China Books

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Daughters of a British father and a Chinese mother, Edith and Winnifred Eaton pursued wildly different paths. While Edith wrote stories of downtrodden Chinese immigrants under the pen name Sui Sin Far, Winnifred presented herself as Japanese American and published Japanese romance novels under the name Onoto Watanna. In this invigorating reappraisal of the vision and accomplishments of the Eaton sisters, Dominika Ferens departs boldly from the dichotomy that has informed most commentary on them: Edith's 'authentic' representations of Chinese North Americans vs. Winnifred's 'phony' portrayals of Japanese characters and settings. Arguing that Edith as much as Winnifred constructed her persona along with her pen name, Ferens considers the fiction of both Eaton sisters as ethnography. Edith and Winnifred Eaton suggests that both authors wrote through the filter of contemporary ethnographic discourse on the Far East and also wrote for readers hungry for 'authentic' insight into the morals, manners, and mentality of an exotic other. Bringing to the Eatons' writings a contemporary understanding of the racial and textual politics of ethnographic writing, this important account shows how these two very different writers claimed ethnographic authority, how they used that authority to explore ideas of difference, race, class, and gender, and how their depictions of non-whites worked to disrupt the process of whites' self-definition. Dominika Ferens is vice-chair of the Department of English at the University of Wroclaw, Poland. She earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of California at Los Angeles. A volume in the series The Asian American Experience, edited by Roger Daniels (ISBN:0252027213) (For this item please quote stock ID 17863) ISBN: 0252027213

'A wealth of interesting detail and provocative ideas about the life and creative activities of a fascinating major figure in 20th century Chinese art. Barmé makes a convincing case for seeing in Feng's mixture of traditionalist and progressive concern - and interest in Chinese and Western aesthetics, Buddhism and patriotism - a humanism that transcends categorisation' - Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of Twentieth-Century China: New Approaches. This engrossing book, a brilliant blend of biography and criticism, tells the story of Feng Zikai (1898-1975), one of the most gifted and important artists to emerge from the politically tumultuous decades of the 1920s and 1930s. Barmé provides a closely woven parallel history, that of the life of writer-artist Feng, who was also an essayist and a translator, and that of China's turbulent twentieth century. He investigates Feng Zikai's aesthetic vision, its development, and how it relates to traditional and contemporary Chinese cultural values and debates. Although Feng was known for his so-called casual drawings, he was reluctant to classify his art. According to Barmé, much of his writing and painting was rooted in a philosophy of self-expression. Difficult to position in relation to existing Chinese political and social nomenclature, Feng remains, to a large extent, an enigma. He was sympathetic to the average person and the impoverished peasant, yet he was a romantic, and often identified with the increasingly politicised intelligentsia. A devout Buddhist, he was a close observer of nature and children, and while his art appeared gentle, it often carried a strong message. Much has been written about Feng Zikai, a figure who has become popular among elite and mass audiences in the Chinese world once more, but no other work has examined his place among May Fourth writers and intellectuals nor his position within the context of China's artistic, religious, and literary tradition. An Artistic Exile moves straight to the heart of debates surrounding modernisation, religion, science, the essence of a tradition in an age of colonial modernity, and the ethos of political and social thought in twentieth-century China. (ISBN:0520208323) (For this item please quote stock ID 19169) ISBN: 0520208323

'Students of Chinese and comparative literature, travellers looking for a glimpse of modern China's past, and other first-time sojourners in this unfamiliar fictional world need this kind of broad-based, interdisciplinary reader's guide ... Levy's book provides a brief and accessible overview of much recent scholarship on the Stone' – Mary Scott, The Journal of Asian Studies. 'Though intended as an introduction for first-time readers of the masterpiece, Levy's book also offers some insights of use to specialists. A readable contribution to English studies ofHonglou meng' – Y. Wu, Choice. The Story of the Stone (also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber), completed in the mid-18th century by Cao Xuegin, is considered China´s greatest novel - but its length and narrative complexity have proven daunting to many modern readers. Now, esteemed scholar of Asian literature Dore J. Levy introduces this timeless work to first-time readers, while also presenting a new method of comparative interpretation for advanced students and scholars. Drawing from literary theory, sociology, religion, and medicine, Levy explores how the classic novel confronts the chasm between social, emotional, and spiritual ideals and their translation into day-to-day reality. This illuminating work unpacks The Story of the Stone based on the interpretation of four major themes: the inversion of traditional family dynamics, which constitutes the novel´s social framework; the function of illness and medicine in a society where Buddhist notions of karma and retribution exist alongside pragmatic notions of the human body that make up traditional Chinese medicine; the role of poetry in the social structure of dynastic Chinese society; and the use of poetry as a vehicle for spiritual liberation. (ISBN:0231114079) (For this item please quote stock ID 20078) ISBN: 0231114079

To discuss the supernatural in China is 'to talk of foxes and speak of ghosts'. Ming and Qing China were well populated with foxes, shape-changing creatures who transgressed the boundaries of species, gender, and the metaphysical realm. In human form, foxes were both immoral succubi and good wives/good mothers, both tricksters and Confucian paragons. They were the most alien yet the most common of the strange creatures a human might encounter. Rania Huntington investigates a conception of one kind of alien and attempts to establish the boundaries of the human. As the most ambiguous alien in the late imperial Chinese imagination, the fox reveals which boundaries around the human and the ordinary were most frequently violated and, therefore, most jealously guarded. Each section of this book traces a particular boundary violated by the fox and examines how maneouvers across that boundary change over time: the narrative boundaries of genre and texts; domesticity and the outside world; chaos and order; the human and the non-human; class; gender; sexual relations; and the progression from animal to monster to transcendent. As 'middle creatures', foxes were morally ambivalent, endowed with superhuman but not quite divine powers; like humans, they occupied a middle space between the infernal and the celestial. (ISBN:0674010949) (For this item please quote stock ID 20201) ISBN: 0674010949

Speaking about Chinese writing entails thinking about how writing speaks through various media. In the guises of the written character and its imprints, traces, or ruins, writing is more than textuality. The goal of this volume is to consider the relationship of writing to materiality in China's literary history and to ponder the physical aspects of the production and circulation of writing. To speak of the thing-ness of writing is to understand it as a thing in constant motion, transported from one place or time to another, one genre or medium to another, one person or public to another. Thinking about writing as the material product of a culture shifts the emphasis from the author as the creator and ultimate arbiter of a text's meaning to the editors, publishers, collectors, and readers through whose hands a text is reshaped, disseminated, and given new meanings. By yoking writing and materiality, the contributors to this volume aim to bypass the tendency to oppose form and content, words and things, documents and artifacts, to rethink key issues in the interpretation of Chinese literary and visual culture. (ISBN:0674010981) (For this item please quote stock ID 20202) ISBN: 0674010981

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~With the increasing globalisation of culture, American literature has become a significant body of text for classrooms outside of the United States. Bringing together essays from a wide range of scholars in a number of countries, including China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the United States, Crossing Oceans focuses on strategies for critically reading and teaching American literature, especially ethnic American literature, within the Asia Pacific region. This book will be an important tool for scholars and teachers from around the globe who desire fresh perspectives on American literature from a variety of national contexts.

