Print, Profit, and Perception

Ideas, Information and Knowledge in Chinese Societies, 1895-1949

Series: 

Editors: and
Print, Profit, and Perception examines the dynamic cross-cultural exchanges occurring in China and Taiwan from the first Sino-Japanese War to the mid-twentieth century. Drawing examples from various genres, this interdisciplinary volume presents nine empirically grounded case studies on the growth in the production, dissemination and consumption of texts, which lay behind a dramatic expansion of knowledge. The chapters collectively address the co-existence of globalization and localization processes in the period. By taking into account intra-Asian cultural encounters and tracing the multiple competing forces encountered by many, this book offers a fresh and compelling take on how individuals and social groups participated in transnational conceptual flows.

Contributors include: Paul Bailey, Che-chia Chang, Elizabeth Emrich, Tze-ki Hon, Max K.W. Huang, Mei-e Huang, Mike Shi-chi Lan, Pei-yin Lin, and Weipin Tsai.

Prices from (excl. shipping):

$184.00
Add to Cart
Pei-yin Lin, Ph.D. (2001), School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, is an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. She has published many articles on modern Chinese literature and culture, with a focus on Taiwan.

Weipin Tsai, Ph.D. ( 2004 ), University of Leeds, lectures in Modern Chinese History at Royal Holloway, University of London. Publications include a monograph and articles on Chinese modernisation, print culture, postal services and the Maritime Customs Service.
"Pei-yin Lin and Weipin Tsai deserve recognition for assembling a diverse and thought provoking collection of essays on the history of Chinese globalization and localization in the first half of the twentieth century. [...] the contributors to Print, Profit, and Perception cogently raise many important questions, fill in historical gaps, and open up new discursive space for early twentieth century Chinese historical and literary studies."
Bert Scruggs, University of California, Irvine, MCLC

"The book stands out from the rest by adopting a small-scale, niche approach to that complex period. Several core themes make it highly coherent, and the range of topics covered by its nine chapters account for its diversity and relevance to scholars with various research interests. [...] This volume is definitely worthy of consideration by scholars of modern Chinese intellectual, literary, and medical history, nationalism, global and regional cultural exchange, print and popular media, Taiwan or Japanese studies [...] it guarantees a challenging and entertaining reading experience, with new stories well integrated into a coherent frame narrative, illustrated with numerous reproductions of journal and newspaper covers, articles, advertisements, and woodblock art."
Adina Zemanek, Jagiellonian University ( International Journal of Taiwan Studies, 1, 2018)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION
Pei-yin Lin & Weipin Tsai
Chinese modernities revisited: globalization and localization
Fluid modernity and ideas
Print, profit and perceptions

1. CULTURAL CONNECTIONS IN A NEW GLOBAL SPACE: LI SHIZENG AND THE CHINESE FRANCOPHILE PROJECT IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
Paul J. Bailey
Early years in France
Sino-French cultural interaction
Li Shizeng’s philosophy of work-study
Conclusion

2. HEALTH AND HYGIENE IN LATE QING CHINA AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF JAPANESE TRAVELERS
Che-chia Chang
Networks of travelers
Categories of traveler
First impressions: Dirty! Dirty! Dirty!
Understanding the Japanese viewpoint
Conclusion

3. MODERNITY THROUGH EXPERIMENTATION: LU XUN AND THE MODERN CHINESE WOODCUT MOVEMENT
Elizabeth Emrich
Alternative modernities and Lu Xun’s “Grabism”
Lu Xun in Shanghai and his Translations on Art
Lu Xun and woodcut publications
Humanism and social construction in woodblock prints
Lu Xun and Woodcut Print Societies
Conclusion

4. TECHNOLOGY, MARKETS, AND SOCIAL CHANGE: PRINT CAPITALISM IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHINA
Tze-ki Hon
Local initiatives and domestic factors in technology transfer
Markets, circulation and profits
National learning as cultural capital
Professional geographers and public intellectuals
Conclusion

5. MEDICAL ADVERTISING AND CULTURAL TRANSLATION: THE CASE OF SHENBAO IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHINA
Max K. W. Huang
Understanding the human body in early republican China
Medical Advertising and Cultural Translation
Conclusion

6. PLANET IN PRINT: THE SCIENTIFIC IMAGINATION IN ZHENG KUNWU’S FICTION DURING TAIWAN’S COLONIAL PERIOD
Mei-e Huang
From astronomical reports to fiction writing
Scientific fantasy and humanistic reality
Between science fiction and detective story
Conclusion

7. SHAPING PERCEPTION OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR: A STUDY OF TEXTBOOKS IN TAIWAN IN THE 1940s
Shi-chi Mike Lan
Presentation of the War in Japanese colonial texts before 1945
The War in Chinese nationalist texts after 1945
Localizing the War in textbooks: Before and after 1945
Conclusion

8. ENVISIONING THE READING PUBLIC – PROFIT MOTIVES OF A CHINESE-LANGUAGE TABLOID IN WARTIME TAIWAN
Pei-yin Lin
Positioning the Chinese-language tabloids in colonial Taiwan
Chinese literati-courtesan connections and Western exotica
Appropriating and speculating about love
From freedom of love to condemnation of unrestrained free love
Alternative modernity and re-appropriation of love
Conclusion

9. THE FIRST CASUALTY: TRUTH, LIES AND COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNISM IN CHINESE NEWSPAPERS DURING THE FIRST SINO-JAPANESE WAR
Weipin Tsai
War reporting in the West and in China in the second half of the nineteenth century
Battle-ready and eager for the fight
The war for readership
In the newspapers’ defense
Conclusion

BIBLIOGRAPHY
All interested in modernization in China and Taiwan; East Asian Studies; print history and culture including newspapers, journals and textbooks; Chinese/Taiwanese literature; communications history; colonialism; globalization; localization; commercialism; urban history.
  • Collapse
  • Expand

Manufacturer information:
Koninklijke Brill B.V. 
Plantijnstraat 2
2321 JC
Leiden / The Netherlands
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com