It has been said that the downfall of the Qing dynasty was due not so much to the 1911 Revolution as to the pervasive corruption and weakness within the Qing administration. The regime was rotting from within, and it did not take much to topple the three-hundred-year-old dynasty. Officialdom Unmasked (官場現形記) was written by Li Boyuan in the early years of the twentieth century as the dynasty crumbled. Bizarre though they may seem, the stories told in the novel are based on true stories. From senior ministers to junior clerks, few were immune from taking bribes, stealing, philandering, dereliction of duty, or other wrongdoings. Here the writer portrays an official class who placed their selfish interests above that of the state, and who were so devoid of any moral rectitude that one could but wonder how a once mighty empire had fallen into so complete a decline. Unlike most satires, often written with a degree of humour which evoke a chuckle here and there, this work came from a broken heart; it brings only tears, not smiles.

The end of the Qing dynasty in China saw an unprecedented explosion of print journalism. By the turn of the twentieth century, not only had Chinese-owned newspapers become more influential than anyone could have anticipated, but it was the supposedly frivolous xiaobao, the “little” or “minor” papers, that captivated and empowered the public. Merry Laughter and Angry Curses reveals how the late-Qing-era tabloid press became the voice of the people. As periodical publishing reached a fever pitch, tabloids had free rein to criticize officials, mock the elite, and scandalize readers. Tabloid writers produced a massive amount of anti-establishment literature, whose distinctive humour and satirical style were both potent and popular. This book shows the tabloid community to be both a producer of meanings and a participant in the social and cultural dialogue that would shake the foundations of imperial China and lead to the 1911 Republican Revolution.

This book includes the history of Chinese literature before 1949. It firstly outlines the development process of Chinese literature and basic features and then discusses them according to the literary genre, for the literature of each era. This book gathers established scholars in the field and presents their latest research in the Chinese literature history studies. Moreover, it has included the literature history of different nationalities in the history of China and the records of folk literature history, reflecting literature from different classes. In the limited space of this book, the writers who have been loved by the Chinese people for three thousand years are discussed, such as Qu Yuan, Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Shi, Xin Qiji, Yuan Haowen, Nalan Xingde, and so on. Careful elaborations are made on each writer together with quotations and analysis of their work.

What does it mean for a cinematic work to be "Chinese"? Does it refer specifically to a work's subject, or does it also reflect considerations of language, ethnicity, nationality, ideology, or political orientation? Such questions make any single approach to a vast field like "Chinese cinema" difficult at best. Accordingly, The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas situates the term more broadly among various different phases, genres, and distinct national configurations, while taking care to address the consequences of grouping together so many disparate histories under a single banner. Offering both a platform for cross-disciplinary dialogue and a mapping of Chinese cinema as an expanded field, this Handbook presents thirty-three essays by leading researchers and scholars intent on yielding new insights and new analyses using three different methodologies. Chapters in Part I investigate the historical periodizations of the field through changing notions of national and political identity — all the way from the industry's beginnings in the 1920s up to its current forms in contemporary Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the global diaspora. Chapters in Part II feature studies centered on the field's taxonomical formalities, including such topics as the role of the Chinese opera in technological innovation, the political logic of the "Maoist film," and the psychoanalytic formula of the kung fu action film. Finally, in Part III, focus is given to the structural elements that comprise a work's production, distribution, and reception to reveal the broader cinematic apparatuses within which these works are positioned. Taken together, the multipronged approach supports a wider platform beyond the geopolitical and linguistic limitations in existing scholarship. Expertly edited to illustrate a representative set of up to date topics and approaches, The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas provides a vital addition to a burgeoning field still in its formative stages.

This is an open access book. The 5th International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2023) was held on October 20-22, 2023 in Chengdu, China. Literature is an art that reflects the social life and expresses the author's thoughts and feelings by shaping images with language as the means. Art is a social ideology that uses images to reflect reality but is more typical than reality. It includes literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, music and so on. Literature is one of the forms of expression belonging to art. Literature and art are difficult to separate by a clear boundary, but also for people to create more infinite imagination space. ICLAHD 2023 is to bring together innovative academics and industrial experts in the field of Literature, Art and Human Development research to a common forum. The primary goal of the conference is to promote research and developmental activities in Literature, Art and Human Development research and another goal is to promote scientific information interchange between researchers, developers, engineers, students, and practitioners working all around the world. The conference will be held every year to make it an ideal platform for people to share views and experiences in Literature, Art and Human Development research and related areas.

