Featured Resources
The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature by
This extraordinary one-volume guide to the modern literatures of China, Japan, and Korea is the definitive reference work on the subject in the English language. With more than one hundred articles that show how a host of authors and literary movements have contributed to the general literary development of their respective countries, this companion is an essential starting point for the study of East Asian literatures.
Location: Available at Mugar Reference X PL493 .C55 2003 and OnlinePublication Date: 2003
Guides to Chinese Literature
Browse books and ebooks on:
A Dictionary of Chinese Literature by
From the Shi jing (Classic of Songs) of the eleventh century bc, to the to the wanglu wenxue (Internet literature) of the twenty-first century, this authoritative dictionary covers key terms relative to the study of Chinese literature, from antiquity to the present day. a–z entries on key literary figures, trends, schools, movements, and literary collections are included, as well as detailed descriptions of traditional literary works, plays, dramas, stories, novels, and other main literary texts.
Location: OnlineISBN: 9780191836183Publication Date: 2017
The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature (1000 BCE-900CE) by
This volume introduces readers to classical Chinese literature from its beginnings (ca. 10th century BCE) to the tenth century CE. It asks basic questions such as: How did reading and writing practices change over these two millennia? How did concepts of literature evolve? What were thefactors that shaped literary production and textual transmission? How do traditional bibliographic categories, modern conceptions of genre, and literary theories shape our understanding of classical Chinese literature? What are the recurrent and evolving concerns of writings within the period underpurview? What are the dimensions of human experience they address? Why is classical Chinese literature important for our understanding of pre-modern East Asia? How does the transmission of this literature in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam define cultural boundaries? And what, in turn, can we learn fromthe Chinese-style literatures of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, about Chinese literature? In addressing these questions, the Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature departs from standard literary histories and sourcebooks. It does not simply categorize literary works according to periods, authors, or texts. Its goal is to offer a new conceptual framework for thinking aboutclassical Chinese literature by defining a four-part structure. The first section discusses the basics of literacy and includes topics such as writing systems, manuscript culture, education, and loss and preservation in textual transmission. It is followed by a second section devoted to conceptionsof genre, textual organization, and literary signification throughout Chinese history. A third section surveys literary tropes and themes. The final section takes us beyond China to the surrounding cultures that adopted Chinese culture and produced Chinese style writing adapted to their ownhistorical circumstances. The volume is sustained by a dual foci: the recuperation of historical perspectives for the period it surveys and the attempt to draw connections between past and present, demonstrating how the viewpoints and information in this volume yield insights into modern China andeast Asia.
Location: Mugar Stacks PL2283 .O94 2017Publication Date: 2017
Routledge Handbook of Modern Chinese Literature by
The Routledge Handbook of Modern Chinese Literaturepresents a comprehensive overview of Chinese literature from the 1910s to the present day. Featuring detailed studies of selected masterpieces, it adopts a thematic-comparative approach. By developing an innovative conceptual framework predicated on a new theory of periodization, it thus situates Chinese literature in the context of world literature, and the forces of globalization. Each section consists of a series of contributions examining the major literary genres, including fiction, poetry, essay and drama. Offering an exciting account of the century-long process of literary modernization in China, the handbook's themes include: * Modernization of people and writing * Realism, Romanticism and Modernist Aesthetics * Chinese literature on the stage and screen * Patriotism, War and Revolution * Feminism, Liberalism and Socialism * Literature of Taiwan and Hong Kong This handbook provides an integration of biographical narrative with textual analysis, maintaining a subtle balance between comprehensive overview and in-depth examination. As such, it is an essential reference guide for all students and scholars of Chinese literature.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2018
A History of Contemporary Chinese Literature by
This groundbreaking book by the eminent Peking University professor Hong Zicheng covers the literary scene in China during the 1949-1999 period, primarily focusing on fiction, poetry, drama, and prose writing. Reprinted sixteen times since its publication in the PRC in 1999 it is now available in English translation at last. The first section of the book deals with the 1949-1976 period. Often derided and ignored as an arid era for literature by both Chinese and overseas critics, Professor Hong describes the literature that was popular and officially acceptable at the time, and the cultural policies and political campaigns that shaped the tastes of readers and the literary creativity of writers during the period. This part of the book is remarkable for Professor Hong s candidness and open-mindedness, qualities that would have made this text difficult to publish at an earlier date in China. Furthermore, the platform that the first part of the text provides renders the second part even more understandable to readers unfamiliar with the post-1976 literary scene and offers new insights to those who are familiar with it demonstrating as it does the close links between the two distinctive eras. These links are provided by the resumption of literary traditions that had been more-or-less abandoned during the preceding ten-year period, as well as reactions against literature nurtured and guided by the state cultural apparatus. The second part of the book consists of a comprehensive description of developments and insightful explanations of those developments in the literary arts and literary criticism since 1976. A unique and much needed accomplishment in contemporary literary studies. Also available in paperback.
