Author: Chu Dongwei
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491751916
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 277
Book Description
For a non-Chinese and non-Buddhist like me, Chu Dongweis version of Huineng comes as a revelation. Chus lucid prose and verse translation of the great sage in my view opens us to what ultimately we cannot know but must always seek: the understanding of the nature of reality and of the ground of beingwhat in the West is called the perennial philosophy. Fraser Sutherland, Canadian poet and lexicographer Buddhism is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. With its popularity comes an interest in the history of Buddhism and its early practitioners. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find such books written in an easy-to-understand manner. The Wisdom of Huineng, Chinese Buddhist Philosopher: The Platform Sutra and Other Translations, edited and translated by Chu Dongwei, is an exception. Huineng (often spelt Hui-neng or Hui Neng, 638713) is one of the major Chinese sages. Known as Liuzu, he was the sixth grand master of Chan (Zen) Buddhism. This book consists of an easily accessible translation of The Platform Sutra and the sermons of Shenhui, a disciple that made Huinengs teaching popular. To provide historical background, Dongwei includes biographies and epitaphs that are rarely found in the English language. Dongweis edition of The Wisdom of Huineng, Chinese Buddhist Philosopher: The Platform Sutra and Other Translations allows readers to strengthen their understanding of Buddhism through the texts of one of its most important figures. There is no longer a need to fear the unknown as you dive into this readable and understandable information source.
The Wisdom of Huineng, Chinese Buddhist Philosopher
Author: Chu Dongwei
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491751916
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 277
Book Description
For a non-Chinese and non-Buddhist like me, Chu Dongweis version of Huineng comes as a revelation. Chus lucid prose and verse translation of the great sage in my view opens us to what ultimately we cannot know but must always seek: the understanding of the nature of reality and of the ground of beingwhat in the West is called the perennial philosophy. Fraser Sutherland, Canadian poet and lexicographer Buddhism is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. With its popularity comes an interest in the history of Buddhism and its early practitioners. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find such books written in an easy-to-understand manner. The Wisdom of Huineng, Chinese Buddhist Philosopher: The Platform Sutra and Other Translations, edited and translated by Chu Dongwei, is an exception. Huineng (often spelt Hui-neng or Hui Neng, 638713) is one of the major Chinese sages. Known as Liuzu, he was the sixth grand master of Chan (Zen) Buddhism. This book consists of an easily accessible translation of The Platform Sutra and the sermons of Shenhui, a disciple that made Huinengs teaching popular. To provide historical background, Dongwei includes biographies and epitaphs that are rarely found in the English language. Dongweis edition of The Wisdom of Huineng, Chinese Buddhist Philosopher: The Platform Sutra and Other Translations allows readers to strengthen their understanding of Buddhism through the texts of one of its most important figures. There is no longer a need to fear the unknown as you dive into this readable and understandable information source.
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491751916
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 277
Book Description
For a non-Chinese and non-Buddhist like me, Chu Dongweis version of Huineng comes as a revelation. Chus lucid prose and verse translation of the great sage in my view opens us to what ultimately we cannot know but must always seek: the understanding of the nature of reality and of the ground of beingwhat in the West is called the perennial philosophy. Fraser Sutherland, Canadian poet and lexicographer Buddhism is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. With its popularity comes an interest in the history of Buddhism and its early practitioners. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find such books written in an easy-to-understand manner. The Wisdom of Huineng, Chinese Buddhist Philosopher: The Platform Sutra and Other Translations, edited and translated by Chu Dongwei, is an exception. Huineng (often spelt Hui-neng or Hui Neng, 638713) is one of the major Chinese sages. Known as Liuzu, he was the sixth grand master of Chan (Zen) Buddhism. This book consists of an easily accessible translation of The Platform Sutra and the sermons of Shenhui, a disciple that made Huinengs teaching popular. To provide historical background, Dongwei includes biographies and epitaphs that are rarely found in the English language. Dongweis edition of The Wisdom of Huineng, Chinese Buddhist Philosopher: The Platform Sutra and Other Translations allows readers to strengthen their understanding of Buddhism through the texts of one of its most important figures. There is no longer a need to fear the unknown as you dive into this readable and understandable information source.