~The contributors use perspectives dealing with race, feminism, cultural geography, and structures of power as lenses through which to interpret texts and engage students' critical thinking. The collection is 'crossing oceans' through the transnational perspectives of the contributors who come from and/or teach at colleges and universities in both Asia and the United States. Many of the essays reveal how narratives of and about ethnic Americans can be used to redefine and reconfigure not only American literary studies, but also constructions of Asian and American identities.

~'A smart and timely collection, Crossing Oceans situates the global debates in American literary studies in a series of Asian sites, illuminating in unexpected ways texts as well as issues surrounding race, identity, nation, and model minority. There is much here to reflect upon and learn form. The contributors' insights will impinge upon our work for years to come in classrooms across Asia and the U.S.' - Amritjit Singh, Former MELUS President and co-editor of Collected Writings of Wallace Thurman.

~Noelle Brada-Williams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San Jose State University. Karen Chow is presently a full-time English faculty member at De Anza College in Cupertino, California. (ISBN:9622096913) (For this item please quote stock ID 22632) ISBN: 9622096913

~Snakes' Legs examines sequels (xushu), a common but long-neglected literary phenomenon in traditional China. What prompted writers to produce sequels despite their poor reputation as a genre? What motivated readers to read them? How should we characterise the nature of the relationship between sequels and rewritings? Contributors to this volume illuminate these and other questions, and the collection as a whole offers a comprehensive consideration of this vigorous genre while suggesting fascinating new directions for research.

~Xushu as a discursive practice reinforces the paradox that innovation is impossible without imitation. It presents us with fertile ground for studying the intricate ties that bind the writer and reader of traditional Chinese fiction: the writer of xushu is always self-consciously assuming the dual role of author and reader and in the writing process must consider both the work in progress as well as its precursor(s).

~Snakes' Legs contains detailed discussions of some representative xushu works from the late Ming and Qing periods, many of which have received little scholarly attention. It will shed light on the development of Chinese fiction and the various textual practices in traditional China as well as account for the genre’s continuing vitality in modern times.

~Contributors: Robert Hegel, Siao-chen Hu, Martin Huang, Keith McMahon, Qiancheng Li, Ying Wang, Ellen Widmer, Laura Wu & Shuhui Yang.

~Martin Huang teaches Chinese literature at the University of California, Irvine. (ISBN:0824828127) (For this item please quote stock ID 23288) ISBN: 0824828127

'Paper Swordsmen is by far the best treatment in a Western language of a long-neglected topic in Chinese popular culture. Primal notions of bravery, health, cultivation, skill, justice, loyalty, and romantic love are at the core of martial arts fiction. In the modern context of Jin Yong's Hong Kong, issues of foreign incursion, cultural rootedness, nationalism, and a sometimes-flawed 'national character' also come to the fore. Hamm weaves these strands together and sets them perceptively into their Hong Kong/Guangdong context as well as the larger Chinese cultural world' - Perry Link, Princeton University 'Hamm's book is comprehensive and meticulous, touching on a wide range of issues, from generic studies to the question of canon, from readers' responses to media marketing tactics, and from national allegory to political manoeuvering. He asks intelligent questions and answers them from theoretically stimulating perspectives' - David Der-wei Wang, Harvard University The martial arts novel is one of the most distinctive and widely-read forms of modern Chinese fiction. In Paper Swordsmen, John Christopher Hamm offers the first in-depth English-language study of this fascinating and influential genre, focusing on the work of its undisputed 20th century master, Jin Yong. Through close readings of Jin Yong's recognised masterpieces, Hamm shows how these works combine a rich literary tradition with an extraordinary narrative artistry and an evolving appreciation of the political and cultural aspects of contemporary Chinese experience. (ISBN:0824827635) (For this item please quote stock ID 23835) ISBN: 0824827635

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Both Western and Chinese intellectuals have long derided filial piety tales as an absurd and grotesque variety of children’s literature. Selfless Offspring offers a fresh perspective on the genre, revealing the rich historical worth of these stories by examining them in their original context: the tumultuous and politically fragmented early medieval era (A.D. 100–600). At a time when no Confucian virtue was more prized than filial piety, adults were moved and inspired by tales of filial children. Men eager to earn the regard of their peers avidly read them and even asked to be buried with them. Imperial princes authored collections to burnish their credentials, and elite families used them to justify their position in society. The emotional impact of even the most outlandish actions portrayed in the stories was profound, a measure of the directness with which they spoke to major concerns of the early medieval Chinese elite. Here were essential stories of children willing to sacrifice everything for their parents, the unconditional obedience of sons, and families content to stay together for generations no matter what. Knapp also focuses on the filial piety stories themselves — their structure, historicity, origin, function, and transmission — and argues that most stem from the oral culture of these elite extended families. He explored the most common theme: the 'reverent care' and mourning of parents and looks at the relative burden that filiality placed on men and women and concludes that, although women largely performed the same filial acts as men, they had to go to greater extremes to prove their sincerity. Keith N. Knapp is associate professor of history at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. (ISBN:0824828666) (For this item please quote stock ID 24897) ISBN: 0824828666

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There is no greater challenge to a translator than the rendering of Chinese, ancient or modern, into English. Here, reading scholar-translators talk about the craft of translating Chinese literature into English. (ISBN:9780253319586) (For this item please quote stock ID 6777) ISBN: 9780253319586

A valuable resource for the specialist, this volume also provides the general reader a glimpse into the lives of educated women in the 1920s and 30s in China through material seldom available in English. The women writers who tell their stories here are not widely-known, but their courage prepared the ground for succeeding generations of women writers. They broke boldly with tradition, taking the first steps in the formation of a new image of modern Chinese womanhood. Janet Ng's introduction draws comparisons with Western women's experience while making clear the authors' achievements in the development of modern Chinese literature. Short biographical sketches of each of the seven authors are also included. 'The individual offerings are fascinating and delightful reading; at the same time they are revealing portrayals of the thinking that prompted these women to write down their experiences.' - China Review International (For this item please quote stock ID 11326) ISBN: 9789627255178

