Cross-Cultural Readings of Chineseness: Narratives, Images, and Interpretations of the 1990s Volume 51 - Hardcover

by Wen-Hsin Yeh (Editor)

The contributors offer interpretive readings of a film, a work of plastic art, and an essay, all products of contemporary China. The works are "Chinese" not just because they are by Chinese artists and writers and "from China" but also because they bear witness to cultural and intellectual imaginations both by the Chinese themselves and about China in an era of border-crossing. They are part of an interactive reconstruction of the meaning of "Chineseness" in our time.

Back Jacket

While the volume very much starts from a cultural studies perspective, the skill and lucidity with which these scholars address the construction of 'Chineseness' make it valuable reading for anyone concerned with issues of identity. As such, it has a real cross-disciplinary appeal.--Adam Frank, University of Texas at Austin, China Information

"The book represents a collective attempt on the part of the authors to explore the interpretive constraints imposed on artistic and intellectual work once these have been conveniently tagged as "Chinese"....Each of the essays responds to the question of what marks a work as identifiably Chinese and then unpacks this form of "Chineseness" as a network of meanings and values that circulate within popular and scholarly discourses. The ingenuity of the volume, for which the editor should be congratulated, lies in its organization of the six essays into three pairs of critical responses to three separate "objects" of study, thus providing an effective dialogue on each of these between the paired authors."--Gloria Davies, Monash University, The China Journal

Author Biography

Wen-hsin Yeh is professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley. She has served as the director of the Institute of East Asian Studies and the chair of the Center for Chinese Studies at Berkeley. She has edited and contributed to many IEAS publications, including Mobile Subjects; Mobile Horizons; History in Images; Cities in Motion; Empire, Nation, and Beyond; Cross-Cultural Readings of Chineseness; Landscape, Culture, and Space in Chinese Society; and Shanghai Sojourners. Education: B.A., History, National Taiwan University; M.A., History, University of Southern California; Ph.D., History, University of California, Berkeley