T ien-wen Chu's Books

Notes of a Desolate Man

By: T’ien-wen Chu

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Winner of the coveted China Times Novel Prize, this postmodern, first-person tale of a contemporary Taiwanese gay man reflecting on his life, loves, and intellectual influences is among the most important recent novels in Taiwan. The narrator, Xiao Shao, recollects a series of friends and lovers, as he watches his childhood friend, Ah Yao, succumb to complications from AIDS. The brute fact of Ah Yao's death focuses Shao's simultaneously erudite and erotic reflections magnetically on the core theme of mortality. By turns humorous and despondent, the narrator struggles to come to terms with Ah Yao's risky lifestyle, radical political activism, and eventual death; the fragility of romantic love; the awesome power of eros; the solace of writing; the cold ennui of a younger generation enthralled only by video games; and life on the edge of mainstream Taiwanese society. His feverish journey through forests of metaphor and allusion—from Fellini and Lévi-Strauss to classical Chinese poetry—serves as a litany protecting him from the ravages of time and finitude. Impressive in scope and detail, Notes of a Desolate Man employs the motif of its characters' marginalized sexuality to highlight Taiwan's vivid and fragile existence on the periphery of mainland China. Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin's masterful translation brings Chu T'ien-wen's lyrical and inventive pastiche of political, poetic, and sexual desire to the English-speaking world.

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Page Count

184

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231500084

ISBN 13

9780231500081

Local Government in China Under the Ch'ing

By: T’ung-tsu Ch’ü

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Local Government in China Under the Ch'ing

By: T’ung-tsu Ch’ü

This book attempts to describe, analyze, and interpret the structure and functioning of local government at the chou and hsien levels in the Ch'ing dynasty. It contains an introduction, ten chapters, conclusion, notes, index, bibliography, and glossary.

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Page Count

434

Publisher

BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

1684172810

ISBN 13

9781684172818

The Old Capital

A Novel of Taipei

By: T'ien-hsin Chu

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The Old Capital

A Novel of Taipei

By: T'ien-hsin Chu

Chu T'ien-hsin's The Old Capital is a brilliant evocation of Taiwan's literature of nostalgia and remembrance. The novel is centered on the question, "Is it possible that none of your memories count?" and explores the reliability of remembrances and the thin line that separates fact from fantasy. Comprised of four thematically linked stories and a novella, The Old Capital focuses on the cultural and psychological realities of contemporary Taiwan. The stories are narrated by individuals who share an aching nostalgia for a time long past. Strolling through modern Taipei, they return to the lost, imperfect memories called forth by the smells and sensations of their city, and try to reconcile themselves to their rapidly changing world. The novella is built on the memories and recollections of a woman trying to make sense of herself and her homeland. After a trip to Kyoto to meet with a friend, she returns to Taipei, where, having been mistaken for a Japanese tourist, she revisits the sites of her youth using a Japanese colonial map of the city. Seeing Taipei anew, the narrator confronts the complex nature of her identity, embodied in the contrast between a serene and preserved Kyoto and a thoroughly modernized and chaotic Taipei. The growing angst of these narrators reflects a deeper anxiety over the legacy of Japan and America in Taiwan. The titles of the stories themselves-"Death in Venice," "Man of La Mancha," "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Hungarian Water"-reveal the strong currents of influence that run throughout the collection and shape the content and texture of the writing. In his meticulous translation, Howard Goldblatt captures the casual, intimate feel of Chu T'ien-hsin's writing while also maintaining its multiple layers of meaning. An intertextual masterpiece, The Old Capital is a moving and highly sensual meditation on the elasticity of memory and its power to shape personal identity.

