A History of Modern Chinese Popular Literature

The first English translation of one of the most authoritative and significant studies in the field of modern Chinese literature.

Boqun Fan (Author)

9781107068568, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 July 2020

830 pages, 350 b/w illus.
26 x 18.9 x 4.1 cm, 1.87 kg

With no comparable study in the English language, the first English translation of Fan Boqun's A History of Popular Modern Chinese Literature presents one of the most authoritative and significant studies on modern Chinese literature to a new readership. Starting in the late Qing Dynasty, a period often overlooked by literary scholars, Fan maps the blueprint of modern Chinese popular literature through a broad range of popular literary genres. Thoughtfully illustrated throughout and utilising courtesan novels, martial arts fiction, pictorial journalism and detective novels, Fan's innovative approach to this rich material develops pioneering new arguments which will be of interest to all interested in modern Chinese literature, popular and visual culture in late Qing and Republican China.

List of figures
Introduction to the English edition Susan Daruvala
Introduction
1. Buds of Chinese modern popular fiction
2. The new trend of popular tabloids in Shanghai between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century
3. The first wave of Chinese modern literary periodicals: from 1902 to 1907
4. 1903: outset year of the late-Qing lovels of condemnation
5. After 1906: popularity of the novels of sentiments and the novels of grievance
6. The second wave of modern literary periodicals in China: from 1909 to 1917
7. Relationship between the change of the dynasty and the thriving of historical romances
8. 1916: introduction of problem stories and solicitation of Shanghai inside stories
9. Fiction Monthly's reorganization and the third wave of the publication of popular periodicals
10. A new way towards the humanization of brothel novels in the 1920s
11. Novelists on martial arts in the early phase of the Republic of China in the 1920s
12. Social novelists who left marks on urban legends in the 20s
13. Urban local-colored novels: a characteristic of modern popular literature
14. Craze for movies and pictorials in the 1920s
15. Establishment of the Chinese-style detective fiction in the 1920s
16. Rapid rise of popular literature in Northern China in the 1920s and the 1930s
17. Martial arts novels in Northern China before and after the defeat of the Japanese invaders
18. Social fiction writers of various levels from the 1930s to the 1940s in Shanghai
19. Popularity of the new popular fiction in the 1940s
20. Explorations needed into the historical experience and lessons
Appendix. From Chinese to English
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF], Literature: history & criticism [DS]