Time for some quick picks! Here are three new or upcoming Chinese history books that have caught my eye:
Runaway Wives, Urban Crimes, and Survival Tactics in Wartime Beijing, 1937-1949 by Zhao Ma [Harvard University Asia Center, September 2015]
Women living in wartime Beijing faced many challenges, including threats from the Japanese occupational forces, poverty from political and social upheaval, and even civil war. 'Runaway Wives' uncovers the ways that women used underground networks and even criminal activity to keep themselves and their families alive.
Garden of Perfect Brightness: The Lost and Most Splendid Imperial Garden in China by Guo Daiheng [Shanghai Press, April 2016]
A look at the Old Summer Palace, built in 1707 and described as the "garden of all gardens"; the palace and its gardens, once heralded as the most beautiful in the world, were destroyed and looted by the British-French allied army in 1860.
City of Marvel and Transformation: Chang'an and Narratives of Experience in Tang Dynasty China by Linda Rui Feng [University of Hawaii Press, August 2015]
Chang'an (present day Xi'an) was the imperial capital of China during the Tang Dynasty; during its heyday, Chang'an was a thriving cultural center that inspired developments in technological, social, scientific and artistic circles. 'City of Marvel and Transformation' puts a special focus on the writings of educated men who came to the city seeking to take the civil service examinations.
Showing posts with label china. Show all posts
Showing posts with label china. Show all posts
Monday, August 31, 2015
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
From Fiction to History: Book Recommendations ('Revolution is Not a Dinner Party')
I love historical fiction. Historical fiction I read in elementary school (willingly or not!) played a large part in encouraging me to become interested in actual history, and even today I find myself picking up non-fiction books to find out more about the real events and history behind some of my favorite fiction novels! In the same vein, I've decided to start a series of posts recommending some non-fiction reads based on historical fiction favorites. I was checking over my Goodreads 2015 Challenge earlier today and thought that the historical fiction I've read this year would be an excellent place to start.
Ling, the central character of Revolution is Not a Dinner Party, is only 9 years old when the world around her begins to crumble due to the increasingly heightened policies under the Chinese Cultural Revolution; her parents, two wealthy surgeons who have provided their daughter with a comfortable life and education, find themselves under increasing suspicion and ultimately punishment for their perceived anti-revolutionary lifestyle and beliefs. Ling, too, is increasingly ostracized for being "bourgeois"--for having long hair, new clothes, and a comfortable life. The events in Revolution is Not a Dinner Party were drawn from Compestine's own experiences as a young girl in Wuhan.
Life and Death in Shanghai is a deeply personal and detailed account of one woman's long, terrible imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution. Cheng's life made her the perfect target: she was the widow of an official of the last regime, formally educated in London, employed at Shell Oil, and enjoyed a comfortable, wealthy lifestyle. Cheng's imprisonment began after she refused to admit that any of this made her an enemy of China, and what followed were 6 years of horror--and many more years of seeking justice.
As a Red Guard, Ma Bo did not hesitate to do the work that Mao's government demanded of its soldiers: ransacking homes for anything that went against the party's guidelines, beating suspected anti-communists in order to make them confess, and even participating in . But when Ma Bo made a careless comment about a party leader, he found himself on the other side--imprisoned for eight years while enduring severe beatings, physical torture and psychological abuse. Blood Red Sunset is Ma Bo's memoir of those terrible years.
Fiction: Revolution is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine
Ling, the central character of Revolution is Not a Dinner Party, is only 9 years old when the world around her begins to crumble due to the increasingly heightened policies under the Chinese Cultural Revolution; her parents, two wealthy surgeons who have provided their daughter with a comfortable life and education, find themselves under increasing suspicion and ultimately punishment for their perceived anti-revolutionary lifestyle and beliefs. Ling, too, is increasingly ostracized for being "bourgeois"--for having long hair, new clothes, and a comfortable life. The events in Revolution is Not a Dinner Party were drawn from Compestine's own experiences as a young girl in Wuhan.
History: Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng
Life and Death in Shanghai is a deeply personal and detailed account of one woman's long, terrible imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution. Cheng's life made her the perfect target: she was the widow of an official of the last regime, formally educated in London, employed at Shell Oil, and enjoyed a comfortable, wealthy lifestyle. Cheng's imprisonment began after she refused to admit that any of this made her an enemy of China, and what followed were 6 years of horror--and many more years of seeking justice.
