Many Faces Of Mulian

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Many Faces of Mulian

Author : Rostislav Berezkin
Publisher : University of Washington Press
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2017-12-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780295742533

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Many Faces of Mulian by Rostislav Berezkin Pdf

The story of Mulian rescuing his mother’s soul from hell has evolved as a narrative over several centuries in China, especially in the baojuan (precious scrolls) genre. This genre, a prosimetric narrative in vernacular language, first appeared around the fourteenth century and endures as a living tradition. In exploring the evolution of the Mulian story, Rostislav Berezkin illuminates changes in the literary and religious characteristics of the genre. He also examines material from other forms of Chinese literature and from modern performances of baojuan, tracing their transformation from tools of Buddhist proselytizing to sectarian propaganda to folk ritualized storytelling. Ultimately, he reveals the special features of baojuan as a type of performance literature that had its foundations in multiple literary traditions.

Enchanted Revolution

Author : Xiaofei Kang
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 313 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2023
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780197654477

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Enchanted Revolution by Xiaofei Kang Pdf

Enchanted Revolution moves religion and gender to center stage in the Chinese Communist revolution, examining the mobilizational dynamics of anti-superstition propaganda in support of the Communist Party's rise from rural backwaters to national dominance. Xiaofei Kang argues that religion was not merely adversary for the revolutionaries-it also served as a model for the ways in which the Party mobilized support and constructed legitimacy. In this parallel and often paradoxical process, the Party attacked "superstitions" that had long supported the foundations of Chinese religious life. At the same time, Party propaganda co-opted these same religious resources for its own political ends. Kang demonstrates that the persuasive power of Party propaganda relied heavily on recasting the cosmic forces of yin and yang that sustained the traditional gender hierarchy and ritual order. Moreover, revolutionary art and literature revamped old narratives of female ghosts and ritual exorcism to inject the people with a new masculinist vision of the Party-state endowed with both scientific potency and the heavenly mandate. Gendered language and symbolism in Chinese religion thus remained central to inspiring pathos, ethos, and logos for the revolution. Enchanted Revolution sheds light on the contemporary significance of the Maoist legacy in China through a deft exploration of the complex interplay of religion, gender, and revolution.

Cinematic Guerrillas

Author : Jie Li
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 217 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2023-12-26
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780231556392

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Cinematic Guerrillas by Jie Li Pdf

How might cinema make revolution and mobilize the masses? In socialist China, the film exhibition network expanded from fewer than six hundred movie theaters to more than a hundred thousand mobile film projectionist teams. Holding screenings in improvised open-air spaces in rural areas lacking electricity, these roving projectionists brought not only films but also power generators, loudspeakers, slideshows, posters, live performances, and mass ritual participation, amplifying the era’s utopian dreams and violent upheavals. Cinematic Guerrillas is a media history of Chinese film exhibition and reception that offers fresh insights into the powers and limits of propaganda. Drawing on a wealth of archives, memoirs, interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork, Jie Li examines the media networks and environments, discourses and practices, experiences and memories of film projectionists and their grassroots audiences from the 1940s to the 1980s. She considers the ideology and practice of “cinematic guerrillas”—at once denoting onscreen militants, off-the-grid movie teams, and unruly moviegoers—bridging Maoist iconography, the experiences of projectionists, and popular participation and resistance. Li reconceptualizes socialist media practices as “revolutionary spirit mediumship” that aimed to turn audiences into congregations, contribute to the Mao cult, convert skeptics of revolutionary miracles, and exorcize class enemies. Cinematic Guerrillas considers cinema’s meanings for revolution and nation building; successive generations of projectionists; workers, peasants, and soldiers; women and ethnic minorities; and national leaders, local cadres, and cultural censors. By reading diverse, vivid, and often surprising accounts of moviegoing, Li excavates Chinese media theories that provide a critical new perspective on world cinema.

Embodying Xuanzang

Author : Benjamin Brose
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 172 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2023
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780824896386

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Embodying Xuanzang by Benjamin Brose Pdf

"Xuanzang (600/602-664) was one of the most accomplished and consequential monks in the history of East Asian Buddhism. Celebrated for his sixteen-year pilgrimage from China to India, his transmission and translation of hundreds of Buddhist texts, and his training of a generation of masters in China, Korea, and Japan, Xuanzang's life and legacy are the stuff of legend. In the centuries after his death, stories of his epic adventures and extraordinary accomplishments circulated in texts, images, songs, and plays. These mythic accounts recast the erudite pilgrim, translator, and court cleric as a magical monk who traveled not between China and India but between heaven and earth. Beset by bloodthirsty demons, this deified version of Xuanzang navigates the perilous paths of the netherworld to reach a pure land in the west. His purpose is to acquire a cache of sacred scriptures with the power to safeguard the living and deliver the dead. Along the way, he is guided and protected by a mischievous monkey, a lazy pig, a demonic monk, and a dragon horse. This imaginative and compelling tale received its fullest and most influential treatment in the famous sixteenth-century novel Journey to the West. In this engaging exploration of the confluence of myth, narrative, and ritual, Benjamin Brose uncovers the hidden histories of Xuanzang's many afterlives. Beginning in the eleventh century and continuing to the present day, devotees have summoned Xuanzang and his band of misfit pilgrims to perform exorcisms, guide the spirits of the dead, and possess the bodies of insurgents. Embodying Xuanzang traces the postmortem travels of China's greatest pilgrim and reveals the narrative and performative roots of China's best-known novel"--

