Modern Chinese Literary and Cultural Studies in the Age of Theory

Chow Rey Chow

Description

These groundbreaking essays use critical theory to reflect on issues pertaining to modern Chinese literature and culture and, in the process, transform the definition and conceptualization of the field of modern Chinese studies itself. The wide range of topics addressed by this international group of scholars includes twentieth-century literature produced in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China; film, art, history, popular culture, and literary and cultural criticism; as well as the geographies of migration and diaspora.One of the volume's provocative suggestions is that the old model of area studies-an offshoot of U.S. Cold War strategy that found its anchorage in higher education-is no longer feasible for the diverse and multifaceted experiences that are articulated under the rubric of "Chineseness." As Rey Chow argues in her introduction, the notion of a monolithic Chineseness bound ultimately to mainland China is, in itself, highly problematic because it recognizes neither the material realities of ethnic minorities within China nor those of populations in places such as Tibet, Taiwan, and post-British Hong Kong. Above all, this book demonstrates that, as the terms of a chauvinistic sinocentrism become obsolete, the critical use of theory-particularly by younger China scholars whose enthusiasm for critical theory coincides with changes in China's political economy in recent years-will enable the emergence of fresh connections and insights that may have been at odds with previous interpretive convention.Originally published as a special issue of the journal boundary 2, this collection includes two new essays and an afterword by Paul Bove that places its arguments in the context of contemporary cultural politics. It will have far-reaching implications for the study of modern China and will be of interest to scholars of theory and culture in general.Contributors. Stanley K. Abe, Ien Ang, Chris Berry, Paul Bove, Sung-cheng Yvonne Chang, Rey Chow, Dorothy Ko, Charles Laughlin, Leung Ping-kwan, Kwai-cheung Lo, Christopher Lupke, David Der-wei Wang, Michelle Yeh

Sujets

• History of Asia
• Chinese
• China

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 04 janvier 2001
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822380160
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Modern Chinese Literary and Cultural Studies

in the Age of Theory

a boundary  book

ASIA-PACIFIC: CULTURE, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY

Editors: Rey Chow, H. D. Harootunian, and Masao Miyoshi

Modern Chinese Literary and Cultural Studies

in the Age of Theory: Reimagining a Field

Rey Chow, editor

Duke University Press . Durham and London . 

©  Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper  Typeset in Dante by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

The text of this book originally was published as vol. , no.  (fall ) ofboundary ,with the exception of the following additional material: Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang, ‘‘Beyond Cultural and National Identities: Current Re-evaluation of the KominkaLiterature from Taiwan’s Japanese Period’’ (originally published inJournal of Modern Literature in Chinese,vol. , no.  []: –); Dorothy Ko, ‘‘Bondage in Time: Footbinding and Fashion Theory’’ (originally published inFashion Theory, vol. , no.  []: –); and Paul A. Bové, ‘‘Afterword: The Possibilities of Abandonment.’’

Contents

. Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: On Chineseness as a Theoretical Problem

. Rey Chow,

Narrative Subjectivity and the Production of Social Space in Chinese . ReportageCharles A. Laughlin, . Three Hungry WomenDavid Der-wei Wang,

Two Discourses on Colonialism: Huang Guliu and Eileen Chang on Hong . Kong of the FortiesLeung Ping-kwan,

Beyond Cultural and National Identities: Current Re-evaluation of theKominka Literature from Taiwan’s Japanese Period . Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang, . Wang Wenxing and the ‘‘Loss’’ of ChinaChristopher Lupke,

If China Can Say No, Can China Make Movies? Or, Do Movies Make China? . Rethinking National Cinema and National AgencyChris Berry,

Look Who’s Talking: T he Politics of Orality in Transitional Hong Kong . K i-Cheung Lo, Mass Culturewa . Bondage in Time: Footbinding and Fashion TheoryDorothy Ko, . No Questions, No Answers: China andStanley K. Abe,A Book from the Sky 

International Theory and the Transnational Critic: China in the Age of . MulticulturalismMichelle Yeh,

Can One Say No to Chineseness? Pushing the Limits of the Diasporic gm . I g, Paradien An ment . aul A. Bové, Afterword: The Possibilities of AbandonP . Index  ributors .  Cont 

Acknowledgments

The bulk of this book was initially published in the journalboundary vol. , no.  (). I would like to thank Paul Bové for encouraging me to submit the original project proposal to the journal, and Reynolds Smith for helping to turn the special issue into a book. Two essays have been added to the current volume: Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang’s ‘‘Beyond Cultural and National Identities: Current Re-evaluation of theKominkaLiterature from Taiwan’s Japanese Period’’ (originally pub- lished inJournal of Modern Literature in Chinese,vol. , no.  [], –), and Dorothy Ko’s ‘‘Bondage in Time: Footbinding and Fashion Theory’’ (originally published inFashion Theory,vol. , no.  [], –).These essays are reprinted with the permissions respectively of the Centre for Literature and Translation, Lingnan University (Hong Kong, China) and Berg Pub- lishers (Oxford, England).

Introduction: On Chineseness as a Theoretical Problem

Rey Chow

or several years now, with much fanfare and controversy, what is gener- F ally known as theory—by which is really meant poststructuralist theory even though other types of discourses are sometimes included—has made its way into modern Chinese literary (and of late, cultural) studies. Numer- ous publications, issued by university presses such as Stanford, Duke, Cali- fornia, and others, seem to respond to the consensus, among the younger generations of scholars at least, that some use of or reference to theory 1 is a necessity. While the most prominent example is probably feminist 2 theory and its corresponding investigations of women, buzzwords such as postcolonial, postmodern, the body, the subject, interdisciplinarity,and so forth also seem ubiquitous and popular. The hostility toward ‘‘Western theory,’’ which merely a decade ago was still predominant in the field of China studies, has apparently all but become marginalized to the point of insig- nificance. This enthusiasm for theory coincides, in many ways, with enthusiasm at a different, though not unrelated, level—that of realpolitik. With the mod- ernization campaign introduced by Deng Xiaoping after he resumed politi- cal centrality in the late s, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been undergoing rapid, radical economic reforms, so much so that, by the early fall of , a massive plan to convert most of China’s state-owned enterprises into ‘‘shareholding’’ ones was announced in the Fifteenth Com- munist Party Congress, leaving many to wonder exactly what would still be left of the Chinese government’s avowedly socialist or communist ideo- logical commitment. Taken in the broad sense of the wordeconomy,such openness toward economics may be understood, though with much de- bate, of course, as a pragmatic acceptance of an order that is capable of managing things so that theywork.For China at this historical juncture, the economic order that works is one that is capable of successfully transform-