History: Blood Red Sunset: A Memoir of the Chinese Cultural Revolution by Ma Bo
As a Red Guard, Ma Bo did not hesitate to do the work that Mao's government demanded of its soldiers: ransacking homes for anything that went against the party's guidelines, beating suspected anti-communists in order to make them confess, and even participating in . But when Ma Bo made a careless comment about a party leader, he found himself on the other side--imprisoned for eight years while enduring severe beatings, physical torture and psychological abuse. Blood Red Sunset is Ma Bo's memoir of those terrible years.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Featured Book: Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine by Yang Jisheng
Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine (1958-1962) by Yang Jisheng
An estimated thirty-six million Chinese men, women and children starved to death during China’s Great Leap Forward in the late 1950’s and early ‘60’s. One of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century, the famine is poorly understood, and in China is still euphemistically referred to as the “three years of natural disaster.”
As a journalist with privileged access to official and unofficial sources, Yang Jisheng spent twenty years piecing together the events that led to mass nationwide starvation, including the death of his own father. Finding no natural causes, Yang lays the deaths at the feet of China’s totalitarian Communist system and the refusal of officials at every level to value human life over ideology and self-interest.
Tombstone is a testament to inhumanity and occasional heroism that pits collective memory against the historical amnesia imposed by those in power. Stunning in scale and arresting in its detailed account of the staggering human cost of this tragedy, Tombstone is written both as a memorial to the lives lost—an enduring tombstone in memory of the dead—and in hopeful anticipation of the final demise of the totalitarian system. Ian Johnson, writing in The New York Review of Books, called the Chinese edition of Tombstone “groundbreaking…The most authoritative account of the great famine…One of the most important books to come out of China in recent years.”
You can read more about the writing of this book and Jisheng's experiences in a two-part article here.
An estimated thirty-six million Chinese men, women and children starved to death during China’s Great Leap Forward in the late 1950’s and early ‘60’s. One of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century, the famine is poorly understood, and in China is still euphemistically referred to as the “three years of natural disaster.”
As a journalist with privileged access to official and unofficial sources, Yang Jisheng spent twenty years piecing together the events that led to mass nationwide starvation, including the death of his own father. Finding no natural causes, Yang lays the deaths at the feet of China’s totalitarian Communist system and the refusal of officials at every level to value human life over ideology and self-interest.
Tombstone is a testament to inhumanity and occasional heroism that pits collective memory against the historical amnesia imposed by those in power. Stunning in scale and arresting in its detailed account of the staggering human cost of this tragedy, Tombstone is written both as a memorial to the lives lost—an enduring tombstone in memory of the dead—and in hopeful anticipation of the final demise of the totalitarian system. Ian Johnson, writing in The New York Review of Books, called the Chinese edition of Tombstone “groundbreaking…The most authoritative account of the great famine…One of the most important books to come out of China in recent years.”
You can read more about the writing of this book and Jisheng's experiences in a two-part article here.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Review: Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet by Dorothy Ko
(Note: I apologize for the unaccounted inactivity for the past month--real life has been taking up a lot of my energy and I was short on time to devote to this blog until now!)
The word "footbinding" conjures up two distinct images: the intricate and impossibly small "lotus shoes" and the women with deformed feet who wore--and, for a dwindling number of older Chinese women, still wear--them. While these two images are certainly part of footbinding, they are merely pieces of a much larger cultural puzzle that made up a practice which lasted for at least four centuries. Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet by Dorothy Ko fills in more of this puzzle by providing an overview of the history of footbinding, its development and adaptation through varying Chinese cultures, and how--and possibly why--footbinding played such a large role in the vital but often overlooked "inner circle" of women's society in Qing China.
It is clear from the outset of this book that Kohas chosen to approach footbinding from a historical and cultural viewpoint, rather than from one which casts judgement on the practice of footbinding from a modern viewpoint. "As a historian who has studied footbinding and women's cultures for years," she writes, "I do not claim to be neutral. I feel strongly that we should understand footbinding not as a senseless act of destruction but as a meaningful practice in the eyes of the women themselves." Although the pain and deformations caused by footbinding are discussed (and, in a few photographs, shown) Ko does not linger on them outside of providing an informative though, of course, shocking "instructional" illustrated guide to how footbinding was usually performed. However, most of the book explores the shoes worn after footbinding and the role that both the practice and lotus shoes had in the lives of women of varying social standing throughout several centuries of Chinese history.
