
Sensing China
Modern Transformations of Sensory Culture
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 27. May 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
298 pages
978-1-032-00883-7 (ISBN)
Description
This book presents the first collection of studies of the senses and sensory experiences in China, filling a gap in sensory research while offering new approaches to Chinese Studies.
Bringing together 12 chapters by literary scholars and historians, this book critically interrogates the deeply rooted meanings that the senses have coded in Chinese culture and society. Built on an exploration of the sensorium in early Chinese thought and late imperial literature, this book reveals the sensory manifestations of societal change and cultural transformation in China from the nineteenth century to the present day. It features in-depth examinations of a variety of concepts, representations, and practices, including aural and visual paradigms in ancient Chinese texts; odours in Ming-Qing literature and Republican Shanghai; the tactility of kissing and the sonic culture of community singing in the Republican era; the socialist sensorium in art, propaganda, memory, and embodied experiences; and contemporary-era multisensory cultural practices.
Engaging with the exciting "sensory turn," this original work makes a unique contribution to the world history of the senses, and will be a valuable resource to scholars and students of Chinese Literature, History, Cultural Studies, and Media.
Bringing together 12 chapters by literary scholars and historians, this book critically interrogates the deeply rooted meanings that the senses have coded in Chinese culture and society. Built on an exploration of the sensorium in early Chinese thought and late imperial literature, this book reveals the sensory manifestations of societal change and cultural transformation in China from the nineteenth century to the present day. It features in-depth examinations of a variety of concepts, representations, and practices, including aural and visual paradigms in ancient Chinese texts; odours in Ming-Qing literature and Republican Shanghai; the tactility of kissing and the sonic culture of community singing in the Republican era; the socialist sensorium in art, propaganda, memory, and embodied experiences; and contemporary-era multisensory cultural practices.
Engaging with the exciting "sensory turn," this original work makes a unique contribution to the world history of the senses, and will be a valuable resource to scholars and students of Chinese Literature, History, Cultural Studies, and Media.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced
Illustrations
43 s/w Abbildungen, 43 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder
43 Halftones, black and white; 43 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
580 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-00883-7 (9781032008837)
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
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Persons
Shengqing Wu is Professor of Chinese Literature at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong.
Xuelei Huang is Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
Xuelei Huang is Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
Content
Chapter 1 Introduction (Shengqing Wu and Xuelei Huang)
Part I Understanding the Senses in Traditional Culture
Chapter 2 Aural and Visual Hierarchies: Beyond Epistemology of the Senses (Jane Geaney)
Chapter 3 The Culture of Smells: Taboo and Sublimation from Huchou to Tianxiang (Paolo Santangelo)
Part II Reconfiguring the Senses and Modern Sensibility
Chapter 4 Smellscapes of Nanjing Road: Cognitive and Affective Mapping (Xuelei Huang)
Chapter 5 The Kiss as an Art of Love: Touch, Sensuality, and Embodied Experience in Modern Chinese Culture (Shengqing Wu)
Chapter 6 Radio, Sound Cinema, and Community Singing: The Making of a New Sonic Culture in Modern China (Xiaobing Tang)
Part III Socialist Corporeality, Sensorium, and Memory
Chapter 7 Making Sense of Labor: Works of Art and Arts of Work in China's Great Leap Forward (Pang Laikwan)
Chapter 8 Narrating Sweet Bitterness: Tasting and Sensing the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Lena Henningsen)
Chapter 9 The Hot Noise of Open-Air Cinema (Jie Li)
Part IV Senses, Media, and Postmodernity
Chapter 10 Touching Father: Sight, Sound, Touch, and Intermedial Intimacies (Carlos Rojas)
Chapter 11 The Senses in Recent Exhibitionary Practice in Chinese History Museums (Kirk Denton)
Chapter 12 Epilogue: "And suddenly the memory revealed itself...."-Making Sense of the Senses in History (Barbara Mittler)
Part I Understanding the Senses in Traditional Culture
Chapter 2 Aural and Visual Hierarchies: Beyond Epistemology of the Senses (Jane Geaney)
Chapter 3 The Culture of Smells: Taboo and Sublimation from Huchou to Tianxiang (Paolo Santangelo)
Part II Reconfiguring the Senses and Modern Sensibility
Chapter 4 Smellscapes of Nanjing Road: Cognitive and Affective Mapping (Xuelei Huang)
Chapter 5 The Kiss as an Art of Love: Touch, Sensuality, and Embodied Experience in Modern Chinese Culture (Shengqing Wu)
Chapter 6 Radio, Sound Cinema, and Community Singing: The Making of a New Sonic Culture in Modern China (Xiaobing Tang)
Part III Socialist Corporeality, Sensorium, and Memory
Chapter 7 Making Sense of Labor: Works of Art and Arts of Work in China's Great Leap Forward (Pang Laikwan)
Chapter 8 Narrating Sweet Bitterness: Tasting and Sensing the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Lena Henningsen)
Chapter 9 The Hot Noise of Open-Air Cinema (Jie Li)
Part IV Senses, Media, and Postmodernity
Chapter 10 Touching Father: Sight, Sound, Touch, and Intermedial Intimacies (Carlos Rojas)
Chapter 11 The Senses in Recent Exhibitionary Practice in Chinese History Museums (Kirk Denton)
Chapter 12 Epilogue: "And suddenly the memory revealed itself...."-Making Sense of the Senses in History (Barbara Mittler)