The Business of Culture
Cultural Entrepreneurs in China and Southeast Asia, 1900-65
Will be published approx. on 15. December 2014
Book
Hardback
348 pages
978-0-7748-2780-5 (ISBN)
Description
From the late nineteenth- to the mid-twentieth century, changing technologies and growing transregional ties provided unprecedented opportunities for the entrepreneurially minded in China and Southeast Asia. The Business of Culture examines the rise of Chinese "cultural entrepreneurs," businesspeople who risked financial well-being and reputation by investing in multiple cultural enterprises in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rich in biographical detail, the interlinked case studies featured in this volume introduce three distinct archetypes: the cultural personality, the tycoon, and the collective enterprise. These portraits reveal how changes in social and economic conditions created the fertile soil for business success; conditions that are similar to those emerging in China today.
Reviews / Votes
This collection of essays represents a new period in the historiography of China, and the vantage point, that of capitalist China revived and flourishing, fits well with the analyses presented in the volume. Indeed, as Rea's theoretical chapter on the concept of cultural entrepreneurship notes, this offers a new approach to "pluralism and mobility in the cultural sphere" (27) beyond the categories imposed by a political analysis.- Anna Belogurova, Georg-August Universitat Gottingen, Germany (Pacific Affairs)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Vancouver
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Illustrations
30 b&w photographs, 5 tables
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
640 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7748-2780-5 (9780774827805)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Christopher Rea is an associate professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia. Nicolai Volland is an assistant professor of Asian studies and comparative literature at Pennsylvania State University.
Contributors: Chua Ai Lin, Robert Culp, Grace Fong, Michael Gibbs Hill, Eugenia Lean, Christopher A. Reed, Sin Yee Theng, Wang Gungwu, and Sai-Shing Yung
Contributors: Chua Ai Lin, Robert Culp, Grace Fong, Michael Gibbs Hill, Eugenia Lean, Christopher A. Reed, Sin Yee Theng, Wang Gungwu, and Sai-Shing Yung
Content
Foreword by Wang Gungwu
Introduction / Christopher Rea and Nicolai Volland
1 Enter the Cultural Entrepreneur / Christopher Rea
Part 1: Cultural Personalities
2 Between the Literata and the New Woman: Lue Bicheng as Cultural Entrepreneur / Grace Fong
3The Butterfly Mark: Chen Diexian, His Brand, and Cultural Entrepreneurism in Republican China / Eugenia Lean
4 Culture by Post: Correspondence Schools in Early Republican China / Michael Gibbs Hill
Part 2: Tycoons
5 Aw Boon Haw, the Tiger from Nanyang: Social Entrepreneurship, Transregional Journalism, and Public Culture / Sin Yee Theng and Nicolai Volland
6 One Chicken, Three Dishes: The Cultural Enterprises of Law Bun / Sai-Shing Yung and Christopher Rea
Part 3: Collective Enterprises
7 Local Entrepreneurs, Transnational Networks: Publishing Markets and Cantonese Communities within and across National Borders / Robert Culp
8 Cultural Consumption and Cosmopolitan Connections: Chinese Cinema Entrepreneurs in 1920s and 1930s Singapore / Chua Ai Lin
9 Cultural Entrepreneurship in the Twilight: The Shanghai Book Trade Association, 1945-57 / Nicolai Volland
Epilogue: Beyond the Age of Cultural Entrepreneurship, 1949-Present / Christopher A. Reed and Nicolai Volland
Glossary; Bibliography; List of Contributors; Index
Introduction / Christopher Rea and Nicolai Volland
1 Enter the Cultural Entrepreneur / Christopher Rea
Part 1: Cultural Personalities
2 Between the Literata and the New Woman: Lue Bicheng as Cultural Entrepreneur / Grace Fong
3The Butterfly Mark: Chen Diexian, His Brand, and Cultural Entrepreneurism in Republican China / Eugenia Lean
4 Culture by Post: Correspondence Schools in Early Republican China / Michael Gibbs Hill
Part 2: Tycoons
5 Aw Boon Haw, the Tiger from Nanyang: Social Entrepreneurship, Transregional Journalism, and Public Culture / Sin Yee Theng and Nicolai Volland
6 One Chicken, Three Dishes: The Cultural Enterprises of Law Bun / Sai-Shing Yung and Christopher Rea
Part 3: Collective Enterprises
7 Local Entrepreneurs, Transnational Networks: Publishing Markets and Cantonese Communities within and across National Borders / Robert Culp
8 Cultural Consumption and Cosmopolitan Connections: Chinese Cinema Entrepreneurs in 1920s and 1930s Singapore / Chua Ai Lin
9 Cultural Entrepreneurship in the Twilight: The Shanghai Book Trade Association, 1945-57 / Nicolai Volland
Epilogue: Beyond the Age of Cultural Entrepreneurship, 1949-Present / Christopher A. Reed and Nicolai Volland
Glossary; Bibliography; List of Contributors; Index