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Page Count

237

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231511817

ISBN 13

9780231511810

Limits to Autocracy

From Sung Neo-Confucianism to a Doctrine of Political Rights

By: Alan T. Wood

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Limits to Autocracy

From Sung Neo-Confucianism to a Doctrine of Political Rights

By: Alan T. Wood

Alan T. Wood examines the cultural identity of modern China in the context of authoritarianism in the Chinese political tradition. Taking on issues of key importance in the understanding of Chinese history, Wood leads readers to a reconsideration of neo-Confucian thinkers of the Northern Sung dynasty. Modern scholars have accused Sung neo-Confucians of advocating a doctrine of unconditional obedience to the ruler--of "revering the emperor and expelling the barbarian"--and thereby inhibiting the rise of democracy in China. Wood refutes this dominant view by arguing that Sung neo-Confucians intended to limit the power of the emperor, not enhance it. Sung political thinkers believed passionately in the existence of a moral cosmos governed by universal laws that transcended the ruler and could be invoked to set limits on his power. Wood makes a striking comparison of this view with a similar one of universal morality or natural law that developed in late Medieval Europe. By drawing attention to a much-neglected Confucian text, he contributes significantly to the wider dialog of human rights in China and brings forth fresh philosophical insights in his comparative view of Chinese and Western history.

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Page Count

306

Publisher

University of Hawaii Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0824817036

ISBN 13

9780824817039

China Bibliography

A Research Guide to Reference Works about China Past and Present

By: Harriet T. Zurndorfer

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China Bibliography

A Research Guide to Reference Works about China Past and Present

By: Harriet T. Zurndorfer

This volume serves as a guide to all facets of China study: from advice on choosing an appropriate literary dictionary to finding the most recent yearbooks that offer statistical data about the contemporary economy. China Bibliography does not restrict itself to one particular 'discipline', but considers the development of Chinese civilization as a whole, from its imperial beginnings to the present, and therefore demonstrates how one would find information about Chinese history, literature, religion, linguistics, collectanea, as well as present day PRC economic and political policies. Because this book also explains how bibliographical data on China has accumulated over the last 300 years (including within China itself), it also may help the reader understand the significance of a particular type of reference work.

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Page Count

396

Publisher

BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

9004483950

ISBN 13

9789004483958

Neo-confucian Education

The Formative Stage

By: William T. De Bary

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Neo-confucian Education

The Formative Stage

By: William T. De Bary

In the early days of the modernization of East Asia, Neo-Confucianism was often held responsible for the purported intellectual, political, and social failings of traditional societies in the nineteenth century. Today, with frequent comparisons between the rapid success at modernization of many of these societies and the slowness of other underdeveloped countries, Neo-Confucianism has come to be seen under a very different light; analysts now point to the common Confucian culture of China, Japan, Korea, and overseas Chinese communities as a driving force in the East Asian peoples' receptivity to new learning, disciplined industriousness, and capacity for both cultural and economic development. Central to this remarkable capacity for development, these essays argue, lies the influence of the great twelfth-century thinker Chu Hsi. He has been considered responsible for providing much of the intellectual mortar that preserved the established order for centuries. However, when viewed in their historical setting, many of Chu's views can be seen as liberal--indeed, progressive. This is the first comprehensive study of Chu as an educator and of the propagation of his teachings throughout East Asia. Covering a wide spectrum of intellectual and social developments, the contributors address the ways in which Neo-Confucian thought and ethics were adapted to changes in Chinese society that anticipate many features and problems of modern society today.

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Page Count

612

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520063937

ISBN 13

9780520063938

Notes of a Desolate Man

By: T’ien-wen Chu

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Notes of a Desolate Man

By: T’ien-wen Chu

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Page Count

184

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231500084

ISBN 13

9780231500081

Notes of a Desolate Man

By: Chu Tien-Wen

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Notes of a Desolate Man

By: Chu Tien-Wen

Following the death of a childhood friend from AIDS, Taiwanese gay man, Xiao Shao reflects upon his own life and the people with whom he has connected.

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Page Count

169

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231116098

ISBN 13

9780231116091

Book's by T ien-wen Chu

Notes of a Desolate Man

Notes of a Desolate Man

Local Government in China Under the Ch'ing

Local Government in China Under the Ch'ing

The Old Capital

The Old Capital

Limits to Autocracy

Limits to Autocracy

China Bibliography

China Bibliography

Neo-confucian Education

Neo-confucian Education

Notes of a Desolate Man

Notes of a Desolate Man

Notes of a Desolate Man

Notes of a Desolate Man

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