A New Literary History of Modern China

by David Der-wei Wang (Editor)

Overview

Literature, from the Chinese perspective, makes manifest the cosmic patterns that shape and complete the world—a process of “worlding” that is much more than mere representation. In that spirit, A New Literary History of Modern China looks beyond state-sanctioned works and official narratives to reveal China as it has seldom been seen before, through a rich spectrum of writings covering Chinese literature from the late-seventeenth century to the present.

Featuring over 140 Chinese and non-Chinese contributors from throughout the world, this landmark volume explores unconventional forms as well as traditional genres—pop song lyrics and presidential speeches, political treatises and prison-house jottings, to name just a few. Major figures such as Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, Eileen Chang, and Mo Yan appear in a new light, while lesser-known works illuminate turning points in recent history with unexpected clarity and force. Many essays emphasize Chinese authors’ influence on foreign writers as well as China’s receptivity to outside literary influences. Contemporary works that engage with ethnic minorities and environmental issues take their place in the critical discussion, alongside writers who embraced Chinese traditions and others who resisted. Writers’ assessments of the popularity of translated foreign-language classics and avant-garde subjects refute the notion of China as an insular and inward-looking culture.

A vibrant collection of contrasting voices and points of view, A New Literary History of Modern China is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of China’s literary and cultural legacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674978874
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	05/22/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	1032
File size:	40 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

David Der-wei Wang is Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature and Comparative Literature, Harvard University, and Director of the CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies.