Ibsen has been considered by many literary historians as the most important source, besides Goethe, of Western influence in modern Chinese literary thinking. While Goethe is recognized for his impact on the romantic trend in modern Chinese literature, particularly in the 1930s, Ibsen remains to be influential in both the modern Chinese theatre and the Chinese women?s movement throughout the twentieth century. Most of Ibsen?s major plays have been translated and staged in China, and scholars in the field of modern Chinese intellectual history fully acknowledge the contribution Ibsen made to the May 4th Movement that marked the beginning of modern Chinese culture. Apart from its value as a reference tool for the study of modern Chinese theatre and women?s movement, this critical-annotated bibliography serves, more importantly, to chart an aspect of the path along which modern Chinese culture has developed. About the Author: Kwok-kan Tam is Professor in the Department of English at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His books include New Chinese Cinema (co-authored, 1998), A Place of One's Own: Stories of Self in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong & Singapore (co-edited, 1999), and The Politics of Subject Construction in Modern Chinese Literature (in Chinese, 2000). (For this item please quote stock ID 16362) ISBN: 9789622019072

The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons by Liu Hsieh (c. 465-522) is the first literary critical work, dealing comprehensively the genres, subject-matter, forms and styles of all Chinese writings since the earliest time to the author's own period. It casts a critical review of the literary theories and critical opinions of the past. It stands alone in importance in that, apart from being a thorough history of literary criticism, it also points out with rare discernment the significant features in the development of each genre. It may as well serve as a general history of Chinese literature. The author, in his analysis of literary and rhetorical elements, in his discussion of the relation between talents and learning, content and form, feeling-idea and expression, exhibits an unusual sense of balance, with an eye ever on the unity of the whole of a literary piece. Catholic in learning, he brings before us a massive amount of past treasures; and to scholars in subsequent ages he serves as a guiding light in charting out the terrain of criticism. As a piece of literary writing, it shines forth among the works of his time. A product of his age, he is a past master in the current double harness style, a style so ornate that he originally sets out to check its advance and revitalise the classical style of grace and elegance. His work captures the beauty of the current style without being encumbered by its rhetorical debris. This new billingual edition of the Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons carries many revisions in the English translation and annotations of the Chinese classic. In Prof. Shih's view, the new version, with these significant improvements, makes obsolete his previous rendition of the same book published some years ago. (For this item please quote stock ID 16913) ISBN: 9789622012714

'One of the key books to read on the fervour of the literary and intellectual hybridisation that took place between the late Qing and early Republic' - Keith McMahon, University of Kansas Bringing the World Home sheds new light on China's vibrant cultural life between 1895 and 1919 - a crucial period that marks a watershed between the conservative old regime and the ostensibly iconoclastic New Culture of the 1920s. Although generally overlooked in the effort to understand modern Chinese history, the era has much to teach us about cultural accommodation and is characterised by its own unique intellectual life. This original and probing work traces the most significant strands of the new post-1895 discourse, concentrating on the anxieties inherent in a complicated process of cultural transformation. It focuses principally on how the need to accommodate the West was reflected in such landmark novels of the period as Wu Jianren's Strange Events Eyewitnessed in the Past Twenty Years and Zhu Shouju's Tides of the Huangpu, which began serial publication in Shanghai in 1916. The negative tone of these narratives contrasts sharply with the facile optimism that characterises the many essays on the 'New Novel' appearing in the popular press of the time. Neither iconoclasm nor the wholesale embrace of the new could square the contradicting intellectual demands imposed by the momentous alternatives presenting themselves. Theodore Huters is professor of Chinese in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA. (For this item please quote stock ID 24885) ISBN: 9780824828387

Zhang Kangkang is one of contemporary China?s leading writers. In a career spanning some thirty years, she has published novels, novellas, short stories, memoirs and numerous essays. A teenager at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Zhang was caught up in the Mao?s campaign to send educated urban youth away to the poor and remote parts of rural China. After they were finally allowed to return to the cities in the late 1970s, many among this generation began to write about their experience. A cultural phenomenon known as ?urban youth literature? was born, and Zhang became one of its leading exponents. The stories collected here share the theme of urban youth - now returned to the city and no longer young - confronting their past. They reveal to the reader the experiences that shaped and still haunt a whole generation of Chinese people. (For this item please quote stock ID 19317) ISBN: 9789627255260

Gao Xingjian, the Nobel Laureate in Literature 2000, is a writer of many talents, simultaneously a novelist, playwright, stage director, painter, translator and critic. The Swedish Academy summarised Gao's achievements in a press release: ?an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama.? His novels, Soul Mountain and One Man's Bible, and his many later plays seek to rediscover the self in its original consciousness, which is translingual and transcultural. Educated in China and now residing in France, Gao Xingjian writes in two traditions, the Chinese and the Western. He started his literary career in the early 1980s, and has been noted for his experimentation with the dramatic form and his innovative use of narrative voice. In his works, he explores subjectivity beyond the limits of language by examining the self in relation to gender, culture, location and politics. This book presents a collection of critical studies on various aspects of Gao Xingjian's novels and plays. Contributors include distinguished scholars in the fields of comparative literature, theatre and Chinese studies, whose views form a critical dialogue on the writer's achievements in literature and the theatre. Kwok-kan Tam, is Professor in the Department of English, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His works include The Politics of Subject Construction in Modern Chinese Literature (2000) and Ibsen in China 1908-1997: A Critical-Annotated Bibliography of Criticism, Translation and Performance (2001). He is also the co-author of New Chinese Cinema (1998). 'This book is a valuable guide to one of the major writers of our time' - Göran Malmqvist, Nobel Committee, the Swedish Academy (For this item please quote stock ID 15893) ISBN: 9789622019935

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Having multiple wives was one of the mainstays of male privilege during the Ming and Qing dynasties of late imperial China. Based on a comprehensive reading of eighteenth-century Chinese novels and a theoretical approach grounded in poststructuralist, psychoanalytic, and feminist criticism, Misers, Shrews, and Polygamists examines how such privilege functions in these novels and provides the first full account of literary representations of sexuality and gender in pre-modern China In many examples of rare erotic fiction, and in other works as well-known as Dream of the Red Chamber, Keith McMahon identifies a sexual economy defined by the figures of the 'miser' and the 'shrew' ? caricatures of the retentive, self-containing man and the overflowing, male-enervating woman. Among these and other characters, the author explores the issues surrounding the practice of polygamy, the logic of its over-valuation of masculinity, and the nature of sexuality generally in Chinese society. How does the man with many wives manage and justify his sexual authority? Why and how might he escape or limit this presumed authority, sometimes to the point of portraying himself as abject before the shrewish woman? How do women accommodate or coddle the man, or else oppose, undermine, or remold him? And in what sense does the man place himself lower than the spiritually and morally superior woman? The most extensive English-language study of Chinese literature from the eighteenth century, this examination of polygamy will interest not only students of Chinese history, culture, and literature but also all those concerned with histories of gender and sexuality. (For this item please quote stock ID 10738) ISBN: 9780822315667

