A...B...Sea

In The Chinese Idea of a University: Phoenix Reborn, Rui Yang conceptualizes the cultural foundations of modern university development in Chinese societies. Instead of focusing on the uniqueness of the societies, this book aims to prove that one educational purpose could be fulfilled via many paths, and that most of the characteristics the university could be found in other institutions of higher learning. Citing the practices of four selected Chinese societies, Yang opposes the existence of an impassable chasm between Chinese and Western ideas of a university and argues that it is possible to combine Chinese and Western ideas of a university. Also, this book is one of the first in English to theorize the Chinese idea of a university. It links the historical events to the present, in a context of an enormous impact of Western academic models and institutions, from the beginning of modern universities in Chinese societies to the contemporary period.

Based on a close reading of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu’s extant films, this book provides insights into the ways the director created narrative structures and used symbolism to construct meaning in his films. Against critics’ insistence that Ozu was indifferent to plot and unlikely to use symbols, Geist demonstrates otherwise, revealing the director’s subtle iconographic paradigms. Her incisive understanding of the historical and cultural context in which the films were conceived amplifies her analysis of the films’ structure and meaning. Ozu: A Closer Look guides the reader through Ozu’s early, silent films and his sound films made during Japan’s wars in Asia and the subsequent American Occupation, then takes up specific themes relevant to his later, better-known films. These themes include religion, gender, and the influence of traditional Japanese painting. Geist also examines the impact that Ozu’s films had on specific directors in Europe, America, and Japan. Intended for film

In On Saving Face, Michael Keevak traces the Western reception of the Chinese concept of “face” during the past two hundred years, arguing that it has always been linked to nineteenth-century colonialism. “Lose face” and “save face” have become so normalized in modern European languages that most users do not even realize that they are of Chinese origin. “Face” is an extremely complex and varied notion in all East Asian cultures. It involves proper behavior and the avoidance of conflict, encompassing every aspect of one’s place in society as well as one’s relationships with other people. One can “give face,” “get face,” “fight for face,” “tear up face,” and a host of other expressions. But when it began to become known to the Western trading community in China beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was distorted and reduced to two phrases only, “lose face” and “save face,” both of which were used to suggest distinctly Western ideas of humiliation, embarrassment, honor, a

Masculinity, fast-changing and regularly declared to be in the throes of crisis, is attracting more popular and scholarly debate in China than ever before. At the same time, Chinese literature since 1989 has been characterized as brimming with countercultural ‘attitude’. This book probes the link between literary rebellion and manhood in China, showing how male writers, as they critique the outcomes of decades of market reform, also ask the same question: how best to be a man in the new postsocialist order?In this first full-length discussion of masculinity in post-1989 Chinese literature, Pamela Hunt offers a detailed analysis of four contemporary authors in particular: Zhu Wen, Feng Tang, Xu Zechen, and Han Han. In a series of insightful readings, she explores how all four writers show the same preoccupation with the figure of the man on the edges of society. Drawing on longstanding Chinese and global models of maverick and marginal masculinity, and responding to a desire to retain a

The Many Faces of Ruan Dacheng: Poet, Playwright, Politician in Seventeenth-Century China is the first monograph in English on a controversial Ming dynasty literary figure. It examines and re-assesses the life and work of Ruan Dacheng (1587–1646), a poet, dramatist, and politician in the late Ming period. Ruan Dacheng was in his own time a highly regarded poet, but is best known as a dramatist, and his poetry is now largely unknown. He is most notorious as a ‘treacherous official’ of the Ming–Qing transition, and as a result his literary work―his plays as well as his poetry―has been neglected and undervalued. Hardie argues that Ruan’s literary work is of much greater significance in the history of Chinese literature than has generally been recognised since his own time. Ruan, rather than being a transgressive figure, is actually a very typical late Ming literatus, and as such his attitudes towards identity and authenticity can add to our understanding of these issues in late Ming intel

English novelist E.M. Forster wrote his last and best-loved work, A Passage to India, both as a paean to his love for India and as a tribute to the relationships he formed with Indians. Forster became entranced by the India of the Raj at a young age, and his love affair with the sub-continent, its princes, and peoples, was to last all his life. At his most socially transgressive, it was with Indians that Forster chose to connect and with whom he put into effect his belief in man’s duty to value friendship over state or ideology. His time in India was undoubtedly when he was at his most human and most vulnerable.At once a contemporary reflection on India’s rich history and a biographical retelling of Forster’s travels through the country in the early 1900s, Developing the Heart delves into the past to better understand the profound impact certain events and people had on his writing. In doing so, it allows readers to look on as Forster matures and softens over time in his behaviour with

This book carries decades of academic observations and the author’s personal political experience. It reviews and refects on the past trajectory of governance and administration, identifying strengths and capabilities as well as constraints and vulnerabilities of Hong Kong as a polity and society, while charting its course of ‘exceptionalism’ within a new context and under changing conditions.Hong Kong under British rule was a prime example of exceptionalism in many aspects —economic, political, and even social. It was governed under a colonial structure and yet had enjoyed a large degree of social and economic freedom, as well as fiscal self-sufficiency and autonomy from London. After returning to Chinese rule in 1997, Hong Kong has continued to thrive as a relatively resilient city-state still known for efficiency andeffectiveness despite tensions and scepticism about its political future.This book carries decades of academic observations and the author's personal political experienc

This book focuses on a seldom discussed topic despite its immeasurable impact on the health of the citizens and public health in Hong Kong--the development of outpatient medical services and their contributions. In the early 20th century, Chinese elite organized and operated a number of Chinese Public Dispensaries in Hong Kong and Kowloon, initially to reduce the prevalence of "dump bodies" on the streets during epidemics of smallpox or plague, and to determine the cause of death of these bodies. Later other services including domiciliary deliveries by trained midwives were added. The government founded similar clinics in the New Territories. After WWII, the government took over all the Chinese Public Dispensaries and operated them as general outpatient clinics. Over the years, more general clinics and special clinics were developed. These clinics helped improve the health indices of the population to those of the Western countries by the 1970s.