Chinese Discourses on Happiness
Author: Gerda Wielander
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9888455729
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245
Book Description
Happiness is on China’s agenda. From Xi Jinping’s “Chinese Dream” to online chat forums, the conspicuous references to happiness are hard to miss. This groundbreaking volume analyzes how different social groups make use of the concept and shows how closely official discourses on happiness are intertwined with popular sentiments. The Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to define happiness and well-being around family-focused Han Chinese cultural traditions clearly strike a chord with the wider population. The collection highlights the links connecting the ideologies promoted by the government and the way they inform, and are in turn informed by, various deliberations and feelings circulating in the society. Contributors analyze the government’s “happiness maximization strategies,” including public service advertising campaigns, Confucian and Daoist-inflected discourses adapted for the self-help market, and the promotion of positive psychology as well as “happy housewives.” They also discuss forces countering the hegemonic discourse: different forms of happiness in the LGBTQ community, teachings of Tibetan Buddhism that subvert the material culture propagated by the government, and the cynical messages in online novels that expose the fictitious nature of propaganda. Collectively, the authors bring out contemporary Chinese voices engaging with different philosophies, practices, and idealistic imaginings on what it means to be happy. “This distinctive volume creates sustained dialogues around a substantive debate. Rejecting the conventional contrasts between China and the West, and yet deeply immersed in sinophone media, the authors understand Chinese discourse on happiness as multiple but interconnected conversations within a globally shared production of knowledge. Equally concerned with text and image, they exhibit an ethnographic eye as sharp as any orthodox ethnography.” —Deborah Davis, Yale University “Wielander and Hird have put together a superbly researched and thoughtfully written set of essays on the multiple ways in which that most elusive of all states—happiness—is understood and pursued in contemporary China. A volume that should become required reading for all interested in Chinese society today.” —Julia C. Strauss, SOAS, University of London “Chinese Discourses on Happiness is a timely new collection of essays edited by two sinologists based in Britain, Gerda Wielander and Derek Hird. It explores how China’s propaganda machine devotes extraordinary efforts to promoting the idea that the Chinese people enjoy good and meaningful lives under Communism—precisely because economic growth alone does a poor job of generating happiness.” —The Economist
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9888455729
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245
Book Description
Happiness is on China’s agenda. From Xi Jinping’s “Chinese Dream” to online chat forums, the conspicuous references to happiness are hard to miss. This groundbreaking volume analyzes how different social groups make use of the concept and shows how closely official discourses on happiness are intertwined with popular sentiments. The Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to define happiness and well-being around family-focused Han Chinese cultural traditions clearly strike a chord with the wider population. The collection highlights the links connecting the ideologies promoted by the government and the way they inform, and are in turn informed by, various deliberations and feelings circulating in the society. Contributors analyze the government’s “happiness maximization strategies,” including public service advertising campaigns, Confucian and Daoist-inflected discourses adapted for the self-help market, and the promotion of positive psychology as well as “happy housewives.” They also discuss forces countering the hegemonic discourse: different forms of happiness in the LGBTQ community, teachings of Tibetan Buddhism that subvert the material culture propagated by the government, and the cynical messages in online novels that expose the fictitious nature of propaganda. Collectively, the authors bring out contemporary Chinese voices engaging with different philosophies, practices, and idealistic imaginings on what it means to be happy. “This distinctive volume creates sustained dialogues around a substantive debate. Rejecting the conventional contrasts between China and the West, and yet deeply immersed in sinophone media, the authors understand Chinese discourse on happiness as multiple but interconnected conversations within a globally shared production of knowledge. Equally concerned with text and image, they exhibit an ethnographic eye as sharp as any orthodox ethnography.” —Deborah Davis, Yale University “Wielander and Hird have put together a superbly researched and thoughtfully written set of essays on the multiple ways in which that most elusive of all states—happiness—is understood and pursued in contemporary China. A volume that should become required reading for all interested in Chinese society today.” —Julia C. Strauss, SOAS, University of London “Chinese Discourses on Happiness is a timely new collection of essays edited by two sinologists based in Britain, Gerda Wielander and Derek Hird. It explores how China’s propaganda machine devotes extraordinary efforts to promoting the idea that the Chinese people enjoy good and meaningful lives under Communism—precisely because economic growth alone does a poor job of generating happiness.” —The Economist
The Chinese Pursuit of Happiness
Author: Becky Yang Hsu
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520306317
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
What defines "happiness," and how can we attain it? The ways in which people in China ask and answer this universal question tell a lot about the tensions and challenges they face during periods of remarkable political and economic change. Based on a five-year original study conducted by a select team of China experts, The Chinese Pursuit of Happiness begins by asking if Chinese citizens’ assessment of their life is primarily a judgment of their social relationships. The book shows how different dimensions of happiness are manifest in the moral and ethical understandings that embed individuals in specific communities. Vividly describing the moral dilemmas experienced in contemporary Chinese society, the rituals of happiness performed in modern weddings, the practices of conviviality carried out in shared meals, the professional tensions confronted by social workers, and the hopes and frustrations shared by political reformers, the contributors to this important study illuminate the causes of anxiety and reasons for hope in China today.
