Musings – Reading Hong Kong, China and the World
Posted: October 24th, 2011 | 1 Comment »Leo Ou Fan-lee, probably known best to those who study their Shanghai history as the author of the excellent Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945, has a new collection essays, Musings, out exploring cosmopolitanism in postwar Chinese literary culture. Blurb below as usual.
These essays explore cosmopolitanism in postwar Chinese literary culture—from the Hong Kong identity, and intellectuals like Eileen Chang, Gao Xingjian, and Lung Yingtai, to other cultural streams represented by writers ranging from Oe to Kafka.
Leo Lee Ou-fan is currently Sin Wai Kin Professor of Chinese Culture at Chinese University of Hong Kong, having taken early retirement from teaching at Harvard University to become a long-term Hong Kong resident, Apart from his academic work, he has been an active participant in the Hong Kong cultural scene, having published in the past decade nearly 20 books of cultural criticism in both Chinese and English, including (in English) City Between Worlds: My Hong Kong (Harvard University Press, 2008). Among his scholarly books are Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945 (Harvard University Press, 1999). In addition to literature, his other humanistic interests include classical music, film, and architecture.
Musings by Professor Lee Ou-fan really is a thought-provoking tour de force covering literary, intellectual, and cultural trends in Hong Kong and greater China. His essays are readable and show his wide-ranging knowledge. Highly recommended! Available at http://www.musemag.hk.