“Red and blue appear in stark contrast with one another on the map of America. But the even more profound divide is the alienation in our hearts.”This work is a striking analysis of the struggles face

This delightful memoir is the story of a life well lived—a Hong Kong doctor who worked as a surgeon for over fifty years and who later turned his hand to his other great passion, gardening. At times a

This is a story which begins in California and ends in China. It is a detective tale with a subtle love interest. Victor Lin, a Chinese-American died in mysterious circumstances on a trip to the Thous

St. Stephen’s Girls’ College is one of the many schools run under the auspices of the Anglican Church in Hong Kong. Starting as a tiny missionary school for upper-class Chinese girls and their younger

“For myself, however, it is the human element, the recollected words,the remembered faces, which give life to the printed record.” James Hayes’s many writings have made a major contribution to kn

Sino-French Trade at Canton, 1698–1842 presents a rare and lively view of the French experience at Canton, and calls for a reappraisal of France’s role in that trade. France was one of the two most im

This book, written by an internationally acknowledged pioneer in endocrine surgery, is intended as advice for aspiring medical professionals, in particular for young people from around the world who a

Standing close together in a compound on a hillside above Victoria Harbour, the Central Police Station, Central Magistracy and Victoria Gaol were a bastion of British colonial power, a symbol of secur

This book presents a rational, research-based critique of the C. Y. Leung Administration that governed in Hong Kong from 2012 to 2017. It is a sweeping and original publication that covers various asp

In what period did objects of worship appear in China? Could there be a possible convergence between written testimonies and archaeological remains? How was the production of icons understood, especia

Macau History and Society is the most authoritative, comprehensive, and up-to-date account of Macau from its inception as a Portuguese colony to its present-day status as a special administrative regi

What elevates a mere word to the status of keyword? What does it mean to translate a keyword and map its meaning against other languages? Like every major culture, Chinese has its set of “keyword

Paul A. Van Dyke’s new book, Whampoa and the Canton Trade: Life and Death in a Chinese Port, 1700–1842, authoritatively corrects misconceptions about how the Qing government treated foreigners when it

In January 1980, a young police officer named John MacLennan committed suicide in his Ho Man Tin flat. His death came mere hours before he was to be arrested for committing homosexual acts still, at t

The Mingjia (School of Names) is a notional grouping of philosophers first recorded as such in the Shiji. Their identifying feature was a concern with linguistic issues particularly inv

Through the keen eyes and curious mind of a young girl, Ying-tzu, we are given a glimpse into the adult world of Peking in the 1920s. The five sequential stories in this collection can be read as

A City Mismanaged traces the collapse of good governance in Hong Kong, explains its causes, and exposes the damaging impact on the community’s quality of life. Leo Goodstadt argues that the current we

This book provides an essential introduction to commercial arbitration law and practices, focusing on Hong Kong as an example of a model law jurisdiction with a pro-arbitration stance. It is written i

…. to imagine a language means to imagine a form of life.––Ludwig Wittgenstein(Philosophical Investigation, 1953)Whatever specific goal motivated people who study Chinese at first eventually

With this book, Yang Yuanzheng has produced what will long be regarded as a ground-breaking milestone in the voluminous scholarship on Jiang Kui (1155–1221). Based in part on his 2011 discovery of a m

The history of the Faculty of Law at HKU is in many ways the history of the law in modern Hong Kong. Founded in 1969, the Faculty has helped transform a colonial legal backwater into a flourishing jur

A Sensational Encounter with High Socialist China is a recollection of the historic visit of fourteen American students (and one Canadian) to China in 1971. The visit was one of the first approved for

This bilingual exhibition catalogue, A World Within: The Art and Inspiration of Irene Chou, is published on the occasion of Asia Society Hong Kong Center’s eponymous exhibition. The catalogue celebrat

The English edition of Liu Lihong’s milestone work is a sublime beacon for the profession of Chinese medicine in the 21st century. Classical Chinese Medicine delivers a straightforward critique of the

China—Art—Modernity provides a critical introduction to modern and contemporary Chinese art as a whole. It illuminates what is distinctive and significant about the rich range of art created during th

The history of Qing palace eunuchs is defined by a tension between the role eunuchs were meant to play and the life they intended to live. This study tells the story of how a complicated and much-mali

The publication of this book marks the fifteenth anniversary of the outbreak of SARS epidemic in Hong Kong in 2003. This documentary study, originating as a research project a year after the epidemic,

China―Art―Modernity provides a critical introduction to modern and contemporary Chinese art as a whole. It illuminates what is distinctive and significant about the rich range of art created during th

In the Book and Sword, Louis Cha revives the legend about the great eighteenth-century Manchu Emperor Qianlong which claims that he was in fact not a Manchu but a Han Chinese as a result of a "baby sw

“With this decades-spanning collection, Mang Ke is now visible to a general western audience, giving us a more complete picture of Chinese poetry during and since the Cultural Revolution. Mang Ke’s po

“This is a vital book for specialists as well as a wider readership with an interest in greater China’s diverse and changing artworlds.”──Paul Gladston, The University of NottinghamThis book investiga

“This is a vital book for specialists as well as a wider readership with an interest in greater China’s diverse and changing artworlds.”──Paul Gladston, The University of NottinghamThis book investiga