Rhythms, conceptual metaphors, and political language convey meanings of which Chinese speakers themselves may not be aware. Link’s Anatomy of Chinese contributes to the debate over whether language shapes thought or vice versa, and its comparison of English with Chinese lends support to theories that locate the origins of language in the brain.
Why do people in socialist China read and write literary works? Earlier studies in Western Sinology have approached Chinese texts from the socialist era as portraits of society, as keys to the tug-of-war of dissent, or, more recently, as pursuit of "pure art." The Uses of Literature looks broadly and empirically at these and many other "uses" of literature from the points of view of authors, editors, political authorities, and several kinds of readers. Perry Link, author of Evening Chats in Beijing, considers texts ranging from elite "misty" poetry to underground hand-copied volumes (shouchauben) and shows in concrete detail how people who were involved with literature sought to teach, learn, enjoy, explore, debate, lead, control, and resist. Using the late 1970s and early 1980s as an entree to the workings of China's "socialist literary system," the author shows how that system held sway from 1950 until around 1990, when an encroaching market economy gradually but fundamentally changed it. In addition to providing a definitive overview of how the socialist Chinese literary system worked, Link offers comparisons to the similar system in the Soviet Union. In the final chapter, the book seeks to explain how the word "good" was used and understood when applied to literary works in such systems. Combining aspects of cultural and literary studies, The Uses of Literature will reward anyone interested in the literature of modern China or how creativity is affected by a "socialist literary system.
This textbook presents a selection of thirteen expository essays written from the 1920s through the 1980s by influential Chinese intellectuals on controversial issues of their times, including the emancipation of women, the reforms of the Chinese language, the implementation of modernization, and freedom and patriotism. To provoke classroom discussion, each topic is treated by essayists with opposing views. Prepared for American students who have already completed two years of Chinese and who are interested in reading original documents, the book juxtaposes traditional and simplified characters for the text and vocabulary so that students can be exposed to both versions of Chinese characters. Each of the thirteen texts is followed by a detailed glossary, annotated in English, with suggested topics for class discussion. An index at the end of the book allows students easy access to the vocabulary items. Audio and video materials are available for use with this text. For further information, contact the Chinese Linguistics Project, 231 Palmer Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. 08544. (609-258-4269).
The influence of Lu Xun (1881-1936) in China's cultural, literary, and artistic life over the last sixty years has been inestimable. A poet from a backwater town, Lu Xun was propelled by the times into the various careers of educator, writer, publicist, professor, and polemicist. He was, however, first and foremost a classical scholar, writing some of his best works in classical form. The Lyrical Lu Xun is the most complete treatment of his classical-style poetry in any foreign language, containing translations and extensive discussions of sixty-four poems in the highly stylized forms of jueju (quatrains) and lushi (full-length regulated verse) - forms with detailed, strict rules for rhyme and tonal prosody that evolved according to pronunciations and standards set up more than a thousand years ago.
The Hippocratic Oath is viewed as a paradigmatic summary of the physician's role. This book details the Declaration of Geneva as the revised version of the Oath. Illustrated.
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