Location: Mugar Stacks PL2303 .Z566613 2007 and OnlinePublication Date: 2007
The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature by
The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature features more than fifty short essays on specific writers and literary trends from the Qing period (1895-1911) to the present. The volume opens with thematic essays on the politics and ethics of writing literary history, the formation of the canon, the relationship between language and form, the role of literary institutions and communities, the effects of censorship, the representation of the Chinese diaspora, the rise and meaning of Sinophone literature, and the role of different media in the development of literature. Subsequent essays focus on authors, their works, and the schools with which they were aligned, featuring key names, titles, and terms in English and in Chinese characters. Woven throughout are pieces on late Qing fiction, popular entertainment fiction, martial arts fiction, experimental theater, post-Mao avant-garde poetry, post-martial law fiction from Taiwan, contemporary genre fiction from China, and recent Internet literature. The volume includes essays on such authors as Liang Qichao, Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, Eileen Chang, Jin Yong, Mo Yan, Wang Anyi, Gao Xingjian, and Yan Lianke. Both a teaching tool and a go-to research companion, this volume is a one-of-a-kind resource for mastering modern literature in the Chinese-speaking world.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2016- Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: a Reference Guide (2 vols) by At last here is the long-awaited, first Western-language reference guide focusing exclusively on Chinese literature from ca. 700 B.C.E. to the early seventh century C.E. Alphabetically organized, it contains no less than 1095 entries on major and minor writers, literary forms and "schools," and important Chinese literary terms. In addition to providing authoritative information about each subject, the compilers have taken meticulous care to include detailed, up-to-date bibliographies and source information. The reader will find it a treasure-trove of historical accounts, especially when browsing through the biographies of authors. Indispensable for scholars and students of pre-modern Chinese literature, history, and thought. Part Two contains S to Xi.Location: Mugar Stacks PL2265 .A63 2010Publication Date: 2010
Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: Part Two: a Reference Guide by
The long-awaited, first Western-language reference guide, this work offers a wealth of information on writers, genres, literary schools and terms of the Chinese literary tradition from earliest times to the seventh century C.E. Indispensable for scholars and students of pre-modern Chinese literature, history, and thought. Part Two contains S to Xi.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2013
The Cambridge Companion to Modern Chinese Culture by
At the start of the twenty-first century, China is poised to become a major global power. Understanding its culture is more important than ever before for western audiences, but for many, China remains a mysterious and exotic country. This Companion explains key aspects of modern Chinese culture without assuming prior knowledge of China or the Chinese language. The volume acknowledges the interconnected nature of the different cultural forms, from 'high culture' such as literature, religion and philosophy to more popular issues such as sport, cinema, performance and the internet. Each chapter is written by a world expert in the field. Invaluable for students of Chinese studies, this book includes a glossary of key terms, a chronology and a guide to further reading. For the interested reader or traveler, it reveals a dynamic, diverse and fascinating culture, many aspects of which are now elucidated in English for the first time.
Location: Mugar Stacks DS775.2 .C452424 2008 and OnlinePublication Date: 2008
Finding Articles
- BU Libraries Search This link opens in a new window BU Libraries Search provides a single place to search for a wide variety of research material provided by the library. Resources covered by the search includes books and eBooks, journals, scores and sheet music, video and audio recordings, and other physical and electronic items held by the library. Coverage encompasses materials relating to the prehistoric and antique world through to the present.
- Literature Online This link opens in a new window LION includes texts, criticism, and reference material, including thousands of literary articles, essays, biographies and encyclopedia entries on over 350,000 works of poetry, prose, and drama from the 8th to the 21st century.
- Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new window Contains critical and biographical essays on authors currently living or who died after Jan. 1, 2000. May be searched simultaneously with Contemporary Authors and the Dictionary of Literary Biography.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window This database provides full text access to the back issues of core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Book reviews are included as well as journal articles. Abstracts are available for some of the articles.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new window Project Muse provides digital access to scholarly journals and books in the humanities and social sciences. The scholarly content comes from non-profit scholarly publishers, including university presses and societies. The full text resources include journal articles, book reviews and book chapters.