'The Writing Women in Modern China anthology draws together some of the most exciting writing that had a formative role in bringing to the surface a female consciousness in China which challenged many perceived standards of the day'. - Olivier Bruckhardt Contemporary Review 'The best anthology to date of feminist Chinese women's creative writing from the period 1905 to 1937. . .Given the importance of literature in Chinese culture, this may be the first book any college or public library should buy on the subject of modern Chinese feminism'. - Choice Spanning the first three decades of this century to the Sino-Japanese War, these 22 works of fiction, drama, autobiography, essays, and poetry, each newly translated and prefaced by the author´s photograph and a short biographical sketch, introduce women whose literary careers coincided with an era of tremendous social, political, and cultural turbulence. Contributors: Qui Jin; Chen Xiefen; Chen Hengzhe; Feng Yuanjun; Shi Pingmei; Lu Yin; Lu Jingqing; Chen Xuezhao; Ling Shuhua; Su Xuelin; Yuan Changying; Xie Bingying; Ding Ling; Chen Ying; Lin Huiyin; Bing Xin; Luo Shu; Xiao Hong (For this item please quote stock ID 6526) ISBN: 9780231107013

This is an imaginative evocation and analysis ? through the medium of translations (the author?s own) of once popular but now forgotten literature ? of the variety of 'stories' in terms of which the Chinese have interpreted their lives since the early years of the 19th century. (For this item please quote stock ID 6733) ISBN: 9780804730914

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Movie Scripts, Dialogues, Stories, Essays, Opera, Poems, Plays (For this item please quote stock ID 8205) ISBN: 9780253202574

The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) wrecked the lives of millions of Chinese people; writers and intellectuals were particularly vulnerable. The two writers whose works are represented here both had their lives changed irrevocably in the course of this violent period. Lao Shê (1899-1966), an established novelist well known for his criticisms of the ills of traditional Chinese society, was persecuted to death at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Chen Jo-hsi (1938-), a young writer at the time, was born in Taiwan but went to live in the PRC during the first seven years of the Cultural Revolution. Her experience there resulted in the novel The Execution of Mayor Yin (1976), the first book to give readers a realistic glimpse of life during the Cultural Revolution. George Kao was founding editor of Renditions. (For this item please quote stock ID 8731) ISBN: 9780295957470

While Tao Qian?s unique position in Chinese literature is uncontested, there has been much debate over the relationship between Tao?s poetry and the life he lived and over the poet?s place within the literary and intellectual traditions of his time. Kwong?s nuanced analysis draws upon the full range of traditional Chinese literary scholarship and intellectual history as well as recent advances in Western literary criticism, hermeneutics, and comparative literature. Selected for CHOICE?s list of Outstanding Academic Books for 1995. (For this item please quote stock ID 9076) ISBN: 9780892641093

Modern Chinese Stories and Novellas, 1919-1949 brings together some of the best and most historically significant works of short fiction written in China in this century - including such important figures in the development of Chinese modernism as Lu Hsün, Mao Tun, Ting Ling, and Shen Ts' ung-wen. The companion volume to the highly acclaimed Traditional Chinese Stories, this new volume presents modernist short fiction from the 30-year period leading up to the Communist revolution of 1949, after which Chinese literature entered a new phase of development. The stories range in setting from the late Ch'ing dynasty through the Sino-Japanese War and the early Communist years, and range in length from brief tales to substantial short novels. Though a large number of the writers represented are leftists, works of all political viewpoints have been included to provide the full literary panorama of one of the most fertile periods of Chinese creative activity. (For this item please quote stock ID 9222) ISBN: 9780231042031

A comprehensive anthology of Chinese poetry from the 12th century B.C. to the present. 'This magnificent collection has the effect of a complete library rather than of an anthology of poetry ... A lyric quality comes through into our own language ... Every page is alive with striking and wonderful things, immediately accessible' - Publishers Weekly. 'Sunflower Splendor is the largest and, on the whole, best anthology of translated Chinese poems to have appeared in a Western language' - The New York Times Book Review. '... excellent translations by divers hands. Open to any page and listen to the still, sad music ...' - Washington Post Bookworld. (For this item please quote stock ID 9906) ISBN: 9780253206077

Collected in this anthology are major works of popular Chinese fiction from the mid-Ch'ing to the early Republican eras (late 19th century to early 20th century), as well as critical studies of such works. Among the translators for this anthology are leading Sinologists and the novelist Eileen Chang. Liu Ts'un-yan, the editor, is Emeritus Professor of Chinese at the Australian National University and an expert in the field of Chinese fiction. (For this item please quote stock ID 9984) ISBN: 9789622013094

This dual-language compilation of seven complete major works and many shorter pieces from the Confucian period through the Ch'ing dynasty will be indispensable to students of Chinese literature. Owen's masterful translations and commentaries have opened up Chinese literary thought to theorists and scholars of other languages. 'A monumental work of scholarship that will prove invaluable for both research and teaching...Owen has selected texts that are central to the Chinese tradition and provided lucid and insightful commentaries' - Pauline Yu, University of California, Los Angeles. (For this item please quote stock ID 11615) ISBN: 9780674749214

A comprehensive, comparative, and cross-cultural study of the poetics of the entire Chinese narrative tradition. (For this item please quote stock ID 11752) ISBN: 9780804723190

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From the Tang dynasty to the present day, for over 1,200 years, classical poetry in the form of regulated verse has been arguably the most popular literary art form in China. Its long tradition has been kept alive by the innumerable prolific masters of the genre, and appreciated by the widest possible audience from the highly educated to the man in the street. Lines and phrases from well-known poems have found their way into the langue of the common people. This volume contains the works of leading poets through the ages, complemented by scholarly explications of the art of Chinese poetry. (For this item please quote stock ID 12856) ISBN: 9789622013568

