Chinese Studies Commons^™

The Price Of Cosmopolitanism: Globalization, Class Structure, And Language Endangerment In Shanghai, Fang Xu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the last two decades, Shanghai has experienced an unprecedented transformation, as China’s economic globalization and urban expansion have increased rapidly. Looking beyond statistics and architectural spectacles, I examine a seemingly personal choice in Shanghai, speaking Putonghua Mandarin, the official language, or the Shanghai dialect. This study contextualizes the contested urban linguistic space, and illustrates the political, social, and cultural conditions in this China’s globalizing city.

Through archival research, fifty in-depth interviews, two hundred and fifty survey questionnaires, and ethnographic fieldwork in Shanghai in the fall and winter of 2013, I document the impact of three sets of state policies …

How Liberal Korean And Taiwanese Textbooks Portray Their Countries’ “Economic Miracles”, Frances Chan

Student Work

A 2015-2016 William Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Frances Chan (Timothy Dwight College '16) for her essay submitted to the Department of History, “How Liberal Korean and Taiwanese Textbooks Portray their Countries’ “Economic Miracles”.” (Peter C. Perdue, Professor of History, advisor.)

Frances Chan’s essay “How Liberal Korean and Taiwanese Textbooks Portray their Countries’ “Economic Miracles,” is a fascinating exploration of the creation of historical memory as seen in textbooks on the history of postwar economic development in Korea and Taiwan. Drawing on her remarkable linguistic skills in both Korean and …

The Inheritance Of Misty Poetry's Tradition And The Crisis Of New Poetry, Guoyuan Xu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper aims to analyze how the Misty Poetry inherited Chinese poetry tradition and how the inheritance resulted in the spiritual crisis and the entailing crisis of Chinese contemporary poetry. The Misty Poetry tries to conceal its inheritance of Chinese modern poetry with an explicit anti-traditional gesture, but due to the unbridgeable gap between the poets' self and the cultural and historical tradition, the Misty poets could not but fall into the deep trap of nihilism. The essential influence on the Misty Poetry has been the early Western modernism, especially the Symbolism, and the Misty Poetry could hardly be said …

The Influence Of Shangqing Taoist Sect's Meditation Method On The Pre-Song-Dynasty Fictions, Qingchuan Wan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Shangqing Taoist Sect's meditation method of "thought-holding" was similar to literary imagination in that it was characterized by a pictorial thinking, and this method inserted deep influence on the Taoist fiction writing in the pre-Song Dynasty. Some authors writing about immortal beings sat in meditation in front of the portraiture and wrote their novels, and some authors wrote out of their mystic illusions resulted from long and intensive meditation, and some authors wrote out of supernatural inspirations. The descriptions about the geography, plants, the clothes and pageants of the immortals reflected the influence from the Taoist portraiture and the process …

The Logic Construction Of The Principles Of "Aesthetics Of Pleasant Feeling", Zhixiang Qi

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper is a general introduction to aesthetics of pleasant feeling, aiming at explicating its logic structure. The fundamental function of aesthetics as a philosophy of beauty is to produce pleasant feeling, and the paper claims that the principles of aesthetics can be termed as the principles of aesthetics of pleasant feeling. On the basis of reconstruction after deconstruction of the definition and methodology, this paper argues that beauty is pleasant object with values, and built on this definition of beauty, the paper explores into the category, laws, characteristics, forms and styles of aesthetics and the characteristics of aesthetic practice. …

The Principles And Significance Of A Research Paradigm For Deep Integration And Transformation In Liberal Arts And Humanities Studies, Lili Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper proposes a research paradigm for the deep integration and transformation in the liberal arts and humanities. It takes as its cases the three categories of literary canons, story and methodology and their deep integration and transition. Through case studies, the paper concludes that the new issue emerged from the deep integration and transformation presents a better approach to deepen the research because a new issue raised for any category in the liberal arts and humanities implies an internal mechanism which requires for deep integration and transformation of issues so as to find a new approach and logic to …

