Kirjahaku

This book presents a view of social life in China and discusses different methods for studying contemporary China as a tool for introducing students to the study of popular culture. Through a diverse set of case studies, it introduces readers to a wide range of issues facing Chinese society.

This book presents a view of social life in China and discusses different methods for studying contemporary China as a tool for introducing students to the study of popular culture. Through a diverse set of case studies, it introduces readers to a wide range of issues facing Chinese society.

During the Cultural Revolution, Mao exhorted the Chinese people to “smash the four olds”: old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas. Yet when the Red Guards in Tiananmen Square chanted “We want to see Chairman Mao,” they unknowingly used a classical rhythm that dates back to the Han period and is the very embodiment of the four olds. An Anatomy of Chinese reveals how rhythms, conceptual metaphors, and political language convey time-honored meanings of which Chinese speakers themselves may not be consciously aware, and contributes to the ongoing debate over whether language shapes thought, or vice versa.Perry Link’s inquiry into the workings of Chinese reveals convergences and divergences with English, most strikingly in the area of conceptual metaphor. Different spatial metaphors for consciousness, for instance, mean that English speakers wake up while speakers of Chinese wake across. Other underlying metaphors in the two languages are similar, lending support to theories that locate the origins of language in the brain. The distinction between daily-life language and official language has been unusually significant in contemporary China, and Link explores how ordinary citizens learn to play language games, artfully wielding officialese to advance their interests or defend themselves from others.Particularly provocative is Link’s consideration of how Indo-European languages, with their preference for abstract nouns, generate philosophical puzzles that Chinese, with its preference for verbs, avoids. The mind-body problem that has plagued Western culture may be fundamentally less problematic for speakers of Chinese.

Why do people in socialist China read and write literary works? Earlier studies in Western Sinology have approached Chinese texts from the socialist era as portraits of society, as keys to the tug-of-war of dissent, or, more recently, as pursuit of "pure art." The Uses of Literature looks broadly and empirically at these and many other "uses" of literature from the points of view of authors, editors, political authorities, and several kinds of readers. Perry Link, author of Evening Chats in Beijing, considers texts ranging from elite "misty" poetry to underground hand-copied volumes (shouchauben) and shows in concrete detail how people who were involved with literature sought to teach, learn, enjoy, explore, debate, lead, control, and resist. Using the late 1970s and early 1980s as an entree to the workings of China's "socialist literary system," the author shows how that system held sway from 1950 until around 1990, when an encroaching market economy gradually but fundamentally changed it. In addition to providing a definitive overview of how the socialist Chinese literary system worked, Link offers comparisons to the similar system in the Soviet Union. In the final chapter, the book seeks to explain how the word "good" was used and understood when applied to literary works in such systems. Combining aspects of cultural and literary studies, The Uses of Literature will reward anyone interested in the literature of modern China or how creativity is affected by a "socialist literary system."

"This book is a manifestation of Perry Link's deep love for the Chinese people, their humor, struggles, and courage. Anaconda in the Chandelier is packed with a deep understanding of China, astute observations of Chinese society, and unrelenting criticism of the Communist Party, all stemming from Link's devotion to one thing: truth. If you want to understand why the West got China wrong and how to get it right in the ongoing rivalry between democracy and autocracy, you need to read it."--Li Yuan, The New York Times"Incisive, wise, deeply humane, this collection is a true gem from a China scholar who is a rarity in his field. Distilled from a lifelong engagement with Chinese language and culture at an astonishingly high level, a wealth of compelling, compassionate observations and critical dissections, including some rather uncomfortable truths about China, is revealed here through fluid essays as well as Link's ironic personal transformation, to borrow CCP lingo, from 'a friend of China' to 'a hostile foreign element.'"--Jianying Zha, author of Tide Players and China PopThese acerbic essays, collected from Perry Link's decades-long career as a noted Sinologist, reveal the depth of his attachment to China and his willingness to squarely face unpleasant truths about the many ways in which ordinary Chinese people have suffered from the self-serving, erratic, and often disastrous "leadership" of the Communist Party of China.Link's essays touch on politics, society, economy, literature, and art, but their primary focus is on the thoughts, feelings, and values of Chinese people. He lays out his values as he explains how, like many of his Chinese friends, he began with a na ve attraction to socialist ideals only to eventually feel disgust at the cynical betrayal of not only those ideals but even garden-variety ethics. His writing probes the ways "comrades" in the ruling regime have ruthlessly clung to and pursued the one value whose pre-eminence has never been in question: political power.The Anaconda in the Chandelier includes essays on Link's "day job" interests in Chinese literature, popular culture, and language teaching at Princeton University. He also offers intellectual tribute to his teachers--both classroom teachers and several whose writing taught him how to see beneath the surfaces of things.

Whatever specific goal motivated people who study Chinese at first eventually dissolves into the larger Chinese world, and that world—its loves and joys, its stings and frustrations, in any case its incapability of being boring—takes over.This book collects essays from native speakers of English who studied Chinese, learned it unusually well, and then used it in very successful careers in journalism, business, government work, and academe. Many of essays show that answers to the question of “what difference is made?” can have a charming unpredictability. The ten essays converge on some important points: that speaking Chinese leads much more quickly to deeper trust with Chinese people than can be had through speaking English or by using translation; that thinking “inside” the Chinese language in some ways offers different ways to understand the world. This book is unique in the language-teaching field. It can also be an eye-opener for a general reader who believes that learning a second language is a simple matter of switching codes and does not realize how life-changing the embrace of a different language can be.