Tz'u means 'song words' in Chinese. The genre originated as lyrics written to music, sung and enjoyed by the common people. Its popular appeal continued after its adoption by the literati. Tz'u poetry reached its peak in the Song dynasty (AD 10th to 12th century) and still stands as one of the major achievements of China's poetic tradition. Comprising nine critical essays and translations of eight representative poets, this volume presents a comprehensive survey of the history of the genre as well as the achievements of individual writers. Contributors to this volume include many leading scholars of classical Chinese literature in the West and in China. 'In this very attractive anthology, editor Soong has brought together poems and essays that gracefully introduce the reader to a major genre of Chinese poetry.' - A.L.A. Booklist (For this item please quote stock ID 12857) ISBN: 9780295958118

The interplay between the external world (ching) and the poet?s inner world (ch?ing) lies at the heart of Chinese poetry, and understanding the interaction of the two is crucial to understanding this work from within its own tradition. Closely coordinating her discussions of poetry and criticism so that practice and theory become mutually enriching and illuminating, Sun offers sensitive and original readings of poems and a wealth of insights into Chinese poetics. (For this item please quote stock ID 13037)

One of modern China?s most moving love stories can be found in the correspondence between Lu Xun, China?s greatest modern writer, and Xu Guangping, who lived with Lu Xun from 1927 to the end of his life in 1936. Dating between 1925-1929, the letters were edited by Lu Xun and first published in 1933. Readers can trace the gradual change in their relationship: from teacher and student, they become lovers uncertain of their future together, and then a couple expecting their first child. The letters also reveal their thoughts on literature, education, politics and life. (For this item please quote stock ID 15136) ISBN: 9787119019970

Focusing on two late-Ming or early-Qing plays central to the Chinese canon - Peony Pavilion and Peach Blossom Fan, this study explores crucial questions concerning personal identity. (For this item please quote stock ID 16434) ISBN: 9780804742023

Jumping Through Hoops is a collection of nine intense and dramatic stories that sheds new light on the experiences of Chinese women during the Second World War. Originally published in Chinese in 1945, as part of Xie Bingying's classic anthology Nu zuojia zizhuan xuanji (Selected Autobiographical Writings by Women Writers), the extraordinary narratives reveal the writers' personal struggles during the years of turmoil between the Republican and Communist eras. Whether the contributors are internationally acclaimed or just rediscovered, most of these narratives are seldom found in other collections, either in Chinese or in translation. Jing M. Wang is an Assistant Professor of Chinese Literature and Language at Colgate University. She specialises in 20th-century Chinese women's autobiographical writings and modern Chinese literature. She is the co-author of Yingshi rumen(How to read English poetry, Shanghai Translations Publishing House, 1990). 'For the Western reader ... Reading these remarkable stories will be like stumbling upon an undiscovered country. These stories serve as a valuable and enormously entertaining lesson in cultural and political history. The opening pages ... are as powerful as anything I have read in autobiography ...'- Dr Patrick Riley, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Colgate University. 'This collection represents an invaluable source as to how women thought and lived their lives during the Resistance War. Their voice not only needs to be heard by the Chinese people but also by Western audiences who are interested in both Chinese culture and women's lives during that period'- Dr Yanfang Tang, Associate Professor of Chinese, College of William and Mary. 'We have seen short stories written by some of the contributors in this collection, but in contrast ... Their autobiographical writing is less sentimental, contains far more personal experiences ... And delves deeper into individual lives and psyches ... Scholars and students of modern Chinese women writers will find this book an essential reference for the biographical information contained therein and the inner world of women writers it reveals' - Dr Lily Lee, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Sydney, and editor of Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women. (For this item please quote stock ID 21431) ISBN: 9789622095830

(For this item please quote stock ID 25686) ISBN: 9787810809863

When Gao Xingjian was crowned Nobel Laureate in 2000, it was the first time in the 100-year history of the Nobel Prize that this honour had been awarded to an author for a body of works written in Chinese. His plays, novels and short fiction have undeniably won a victory for Chinese literature. Written between 1990 and 2002, these bold and extraordinary essays include Gao's Nobel Lecture, 'The Case for Literature', and embody his argument for literature as a universal human endeavour rather than one solely defined by national boundaries. The essays deal with history, politics, philosophy, archaeology, anthropology and linguistics, in addition to presenting Gao's innovative ideas on narrative and theatre aesthetics, and constitute the kernel of his thinking on literary creation. (For this item please quote stock ID 27038) ISBN: 9780732284053

A study focusing on how women and love are portrayed in chuanqi fiction, a genre of classical Chinese literature, of the Tang dynasty. It argues that the emergence of "love" as a theme in Chinese literature is closely related to the historical background of the Tang dynasty. (For this item please quote stock ID 29268) ISBN: 9789629963057

'An ambitious, comprehensive, and thorough English translation and study of Lu Xun's classical-style poetry.' - China Review International, Spring 1997 The influence of Lu Xun (1881-1936) in China's cultural, literary, and artistic life over the last sixty years has been inestimable. A poet from a backwater town, Lu Xun was propelled by the times into the various careers of educator, writer, publicist, professor, and polemicist. He was, however, first and foremost a classical scholar, writing some of his best works in classical form. The Lyrical Lu Xun is the most complete treatment of his classical-style poetry in any foreign language, containing translations and extensive discussions of sixty-four poems in the highly stylised forms of jueju (quatrains) and lushi (full-length regulated verse) - forms with detailed, strict rules for rhyme and tonal prosody that evolved according to pronunciations and standards set up more than a thousand years ago. (For this item please quote stock ID 8947) ISBN: 9780824815110

(For this item please quote stock ID 9229) ISBN: 9780253204899

'The translators have done an excellent job selecting works from among Chinese poets of four generations and rendering them into beautiful English' - Translation Review. (For this item please quote stock ID 11008) ISBN: 9780824813208

'Burton Watson . . . possesses all the qualities which distinguish a master translator. As a craftsman and as a poet, he has inspired and challenged two generations.' ? Asian Affairs (For this item please quote stock ID 7770) ISBN: 9780231034500

The authors and audiences for twentieth century Chinese literature, especially fiction, are examined in a fresh light in this book. While modern Chinese fictions are imaginary in that they do not constitute reliable portraits of Chinese life, they can reveal fascinating insights into the writers themselves and their implied audiences. The book also includes substantial reference to poetry, drama, film, and the visual arts as well as to the political and social context in which they appear. 'Bonnie McDougall draws upon her extensive knowledge of the twentieth-century transformations of Chinese literature and film to range widely over key issues of gender, authorship and audience. The results are always illuminating, frequently surprising and consistently judicious ... Students of comparative and modern Chinese literature, film, history and culture will all be stimulated by these engaging and perceptive explorations.' - Paul Clark, Professor of Chinese, The University of Auckland 'One of the most erudite scholars in the field takes on nearly all the crucial issues of twentieth-century Chinese literature in a panoramic and penetrating manner. This book is destined to become an indispensable reference for many years to come.' - William Tay, Professor Emeritus, University of California, San Diego The author, Bonnie S. McDougall, is Professor of Chinese at the University of Edinburgh. She has also taught at Sydney, Harvard and Oslo, and has spent long periods in teaching, translating and researching in China. Her many books and articles cover all periods and genres of modern Chinese literature. Her recent works include The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century (co-authored with Kam Louie), Columbia University Press, 1997; Chinese Concepts of Privacy (co-edited with Anders Hansson), Brill, 2001; and Love-Letters & Privacy in Modern China: The Intimate Lives of Lu Xun & Xu Guangping, Oxford University Press, 2002. (For this item please quote stock ID 20063) ISBN: 9789629960292

