David Der-wei Wang is Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature and Comparative Literature, Harvard University, and Director of the CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies.
A New Literary History of Modern China stands far apart from the
standard state-of-the-field collection. The publication of this
book, with its range and breadth of scholarship, is an event
without precedent in the field of modern Chinese literary studies.
Some of the essays read like polished vignettes while some are
whimsical, others build swiftly to a punchy thesis, and others
again offer distilled wisdom on a crucial topic. The brevity of the
essays holds the reader’s attention at a keen pitch—and more
importantly incites more reading. A monumental volume.
*Margaret Hillenbrand, University of Oxford*
The next step on the path to literary enlightenment. Editor David
Der-wei Wang, a professor of Chinese and comparative literature at
Harvard, offers 161 short and often sparkling essays by a
multinational array of writers and academics in what seems the most
exhaustive introduction to modern Chinese writing possible in a
single volume.
*Wall Street Journal*
This monumental anthology on modern Chinese literature is so
essential…This book is meant for a broad reading public… It becomes
clear reading this book that one can trace the larger history of
China itself across the twentieth century by looking at its
literature and its writers…A New Literary History offers a potent
glimpse into China, as it was and as it is…In this meticulously
edited and selected anthology, there really is something for
everyone.
*Los Angeles Review of Books*
Wang’s is a daring enterprise…Wang should be applauded for a work
compiled to introduce English readers to the habits of Chinese
writers and readers…With 161 chapters by more than 140 writers, A
New Literary History takes a near-encyclopedic approach to the
study of Literary China, one that embraces not only the People’s
Republic (including Hong Kong) and Taiwan, but also Sinophone and
Anglophone writers overseas.
*New York Review of Books*
Magisterial…Gargantuan in scope. It covers its subject from the
late 18th century to the current millennium…It’s a remarkable
product, even by Harvard’s invariably high standards.
*Taipei Times*
One hundred and forty-three authors contributed 161 short chapters
to this monumental survey of modern Chinese literature in all its
forms, from the late eighteenth century to the present. Yet the
book reads like the work of a single versatile author: vivid,
probing, and occasionally playful. It raises to a new level the
knowledge available in English about this vast topic, presenting a
literary culture more complex, cosmopolitan, and profound than even
many specialists might realize. The book presents a wealth of
detail about personalities and events throughout the
Chinese-speaking world and connects them to cultural forms ranging
from poetry, fiction, and opera to pop songs, cartoons,
photographs, and film. It challenges much of the received wisdom
about how literary history should be written, refutes the cliché
that Chinese literature in the modern and contemporary periods has
been derivative and mediocre, and opens up inspiring prospects for
future scholarship.
*Foreign Affairs*
As China continues to grow in economic and political power, its
literature is also likely to become more important in the rest of
the world. There will be more and more translations of both its
classics and its contemporary poetry and fiction. That makes books
like this one all the more valuable to readers in the West who want
to understand how China’s modern literature relates to its recent
history. Those who wade into this long and heterogeneous collection
will discover that the literature is not just a marker of that
history, but a component of it.
*Commonweal*
A useful introduction to modern Chinese intellectual history, this
collection can be consumed in bite-size pieces.
*Bloomberg View*
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