Mastery of Words and Swords : Negotiating Intellectual Masculinities in Modern China, 1890s-1930s

Jun Lei

ISBN 10: 9888528742 / ISBN 13: 9789888528745

Published by Hong Kong University Press Dez 2021, 2021

About this Item

Neuware - The crisis of masculinity surfaced and converged with the crisis of the nation in the late Qing, after the doors of China were forced open by Opium Wars. The power of physical aggression increasingly overshadowed literary attainments and became a new imperative of male honor in the late Qing and early Republican China. Afflicted with anxiety and indignation about their increasingly effeminate image as perceived by Western colonial powers, Chinese intellectuals strategically distanced themselves from the old literati and reassessed their positions vis-àagrave;-vis violence. In Mastery of Words and Swords: Negotiating Intellectual Masculinities in Modern China, 1890s-1930s, Jun Lei explores the formation and evolution of modern Chinese intellectual masculinities as constituted in racial, gender, and class discourses mediated by the West and Japan. This book brings to light a new area of interest in the 'Man Question' within gender studies in which women have typically been the focus. To fully reveal the evolving masculine models of a 'scholar-warrior,' this book employs an innovative methodology that combines theoretical vigor, archival research, and analysis of literary texts and visuals. Situating the changing inter- and intra-gender relations in modern Chinese history and Chinese literary and cultural modernism, the book engages critically with male subjectivity in relation to other pivotal issues such as semi-coloniality, psychoanalysis, modern love, feminism, and urbanization.

Seller Inventory # 9789888528745

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Mastery of Words and Swords : Negotiating Intellectual Masculinities in Modern China, 1890s-1930s
• Publisher: Hong Kong University Press Dez 2021
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9888528742
• ISBN 13: 9789888528745
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 229W x 152H x 14D millimeters 229 millimeters width by 152 millimeters height by 14 millimeters depth
• Weight: 484 grams

About this title

Synopsis

The crisis of masculinity surfaced and converged with the crisis of the nation in the late Qing, after the doors of China were forced open by Opium Wars. The power of physical aggression increasingly overshadowed literary attainments and became a new imperative of male honor in the late Qing and early Republican China. Afflicted with anxiety and indignation about their increasingly effeminate image as perceived by Western colonial powers, Chinese intellectuals strategically distanced themselves from the old literati and reassessed their positions vis-à-vis violence. In Mastery of Words and Swords: Negotiating Intellectual Masculinities in Modern China, 1890s-1930s, Jun Lei explores the formation and evolution of modern Chinese intellectual masculinities as constituted in racial, gender, and class discourses mediated by the West and Japan. This book brings to light a new area of interest in the "Man Question" within gender studies in which women have typically been the focus. To fully reveal the evolving masculine models of a "scholar-warrior," this book employs an innovative methodology that combines theoretical vigor, archival research, and analysis of literary texts and visuals. Situating the changing inter- and intra-gender relations in modern Chinese history and Chinese literary and cultural modernism, the book engages critically with male subjectivity in relation to other pivotal issues such as semi-coloniality, psychoanalysis, modern love, feminism, and urbanization.

About the Author

Jun Lei is assistant professor of Chinese in the department of international studies at Texas A&M University. She is the coauthor of First Step: An Elementary Reader for Modern Chinese and First Step: Workbook for Modern Chinese.