Chinese Studies Commons^™

Sinophone Literature And World Literature In Chinese, Fengliang Li, Ping Hu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Recent discussions regarding Sinophone literature demonstrate that overseas Chinese literary research circle is attempting to claim discursive power from the American sinological field and is making its way from the margin to the centre. Meanwhile, these overseas researchers, by adopting a decolonizing and decentralizing approach, try to contest with mainland China's academic circle for dominant discursive power. Beneath the discussions is a strong sense of discursive politics. Sinophone literature and world literature in Chinese are remarkably different in terms of their respective value positions, theoretical approaches and research objectives, but researches on Sinophone literature can inform the formation of modern …

Technology, Apparatus And Meaning: Two Approaches To Myth Interpretation, Jing Rao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper reflects on the "Davos Debate" between Cassirer and Heidegger and attempts to put it into the perspective of mythical thinking. In the debate, Heidegger refuted Cassirer's latent transcendental subjectivity that underlay the discourse on the science-myth dichotomy. On the other hand, Cassirer's subjectivity is closely related to Heidegger's reflective critique on technology. Myth and technology are homological in the sense that they are both implicitly constructed in the "Gestell" (apparatus), and the double origins of apparatus open up two approaches of myth interpretation. Although the true meaning of myth interpretation lies in the dimension of existential renewal instead …

The Fragmented Ancient Chinese God System, Dake Zhu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Ancient Chinese mythology is different from those in other civilizations in its fragmentariness, and the fragmented nature is the result of the collective destruction of historical documents in the pre-Qin feudal states burnt down all historical documents, on top of the massive burning of books and the burying-alive of Confucian scholars during the reign of the First Emperor of Qin. This silent "cultural revolution" in the pre-Qin and Qin era resulted in the destruction of the first generation of Chinese mythology. During the wave of Asian emigration, myth fragments from India, Iran and West Asia constructed the second generation of …

The Meta-Ethical Traits: Nothingness, Différance And Spectrology, Hongsheng Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

One of the foremost problems that contemporary narrative ethics must respond to is whether meaning exists. This paper reviews the different Western versions of the death of God and the various understandings of "nothingness" among Chinese and Western thinkers, attempts to distinguish "nothingness" from "nihilism", and hopes to pin down the location of the meaning formation from multiple perspectives. It proceeds to investigate Derrida's "différance" and "spectrology" and positions deconstructionism in the meta-ethical dimension of post-philosophical thinking. The paper has also summarized the basic features of the meta-ethical dimension.

The Primitive State Of Antique Chinese Elenchus In Spoken And Written Style, Dalei Hu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In antique Chinese writing, elenchus as a form of debate prose takes the form of spoken and written styles, and this paper takes this approach to examine the primitive state of the genre. The paper demonstrates three main aspects of the genre of elenchus in the ancient China. The first concerns with the context, setting and scene of elenchus and there are some principles in the oral elenchus. The second concerns with the functions of elenchus. The third concerns with the connotation of elenchus exhibited in the different styles of the genre. The genre of elenchus comes into being, the …

The Return Of Beauty?, Welsch Wolfgang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper argues that the so-called return of beauty propagated in the aesthetic discourse is actually a return of the topic "beauty." The paper puts forward three claims in support of the argument. 1) The opposition to beauty that we find in art theory from mid-nineteenth century onward and especially in the twentieth century was not directed against beauty in general, but against specific conceptions of beauty. 2) Contemporary pleas in favor of beauty have dubious reasons and effects. 3) The talk about the attractiveness of the beautiful or the sublime, breath-taking beauty and its universality is conspicuously absent from …

Taiwanese Language Medical School Curriculum: A Case Study Of Symbolic Resistance Through The Promotion Of Alternative Literacy And Language Domain Norms, Philip John Sweeney

Dissertations and Theses

In contemporary Taiwan, Mandarin language proficiency and literacy in Han characters are not only key skills needed for success in academic institutions and employment markets, but they also carry meaning as symbolic markers of national and supranational Chinese identity. This study examines how Taiwanese-language medical studies curriculum planners are promoting alternative linguistic practices as a means of resisting the influence of Chinese nationalism in Taiwan and striving to replace it with a rival Taiwanese nationalism. I conducted research for this study during the 2010-2011 school year in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I collected data for this study by engaging in participant observation …

Live Confucian: The Newsletter Of The Confucius Institute Of Pace University January 2013, 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.