Although footbinding was a consequence of living in a society which was ruled and dominated by men, the world and culture of footbinding was ruled and dominated by women. Footbinding, in essence, was strictly within the female domain. Female matchmakers and other respected women in a village or area would be consulted before the process of footbinding began in order to ensure that the process was started during the correct time. Mothers, aunts, and elder sisters would perform the act of footbinding on daughters and other young girls in the family. They would also teach those girls to create well-made and intricate lotus shoes, which were not only for practical purposes--the girls would need to be able to create footwear for their bound feet, in varying sizes as their feet became smaller--but also to help improve their chances of making a successful marriage match. Girls who could create well made shoes with fine and detailed designs were favorable to those whose work was more or less shoddy. Matchmakers would not only assess the size of a girl's feet, but her ability to create shoes and perform other essential female work. A young woman's ability to create fine lotus shoes would also make her transition into a new household after marriage much easier, as this skill was highly valued.
In addition to the vivid descriptions of how footbinding fit into female Chinese society, the book features numerous colorful photographs of lotus shoes from various Chinese cultures. Many of these shoes have never been on public display due to their delicacy and were seen by the public for the first time in this book. From a cultural standpoint, it is very interesting to see how the shoes varied depending on the region and time period. Lotus shoes from mountain regions, for example, tended to be bigger and more sloped to allow for women to more easily navigate the harsh terrain. Almost all of the shoes feature beautiful embroidery and vivid colors, which makes it easy to see why having the skill to make these shoes was so highly valued.
Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet by Dorothy Ko is an essential look at the practice of footbinding from a historian intent on placing this cultural practice back into its historical context--as an important piece of the puzzle of women's lives during Qing Dynasty China. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Chinese history, women's studies, or unique historical fashion.
The word "footbinding" conjures up two distinct images: the intricate and impossibly small "lotus shoes" and the women with deformed feet who wore--and, for a dwindling number of older Chinese women, still wear--them. While these two images are certainly part of footbinding, they are merely pieces of a much larger cultural puzzle that made up a practice which lasted for at least four centuries. Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet by Dorothy Ko fills in more of this puzzle by providing an overview of the history of footbinding, its development and adaptation through varying Chinese cultures, and how--and possibly why--footbinding played such a large role in the vital but often overlooked "inner circle" of women's society in Qing China.
It is clear from the outset of this book that Kohas chosen to approach footbinding from a historical and cultural viewpoint, rather than from one which casts judgement on the practice of footbinding from a modern viewpoint. "As a historian who has studied footbinding and women's cultures for years," she writes, "I do not claim to be neutral. I feel strongly that we should understand footbinding not as a senseless act of destruction but as a meaningful practice in the eyes of the women themselves." Although the pain and deformations caused by footbinding are discussed (and, in a few photographs, shown) Ko does not linger on them outside of providing an informative though, of course, shocking "instructional" illustrated guide to how footbinding was usually performed. However, most of the book explores the shoes worn after footbinding and the role that both the practice and lotus shoes had in the lives of women of varying social standing throughout several centuries of Chinese history.
Although footbinding was a consequence of living in a society which was ruled and dominated by men, the world and culture of footbinding was ruled and dominated by women. Footbinding, in essence, was strictly within the female domain. Female matchmakers and other respected women in a village or area would be consulted before the process of footbinding began in order to ensure that the process was started during the correct time. Mothers, aunts, and elder sisters would perform the act of footbinding on daughters and other young girls in the family. They would also teach those girls to create well-made and intricate lotus shoes, which were not only for practical purposes--the girls would need to be able to create footwear for their bound feet, in varying sizes as their feet became smaller--but also to help improve their chances of making a successful marriage match. Girls who could create well made shoes with fine and detailed designs were favorable to those whose work was more or less shoddy. Matchmakers would not only assess the size of a girl's feet, but her ability to create shoes and perform other essential female work. A young woman's ability to create fine lotus shoes would also make her transition into a new household after marriage much easier, as this skill was highly valued.
In addition to the vivid descriptions of how footbinding fit into female Chinese society, the book features numerous colorful photographs of lotus shoes from various Chinese cultures. Many of these shoes have never been on public display due to their delicacy and were seen by the public for the first time in this book. From a cultural standpoint, it is very interesting to see how the shoes varied depending on the region and time period. Lotus shoes from mountain regions, for example, tended to be bigger and more sloped to allow for women to more easily navigate the harsh terrain. Almost all of the shoes feature beautiful embroidery and vivid colors, which makes it easy to see why having the skill to make these shoes was so highly valued.
Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet by Dorothy Ko is an essential look at the practice of footbinding from a historian intent on placing this cultural practice back into its historical context--as an important piece of the puzzle of women's lives during Qing Dynasty China. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Chinese history, women's studies, or unique historical fashion.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Book Finds: Chinese history releases for 2012
Chinese history is incredibly long and incredibly fascinating--I was tempted to do a post on some of my favorite older Chinese history books, but I thought I would go for a little something different instead and share some of the more interesting Chinese history book releases for 2012. Personally, I'm most excited for the new book on the Forbidden City and the study on women's poetry form the late imperial period.