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520306317
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
What defines "happiness," and how can we attain it? The ways in which people in China ask and answer this universal question tell a lot about the tensions and challenges they face during periods of remarkable political and economic change. Based on a five-year original study conducted by a select team of China experts, The Chinese Pursuit of Happiness begins by asking if Chinese citizens’ assessment of their life is primarily a judgment of their social relationships. The book shows how different dimensions of happiness are manifest in the moral and ethical understandings that embed individuals in specific communities. Vividly describing the moral dilemmas experienced in contemporary Chinese society, the rituals of happiness performed in modern weddings, the practices of conviviality carried out in shared meals, the professional tensions confronted by social workers, and the hopes and frustrations shared by political reformers, the contributors to this important study illuminate the causes of anxiety and reasons for hope in China today.
Ignorance is Bliss: The Chinese Art of Not Knowing
Author: Mieke Matthyssen
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030739023
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
This book examines the popular, yet puzzling, Chinese saying Nande hutu 难得糊涂 to uncover how the ancient Chinese wisdom of not knowing is constructed, interpreted, practiced and valued in contemporary society. Originating in the calligraphy of Qing-dynasty scholar Zheng Banqiao, Nande hutu translates literally as: “hard to attain muddle-headedness”. Mieke Matthyssen traces the historical development of this saying and related philosophies to reveal a culturally conditioned, multi-layered inclination to different forms of not knowing. In contemporary society, she argues, this inclination forms part of a living art: in some respects, a passive, evasive strategy for self-preservation; in other respects, a strategy for coping with intrapersonal, interpersonal and social complexities. Drawing on an extensive range of primary sources and original research, the analysis skillfully combines philosophical and socio-historical analysis with theory from Chinese philosophy, philosophical psychology and the relatively new field of indigenous psychology, to provide an in-depth understanding of how Nande hutu has shaped, and continues to shape, the Chinese psyche and behaviour. This book will appeal to all readers looking for fresh insights into Chinese culture, and in particular to students and scholars of Chinese and Asian studies, cultural and social anthropology, and philosophical and indigenous psychology.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030739023
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
This book examines the popular, yet puzzling, Chinese saying Nande hutu 难得糊涂 to uncover how the ancient Chinese wisdom of not knowing is constructed, interpreted, practiced and valued in contemporary society. Originating in the calligraphy of Qing-dynasty scholar Zheng Banqiao, Nande hutu translates literally as: “hard to attain muddle-headedness”. Mieke Matthyssen traces the historical development of this saying and related philosophies to reveal a culturally conditioned, multi-layered inclination to different forms of not knowing. In contemporary society, she argues, this inclination forms part of a living art: in some respects, a passive, evasive strategy for self-preservation; in other respects, a strategy for coping with intrapersonal, interpersonal and social complexities. Drawing on an extensive range of primary sources and original research, the analysis skillfully combines philosophical and socio-historical analysis with theory from Chinese philosophy, philosophical psychology and the relatively new field of indigenous psychology, to provide an in-depth understanding of how Nande hutu has shaped, and continues to shape, the Chinese psyche and behaviour. This book will appeal to all readers looking for fresh insights into Chinese culture, and in particular to students and scholars of Chinese and Asian studies, cultural and social anthropology, and philosophical and indigenous psychology.