The essays of this book focus on literary inter-crossings within the countries of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea) and between East Asian countries and the West. The volume contains a selection of edited papers originally presented at the XIVth ICLA/AILC Congress held in 1994 at the University of Alberta. The contributors are from Austria, Canada, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and the USA. (For this item please quote stock ID 22149) ISBN: 9780958652650

Comparative literary studies provide a paradigm for multilateral exchange and interaction that serves as a counterweight to the universalising effects of mass commercial culture. In this selection of papers presented at the International Conference on Cultural Dialogue and Misreading held at Peking University in 1995, leading academics from all parts of the world explore the significance of relativism in a postcolonial world. (For this item please quote stock ID 22148) ISBN: 9780958652612

How often do we think of cultural humiliation and failure as strengths? Against prevailing views on what it means to enjoy power as individuals, cultures, or nations, this provocative book looks at the making of cultural and national identities in modern China as building success on failure. It reveals the exercise of sovereign power where we least expect it and shows how this is crucial to our understanding of a modern world of conflict, violence, passionate suffering, and cultural difference. (For this item please quote stock ID 24847) ISBN: 9780804751766

Seven essays in this book chronologically document striking changes that occurred in thematic concerns in fiction after a decade of intellectual repression under the Cultural Revolution. The bold portrayals in the book present different pictures from the pristine representations of life to be found in the literature of the previous decade in China, and the book remains the most important work focusing on Chinese literature immediately after the Cultural Revolution. The book contains a comprehensive listing of English language sources on the period (translations of fiction, critical writings on fiction and fiction writers, and translations of official speeches). The essays include: Discussions of Exposure Literature in the Chinese Press, 1978-1979, Youth & Youth Education in Liu Xinwu?s Early Short Stories, Literary Double Think in Post-Mao China: the Case of Li Jian, In Search of Socialist Capitalism & Chinese Modernisation: Jiang Zilong?s Ideas on Industrial Management, Love Stories: the Meaning of Love & Marriage in China, 1978-1981, The Stories of Ah Cheng: Daoism, Confucianism & Life, and Educated Youth Literature: Self Discovery in the Chinese Villages. (For this item please quote stock ID 22151) ISBN: 9780959073560

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The 32 essays in this volume are selected from among the 222 pieces featured in Guwenguanzhi, a famous anthology assembled by Wu Chucai and Wu Diaohou in the 34th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) during the Qing dynasty. (For this item please quote stock ID 25780) ISBN: 9787560048475

Jia Pingwa, whose novels have caused both fame and controversy, has an enormous readership throughout the Chinese speaking world. However, despite Pingwa's cultural significance and the use of his poetry, novels and prose in schools and universities, there has never been any substantial academic study of the writer and his writings. Filling that gap, this book examines the corpus of Pingwa's writing and emphasises his importance, prominence and relevance to contemporary Chinese society. This pioneering study discusses Pingwa's works in the light of `cultural nationalism¿, showing how he links the cultural identity of China with the cultural authenticity of his local Shaanxi Province. In addition, the book highlights issues of nationalism in contemporary Chinese literature and underpins the significance of regional writing in negotiating China's national identities. Contents: >Preface >Acknowledgement >Chapter 1: Introduction >Chapter 2: Life & Career of Jia Pingwa >Chapter 3: Defunct Capital & Cultural Landscaping >Chapter 4: Defunct Capital & the Sexual Dissident >Chapter 5: Defunct Capital & Female Domesticity >Chapter 6: White Nights & Sleepless in Xijing >Chapter 7: Earth Gate & Loss of the Native Place >Chapter 8: Old Gao Village & Native Place Dystopia >Chapter 9: Remembering Wolves through Local Events >Chapter 10: Poetry, Essays & Jia Pingwa's Literary Personage >Conclusion: Poetics of Native Place >Narrating China & Cultural Ethnography >Authenticity & Fictional Estrangement >From Health Report to Local Accent: Future Poetics of Native Place >Appendixes: >1. Interview with Wang Yiyan >2. Chronology >3. Autobiographies & critical biographies >4. Works by Jia Pingwa >Bibliography Wang Yiyan is lecturer in Chinese Studies at the School of Languages & Cultures, University of Sydney. (For this item please quote stock ID 25542) ISBN: 9780415326759

The Shih-shuo hsin-yü, conventionally translated as A New Account of Tales of the World, is one of the most significant works in the entire Chinese literary tradition. It established a genre (the Shih-shuo t?i) and inspired dozens of imitations. The Shih-shuo hsin-yü consists of more than a thousand historical anecdotes about elite life in the late Han dynasty and the Wei-Chin period (c. 150-A.D. 420). Spirit and Self in Medieval China offers the first thorough study in any language of the origins and evolution of the Shih-shuo t?i based on a comprehensive literary analysis of the Shih-shuo hsin-yü and a systematic documentation and examination of more than thirty imitations. The study also contributes to the growing interest in the Chinese idea of individual identity. By focusing on the Shin-shuo genre, which provides the starting point in China for a systematic literary construction of the self, it demonstrates that, contrary to Western assertions of a timeless Chinese ?tradition,? an authentic understanding of personhood in China changed continually and often significantly in response to changing historical and cultural circumstances. Nanxiu Qian is assistant professor of Chinese literature at Rice University. (For this item please quote stock ID 15858) ISBN: 9780824823979