Review Essay: Negotiating The Traditional And The Modern: Chinese Women's Literature From The Late Imperial Period Through The Twentieth-Century, Li Guo

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

The three books above complement each other in their coverage of Chinese women's literary genres from the late fourteenth through the early twentieth century. The authors' theoretical inquiries invite consideration of the following questions: what meaning, if any, might a feminist imagination or approach have in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) eras, early and late Republican China (1911-1948), and beyond? What do these works have in common regarding the resituating of women's literary status, the reclamation of feminine agency, and the empowerment of female subjectivity in China's literary tradition? These books can be considered in dialogue with Western feminism …

《庄子》中关于身体的诸概念" (Concepts Of The Body In The Zhuangzi), Deborah A. Sommer (司馬黛蘭)

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

In this essay Sommer explores how the Zhuangzi uses such terms for the body as gong 躬, a sanctimonious ritualized body; shen 身, a site of familial and social personhood; xing 形, an elemental form that experiences mutations and mutilations; and ti 體, a complex, multilayered corpus whose center can be anywhere but whose boundaries are nowhere. The Zhuangzi is one of the richest early Chinese sources for exploring conceptualizations of the visceral human form. Zhuangzi presents the human frame as a corpus of flesh, organs, limbs, and bone; he dissects it before the reader's eyes, turning it inside out …

蜚語 (第九期), 嶺南文社

嶺南文社 : 蜚語

樂

蜚語 (第八期), 嶺南文社

嶺南文社 : 蜚語

白

早期 '地' 和 '土'之观 (Concepts Of Earth And Land In Early Chinese Texts), Deborah A. Sommer (司馬黛蘭)

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Many studies have explored conceptualizations of heaven (tian 天) in early Chinese thought, but few if any have explored understandings of heaven's later cosmological counterpart, earth (di 地). This article examines Chinese understandings of earth and land (tu 土) in pre-Qin 先秦sources. In ancient texts such as the Book of Odes (Shi jing詩經) and Book of Documents (Shang shu尚書), the earth is not yet the paired counterpart to heaven that it will become in later Warring States (fifth-third centuries BCE) texts. Older works often depict earth and land as passive recipients of heaven's …

Students Explore China’S Culture, Industry, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Green Politics In China: Environmental Governance And State-Society Relations, Joy Y. Zhang, Michael S. Barr

Books

Based on interviews with members of grassroots organisations, media and government institutions, Green Politics in China is an in-depth account of the novel ways Chinese society is responding to its environmental crisis, using examples rarely captured in Western media or academia.

The struggle for clean air, low-carbon conspiracy theories, is transforming Chinese society, producing new forms of public fund raising and the encouraging the international tactics of grassroots NGOs. In doing so, they challenge static understandings of state-society relations in China, providing a crucial insight into the way in which China is changing internally and emerging as a powerful player …

Ida Pfeiffer In China: Examining The Suppression Of Gender Roles In The Face Of European Colonial Superiority, Alec Down

Library Research Grants

No abstract provided.

A Response To Professor Wu Zongjie’S ‘Interpretation, Autonomy, And Transformation: Chinese Pedagogic Discourse In A Cross-Cultural Perspective', Thomas D. Curran

History Faculty Publications

In response to an essay by Prof Wu Zongjie that was published in the Journal of Curriculum studies [43(5), (2011), 569–590], I argue that, despite dramatic changes that have taken place in the language of Chinese academic discourse and pedagogy, evidence derived from the fields of psychology and the history of Chinese educational reform suggest that patterns of Chinese thought and culture have proven resistant to change. Not only have deeply rooted tendencies to perceive the world in ways that may be distinguished from Western analogues persisted but, not unlike contemporary school reformers, educators in the early twentieth century typically …

A Study Of Modern Mass Education Bureaus (Book Review), Thomas D. Curran

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Zhou, Huimei. 近代民众教育馆 = A Study of Modern Mass Education Bureaus. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 2012. ISBN 9787303137077 (pbk.)

Prof. Zhou’s book is a general history of the Mass Education Movement that the Guomindang government conducted in the 1920s and 1930s. Topics covered include the movement’s ideological objectives, its organizational characteristics, it activities, and its reception by and impact on local communities. The work is carefully balanced between exposition and analysis, and it is supported generously by evidence drawn from a wide range of primary sources. Those sources include government publications, local gazetteers, …

你吃了吗? Have You Eaten?: Using The Westernization Of Chinese Food To Explain The Transformation Of The Chinese Identity In America, Molly Young

Senior Independent Study Theses

This thesis explores the changing Chinese American identity through the changes to Chinese food. Understanding one's identity is a difficult task because of its abstract nature; using a concrete element such as food, makes this task far easier. This method of using food to describe the Chinese American identity is especially helpful because of the importance placed on food in Chinese culture. For the Chinese, food is central to their identity because it is believed that the correct intake of food achieves a balance in one's life. It is also helpful, because the Chinese restaurant in America is a common …

The Dao That Can Be Spoken Is Not The Eternal Dao: National Role Conceptions And The Effects On Chinese Foreign Policy Behavior, Adam Stephan Jankowski

Senior Independent Study Theses

Chinese foreign policy is an extremely dynamic factor in today's world. One way of trying to describe Chinese foreign policy is by determining national role conceptions of Chinese leaders. The national role conception that Chinese leaders have plays an essential part in the development and implementation of Chinese foreign policy. The different conceptions of China's role in the international system, as determined by Chinese leaders, gives an important contribution to understanding the rise of China as a leading world power. It is obvious that different leaders have had different views regarding what China's position should be in the global community. …