Chinese Theatre: An Illustrated History Through Nuoxi and Mulianxi

Author : Xioahuan Zhao
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2021-12-30
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781315460277

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Chinese Theatre: An Illustrated History Through Nuoxi and Mulianxi by Xioahuan Zhao Pdf

Chinese Theatre: An Illustrated History Through Nuoxi and Mulianxi is the first book in any language entirely devoted to a historical inquiry into Chinese theatre through Nuoxi and Mulianxi, the two most representative and predominant forms of Chinese temple theatre. With a view to evaluating the role of temple theatre in the development of xiqu or traditional Chinese theatre and drama from myth to ritual to ritual drama to drama, Volume One provides a panoramic perspective that allows every aspect of Nuoxi to be considered, not in the margins of xiqu but in and of itself. Thus, this volume traces xiqu history from its shamanic roots in exorcism rituals of Nuo to various forms of ritual and theatrical performance presented at temple fairs, during community and calendrical festivals or for ceremonial functions over the course of imperial history, and into the twenty-first century, followed by an exploration of the scriptural origins and oral traditions of Mulianxi, with pivotal forms and functions of Nuoxi and Mulian storytelling, examined, explicated and illustrated in association with the development of corresponding genres of Chines performance literature and performing arts. This is an interdisciplinary book project that is aimed to help researchers and students of theatre history understand the ritual origins of Chinese theatre and the dynamic relationships among myth, ritual, religion, and theatre.

Communicating with the Gods

Author : Matthias Schumann,Elena Valussi
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 672 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2023-10-09
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9789004677906

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Communicating with the Gods by Matthias Schumann,Elena Valussi Pdf

Few religious innovations have shaped Chinese history like the emergence of spirit-writing during the Song dynasty. From a divinatory technique it evolved into a complex ritual practice used to transmit messages and revelations from the Gods. This resulted in the production of countless religious scriptures that now form an essential corpus, widely venerated and recited to this day, that is still largely untapped by research. Using historical and ethnographic approaches, this volume for the first time offers a comprehensive overview of the history of spirit-writing, examining its evolution over a millennium, the practices and technologies used, and the communities involved.

The Epic World

Author : Pamela Lothspeich
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 661 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2024-01-30
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781000912166

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The Epic World by Pamela Lothspeich Pdf

Reconceptualizing the epic genre and opening it up to a world of storytelling, The Epic World makes a timely and bold intervention toward understanding the human propensity to aestheticize and normalize mass deployments of power and violence. The collection broadly considers three kinds of epic literature: conventional celebratory tales of conquest that glorify heroism, especially male heroism; anti-epics or stories of conquest from the perspectives of the dispossessed, the oppressed, the despised, and the murdered; and heroic stories utilized for imperialist or nationalist purposes. The Epic World illustrates global patterns of epic storytelling, such as the durability of stories tied to religious traditions and/or to peoples who have largely "stayed put"; the tendency to reimagine and retell stories in new ways over centuries; and the imbrication of epic storytelling and forms of colonialism and imperialism, especially those perpetuated and glorified by Euro-Americans over the past 500 years, resulting in unspeakable and immeasurable harms to humans, other living beings, and the planet Earth. The Epic World is a go-to volume for anyone interested in epic literature in a global framework. Engaging with powerful stories and ways of knowing beyond those of the predominantly white Global North, this field-shifting volume exposes the false premises of "Western civilization" and "Classics," and brings new questions and perspectives to epic studies.

The Many Faces of King Gesar

Author : Matthew T. Kapstein,Charles Ramble
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 366 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2022-01-31
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9789004503465

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The Many Faces of King Gesar by Matthew T. Kapstein,Charles Ramble Pdf

The Tibetan Gesar epic has known countless retellings, translations, and academic studies. The Many Faces of Ling Gesar, presents its historical, cultural, and literary aspects for the first time in a single volume for both general readers and specialists.

How to Read Chinese Drama

Author : Patricia Sieber,Regina Llamas
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 481 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2022-01-25
Category : Drama
ISBN : 9780231546669

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How to Read Chinese Drama by Patricia Sieber,Regina Llamas Pdf

This book is a comprehensive and inviting introduction to the literary forms and cultural significance of Chinese drama as both text and performance. Each chapter offers an accessible overview and critical analysis of one or more plays—canonical as well as less frequently studied works—and their historical contexts. How to Read Chinese Drama highlights how each play sheds light on key aspects of the dramatic tradition, including genre conventions, staging practices, musical performance, audience participation, and political resonances, emphasizing interconnections among chapters. It brings together leading scholars spanning anthropology, art history, ethnomusicology, history, literature, and theater studies. How to Read Chinese Drama is straightforward, clear, and concise, written for undergraduate students and their instructors as well as a wider audience interested in world theater. For students of Chinese literature and language, the book provides questions to explore when reading, watching, and listening to plays, and it features bilingual excerpts. For teachers, an analytical table of contents, a theater-specific chronology of events, and lists of visual resources and translations provide pedagogical resources for exploring Chinese theater within broader cultural and comparative contexts. For theater practitioners, the volume offers deeply researched readings of important plays together with background on historical performance conventions, audience responses, and select modern adaptations.

