Sino-Japanese Transculturation

Late Nineteenth Century to the End of the Pacific War

Richard King editor Cody Poulton editor Katsuhiko Endo editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Lexington Books

Published:28th Dec '11

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Sino-Japanese Transculturation cover

This is a multi-author work which examines the cultural dimensions of the relations between East Asia’s two great powers, China and Japan, in a period of change and turmoil, from the late nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War. This period saw Japanese invasion of China, the occupation of China’s North-east (Manchuria) and Taiwan, and war between the two nations from 1937-1945; the scars of that war are still evident in relations between the two countries today. In their quest for modernity, the rulers and leading thinkers of China and Japan defined themselves in contradisctinction to the other, influenced both by traditional bonds of classical culture and by the influx of new Western ideas that flowed through Japan to China. The experiences of intellectual and cultural awakening in the two countries were inextricably linked, as our studies of poetry, fiction, philosophy, theatre, and popular culture demonstrate. The chapters explore this process of “transculturation” – the sharing and exchange of ideas and artistic expression – not only in Japan and China, but in the larger region which Joshua Fogel has called the “Sinosphere,” an area including Korea and parts of Southeast Asia with a shared heritage of Confucian statecraft and values underpinned by the classical Chinese language.   The authors of the chapters, who include established senior academics and younger scholars, and employ a range of disciplines and methodologies, were selected by the editors for their expertise in particular aspects of this rich and complex cultural relationship. As for the editors: Richard King and Cody Poulton are scholars and translators of Chinese literature and Japanese theatre respectively, each taking a historical and comparative perspective to the study of their subject; Katsuhiko Endo is an intellectual historian dealing with both Japan and China.

Sino-Japanese Transculturation sums up distinctive new research on China-Japan relations in multiple registers, bringing depth and nuance to the familiar topics of shared heritage and common modernity while confronting imperial violence and its aftermath. Cumulatively, the essays afford a compelling vision of historical transformation and interaction beyond limited economies of exchange and narrow communication models, gesturing toward the work of transculturation prior to and implicit in the fixing of national traditions and boundaries. -- Thomas Lamarre, Author of The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation. Professor of East Asian Studies and Communication Studies, McGill University
This book takes the old—one might even say, old-fashioned—topic of Sino-Japanese cultural relations and gives it an entirely new spin. Departing from but remembering the accustomed paradigms that center diplomatic relations, wartime violence, or shared Confucian cultural heritages, the contributors to this book explore the many facets of modern Japanese and Chinese transculturations: their symmetries and contradictions; their exchanges and tensions. With the tragic historical backdrop of the first half of the twentieth century fully in view, the authors and editors argue, each in their own way, that this half century was the high tide of transcultural learning between the two countries. The range of essays provides a welcome addition to studies of the cultural history of pre-war and wartime Sino-Japanese exchanges. -- Rebecca E. Karl, New York University

ISBN: 9780739171509

Dimensions: 240mm x 162mm x 26mm

Weight: 649g

316 pages