The Political Economy of Affect and Emotion in East Asia
Author: Jie Yang
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134634579
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
When thinking about the culture and economy of East Asia, many attribute to the region a range of dispositions, including a preference for consensus and social harmony, loyalty and respect towards superiors and government, family values, collectivism, and communitarianism. Affect is central to these concepts, and yet the role of affect and its animated or imagined potentialities in the political economy of East Asia has not been systematically studied. The book examines the affective dimensions of power and economy in East Asia. It illuminates the dynamics of contemporary governance, and ways of overcoming common Western assumptions about East Asian societies. Here, affect is defined as felt quality that gives meaning and imagination to social, political, and economic processes, and as this book demonstrates, it can provide an analytical tool for a nuanced and enriched analysis of social, political, and economic transformations in East Asia. Through ethnographic and media analyses, this book provides a framework for analyzing emerging phenomena in East Asia, such as happiness promotion, therapeutic governance, the psychologization of social issues, the rise of self-help genres, transnational labor migration, new ideologies of gender and the family, and mass-mediated affective communities. Through the lens of affect theory, the contributors explore changing political configurations, economic engagements, modes of belonging, and forms of subjectivity in East Asia, and use ethnographic research and discourse analysis to illustrate the affective dimensions of state and economic power and the way affect informs and inspires action. This interdisciplinary book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Asian studies, anthropology, sociology, media studies, history, cultural studies, and gender and women’s studies.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134634579
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
When thinking about the culture and economy of East Asia, many attribute to the region a range of dispositions, including a preference for consensus and social harmony, loyalty and respect towards superiors and government, family values, collectivism, and communitarianism. Affect is central to these concepts, and yet the role of affect and its animated or imagined potentialities in the political economy of East Asia has not been systematically studied. The book examines the affective dimensions of power and economy in East Asia. It illuminates the dynamics of contemporary governance, and ways of overcoming common Western assumptions about East Asian societies. Here, affect is defined as felt quality that gives meaning and imagination to social, political, and economic processes, and as this book demonstrates, it can provide an analytical tool for a nuanced and enriched analysis of social, political, and economic transformations in East Asia. Through ethnographic and media analyses, this book provides a framework for analyzing emerging phenomena in East Asia, such as happiness promotion, therapeutic governance, the psychologization of social issues, the rise of self-help genres, transnational labor migration, new ideologies of gender and the family, and mass-mediated affective communities. Through the lens of affect theory, the contributors explore changing political configurations, economic engagements, modes of belonging, and forms of subjectivity in East Asia, and use ethnographic research and discourse analysis to illustrate the affective dimensions of state and economic power and the way affect informs and inspires action. This interdisciplinary book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Asian studies, anthropology, sociology, media studies, history, cultural studies, and gender and women’s studies.
Chinese Esoteric Buddhism
Author: Geoffrey C. Goble
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231550642
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 364
Book Description
Chinese Esoteric Buddhism is generally held to have been established as a distinct and institutionalized Buddhist school in eighth-century China by “the Three Great Masters of Kaiyuan”: Śubhākarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra. Geoffrey C. Goble provides an innovative account of the tradition’s emergence that sheds new light on the structures and traditions that shaped its institutionalization. Goble focuses on Amoghavajra (704–774), contending that he was the central figure in Esoteric Buddhism’s rapid rise in Tang dynasty China, and the other two “patriarchs” are known primarily through Amoghavajra’s teachings and writings. He presents the scriptural, mythological, and practical aspects of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism in the eighth century and places them in the historical contexts within which Amoghavajra operated. By telling the story of Amoghavajra’s rise to prominence and of Esoteric Buddhism’s corresponding institutionalization in China, Goble makes the case that the evolution of this tradition was predicated on Indic scriptures and practical norms rather than being the product of conscious adaptation to a Chinese cultural environment. He demonstrates that Esoteric Buddhism was employed by Chinese rulers to defeat military and political rivals. Based on close readings of a broad range of textual sources previously untapped by English-language scholarship, this book overturns many assumptions about the origins of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231550642
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 364
Book Description
Chinese Esoteric Buddhism is generally held to have been established as a distinct and institutionalized Buddhist school in eighth-century China by “the Three Great Masters of Kaiyuan”: Śubhākarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra. Geoffrey C. Goble provides an innovative account of the tradition’s emergence that sheds new light on the structures and traditions that shaped its institutionalization. Goble focuses on Amoghavajra (704–774), contending that he was the central figure in Esoteric Buddhism’s rapid rise in Tang dynasty China, and the other two “patriarchs” are known primarily through Amoghavajra’s teachings and writings. He presents the scriptural, mythological, and practical aspects of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism in the eighth century and places them in the historical contexts within which Amoghavajra operated. By telling the story of Amoghavajra’s rise to prominence and of Esoteric Buddhism’s corresponding institutionalization in China, Goble makes the case that the evolution of this tradition was predicated on Indic scriptures and practical norms rather than being the product of conscious adaptation to a Chinese cultural environment. He demonstrates that Esoteric Buddhism was employed by Chinese rulers to defeat military and political rivals. Based on close readings of a broad range of textual sources previously untapped by English-language scholarship, this book overturns many assumptions about the origins of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism.