- Linguistics Collection This link opens in a new window The Linguistics Collection is comprised of index and full-text databases covering all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. The collection includes the Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA), which abstracts and indexes the international literature in linguistics and related disciplines in the language sciences. And Linguistics Database, which includes full-text journals and other sources in linguistics including many titles indexed in LLBA.
Chinese Language Resources
- China Online Journals This link opens in a new window China Online Journals (COJ) features core journals in arts, humanities, education, business, economics, finance, law, politics, government and the social sciences, as well as a unique broad collection of Chinese university journals.
- Late Qing and Republican-Era Chinese Newspapers This link opens in a new window The collection includes the press of more than twenty cities, spanning the Chinese mainland and the entire half century. The collection provides researchers a perspective on Chinese life, culture, and politics throughout the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the years of provisional government and civil war, and the birth of the People’s Republic.
- Airiti Library This link opens in a new window The Chinese Electronic Periodical Service (CEPS) 中文電子期刊資料庫暨平台服務 provides full-text access to more than 3,000 Chinese language journals from around the world. Airiti Chinese Electronic Theses and Dissertation Service (CETD, or 華藝中文碩博士論文資料庫) offers full-text theses and dissertations from nearly 60 of Taiwan’s most important academic and research institutions. Available on-campus only.
- National Social Sciences Database (China) Open access database of government-funded Chinese core academic journals in the social sciences
- Database of Journal Articles on Modern Chinese Literature 中国现当代文学研究 主要刊物总目录 检索服务 From the Institute of Oriental Studies, Tokyo University
- ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art Founded in 2000, this online encyclopaedia provides—in a clearly arranged way—information on a wide range of topics in Chinese history, literature, art, religions, and philosophy. It draws to a great extent upon Chinese-language secondary sources and thus gives access to information rarely found in Western books. This is particularly interesting for those not able or not brave enough to read Chinese. The reader may either use the search function, or browse contents via the navigation tools.
Texts
- Chinese Text Project 中國哲學書電子化計劃 The Chinese Text Project is an online open-access digital library that makes pre-modern Chinese texts available to readers and researchers all around the world. The site attempts to make use of the digital medium to explore new ways of interacting with these texts that are not possible in print. With over thirty thousand titles and more than five billion characters, the Chinese Text Project is also the largest database of pre-modern Chinese texts in existence.
- Classical Chinese Literature This site contains Chinese classics with each character hyperlinked to its definition and etymology. No Chinese software is necessary - characters are displayed as images. Links to English translations are included for most works.
- Text Archives for Sinology Archive of classical and philosophical e-texts encoded in one or more of the following encoding systems: GB, Big5, EUC-JIS, and/or Shift-JIS, along with some links to e-texts at other sites.
- Academia Sinica Scripta Sinica 漢籍電子文獻 Full-text database of Zhonghua editions of Standard/Dynastic Histories, Thirteen Classics, and other texts
- Modern China Studies (Univ. Of Pittsburgh) Text collection from the 1930s-1970s that provide insight into the political, economic, and educational conditions of China, including during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
- Digital Library of Western Knowledge in Late Imperial China 西 學 東 漸 數 碼 文 庫 The Digital Library of Western Knowledge in Late Imperial China is a searchable electronic repository of Chinese texts introducing or discussing European and Japanese science and thought in nineteenth and early twentieth-century China. The purpose of this site is to document scientific, philosophical and political works produced by Chinese, Western and Japanese authors and translators in late Qing China.
Literary Biography
- Contemporary Authors This link opens in a new window A bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields.
- Gale in Context: Biography This link opens in a new window Biography In Context offers biographical information about historically significant figures as well as present-day newsmakers. It includes reference content alongside magazine and journal articles, primary sources, videos, audio podcasts, and images.
- Literature Online This link opens in a new window LION includes texts, criticism, and reference material, including thousands of literary articles, essays, biographies and encyclopedia entries on over 350,000 works of poetry, prose, and drama from the 8th to the 21st century.
- China Biographical Database Project (CBDB) The China Biographical Database is a freely accessible relational database with biographical information about approximately 370,000 individuals as of April 2017, primarily from the 7th through 19th centuries. The core institutions responsible for the database are Harvard University, Academia Sinica, and Peking University.
