Things Chinese

Things Chinese PDF

Author: Ronald G. Knapp

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Published: 2012-07-03

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1462908586

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China's art objects and traditional manufactured products have long been sought by collectors—from porcelains and silk fabrics to furniture and even the lacquered chopsticks that are a distant relation to ones found in most Chinese restaurants. Things Chinese presents sixty distinctive items that are typical of Chinese culture and together open a special window onto the people, history, and society of the world's largest nation. Many of the objects are collectibles, and each has a story to tell. The objects relate to six major areas of cultural life: the home, the personal, arts & crafts, eating & drinking, entertainment, and religious practice. They include items both familiar and unfamiliar—from snuff bottles and calligraphy scrolls to moon cake molds and Mao memorabilia. Ronald Knapp's evocative text describes the history, cultural significance, and customs relating to each object, while Michael Freeman's superb photographs illustrate them. Together, text and photographs offer a unique look at the material culture of China and the aesthetics that inform it.

Ten Thousand Things

Ten Thousand Things PDF

Author: Lothar Ledderose

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2023-10-17

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0691252882

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An incomparable look at how Chinese artists have used mass production to assemble exquisite objects from standardized parts Chinese workers in the third century BC created seven thousand life-sized terracotta soldiers to guard the tomb of the First Emperor. In the eleventh century AD, Chinese builders constructed a pagoda from as many as thirty thousand separately carved wooden pieces. As these examples show, throughout history, Chinese artisans have produced works of art in astonishing quantities, and have done so without sacrificing quality, affordability, or speed of manufacture. In this book, Lothar Ledderose takes us on a remarkable tour of Chinese art and culture to explain how artists used complex systems of mass production to assemble extraordinary objects from standardized parts or modules. He reveals how these systems have deep roots in Chinese thought and reflect characteristically Chinese modes of social organization. Combining invaluable aesthetic and cultural insights with a rich variety of illustrations, Ten Thousand Things make a profound statement about Chinese art and society.

Vanishing into Things

Vanishing into Things PDF

Author: Barry Allen

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2015-04-07

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 0674286464

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Barry Allen explores the concept of knowledge in Chinese thought over two millennia and compares the different philosophical imperatives that have driven Chinese and Western thought. Challenging the hyperspecialized epistemology of modern Western philosophy, he urges his readers toward an ethical appreciation of why knowledge is worth pursuing.

The Lives of Chinese Objects

The Lives of Chinese Objects PDF

Author: Louise Tythacott

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2011-06-01

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0857452398

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This is the biography of a set of rare Buddhist statues from China. Their extraordinary adventures take them from the Buddhist temples of fifteenth-century Putuo – China’s most important pilgrimage island – to their seizure by a British soldier in the First Opium War in the early 1840s, and on to a starring role in the Great Exhibition of 1851. In the 1850s, they moved in and out of dealers’ and antiquarian collections, arriving in 1867 at Liverpool Museum. Here they were re-conceptualized as specimens of the ‘Mongolian race’ and, later, as examples of Oriental art. The statues escaped the bombing of the Museum during the Second World War and lived out their existence for the next sixty years, dismembered, corroding and neglected in the stores, their histories lost and origins unknown. As the curator of Asian collections at Liverpool Museum, the author became fascinated by these bronzes, and selected them for display in the Buddhism section of the World Cultures gallery. In 2005, quite by chance, the discovery of a lithograph of the figures on prominent display in the Great Exhibition enabled the remarkable lives of these statues to be reconstructed.

éñéñ

éñéñ PDF

Author: Zhiping Zhou

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 542

ISBN-13: 9780691090481

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The Crafting of the 10,000 Things

The Crafting of the 10,000 Things PDF

Author: Dagmar Schäfer

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2011-05-15

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0226735842

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The chapters in this book cover 'Asian Studies: East Asia' 'Biography and Letters', 'History: Asian History', 'History European History', 'History of Science', 'Literature and Literary Criticism: Asian Languages', and much more.

Ordering the Myriad Things

Ordering the Myriad Things PDF

Author: Nicholas Menzies

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2021-09-29

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 0295749474

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China’s vast and ancient body of documented knowledge about plants includes horticultural manuals and monographs, comprehensive encyclopedias, geographies, and specialized anthologies of verse and prose written by keen observers of nature. Until the late nineteenth century, however, standard practice did not include deploying a set of diagnostic tools using a common terminology and methodology to identify and describe new and unknown species or properties. Ordering the Myriad Things relates how traditional knowledge of plants in China gave way to scientific botany between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, when plants came to be understood in a hierarchy of taxonomic relationships to other plants and within a broader ecological context. This shift not only expanded the universe of plants beyond the familiar to encompass unknown species and geographies but fueled a new knowledge of China itself. Nicholas K. Menzies highlights the importance of botanical illustration as a tool for recording nature—contrasting how images of plants were used in the past to the conventions of scientific drawing and investigating the transition of “traditional” systems of organization, classification, observation, and description to “modern” ones.

All Things Considered

All Things Considered PDF

Author: Chih-p'ing Chou

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2011-08-22

Total Pages: 457

ISBN-13: 1400840163

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Designed for students who have completed at least two years of college Chinese, this thoroughly revised edition of All Things Considered bridges the gap between intermediate- and advanced-level Chinese. Lessons promote student discussion and include thought-provoking topics relevant to contemporary Chinese society, such as the increasing divisions between the rich and poor, the conflict between economic development and environmental protection, and changing attitudes toward sex and marriage. The first twelve lessons in the book are in dialogue form, while the remaining lessons are adapted from Chinese newspaper and magazine articles, exposing students to spoken and written styles of Chinese. Some topics appear in both the dialogues and articles sections, giving students ample opportunity for review and reinforcement, improving their overall grammar and vocabulary retention. With a new user-friendly format, All Things Considered juxtaposes text and vocabulary on adjacent pages. Grammar explanations and exercises have also been fully updated to meet student needs. Third-year Chinese language textbook Bridges the gap between the intermediate and advanced levels Covers thought-provoking topics essential to contemporary Chinese society Includes both dialogues and articles that reinforce grammar and vocabulary Improved explanations and exercises New user-friendly format