The Two Worlds And The Tragic Sense In Chen Yinque's Poetics, Jingru Pan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Chen Yinque was also a prolific poet, and his poems were full of metaphor and innuendo. Chen's poetry can be traced in spirit and culture back to his father Chen Sanli's influence, and also allows the reader to have a glimpse of his melancholic nature. These two strands of influence contribute to the two distinct worlds of images in his poetry, one pointing to the impermanent yet everlasting realistic world, and the other pointing to the other side of this world. The former world is composed of flowers and people and human affairs, while the latter is composed of the …

On The Literary Ideas Of The Yangming School, Qingtao Xue

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The literary idea of the Yangming School is grounded in their concept of "conscience," which differs in part from Cheng-Zhu school. In terms of relationship between the literature and Confucian ideas, Yangming School's belief is that literary reation may not be necessarily in conflict with those idleas, which is against Chengzhu School's claim of "literalure does harm to Confucian ideas," and Yaming Schol's argument helps to relieve the intense relationship between literature and Cunfucianism. Inlerms of literariness, Yangming School advocates sincerity in expression instead of indulgence in the art of rhetoric. In terms of literary creation, it opposes the simulation …

The Cultural Nature Of Material Objects And The Return Route Of Material Culture, Liang Xu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Material object is a sign which exists in the system of meaning discrimination and expression, and it is a concept in culture. Material objects in consumer society show the features of a system that is dominated by cultural ideas with the human sense of orientation. The development of material culture in consumer society necessitates the insatiable pursuit of material objects, because the prospect of material objects comprises the man-material relationship in consumer society and the foothold of consumer society falls on material. As the pursuit is based on the substantiality of material and it tries to avoid the certainty of …

The Cultural Political Significance Of Form: On The Musical Practices Of The New Worker's Art Troupe, Chunlin Guo

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper examines the musical practice of the New Worker's Art Troupe from the perspective of cultural study, and focuses on the cultural political significance of forms in their practice. As a new kind of organization, the New Worker's Art Troupe purposely keeps a defiant posture to distance itself from cultural industry. They showcase many popular music works to the grass roots free of charge and their music works are usually imbued with keen sense of reality, adopting folk song's melodies and singing in dialects, and the paper observes that their musical practice is realizing the concept of "people's literature …

The Destiny Of Art: On Jean Baudrillard's Aesthetic Thought, Shuyuan Wan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Baudrillard claims that contemporary world is a transparent world characterized by excess, while contemporary art is an obscene world in which the reality is excessive and illusion is deficient. Art has been made entirely deviated from its essence. Therefore, Baudrillard therefore calls for the return of art to its inherent way from "something" back to "nothing," returning to a form of illusion or a form of other-worldness. At the same time, Baudrillard also points out that art as a form has its own destiny, a destiny of seduction. As form of seduction, art should also become a symbolic poetics, a …

The Encounter Between François Cheng And Contemporary French Poetry, Chunfeng Wu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

François Cheng is the first person of Chinese origin elected to the French Academy. He has authored creative writings of poetry and fiction, with both Chinese Daoist philosophical wisdom and Western logical reasoning. This paperattempts to adopt a synchronic perspective and the thematic approach of criticism to explore how Cheng's poetry encounters contemporary French poetry so as to find out the common spirit behind the two cultures. The shared concept ofliterary writingbetween Cheng and the French poets is investigated from three aspects of the unknownness of the world, feeling and its subject, and the art of in-between writing so as …

Xia Chengtao's Ballad-Form Poetry And His Innovational Thought About Poetry Types, Xiaojuan Xin

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Famous ci-poetry scholar Xia Chengtao also attained highly in ancient poetry creation, and he was especially devoted to the song-form poetry but his achievements have not been done justice to in the academic circle. His poetic idea shown in his writing turns from his early unconventional diction to later plain style, and it reflects his pursuit of transformation of poetic forms. In the 1930s and 1940s when the social changes were drastic, Xia Chengtao tried to blend the ballad form with ci-poetic lyrics so as to create a new form. This paper examines Xia Chengtao's comments on ballad-form poetry in …