From 1885–1924, China underwent a period of acute political struggle and cultural change, brought on by a radical change in thought: after over 2,000 years of monarchical rule, the Chinese people stopped believing in the emperor. These forty years saw the collapse of Confucian political orthodoxy and the struggle among competing definitions of modern citizenship and the state. What made it possible to suddenly imagine a world without the emperor? After Empire traces the formation of the modern Chinese idea of the state through the radical reform programs of the late Qing (1885–1911), the Revolution of 1911, and the first years of the Republic through the final expulsion of the last emperor of the Qing from the Forbidden City in 1924. It contributes to longstanding debates on modern Chinese nationalism by highlighting the evolving ideas of major political thinkers and the views reflected in the general political culture. Zarrow uses a wide range of sources to show how "statism" became a hegemonic discourse that continues to shape China today. Essential to this process were the notions of citizenship and sovereignty, which were consciously adopted and modified from Western discourses on legal theory and international state practices on the basis of Chinese needs and understandings. This text provides fresh interpretations and keen insights into China's pivotal transition from dynasty to republic.

A Dictionary of Chinese Literature provides more than 250 entries on the lengthy and remarkable literary tradition of China, from its earliest literary genres such as the 6th century gongti wenxue (palace-style literature), to contemporary forms, such as wanglu wenxue (internet literature). Covering notable writers, works, terms, trends, schools, movements, styles, and literary collections, as well as including a useful list of further reading at the end of most entries, this dictionary is a key reference point for students of Asian literature and languages, and those studying world literature in general.

Strategic Intelligence is a form of meaning that promises the possibility of strategic advantage, dignity, the achievement of objective, and the fulfillment of potential in hostile environments. In The Cultural Roots of Strategic Intelligence Gino LaPaglia demonstrates that the strategic aspect of reason—arising in human experience, encoded as value, and born by culture as a strategic resource—has been encoded as values that have been memorialized in culturally authoritative sources in various Eurasian cultures for thousands of years. These sources have validated a strategic orientation in the world, legitimized the strategist as a heroic identity, and transmitted a coherent world view that enables the practitioner of strategy to overcome asymmetric threat. By excavating the provenance of strategic thought expressed in the cultural identity of the strategist in the most culturally authoritative mythological, literary, philosophical and religious sources, and excavating the underlying strategic values expressed in cultural products, LaPaglia demonstrates that the strategic aspect of human rationality is one of the most basic structural dynamics of human meaning, and that the transmission of this strategic way of being and acting in the world offers hope for life’s underdogs.

A suicide scandal in Shanghai reveals the social fault lines of democratic visions in China's troubled Republic in the early 1920s. On September 8, 1922, the body of Xi Shangzhen was found hanging in the Shanghai newspaper office where she worked. Although her death occurred outside of Chinese jurisdiction, her US-educated employer, Tang Jiezhi, was kidnapped by Chinese authorities and put on trial. In the unfolding scandal, novelists, filmmakers, suffragists, reformers, and even a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party seized upon the case as emblematic of deep social problems. Xi's family claimed that Tang had pressured her to be his concubine; his conviction instead for financial fraud only stirred further controversy. The creation of a republic ten years earlier had inspired a vision of popular sovereignty and citizenship premised upon gender equality and legal reform. After the quick suppression of the first Chinese parliament, commercial circles took up the banner of democracy in their pursuit of wealth. But, Bryna Goodman shows, the suicide of an educated "new woman" exposed the emptiness of republican democracy after a flash of speculative finance gripped the city. In the shadow of economic crisis, Tang's trial also exposed the frailty of legal mechanisms in a political landscape fragmented by warlords and enclaves of foreign colonial rule. The Suicide of Miss Xi opens a window onto how urban Chinese in the early twentieth century navigated China's early passage through democratic populism, in an ill-fated moment of possibility between empire and party dictatorship. Xi Shangzhen became a symbol of the failures of the Chinese Republic as well as the broken promises of citizen's rights, gender equality, and financial prosperity betokened by liberal democracy and capitalism.

The Age of Irreverence tells the story of why ChinaÕs entry into the modern age was not just traumatic, but uproarious. As the Qing dynasty slumped toward extinction, prominent writers compiled jokes into collections they called Òhistories of laughter.Ó In the first years of the Republic, novelists, essayists and illustrators alike used humorous allegories to make veiled critiques of the new government. But, again and again, political and cultural discussion erupted into invective, as critics gleefully jeered and derided rivals in public. Farceurs drew followings in the popular press, promoting a culture of practical joking and buffoonery. Eventually, these various expressions of hilarity proved so offensive to high-brow writers that they launched a concerted campaign to transform the tone of public discourse, hoping to displace the old forms of mirth with a new one they called youmo (humor). Christopher Rea argues that this periodÑfrom the 1890s to the 1930sÑtransformed how Chinese people thought and talked about what is funny. Focusing on five cultural expressions of laughterÑjokes, play, mockery, farce, and humorÑhe reveals the textures of comedy that were a part of everyday life during modern ChinaÕs first Òage of irreverence.Ó This new history of laughter not only offers an unprecedented and up-close look at a neglected facet of Chinese cultural modernity, but also reveals its lasting legacy in the Chinese language of the comic today and its implications for our understanding of humor as a part of human culture.