Paranoid Critique: Pondering Between Historical Contingency and Necessity

Author: Su San
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Some have labeled Su San as the "Taiwanese Yang Zhenkai of the mainland," but I dare not agree. It's not about superiority or inferiority, but about uniqueness. Yang Zhenkai's talent shines like the sun, while Su San's "brother" (referring to her male-like confidence) is profound and far-reaching, far beyond ordinary women. For example, Su San discusses European royalty with unique insight, truly seeing what others fail to notice. She skillfully handles various materials, placing them in the right context, effortlessly navigating vast historical resources, and casually shedding light on complex Chinese and Western social and cultural phenomena. She does so with a grand, unrestrained, and unadorned literary style—like a seasoned commander who pays no heed to minor details.
These words are entirely discussions related to the differences between Chinese and Western cultures. However, they are neither academic nor literary. Even if I try to summarize them myself, it would be difficult. They are not ordinary articles but rather rough topics with many themes. In short, the goal is to use a sociological lens to seek the roots of cultural formation and development in the long river of history. These ideas are scattered throughout many historical readings. The book has more aimless discussions than rigorous research, and its "stubbornness" and carelessness may exceed most people's imagination. If a professional scholar were to continue to elaborate and argue on certain topics, then the book's purpose of "throwing a brick to attract jade" would be achieved. This is a truly poorly crafted "heavy brick," and its success or failure depends entirely on its "stubbornness."
In terms of the order of the articles, they are not arranged in the true order of writing. In fact, you can start reading from any article and stop at any point. If you insist on reading them in the original order, it would roughly be as follows:
1. A Week in Yunnan
2. "Seven Plays" in the Bamboo Forest
3. Gandhi's Asceticism
4. The Union of Spirit and Flesh
5. Watching Peking Opera on Christmas Eve
6. The Pure Woman
7. Random Talk on Gentlemanly Manners
8. History and Tradition
9. Enlarging a Coordinate
10. Arbitrarily Broad Reading
11. Walking Through the British Isles
12. Contemplating Between Chance and Necessity
13. Getting Closer to Spain
14. Reading "A Hundred-Year Family—Liang Qichao, Liang Sicheng, Liang Congjie"
15. Reading Huang Renyu I
16. Reading "The Biography of Kang Youwei"