Love and Women in Early Chinese Fiction

Love and Women in Early Chinese Fiction PDF Author: Daniel Hsieh
Publisher: Chinese University Press
ISBN: 9789629963057
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book

Book Description
This book focuses on how women and love are portrayed in chuanqi fiction, a genre of 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.

Love and Women in Early Chinese Fiction

Love and Women in Early Chinese Fiction PDF Author: Daniel Hsieh
Publisher: Chinese University Press
ISBN: 9789629963057
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book

Book Description
This book focuses on how women and love are portrayed in chuanqi fiction, a genre of 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.

Love and Women in Early Chinese Fiction

Love and Women in Early Chinese Fiction PDF Author: Daniel Hsieh
Publisher: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
ISBN: 9882378846
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book

Book Description
In traditional China, upper-class literati were inevitably strongly influenced by Confucian doctrine and rarely touched upon such topics as love and women in their writings. It was not until the mid-Tang, a generation or two after the An Lushan rebellion, that literary circles began to engage in overt discussion of the issues of love and women, through the use of the newly emerging genres of zhiguai and chuanqi fiction. The debate was carried out with an unprecedented enthusiasm, since the topics were considered to be the key to understanding the crisis in Chinese civilization. This book examines the repertoire of chuanqi and zhiguai written during the Six Dynasties and Tang periods and analyzes the key themes, topics, and approaches found in these tales, which range from expressions of male fantasy, sympathy, fear, and anxiety, to philosophical debate on the place of the feminine in patriarchal Chinese society. Many of these stories reflect tensions between masculine and feminine aspects of civilization as seen, for example, in the conflict of male aspiration and female desire, as well as the ultimate longing for reconciliation of these divisions. These stories form a crucial chapter in the history of love in China and would provide much of the foundation for further explorations during the late imperial period, as seen in seminal works such as The Peony Pavilion and Dream of the Red Chamber.

Revolution Plus Love

Revolution Plus Love PDF Author: Liu Jianmei
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824825867
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book

Book Description
In the aftermath of the May Fourth movement, a growing expectation of revolution raised important intellectual issues about the position of the individual within a society in turmoil and the shifting boundaries of political and sexual identities. The theme of "revolution plus love," a literary response to the widespread insurrections and upheaval, was first popularized in the late 1920s. In her examination of this popular but understudied literary formula, Liu Jianmei argues that revolution and love are culturally variable entities, their interplay a complex and constantly changing literary practice that is socially and historically determined. Liu looks at the formulary writing of "revolution plus love" from the 1930s to the 1970s as a case study of literary politics. Favored by leftist writers during the early period of revolutionary literature, it continued to influence mainstream Chinese literature up to the 1970s. By drawing a historical picture of the articulation and rearticulation of this theme, Liu shows how changes in revolutionary discourse force unpredictable representations of gender rules and power relations, and how women's bodies reveal the complex interactions between political representation and gender roles. Revolution Plus Love is a nuanced and carefully considered work on gender and modernity in China, unmatched in its broad use of literary resources. It will be of considerable interest to scholars and students of modern Chinese literature, women’s studies, cultural studies, and comparative literature.

Red Is Not the Only Color

Red Is Not the Only Color PDF Author: Patricia Sieber
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1461666120
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Get Book

Book Description
The first English-language anthology of its kind, Red Is Not the Only Color offers a window into the uncharted terrain of intimate relations between Chinese women. As urban China has undergone rapid transformation, same-sex relations have emerged as a significant, if previously neglected, touchstone for the exploration of the meaning of social change. The short fiction in this volume highlights tensions between tradition and modernization, family and state, art and commerce, love and sex. These stories introduce an emerging generation of acclaimed, and at times controversial, women writers, including Chen Ran, Bikwan Wong, and Chen Xue. By presenting fiction from the PRC, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the collection deliberately maps the literary contours of same-sex intimacy in broadly cultural rather than purely political terms. The perceptive and informative introduction surveys the social evolution of female same-sex intimacy in twentieth-century China, examines how each author engages with her Chinese context, and discusses how the stories compare with earlier representations of Chinese same-sex intimacy in the United States. Compelling for its literary quality, the anthology will also spur reflection among scholars of modern Chinese literature as well as readers interested in questions of gender, sexuality, and cross-cultural representation.