'This ambitious history explores a wide range of Chinese literature, from the classics to humor to folk tales to oral traditions, and moves from ancient times to the end of the 20th century ... Mair has overseen a host of excellent scholars writing on a vast subject. Highly recommended' ? Kitty Chen Library Journal. 'The best Western language history of Chinese literature to date ... This is an extraordinarily rich volume that serves a long-standing need, both for the specialist and non-specialist reader' ? David R. Knechtges, University of Washington. 'The new Columbia History of Chinese Literature represents the 'state of the art' and offers the English reader the best introduction to the vast and varied world of Chinese literature. It provides the essential background for both the more traditional fields of Chinese literature as well as newer areas of interest that have been developed in both East Asia and the West. The work is comprehensive without being overwhelming and will serve the interests of both the curious beginner and the specialist' - Stephen Owen, Harvard University. Comprehensive yet portable, this account of the development of Chinese literature from the very beginning up to the present brings the riches of this august literary tradition into focus for the general reader. Organised chronologically with thematic chapters interspersed, the 55 original chapters by leading specialists cover all genres and periods of poetry, prose, fiction, and drama. A special feature of The Columbia History of Chinese Literature is the focus on such subjects as popular culture, the impact of religion upon literature, the role of women, and relationships with non-Sinitic languages and peoples. (For this item please quote stock ID 20076) ISBN: 9780231109840

The authors and audiences for twentieth century Chinese literature, especially fiction, are examined in a fresh light in this book. While modern Chinese fictions are imaginary in that they do not constitute reliable portraits of Chinese life, they can reveal fascinating insights into the writers themselves and their implied audiences. The book also includes substantial reference to poetry, drama, film, and the visual arts as well as to the political and social context in which they appear.

The author, Bonnie S. McDougall, is Professor of Chinese at the University of Edinburgh. She has also taught at Sydney, Harvard and Oslo, and has spent long periods in teaching, translating and researching in China. Her many books and articles cover all periods and genres of modern Chinese literature. Her recent works include The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century (co-authored with Kam Louie), Columbia University Press, 1997; Chinese Concepts of Privacy (co-edited with Anders Hansson), Brill, 2001; and Love-Letters & Privacy in Modern China: The Intimate Lives of Lu Xun & Xu Guangping, Oxford University Press, 2002. (For this item please quote stock ID 22563) ISBN: 9789629961053

The frequent appearance of androgyny in Ming and Qing literature has long interested scholars of late imperial Chinese culture. A flourishing economy, widespread education, rising individualism, a prevailing hedonism - all of these had contributed to the gradual disintegration of traditional gender roles in late Ming and early Qing China (1550-1750) and given rise to the phenomenon of androgyny. Now, Zuyan Zhou sheds new light on this important period, offering a highly original and astute look at the concept of androgyny in key works of Chinese fiction and drama from the 16th to the 18th centuries. The work begins with an exploration of androgyny in Chinese philosophy and Ming-Qing culture. Zhou proceeds to examine chronologically the appearance of androgyny in major literary writing of the time, yielding novel interpretations of canonical works from The Plum in the Golden Vase, through the scholar-beauty romances, to The Dream of the Red Chamber. He traces the ascendance of the androgyny craze in the late Ming, its culmination in the Ming-Qing transition, and its gradual phasing out after the mid-Qing. The study probes deviations from engendered codes of behavior both in culture and literature, then focuses on two parallel areas: androgyny in literary characterisation and androgyny in literati identity. The author concludes that androgyny in late Ming and early Qing literature is essentially the dissident literati's stance against tyrannical politics, a psychological strategy to relieve anxiety over growing political inferiority. Zuyan Zhou teaches Chinese language and literature at Hofstra University. (For this item please quote stock ID 20693) ISBN: 9780824825713

The numerous studies of Maxine Hong Kingston's touchstone work The Woman Warrior fail to take into account the stories in China Men, which were largely written together with those in The Woman Warrior but later published separately. Although Hong Kingston's decision to separate the male and female narratives enabled readers to see the strength of the resulting feminist point of view in The Woman Warrior, the author has steadily maintained that to understand the book fully it was necessary to read its male companion text. Maureen Sabine's ambitious study of The Woman Warrior and China Men aims to bring these divided texts back together with a close reading that looks for the textual traces of the father in The Woman Warrior and shows how the daughter narrator tracks down his history in China Men. She considers theories of intertextuality that open up the possibility of a dynamic interplay between the two books and suggests that the Hong family women and men may be struggling for dialogue with each other even when they appear textually silent or apart. Maureen Sabine is associate professor and senior lecturer in the Department of Comparative Literature, The University of Hong Kong. (For this item please quote stock ID 22642) ISBN: 9780824827847

In 1976 Maxine Hong Kingston burst into American literature with the publication of The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. Since then her subsequent works - China Men (1980) and Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1989) - have startled readers with their complex projections of Asian-American life as a bicultural and bilingual adventure filled with contemporary confusions and ancient legends, inherited values, and new loyalties. Kingston has written of her family upbringing in Stockton, California, of the stories her mother told her as advice and warning, of her father's illegal arrival in the United States, of the exploits of grandfathers who worked on the rails in California, of San Francisco street life in the 1960s, and of traditional Chinese legends. Whatever her subject, she claims America for herself and other Asian-Americans whose histories are an essential part of the larger American tapestry. In this collection of interviews Kingston talks about her life, her writing, and her objectives. From the first, her books have hovered along the hazy line between fiction and nonfiction, memoir and imagination. As she answers her critics and readers, she both clarifies the differences and exults in the difficulties of distinguishing between the remembered and the re-created. She explains how she worked to bridge her parents' Chinese dialect with American slang, how she learned to explore her inheritance and find new relevance in her mother's 'talk stories', and how she developed the complex juxtapositions of myths and memoir that fill her books. Always savvy, often provocative, constantly amused and amusing, Kingston provides a vivid commentary on her writing and offers insight into a body of her work. (For this item please quote stock ID 12754) ISBN: 9781578060597

'Because hers is pure literature, its brilliance not shown, it is hidden deep within. It requires careful perusal to reach the essence. I had the honour of being granted by her in person the right to translate her works. Now that she is dead, I must treasure all the more this task entrusted to me, though I doubt if I can be worthy of it. My good friend Chen Tongbo, who must be better versed in European literature than anyone else in Peking, has lectured on Mansfield at Peking University, in his course on the short story. Lately he, too, has promised to do some translations of her work, and for this I will be deeply grateful to him. I hope that one day he will find time to say something further on her art as a short-story writer.' Xu Zhimo (1923) 'With remorseless irony she lays bare the hypocrisy and shallowness of the leisured class and their men of letters.' Tang Baoxin (1982) For almost eighty years, Katherine Mansfield's stories and poems have been a favourite of Chinese readers and she has had a significant influence on a number of short-story writers. In this book Shifen Gong selects and introduces twenty critical texts, translated into English for the first time. Together they bring fresh insights to the largely Eurocentric criticism of Mansfield's work, and at the same time provide a commentary on Chinese literary history. The story of the rises and falls in Mansfield's popularity is fascinating, as it shifts with the major social, political and literary trends which have given rise to modern China and its literature. About the Author/Translator: Dr Shifen Gong taught university English in China before arriving in New Zealand in the mid-1980s. She studied comparative literature at the University of Auckland, receiving her Ph.D. in 1994. With a sound knowledge of Chinese and English-speaking societies and cultures, and with many years of experience in teaching, researching and writing in both languages, she has published books, essays and translations in China, New Zealand, US, Britain, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Dr Gong currently resides in Kentucky, USA, teaching Chinese at the University of Louisville and Bellarmine University. (For this item please quote stock ID 16652) ISBN: 9781877276040

