When late Qing and early Republican-period Chinese reformers grappled with the challenges of creating a new poetic language and form in the early decades of the twentieth century, Zhou Zuoren （1885-1967）, one of mod...When late Qing and early Republican-period Chinese reformers grappled with the challenges of creating a new poetic language and form in the early decades of the twentieth century, Zhou Zuoren （1885-1967）, one of modern China＇s most influential intellectuals, believed that much could be learned from the experiments of modern Japanese poets who had overcome similar challenges in the decades following the Meiji restoration. Of all the verse forms Japanese poets were experimenting with, Zhou was particularly interested in modern haiku and tanka. Zhou felt that the modern haiku and tanka＇s rootedness in tradition on the one hand and their ability to express modern sensibilities on the other could offer a model for Chinese poets seeking to create a poetic voice that was at once modern, but also anchored in traditional poetics. This article will analyze some of Zhou＇s translations of modern haiku and tanka and illustrate how these translations led him to promote a new poetic form in China, typically referred to as ＂short verse＂ （xiaosh0. By further reading Zhou＇s critical essays on modern Japanese poetry against the writings of a number of Western modernist poets and translators who themselves were inspired by East Asian verse forms--Ezra Pound in particular--I will comment on the degree to which Zhou＇s promotion of short verse inspired by modern Japanese haiku and tanka challenges a perceived Western role in legitimizing East Asian forms as conducive to modernism.展开更多
Abstract Dating back to at least the Han dynasty, calligraphy has been a powerful object of culture and a medium of elite education, document preparation, and character evaluation. Discourses surrounding rulers and ca...Abstract Dating back to at least the Han dynasty, calligraphy has been a powerful object of culture and a medium of elite education, document preparation, and character evaluation. Discourses surrounding rulers and calligraphy form an important sub-strand in materials on calligraphy, and these accounts often depict calligraphy as a vehicle capable of reflecting a ruler＇s moral character. This paper explores narratives that blame early Tang women power-holders, in particular, the Taiping and Anle Princesses, for borrowing and subsequently losing precious calligraphic items that were considered the authentic work of Wang Xizhi. The analysis focuses on the ways in which the different narratives describe the physical movement or location of the Wang Xizhi pieces in relation to contemporary rule and factional politics. The narratives interpret the calligraphic manuscripts as an example of the cultural inheritance, to which the ruler should properly relate in particular ways. In this way, the fate of the Wang Xizhi artifacts is understood in terms of the complex relationship between imperial power and the court＇s cultural legacy.展开更多
The focus of this essay is microfiction （wei xiaoshuo）, a form of Weibo-based fiction writing. From the perspective of its most prominent feature--microness--the authors investigate the dialectical relationship betw...The focus of this essay is microfiction （wei xiaoshuo）, a form of Weibo-based fiction writing. From the perspective of its most prominent feature--microness--the authors investigate the dialectical relationship between microness and largeness embodied in its form, the context of its emergence, the conditions of its existence, as well as the issues reflected in its content. Studying three disparate cases of microfiction writing, namely microfiction selected from contests hosted by Sina, Chen Peng＇s personal Weibo posts, and Wen Huanjian＇s Weibo novel, Love in the Age of Microblogging （Weibo shiqi de aiqing）, we explore the cultural status of microfiction as a reflection of the combination of literary writing and online activities; and its aesthetic, literary, and cultural characteristics. Reading microfiction in both a literary and a sociocultural text, we argue that the smallness is an intrusion upon the largeness and hegemony of grand narratives on the one hand, and a reflection of a boradly changing reality on the other.展开更多
At the turn of the twenty-first century, contemporary art from China has displayed a recurrent engagement with urban ruins. Painting, performance, film, and photography have turned the rubble of demolition and constru...At the turn of the twenty-first century, contemporary art from China has displayed a recurrent engagement with urban ruins. Painting, performance, film, and photography have turned the rubble of demolition and construction works, an outcome of the vast urban development programs of the past few decades, into a powerful symbol of China＇s contemporary milieu. Critical and academic approaches to contemporary Chinese art have rightly inquired about the meaning of these ruins, in a process that has also reevaluated the place of these images in the representational traditions of China. Starting with these academic perspectives, this paper situates images of ruination in contemporary Chinese art in dialogue with transnational debates on the meaning and epistemology of the ruin, to argue for an essential element of constructedness in the representations of ruins. Photographic series by Wang Qingsong, Jiang Pengyi, and Yang Yongliang are analyzed as examples of an active appropriation of the process of ruin creation from a critical stance. Recycling urban wasteful rubble into an aesthetic object, these photo artists generate alternative visions of urban development and its consequent demolition and contribute to the negotiation of the meaning of the ruin.展开更多
