Boundaries in China (Critical Views) - Softcover

Hay, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0948462388 ISBN 13: 9780948462382

Publisher: Reaktion Books, 1997

Synopsis

A crucial topic in the study of Chinese culture past or present is that of the "boundary". In this book the authors investigate the meaning of the boundary as metaphor and paradox, as threshold and interface across the whole spectrum of Chinese art and society. The essays range from early politics and society to contemporary public and private discourse; from the creation of a literary canon to the positioning of individuals in dynastic time; from the public spaces in today's Peking Opera to the intangible surfaces of self in 14th-century painting.

All the authors in this book are established Sinologists. Boundaries in China will be stimulating reading for anyone interested in the psycho-social dynamics of non-Western art and culture.

Includes essays by Robin D. S. Yates, Wu Hung, Pauline Yu, John Hay, Jonathan Hay, Dorothy Ko, Isabelle Duchesne, Rey Chow, Ann Anagnost.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Boundary making, a crucial element in human cultural creativity, links these essays exploring Chinese art and society. Traversing time and cultural category, individual expression and social construct, the authors demonstrate how a 'boundary' may exist simultaneously as barrier, threshold and interface. The essays range from the creation of the first political and bureaucratic boundaries in early China, to the dismantling of discursive boundaries in the post-Mao era. Spanning diverse subjects, moving between ancient funerary art and the tension between self and image in modern Peking Opera, they deftly explore the psychodynamics of Chinese society. All the authors in this book are established Sinologists. Boundaries in China will be stimulating reading for anyone interested to see how the seemingly tangential or peripheral can turn out to be of central concern in non-Western (and perhaps also Western) art and culture.

About the Author:

John Hay is Professor of Art History at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

About this edition

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0948462388
• ISBN 13: 9780948462382
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 360