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Full Product Details

Author:   Robin Visser
Publisher:   Duke University Press
Imprint:   Duke University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.680kg
ISBN:  

9780822347095

ISBN 10:   0822347091
Pages:   277
Publication Date:   12 April 2010
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Cities Surround the Countryside 1 Part One. Conceiving the Postsocialist City 1. Designing the Postsocialist City: Urban Planning and Its Discontents 27 2. Theorizing the Postsocialist City: Cultural Politics of Urban Aesthetics 85 Part Two. The City as Subject 3. Performing the Postsocialist City: Beijing Identity in Art, Film, and Fiction 131 4. Consuming the Postsocialist City: Shanghai Identity in Art, Film, and Fiction 175 Part Three. The Subject in the City 5. The Melancholic Urban Subject: Black Snow, Private Life, Breathing, and Candy 225 6. Postsocialist Urban Ethics: Modernity and the Morality of Everyday Life 255 Conclusion: Sustainable Chinese Aesthetics 287 Notes 295 Bibliography 331 Index 353

Reviews

Cities Surround the Countryside is about everything important in contemporary China. In sensitive critical readings of everything from buildings and squares to artworks and short stories, from the literature of urbanism to the media of advertising, Robin Visser traces the emergence of a new urban self-consciousness. With its thorough scholarship and deft approach to text analysis, the book goes beyond the humanities to be a major contribution to Asian studies and urban studies, anthropology and history. oJudith Farquhar, author of Appetites: Food and Sex in Post-Socialist China Cities Surround the Countryside is a truly exceptional book. Robin Visser has identified crucial issues that are nothing short of constitutive of urbanization and its reflections in the intellectual and cultural life of contemporary China. In addition, she deals with an impressive amount of material from various disciplines and media, much of which is little-known in English-language scholarship. oMaghiel van Crevel, author of Chinese Poetry in Times of Mind, Mayhem and Money

Cities Surround the Countryside is about everything important in contemporary China. In sensitive critical readings of everything from buildings and squares to artworks and short stories, from the literature of urbanism to the media of advertising, Robin Visser traces the emergence of a new urban self-consciousness. With its thorough scholarship and deft approach to text analysis, the book goes beyond the humanities to be a major contribution to Asian studies and urban studies, anthropology and history. --Judith Farquhar, author of Appetites: Food and Sex in Post-Socialist China Cities Surround the Countryside is a truly exceptional book. Robin Visser has identified crucial issues that are nothing short of constitutive of urbanization and its reflections in the intellectual and cultural life of contemporary China. In addition, she deals with an impressive amount of material from various disciplines and media, much of which is little-known in English-language scholarship. --Maghiel van Crevel, author of Chinese Poetry in Times of Mind, Mayhem and Money [A] brilliant discussion of artistic insubordination in reaction to urban modernity in literature, performance and art. - The Nation

Author Information

Robin Visser is Associate Professor of Chinese at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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