Ethnography in China Today

Author : Daniel Overmyer
Publisher : 遠流出版
Page : 394 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2002-06-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9789573246046

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Ethnography in China Today by Daniel Overmyer Pdf

This book includes twenty chapters reviewing a total of sixty-four books in Chinese in the two series: “Studies in Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore” and “Traditional Hakka Society,” edited respectively by Wang Ch'iu-kuei and John Lagerwey. It is intended to inform the wider world of scholarship of this new research, which provides the most detailed information ever available about Chinese local culture, drama and religion. Together with the excellent studies of this dimension of culture by scholars in Taiwan, and with a revived interest in this area by other China mainland scholars, it represents a resumption of the folklore studies movement of the 1920s and 1930s that was interrupted by the war with Japan. These new reports may also be seen as a complement to the work of anthropologists, who until recently have not been able to conduct many field studies in China. As such, this research provides fresh information for an understanding of the culture of the majority of the Chinese people, an understanding based on their lived experiences and values.

A General History of Chinese Art

Author : Xifan Li
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 412 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2022-10-03
Category : Art
ISBN : 9783110790917

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A General History of Chinese Art by Xifan Li Pdf

This volume analyses the history of Chinese art during the time of the Ming Dynasty during which the various traditions of painting academies were developed further leading to new painting styles and schools. The volume also highlights the developments in music, crafts, porcelain, and architecture. A General History of Chinese Art comprises six volumes with a total of nine parts spanning from the Prehistoric Era until the 3rd year of Xuantong during the Qing Dynasty (1911). The work provides a comprehensive compilation of in-depth studies of the development of art throughout the subsequent reign of Chinese dynasties and explores the emergence of a wide range of artistic categories such as but not limited to music, dance, acrobatics, singing, story telling, painting, calligraphy, sculpture, architecture, and crafts. Unlike previous reference books, A General History of Chinese Art offers a broader overview of the notion of Chinese art by asserting a more diverse and less material understanding of arts, as has often been the case in Western scholarship.

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Author : John Minford,Joseph S. M. Lau
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 1246 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Education
ISBN : 0231096763

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????? by John Minford,Joseph S. M. Lau Pdf

Presents translations of two thousand years of Chinese literature, from it beginnings to the Tang Dynasty in the tenth century.

Anime and Memory

Author : Dani Cavallaro
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2014-01-10
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780786453474

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Anime and Memory by Dani Cavallaro Pdf

The theme of memory has played a significant role in anime throughout its evolution as an art form and as popular entertainment. Anime's handling of memory is multifaceted, weaving it into diverse symbolic motifs, narratives and aesthetic issues. This study aims to provide a detailed analysis of a range of anime titles wherein different aspects of this cultural phenomenon are articulated. It explores anime films and series that exemplify the distinctive signatures placed by particular directors or studios on the treatment of memory, while also highlighting the prominence of memory in anime with reference to specific philosophical, artistic, and historical contexts.

Life along the Silk Road

Author : Susan Whitfield
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2015-03-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9780520960299

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Life along the Silk Road by Susan Whitfield Pdf

In this long-awaited second edition, Susan Whitfield broadens her exploration of the Silk Road and expands her rich and varied portrait of life along the great pre-modern trade routes of Eurasia. This new edition is comprehensively updated to support further understanding of themes relevant to global and comparative history and remains the only history of the Silk Road to reconstruct the route through the personal experiences of travelers. In the first 1,000 years after Christ, merchants, missionaries, monks, mendicants, and military men traveled the vast network of Central Asian tracks that became known as the Silk Road. Whitfield recounts the lives of twelve individuals who lived at different times during this period, including two characters new to this edition: an African shipmaster and a Persian traveler and writer during the Arab caliphate. With these additional tales, Whitfield extends both geographical and chronological scope, bringing into view the maritime links across the Indian Ocean and depicting the network of north-south routes from the Baltic to the Gulf. Throughout the narrative, Whitfield conveys a strong sense of what life was like for ordinary men and women on the Silk Road, the individuals usually forgotten to history. A work of great scholarship, Life along the Silk Road continues to be both accessible and entertaining.

Ritual Opera and Mercantile Lineage

Author : Qitao Guo
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 398 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0804750327

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Ritual Opera and Mercantile Lineage by Qitao Guo Pdf

Focusing on the Confucian transformation of Mulian opera, and especially on the interplay between the "civilizing" effect of ritual performance and the rise of gentrified mercantile lineages in sixteenth-century Huizhou prefecture, this book develops a radically novel interpretation of both Chinese popular culture and the Confucian tradition in late imperial China.