is a visual representation strategy widely used in contemporary art practice of China, with the purpose to transform invisible cultural trauma into visual text of remembrance. Amid the textual and visual narratives, hierarchical order of symbols and signs meets its deconstruction. Appropriation of revolutionary signs in contemporary art practice is evident in three aspects: 1) appropriation and contra-appropriation of visual signs; 2) displacement and transformation of visual images; 3) parody of visual texts. However, not all appropriation of revolutionary signs is ironical, and the criteria for irony should include semantic polysemy, contextual sharing, and …

Is Queer Theory Equal To Gay And Lesbian Studies？, Lanlan Du

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of women's studies. Although it is related to gay and lesbian studies, it differs from and reacts to them. Since Chinese scholars tend to conflate queer theory with gay and lesbian studies, this essay hopes for a more accurate introduction of queer theory with an analysis of its main ideas.

Maximizing Communicative Competency In A Classroom, Yinshun Wang

Faculty Publications & Research

Developing students’ communicative competence is a primary goal of many language classrooms. This session will present various strategies to encourage learner agency. The presenter will introduce strategies to execute fast-paced communicative learning activities that bypass mechanical activities and task-based student assessments to measure students’ proficiency in interpretive, interpersonal and presentational modes of communication. Examples of lesson plans and student work from a high school Chinese classroom will be provided.

Live Confucian: The Newsletter Of The Confucius Institute Of Pace University October 2015, Confucius Institute Pace University

Live Confucian

A newsletter of the Confucius Institute, Pace University.

The Confucius Institute at Pace Universi­ty is dedicated to providing Chinese lan­guage and cultural education, resources,and services to meet the needs of people from all backgrounds.

My Early Years At The University Of Chicago, Tai-Loi Ma

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

Memories Of T. H. Tsien

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

Chinese Internet Literature: Preserving Born-Digital Literary Content And Fighting Web Piracy, C. David Hickey

Journal of East Asian Libraries

This paper undertakes to define Chinese internet literature (CIL) and discuss the unique circumstances that make the subject of CIL content preservation so problematic. Copyright infringement and text corruption, in which the text is changed or adapted without author’s permission, are major problems in China. Text corruption mostly results from censorship or web piracy. A recently-developed type of anti-piracy scheme called “literary works fingerprinting” can protect the content of the works themselves, guarding them against plagiarism. If as many of the original CIL documents as possible are consistently archived and digitally fingerprinted, then the born-digital works that remain online will …

文苑 (重刊號第15期), 第十九屆嶺南大學學生會中文系系會 (凝暄)

文苑

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Theravada Buddhism, Identity, And Cultural Continuity In Jinghong, Xishuangbanna, James H. Granderson

Student Publications

This ethnographic field study focuses upon the relationship between the urban Jinghong and surrounding rural Dai population of lay people, as well as a few individuals from other ethnic groups, and Theravada Buddhism. Specifically, I observed how Theravada Buddhism and Dai ethnic culture are continued through the monastic system and the lay community that supports that system. I also observed how individuals balance living modern and urban lifestyles while also incorporating Theravada Buddhism into their daily lives. Both of these involved observing the relationship between Theravada monastics in city and rural temples and common people in daily life, as well …

A Tribute To T. H. Tsien, Eugene W. Wu

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

A Critical Survey Of Four Concepts In Literary Theories Concerning "Ethics", Yuanqiao Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In terms of the relation between ethics and literature, some key concepts have been frequently used but sometimes the supposed distinction has not been clarified. This paper tries to survey the following four important concepts concerning the ethics in literary theories: ethical turn, ethical criticism, narrative ethics, and ethical literary criticism. The ethical turn occurs in many fields, while ethical criticism mainly applies to the field of literature and arts. The uses of narrative ethics vary in different contexts, and ethical literary criticism is a neologism in Chinese context first used by Chinese scholar Nie Zhenzhao.

Historical Totality: The Plight Of Re-Enchantment: A Critical Review Of Jameson's Major Code Of Narrative Politics, Kaiyan Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

As one of the major codes in Jameson's cultural and political hermeneutics, "the totality history," while yielding much insight, has a tendency of re-enchantment (mystification). Jameson thinks that the individual perceptual experience is not true for the totality history, while the totality history can not be recognized and grasped by any individual, so his theory has obvious mystification tendency and intrinsic paradox. Meantime, Jameson's totality history view also encounters severe query and challenge in the post-modern context. Solving the plight Jameson faced is not to deny the existence of the historical totality, but to absorb Chinese and western philosophers' wisdom …

A Discussion Of "Off-Site Requisition" In Literary Theory, Guoqiang Qiao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Since the 20th century, the adoption of methods in cross-disciplinary studies contributes to a dominant trend in the Western literary theory hat blurs the boundary between literary theory and other disciplines. Literary theory burdens itself with or rather, is "hijacked" by many irrelevant things such as politics, ideologies, moralities, etc. Zhang Jiang believes that contemporary Western literary theory is not "pure" due to the "off-side requisition" and therefore he proposes a return to literature and a redevelopment of literary theory within the literary system. This paper presents viewpoints different from Zhang, contending that literary theory is never "pure" from its …

The Transformation Of The Ci-Poetry Studies During Late-Qing And Early Roc Period As Exemplified By The Editorial Work On Wu Wenying's Poetry, Xuejun Chen

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper examines the phenomenon of the editorial work and critical annotations to Wu Wenying's Mengchuang Ci-Poems during the period from the Late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. During this period, four major scholars, namely, Wang Pengyun, Zheng Wenzhao, Zhu Zumou and Kuang Zhouni, studied Wu Wenying's poetry and, together with their disciples, promoted the fever of "Mengchuang Ci-Poems (Dreaming Window, the Art name of Wu Wenying)". These scholars and their disciples formed a lineage in criticism for Wu's poetry, which set an example for later compilation of ci-poetry anthologies and helped to establish the arguably last …

On The Generic Hybridization Between Fiction And Biography, Qinghua Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Biography as a literary genre comes between unofficial history and fiction, although closer to fiction. This paper examines the hybridization between fiction and biography with examples from the public and private catalogues since the Song Dynasty, and it analyzes the common ground between the two genres in terms of generic features, compilation approaches, and raw materials and investigates the boundaries of the genres in terms of functional value, thematic appeal and narrative approaches.