Browse books and ebooks on:
Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature by
Modern Chinese literature has been flourishing for over a century, with varying degrees of intensity and energy at different junctures of history and points of locale. An integral part of world literature from the moment it was born, it has been in constant dialogue with its counterparts from the rest of the world. As it has been challenged and enriched by external influences, it has contributed to the wealth of literary culture of the entire world. In terms of themes and styles, modern Chinese literature is rich and varied; from the revolutionary to the pastoral, from romanticism to feminism, from modernism to post-modernism, critical realism, psychological realism, socialist realism, and magical realism. Indeed, it encompasses a full range of ideological and aesthetic concerns. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature presents a broad perspective on the development and history of literature in modern China. It offers a chronology, introduction, bibliography, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on authors, literary and historical developments, trends, genres, and concepts that played a central role in the evolution of modern Chinese literature.
Location: Mugar Reference X PL2303 .Y59 2021Publication Date: 2021
The Banished Immortal : a life of Li Bai (Li Po) by
With the instincts of a master novelist, Ha Jin draws on a wide range of historical and literary sources to weave the life story of Li Bai (701-762), whose poems--shaped by Daoist thought and characterized by their passion, romance, and lust for life--rang throughout the Tang Dynasty and continue to be celebrated today. Jin follows Li Bai from his birth on China's western frontier through his travels as a young man seeking a place among the empire's civil servants, his wanderings allowing him to hone his poetic craft, share his verses, and win him friends and admirers along the way. In his later years, he becomes swept up in a military rebellion that alters the course of China, and his death is surrounded by speculation and legend that continues to be spun to this day. The Banished Immortalis an extraordinary portrait of a poet who both transcended his time and was shaped by it, and whose ability to live, love, and mourn without reservation produced some of the most enduring verses in the world.
Location: Mugar Stacks PL2671 .J554 2019Publication Date: 2019
The Experience of Modernity: chinese autobiography of the early twentieth century by
Autobiography of the first half of the twentieth century was used variously by different groups of writers to interrogate, negotiate, and even to program the social and political progress of China. However, despite the popularity and success of this genre, it has also been the most forgotten in literary and historical discussions. Personal stories and individual expressions seem to have had no place in 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s China, smothered instead by the grander rhetoric of nationalism. For this reason, autobiography's popularity during the era is an odd phenomenon and also an important genre for study. The May Fourth Era (1917-40) began as a movement to make the classical literary language accessible to the common people and became a broader political movement against imperialism. The writing of autobiography was influenced by the idea of literature's social and political mission, yet at the same time autobiography was a uniquely potent venue for individual expression. Janet Ng examines this notion in The Experience of Modernity within the framework of autobiographical writings by Chen Hengzhe, Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Xie Bingying, Xiao Hong, Eileen Chang, Yu Dafu, and Shen Congwen. Janet Ng is Assistant Professor of Asian Literature, the College of Staten.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2003
Wandering Between Two Worlds: the formative years of Cao Xueqin, 1715-1745 by
Wandering Between Two Worlds: The Formative Years of Cao Xueqin 1715-1745 is a biographical account of the first 30 years of the life of the eighteenth-century Chinese novelist who wrote Honglou meng (Dream of the Red Chamber). It covers Cao Xueqin's life from his birth in Nanjing in 1715 to the time when it is roughly estimated he began to seriously write his massive work. The book attempts to provide a brisk but broad overview of the important familial, social, historical, literary, and intellectual influences on Cao and his decision to write Honglou meng. Wandering Between Two Worlds relies upon extensive interviews done with noted mainland Chinese scholars on the novel, such as Zhou Ruchang, Cai Yijiang, Duan Jiangli, Shen Zhijun, Zhang Qingshan, and Sun Yuming, during the author's eight-year stay in China; recent research done by Western scholars on Qing dynasty literature, gender, qing, philosophy, and education; and insights from the burgeoning field of the New Qing history. This is only the second biography of Cao Xueqin's life to appear in English, and the first to examine in detail his early life and to be written by a non-Chinese. It is intended for students of traditional Chinese literature and culture, as well as general readers interested in the novel and features a special foreword written by the distinguished redologist Zhou Ruchang.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2014
Women's Poetry and Poetics in Late Imperial China by
This literary study examines women-authored poetry and poetic criticism in late imperial China. It provides close readings of original texts to explore the poetic forms and devices women poets employed, to place their work into the context of the wider literary history of the period, and to analyze how they asserted their own agency to negotiate their literary, social, and political concerns. The author also investigates the interactions between women's poetic creations and existing male scholars' discourses and probes how these interactions generated innovative self-identities and renovations in poetic forms and aesthetics.
