Kam Louie

"The one hundred-some stories depict the important role ghosts played in the lives of the Chinese, as well as revealing a great deal about sex, revenge, transvestism, corruption, and other topics banned by Mei's puritanical mid-Qing society". -- Reference & Research Book News.

"The one hundred-some stories depict the important role ghosts played in the lives of the Chinese, as well as revealing a great deal about sex, revenge, transvestism, corruption, and other topics banned by Mei's puritanical mid-Qing society". -- Reference & Research Book News.

This book explores how the traditional ideal of Chinese manhood – the "wen" (cultural attainment) and "wu" (martial prowess) dyad – has been transformed by the increasing integration of China in the international scene. It discusses how increased travel and contact between China and the West are having a profound impact; showing how increased interchange with Western men, for whom "wu" is a more significant ideal, has shifted the balance in the classic Chinese dichotomy; and how the huge emphasis on wealth creation in contemporary China has changed the notion of "wen" itself to include business management skills and monetary power. The book also considers the implications of Chinese "soft power" outside China for the reconfigurations in masculinity ideals in the global setting. The rising significance of Chinese culture enables Chinese cultural norms, including ideals of manhood, to be increasingly integrated in the international sphere and to become hybridised. The book also examines the impact of the Japanese and Korean waves on popular conceptions of desirable manhood in China. Overall, it demonstrates that social constructions of Chinese masculinity have changed more fundamentally and become more global in the last three decades than any other time in the last three thousand years.

This book explores how the traditional ideal of Chinese manhood – the "wen" (cultural attainment) and "wu" (martial prowess) dyad – has been transformed by the increasing integration of China in the international scene. It discusses how increased travel and contact between China and the West are having a profound impact; showing how increased interchange with Western men, for whom "wu" is a more significant ideal, has shifted the balance in the classic Chinese dichotomy; and how the huge emphasis on wealth creation in contemporary China has changed the notion of "wen" itself to include business management skills and monetary power. The book also considers the implications of Chinese "soft power" outside China for the reconfigurations in masculinity ideals in the global setting. The rising significance of Chinese culture enables Chinese cultural norms, including ideals of manhood, to be increasingly integrated in the international sphere and to become hybridised. The book also examines the impact of the Japanese and Korean waves on popular conceptions of desirable manhood in China. Overall, it demonstrates that social constructions of Chinese masculinity have changed more fundamentally and become more global in the last three decades than any other time in the last three thousand years.

Eileen Chang has just been "rediscovered" outside China. But to date, there has been no book written in any language apart from Chinese that analyses her work. As well as being the first such book, the essays collected in here are written by scholars who are all, like Chang, bilingual and bicultural. The approach taken by the contributors in this essay is also multi-disciplinary, with theories and methodologies taken from areas ranging across many areas such literary, gender, historical and film studies. The book therefore should appeal to readers who want to find out more about a China that is beyond political rhetoric, where ordinary human feelings take precedence over concerns about the 'rise of China' and its place in the global village.

Eileen Chang has just been "rediscovered" outside China. But to date, there has been no book written in any language apart from Chinese that analyses her work. As well as being the first such book, the essays collected in here are written by scholars who are all, like Chang, bilingual and bicultural. The approach taken by the contributors in this essay is also multi-disciplinary, with theories and methodologies taken from areas ranging across many areas such literary, gender, historical and film studies. The book therefore should appeal to readers who want to find out more about a China that is beyond political rhetoric, where ordinary human feelings take precedence over concerns about the 'rise of China' and its place in the global village.

This book contains thirteen essays on post-1997 Hong Kong culture by some of the world's best authorities on this topic today. The majority of the essays are on literature and film. As well as these two genres, some essays also explore new types of texts such as protest art.

This book is a comprehensive analysis of Chinese masculinity. While there is a vast Eurocentric scholarship on gender and sexuality, there has been little work addressing these issues within the Chinese context. Kam Louie uses the concepts of wen (cultural attainment) and wu (martial valour) to explain attitudes to masculinity. This revises most Western analyses of Asian masculinity that rely on the yin-yang binary. Examining classical and contemporary Chinese literature and film, the book also looks at the Chinese diaspora to consider Chinese masculinity within and outside China. Its use of a largely indigenous framework to analyse Chinese masculinity makes it an exciting addition to this burgeoning field.

In this ground-breaking book, Bonnie S. McDougall and Kam Louie present the first comprehensive, integrated survey of twentieth-century Chinese literature. The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century traces the development of Chinese literature from the Boxer Rebellion, when the strains of Western influence first emerged, to the Tiananmen Massacre, when dissident poets, such as Bei Dao, earned international acclaim and indefinite exile from the mainland. Each of the book's three chronological sections contains individual chapters examining the poetry, drama, and fiction of the period and includes an introduction outlining the historical and social context of the individual writers and their works. By analyzing this captivating literary tradition in terms of subject, theme, language, structure, style, intended audience, and cultural impact, the authors present a vivid picture of this important literature and a unique window on twentieth-century Chinese society.

An innovative text which adopts the tools of cultural studies to provide a fresh approach to the study of Chinese language, culture and society. The book tackles areas such as grammar, language, gender, popular culture, film and the Chinese diaspora and employs the concepts of social semiotics to extend the ideas of language and reading. Covering a range of cultural texts, it will help to break down the boundaries around the ideas and identities of East and West and provide a more relevant analysis of the Chinese and China.

In this ground-breaking book, Bonnie S. McDougall and Kam Louie present the first comprehensive, integrated survey of twentieth-century Chinese literature. The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century traces the development of Chinese literature from the Boxer Rebellion, when the strains of Western influence first emerged, to the Tiananmen Massacre, when dissident poets, such as Bei Dao, earned international acclaim and indefinite exile from the mainland. Each of the book's three chronological sections contains individual chapters examining the poetry, drama, and fiction of the period and includes an introduction outlining the historical and social context of the individual writers and their works. By analyzing this captivating literary tradition in terms of subject, theme, language, structure, style, intended audience, and cultural impact, the authors present a vivid picture of this important literature and a unique window on twentieth-century Chinese society.

This text surveys the literature of the Chinese mainland, concentrating on fiction, poetry and drama, with background surveys on the historical, social and cultural context, and chapters on individual writers and their works. It assumes no knowledge of Chinese. Topics include: the role of writers and the function of literature in a modernizing society; the long, native chinese tradition; the emphasis on culture and propaganda in a modernizing state; the relation of writers to their readers; and writers general impact on modern Chinese society.

This text surveys the literature of the Chinese mainland, concentrating on fiction, poetry and drama, with background surveys on the historical, social and cultural context, and chapters on individual writers and their works. It assumes no knowledge of Chinese. Topics include: the role of writers and the function of literature in a modernizing society; the long, native chinese tradition; the emphasis on culture and propaganda in a modernizing state; the relation of writers to their readers; and writers general impact on modern Chinese society.