Table of Contents

Cover Title Page Copyright Contetns Acknowledgments Introduction: Worlding Literary China 1635; 1932, 1934. The Multiple Beginnings of Modern Chinese “Literature” 1650, July 22. Dutch Plays, Chinese Novels, and Images of an Open World 1755. The Revival of Letters in Nineteenth-Century China 1792. Legacies in Clash. Anticipatory Modernity versus Imaginary Nostalgia 1807, September 6. Robert Morrison’s Chinese Literature and Translated Modernity 1810. Gongyang Imaginary and Looking to the Confucian Past for Reform 1820. Flowers in the Mirror and Chinese Women: “At Home in the World” 1820, Beijing. Utter Disillusion and Acts of Repentance in Late Classical Poetry 1843, The Second Half of June. In Search of a Chinese Utopia: The Taiping Rebellion as a Literary Event 1847, January 4. My Life in China and America and Transpacific Translations 1852, 1885. Two Chinese Poets Are Homeless at Home 1853. Foreign Devils, Chinese Sorcerers, and the Politics of Literary Anachronism 1861. Women Writers in Early Modern China 1862, October 11. Wang Tao Lands in Hong Kong 1872, October 14. Media, Literature, and Early Chinese Modernity 1873, June 29. The Politics of Translation and the Romanization of Chinese into a World Language 1884, May 8. In Lithographic Journals, Text and Image Flourish on the Same Page 1890, Fall. Lives of Shanghai Flowers, Dialect Fiction, and the Genesis of Vernacular Modernity 1895, May 25. The “New Novel” before the Rise of the New Novel 1896, April 17. Qiu Fengjia and the Poetics of Tears 1897. Language Reform and Its Discontents 1899. Oracle Bones, That Dangerous Supplement ... 1900, February 10. Liang Qichao’s Suspended Translation and the Future of Chinese New Fiction 1900, Summer and Fall. Fallen Leaves, Grieving Cicadas, and Poetic Mourning after the Boxer Rebellion 1901. Eliza Crosses the Ice—and an Ocean—and Uncle Tom’s Cabin Arrives in China 1903, September. Sherlock Holmes Comes to China 1904, August 19. Imagining Modern Utopia by Rethinking Ancient Historiography 1905, January 6. Wen and the “First History(-ies) of Chinese Literature” 1905. Münchhausen Travels to China 1906, July 15. Zhang Taiyan and the Revolutionary Politics of Literary Restoration 1907, June 1. Global Theatrical Spectacle in Tokyo and Shanghai 1907, July 15. The Death of China’s First Feminist 1908, February; 1908, November. From Mara to Nobel 1909, November 13. A Classical Poetry Society through Revolutionary Times 1911, April 24; 1911. Revolution and Love 1913; 2011, May. The Book of Datong as a Novel of Utopia 1916, August 23, New York City. Hu Shi and His Experiments 1916, September 1. Inventing Youth in Modern China 1918, April 2. Zhou Yucai Writes “A Madman’s Diary” under the Pen Name Lu Xun 1918, Summer. Modern Monkhood 1919, May 4. The Big Misnomer: “May Fourth Literature” 1921, November 30. Clinical Diagnosis for Taiwan 1922, March. Turning Babbitt into Bai Bide 1922, Spring. Xiang Kairan’s Monkey 1922, December 2. New Culture and the Pedagogy of Writing 1924, April 12. Xu Zhimo and Chinese Romanticism 1924, May 30. Enchantment with the Voice 1925, June 17. Lu Xun and Tombstones 1925, November 9. Mei Lanfang, the Denishawn Dancers, and World Theater 1927, June 2; 1969, October 7. “This Spirit of Independence and Freedom of Thought ... Will Last for Eternity with Heaven and Earth” 1927, June 4. The Legend of a Modern Woman Writer of Classical Verse 1927, August 23. Ba Jin Begins to Write Anarchist Novels 1928, January 16. Revolution and Rhine Wine 1928. Genealogies of Romantic Disease 1929, September. Gender, Commercialism, and the Literary Market 1929. The Author as Celebrity 1930, October. Practical Criticism in China 1930, October 27. Invitation to a Beheading 1931, February 7. The Chinese League of Left-Wing Writers, 1930–1936 1932. Hei Ying’s “Pagan Love Song” 1934, January 1; 1986, March 20. Roots of Peace and War, Beauty and Decay, Are Sought in China’s Good Earth 1934, October–1936, October. Recollections of Women Soldiers on the Long March 1935, March 8. On Language, Literature, and the Silent Screen 1935, June 18. The Execution of Qu Qiubai 1935, July 28 and August 1. The Child and the Future of China in the Legend of Sanmao 1935, December 21. Crossing the River and Ding County Experimental Theater 1936, May 21. One Day in China 1936, October. Resonances of a Visual Image in the Early Twentieth Century 1936, October 19. Lu Xun and the Afterlife of Texts 1937, February 2. Cao Yu and His Drama 1937, Spring. A Chinese Poet’s Wartime Dream 1937, November 18; 1938, February 28. William Empson, W. H. Auden, and Modernist Poetry in Wartime China 1939, October 15. The Lost Novel of the Nanjing Massacre 1940, September 3. The Poetics and Politics of Neo-Sensationism 1940, December 19. Between Chineseness and Modernity: The Film Art of Fei Mu 1940–1942. Chinese Revolution and Western Literature 1941, December 25. Eileen Chang in Hong Kong 1942, January 22; 2014, Fall. In War She Writes 1942, March 16. Taiwan’s Genius Lü Heruo 1942, May 2–May 23. The Cultural and Political Significance of Mao Zedong’s: Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art 