In Origins of the Chinese Avant-Garde, Xiaobing Tang studies the art and art theories of the first half of the twentieth century, when modern Chinese art and literature emerged. He argues that the most consequential expression of the avant-garde was the modern woodcut movement that thrived in China in the 1930s. In this innovative study—also the first comprehensive account of this Chinese movement available in English—Tang examines the aesthetic, intellectual, and social appeal of the modern woodcut and places the movement at the intersection of historical events, individual efforts, and competing discourses on art. He also shows how the woodcut movement drew upon international inspiration—from German Expressionism, Soviet wood engravings, and Japanese creative prints.

Origins of the Chinese Avant-Garde: The Modern Woodcut Movement

Arts & Photography

Tang, Xiaobing

History & Criticism

University of California Press

This book reexamines the historical thinking of Liang Qichao (1873-1929), one of the few modern Chinese thinkers and cultural critics whose appreciation of the question of modernity was based on first-hand experience of the world space in which China had to function as a nation-state. It seeks to demonstrate that Liang was not only a profoundly paradigmatic modern Chinese intellectual but also an imaginative thinker of worldwide significance. By tracing the changes in Liang's conception of history, the author shows that global space inspired both Liang's longing for modernity and his critical reconceptualization of modern history. Spatiality, or the mode of determining spatial organization and relationships, offers a new interpretive category for understanding the stages in Liang's historical thinking.Liang's historical thinking culminated in a global imaginary of difference, which became most evident in the shift from his earlier proposal for a uniform national history to one that mapped "cultural history." His reaffirmation of spatiality, a critical concept overshadowed by the modernist obsession with time and history, made it both necessary and possible for him to redesign the project of modernity. Finally, the author suggests that the reconciliation of anthropological space with historical time that Liang achieved makes him abundantly contemporary with our own time, both inextricably modern and postmodern.

Global Space and the Nationalist Discourse of Modernity: The Historical Thinking of Liang Qichao

History

Asia

Stanford University Press

In Pursuit Of Contemporary East Asian Culture

These critical essays examine various aspects of East Asian culture through an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural lens. Analyzing film, television, and visual and literary texts, the contributors reveal the historical conditions as well as the contemporary impulses driving East Asian culture today. By anticipating the geocultural shift to the Asian Pacific Rim in the twenty-first century, this collection serves as both an introduction to contemporary East Asian culture and an exploration of its global context.

Snyder, Steve

Westview Press

Chinese Modern examines crucial episodes in the creation of Chinese modernity during the turbulent twentieth century. Analyzing a rich array of literary, visual, theatrical, and cinematic texts, Xiaobing Tang portrays the cultural transformation of China from the early 1900s through the founding of the People’s Republic, the installation of the socialist realist aesthetic, the collapse of the idea of utopia in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, and the gradual cannibalization of the socialist past by consumer culture at the century’s end. Throughout, he highlights the dynamic tension between everyday life and the heroic ideal. Tang uncovers crucial clues to modern Chinese literary and cultural practices through readings of Wu Jianren’s 1906 novel The Sea of Regret and works by canonical writers Lu Xun, Ding Ling, and Ba Jin. For the midcentury, he broadens his investigation by considering theatrical, cinematic, and visual materials in addition to literary texts. His reading of the 1963 play The Young Generation reveals the anxiety and terror underlying the exhilarating new socialist life portrayed on the stage. This play, enormously influential when it first appeared, illustrates the utopian vision of China’s lyrical age and its underlying discontents—both of which are critical for understanding late-twentieth-century China. Tang closes with an examination of post–Cultural Revolution nostalgia for the passion of the lyrical age. Throughout Chinese Modern Tang suggests a historical and imaginative affinity between apparently separate literatures and cultures. He thus illuminates not only Chinese modernity but also the condition of modernity as a whole, particularly in light of the postmodern recognition that the market and commodity culture are both angel and devil. This elegantly written volume will be invaluable to students of China, Asian studies, literary criticism, and cultural studies, as well as to readers who study modernity.

Chinese Modern: The Heroic and the Quotidian (Post-Contemporary Interventions)

Literature & Fiction

United States

Duke University Press Books

Exploring a wealth of images ranging from woodblock prints to oil paintings, this beautifully illustrated full-color study takes up key elements of the visual culture produced in the People's Republic of China from its founding in 1949 to the present day. In a challenge to prevailing perceptions, Xiaobing Tang argues that contemporary Chinese visual culture is too complex to be understood in terms of a simple binary of government propaganda and dissident art, and that new ways must be sought to explain as well as appreciate its multiple sources and enduring visions. Drawing on rich artistic, literary, and sociopolitical backgrounds, Tang presents a series of insightful readings of paradigmatic works in contemporary Chinese visual arts and cinema. Lucidly written and organized to address provocative questions, this compelling study underscores the global and historical context of Chinese visual culture and offers a timely new perspective on our understanding of China today.

Visual Culture in Contemporary China: Paradigms and Shifts

Cambridge University Press

Visual Culture in Contemporary China: Paradigms And Shifts

Multiple Impressions examines works by 40 leading printmakers from contemporary China, highlighting the extraordinary innovations, in both technique and conception, which have transformed this long-established art form in recent years. It includes works by such artists as Xu Bing, Kang Ning, Song Yuanwen, Chen Qi, He Kun, and Fang Limin, as well as many other accomplished printmakers. Essays by noted scholars place contemporary printmaking in its complex art historical and cultural contexts, discuss the relationship between printmaking and contemporary art, and interpret new work by the internationally prominent artist Xu Bing. The book explores three key themes in printmaking today: "Landscapes Old and New" illustrates the variety of techniques and visual idioms contemporary printmakers draw on to create expressive and fantastic landscapes; "Fellow Citizens" turns to the human figure; and "Layered Abstractions" focuses on works that showcase the distinct visual effects and pictorial language that underscore the process of making a print.

Multiple Impressions: Contemporary Chinese Woodblock Prints

Farrer, Anne

Hui, Shang

University of Michigan Museum of Art

Speaking of Love (Contemporary American Love Poems) (Chinese Edition)

Shanghai literature and Art Publishing House

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Books by Tang, Xiaobing