Carnival in China ― A Reading of the Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan

Berg (Chinese, U. of Durham, UK) attempts to reconstruct the perceived reality of 17th century Chinese through a reading of the Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan , an anonymous satirical novel likely written during the Ming period. Narrated by a conservative Confucian voice, the novel views the moral destruction of society as being intimately connected with the rise of a money economy and, throughout the narrative, uses metaphors of physical illness to illustrate the dystopian world. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Daria Berg, Ph.D. (1995) in Chinese Literature, University of Oxford, is Associate Professor at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham. She has published extensively on traditional Chinese literature, literary theory and modern Chinese fiction (PRC and Taiwan) and is currently involved in research on women, gender and gentility in China.