The Successful Chinese Family Businesses
Author: Joey Kong Man Ng
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110684640
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
‘Well-being’ is a contemporary term used by people around the globe to address how comfortable their lives are. The notion is considered significant to business management. Nevertheless, is well-being significant to Chinese family business? In response to this inquiry, this book demystifies the notion from a critical lens. It examines well-being in a Chinese family business context of Hong Kong. This book consists of an archaeological and anthropological examination. The first part of the analysis draws from Foucault’s (1979) Archaeology of Knowledge to examine the discursive (trans)formation of well-being. The second part is an ethnography that focuses on a Chinese perspective regarding the everydayness of life. In light of the recent social movements, this book not only offers an insight into the core values of Hong Kongers, but also dissects various layers of meaning in these values. Hopefully, this book can lift up the voices of Hong Kongers, who was once marginalised in the discourse of well-being.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110684640
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
‘Well-being’ is a contemporary term used by people around the globe to address how comfortable their lives are. The notion is considered significant to business management. Nevertheless, is well-being significant to Chinese family business? In response to this inquiry, this book demystifies the notion from a critical lens. It examines well-being in a Chinese family business context of Hong Kong. This book consists of an archaeological and anthropological examination. The first part of the analysis draws from Foucault’s (1979) Archaeology of Knowledge to examine the discursive (trans)formation of well-being. The second part is an ethnography that focuses on a Chinese perspective regarding the everydayness of life. In light of the recent social movements, this book not only offers an insight into the core values of Hong Kongers, but also dissects various layers of meaning in these values. Hopefully, this book can lift up the voices of Hong Kongers, who was once marginalised in the discourse of well-being.
An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy
Author: Karyn Lai
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107103983
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 377
Book Description
This book explores traditions including Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, Legalism and Chinese Buddhism, and how they shape Chinese thought.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107103983
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 377
Book Description
This book explores traditions including Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, Legalism and Chinese Buddhism, and how they shape Chinese thought.
One Belt One Road
Author: Eyck Freymann
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 168417628X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
In 2013, Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced a campaign for national rejuvenation. The One Belt One Road initiative, or OBOR, has become the largest infrastructure program in history. Nearly every Chinese province, city, major business, bank, and university have been mobilized to serve it, spending hundreds of billions of dollars overseas building ports and railroads, laying fiber cables, and launching satellites. Using a trove of Chinese sources, author Eyck Freymann argues these infrastructure projects are a sideshow. OBOR is primarily a campaign to restore an ancient model in which foreign emissaries paid tribute to the Chinese emperor, offering gifts in exchange for political patronage. Xi sees himself as a sort of modern-day emperor, determined to restore China’s past greatness. Many experts assume that Xi’s nakedly neo-imperial scheme couldn’t possibly work. Freymann shows how wrong they are. China isn’t preying on victims, Freymann argues. It’s attracting willing partners—including Western allies—from Latin America to Southeast Asia to the Persian Gulf. Even in countries where OBOR megaprojects fail, Freymann finds that political leaders still want closer ties with China. Freymann tells the monumental story of Xi’s project on the global stage. Drawing on primary documents in five languages, interviews with senior officials, and on-the-ground case studies from Malaysia to Greece, Russia to Iran, Freymann pulls back the veil of propaganda about OBOR, giving readers a page-turning world tour of the burgeoning Chinese empire, a guide for understanding China’s motives and tactics, and clear recommendations for how the West can compete.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 168417628X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
