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In 1928, the inaugural issue of The China Critic declared that it would be 'a representative publication independent alike of governmental control and popular prejudice'. Its voluntary collective of editor-contributors would deliver 'a fair presentation of all issues arising between China and the other Powers and whose sole purpose is to be just to all'.[1] In theory, then, the new publication would offer unbiased perspectives on issues of pressing importance to the Chinese nation and its people. In practice, the journal's contributors continually had to reconcile the institutional ideal of impartiality with other agendas, not least those of presenting their own views as 'Chinese' and as individuals. In how each managed this friction we often find the individual critical vision. ; Arts, Faculty of ; Asian Studies, Department of ; Unreviewed ; Faculty

Headlines about China have been looking the same for some time now. "The China story" always seems to be political: labor riots and their suppression; sabre-rattling over Taiwan and cultural erasure in Tibet; catastrophic earthquakes and official ineptitude; internet censorship and jailed dissidents (the latest being Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo). Even ostensibly good news, such as the Chinese government's investment in wind power, becomes yet another story about how China is going to eat our lunch. These stories must be told, and the Chinese government's feet must be held to the fire on many issues. Yet these stories collectively imply a "truth" about China that is equally misleading: namely that in China, politics is life. This truism has become ingrained in Western views of Chinese culture. I was struck by this not long ago during a Canadian radio interview of the author Yu Hua when the host's first question was whether or not Yu Hua was a "dissident." A recent New Yorker article about China's "most eminent writer" and former Minister of Culture, Wang Meng, set a similarly political agenda by asking whether Wang is a "reformer" or an "apologist" of the Communist Party. To be Chinese, as far as the West is concerned, seems to mean being for or against one's government. ; Arts, Faculty of ; Asian Studies, Department of ; Unreviewed ; Faculty

Examines the rise of Chinese businesspeople who invested in cultural enterprises in the late 19th and 20th centuries, revealing how rapidly evolving technologies and growing transregional ties created fertile conditions for business success in the cultural sphere

"Imperfect Understanding is an extraordinary artifact of Chinese literary and social history. The people written about are among the most important figures of the Republican era, and the particular perspective on them presented by the essays is of both literary and historical importance"--

Slapstick performance and trick cinematography dominated early global cinema. People climb into boxes and are tossed around; they jerry-rig all manner of dwellings and conveyances; they leap out of windows, crash through doors, dangle from clock towers, and slide down staircases; they appear and disappear like ghosts. But what did such visual gags look like in films made in Shanghai, as opposed to Los Angeles? How did filmmakers from different cultural traditions share or adapt comic tropes—and which ones? And how did their comedy change with technology, such as the advent of sound cinema, or with politics, war, and revolution? The following conversation between Henry Jenkins, a media scholar who works primarily on American popular culture, and Christopher Rea, a cultural historian of China, explores comic convergences on the silver screen, focusing on filmmakers who embraced a vaudevillian aesthetic of visceral comedy and variety entertainment. It offers a guided tour of cinematic comedy in comparative perspective, drawing out resonances between Hollywood and Chinese films from the 1910s to the 1950s. Illustrating the discussion are clips from a variety of films, from early works by Charlie Chaplin to the short-lived era of cinematic satire in Mao's China. ; Arts, Faculty of ; Non UBC ; Asian Studies, Department of ; Reviewed ; Faculty

Intro -- Table of Contents -- Maps -- Translators' Introduction -- Type 1: Misdirection and Theft -- Stealing Silk with a Decoy Horse -- Handing Over Silver Before Running Off with It -- A Clever Trick on a Pig Seller -- Pilfering Green Cloth by Pretending to Steal a Goose -- Type 2: The Bag Drop -- Dropping a Bag by the Roadside to Set Up a Switcheroo -- Type 3: Money Changing -- A Daoist in a Boat Exchanges Some Gold -- Type 4: Misrepresentation -- Forged Letters from the Education Intendant Report Auspicious Dreams -- Using Broom Handles to Play a Joke on Sedan Bearers -- Type 5: False Relations -- Inciting a Friend to Commit Adultery and Swindling Away His Land -- Type 6: Brokers -- A Conniving Broker Takes Paper and Ends Up Paying with His Daughter -- A Destitute Broker Takes Some Wax to Pay Off Old Debts -- Type 7: Enticement to Gambling -- A Stern Warning to a Gambler Provokes Others to Entice Him to Relapse -- Type 8: Showing Off Wealth -- Impersonating the Son of an Official to Steal a Merchant's Silver -- Flashy Clothing Incites Larceny -- Type 9: Scheming for Wealth -- Stealing a Business Partner's Riches Only to Lose One's Own -- Haughtiness Leads to a Lawsuit That Harms Wealth and Health -- Type 10: Robbery -- Robbing a Pawnshop by Pretending to Leave Goods There -- Type 11: Violence -- Sticking a Plaster in the Eyes to Steal a Silver Ingot -- Type 12: On Boats -- Bringing Mirrors Aboard a Boat Invites a Nefarious Plot -- Porters Run Off with Cargo from a Boat -- Type 13: Poetry -- Swindling the Salt Commissioner While Disguised as Daoists -- Chen Quan Scams His Way Into the Arms of a Famous Courtesan -- Type 14: Fake Silver -- Planting a Fake Ingot to Swindle a Farmer -- Type 15: Government Underlings -- Swindled on the Way Out of a Court Hearing -- An Officer Reprimands a Captured Criminal in Order to Halve His Flogging