UID:
edocfu_9959229011002883
Format:
1 online resource (232 p.)
Edition:
1st ed.
ISBN:
1-134-37061-X
,
0-203-34884-2
,
1-134-37062-8
,
1-280-05904-4
,
0-203-59060-0
Series Statement:
Anthropology of Asia
Content:
This unusual and interesting book is a fascinating account of the world of Chinese writing. It examines Chinese space and the political and social use of writing as propaganda, a publicity booster and as a ladder for social climbing.
Note:
Description based upon print version of record.
,
Cover; Calligraphy and Power in Contemporary Chinese Society; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; List of figures; Acknowledgements; Brief chronology of Chinese history; Introduction: the abode of calligraphic inscriptions; First encounter with social calligraphy; Modern technology spells the end of Chinese writing?; Writing and calligraphy - an anthropological lack; The ambiguity of Chinese calligraphy - where function meets aesthetics; Some methodological considerations; 1 Dances with power: Public calligraphy and its social effects; Public calligraphy
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Art or not: a matter of social manipulationThe power brush; 2 Becoming a person through wen; Mingong: anything that city people are not; The notion of wenhua; Ascending the tower of deep knowledge; 3 Handwriting and personhood; Fascination with handwriting; Handwriting and personhood; Calligraphy or handwriting as the extension of the body-person; 4 Body-person engineering through ink and brush: Brush techniques and calligraphic composition; Anthropological literature on personhood and embodiment; Brush techniques; The composition of calligraphy; The moral brush
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5 Brush work: Alternative bodybuildingPractising calligraphy: the cultivation of a good body and a sound mind; The learning process magnified; The embodied brush and the production of subjectivity; Calligraphic paradox as the locus of social manipulation; 6 Ideograms and knowledge; Written characters as the base of knowledge?; The modern script reform in China and its implication for Bloch's thesis; Linguistic myth turned into social reality; 7 Characters reloaded; Re-inventing calligraphy: characters are still good to think with; The ever-evolving relationship with power
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The re-enchantment of calligraphy - the agency of calligraphyNotes; Bibliography; List of Chinese characters for terms used in the text; Index
,
English
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0-415-64636-7
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0-415-31753-3
Language:
English
DOI:
10.4324/9780203590607
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