Perhaps nowhere else has literature been as conscious a collective endeavor as in China, and China's survival over three thousand years may owe more to... its literary traditions than to its political history. This Very Short Introduction tells the story of Chinese literature from antiquity to the present, focusing on the key role literary culture played in supporting social and political concerns. Embracing traditional Chinese understandings of literature as encompassing history and philosophy as well as poetry and poetics, storytelling, drama, and the novel, Sabina Knight discusses the philosophical foundations of literary culture as well as literature's power to address historical trauma and cultivate moral and sensual passions. From ancient historical records through the modernization and globalization of Chinese literature, Knight draws on lively examples to underscore the close relationship between ethics and aesthetics, as well as the diversity of Chinese thought. Knight also illuminates the role of elite patronage; the ways literature has served the interests of specific groups; and questions of canonization, language, nationalism, and cross-cultural understanding. The book includes Chinese characters for names, titles, and key terms.

What makes this book different from most other Chinese textbooks published in China? 1) the content of each lesson is intensely practical. We have... assumed that you`re living in China and want to communicate on everyday topics as quickly as possible. So only useful vocabulary ,immediately relevant to your everyday needs, is included. 2) We have worked hard at trying to make the grammar explanations as simple and clear as possible, avoiding complicated linguistic terminology. 3) Each lesson contains an activity related to the topic, in order to get you using the content as quickly as possible. 4) The reading & writing of Chinese Characters is introduced at a manageable pace so you shouldn t feel too overwhelmed. Content: 1.Introducing Yourself 2.The Classroom 3.The Post Office 4.The Market 5.Describing 6.Telling the Time 7.Days&Dates 8.Giving Directions/Address 9.Getting Publ ic Transport 10.Eating Out English-Chinese Vocabulary List Chinese English Vocabulary List Hints on How to Study

What makes this book different from most other Chinese textbooks published in China? 1) the content of each lesson is intensely practical. We have... assumed that you`re living in China and want to communicate on everyday topics as quickly as possible. So only useful vocabulary ,immediately relevant to your everyday needs, is included. 2) We have worked hard at trying to make the grammar explanations as simple and clear as possible, avoiding complicated linguistic terminology. 3) Each lesson contains an activity related to the topic, in order to get you using the content as quickly as possible. 4) The reading & writing of Chinese Characters is introduced at a manageable pace so you shouldn t feel too overwhelmed. Content: Renting a house/ Post Office/ Taking a Taxi/ Shopping/ In Hospital/ Outing/ Weather/ Bank ............

Chinese Medicine and Healing is a comprehensive introduction to a rich array of Chinese healing practices as they have developed through time and across... cultures. Contributions from fifty-eight leading international scholars in such fields as Chinese archaeology, history, anthropology, religion, and medicine make this a collaborative work of uncommon intellectual synergy, and a vital new resource for anyone working in East Asian or world history, in medical history and anthropology, and in biomedicine and complementary healing arts.This illustrated history explores the emergence and development of a wide range of health interventions, including propitiation of disease-inflicting spirits, divination, vitality-cultivating meditative disciplines, herbal remedies, pulse diagnosis, and acupuncture. The authors investigate processes that contribute to historical change, such as competition between different types of practitioner—shamans, Daoist priests, Buddhist monks, scholar physicians, and even government officials. Accompanying vignettes and illustrations bring to life such diverse arenas of health care as childbirth in the Tang period, Yuan state-established medical schools, fertility control in the Qing, and the search for sexual potency in the People’s Republic.The two final chapters illustrate Chinese healing modalities across the globe and address the challenges they have posed as alternatives to biomedical standards of training and licensure. The discussion includes such far-reaching examples as Chinese treatments for diphtheria in colonial Australia and malaria in Africa, the invention of ear acupuncture by the French and its worldwide dissemination, and the varying applications of acupuncture from Germany to Argentina and Iraq.

In this book, Sherman Cochran reconsiders the nature and role of consumer culture in the spread of cultural globalization. He moves beyond traditional... debates over Western influence on non-Western cultures to examine the points where Chinese entrepreneurs and Chinese-owned businesses interacted with consumers. Focusing on the marketing of medicine, he shows how Chinese constructed consumer culture in China and Southeast Asia and extended it to local, national, and transnational levels. Through the use of advertisements, photographs, and maps, he illustrates the visual forms that Chinese enterprises adopted and the far-flung markets they reached. Cochran brings to light enduring features of the Chinese experience with consumer culture. Surveying the period between the 1880s and the 1950s, he observes that Chinese businesses surpassed their Western counterparts in capturing Chinese and Southeast Asian sales of medicine in both peacetime and wartime. He provides revealing examples of Chinese entrepreneurs' dealings with Chinese and Japanese political and military leaders, particularly during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45. The history of Chinese medicine men in pre-socialist China, he suggests, has relevance for the twenty-first century because they achieved goals--constructing a consumer culture, competing with Western-based corporations, forming business-government alliances, capturing national and transnational markets--that their successors in contemporary China are currently seeking to attain.

