Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China - Hardcover

Clunas, Craig

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0824859014 ISBN 13: 9780824859015

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press, 2004

Synopsis

This outstanding and original book, presented here with a new preface, examines the history of material culture in early modern China. Craig Clunas analyzes "superfluous things"-the paintings, calligraphy, bronzes, ceramics, carved jade, and other objects owned by the elites of Ming China-and describes contemporary attitudes to them. He informs his discussions with reference to both socio-cultural theory and current debates on eighteenth-century England concerning luxury, conspicuous consumption, and the growth of the consumer society.

About this title

Review:

"One of those rare books whose every chapter makes you think, often about features of Chinese society that we have too long taken for granted....Inspiring, even entertaining."

About the Author:

Craig Clunas is Percival David Chair of Chinese Art at SOAS, London, and the author of Superfluous Things, Fruitful Sites: Garden Culture in Ming Dynasty China, Pictures and Visuality in Early Modern China, and Art in China.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0824859014
• ISBN 13: 9780824859015
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 246