Browse results

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 13 items for :

  • Asian Studies x
  • Upcoming Publications x
  • Search level: All x
Clear All
The Construction of the Feminine Voice in Early Medieval Chinese Literature
Author:
This book studies the formation of the male-constructed conventional voice of women in Chinese literature from the 3rd to 6th century.
It highlights specific moments during which the feminine voice became recognized, accepted, and stabilized, including the shift of focus from the performative to the textual in female representations; the formation of a male literary community; the popularity of romanticized historical narratives; and the emerging sense of literary history.
This study emphasizes the historicity of the feminine voice and strives to question and challenge established notions about textual stability, authorship, the literary canon, and literary history.
The Buddhist Thought and Practice of Sheng’an Shixian (1686–1734) and Other Patriarchs
This vigorously-researched publication for advanced graduate students and fellow scholars of the Chinese Pure Land tradition (Jingtu famen) in the wider context of Chinese Buddhism extends the horizon opened up by recent leading scholars to reconstruct a more insightful understanding of the Jingtu famen and the notion of zong. Focusing on previously unstudied writings of Shixian and other patriarchs, the findings support the argument that the Jingtu famen is an advanced form of Mahāyānist meditation rooted in the Mādhyamika and Yogācāra traditions. The original English translation of Master Shixian’s writings provided also paves the way for other researchers to conduct new and extended studies.
Author:
What is cultural semantics? How to define and analyze it in the lexicon of modern Chinese?
This book outlines the development and research results of cultural semantic theory, and then proposes the distinction between two types of cultural semantics at the synchronic level: conceptual gap items and items with a cultural meaning. It provides criteria for identifying these items by using detailed examples from theory and application. Finally, the two types of cultural semantics are applied to the case of modern Chinese. The criteria proposed for determining the Chinese cultural semantics apply not only to this, but also to other languages. Therefore, this book offers an operational basis for further studies of cultural semantics in academia.
A Critique of the Sinocentric Paradigm
Devised to legitimize the Republic of China’s claim over Inner Asia, the Sinocentric paradigm stems from the Open Door Policy and Chinese nationalism. Advanced against the conquest theory, and rationalized as the pathfinding ecological theory, it is an evolutionary materialist scheme that became the vision of history.
Exposing the initial agenda of this paradigm and revealing its fundamental contradictions, The Nomadic Leviathan debunks it as a myth. Resurrecting the conquest theory, and reinforcing it with the idea of extrahuman transportation, this book places pastoralism at the origin of the state and civilization, and the Eurasian steppe at the center of human history; the political emerges as the primary and fundamental order defining the social and economic.
The book investigates China’s relations to the outside world between ca. 100 BCE and 1800 AD. In contrast to most histories of the Silk Roads, the focus of this book clearly lies on the maritime Silk Road and on the period between Tang and high Qing, selecting aspects that have so far been neglected in research on the history of China’s relations with the outside world. The author examines, for example, the power alliance between the Tang and the Arabs during Tang times, the specific role of fanbing 蕃兵 (frontier tribal troops) during Song times, the interrelationship between maritime commerce, military expansion, and environmental factors during the Yuan, the question of whether or not early Ming China can be considered a (proto-)colonialist country, the role force and violence played during the Zheng He expeditions, and what role of the Asia-Pacific world played for late Ming and early Qing rulers.
Volume Editor:
The establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 heralded dramatic changes in Chinese cultural practices. This volume, the latest entry in the Historical Studies of Contemporary China series, includes 11 articles translated from Historical Studies of Contemporary China (Dangdai Zhongguo shi yanjiu), one of China’s leading academic journals.

The broad range of cultural forms covered include the book trade and publishing industry, comic strips, literacy and education, popular visual art, Peking Opera, and rural temple fairs. This volume introduces readers to cutting edge Chinese language scholarship and a vibrant cultural scene as it transitioned to the era of the People’s Republic, tracing the continuities as well as the changes in cultural life in China throughout the 20th century.
Monastic Discipline and Practices in Modern Chinese Buddhism
This volume explores the role played by monastic discipline in the emergence and evolution of modern Chinese Buddhism.
A central feature of the Buddhist tradition, monastic discipline has received growing attention in the contemporary Buddhist world, but little from scholars. Adopting a diachronic perspective and a multidisciplinary approach, contributions by leading scholars investigate relevant Vinaya-related practices in twentieth and twenty-first centuries China and Taiwan, including issues of monastic identity and authenticity, updated ordination procedures, recent variations of Mahāyāna precepts and rules, and original perspectives on body movement and related sport activities.
The restoration and renewal of Vinaya practices and standards within Chinese Buddhist practices shed new light on the response of Buddhist leaders and communities to the challenges of modernity.
Contributors are: Ester Bianchi, Raoul Birnbaum, Daniela Campo, Tzu-Lung Chiu, Ann Heirman, Zhe Ji, Yu-chen Li, Pei-ying Lin, and Jiang Wu.
The Ideas and Identities of Two Cantonese Socialists, 1917–1928
Author:
In this book, Xuduo Zhao revisits the early twentieth-century Chinese revolution by focusing on two forgotten Cantonese socialists: Chen Gongbo and Tan Pingshan. By analyzing a host of previously untapped primary sources, Zhao discovers a social democratic approach within the newly founded Chinese Communist Party and argues that its decline marked a key moment in the Chinese communist movement.

The study of these two figures, and the ebbs and flows of their lives, reflects and reveals the fundamental tensions in the Chinese revolution which have shaped China’s political trajectory to contemporary times and the broader political, social, and cultural landscapes of Republican China.
The Song Dynasty Making of China’s Greatest Poet
Author:
Irreducible to conventional labels usually applied to him, the Tang poet Du Fu (712–770) both defined and was defined by the literary, intellectual, and socio-political cultures of the Song dynasty (960–1279).
Jue Chen not only argues in his work that Du Fu was constructed according to particular literary and intellectual agendas of Song literati but also that conventional labels applied to Du Fu do not accurately represent this construction campaign. He also discusses how Du Fu’s image as the greatest poet sheds unique light on issues that can deepen our understanding of the subtleties in the poetic culture of Song China.
Growth, Cycles and Crises from 1949 to the Present Day
Chinese economic growth is an extraordinary phenomenon that deserves an original analysis. It is explained here from the origins of the People's Republic to the present day. Original first, because the authors have themselves reconstructed, on the country studied, statistical databases in time series for the stock of physical capital, the stock of human capital, expenditure on research and development, and Gini income inequality index. Original then, because the methodologies used screen a very wide range of theoretical currents: neoclassical, Pickettyan, and Marxist. Original finally, because the most modern tools of statistics and econometrics are mobilized to carry out this research. This book is aimed at economists and an audience with a solid knowledge of economics.