Overview

A rich and comprehensive study of beggars? culture and the institution of mendicancy in China from late imperial times to the mid-twentieth century, with a glance at the resurgence of beggars in China today. Generously illustrated, the book brings to life the concepts and practices of mendicancy, including organized begging, state and society relations as reflected in the issues of poverty, public opinions of beggars and various factors that contribute to almsgiving, the role of gender in begging, and street people and Communist politics.

Full Product Details

Author:   Hanchao Lu
Publisher:   Stanford University Press
Imprint:   Stanford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.549kg
ISBN:  

9780804751483

ISBN 10:   080475148
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   06 October 2005
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Contents @toc4:Illustrations and Tables iii Preface iii @toc2:Introduction 1 1. On the Rivers and Lakes 000 2. Sympathy Versus Antipathy 000 3. Legend Has It 000 4. Coping with Mendicants 000 5. Ruling the Street 000 6. The Wisdom of Mendicancy 000 7. Men's Limbs and Women's Mouths 000 8. Chairman Mao Picked on a Beggar 000 Conclusion 000 @toc4:Character List 000 Appendix: The Sound of Mendicity 000 Notes 000 Bibliography 000 Index 000 @fmct:Illustrations and Tables @fmh1:Map @fmli:1. China at the Turn of the Twentieth Century 000 @fmh1:Figures @fmli:1. Beggar of the Longhua Pagoda 000 2. Beggar figurines 000 3. Worshipping a patron saint 000 4. Emperor Zhu 000 5. Han Xin 000 6. Wu Zixu 000 7. The Eight Immortals 000 8. Beggar foster father 000 9. A beggar's waist plaquette 000 10. Children at a Beijing soup kitchen 000 11. A beggar headman 000 12. A night watchman 000 13. Beggars on government duty 000 14. The God of Fortune 000 15. New Year's spectacle 000 16. A funeral procession 000 17. Sidewalk petitioner 000 18. Snake charming 000 19. Mother and child 000 20. Competing with a dog for food 000 21. Lai Dongjin in Mao's hometown 000 @fmh1:Tables @fmli:1.1 Vagrants in the 1931 Yangzi River Flood 000 1.2 Shanghai Beggars' Previous Occupations and Incomes 000

Reviews

. ..an elegantly written book easily accessible to a broad range of readers... -- The China Journal

Faced with a lack of reliable data, Lu has chosen to employ as broad and variegated a host of sources as possible... all intermingle[d] to illustrate a history both colorful and entertaining. The amount of material uncovered is quite astonishing and easily proves Hanchao Lu's most salient point: beggars may have been socially marginal, but they did play an important role in the cultural imagination of late-imperial and Republican China... Lu presents the reader with a view of social life that is often overlooked, and his book plays an important role in reminding us of some of the costs of China's search for modernity. -- China Review International

Author Information

Hanchao Lu is Professor of History at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

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