Modernity, modernization, modernism, and the modern have all been key, interrelated terms in post-traditional China. For all their ubiquity, however, in previous studies of Chinese culture and society there has been insufficient clarity as to what the precise meanings each term has encompassed from the period beginning in 1895, the year of China’s catastrophic defeat by Japan. The importance of these terms is underlined by their implication in China’s positioning in the world over the course of the past century and a half, as well as the path China will follow in the future.
Looking into a set of concepts and practices that have been instrumental in China’s road to modernity, namely, the definition of the modern itself, a new notion of literature, linguistic reform, translation, popular culture, and the transformation of the publishing world, Taking China to the World explores the various ways in which activity in the cultural sphere shaped Chinese perceptions of both how its historical course might evolve and how all-compassing change needed to be managed.
Most studies of China’s modern transformation have implicitly based themselves on the inevitability of a process of cultural, social, and institutional rationalization, more often than not based on Western models, without grappling with the full extent of the struggles to reconcile needed changes with a grand tradition, which, for all the condemnation aimed at it after 1895, still held a powerful appeal for most of those who seriously considered the full extent of the interactions between new and old. That an idea of a monolithic new seemed to take hold of many members of the Chinese elite after the period circa 1920 does not rule out the subtle hold that key portions of the grand tradition have had over modern China. No other book offers this kind of analysis of both the historical origins and contemporary consequences of the agonizing choices made by actors in the cultural sphere who occupied core positions in the life of the Chinese nation.
Taking China to the World: The Cultural Production of Modernity is a valuable resource for academic researchers, students, and general readers interested in all subfields of Chinese studies, particularly for those engaged in charting the transformation of Chinese culture and society over the last 150 years and considering what those transformations might hold in store for the future.
An unknown artist but a very familiar scene from the time, Macao’s Praia (Praya) Grande from the north, oil on canvas, mid-19th century, Anglo-Chinese School in an original giltwood and gesso swept frame.
This is a lovely copy of the quite rare Shanghai of Today, a souvenir album of thirty-eight Vandyke prints of the ‘Model Settlement’ published by the Shanghai/Hong Kong/Singapore huse of Kelly & Walsh in 1927. The original full padded morocco binding is lovely and comes with a picture of the Shanghai Municipal Council building (down on Kiangse/Jiangxi Road) and the seal/flag of the SMC. The book came with an introductuion by the long time editor of the North-China Daily News, OM Green.
This is an exmaple of the medal given to the men who served with the British in the 8-Power Allied Army camapign that stormed Peking in 1900….China War Medal 1900 with Queen Victoria on one side and a design featuring cannons and some rather un-Peking like foliage on the other side.
The latest in my occasional series of old Shanghai signage (use the search box if you want to see other examples). This, I don’t think, was not a common sign and indeed this may have been the only one but it’s fairly ominous!
One of the last, great untold stories of World War II–kept hidden for decades–even after most of the World War II records were declassified in 1972, many of the files remained untouched in various archives–a gripping true tale of courage and adventure from Bruce Henderson, master storyteller, historian, and New York Times best-selling author of Sons and Soldiers–the saga of the Japanese American U.S. Army soldiers who fought in the Pacific theater, in Burma, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, with their families back home in America, under U.S. Executive Order 9066, held behind barbed wire in government internment camps. <p/> After Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military was desperate to find Americans who spoke Japanese to serve in the Pacific war. They soon turned to the Nisei–first-generation U.S. citizens whose parents were immigrants from Japan. Eager to prove their loyalty to America, several thousand Nisei–many of them volunteering from the internment camps where they were being held behind barbed wire–were selected by the Army for top-secret training, then were rushed to the Pacific theater. Highly valued as expert translators and interrogators, these Japanese American soldiers operated in elite intelligence teams alongside Army infantrymen and Marines on the front lines of the Pacific war, from Iwo Jima to Burma, from the Solomons to Okinawa. <p/>Henderson reveals, in riveting detail, the harrowing untold story of the Nisei and their major contributions in the war of the Pacific, through six Japanese American soldiers. After the war, these soldiers became translators and interrogators for war crime trials, and later helped to rebuild Japan as a modern democracy and a pivotal U.S. ally.
A quite rare campaign medal for Japanese troops involved in the camapign take control of, and annex, Manchuria in the early 1930s. For service to the Japanese Empire during the Manchurian campaign 1931-34.