Red is Not the Only Color

Red is Not the Only Color PDF Author: Patricia Angela Sieber
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742511385
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Get Book

Book Description
As urban China has undergone a rapid transformation, same-sex relations have emerged as a significant, if previously neglected, touchstone for the exploration of the meaning of social change. The short fiction in this volume highlights tensions between tradition and modernization, family and state, art and commerce, love and sex.

Women in Tang China

Women in Tang China PDF Author: Bret Hinsch
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 153813490X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book

Book Description
This important book provides the first comprehensive survey of women in China during the Sui and Tang dynasties from the sixth through tenth centuries CE. Bret Hinsch provides rich insight into female life in the medieval era, ranging from political power, wealth, and work to family, religious roles, and virtues. He explores women’s lived experiences but also delves into the subjective side of their emotional life and the ideals they pursued. Deeply researched, the book draws on a wide range of sources, including standard histories, poetry, prose literature, and epigraphic sources such as epitaphs, commemorative religious inscriptions, and Dunhuang documents. Building on the best Western and Japanese scholarship, Hinsch also draws heavily on Chinese scholarship, most of which is unknown outside China. As the first study in English about women in the medieval era, this groundbreaking work will open a new window into Chinese history for Western readers.

On Gold Mountain

On Gold Mountain PDF Author: Lisa See
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1101910089
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 464

Get Book

Book Description
Out of the stories heard in her childhood in Los Angeles's Chinatown and years of research, See has constructed this sweeping chronicle of her Chinese-American family, a work that takes in stories of racism and romance, entrepreneurial genius and domestic heartache, secret marriages and sibling rivalries, in a powerful history of two cultures meeting in a new world. 82 photos.

The New Woman in Early Twentieth-century Chinese Fiction

The New Woman in Early Twentieth-century Chinese Fiction PDF Author: Jin Feng
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 9781557533302
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book

Book Description
Jin Feng proposes that representation of the "new woman" in Communist Chinese fiction of the earlier twentieth century was paradoxically one of the ways in which male writers of the era explored, negotiated, and laid claim to their own emerging identity as "modern" intellectuals.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan PDF Author: Lisa See
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408821621
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book

Book Description
Lily is the daughter of a humble farmer, and to her family she is just another expensive mouth to feed. Then the local matchmaker delivers startling news: if Lily's feet are bound properly, they will be flawless. In nineteenth-century China, where a woman's eligibility is judged by the shape and size of her feet, this is extraordinary good luck. Lily now has the power to make a good marriage and change the fortunes of her family. To prepare for her new life, she must undergo the agonies of footbinding, learn nu shu, the famed secret women's writing, and make a very special friend, Snow Flower. But a bitter reversal of fortune is about to change everything.

The Sea of Regret

The Sea of Regret PDF Author: Wu Jianren
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824817091
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Get Book

Book Description
Published within a few months of each other in 1906, "Stones in the Sea" by Fu Lin and "The Sea of Regret" by Wu Jianren take opposite sides in the heated turn-of-the-century debate over the place of romantic and sexual love and passion in Chinese life. "The Sea of Regret", which came to be the most popular short novel of this period, is a response to the less well-known but equally significant "Stones in the Sea". Taken together, this pair of novels provides a fascinating portrait of early twentieth-century China's struggle with its own cultural, ethical, and sexual redefinition. Patrick Hanan's masterful translation brings together these novels -- neither of which has before been available in any foreign language -- in a single volume, with a valuable introduction and notes. | "A tour de force in the art of translation. 'The Sea of Regret' is not only accurate, but, in the typical Hanan fashion, it is succinct and elegant as well. Impeccable work from an eminent scholar of Chinese fiction and a master of prose." --Lee Ou-fan Lee, UCLA | "These two short novels are especially interesting for their insights into the debate in educated circles concerning marriage, family, and the status of women. The chaos in China caused by the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 is also vividly rendered in both works. Readers will find not only intrinsic interest but also historical relevance in these early modern novels." --Michael S. Duke, University of British Columbia | Patrick Hanan is Victor S. Thomas Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University. He is the author of "The Chinese Vernacular Story" and "The Invention of Li Yu" and the translator of "The Carnal Prayer Mat" and "A Tower for the Summer Heat".