The Cambridge Companion to Modern Chinese Culture

A wide-ranging and accessibly written guide to the key aspects of elite and popular culture in contemporary China.

Kam Louie (Edited by)

9780521681902, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 5 June 2008

424 pages, 11 b/w illus. 2 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.67 kg

"Highly recommended." - Choice

At the start of the twenty-first century, China is poised to become a major global power. Understanding its culture is more important than ever before for western audiences, but for many, China remains a mysterious and exotic country. This Companion explains key aspects of modern Chinese culture without assuming prior knowledge of China or the Chinese language. The volume acknowledges the interconnected nature of the different cultural forms, from 'high culture' such as literature, religion and philosophy to more popular issues such as sport, cinema, performance and the internet. Each chapter is written by a world expert in the field. Invaluable for students of Chinese studies, this book includes a glossary of key terms, a chronology and a guide to further reading. For the interested reader or traveler, it reveals a dynamic, diverse and fascinating culture, many aspects of which are now elucidated in English for the first time.

1. Defining modern Chinese culture Kam Louie
2. Social and political developments: the making of the twentieth-century Chinese state Peter Zarrow
3. Historical consciousness and national identity Prasenjit Duara
4. Gender in modern Chinese culture Harriet Evans
5. Ethnicity and Chinese identity: ethnographic insight and political positioning William Jankowiak
6. Flag, flame and embers: diaspora cultures Wang Gungwu
7. Modernizing Confucianism and 'new Confucianism' Tan Sor-hoon
8. Socialism in China: a historical overview Arif Dirlik
9. Chinese religious traditions from 1900–2005: an overview Daniel Overmeyer
10. Languages in a modernizing China Chen Ping
11. The revolutionary tradition in modern Chinese literature Charles Laughlin
12. The involutionary tradition in modern Chinese literature Michel Hockx
13. Music and performing arts: tradition, reform and political and social relevance Colin Mackerras
14. Revolutions in vision: Chinese art and the experience of modernity David Clarke
15. Cinema: from foreign import to global brand Chris Berry
16. Media boom and cyber culture: television and the internet in China Liu Kang
17. Physical culture, sports and the Olympics Susan Brownell
Glossary of Chinese characters
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]