1943, April. The Genesis of Peasant Revolutionary Literature 1944, November 14. The North Has Mei Niang 1945, August 1. Ideologies of Sound in Chinese Modernist Poetry 1945, August 29. The Enigma of Yu Dafu and Nanyang Literature 1946, July 15. On Literature and Collaboration 1947, February 28. On Memory and Trauma: From the 228 Incident to the White Terror 1947. The Socratic Tradition in Modern China 1948, October; 2014, February. The Life of a Chinese Literature Textbook 1949, March 28. Shen Congwen’s Journey: From Asylum to Museum 1949, 1958. A New Time Consciousness: The Great Leap Forward 1951, September; 1952, September. The Genesis of Literary History in New China 1952, March 18. Transnational Socialist Literature in China 1952, July. A Provocation to Literary History 1952, October 14. Salvaging Chinese Script and Designing the Mingkwai Typewriter Late 1953. Lao She and America 1954, September 25–November 2. The Emergence of Regional Opera on the National Stage 1955, May. Lu Ling, Hu Feng, and Literary Persecution 1955. Hong Kong Modernism and I 1956. Zhou Shoujuan’s Romance à la Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies 1956; 1983, September 20. Orphans of Asia 1957, June 7. Sino-Muslims and China’s Latin New Script: A Reunion between Diaspora and Nationalism 1958, June 20. A Monumental Model for Future Perfect Theater 1958. Mao Zedong Publishes Nineteen Poems and Launches the New Folk Song Movement 1959, February 28. On The Song of Youth and Literary Bowdlerization 1960, October. Hunger and the Chinese Malaysian Leftist Narrative 1962, June. Three Ironic Moments in My Mother Ru Zhijuan’s Literary Career 1962–1963. The Legacies of Jaroslav Průšek and C. T. Hsia 1963, March 17. Fu Lei and Fou Ts’ong: Cultural Cosmopolitanism and Its Price 1964. The “Red Pageant” and China’s First Atomic Bomb 1965, July 14. Red Prison Files 1966, October 10. Modernism versus Nativism in 1960s Taiwan 1967, April 1. The Spector of Liu Shaoqi 1967, May 29. The Red Lantern: Model Plays and Model Revolutionaries 1967. Jin Yong Publishes The Smiling, Proud Wanderer in Ming Pao 1970. The Angel Island Poems: Chinese Verse in the Modern Diaspora 1972, 1947. In Search of Qian Zhongshu 1972–1973, 2000. A Subtle Encounter: Tête-bêche and In the Mood for Love 1973, July 20. The Mysterious Death of Bruce Lee, Chinese Nationalism, and Cinematic Legacy 1974, June. Yang Mu Negotiates between Classicism and Modernism 1976, April 4. Poems from Underground 1976. A Modern Taiwanese Innocents Abroad 1978, September 18. Confessions of a State Writer: The Novelist Hao Ran Offers a Self-Criticism 1978, October 3. Chen Yingzhen on the White Terror in Taiwan 1979, November 9. Liu Binyan and the Price of Relevance 1980, June 7; 1996, April, on an Unspecified Day. A Tale of Two Cities 1981, October 13. Food, Diaspora, and Nostalgia 1983, January 17. Discursive Heat: Humanism in 1980s China 1983, Spring. The Advent of Modern Tibetan Free-Verse Poetry in the Tibetan Language 1984, July 21–30. Literary Representation of the White Terror and Rupture in Mid-Twentieth-Century Taiwan 1985, April. Searching for Roots in Literature and Film 1986. The Writer and the Mad(wo)man 1987, September. The Birth of China’s Literary Avant-Garde 1987, December 24. Gao Xingjian’s Pursuit of Freedom in the Spirit of Zhuangzi 1988, July 1. “Rewriting Literary History” in the New Era of Liberated Thought 1989, March 26. Anything Chinese about This Suicide? 1989, May 19. The Song That Rocked Tiananmen Square 1989, September 8. Trauma and Cinematic Lyricism 1990, 1991. From the Margins to the Mainstream: A Tale of Two Wangs 1994, July 30. Meng Jinghui and Avant-Garde Chinese Theater 1995, May 8. The Death of Teresa Teng 1995, June 25. Formal Experiments in Qiu Miaojin’s “Lesbian I Ching” 1997, May 1. Modern China as Seen from an Island Perspective 1997, May 3. “The First Modern Asian Gay Novel” 1997. Hong Kong’s Literary Retrocession in Three Fantastical Novels 1997. Representing the Sinophone, Truly: On Tsai Ming-liang’s I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone 1998, March 22. The Silversmith of Fiction 1999, February. The Poet in the Machine: Hsia Yü’s Analog Poetry Enters the Digital Age 1999, March 28. Sixteen-Year-Old Han Han Roughs Up the Literary Scene 2002, October 25. Resurrecting a Postlapsarian Pagoda in a Postrevolutionary World 2004, April. Wolf Totem and Nature Writing 2006, September 30. Chinese Verse Going Viral: “Removing the Shackles of Poetry” 2007. Suddenly Coming into My Own 2008. Writer-Wanderer Li Yongping and Chinese Malaysian Literature 2008–2009. Chinese Media Fans Express Patriotism through Parody of Japanese Web Comic 2010, January 10. Ang Lee’s Adaptation, Pretense, Transmutation 2011, June 26. Encountering Shakespeare’s Plays in the Sinophone World 2012. Defending the Dignity of the Novel 2012, 2014. Minority Heritage in the Age of Multiculturalism 2013, January 5. Ye Si and Lyricism 2013, May 12, 7:30 P.M. Lightning Strikes Twice: “Mother Tongue” Minority Poetry 2066. Chinese Science Fiction Presents the Posthuman Future Contributors Illustration Credits Index