In 2013, Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced a campaign for national rejuvenation. The One Belt One Road initiative, or OBOR, has become the largest infrastructure program in history. Nearly every Chinese province, city, major business, bank, and university have been mobilized to serve it, spending hundreds of billions of dollars overseas building ports and railroads, laying fiber cables, and launching satellites. Using a trove of Chinese sources, author Eyck Freymann argues these infrastructure projects are a sideshow. OBOR is primarily a campaign to restore an ancient model in which foreign emissaries paid tribute to the Chinese emperor, offering gifts in exchange for political patronage. Xi sees himself as a sort of modern-day emperor, determined to restore China’s past greatness. Many experts assume that Xi’s nakedly neo-imperial scheme couldn’t possibly work. Freymann shows how wrong they are. China isn’t preying on victims, Freymann argues. It’s attracting willing partners—including Western allies—from Latin America to Southeast Asia to the Persian Gulf. Even in countries where OBOR megaprojects fail, Freymann finds that political leaders still want closer ties with China. Freymann tells the monumental story of Xi’s project on the global stage. Drawing on primary documents in five languages, interviews with senior officials, and on-the-ground case studies from Malaysia to Greece, Russia to Iran, Freymann pulls back the veil of propaganda about OBOR, giving readers a page-turning world tour of the burgeoning Chinese empire, a guide for understanding China’s motives and tactics, and clear recommendations for how the West can compete.
Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films
Author: Rey Chow
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231508190
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 283
Book Description
What is the sentimental? How can we understand it by way of the visual and narrative modes of signification specific to cinema and through the manners of social interaction and collective imagining specific to a particular culture in transition? What can the sentimental tell us about the precarious foundations of human coexistence in this age of globalization? Rey Chow explores these questions through nine contemporary Chinese directors (Chen Kaige, Wong Kar-wai, Zhang Yimou, Ann Hui, Peter Chan, Wayne Wang, Ang Lee, Li Yang, and Tsai Ming-liang) whose accomplishments have become historic events in world cinema. Approaching their works from multiple perspectives, including the question of origins, nostalgia, the everyday, feminine "psychic interiority," commodification, biopolitics, migration, education, homosexuality, kinship, and incest, and concluding with an account of the Chinese films' epistemic affinity with the Hollywood blockbuster Brokeback Mountain, Chow proposes that the sentimental is a discursive constellation traversing affect, time, identity, and social mores, a constellation whose contours tends to morph under different historical circumstances and in different genres and media. In contemporary Chinese films, she argues, the sentimental consistently takes the form not of revolution but of compromise, not of radical departure but of moderation, endurance, and accommodation. By naming these films sentimental fabulations screen artifacts of cultural becoming with irreducible aesthetic, conceptual, and speculative logics of their own Chow presents Chinese cinema first and foremost as an invitation to the pleasures and challenges of critical thinking.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231508190
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 283
Book Description
What is the sentimental? How can we understand it by way of the visual and narrative modes of signification specific to cinema and through the manners of social interaction and collective imagining specific to a particular culture in transition? What can the sentimental tell us about the precarious foundations of human coexistence in this age of globalization? Rey Chow explores these questions through nine contemporary Chinese directors (Chen Kaige, Wong Kar-wai, Zhang Yimou, Ann Hui, Peter Chan, Wayne Wang, Ang Lee, Li Yang, and Tsai Ming-liang) whose accomplishments have become historic events in world cinema. Approaching their works from multiple perspectives, including the question of origins, nostalgia, the everyday, feminine "psychic interiority," commodification, biopolitics, migration, education, homosexuality, kinship, and incest, and concluding with an account of the Chinese films' epistemic affinity with the Hollywood blockbuster Brokeback Mountain, Chow proposes that the sentimental is a discursive constellation traversing affect, time, identity, and social mores, a constellation whose contours tends to morph under different historical circumstances and in different genres and media. In contemporary Chinese films, she argues, the sentimental consistently takes the form not of revolution but of compromise, not of radical departure but of moderation, endurance, and accommodation. By naming these films sentimental fabulations screen artifacts of cultural becoming with irreducible aesthetic, conceptual, and speculative logics of their own Chow presents Chinese cinema first and foremost as an invitation to the pleasures and challenges of critical thinking.