The following descriptions are all from Amazon.com
The Forbidden City by Jean-Paul Descroches, Guillaume Fonkenell and Isabelle Lemaistre [June 1, 2012]
An enigmatic locale that has long fascinated the West, the Forbidden City of Peking is explored in this chronicle. It reveals how the city has always been reserved for imperial families and their circles of acquaintances only, remaining taboo to the Chinese people, who were not allowed to approach it nor even look at it. It explains what it took to realize what is regarded as the most important architectural project in China, and documents how its construction spanned 14 years and required over a million workers. More than five centuries of the city’s history is revisited, detailing an array of magnificent treasures secretly passed down through its generations. Focusing on several exceptional pieces, the examination places them beside recognizably Western works, and reflects on the Far East’s remarkable influence on the other side of the world.
The Seventies: Recollecting a Forgotten Time in China by Theodore Huters [July 3, 2012]
The Seventies (Qishi niandai) is a remarkable compendium of essays recollecting those years originally edited by the poet Bei Dao and the writer/editor Li Tuo, first published in Hong Kong in late 2008. Among the collection's most notable features is its powerful ability to reach back and illuminate that strange decade, now mostly thought of as an interregnum between a just preceding Maoist frenzy with its intense socialism and the ascent of Deng Xiaoping and his new era at the very end of the period. It was also, however, the formative time in the growth of the group of intellectuals, writers and artists -- almost all born after 1949 -- who came to dominate Chinese cultural life by the turn of the century. As "educated urban youth" (zhishi qingnian), many of the writers represented here were at once the most active participants and most evident victims of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that spanned the years between 1966 and 1976. The works selected and translated here provide a series of vivid impressions of what has turned out to be a key period in modern Chinese social, intellectual and artistic life.
The Silk Road: A New History by Valerie Hansen [August 6, 2012]
The Silk Road is as iconic in world history as the Colossus of Rhodes or the Suez Canal. But what was it, exactly? It conjures up a hazy image of a caravan of camels laden with silk on a dusty desert track, reaching from China to Rome. The reality was different--and far more interesting--as revealed in this new history. ... For centuries, key records remained hidden-sometimes deliberately buried by bureaucrats for safe keeping. But the sands of the Taklamakan Desert have revealed fascinating material, sometimes preserved by illiterate locals who recycled official documents to make insoles for shoes or garments for the dead. Hansen explores seven oases along the road, from Xi'an to Samarkand, where merchants, envoys, pilgrims, and travelers mixed in cosmopolitan communities, tolerant of religions from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism. There was no single, continuous road, but a chain of markets that traded between east and west. China and the Roman Empire had very little direct trade. China's main partners were the peoples of modern-day Iran, whose tombs in China reveal much about their Zoroastrian beliefs. Silk was not the most important good on the road; paper, invented in China before Julius Caesar was born, had a bigger impact in Europe, while metals, spices, and glass were just as important as silk. Perhaps most significant of all was the road's transmission of ideas, technologies, and artistic motifs.
Women's Poetry of Late Imperial China: Transforming the Inner Chambers by Xiaorong Li [September 1, 2012]
This study of poetry by women in late imperial China examines the metamorphosis of the trope of the "inner chambers" (gui), to which women were confined in traditional Chinese households, and which in literature were both a real and an imaginary place. Originally popularized in sixth-century "palace style" poetry, the inner chambers were used by male writers as a setting in which to celebrate female beauty, to lament the loneliness of abandoned women, and by extension, to serve as a political allegory for the exile of loyal and upright male ministers spurned by the imperial court. Female writers of lyric poetry (ci) soon adopted the theme, beginning its transition from male fantasy to multidimensional representation of women and their place in society, and eventually its manifestation in other poetic genres as well.
Emerging from the role of sexual objects within poetry, late imperial women were agents of literary change in their expansion and complication of the boudoir theme. While some take ownership and de-eroticizing its imagery for their own purposes, adding voices of children and older women, and filling the inner chambers with purposeful activity such as conversation, teaching, religious ritual, music, sewing, childcare, and chess-playing, some simply want to escape from their confinement and protest gender restrictions imposed on women. Women's Poetry of Late Imperial China traces this evolution across centuries, providing and analyzing examples of poetic themes, motifs, and imagery associated with the inner chambers, and demonstrating the complication and nuancing of the gui theme by increasingly aware and sophisticated women writers.
