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OverviewThis study explores the ways in which the city and urban life have been represented in modern Chinese literature and film. The author has three aims: to trace the literary and filmic configurations (i.e., symbolic constructions) of the city in modern China; to investigate the ways the city is placed in an ambivalent if not negative light in these configurations; and to work toward an understanding of how one can study the nature of the city/country problematic in modern Chinese literary history. Instead of constructing a linear temporal progression of the treatment of the city in literature and film, the author isolates three typical configurations the city in space (rural vs. urban), the city in time (traditional vs. modern), and the city in relation to gender (male cities devoted to intellectual pursuits and self-cultivation vs. female cities devoted to pleasure and novelty). He shows how modern Chinese literature and film have contrasted these configurations in the representations of two cities: Beijing, a traditional city dominated by rural values, personal relationships, leisure, and a disdain for Western values; and Shanghai, a modern city dominated by money and exchange values, frantic activity, fallen women and a fallen civilization, and the pursuit of pleasure, variety, and Western lifestyles. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Yingjin ZhangPublisher: Stanford University Press Imprint: Stanford University Press Dimensions: Width: 16.10cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 23.60cm Weight: 0.786kg ISBN: 9780804726825ISBN 10: 0804726825 Pages: 412 Publication Date: 01 January 1996 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsIllustrations; Note on Romanization; Preface: an invitation to explore the city; Part I. Perspectives on the City in Modern China: 1. Introduction: the city in modern Chinese cultural history; 2. Urban configurations: small town, ancient capital, modern metropolis; Part II. Configurations of Space: 3. Mapping the ancient capital of Beijing; 4. The symbolic triumph of Chinese tradition in Beijing; Part III. Configurations of Time: 5. Reading the illegible metropolis of Shanghai; 6. The circulation of temporality and eroticism in Shanghai; Part IV. Configurations of Gender: 7. Imagining the modern woman in Shanghai; 8. The female visions of the modern city; Afterword: a perspective on modern Chinese literary history; Notes; Bibliography; Character list; Index.ReviewsAuthor InformationTab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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