The human body, such as hair, serves as a prism through which historical and cultural contexts are effectively refracted. Despite its historical and cultural significance, the role of hair, however, remains curiously ...The human body, such as hair, serves as a prism through which historical and cultural contexts are effectively refracted. Despite its historical and cultural significance, the role of hair, however, remains curiously a marginalized subject among the renewed interests on the body in the academic fields. In this paper, the author attempts to politicize the queue from 3 perspectives： maintaining a certain prescribed hairstyle is a top-down gesture to construct national conformity; the boundary between Manchu and Han is invoked and reinvented through the battles surrounding the queue politic in late Qing and early Republic; the widespread debate between keeping the queue and cutting the queue at the turn of the 20th century epitomizes the haunting rhetoric of traditionalism and modernism pursuit of modernity in China.展开更多
This article discusses four major transformations that took place in China during the Republican period from 1912 to 1949. The imperial institution fell and was replaced by a republican form of government. Changes in ...This article discusses four major transformations that took place in China during the Republican period from 1912 to 1949. The imperial institution fell and was replaced by a republican form of government. Changes in the writing style took place. The new colloquial style pulled people away from the idea of searching the past for answers to future questions. Popular culture changed. Men abandoned the queue and long gown, women forgot about footbinding. New technologies brought new ways of life to most Chinese and, surprisingly, many of the despotic warlords adopted telegraphs, railroads, and automobiles. By the 1950s, China had changed, but in a manner very similar to the rest of the world. In that sense China in the Republican period was in the mainstream of modern change.展开更多
This article uses case studies to examine the rainmaking activities of provincial military governors during a historical period when a decentralized China suffered from frequent droughts.On the one hand,it analyzes wh...This article uses case studies to examine the rainmaking activities of provincial military governors during a historical period when a decentralized China suffered from frequent droughts.On the one hand,it analyzes why their rainmaking has been interpreted in a very negative light and demonstrates that progressive intellectuals writing in the Republican-era(1912—49)print media were crucial to fostering misunderstandings of the rainmaking activities of these“warlords”as superstitious and backward.On the other hand,it argues that public ceremonies of praying for rain served as a crucial venue for the military governors to perform their local authority and make a claim to political legitimacy.Some of them pursued efficacy by all possible means,including experimenting with Western“scientific”rainmaking techniques of concussion and fire,which suggests that their rainmaking efforts were not merely a utilization of traditionalism,but drew from a complex and eclectic rainmaking culture emerged in early twentieth-century China.In an age when truly effective weather modification methods had not yet been discovered,the highly visible public rainmaking activities of warlords,regardless of results,constituted an integral and important dimension of their local governance,particularly in desperate times,amidst prolonged and severe droughts when popular feeling was unsettled and volatile.展开更多
文摘The human body, such as hair, serves as a prism through which historical and cultural contexts are effectively refracted. Despite its historical and cultural significance, the role of hair, however, remains curiously a marginalized subject among the renewed interests on the body in the academic fields. In this paper, the author attempts to politicize the queue from 3 perspectives： maintaining a certain prescribed hairstyle is a top-down gesture to construct national conformity; the boundary between Manchu and Han is invoked and reinvented through the battles surrounding the queue politic in late Qing and early Republic; the widespread debate between keeping the queue and cutting the queue at the turn of the 20th century epitomizes the haunting rhetoric of traditionalism and modernism pursuit of modernity in China.
文摘This article discusses four major transformations that took place in China during the Republican period from 1912 to 1949. The imperial institution fell and was replaced by a republican form of government. Changes in the writing style took place. The new colloquial style pulled people away from the idea of searching the past for answers to future questions. Popular culture changed. Men abandoned the queue and long gown, women forgot about footbinding. New technologies brought new ways of life to most Chinese and, surprisingly, many of the despotic warlords adopted telegraphs, railroads, and automobiles. By the 1950s, China had changed, but in a manner very similar to the rest of the world. In that sense China in the Republican period was in the mainstream of modern change.
文摘This article uses case studies to examine the rainmaking activities of provincial military governors during a historical period when a decentralized China suffered from frequent droughts.On the one hand,it analyzes why their rainmaking has been interpreted in a very negative light and demonstrates that progressive intellectuals writing in the Republican-era(1912—49)print media were crucial to fostering misunderstandings of the rainmaking activities of these“warlords”as superstitious and backward.On the other hand,it argues that public ceremonies of praying for rain served as a crucial venue for the military governors to perform their local authority and make a claim to political legitimacy.Some of them pursued efficacy by all possible means,including experimenting with Western“scientific”rainmaking techniques of concussion and fire,which suggests that their rainmaking efforts were not merely a utilization of traditionalism,but drew from a complex and eclectic rainmaking culture emerged in early twentieth-century China.In an age when truly effective weather modification methods had not yet been discovered,the highly visible public rainmaking activities of warlords,regardless of results,constituted an integral and important dimension of their local governance,particularly in desperate times,amidst prolonged and severe droughts when popular feeling was unsettled and volatile.