The following descriptions are all from Amazon.com
The Forbidden City by Jean-Paul Descroches, Guillaume Fonkenell and Isabelle Lemaistre [June 1, 2012]
An enigmatic locale that has long fascinated the West, the Forbidden City of Peking is explored in this chronicle. It reveals how the city has always been reserved for imperial families and their circles of acquaintances only, remaining taboo to the Chinese people, who were not allowed to approach it nor even look at it. It explains what it took to realize what is regarded as the most important architectural project in China, and documents how its construction spanned 14 years and required over a million workers. More than five centuries of the city’s history is revisited, detailing an array of magnificent treasures secretly passed down through its generations. Focusing on several exceptional pieces, the examination places them beside recognizably Western works, and reflects on the Far East’s remarkable influence on the other side of the world.
The Seventies: Recollecting a Forgotten Time in China by Theodore Huters [July 3, 2012]
The Seventies (Qishi niandai) is a remarkable compendium of essays recollecting those years originally edited by the poet Bei Dao and the writer/editor Li Tuo, first published in Hong Kong in late 2008. Among the collection's most notable features is its powerful ability to reach back and illuminate that strange decade, now mostly thought of as an interregnum between a just preceding Maoist frenzy with its intense socialism and the ascent of Deng Xiaoping and his new era at the very end of the period. It was also, however, the formative time in the growth of the group of intellectuals, writers and artists -- almost all born after 1949 -- who came to dominate Chinese cultural life by the turn of the century. As "educated urban youth" (zhishi qingnian), many of the writers represented here were at once the most active participants and most evident victims of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that spanned the years between 1966 and 1976. The works selected and translated here provide a series of vivid impressions of what has turned out to be a key period in modern Chinese social, intellectual and artistic life.
The Silk Road: A New History by Valerie Hansen [August 6, 2012]
The Silk Road is as iconic in world history as the Colossus of Rhodes or the Suez Canal. But what was it, exactly? It conjures up a hazy image of a caravan of camels laden with silk on a dusty desert track, reaching from China to Rome. The reality was different--and far more interesting--as revealed in this new history. ... For centuries, key records remained hidden-sometimes deliberately buried by bureaucrats for safe keeping. But the sands of the Taklamakan Desert have revealed fascinating material, sometimes preserved by illiterate locals who recycled official documents to make insoles for shoes or garments for the dead. Hansen explores seven oases along the road, from Xi'an to Samarkand, where merchants, envoys, pilgrims, and travelers mixed in cosmopolitan communities, tolerant of religions from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism. There was no single, continuous road, but a chain of markets that traded between east and west. China and the Roman Empire had very little direct trade. China's main partners were the peoples of modern-day Iran, whose tombs in China reveal much about their Zoroastrian beliefs. Silk was not the most important good on the road; paper, invented in China before Julius Caesar was born, had a bigger impact in Europe, while metals, spices, and glass were just as important as silk. Perhaps most significant of all was the road's transmission of ideas, technologies, and artistic motifs.
Women's Poetry of Late Imperial China: Transforming the Inner Chambers by Xiaorong Li [September 1, 2012]
This study of poetry by women in late imperial China examines the metamorphosis of the trope of the "inner chambers" (gui), to which women were confined in traditional Chinese households, and which in literature were both a real and an imaginary place. Originally popularized in sixth-century "palace style" poetry, the inner chambers were used by male writers as a setting in which to celebrate female beauty, to lament the loneliness of abandoned women, and by extension, to serve as a political allegory for the exile of loyal and upright male ministers spurned by the imperial court. Female writers of lyric poetry (ci) soon adopted the theme, beginning its transition from male fantasy to multidimensional representation of women and their place in society, and eventually its manifestation in other poetic genres as well.
Emerging from the role of sexual objects within poetry, late imperial women were agents of literary change in their expansion and complication of the boudoir theme. While some take ownership and de-eroticizing its imagery for their own purposes, adding voices of children and older women, and filling the inner chambers with purposeful activity such as conversation, teaching, religious ritual, music, sewing, childcare, and chess-playing, some simply want to escape from their confinement and protest gender restrictions imposed on women. Women's Poetry of Late Imperial China traces this evolution across centuries, providing and analyzing examples of poetic themes, motifs, and imagery associated with the inner chambers, and demonstrating the complication and nuancing of the gui theme by increasingly aware and sophisticated women writers.
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About Me
- Anna Gibson
- (Formerly Anna Amber)
"History is scholarship. It is also art, and it is literature."
I am a history loving writer who enjoys reading and blogging in my spare time. I currently run three blogs: Reading Treasure, a blog dedicated to books and more about Marie Antoinette and 18th century France; Treasure for Your Pleasure, a Tumblr microblog dedicated to Marie Antoinette and her world; and my newest blog, Inviting History, a book blog dedicated to unique and overlooked history books.