Sensing China: Modern Transformations of Sensory Culture (Routledge Contemporary China Series) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1032008830 ISBN 13: 9781032008837

Publisher: Routledge, 2024

Synopsis

This book presents the first collection of studies of the senses and sensory experiences in China, filling a gap in sensory research while offering new approaches to Chinese Studies.

Bringing together 12 chapters by literary scholars and historians, this book critically interrogates the deeply rooted meanings that the senses have coded in Chinese culture and society. Built on an exploration of the sensorium in early Chinese thought and late imperial literature, this book reveals the sensory manifestations of societal change and cultural transformation in China from the nineteenth century to the present day. It features in-depth examinations of a variety of concepts, representations, and practices, including aural and visual paradigms in ancient Chinese texts; odours in Ming-Qing literature and Republican Shanghai; the tactility of kissing and the sonic culture of community singing in the Republican era; the socialist sensorium in art, propaganda, memory, and embodied experiences; and contemporary-era multisensory cultural practices.

Engaging with the exciting "sensory turn," this original work makes a unique contribution to the world history of the senses, and will be a valuable resource to scholars and students of Chinese Literature, History, Cultural Studies, and Media.

About this title

About the Author

Shengqing Wu is Professor of Chinese Literature at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong.

Xuelei Huang is Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1032008830
• ISBN 13: 9781032008837
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312
• Editor: Wu Shengqing, Huang Xuelei