Editorial Reviews

Wang’s is a daring enterprise…Wang should be applauded for a work compiled to introduce English readers to the habits of Chinese writers and readers…With 161 chapters by more than 140 writers, A New Literary History takes a near-encyclopedic approach to the study of Literary China, one that embraces not only the People’s Republic (including Hong Kong) and Taiwan, but also Sinophone and Anglophone writers overseas.

New York Review of Books - Geremie Barmé

A New Literary History of Modern China stands far apart from the standard state-of-the-field collection. The publication of this book, with its range and breadth of scholarship, is an event without precedent in the field of modern Chinese literary studies. Some of the essays read like polished vignettes while some are whimsical, others build swiftly to a punchy thesis, and others again offer distilled wisdom on a crucial topic. The brevity of the essays holds the reader’s attention at a keen pitch—and more importantly incites more reading. A monumental volume.

Margaret Hillenbrand

This monumental anthology on modern Chinese literature is so essential…This book is meant for a broad reading public… It becomes clear reading this book that one can trace the larger history of China itself across the twentieth century by looking at its literature and its writers…A New Literary History offers a potent glimpse into China, as it was and as it is…In this meticulously edited and selected anthology, there really is something for everyone.

Los Angeles Review of Books - Eleanor Goodman

As China continues to grow in economic and political power, its literature is also likely to become more important in the rest of the world. There will be more and more translations of both its classics and its contemporary poetry and fiction. That makes books like this one all the more valuable to readers in the West who want to understand how China’s modern literature relates to its recent history. Those who wade into this long and heterogeneous collection will discover that the literature is not just a marker of that history, but a component of it.

Nicholas Haggerty

The next step on the path to literary enlightenment. Editor David Der-wei Wang, a professor of Chinese and comparative literature at Harvard, offers 161 short and often sparkling essays by a multinational array of writers and academics in what seems the most exhaustive introduction to modern Chinese writing possible in a single volume.

Wall Street Journal - Peter Neville-Hadley

A useful introduction to modern Chinese intellectual history, this collection can be consumed in bite-size pieces.

Bloomberg View - Tyler Cowen

Magisterial…Gargantuan in scope. It covers its subject from the late 18th century to the current millennium…It’s a remarkable product, even by Harvard’s invariably high standards.

Taipei Times - Bradley Winterton

One hundred and forty-three authors contributed 161 short chapters to this monumental survey of modern Chinese literature in all its forms, from the late eighteenth century to the present. Yet the book reads like the work of a single versatile author: vivid, probing, and occasionally playful. It raises to a new level the knowledge available in English about this vast topic, presenting a literary culture more complex, cosmopolitan, and profound than even many specialists might realize. The book presents a wealth of detail about personalities and events throughout the Chinese-speaking world and connects them to cultural forms ranging from poetry, fiction, and opera to pop songs, cartoons, photographs, and film. It challenges much of the received wisdom about how literary history should be written, refutes the cliché that Chinese literature in the modern and contemporary periods has been derivative and mediocre, and opens up inspiring prospects for future scholarship.

Foreign Affairs - Andrew J. Nathan

Wang’s is a daring enterprise…Wang should be applauded for a work compiled to introduce English readers to the habits of Chinese writers and readers…With 161 chapters by more than 140 writers, A New Literary History takes a near-encyclopedic approach to the study of Literary China, one that embraces not only the People’s Republic (including Hong Kong) and Taiwan, but also Sinophone and Anglophone writers overseas.

New York Review of Books - Geremie Barmé