A Critique Of Chernyshevsky, Jianjun Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In Chernyshevsky's literary criticism practice, reality has the absolute dominance over arts, and this leads to the extremity in his aesthetic concept, resulting in the one-dimensional, closed and narrow understanding of his aesthetics. This paper takes his concept of "life" as starting point to analyze his key views and examine the legitimacy and limitations of his utilitarianism, and tries to do justice to the acuteness, straightforwardness and prejudice in his literature criticism.

A New Terrain Of Textual Research: On Xia Chengtao's Study On Jiang Kui'sci-Poetry, Qin Guan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Prof. Xia Chengtao started his studies on ci-poetry in the late 1920s, with a focus on Jiang Kuia. Prof. Xia's remarkable contributions to Jiang Kui Studies include his final colloation of Jiang Kui's music for ci-poems, textual studies on various editions of Jiang Kui's works, and insightful examination and interpretation of Jiang Kui's poetic intent upon explorations into his life. His grand and detailed book Annotations to Jiang Baishi’s Ci-Poems in Chronological Order is a classic and model in ancient texts collation and research, and his methods opens a new terrain of textual criticism for 20th-century study on ci-poetry.

A Synopsis Of China Literary Theory Association Academic Symposium On "Reflection On And Prospect Of The Study Of Literary Theory As A Discipline", Zilu Yang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

No abstract provided.

A Critical Review Of Xia Chengtao's Views On The History OfCi-Poetry And The Construction Of The History, Zhixi Qian

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Xiao Chengtao's views on the history of ci-poetry and the construction of the history resulted from his research and creative practice. One of Xia's key views was that the delicate restraint style was not to be termed as the orthodox, and this view broke away from the established understanding in the history of ci-poetry and enables Xia to reflect from a broader context on the ci-poetry history and the dualistic classification of ci-poetry. Xia's reflection on Changzhou School's view of ci-poetry history was of special importance to his views. His contributions to the study of ci-poetry included his elucidation of …

Cognitive Thinking And Contemporary Chinese Theory Of Literature And Art, Shousen Yang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Due to the specificity of historical development, mores of the age and cultural tradition, contemporary Chinese theory of literature and art is dominated by what Hegel termed as the pragmatic, isolated and partial cognitive thinking. Cognitive thinking has till recently been under its negative impact to the extent that the views on many issues have gone into the extreme. In order to promote the development of the contemporary Chinese theory of literature and art and the renaissance of national culture, we should understand the relationship between sensibility, intellectuality and reason, and be wary of extreme deficiencies of intellectuality by emphasizing …

Common Sense, Nature Of The Mind And Humanism: A Study On Kant's Aesthetic Taste, Liqun Lv

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Kant's aesthetic taste as he had expounded in his Critique of Judgment is not only the foundation for further research on aesthetics but also an important methodological significance. A detailed examination of such concepts as common sense, communicability and disinterestedness reveals the essential characteristics of aesthetic taste and its wide application range in the human domain. In the context of the crisis in the contemporary world, re-examination of the aesthetic taste may provide us a new perspective on the world and human affairs.

Different Types Of Modern Chinese Literary Criticism, Zidong Xu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the development of modern Chinese literary criticism since the May Fourth movement, stylistic criticism flourished in the 1920s which resulted in partisan criticism in the 1930s. Organized by the left-wing groups, partisan criticism was divided into three different types, known as "criticism of the others," "internal debate" and "top-down approach," with differed historical contexts, writing styles and strategies. Their evolution, integration and transformation deeply influenced the development of modern and contemporary Chinese literature. It was until the 1980s that academic-style literary criticism, developed in the 1940s, had a direct impact on contemporary Chinese literature. In the Internet Age, many …