王德威

The reigning view of literary historians has been that the May Fourth movement of 1919 marks the division between the traditional and the modern in Chinese literature. This book argues that signs of reform and innovation can be discerned long before May Fourth, and that as China entered the arena of modern, international history in the late Qing, it was already developing its own complex matrix of incipient modernities. It demonstrates that late Qing fiction nurtured a creative, innovative poetics, one that was spurned by the reformers of the May Fourth generation in favor of Western-style realism.

"Recounts the fascinating and tumultuous history of the city, from the days when Peking Man roamed its fertile plains until the present day, and explores unique features such as Tiananmen Square, its imperial lakes, princely mansions and art districts ... Jaivin also provides an eclectic mix of tips for the traveller, from where to shop for Chinese musical instruments to the wonders of the Police Museum and how to party like you're from Vladivostok"--From publisher description.

A young boy living with his grandparents faces a dilemma when his dog has a second litter of puppies that his grandparents cannot let him keep.

A New Literary History of Modern China is a collective project that introduces the "long" modern period of Chinese literature from the late seventeenth century to the new millennium. The volume, with roughly 160 essays contributed by 145 authors on a wide spectrum of topics, is intended for readers who are interested in understanding modern China through its literary and cultural dynamics. At the same time, it takes up the challenge of rethinking the conceptual framework and pedagogical assumptions that underlie the extant paradigm of writing and reading literary history. Beyond the familiar canon of literature as representation, the volume seeks to include the tradition of literature as manifestation, on both textual and contextual levels, in a history of modern Chinese literature. In addition to familiar genres, A New Literary History features a diverse lineup of forms, from presidential speeches to pop song lyrics, from photographs to films, and from political treatises to prison house jottings--forms that not only represent the material world, but can also shape it and complete it. By combining both the pointillism of the chronicle and the comprehensiveness of grand recit, this revisionist endeavor introduces the four themes of "worlding" literary China: architectonics of temporalities; dynamics of travel and transculturation; contestation between wen and mediality; and remapping of the literary cartography of modern China.--

"The Last of the Whampoa Breed tells she stories of the exiles written by their descendants, many of whom have become Taiwan's most important authors. The book is an important addition to the vastly underrepresented literature of Taiwan in translation and sheds light on the complex relationship between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. Western readers will not at first recognize the experiences of these soldiers who were severed from a traditional past only to face unfulfilled promises and uncertain futures. Many of the exiles were doomed to live and die homeless and loveless. Yet these life stories reveal a magnanimous, natural dignity that has transcended prolonged mental suffering. "I Wanted to Go to War" describes the sadly ineffectual, even comic attempts to "recapture the mainland." The old soldier in "Tale of Two Strangers" asks to have his ashes scattered over both the land of his dreams and the island that has sheltered him for forty years." "Some of the stories recount efforts to make peace with life in Taiwan, as in "Valley of Hesitation," and the second generation's struggles to find a place in the native island society, as in "The Vanishing Ball" and "In Remembrance of My Buddies from the Military Compound." Narrating the homeland remembered and the homeland in reality, the stories in this book affirm that "we shall not let history be burned to mere ashes.""--BOOK JACKET.