At the turn of the twentieth century, a wave of Chinese men made their way to the northern Mexican border state of Sonora to work and live. The... ties--and families--these Mexicans and Chinese created led to the formation of a new cultural identity: Chinese Mexican. During the tumult of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, however, anti-Chinese sentiment ultimately led to mass expulsion of these people. Julia Maria Schiavone Camacho follows the community through the mid-twentieth century, across borders and oceans, to show how they fought for their place as Mexicans, both in Mexico and abroad. Tracing transnational geography, Schiavone Camacho explores how these men and women developed a strong sense of Mexican national identity while living abroad—in the United States, briefly, and then in southeast Asia where they created a hybrid community and taught their children about the Mexican homeland. Schiavone Camacho also addresses how Mexican women challenged their legal status after being stripped of Mexican citizenship because they married Chinese men. After repatriation in the 1930s-1960s, Chinese Mexican men and women, who had left Mexico with strong regional identities, now claimed national cultural belonging and Mexican identity in ways they had not before.

Inspired by recent work on diaspora and cultural globalization, Adam McKeown asks in this new book: How were the experiences of different migrant... communities and hometowns in China linked together through common networks? Chinese Migrant Networks and Cultural Change argues that the political and economic activities of Chinese migrants can best be understood by taking into account their links to each other and China through a transnational perspective. Despite their very different histories, Chinese migrant families, businesses, and villages were connected through elaborate networks and shared institutions that stretched across oceans and entire continents. Through small towns in Qing and Republican China, thriving enclaves of businesses in South Chicago, broad-based associations of merchants and traders in Peru, and an auspicious legacy of ancestors in Hawaii, migrant Chinese formed an extensive system that made cultural and commercial exchange possible.

The current waves of migration sweeping the Chinese world may seem like new phenomena, the outcome of modernization and industrialization. However, this... concise and readable book convincingly shows that contemporary movements are just the most recent stage in a long history of migration, both within China and beyond its borders. Distinguished historian Diana Lary traces the continuous expansion and contraction of the Chinese state over more than four millennia. Periods of expansion, which involved huge movements of people, have been interspersed with periods of inward-turning stasis. Following a chronological framework, the author discusses the migrations themselves and the recurrent themes within them. We see migration as a broad spectrum of movement, from short-term and short-range to permanent and long-range, and as a powerful vehicle for the transfer of commodities, culture, religion, and political influence. The Confucian tradition treated migration as undesirable. It praised the delights of staying at home: “A thousand days at home are good, half a day away is hard.” Lary argues that, despite this view, migration has been a key element in the evolution of Chinese society, one that the state disparages and encourages at the same time. Her book will be compelling for all readers who want to understand the context for the present internal and international migrations that have changed the face of China itself and its international relations.

This book is designer for students who hav had three terms of Chinese and want to read something to reinforce their vocabulary, while at the same time... enjoying a modern style novel.

In Chinese Mythology, Anne Birrell provides English translations of some 300 representative myth narratives selected from over 100 classical texts,... many of which have never before been translated into any Western language. Organizing the narratives according to themes and motifs common to world mythology, Birrell addresses issues of source, dating, attribution, textural variants, multiforms, and context. Drawing on exhaustive work in comparative mythology, she surveys the development of Chinese myth studies, summarizes the contribution of Chinese and Japanese scholars to the study of Chinese myth since the 1920s, and examines special aspects of traditional approaches to Chinese myth. The result is an unprecedented guide to the study of Chinese myth for specialists and nonspecialists alike.

This introduction to Chinese national cinema covers three 'Chinas': mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Historical and comparative perspectives bring... out the parallel developments in these three Chinas, while critical analysis explores thematic and stylistic changes over time. As well as exploring artistic achievements and ideological debates, Yingjin Zhang examines how - despite the pressures placed on the industry from state control and rigid censorship - Chinese national cinema remains incapable of projecting a single unified picture, but rather portrays many different Chinas.

The most comprehensive, trusted, and user-friendly guide to Chinese traditional medicine is finally available in a handy paperback. A perennial... backlist bestseller in hardcover, Chinese Natural Cures remains the most complete and up-to-date book available in the Western world on the system and wisdom of Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine is made up of four distinct methods of treatment: the use of herbs, acupuncture, the use of certain foods, and massage. Its practices can be used side-by-side with traditional Western medicine and have been growing steadily in popularity in the U.S. over the past decade. Written by world renowned practitioner Dr. Henry C. Lu, Chinese Natural Cures is a complete and user-friendly guide to the principals and methods of Chinese medicine. Included here are treatments for dozens of ailments and complaints such as body pains, digestive problems, sleep disorders, infertility, and more. An encyclopedic section on herbs includes the classification of all Chinese herbs and their application, and a comprehensive section on the Chinese system of food cures offers vital information on how a wide variety of foods can prevent or cure disease. Dozens of easy-to-follow charts organize all of this invaluable information for reference at a glance. This handsomely designed new paperback edition is smaller and handier, and is sure to bring the traditions of Chinese medicine to an even wider audience.