In extant Chinese poetry, there are a considerable number of poems composed on the theme of ＂Observing Female Entertainers＂ from the fifth through ninth centuries. Through an examination of such poems, this paper tr...In extant Chinese poetry, there are a considerable number of poems composed on the theme of ＂Observing Female Entertainers＂ from the fifth through ninth centuries. Through an examination of such poems, this paper traces the changes in male poets＇ views of female entertainers： from placing female entertainers and their performances in a broader context of a pleasant moment, to focusing on the details of female entertainers and their performances, as well as from treating female entertainers as a medium for poets＇ self-reflection to desiring intimate relationships with them. This paper shows how this change in perception and representation of female entertainers by male poets not only indicates the development of the entertainment system, but also evidences a new function of this subgenre of poetry.展开更多
文摘When late Qing and early Republican-period Chinese reformers grappled with the challenges of creating a new poetic language and form in the early decades of the twentieth century, Zhou Zuoren （1885-1967）, one of modern China＇s most influential intellectuals, believed that much could be learned from the experiments of modern Japanese poets who had overcome similar challenges in the decades following the Meiji restoration. Of all the verse forms Japanese poets were experimenting with, Zhou was particularly interested in modern haiku and tanka. Zhou felt that the modern haiku and tanka＇s rootedness in tradition on the one hand and their ability to express modern sensibilities on the other could offer a model for Chinese poets seeking to create a poetic voice that was at once modern, but also anchored in traditional poetics. This article will analyze some of Zhou＇s translations of modern haiku and tanka and illustrate how these translations led him to promote a new poetic form in China, typically referred to as ＂short verse＂ （xiaosh0. By further reading Zhou＇s critical essays on modern Japanese poetry against the writings of a number of Western modernist poets and translators who themselves were inspired by East Asian verse forms--Ezra Pound in particular--I will comment on the degree to which Zhou＇s promotion of short verse inspired by modern Japanese haiku and tanka challenges a perceived Western role in legitimizing East Asian forms as conducive to modernism.
文摘Abstract Dating back to at least the Han dynasty, calligraphy has been a powerful object of culture and a medium of elite education, document preparation, and character evaluation. Discourses surrounding rulers and calligraphy form an important sub-strand in materials on calligraphy, and these accounts often depict calligraphy as a vehicle capable of reflecting a ruler＇s moral character. This paper explores narratives that blame early Tang women power-holders, in particular, the Taiping and Anle Princesses, for borrowing and subsequently losing precious calligraphic items that were considered the authentic work of Wang Xizhi. The analysis focuses on the ways in which the different narratives describe the physical movement or location of the Wang Xizhi pieces in relation to contemporary rule and factional politics. The narratives interpret the calligraphic manuscripts as an example of the cultural inheritance, to which the ruler should properly relate in particular ways. In this way, the fate of the Wang Xizhi artifacts is understood in terms of the complex relationship between imperial power and the court＇s cultural legacy.
文摘The focus of this essay is microfiction （wei xiaoshuo）, a form of Weibo-based fiction writing. From the perspective of its most prominent feature--microness--the authors investigate the dialectical relationship between microness and largeness embodied in its form, the context of its emergence, the conditions of its existence, as well as the issues reflected in its content. Studying three disparate cases of microfiction writing, namely microfiction selected from contests hosted by Sina, Chen Peng＇s personal Weibo posts, and Wen Huanjian＇s Weibo novel, Love in the Age of Microblogging （Weibo shiqi de aiqing）, we explore the cultural status of microfiction as a reflection of the combination of literary writing and online activities; and its aesthetic, literary, and cultural characteristics. Reading microfiction in both a literary and a sociocultural text, we argue that the smallness is an intrusion upon the largeness and hegemony of grand narratives on the one hand, and a reflection of a boradly changing reality on the other.
文摘At the turn of the twenty-first century, contemporary art from China has displayed a recurrent engagement with urban ruins. Painting, performance, film, and photography have turned the rubble of demolition and construction works, an outcome of the vast urban development programs of the past few decades, into a powerful symbol of China＇s contemporary milieu. Critical and academic approaches to contemporary Chinese art have rightly inquired about the meaning of these ruins, in a process that has also reevaluated the place of these images in the representational traditions of China. Starting with these academic perspectives, this paper situates images of ruination in contemporary Chinese art in dialogue with transnational debates on the meaning and epistemology of the ruin, to argue for an essential element of constructedness in the representations of ruins. Photographic series by Wang Qingsong, Jiang Pengyi, and Yang Yongliang are analyzed as examples of an active appropriation of the process of ruin creation from a critical stance. Recycling urban wasteful rubble into an aesthetic object, these photo artists generate alternative visions of urban development and its consequent demolition and contribute to the negotiation of the meaning of the ruin.
文摘In extant Chinese poetry, there are a considerable number of poems composed on the theme of ＂Observing Female Entertainers＂ from the fifth through ninth centuries. Through an examination of such poems, this paper traces the changes in male poets＇ views of female entertainers： from placing female entertainers and their performances in a broader context of a pleasant moment, to focusing on the details of female entertainers and their performances, as well as from treating female entertainers as a medium for poets＇ self-reflection to desiring intimate relationships with them. This paper shows how this change in perception and representation of female entertainers by male poets not only indicates the development of the entertainment system, but also evidences a new function of this subgenre of poetry.