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2017
Fiction’s Family: Zhan Xi, Zhan Kai, and the Business of Women in Late-Qing China by
"Explores the writings of one western Zhejiang literary family whose works were emblematic of shifting attitudes towards women. Placing this family at the center of this study, the author illuminates the bridge between the late Qing and the previous period, the interplay of genres during the family's lifetimes, and the interaction of Shanghai publishing with other regions"
Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2016
Inner Quarters and Beyond by
Drawing on a library of newly digitized resources, this volume's eleven chapters describe, analyze, and theorize the enormous literary output of women writers of the Ming and Qing periods (1368-1911) that have only recently been rediscovered.
Location: Mugar Stacks PL2278 .I66 2010 and OnlinePublication Date: 2010
Bibliographies
Bibliographies in English:
- Bibliography of Asian Studies This link opens in a new window An index to works, primarily in the humanities and the social sciences, pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia. Covers articles, chapters in edited volumes, conference proceedings, anthologies, Festschriften, and books.
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window Indexes critical materials on literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. Includes citations from worldwide publications: periodicals, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations and bibliographies.
- Modern Chinese Literature and Culture | Bibliographies - Literature The MCLC Resource Center bibliographies consist of mostly English-language materials on modern and contemporary Chinese literature, film and media studies, visual arts, music, education, and related online resources.
Scholarly Review of Chinese Studies in North America 北美中国研究综述 by Location: OnlinePublication Date: 2013
Women in China from Earliest Times to the Present: a bibliography of studies in Western languages by
This essential reference work provides an alphabetic listing, with an extensiveindex, of studies on women in China from earliest times to the present day written in Western languages, primarily English, French, German, and Italian. Containing more than 2500 citations of books, chapters in books, and articles, especially those published in the last thirty years, and more than 100 titles of doctoral dissertations and Masters theses, it covers works written in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology; art and archaeology; demography; economics; education; fashion; film and media studies; history; interdisciplinary studies; law; literature; music; medicine, science, and technology; political science; and religion and philosophy. It also contains many citations of studies of women in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Location: Mugar Stacks HQ1767 .Y38 2009 and OnlinePublication Date: 2009
Beijing (World Bibliographical Series) by Location: Mugar Stacks G58 .W67 v. 226Publication Date: 1999
China (World Bibliographical Series) by
Today, China plays a vital role in world affairs and therefore knowledge of its rich history, controversial present and uncertain future is essential. Diverse areas of what is now China were unified into a multi-ethnic empire in 221 BCE by Qin Shi Huangdi, whose 'Underground Army' has fascinated so many. This imperial pattern, which continued to grow and evolve until the 'last emperor' abdicated in 1911, was founded on military force. Nonetheless, the empire was enlightened and spiritually deepened by Confucians, Daoists, Legalists and Buddhists, and poets, painters, farmers, chefs and entrepreneurs all flourished. The realm was eventually taken over by Central Asian Mongols and Manchus, and in the nineteenth century began to lose internal coherence and external authority. With the 1911 Revolution, China entered a new era as a Republic. The following years saw social upheaval, a prolonged civil war between Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists and Mao's Zedong's Communists, and a devastating war withJapan. In 1949, Chairman Mao proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. After a period of consolidation, the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s and the Cultural Revolution, 1966-76 revealed deep differences over social and economic strategies and led to political repression and economic frustration. Deng Xiaoping succeeded to power after Mao's death in 1976 and successfully pursued policies of opening China to the world and promoting economic reform. Deng's legacy of 'Socialism with Chinese characteristics', as underlined by the violent events of 1989, aims to combine political firmness with economic growth.
Location: Mugar Stacks G58 .W67 v. 35Publication Date: 1997
Bibliographies in Chinese:
- 兩漢諸子研究論著目錄資料庫 This is the online resource of the Center for Chinese Studies, National Library of China. It is the e-bibliography of studies of the masters of philosophy in Han Dynasty. It covers publications from year 1912 to 2001.
- Classical Historiography for Chinese History 中國經典文獻工具書錄 "This bibliography pulls together materials that Benjamin Elman (Princeton University) has been compiling for the past ten years with the help of graduate students. Its intended audience is anyone interested in doing research in Chinese history (broadly defined) but with a focus on the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasty (1644-1911)."
- Song Research Tools "Song Research Tools is a guide to bibliographies, indexes, dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases and chronologies of use to those interested in all aspects of Chinese society during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Peter Bol, Harvard College Professor and Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, published the first edition of Sung Research Tools in 1990. With the publication of the online guide in 2003 Song Research Tools went into its third edition. The online edition, last updated in November 2006, contains more than 200 new titles. The online guide, now edited by Hilde De Weerdt, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville [...]."
- Modern Chinese Drama Database Bibliography of modern Chinese dramas and index of research articles from the Chinese University of Hong Kong Library