Comprehensive yet portable, this account of the development of Chinese literature from the very beginning up to the present brings the riches of this august literary tradition into focus for the general reader. Organized chronologically with thematic chapters interspersed, the fifty-five original chapters by leading specialists cover all genres and periods of poetry, prose, fiction, and drama, with a special focus on such subjects as popular culture, the impact of religion upon literature, the role of women, and relationships with non-Sinitic languages and peoples.

This ambitious history explores a wide range of Chinese literature, from the classics to humor to folk tales to oral traditions, and moves from ancient times to the end of the 20th century. The 54 chapters also include discussions of Chinese literature by women and minorities and assess its reception in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. A lengthy chapter explains the language and script, emphasizing the diversity and the changes over time. All the discussions deal with the social, political, and philosophical backgrounds that either inhabit or inhibit the literature. Early texts, for example, are usually grounded in Confucian and Taoist thought, while more recent writings deal with, or at least suggest, political ideologies. This being a history and not an anthology, no literature is included, except for an occasional short quotation. And, of course, the many transliterated titles, authors' names, and dates make for difficult reading, even though everything is translated and Chinese characters are omitted.

(For this item please quote stock ID 32273) ISBN: 9780231109857

(For this item please quote stock ID 32731) ISBN: 9787806407271

Filled with mirages, hallucinations, myths, mental puzzles, and the fantastic, the contemporary experimental fiction of the Chinese avant-garde represents a genre of storytelling unlike any other. Whether engaging the worn spectacle of history, expressing seemingly unmotivated violence, or reinventing outlandish Tibetan myths, these stories are defined by their devotion to theatrics and their willful apathy toward everything held sacred by the generation that witnessed the Cultural Revolution Jing Wang has selected provocative examples of this new school of writing, which gained prominence in the late 1980s. Contradicting many long-cherished beliefs about Chinese writers ? including the alleged tradition of writing as a political act against authoritarianism ? these stories make a dramatic break from conventions of modern Chinese literature by demonstrating an irreverence toward history and culture and by celebrating the artificiality of storytelling. Enriched by the work of a distinguished group of translators, this collection presents an aesthetic experience that may have outraged many revolutionary-minded readers in China, but one that also occupies an important place in the canon of Chinese literature. China?s Avant-Garde Fiction brings together a group of exceptional writers (including Raise the Red Lantern author Su Tong) to the attention of an English-speaking audience. (For this item please quote stock ID 8603) ISBN: 9780822321163

The novel Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan), China's earliest full-length narrative in vernacular prose, first appeared in print in the sixteenth century. The tale of 108 bandit heroes evolved from a long oral tradition; in its novelized form, it played a pivotal role in the rise of Chinese vernacular fiction, which flourished during the late Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) periods. Liangyan Ge's multidimensional study considers the evolution of Water Margin and the rise of vernacular fiction against the background of the vernacularisation of pre-modern Chinese literature as a whole. This gradual and arduous process, as the book convincingly shows, was driven by sustained contact and interaction between written culture and the popular oral tradition. Ge examines the stylistic and linguistic features of the novel against those of other works of early Chinese vernacular literature (stories, in particular), revealing an accretion of features typical of different historical periods and a prolonged and cumulative process of textualisation. In addition to providing a meticulous philological study, his work offers a new reading of the novel that interprets some of its salient characteristics in terms of the interplay between audience, storytellers, and men of letters associated with the oral tradition. Liangyan Ge is assistant professor of Chinese at the University of Notre Dame. (For this item please quote stock ID 17286) ISBN: 9780824823702

(For this item please quote stock ID 16085) ISBN: 9787806005477

Gao Xingjian, the Nobel Laureate in Literature 2000, is a writer of many talents, simultaneously a novelist, playwright, stage director, painter, translator and critic. The Swedish Academy summarised Gao's achievements in a press release: ‘an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama.’ His novels, Soul Mountain and One Man's Bible, and his many later plays seek to rediscover the self in its origina1 consciousness, which is translingual and transcultural. Educated in China and now residing in France, Gao Xingjian writes in two traditions, the Chinese and the Western. He started his literary career in the early 1980s, and has been noted for his experimentation with the dramatic form and his innovative use of narrative voice. In his works, he explores subjectivity beyond the limits of language by examining the self in relation to gender, culture, location and politics. This book presents a collection of critical studies on various aspects of Gao Xingjian's novels and plays. Contributors include distinguished scholars in the fields of comparative literature, theatre and Chinese studies, whose views form a critical dialogue on the writer's achievements in literature and the theatre. The Editor: Kwok-kan Tam, is Professor in the Department of English, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His works include The Politics of Subject Construction in Modern Chinese Literature (2000) and Ibsen in China 1908-1997: A Critical-Annotated Bibliography of Criticism, Translation and Performance (2001). He is also the co-author of New Chinese Cinema (1998). 'This book is a valuable guide to one of the major writers of our time.' - Göran Malmqvist, Nobel Committee, the Swedish Academy (For this item please quote stock ID 22113) ISBN: 9789629960032

This anthology of seventy-four representative essays from the 3rd century to the late 20th century is the first of its kind in a Western language. The translations are prefaced by an informative historical survey as well as commentaries on each author. It offers readers a unique opportunity to sample the best from a genre central to the Chinese literary tradition. David E. Pollard, the editor and translator, served as Chair Professor of Chinese at London University from 1979 to 1989, and Chair Professor of Translation at the Chinese University of Hong Kong from 1989 to 1997. He is Advisory Editor of Renditions. 'The reader will certainly get a feel for the range of the Chinese essay genre. But he will get something more .... This collection contains a vast amount of information on the details of everyday life, on man's reaction to the environment, on the textures of social intercourse and on Chinese attitudes and reaction to the world they inhabit.' - Denis Twitchett, Emeritus Professor of Chinese, Cambridge University (For this item please quote stock ID 16941) ISBN: 9789627255215

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(For this item please quote stock ID 16400) ISBN: 9787806005460